2025/09/23

João Teixeira de Faria - Wikipedia The Not So Divine Acts of Medium ‘John of God’ Felipe Nogueira

João Teixeira de Faria - Wikipedia

João Teixeira de Faria





For other people named João Teixeira, see João Teixeira (disambiguation).
In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Teixeira and the second or paternal family name is Faria.
João Teixeira de Faria
Faria in 2006
Born24 June 1942 (age 83)
Cachoeira de Goiás, Brazil
Other namesJoão de Deus (John of God)
Criminal statusUnder house arrest due to the COVID-19 pandemic
ConvictionsRape, sexual misconduct, illegal possession of firearms
Criminal penalty489 years and 4 months in prison
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João Teixeira de Faria (born 24 June 1942), known also as João de Deus (John of God), is a Brazilian self-proclaimed medium, and self-proclaimed psychic surgeon.[1][2] He was based in Abadiânia, Brazil, where he ran a spiritual healing center called the Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola. He received media coverage on CNN, ABC News, and personally from The Oprah Winfrey Show. However, James Randi and Joe Nickell exposed his healing procedures as nothing more than carnival tricks,[3][4] and there is no evidence that the benefits reported by patients are anything more than placebo effects.[5]

In 2018, after over 600 accusations of sexual abuse, Faria turned himself in to police. In the following years, he was found guilty of a number of different crimes, including illegal firearm possession and statutory rape.[6] The sentences add up to 489 years and 4 months in prison.[7]

Early life

João Teixeira de Faria was born in Cachoeira de Goiás on 24 June 1942.[8] He has no medical training and describes himself as a "simple farmer".[9] He completed two years of education and spent a number of years travelling from village to village in the states of Goiás and Minas Gerais as a garrafeiro, a sort of travelling medicine man.[10]

Career

Overview

Faria said he was told by his spirit guides that he must expand his work to reach more people and spiritist medium Chico Xavier told him he should go to the small Goiás town of Abadiânia to fulfill his healing mission. Around 1978, when he first performed healings there, he just sat outdoors in a chair near the main road where people began to arrive seeking cures for their illnesses and conditions. Gradually the numbers increased to thousands per day and he developed his centre, Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola.[11] The Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola was visited by millions of people seeking healing. Faria also owned a nearby cattle ranch, which covered about 1,000 acres and was valued at over 2 million reais.[12][13]

Much of his income came from selling passionflower preparations, the single herb prescribed by Faria to cure a variety of ailments. The company that bore his initials, JTF Ltda., marketed the drug and was registered in the name of his wife, Ana Keyla Teixeira, and his driver and employee Abadio da Cruz.[13][14]

Claims of healing powers

Faria on stage after performing a "psychic surgery"

Faria regularly prescribed meditation and walking to a nearby waterfall as part of treatment. The Casa also sold herbs, "blessed" items and artefacts such as magic triangles. It was estimated by 60 Minutes Australia in 2014 that those sales earned Faria over $10 million per year.[15]

When called for a spiritual surgery by Faria, patients were offered the choice of "visible" or "invisible" operations. If they selected an invisible operation (or were younger than 18 or older than 52) they were directed to sit in a room and meditate. Faria said that spiritual physicians could perform surgery on the actual patient via a surrogate when the actual patient was unable to make the trip.[16]

A very small percentage of people chose a visible operation where Faria operated without anesthetic. Instead he used "energized" mineral water and the spiritual energies allegedly present, the latter of which were provided by groups of volunteers who meditated in a separate room called the 'current room'. Those practices, such as inserting scissors or forceps deep into a nose or scraping an eye without an anesthetic or antiseptics, were scrutinized by medical authorities and skeptical investigators such as James Randi, who called for Faria to stop victimizing people with stunts and trickery.[3]

Faria would tell people not to stop taking their medicine and said that not everyone he "treated" would be cured. Often the treatment included capsules containing pure passion flower, which he would say carried special blessed spiritual energy to support the individual's healing process.[17] Before his final arrest and conviction, Faria had undergone trials and scrutiny of his work; he was arrested several times for practicing medicine without a licence, and was jailed once.[12]

Outside Brazil

Faria travelled to other countries to perform his healing ceremonies, which he called Live Events. Gail Thackray said in her book, Spiritual Journeys: Visiting John of God, that the main "entities" at work in Brazil were the same ones at Live Events, along with thousands of other entities doing healing work.[18][19]

Media coverage

ABC news report

On 14 July 2005, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) ran a news report about Faria on Primetime Live.[12] The programme featured five people with various medical conditions, including chronic fatigue syndrome, Lou Gehrig's disease and an inoperable brain tumour. Each patient saw Faria and ABC claimed that in three of the cases there had been an improvement. A young female athlete who had been paraplegic was shown beginning to move her legs.

