William Moreira's 1995 Letter to U.S. Media about Trance Mediumship Healing

Above is a page of photos from William Moreira's book.

William Moreira is the author of a case study of his experiences and research relating to "Dr. Fritz" The Phenomenon of the Millennium (2002) involving Rubens de Faria, Jr., the Brazilian trance channel medium healer.

Beginning the book is Moreira's letter sent in December 1995 to twenty well-known American television programs (with some typographical errors corrected for this article).  Moreira was a resident of Weehawken, New Jersey at the time.  I am also presenting his "Note From The Author" that followed the letter in the book.  

Soon after arriving at Faria's makeshift 'hospital' that Moreira witnessed to be "a clinic for miracles," he heard "Rubens giving a few explanatory speeches about how everyone should behave and how to concentrate on God, Jesus and the spiritual doctors that will come to help 'Dr. Fritz.'"   

To: American Media

______________________________________________

Sixty Minutes, CNN, 20/20 and seventeen TV Programs

______________________________________________

Re: Now in the twentieth-century we can physically prove to our world that God exists!  To the unbelievers, naturally!

To Whom It May Concern:

1. Again what we think is impossible in our material world is happening in Brazil.  Dr. Adolf Fritz is doing surgery on people without anesthesia or in any modern sterile way.  It only takes seconds to do it and there is no pain or recovery time needed.  Why this phenomenon?  This was the answer of "Dr. Fritz," "With the permission of God, the help of Jesus and more than 3,000 spiritual doctors are all I need."

2. I had surgery (June 27, 1995, at St. Mary's Hospital in Hoboken, N.J. by Dr. John W. Carmody, M.D.) on my right shoulder.  I needed surgery on my left shoulder and right knee (I was on crutches).  My left eye needed scraping, I had arthritis and 20 years ago they shrank my thyroid with 8 microns (iodine).  I was in great pain and desperate just thinking of the recovery and  therapy period after surgery with no guaranty of health.  This is a torture for any soul.

3. I am 62 years old, a resident of this great country for more than 41 years, financially secure and born with many talents.  I am a classical painter (my opinion), a great chef (owned several restaurants), very handy (carpenter, bricklayer, plumber, gardener, writer, fixes almost anything, etc. and to finish up, I earned my pilot's certificate in May of 1993, and a few months ago I upgraded it to complex high performance aircraft with aerobatic lessons).  Nevertheless, I  had no time for God.  I used to tell my family He did not need me because I was nobody or too small to account for anything in the immense universe.  I always believed in Him, the reincarnation and that "pains are the process needed to get a better life," I thought this was only common sense.  Now I have proof that it's more than common sense!

4. A friend of mine came to my house to ask me to fly and I was half dead lying on the sofa.  I needed someone to pull me up to a standing position due to pain in my shoulders and even then I could hardly walk because of my right knee.  He told me to go to Rio de Janeiro and see "Dr. Fritz" and gave me the phone number of some friends there who would take me to see this spiritual doctor.

5. A week later, Sunday the 13th of August, I arrived in Rio full of faith and hope.  "Dr. Fritz" was on "60 Minutes" many years ago (I do not recall the exact date) as a "medium" called Arigo.  After his death (1971) he came back in the second "medium" called Edson Queiroz.  Now for the third time he is with the "medium" Rubens de Faria, Junior, 41 years old, a communications engineer who works four days a week with "Dr. FRITZ," averaging 16 hours a day.  This has been going on for the past 10 years.

7. The area where the miracles of phenomena happen is a middle class neighborhood (near Rio's International Airport).  He uses a warehouse with a tin roof where the heat reaches more than 100 degrees in the afternoon.  They do not sterilize the surgical instruments nor are the patients prepared.  "Dr. Fritz" told me his operating room is invisible to us.  It is a million years ahead of our time.  (I do not believe a writer in Hollywood could ever think up a story like this one, because it is beyond human capacity!)

8. On August 14, 1995 I sat there from 8:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. just thanking God for what I was seeing.  (They serve free, hot vegetable soup, sandwiches and hot tea if you wish).

9. At 9:00 A.M. Mr. Rubens came in and a few minutes later "Dr. FRITZ arrived."  You can immediately see the difference in personality.  Mr. Rubens uses thick glasses with big open eyes and "Dr. Fritz" takes the glasses off and his eyes are half closed.

10. In a few minutes the place looks like a battlefield from the first world war.  On the simple walls there is a half-painted very large face of Jesus.  Church music fills the air; pleasantly, quietly and softly (Ave Maria, chorus, etc.).  People must be quiet and pray.

11. Even if you come in at 5:00 A.M. and get the first number, "Dr. Fritz" walks around picking his patients on a priority basis.  They fill the twenty operating tables in minutes.  The tables are made of plywood with a clean sheet over them and without pillows because the surgery only takes a few seconds or minutes and there is no recovery time, the patients just get up and walk home; painless and healed from their illness!

12. Eye and most spinal surgeries are done, standing in line, while knee surgery patients sit in a chair.  "Dr. Fritz" and his helpers use surgical gloves and I wonder why because they do not sterilize the instruments.  When he chips bones, cuts out a tumor, etc. it goes in the tray of a medical cart being wheeled around after him.  A few times a day they fill the cart.

