Two days ago I arrived to Abadiania, Brazil, on a trip to see John of God at the Casa de Don Ignacio. I came as a favor to a friend who has been paralyzed on a wheel chair for the past two years. He asked me to come with him to help with the difficulties of traveling and moving around. I knew it was a big commitment and sacrifice on my part to leave my business in California unattended for three weeks and travel across the continent to a small town where there is little to do and hard to get work done. When he asked me to come I immediately said yes and I never backed off, surely enough there was a reason for me to be here.
Who is John of God?
John of God is a Brazilian known healer and medium believed to do miracle work through the process of spiritual surgery. He performs his interventions at the Casa De Don Ignacio, a small healing center located in the town of Abadiania, two hours south-east of Brasilia. According to the information available, John began his healing work at the age of nine and has been operating non-stop for the past 60 years. Thousands of people have reported miraculous healing via the power of his spiritual surgeries and the aid of the healing herbs, holly water and the free soup that is served at the healing center. All these are said to be blessed by the entities that John communicates with. Treatments vary in length and most people are recommended to spend 3 to 5 weeks in Abadiania while they go through their process of physical and spiritual healing. Some of these people have reported miraculous healing of diseases such as cancer, MS and all sorts of incurable diseases in addition to drug addiction, depression and other illnesses.
My friend believed that John of God would be able to help him fix his severed spinal cord and help him walk again and I believed that this was a big opportunity to see a miracle with my own eyes. We still have 20 days left on our trip and we are just getting started but as of right now I am quite disappointed.
John of God Miracles and Controversies
John of God is very well known in Brazil and has been one of the most praised healers in the country since 1970. His power is said to come through his abilities to channel entities, spirits from now dead individuals who lived thousands of years ago such as Jesus Christ and King Salomon, among 30 others. While he is in trance, possessed by these entities, John of God performs his spiritual surgeries which often include the scraping of eye balls with a knife, the cutting of visceral or breasts tissue and the insertion of 8-inch long scissors through the patient’s nostrils. See Video. After these interventions people are put to rest and recommended to spend long hours of meditation in the Current Room, a room in the healing center where hundreds of people sit in meditation while they absorb the energy of the entities that are said to inhabit the center.
During my research I found multiple reports and articles talking about the healing powers of John of God. I also found just as many reports and articles talking about him being a fraud and a sexual pervert. Many of the people who have come to see John did not experience the healing they were looking for and instead found themselves disappointed by the fraud and extortion that happens at the Casa de Don Ignacio. These articles mention several accounts of women who reported being sexually abused by John, having their breasts sexually touched by him and in some cases being invited to private sessions with John where they were requested to perform oral sex on him. The same people and others have complained that the herbs are nothing more than powdered passion flowers which are well known for their sedative effects. The water, they claim, has no more healing properties than regular water does and the free healing soup at the center is nothing more than cheap noodles and bread.
John has been arrested many times for performing surgery without a license and has been placed in jail on several occasions. According to these articles, although John does not charge for his work, the healing center does charge for the herbs, water and crystals they sell which are estimated to bring in a revenue of $400,000 dollars each year.
It is possible that these negative reports are lies and exaggerations that come from frustrated people who did not received what they were expecting from their experience with John of God. It is also possible that these remarks are being made by competitors or individuals who are jealous of the miraculous powers of John of God or by other people who do not understand the way in which entities and God work when it comes to healing of the body, mind and spirit. Some people use Jesus crucifixion as an example. Nonetheless, these comments are enough to bring about doubt and skepticism to the amazing claims being made about John of God.
Reasons For My Skepticism
I have always considered myself a healthy skeptic with an open mind. Many of the people that know me personally often say that I am very smart and intuitive, others say that I have a sharp intellect and a powerful mind. These are their comments, not mine, on my end, I am always tryng to become smarter and become more in touch with my intuition. I know that there are many people in this world much smarter than me and more intuitive than I am and I keep trying to catch up, hoping that one day I will have full confidence in myself, my mind and my intuition. In this case, my skepticism towards John of God’s claims is supported by the experiences and knowledge I have acquired during all my years of intense education in the field of holistic health and wellness.
I have studied and graduated with honors from multiple healing programs including massage therapy programs, holistic health practitioner programs and multiple yoga therapy studies. I have spent more than 2,000 hours of classroom time where I have learned all sorts of approaches for supporting physical, mental, emotional and spiritual healing. In addition to my time spent in class I have spent hundreds of hours readying books on these subjects and another hundreds of hours successfully treating clients with all sorts of ailments and disease. Most of them have reported significant improvements in various aspects of their life and healing of their ailments and disease. I do not consider myself a miracle worker, I simply listen to people and do my best to help them feel better through the use of the techniques I have learned throughout my career. I base my success on the education I received from my teachers and my will to help my fellow brothers and sisters, which I do through intense dedication and presence during my sessions.
Some of my teachers are said to be channels and mediums able to call upon and work with entities. I believe them, but this is not my style and I do not use these techniques. I prefer to work with my hands and with my heart. I offer advice when I am asked and aside from that I simply give people some basic exercises and nutritional guidelines to take better care of themselves. I believe that we all have miraculous healing powers within ourselves which come from our amazing systemic bodies and the wonderful life that moves all of us.
I believe that my background and awareness are sufficient to say with confidence that I am highly skeptic and mildly disappointed of the work that is being performed by John of God at the
Casa de Don Ignacio. During my first visit I did not feel any entities working on me or with me. However, I did feel the spirit of all the sick people around me, who have come in search of miracles and are open to them. I felt their suffering and I noticed their hope. I believe that many of them are receiving the healing they need and that many will report their experience as miraculous and sublime. However, I believe this has to do more with their own energy and that of those around them than with any entities that may roam the grounds or the spiritual surgeries John has performed on them.
I believe in the power of prayer and I believe more in the power of collective healing. I know that when humans come together united by a common cause their healing power increases and their faith is elevated. This is not only the case at the Casa de Don Ignacio but in most of the healing centers around the world where people unite in search for health, peace and joy. These centers are often lead by an authority figure, such as John of God, who serve as a lighthouse of inspiration that allows people to search for the healing that resides within us all. I believe that many of these teachers and master poses incredible powers and many of them are legitimate in their claims and intentions. Others, unfortunately, are not.
For the past two weeks John of God has been in the hospital, being treated for a stomach hernia, because of this I have not been able to see him in front of me and judge him from a direct interaction. I hope he is able to return soon before we leave so that my friend and I can experience the miracle we came in search of. If this is the case, my skepticism will banish and I will be blessed to write another article where I praise the power of God, entities and the miracles of life. For now, I am waiting to be impressed by the healing energy that I see lacking in this small town in the suburbs of Brazil.
Sources:
http://dangerousdiane.blogspot.com.br/2008/01/john-of-god-from-i-dont-believe-it-file.html
http://skepdic.com/johnofgod.html
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/john_of_god_healings_by_entities/