ABC's update on the five subjects,[12] while not mentioning name of Mary Hendrickson, indicated that one subject is making either slow progress or none at all, two are worse, and one shows improvement. Subject David Ames died from complications on 16 July 2008.[20] Despite undergoing Faria's psychic surgery and being declared cured, Lisa Melman's breast cancer got progressively worse. She stated the tumor had grown and became painful. She continued to suffer and died in 2012.[21]

Skeptic James Randi spent about an hour in New York being interviewed and taped for the report. Randi later criticised ABC for having cherry-picked his comments to show more credibility for Faria than was justified. Randi gave scientific explanations for all the activities observed.[22] Randi revealed the natural explanations for activities ranging from: putting forceps in the nose, random cutting of the flesh, 'scraping' of the eyeball, the subsequent absence of infection, and other activities one by one as age old parlor tricks. However, he was dismayed that none of his critical comments were shown in the final segment. This was cut down to under 20 seconds of screen time.[23]

The Oprah Winfrey Show

On 17 November 2010, Susan Casey wrote in O Magazine about her trip to see Faria in Brazil and was subsequently covered on The Oprah Winfrey Show. The article was entitled "Leap of Faith: Meet John of God". The show was entitled "Do You Believe in Miracles?". In both, she discusses her need to deal with the traumatic loss of her father. After he suddenly died in 2008, Casey experienced a "tsunami of grief" that she says she couldn't escape from. She wondered if Faria could help heal her grief. She met him twice and later stated, "Three hours went by like 20 minutes, and it was blissful – it was like I was floating." Casey claims she was able to speak with her dead father. "It was very real," she says. "More of a vision than I had ever had before. ... I got this feeling like I shouldn't be sad, that everything was okay."

While Casey stated that the whole experience sounds unusual, she said that she is "not a woo-woo person" and that Faria helped her find healing. Casey stated that she was a neutral observer.[24] Jeff Rediger, a psychiatrist from Harvard Medical School in Boston, was provided as a "skeptic".[25] Rediger was astonished to discover bleeding from his torso after "invisible" surgery. The show did not provide scientific or medical explanations for the procedures performed.[26] In depth critical investigative reports followed the broadcast.[23]

On 17 March 2013, Oprah's Next Chapter, Season 2, Episode 116, aired a televised show titled "John of God".[27] Oprah traveled to Brazil to meet and talk with Faria. She also interviewed Magnus Kemppii, from Sweden, about his "surgery", and five Americans who hope to be cured from their ailments.[28][29]

In December 2018, Faria was accused of sexual abuse, rape and pedophilia by more than 200 women. After the allegations became public, Oprah deleted the interviews from her site and released a note stating that she hopes justice will be served.[30]

CNN coverage

On the 22 December 2010, episode of CNN's AC360, Sanjay Gupta interviewed two of the commentators Oprah Winfrey had sent to meet Faria.[31][32][33] Critical investigative reports followed the broadcast.[23][34]

60 Minutes Australia

Faria's first visit to Australia and a 'Live Event' scheduled on 22–24 November 2014 at the Sydney Showground in Sydney Olympic Park garnered much media attention.[35][36]

After visiting Faria at his "Casa" in Abadiânia, Brazil, the Australian 60 Minutes television program aired a critical investigative report on 25 October 2014, examining Faria's healing treatment practices, the amount of money being made and raising questions about sexual assault allegations against him.[37] The two-part program hosted by reporter Michael Usher was a follow-up to Liz Hayes' 1998 investigation of Faria.[24][38][39]

In Part 1 of the follow-up, reporter Michael Usher revealed that a woman declared as cured of breast cancer by a spirit entity channeled by Faria died in 2003. A woman in a wheelchair with multiple sclerosis, who in the 1998 report said she visited Faria with the expectation of walking again, didn't feel any effect, is still in a wheelchair, and suffered a deterioration in her condition. Her trip to the Casa cost $5,000. Usher reported that none of the other people (forty Australians) who made the pilgrimage that Hayes joined for investigation improved.[40]