13. When "Dr. FRITZ" came in, in front of me was a young beautiful lady (25-years-old with her baby in a stroller).  "Dr. Fritz" came in with a scalpel, told her to turn around, pulled her blouse down a foot and with the sharp instrument made a cut about 3 inches long and more than one inch deep.  Maybe one drop of blood came out of the incision.  He exposed her spine, and chipped out a small piece of bone and dropped it in the tray.  He roughly moved the vertebra, then with two fingers closed the wound as if it was done with double-sided tape and said to a helper, "Stitches!"  "Dr. Fritz" did it in less than  30 seconds.  The helper took more than ten minutes to put in about ten stitches.  The woman left pushing the stroller like nothing had happened.  I wished someone had taped the expression  on my face because I was so amazed.

14. I asked to be the last and I sat there all day, as if in beautiful strange dreams, while they helped to alleviate the suffering of more than 1,000 people.

15. When I stood in front of "Dr. Fritz" (about 9:45 P.M.) he asked in good English, "What's your problem?"  I said, "All over, I am having a skeleton breakdown!"

16. He said, "It's nothing that bad.  I am going to start with your thyroid."  Nineteen years ago I almost died from hyperthyroidism.  I could not have surgery at that time at San Diego Medical Hospital and they shrank it with ten microns (iodine) and my nightmare began.  Since (over 24 years) then I take one Synthroid tablet daily and it is critical.

17. "Dr. Fritz" went to a bowl (used previously for salad) and filled two syringes with his mixture of turpentine, alcohol and iodine and with a thick needle injected it in my throat.  Before I could think about the pain, he threw the empty syringes in the tray.  Like hundreds of people all day, you do not know when he did it!

18. After that he said, "You are going to feel better, but you must come back three more times on Saturdays."  I walked out 80 percent better without my cane and with tears in my eyes.  Next Monday morning I went to Delta Airlines and extended my trip to 30 days.

19. On my second visit I was there at 7 A.M. and got a white ticket with the number 241.  For the whole day I sat in a hard chair in a 100 degree heat and the time passed so quickly it could have been just one minute.  At 8:00 P.M. "Dr. Fritz" walked right up to me, touched my right shoulder with the two big scars from surgery 25 years ago and June 27, 1995.  After that last surgery I had an only 50% recovery and a lot of pain with restricted movement.

20. First he gave me a shot of his "special mixture" then he put a surgical scissors in front of the scars.  It went in at least two inches and I felt it cut.  When he finished, in about five seconds, he put his fingers over the wound and covered the cut with tape.  I felt the touch and cut but no pain.  He told me to put up my arm and I did it as if nothing had been done.  Next day the thin scar was almost invisible.  For my third visit I was there at 5:00 A.M. and got number 114.  Because I was not an emergency "Dr. Fritz" picked me and about 120 others to work on after 8 P.M.  Even if he had picked me in the morning I had no intention of leaving before the place closed.

21. This time "Dr. Fritz" worked on my left shoulder where I had cortisone shots, x-rays and after my 30 days in Brazil, I planned to go for surgery.  "Dr. Fritz" said I had "lots of scar tissue" and calcification (the doctor in Hoboken had said the same).  He got the "surgical scissors" and went to work cutting inside the shoulder.  Then he picked up the scalpel and started cutting and I felt some pain.  He stopped and gave me a shot of his "mixture."  It felt warm like a "glow all over the area."  He began cutting and scraping for another few seconds.  After he finished, he told one of his helpers (a young lady about 25 years old) to begin stitching in two minutes.

22. After six grotesque stitches they told me to go to a pharmacy next day.  Their pharmacies (in Brazil) gave shots and remove stitches.  I asked what was the care and was told: none!

23. The next day, he gave me a shot in my right knee.  Then he put a tweezer in through my knee and pulled out a fragment of bone and said, "That was your trouble."  I suffered no pain or bleeding whatsoever.  I started to get up with hesitancy and while walking I realized to my amazement that I was walking normally and painlessly.

24. "Dr. Fritz" never walks, he runs.  Because I have a big mouth he spent three minutes with me.  The trick may have been my English.  (If I had spoken German maybe the conversation would have been longer!).

25. I learned that Mr. Rubens was coming to New York the end of September or beginning of October.  I spoke to him and "Dr. Fritz" about coming to my house and they agreed because we became friends.

26. I told "Dr. Fritz" that our suffering planet should know about him, because our medicines are still too primitive to help us in our physical and moral pain.  Both agreed that this is his message to everyone on our planet and I could do my part to help!

27. Any contribution given to him is spent on expenses to run the facilities and everyone is a volunteer.  Whatever is left is used to buy medicine and food for the poor, because Brazil has no welfare.  Mr. Rubens works three days a week as an electronics engineer to make a living.  If he could charge for his work, then he would be the richest and most famous man in the world after Jesus Christ!  What he is doing through his mediumship is a gift from the spiritual world.  Vanity and money are not on his agenda!  Love and charity have no price and the only reward is spiritual.

28. "Dr. Fritz" said his time on our planet is short and he is trying hard to let his brothers (everyone) realize that God is here in our hearts.  We must try to help each other, because there is so much pain and misery.  He knows he cannot change the world.  Nevertheless, everybody can make it better with spiritual and material progress.  With the permission of God, he came here to help and teach us the kindness and power of God.  That's why he does not need a million dollar surgical suite, anesthesia, sterilization, etc.  The magnet fluid from the Creator and the good spirits is everything.  Our body is just a wonderful machine controlled by our soul.

29. Because God gave us freedom to do what we think, Mr. Rubens (Dr. Fritz) is being persecuted by the church, medical associations and even Spiritists themselves who accuse him of working with the Devil.