Usher's report said that some of the thousands in Faria's audience hope to receive "spiritual surgery" from him. In an extended interview, emergency medicine specialist Dr. David Rosengren personally examined and reported these practices as horrendous and barbaric, saying: "… the modern medical world could not condone this behavior in any way whatsoever".[41] The possibility of Faria coming to Australia had also concerned the Australian Medical Association.[42]

In Part 2 of his report, Usher stated that there were two deaths in recent years at the Casa that warranted investigations, but no one was charged. He also reported that in 2010, when Faria visited Sedona, Arizona, the police department investigated him because a woman said he took her hands and placed them on his genitals. The case never went to court; one of his associates encouraged the woman to drop the allegations.[15]

The Catholic Church, through its representative Rev. Brian Lucas, issued a televised verbal warning, stating "John of God doesn't have any official affiliation with the Catholic Church". He cautioned all to be very skeptical of people seeking publicity with claims of miracles and faith healing, more so when there is a lot of money involved.[15][43]

Montreal Gazette

On 22 July 2016, the Montreal Gazette published a report on John of God, "Brazilian 'healer' John of God leads cancer patients by the nose", by columnist Joe Schwarcz, accompanied by a video report from 'Dr Joe's' The Right Chemistry series. Schwarcz is an author and a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. He is the director of McGill's Office for Science & Society, which aims to demystify science for the public. The report starts by detailing Faria's life history as a medium and psychic surgeon. It then examines his practice and supposed treatments, such as the 'Up Your Nose' surgery to treat cancers. Schwarcz also criticised Faria's choices of treatment for his own health problems.[44]

Web series

João de Deus is portrayed by Marco Nanini in the 2023 Canal Brasil biographical web series João sem Deus - A Queda de Abadiânia, directed by Marina Person.[45][46]

Personal life

Faria was married several times and has had an unknown number of children from his different wives and affairs.[10]

In 2015, Faria was diagnosed with aggressive stomach cancer. A doctor of conventional medicine, Raul Cutait, extracted a 6 cm gastric adenocarcinoma from his stomach. The surgery and follow-up of five months of chemotherapy took place at the Hospital Sírio-Libanês in São Paulo.[47][48] Faria did not report these facts to the public, originally saying he was being hospitalised for a stomach hernia.[49]

Arrest and imprisonment

In December 2018, allegations of abuse by Faria were put forward by 12 women.[50][51] The number of claims led to the Prosecution Office of the State of Goiás creating an email address and phone line to receive all accusations towards him. In 30 hours, over 200 complaints were received from nine different Brazilian states and two claims from abroad.[52] Claims were reported by the prosecution's office as having the potential to be the biggest sexual scandal in the history of Brazil, overwhelming the Roger Abdelmassih case.[53] Claims included the alleged abuse of victims as young as 14 years old, as well as a woman who revealed having been abused for three days.[54] On 11 December, four days after the Conversa com Bial show, the number of sexual abuse complaints against Faria had reached 206, prompting him to limit his appointments at Casa Dom Inácio de Loyola. Questioned by reporters, he simply said "I'm innocent" and walked away.[55] On 12 December, the public prosecutor of Goiás called for the arrest of Faria.[56] On 16 December, Faria surrendered himself to the police. The number of sexual abuse accusations gradually reached 600. The rapes occurred from 1986 to 2017.[57]

Faria's daughter Dalva supported the accusers, calling her father a "monster" and alleging that she was beaten and raped by him until she ran away when she was 14 years old.[58][59] Faria was transferred to a hospital from prison in March 2019.[60] On 19 December, he was sentenced to 19 years and four months for the rapes of four women.[61] He was temporarily released from prison on house arrest when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, due to his age and poor health.[62]

In September 2023, Faria was sentenced to an additional 118 years, six months and 15 days in prison by the Goiás state criminal court as a result of 17 cases involving "rape, rape via fraud and rape of a vulnerable individual."[63]

See also

References

  1.  "Controversial Brazilian spiritual healer 'John of God' set to visit Sydney next month". 60 Minutes. 9News. 27 October 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  2.  Elliott, Tim (3 October 2014). "John of God: Miracle worker or charlatan?". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  3.  "From the Archives: Randi's inside scoop into ABC News' 'John of God' investigation (2005)". James Randi Educational Foundation. 6 October 2014. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  4.  Nickell, Joe (October 2007). "'John of God': Healings by Entities?". Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  5.  Nogueira, Felipe (2019). "The not so divine actions of medium "John of God"". Skeptical Inquirer. 43 (4): 11–13.
  6.  "Com nova condenação, pena de João de Deus chega a quase 500 anos" [Following a new conviction, John of God's sentence reaches almost 500 years]. oantagonista.com.br. 19 September 2023.
  7.  "Estupro, violação sexual e posse de arma: Relembre as condenações de João de Deus" [Rape, sexual assault and firearm possession: Remember John of God's convictions]. g1.globo.com. 16 September 2023.
  8.  "Cachoeira de Goiás: History" (PDF). IBGE: Biblioteca (in Portuguese). 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  9.  Quiñones, John (2015). "Faith Healer John of God". Beliefnet.com. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  10.  John of God: The Crimes of a Spiritual Healer (Documentary). Netflix. 25 August 2021.
  11.  "Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola" [House of Dom Inácio de Loyola]. johnofgodhealing.com. 2015. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  12.  "Is 'John of God' a Healer or a Charlatan?". ABC News. 14 July 2005. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  13.  "joao-do-ceu-e-da-terra". translate.google.com. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2019 – via Google Translate.
  14.  "joao-de-deus-sa" [John of God SA]. translate.google.com – via Google Translate.
  15.  Usher, Michael (26 October 2014). "60 Minutes: John of God". 9jumpin.com.au. Retrieved 13 May 2015 – via YouTube. Usher revealed that [...] 'Meeting John [de] Faria was free, but he often prescribed visits to crystal beds. At $25 a session, they earned him around $1.8 million a year. He also sold "holy water" for $1 a bottle. There was a gift shop and next to that, a pharmacy which sold one thing: herbal pills, apparently only available by a prescription from Faria. They were $25 a bottle and would make Mr. de Faria about $40,000 a day, or more than $14 million a year.'
  16.  "Intervention". The Friends of the Casa de Dom Inacio Abadiania Brazil. 2015. Archived from the original on 28 April 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  17.  "Guide for English Speaking Visitors" (PDF). Casa de Dom Inácio. 2009. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  18.  Thackray, Gail. "The Spirits of John of God". gailthackray.com. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  19.  "About Events". johnofgodlive.com. Archived from the original on 15 March 2015. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  20.  "David Ames Obituary". San Francisco Chronicle. 7 September 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  21.  Robyn Sassen (16 March 2012). "Lisa Melman: We're all the poorer for her passing" (PDF). South African Jewish Report. Vol. 16, no. 9. p. 12.
  22.  "Commentary, February 18, 2005, A Special Analysis". archive.randi.org. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  23.  "John of God". The Skeptic's Dictionary. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  24.  "Leap of Faith: Meet John of God". Oprah.com. 17 November 2010. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  25.  "the center for psychological and spiritual development". drrediger.com. 10 December 2010. Archived from the original on 6 May 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  26.  "How Low Can Oprah Go?". ScienceBasedMedicine.org. 22 November 2010.
  27.  Oprah Witnesses John of God's Surgical Procedure. OWN. 17 March 2013. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016 – via YouTube.
  28.  "Oprah's Next Chapter: John of God". Oprah.com. Archived from the original on 21 March 2013. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  29.  "John of God: Oprah Says Faith Healer's Surgeries Almost Made Her Faint (VIDEO)". The Huffington Post. 19 March 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  30.  "'Espero que a justiça seja feita', diz Oprah Winfrey sobre João de Deus", Folha Online (Portuguese), Folha de S.Paulo, 13 December 2018, retrieved 25 November 2024.
  31.  John of God "The Miracle Man" on YouTube