Now I ask?  Since when is the "devil" healing?

Unfortunately, we are surrounded by devils in the form of egoism, jealousy, greed, vanity and worse all with a mask of "Saints!"

30. September 10 (after 30 days in Brazil) at 7:00 A.M., I arrived at JFK Airport and this time I did not drag myself on crutches to my waiting grandchildren.  I ran and grabbed them in my arms (I thought I would never be able to do this again).  We all cried from happiness and then I said, "Thank you God, thank you Jesus, thank you Dr. Fritz."

NOTE:

I asked "Dr. Fritz" why he does not heal without cutting and he said, "The average man still doesn't believe in miracles or phenomena.  Men have the tendency to need to see to believe, but even when seeing their ignorance is so great that they still do not believe what their eyes are seeing.

"With all of my surgeries where everyone can see the cutting, chipping and stitching like Saint Thomas, and with taping, photography and interviewing of my patients to prove that the impossible is possible, they persecute me and the mediums and I hear very few thank God, thank Jesus or thank your spiritual world!"

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

This impossible, incredible, unbelievable, weird, phenomenon or miracle is explained in the book by John Grant Fuller: Arigo: Surgeon of the Rusty Knife published in 1974.  It covers the first "medium" used by "Dr. Fritz" with all the details and names.  You can find this book at some local public libraries.

According to The Science of Spiritism by Allan Kardec, the "medium" is the person who allows a spirit to use his or her body to work in our material world.  This is a mission which we cannot force because it will accomplish nothing.  It must be given freely and is not a profession.

Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D. and Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. went around the planet doing research on healing phenomena and wrote the book Healing States mentioning the first "medium" Arigo and the second "medium" that was working with "Dr. Fritz" after the death of Arigo on January 11, 1971.  It did not mention the third "medium" Rubens de Faria, Jr. because he was not yet working with "Dr. Fritz."  Now he is performing surgery and healing in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) as I write this book in the beginning of October of 1995.  I heard about Arigo and his "Dr. Fritz" when my mother went to see him in 1950.  I was 15 years old, busy and too young to care about it.

My hometown, Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state of Minas Gerais is the third largest city in Brazil and only 75 kilometers from Arigo's city Congonhas do Campo, a historical small town, where people are very friendly and at that time period were very much Catholic.

My mother was a diabetic and she felt better after she visited Arigo and his "Dr. Fritz," but her neighbors and relatives never stopped talking about Arigo's miracles.

Six years later, I went to New York and stayed in the States until now; forty-one years have passed and I now have a family of two children and four grandchildren.  Then I was too busy to hear any stories, because I thought it was a waste of time.  I was in health and had no pain.

Now, I have the sequence of the three men; Arigo to our time to show us the "deep mysteries of spiritualism and parapsychology."

Jose Pedro de Freitas "Arigo" born and died in Congonhas do Campos in the State of Minas Gerais 8-23-1950—1-11-71.

Dr. Edson Cavalcante Quieroz "Quieroz" was born and died in Recife in the state of Pernambuco 8-23-1950—10-05-1991.

Rubens de Faria, Junior, was born in São Paulo in the state of Sao Paulo on February 14, 1954 and he is working with "Dr. Adolf Fritz" for the last 11 years, taking care of more than 2,000 people a day and performing sometimes as many as 500 surgeries.  His present address is Rua (street) New York, 326 in the neighborhood of Bonsucesso, only 15 minutes from Rio's International airport (Galeao).  They are looking for a bigger place.

The contrast of education and cultures of the three "mediums" that  worked and work with "Dr. Fritz" are some phenomena itself due to their diversity:

Arigo was a simple farmer with only a few grades of grammar school education.

Dr. Quieroz was a well-known, knowing gynecologist and general physician, a good politician, well known in society and financially secure.

Rubens de Faria Junior is an electronics engineer who works three days a week to support himself and was financially well-off before working with "Dr. Fritz."

The donations for the work of "Dr. Fritz" are for expenses only.  They are not enough to pay the staff who pay their expenses out of their own pockets.  Approximately 50,000 people are treated each month.

Most of the patients are poor and they donate what they can afford.  Donations are not and cannot be reinforced or demanded like religious cults, because what "Dr. Fritz" is doing is a "miracle" and miracles do not have a price or priority.  If someone can afford to and gives a large amount in cash, then they will give it to the needy in the form of medicine, food and clothing or even give it to the orphaned, etc.

Because the volume of people is more than 2,000 and sometimes as much as 3,000 between the hours of 7:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. the waiting time for healing is sometimes six to ten hours.  The expense of feeding this huge volume of souls runs high because the soup, sandwiches and hot tea do not come from heaven.  They give the needy a bag of groceries, called in Brazil, "cesta basica" which means "the basic basket of food for the month," which is supposed to feed four people for a month.  Whoever did this calculation must have used bird feeding charts!  It is available because of the donations.

William Moreira

John of God: Journey to the Spirit World

This photograph taken by Kelsie McKinney at John of God's healing center in Brazil is from her website www.johnofgodboulder.com.

Kelsie (Kenefick) McKinney is a biofeedback therapist and a guide who brings groups of people to John of God's healing center, the Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola in Brazil.

The author of Migraines Be Gone (2006) and The Stress Mess (2008), Kelsie attended the State University of New York at New Paltz, where she received her masters degree in Humanistic Psychology and Education.  She is a licensed mental health counselor in New York, is board certified in medical biofeedback, and is a licensed professional counselor in Colorado.  Her John of God: Journey to the Spirit World (2012) begins with her considering how the book originated.