  32.  Casey, Susan (22 December 2010). "O Magazine: Meet John of God". CNN. Archived from the original on 24 December 2010. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  33.  "Video: 'John of God' a faith healer?". CNN. 23 December 2010. Archived from the original on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  34.  Blanford, Michael. "CNN and Another Blunder". randi.org. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  35.  Higgins, Ean (4 October 2014). "Critics show little faith in healing powers of Brazilian 'trickster'". The Australian. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  36.  Power, Julie (23 November 2014). "Controversial Brazilian faith healer John of God visits Sydney". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  37.  Usher, Michael (2015). "Reporter Interview with Michael Usher". 9jumpin.com.au. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  38.  "Rewind: John of God – 1998". 9jumpin. 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  39.  London, William M. (3 November 2014). "No Healing Miracles Found in 'John of God' Follow-Up Investigation". James Randi Educational Foundation. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  40.  "Famous Brazilian spiritual healer accused of sexual abuse | 60 Minutes Australia". 12 December 2018. Retrieved 25 November 2024 – via YouTube.
  41.  "Extended Interview with Dr. David Rosengren". 9Jumpin. 2015. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  42.  The Australian, cited in John of God
  43.  Elliott, Tim (4 October 2014). "John of God: Miracle worker or charlatan?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  44.  "Dr. Joe Schwarcz: "Healer" John of God". 28 February 2018. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021 – via YouTube.
  45.  "João sem Deus - A Queda de Abadiânia". Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  46.  Goes, Tony (14 October 2023). "Série 'João Sem Deus' causa impacto emocional ao dramatizar o escândalo de Abadiânia". Folha de S.Paulo (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  47.  "medicina-salva-o-curandeiro-joao-de-um-cancer" [Medicine saves the healer João de Deus from cancer]. translate.google.com. 2 July 2016 – via Google Translate.
  48.  Schwarcz, Joe (22 July 2016). "The Right Chemistry: Brazilian 'healer' John of God leads cancer patients by the nose". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  49.  "Médium João de Deus passa por cirurgia, mas mantém viagem aos EUA" [Medium João de Deus undergoes surgery, but keeps traveling to the USA]. translate.google.com (in Brazilian Portuguese). 3 September 2025.
  50.  Darlington, Shasta (11 December 2018). "Celebrity Healer in Brazil Is Accused of Sexually Abusing Followers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  51.  "Twelve Women Accuse Medium John of God of Sexual Abuse". Folha de S.Paulo. 9 December 2018. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  52.  "MP-GO recebe mais de 200 denúncias de abuso contra João de Deus, incluindo duas do exterior" [MP-GO receives more than 200 reports of abuse against João de Deus, including two from abroad]. G1 (in Brazilian Portuguese). 11 December 2018. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  53.  "João de Deus pode superar caso Abdelmassih, diz promotoria" [João de Deus can overtake Abdelmassih case, says prosecutor]. Terra (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  54.  "Paciente de João de Deus: "Fui abusada por 3 dias. Mandava fazer cara boa"" [Patient of João de Deus: "I was abused for 3 days. I told him to make a good face"]. universa.uol.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  55.  "João de Deus aparece para trabalhar, mas fica apenas 10 minutos" [João de Deus shows up for work, but stays only 10 minutes]. Agência Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). 12 December 2018. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  56.  "MP-Go pede a prisão de João de Deus" [MP-Go asks for the arrest of João de Deus]. G1 (in Brazilian Portuguese). 12 December 2018. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  57.  Mitchell, Molli (25 August 2021). "How Did João Teixeira de Faria Get the Nickname 'John of God' and Where Is He Now?". Newsweek. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  58.  Marshall, Euan (16 December 2018). "Brazilian faith healer accused of sexually assaulting 300 women turns himself in". The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  59.  "Brazil faith healer wanted by police as abuse cases mount". The Washington Post. AP. 14 December 2018. Archived from the original on 17 December 2018.
  60.  Nogueira, Felipe (2019). "The Not So Divine Acts of Medium 'John of God". Skeptical Inquirer. 43 (4): 11–13. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  61.  Biller, David. "Brazil spiritual healer sentenced to 19 years for four rapes". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 20 December 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  62.  "Where is João Teixeira de Faria Now?". thecinemaholic.com. 25 August 2021.
  63.  "Brazil Faith Healer Sentenced To 118 Years For Rape". Barron's. Agence France Presse. 16 September 2023. Retrieved 29 April 2024.

Skeptical analysis

Media coverage

===
NewsNational
Controversial Brazilian spiritual healer ‘John of God’ set to visit Sydney next month

By 60 Minutes
7:00am Oct 27, 2014

A controversial Brazilian spiritual healer is set to visit Sydney next month, as sceptics warn of the potential of being scammed by the costly prayer event.
Thousands from around the world flock to visit 72-year-old Joao de Deus – or “John of God” – in the hopes of having their illnesses and ailments cured.
Joao Faria performs what he calls “spiritual surgery” on those who come to him; despite having no medical training, he scrapes eyes and throats with scalpels and scissors, claiming to be treating tumours and the root of his patients’ pain.
Mr Faria’s profile exploded after he was featured on Oprah Winfrey’s show in November, 2010.
He is running a three-day prayer event at Sydney Showground at Olympic Park in late November, with sessions costing $295 for a single performance or $795 for three sessions.
On his website, Mr Faria boasts of being “considered by many as the greatest spiritual healer of our time”.
“Mr. Faria is quick to point out he does not heal anyone and that any healing is the work of God and the benevolent spirits that accompany him on his mission,” the site claims.
Young Aussie actor 'caught smoking heroin' 
Chef who dismembered, boiled transgender wife told investigating electrician smell was 'pig's broth' 
Filipino maid living in closet 'rescued' after emotional video plea 
Jeremy Clarkson breaks silence about BBC sacking 
“The fact remains, however, that thousands of people credit him and his work as the reason why they overcame illnesses considered incurable by modern medical standards.”
In a feature on 60 Minutes, Mr Faria briefly spoke with reporter Michael Usher before his translator and advisers cut the interview short as the interview turned to the lucrative business the healer has developed.
Usher and his crew had been invited to Mr Faria’s compound – and what they saw alarmed them greatly.
“John of God is not a doctor, he’s not a trained surgeon,” Usher said.
“Yet, he’s presented with a tray of instruments, scalpels and all sorts of scissors.
“None of it is done with an anaesthetic and you don’t even know if the equipment he is using is sterile at all.”
An Australian doctor who travelled with the 60 Minutes crew said he was horrified by the practices.
“There’s this urge that you need to get up and take that scalpel from his hand and say, ‘this is criminal, this is wrong’,” he said.
“[The] modern medical world could not condone this behaviour in any way whatsoever.”
Usher urged Australians considering attending Mr Faria’s event to weigh up the potential benefits.
“I can understand people’s faith, I can understand how powerful hope is,” he said.
“What I cannot tolerate is someone like John Faria taking advantage of people who only have hope left.
“I would say, personally, do not go and see him.
“It will be a waste of money. You will walk out of there hundreds of dollars out of pocket and be none the better for it.”
A spokesman for NSW Fair Trading said they will be attending and closely monitoring the event for any breaches to its code.
===

Special Report
The Not So Divine Acts of Medium ‘John of God’
Felipe Nogueira
From: Volume 43, No. 4
July / August 2019

John of God (João de Deus, real name João Teixeira de Faria) is a well-known Brazilian medium who claims to have healed several people through his spiritual surgeries. According to one John of God website, he is “arguably the most powerful unconscious medium alive today and possibly the best-known healer of the past 2000 years.”

John of God’s healing center is located in Abadiânia, a small town in Brazil’s central-west region that has a population of about 20,000. Opened in the 1970s, the healing center is named Casa Dom Inácio de Loyola. It is visited by about 2,000 people each week, including international travelers seeking John of God’s alleged healing skills. Part of his popularity might be explained by the fact that Brazil is the country where Spiritism has the largest number of followers. It was Chico Xavier, one of the most important Spiritism leaders in Brazil, who directed John of God to create his now-famous healing center.1

Several videos on YouTube show John of God performing spiritual (or “psychic”) surgeries in his healing center. He claims the surgeries are performed when he is channeling the spirits or entities of past doctors and saints. John of God’s repertoire of surgeries does not seem to vary much, from doing an incision with a scalpel in the abdominal skin to inserting forceps up the nose to superficially scraping the eye with a knife. Most people, if not all, wear white clothes. The surgeries are free of charge, as is attending the healing center. However, John of God also prescribes an herbal medicine that is only sold in his healing center’s pharmacy. Due to a high number of visitors, the tourism business in the city has largely expanded.