As I sit in Abadiania, Brazil, I begin to write my story with great resistance.  But, the Entities — the good spirits that come through John of God — insist the story be told.

Kelsie reflected in her book, "I feel as though I am living in the world of spirit when I am here in Abadiania . . . so grateful my journey took me here."

Years earlier, after ending a disastrous personal relationship that left her feeling unsafe, Kelsie heard a medical doctor describe having her knee and her vision healed by John of God in Brazil.  Kelsie recalled having seen a television documentary about John of God but at that time had dismissed it as "smoke and mirrors."  Then, two other people told her about being cured—of leukemia and breast cancer, respectively—by John of God and Kelsie began to wonder if he could help her in relation to her own life-threatening situation.

Kelsie's first meeting with John of God occurred at the Omega Institute in upstate New York.  She described entering a huge white tent with hundreds of other people dressed in white "so that the spirits that come through John of God could more easily see our energy field . . ."  In the 'first time line,' Kelsie passed through two 'current rooms' where hundreds of people facilitating or receiving healing appeared to be in a deep state of meditation.  She then approached John of God "in-Entity" in the Main Hall.

There was a woman two people ahead of me on crutches.  John of God said to one of the volunteers that was assisting him, "Take her crutches — she does not need them."  They took her crutches and he told her to walk.  She seemed to walk totally fine and walked for about fifteen feet before he told her to turn around and walk back.  Her eyes appeared to be closed as she was walking and upon her return he said, "Now open your eyes and walk.  You are healed.  Go over there and sit in current."

I was mesmerized as I witnessed this, feeling like I was in a trance.  To see such a miracle in front of my eyes moved something inside of me.  This was just the first of countless miracles I would witness in the following years.  What a blessing that the good spirits had put me here.

As I approached John of God he held his hand out and I placed my hand on his.  Looking in his eyes I felt a wave of love and compassion flow into me.  The Entities see us as a hologram and they know what we need for our healing.  A hologram is a three dimensional image formed from light.  "Holo" means whole and they see us in our entirety.

Kelsie was told to return the next morning for a "spiritual intervention" (or 'invisible operation').  When visiting the United States, John of God performs no physical surgeries ('visible operations').  For her intervention, Kelsie was surprised to learn that she would be in a room with around 150 other people.

Kelsie had been told that the Entities could work on up to nine requests for a single person during an intervention.  One of her requests was for the healing of a three-centimeter lump in her breast, the result of being pinched by her sister when she was a teenager.  Another request was for the healing of lower back pain.  She sat down in the intervention room and was instructed to keep her arms and legs uncrossed while her eyes were closed.

I heard John of God come into the room and listened to his voice for what seemed like just a couple of minutes.  Then I heard his footsteps as he walked out of the room.  Someone translated and said that the Entity proclaimed, "All my children are healed."  We were then instructed to go outside for to receive our post-intervention instructions.

The group was told that for the next 24 hours they were to remain in bed and sleep if they were tired.

As Kelsie rested in bed at her cabin, she checked to see if the lump in her breast had become smaller and was startled when she couldn't find any trace of it.  "I started poking around as my mind was sure it had to still be there . . . Then I heard a firm, clear and loud voice that said, 'STOP POKING AND PRODDING! YOU JUST HAD SURGERY!'"

Her lower back pain was also gone.  She received a second intervention a few days later and observed, "This one was much more difficult for me.  It felt like the spirits were pulling tentacles out of my energetic field.  This is the best way I can describe the images."

In her book there are further recollections of occasional instances of voice hearing phenomena providing spiritual guidance for Kelsie, who observed, "It can be a challenging situation in our culture when people hear voices.  Sometimes it is because they are in touch with the world of spirit."

During her second visit to see John of God at Omega, Kelsie brought a photo of her mother, who had written requests for help on the back.  Several weeks later, her mother reported that her irregular heartbeat had been healed.  This form of treatment is sometimes called 'distance healing' or 'remote healing.'

On this visit each time I approached John of God the Entity looked me straight in the eye and had the biggest smile imaginable!  One time he reached his hand out towards me with his palm up and as I went to place my hand on his I noticed the most perfect little rosebud that I had ever seen.  I looked up at him and communicated non-verbally, "Am I supposed to take this?"  With a big smile he nodded his head yes.

About expectations of healing, Kelsie commented:

Often people expect spontaneous healing when they go to John of God.  Yet, we must remember that the Entities are working on the spiritual root cause of the symptoms.  Sometimes the healing is spontaneous and sometimes it comes in increments.  I experienced both.

She offered her perspective of phenomena involving John of God that I had previously learned about from previous books and documentary videos chronicling this case.

We were told about one woman who had cancer throughout her whole body.  The Entity told her that if she was willing to lose one part of her body He would pull all of the cancer to that part — to her little finger — and cut it off.  She agreed and was healed of her cancer.

About some of the extensively documented healing styles, Kelsie observed: "The eye scraping can be used to heal many disorders and they need not have anything to do with the eyes."  About the "nose job" involving a hemostat, she wrote: "The concerns may have nothing to do with the respiratory tract or the brain."

Following the spiritual healing, the Entities recommend patients to follow protocols that can include such things as dietary restrictions or abstinence from alcohol and sex for up to forty days.