In 1991, TV Globo, Brazil’s largest TV broadcaster, made a TV show about Brazil’s spiritual surgeons, John of God being among them. A couple of his “patients” were interviewed about possible surgery effects. Not everyone reported improvements, and that’s the case of women with eye problems given the eye scraping surgery. But even in the case of claimed benefits, it is difficult to confirm the person was really cured. For instance, a woman claimed that she was able to move one of her paralyzed arms, while the other arm continued to be “semi-paralyzed.”Medium John of God performs so-called “psychic surgery” while supposedly channeling the spirits of past doctors and saints.

In 2005, James Randi was asked to give his opinion for an ABC-TV show about John of God. After that, Randi wrote a comprehensive analysis of John of God’s procedures (Randi 2014). Randi explains that the surgery involving the forceps up the nose is actually an old trick from India and first done in America in 1926. It is known as the “Blockhead trick,” and, according to Randi, it’s performed today by performers in carnivals and sideshows around the world. Moreover, Randi stated that his famous million-dollar prize would be given if someone could scrape the eye’s cornea with a knife with no anesthesia without producing a flinch in the person.



Joe Nickell published a Skeptical Inquirer article in 2007 about his attendance at one of John of God’s events in Atlanta. Nickell was directly instructed to wear white clothes because “it helps frequency.” Nickell was spot-on when he wrote: “They are pseudosurgeries that have no objective medical benefit other than the well-known placebo effect.” Interestingly, he also mentioned that emotions—such as those of the pilgrims at the John of God healing center—might trigger endorphin release, which could help reduce pain sensitivity (Nickell 2007).

In 2016, VEJA magazine (Lopes and Nogueira 2016) reported that a year earlier, feeling abdominal pain, John of God was given an endoscopy that revealed an aggressive stomach cancer. Instead of spiritual surgery, John of God chose real, proven medical surgery that took ten hours to remove the six-centimeter tumor. He also used chemotherapy for five months. When asked why he chose science rather than another faith healer like himself, John of God replied, “Does the barber cut his own hair?”

John of God became internationally famous when an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show was devoted to him in 2010. Oprah Winfrey herself traveled to Abadiânia in 2012 to interview him and attend one of his healing sessions; she later said, “What I just witnessed almost made me pass out.”

She was not the only celebrity to pay him a visit. The long list includes Shirley MacLaine in 1991, Naomi Campbell in 2015, Paul Simon in 2017, and Ronaldo (the Brazilian soccer star) in 2018. Two former Brazilian presidents were “treated” by him: President Lula, after being diagnosed with larynx cancer, was briefly visited by John of God and had a spiritual surgery, and President Dilma Rousseff also had several surgery sessions in 2008.

But the image of a “saint” healer in a person who brings God in his own name now has been tainted. On Friday, December 7, 2018, Brazilian journalist Pedro Bial, for his talk show Conversa com Bial, interviewed ten women claiming to have been sexually abused by John of God.2

One woman, who did not want to be identified, went to Abadiânia in 2013 after going through a divorce. In the open session, the claimed entity in John of God told her to meet the medium in his private room after the session. In it, John told her he would be behind her to perform an “energy alignment.” Then John told her to put her hands on his penis, as that was the cleansing and she needed his energy that comes only that way. Another victim, a Dutch choreographer named Zahira Mous, came forward with a similar abuse report and confessed she did not go to the police because she was afraid that evil spirits would be sent and her life would become miserable. Furthermore, even though she suffered, Mous thought for a while that he was healing many people. Mous came forward in April 2018 when she posted on Facebook what happened to her at one of John of God’s sessions.
P
Portion of the abuse report by Dutch choreographer Zahira Mous.



The show also included Amy Biank, a tourist guide who had previously worked in the healing center. Biank used to bring many pilgrims to the Casa. One day she was waiting outside John’s private room. Biank heard a yell for help and entered the room, where she witnessed John of God with his pants down and a woman on her knees who was being forced to perform oral sex on him. Biank explained that she was instructed to sit on the couch and shut her eyes. She did so, later recognizing that at the time she was indoctrinated to listen to John of God and to think that the healing center was holy. After a second yell, Biank opened her eyes, which stopped John of God, who said the girl has passed a “test” and was “special.” To stop this from happening with more women, Biank talked to the Casa’s workers. One of them told Biank she cleaned a little girl’s mouth of supposed “ectoplasm,” which in fact was John’s semen.

In the following days, five more cases were announced in the media. To investigate the reports against John of God, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Goias state organized a task force consisting of five attorneys and two psychologists. In only a day and a half, the task force received seventy-eight complaints. The number of complaints has since grown dramatically to 330 on December 13 and 600 on December 16.