About Dom Inácio de Loyola, in whose honor the Casa is named, she wrote: "He was a great healer in his day and he is one of the Entities that comes through when the current is very strong . . . We are also told that Dom Inácio de Loyola will not be coming through much longer because his spirit is getting too fine and thin for Medium Joao to hold in his body."

Kelsie commented about the photos she took during her first visit to the Casa:

I noticed something very interesting when I got back to my room in the pousada and uploaded the photos to my computer.  The people in some of the photos looked surreal.  They looked flat and translucent.  It was as though you could see right through them.  There were shafts of white light radiating vertically through the photo and through the people.  In one of the photos, a man in the middle was out of focus but the other people in the photo were in focus.  This photo was also filled with white light streaming through the people in a vertical manner.

I can assure you that there was nothing wrong with my camera!  In fact, most of the photos looked normal.  This shows me, in a very physical way, the powerful spirit energies that are at work here.

Below are some more of Kelsie's photos from the Casa.

 

John of God and the Media

This is an image from the documentary "Healing: Miracles, Mysteries and John of God."

The spiritual healing facilitated by John of God (João de Deus) is known among millions of people who have received treatment from the Brazilian trance channeler.  When I searched "John of God" at Google, one of the first results was a link to a rare mainstream media article about him — the February 10, 2005 ABC News article "Is 'John of God' a Healer or a Charlatan?" derived from an "ABC Primetime" special report telecast.  In this post I am providing an analysis of the ABC News article and reporting about more recent media coverage of João.

This is how the article begins:

For nearly 30 years, millions have visited the tiny village of Abadiania in remote, central Brazil to see a man some call the most powerful spiritual healer since Jesus and others call a charlatan.

"Primetime" followed the journeys of five people who sought out the man known as "João de Deus" -- "John of God" -- and took a closer look at the amazing claims that surround him.

The first traveler was Matthew Ireland, of Guilford, Vt. who was told he had a quick-growing inoperable brain tumor.  He had undergone radiation and chemotherapy treatments.  But almost two years after he was diagnosed, and after three visits with João, his tumor has shrunk.

Annabel Sclippa of Boulder, Colo., has not been able to walk since her spinal cord was nearly severed in a car crash in 1988.  But after six visits with João, she says she can now feel sensation in her legs and can nearly balance herself standing between handrails -- something her physiotherapist said was unusual with her type of injury.

Mary Hendrickson of Seattle was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and powerfully debilitating allergies.  She now feels much more energetic.  "There is no way I would feel this way if something hadn't changed inside me," she told "Primetime Live."  "Something's made a difference." 

David Ames, of San Francisco, was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in April 2003.  His nervous system was slowly disintegrating, and faced almost certain death -- only 10 percent of patients survive for 10 years or more.  He has had no physical improvement, but he still says his spirit has gained from his visit.

And Lisa Melman of Johannesburg, South Africa, discovered a year ago that she had breast cancer.  After visiting João, her doctor told her it had grown, although less aggressively than he expected it to and that she should still have surgery.

Positive results are noticeably reported in each case.  The next section of the article is as follows:

Incorporating the Wise

João is not a licensed doctor.  Born in 1942, he is said to have been so rebellious he was thrown out of school after the second grade and could not keep a job.

Then, at 16, the story goes, the "entity" of King Solomon entered his body, and performed a miraculous healing.  For years, João wandered Brazil offering healings.  Twenty-seven years ago, he took residence in his casa in the plateaus and became known as "John of God."

Today, more than 30 doctors and notables can enter his body, João says.  They're the ones that do the healing.

Among those luminaries are Dom Inacio de Loyola, a 15th century Spanish nobleman; Dr. Oswaldo Cruz, who helped to eradicate yellow fever; and the late Dr. Augusto de Almeida, a meticulous and demanding surgeon.

The "incorporating" happens in an instant, without warning.  As João prepares to operate, his body suddenly jerks.  He is said to take on the personality and even the eye color of the entity who inhabits him.

As most Americans have little knowledge of what is usually called 'trance channeling,' one would expect that many television viewers and article readers would simply dismiss this information as ridiculous or impossible as they have not personally researched this topic.  "An Introduction to Healer John of God" was presented with the preceding blog article.

This is the next portion of the ABC News article.

Visible and Invisible Surgeries

John of God's patients typically stay at Abadiania for two weeks, but they can stay for as long as they want.  They can stay for an afternoon or morning and leave if they want to.  Some people even arrive via bus on day trips.

Everyone is told not to stop taking their medications or treatments such as chemotherapy.  After seeing John of God, there are some strict rules: for 40 days, no sex, alcohol, pork or pepper, which are all said to weaken the body's aura, or energy field. 

John of God cautions that cures are not always instantaneous, but can take months or years and the entities cannot heal everyone.  Some may be just too sick; others may not be ready spiritually.

When patients come before him, he makes a diagnosis with just a glance -- scribbles a prescription for herbs or even schedules an operation.

Some surgeries are "invisible."  The entities are said to have such supernatural powers, they can heal without breaking the skin.  Others are "visible" -- and only certain patients are considered eligible.  They must volunteer, be 18 to 52 years old, and cannot be in wheelchairs, or have recently had radiation or chemotherapy. 

The "visible" surgeries can be graphic.  "Primetime" witnessed one in which João took four-inch gauze-tipped steel forceps, dipped them in a solution he calls "holy water," and shoved the forceps all the way up a patient's nostril and twisted them violently.

It took 45 seconds, and the patient left bleeding.  But João's assistants videotape such surgeries regularly and sell them at the gift shop.

No information source is identified for the generalizations about a "typical" time requirement for patients of João, nor about visible surgery constraints.  This is the style of smug yet questionable vernacular heard on TV news shows that often made me cringe prior to my giving up television viewing altogether in 1995.

The next two portions of the article simplify John of God's biographical information in such a way that invites viewers/readers to question his character in a blatantly unfair manner.  The reason for this seems to be a supposition that the audience would be either unwilling or displeased to accept the truth about João and his extensively documented work as a trance channeler medium. 

Challenging 'The Power of God'

It's against the law to practice medicine without a license in Brazil.  "John of God" has been charged, fined and even jailed briefly.  He keeps on performing surgeries, saying it's the entities, not him, at work.

About the surgeries, he said: "I don't do that. God and the spirits do that."  He says even looking at the videotapes of the surgeries makes him queasy.

He says he doesn't even remember the experience.  "I am unconscious," he told "Primetime Live's" John Quiñones.  He likened his state to being asleep.

Challenged over the propriety of these operations, João answered, "Bring your scientists here, bring the doctors, bring them here.  There is no magic going on.  Just the power of God."

No mention is made about how João's work challenges longstanding spiritual and medical understanding to provide a context for the reasons for controversy.  Here is the next portion of the ABC article.

The Darker Side

Some people say the healings are just a front -- a way to make John of God rich. 

Even though he charges no fee for treatment, João appears to be a wealthy man.  He owns a cattle ranch just down the road from where he sees patients -- more than 1,000 acres.

When Quiñones pointed out to João that his town has become a tourist beacon with thousands coming to spend money for herbs and other items, he looked hurt.  His eyes turned red and watered.

He said he has money but he spends it to pay for food and education for the poor.  "I have cattle, but that's not enough to keep the casa," he said.

Yet, there are also rumors that John of God has a much darker side.  Juliana Almeida Franca, a district attorney who has investigated John of God, says he sent her death threats -- delivered by a relative.  João denies this.

João has also been accused of taking advantage of a woman who came to be healed.  "There is a lot of jealousy.  People talk.  What dictates is the conscience toward God," he answered.

He insisted his healings are legitimate.  "You can fool the people for one to two years.  But you cannot fool people for 45 years," he said.

More than eight years have passed since this article was published and everyone should know how easy it is for aspersions to be made — about anyone.  When considering the perspective fostered by a news outlet, the reader should keep in mind that it is an individual reporter, editor or executive who selects which opinions are to be publicized.  It is easy to deduce that corporate executives would be concerned about how the uneducated public, advertisers or government officials would respond to the unfamiliar information about João.  Here is the concluding portion of the article/newscast transcript.

Open to Possibility

For a second opinion, "Primetime" consulted Dr. Mehmet Oz, one of the most respected surgeons in the United States.

Asked about Ireland's remarkable improvement from a brain tumor, he agreed, "something stopped a process that normally is very aggressive."  He also wondered if the atmosphere of John of God's clinic contributed.

"I want to have the kind of music that gets him to meditate, the kind of biofeedback training and meditative training that will allow him to do what he needs to do to turn on his own body's healing mechanism," he said.  "That may be the greatest lesson of all here."

About Sclippa's progress from her spinal cord injury, he says it's conceivable that she could have made the same progress with intensive physical therapy.  But he added her experiences with John of God may have been valuable too.

While the doctor said he wouldn't send his patients to John of God, he still expressed curiosity about the clinic.

"I don't care what it is, if you really feel better with this kind of tragic injury, we need to research that," he said.  "Crawfish regrow their nerves, right?  Maybe there are things that we could harvest in our psyche that allows us to do it as well."

And questioned about the graphic visible surgery, Oz said it could be "an old magician's trick, but it's a pretty powerful one from a physician's perspective."

John of God could also be on to something, he said.  If you go to the roof of the nose, you find the pituitary gland, he said.  "I'm wondering if touching the pituitary gland may influence all those chemicals that go between the body and the brain.

"Either he's a healer who has found some talents that he has innately within him and can help people -- or he's crazy," Oz said.

The article "Leap of Faith: Meet John of God" by Susan Casey in the December 2010 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine included new commentary about John of God from Dr. Oz.  Following soon after the publication of the article, an episode of Oprah's television show was devoted to John of God and two of Oprah's interview guests appeared on CNN.

In an article from the June 2012 issue of her magazine, Oprah wrote about her visit with John of God. 

I went to Brazil prepared not to believe my eyes.  But the body does not lie.  When John of God walked into the room and performed his first surgery, on a woman whose arm was paralyzed, he asked me to come closer to see.  As he made an inch-long incision above the woman's breast, I thought, Yes, that is a real knife, and yes, that is real blood dripping down her white pants.  How is that happening without anesthesia, without her even flinching?

As I watched, my fingers got hot.  Heat rose through my arms and chest until I felt like I might implode.  Is my body bursting?  Am I passing out?  I told myself to think calm thoughts.  But I felt like I might actually throw up—on camera.  I've got to get to my chair.  If I can make it there, I can steady myself.

"Are you okay?" Heather Cumming, John of God's translator, whispered.

"I need to sit," I mumbled.  Only two more steps.  As I collapsed onto the chair, Heather handed me a bottle of water.

"I don't know quite what's happening to me," I said.  Sipping slowly from a cup, I tried to gather myself back into my body.

I closed my eyes and sat quietly, feeling the rhythm of my breath.  Tears of gratitude started to flow.  Gratitude for the whole journey of my life—not just everything that had gone right, but the things that had not.

A video that currently can be viewed at Oprah's website is "Oprah Witnesses John of God's Surgical Procedure" published March 17, 2013.  Video clips of Oprah's recent interview with John of God can also be seen on You Tube among other websites.

"Americans Experience John of God's 'Spiritual Surgery'"

"Oprah's One-on-One Interview with John of God"

"Why John of God Says He Doesn't Believe in Death"

"Did John of God's Methods Work?  Followers Share Updates"

The 2005 ABC News article ended with the following information.

To learn more about John of God and the people in this story, you may wish to visit the following Web sites:

http://www.johnofgod.com 

http://visionthang.tv/

http://www.friendsofthecasa.info/

http://www.activeingredients.com/ames

One notable article about John of God was published in the February-March 1998 issue of Nexus Magazine.  "The Amazing Cures of a Brazilian Miracle Man" by Robert Pellegrino-Estrich was extracted from his 1997 book The Miracle Man: The Life Story of Joao de Deus.  In 2007, John of God was the topic of an episode of the BBC documentary series "Trust Me I'm a Healer."  The director of the segment was Danny Horan and the series producer was Rachel Bell.

Other 'channelers' who go largely ignored in the United States despite extensive documentation for their work include Chico Xavier, Mark Probert and Rosemary Brown.  Channeling is an aspect of mediumship and has been chronicled in case studies about such mediums as Eileen Garrett, Gladys Osborne Leonard and Leonora Piper.  Some channelers are generally not well understood in this respect, such as Edgar Cayce.

A recent documentary about João is "Healing: Miracles, Mysteries and John of God" (2008) directed by David Unterberg and Harald Wiesleitner.

This is an image from the documentary "Healing: Miracles, Mysteries and John of God."

An Introduction to Healer John of God

Cover art from Spiritual Alliances.

"The scientists who studied João are convinced of his capabilities, but bewildered as to how to handle the information."—Emma Bragdon, Spiritual Alliances: Discovering the Roots of Health at the Casa de Dom Inácio

A contemporary spiritual healer is Brazil’s trance channeler John of God, who has been mentioned in several previous blog articles (including “Some Recordings of Channeling”, "Spiritual Healing" and "Spirituality & Health: Healing Spirits of Brazil").  Those with some knowledge of such metaphysical concepts as 'oneness' or 'nonlocality' will have an advantage for understanding the spiritual force documented in this case.

An explanation for the succession of entities controlling an entranced medium's body was offered through one communicator from the ascended realm speaking through medium Mrs. J. H. Conant as recorded in Flashes of Light from the Spirit-Land through the Mediumship of Mrs. J. H. Conant (1872): ". . . for each occasion an intelligence is selected best adapted for that occasion."  In this article I am presenting some excerpts from biographies of João Teixeira de Faria, who is more commonly known as 'John of God' or 'João de Deus.'

João was born on June 14, 1942 in a village in central Brazil.  He left school after only a few years of education to earn money for his impoverished family's living expenses.  The early period of João's occupation as a trance channel is described in The Miracle Man: The Life Story of Joao de Deus (1997) by Robert Pellegrino-Estrich.  João was sixteen when a life-changing event occurred.

It was a warm sunny day as the bare-footed youth approached a bridge across a creek on the country road leading to Campo Grande.  The urge to bathe in the cool sparkling water was too inviting to resist.  He scrambled nimbly down the embankment and plunged in, momentarily washing away his thoughts of employment and hunger.  He thought he was dreaming when he heard the soft voice call his name.  Wiping the water from his eyes, he focused into the shade of the overhanging trees.  To his surprise, there in the shadows stood a beautiful fair-haired woman.  "Joao," she said again sweetly, "come and talk with me."

"How do you know my name?" he asked in astonishment.

"I know many things, and there is much I must tell you.  Come, sit here with me."

Joao stayed and talked to the beautiful woman for some hours.  That night, back in Campo Grande, he realized the vision was Saint Rita of Cassia, the patron saint of Brazil.  He turned over in his mind the things she had told him and woke with many questions to ask her.  He dressed quickly and hurried out to the creek to see if she was there.  The woman did not appear but in the place where she had stood was a sparkling beam of light.  Disappointed, he turned to go when he heard her voice.  "Joao.  You must go to the Redemptor Spiritual Centre in Campo Grande.  They are waiting for you there," she said as the light disappeared.

When João reached the Centre, there was a man waiting for him at the door.

"Please come in.  We have been waiting for you," he said, as he took him by the arm.  Joao does not remember the next three hours but when he woke up, people surrounded him smiling and shaking his hand.

"You took on the entity of King Solomon.  You healed many people and performed amazing operations," said the senior member.

"I what?" replied Joao in disbelief.  "I'm sorry, you are mistaken.  I was just hungry and fainted from the need of food."

"Let us go to my house and prepare some food.  He is starving!," instructed the senior.

Bathed, dressed in clean clothes and sitting at a table laden with a sumptuous meal Joao had time to reflect on the claims of the people around him.  It was time to take his gifts more seriously; he was unaware of the life long burden this decision would make for him.

João eventually established his healing centre in Abadiâna, "a place selected for him by spirit guidance through his clairvoyant friend Chico Xavier."

Pellegrino-Estrich wrote that rich, poor and famous people have all come to João.  "Prominent and well-known people from all over the world have sought his help . . . Congressmen and congresswomen, politicians, lawyers, rabbis, priests, nuns, American and Russian government officials, doctors, scientists, singers, entertainers, millionaires, entrepreneurs, industrialists and VIPs; the whole broad spectrum of humanity." 

The Miracle Man was the first book written about João in English.  His healing center was described by Pellegrino-Estrich as including a recovery room and "current rooms" where an assembly of 'mediums' in meditation provided 'current' assisting the entities in their work.  He reported that the people waiting their turn for a consultation filed through the first current room.  "In two corners there are piles of crutches, wheelchairs and  body braces discarded by healed invalids — a silent monument to the success of the man and his entities in his healing work."

The second current room also contained mediums seated in rows. 

The endless line of people pass through the middle and are spiritually prepared to meet Joao-in-entity who sits at the far end in a large chair covered in white linen.  At the moment of meeting there is a split second recognition by the entity of each person's "blueprint"; their past lives, current situation, their illness and their spiritual awareness.  Depending on what is seen, the person will be dealt with according to the requirement.  Some are given herbal prescriptions.  Some are told to return for surgery or treatment at a later time.  A few are told to return next session as the Entity required for their case will be incorporated then.  Those that need spiritual strength may be told to sit in current alongside those whose ailments are being treated whilst in meditation.  Others are given concise instructions on necessary life changes.  Each person is dealt with in less than twenty seconds.  Herbal prescriptions are written at lightning speed in a spirit shorthand which looks like a squiggly line and a few ticks.  The pharmacists of the house have been taught to understand these hieroglyphics by the entities who prescribe them.

The third room is the intensive operations room which has a dual purpose; very serious cases requiring a long time in curative coma and, those who request invisible operations.  Around the wall is a line of single beds on which the intensive patients lay whilst the entities perform operations invisibly — paraplegics, leukemia, AIDS and serious cancer patients.

Pellegrino-Estrich wrote that the public demonstrations of physical surgery "fulfill the centre's mission of, not only healing the sick, but providing irrefutable proof that there is another dimension — a spirit world, where we all will eventually go when this physical life expires."

As other books about John of God have been published and videos shared online, individual perspectives are presented about João.  As each witness has a unique history of experiences and education, one doesn't always need to 'agree' with each interpretation of the events described relating to spiritual healing in order to comprehend some of the more obvious lessons.

Two 'daughters of the Casa' are the authors of John of God: The Brazilian Healer Who's Touched the Lives of Millions (2007).  Heather Cumming wrote the book after serving as one of the translators for João.  "As a translator, she assists John of God and the Spirit Guides to see up to two thousand people a day."  Karen Leffler contributed photographs: "Her many trips to the Casa de Dom Inácio have resulted in wonderful light-filled images of the healing energy and sacred space."

Another book about João is Spiritual Alliances: Discovering the Roots of Health at the Casa de Dom Inácio (2002) by Emma Bragdon, PhD., who wrote: ". . . I visited João's sanctuary for three months because I wanted to see with my own eyes how the Entity could perform successful surgery without causing pain or infection—without anesthesia or antibiotics . . . A video I had seen shows him performing surgery blindfolded—to prove that beneficent and highly-skilled forces working through him do the surgery and healing, not João the ordinary man."  Here are some further excerpts from the book.

. . . people experienced little or no pain and had little, if any, bleeding—clear evidence that something extraordinary was happening.  Board certified physicians reported the same to the assembled people and were documented on film.  In over thirty-five years of the Entity's surgery, it has been extremely rare for there to be any infections.


Somehow, life at the Casa de Dom Inácio operated beyond [understood] physical limitations under more powerful spiritual laws.  I was deeply fascinated—and sometimes, disoriented as I looked for new reference points.


. . . João repeats everyday, "It is God, not me, who does the healing."  João's greatest gift is to reveal our close connection to evolved spirits and the energy which we call God.  His work calls us to drop our limiting beliefs about our separation from spirit; to let go of our fears and reach for our closeness with God.  João and his volunteers encourage visitors by often saying, "In God, all things are possible."


The reason João, both as himself and as the Entity, always invites visiting doctors to be near him as he does visible surgeries is to assist them in realizing their own potential in spiritual healing; to learn how to bring spiritual healing into their own work in clinics and hospitals; to become vehicles of the spirit and pass that ability on to others.  João's welcoming film-makers and photographers to record his work is, similarly, aimed at disseminating the power of spiritual healing.

Bragdon described the process where João "incorporates an Entity" — "This process may be barely perceptible.  Often João holds the hands of an assistant for a moment with his eyes closed, and then, on opening his eyes, relates to the group in a more detached way.  Sometimes the incorporation is very dramatic."

You Tube documentary videos about John of God include:


"John of God documentary — Part 1"  (This 2003 video includes graphic footage of 'visible operations' [physical surgeries].)  9:41


"John of God documentary — Part 2"  (EVP words are noticeable in the audio track of this 2003 documentary.)  8:28


"The Healing Ministry of John of God, Joao de Deus"  (This video uploaded in 2008 includes footage of "Joao's body lurching as the spirits enter it" at 1:00.)  9:56


"Brazilian Miracle Man — John of God"  (This is a 2005 documentary produced and directed by Bill Hayes.) 45:19


"Joao de Deus Interview — John of God Interview"  (This video was uploaded in 2012.)  5:54