It got worse. In a shocking cover story headlined “My Father Is a Monster,” VEJA magazine interviewed Dalva Teixeira, one of John of God’s daughters. She claimed to have been abused and raped between the ages of ten and fourteen. At age fourteen, she got pregnant by one of the workers at John of God’s center. After discovering the pregnancy, John beat her so badly that she lost the baby and still carries scars from the attack. Teixeira, according to some media reports, sued her father, requesting a compensation of fifty million reais (around $13 million).

One week after the first accusations were broadcast by Bial’s show, the Public Prosecutors’ Office requested the arrest of John of God, after he withdrew thirty-five million reais from several bank accounts. He was considered a fugitive for almost a day, surrendering himself to the police on December 16. During investigations at John of God’s residences, the police found six firearms, precious stones, and more than 1.5 million reais in cash, leading to an investigation for money laundering.

The revelations have shocked many Brazilians, who considered John of God a sacred healer and holy man. But in fact this was not the first time he was accused of a crime. As Nickell noted, John of God had been charged and jailed briefly due to the illegal practice of medicine. Moreover, in 1980, John of God was accused of homicide but was not charged due to lack of evidence. This homicide and other criminal accusations of John’s past were brought to light in a new update report on his case by TV Globo in March 24. For instance, one of his victims claimed that in 1973 John of God raped and attempted to murder her with three gunshots. A CT scan confirmed the woman’s claim that one of the bullets was still inside her neck. On March 22, John of God was transferred from the prison to a hospital, where he has been since. (As of May 20, he is only allowed to stay in the hospital until May 31.)

This horrible situation brings up important questions from the skeptical movement. For instance: Where were other spiritual mediums? Why couldn’t (or didn’t) they stop it? Remember that Chico Xavier3 allegedly channeled messages regarding John of God’s mission. But during all those years of abuse no medium in the world channeled any spirit that could warn or say something about John of God? Furthermore, skeptics such as Randi and Nickell have argued that John of God was no more than a charlatan. This situation also illustrates what many skeptics have pointed out: people of faith have a low bar to believe something is true. We have to continue to expose charlatans such as John of God and keep asking for good evidence, even if it offends some believers. What is really offensive is not asking for evidence; it is taking advantage of people in what might be the most desperate moments of their lives and abusing them in the name of their faith.



Acknowledgments

I thank Bruno Oliveira for his comments and suggestions for this article. I also thank Ricardo Costa and Daniel Fleischman for countless reviews and discussions in previous articles.



NotesJohn of God’s official website says the Casa was opened by him in 1976 in Abadiânia. The website, however, also says that in 1978 spirits sent a message to John through his friend Chico Xavier, designating the town of Abadiânia to host the center. The website confusion continues, stating that Chico Xavier channeled a new message in 1993, which confirmed that Abadiânia was the city for John’s mission. In that year, a family donated the land where today the healing center is located. Was the center already opened for several years or not?
Journalist Pedro Bial interviewed ten women, but due to TV time constraints only four appeared on his talk show.
Chico Xavier and his claimed psychographic skills have been analyzed previously and concluded to be a fake by Kentaro Mori (Mori 2010).



ReferencesLopes, Adriana Dias, and Egberto Nogueira. 2016. Como o médium João de Deus venceu o câncer. Veja. Available online at https://veja.abril.com.br/saude/como-o-medium-joao-de-deus-venceu-o-cancer/.
Mori, Kentaro. 2010. Spiritualism in Brazil: Alive and kicking. Available online at https://skepticalinquirer.org/blog/spiritualism_in_brazil_alive_and_kicking.
Nickell, Joe. 2007. ‘John of God’: Healings by entities? Skeptical Inquirer 31(5) (September/October). Available online at https://skepticalinquirer.org/2007/09/john-of-god-healings-by-entities.
Randi, James. 2014. From the Archives: Randi’s inside scoop into ABC News’ ‘John of God’ investigation (2005). James Randi Educational Foundation. Available online at https://web.randi.org/home/from-the-archives-randis-inside-scoop-into-abc-news-john-of-god-investigation-2005.


Felipe Nogueira



Felipe Nogueira received his PhD in medical science from Rio Janeiro State University (UERJ). He has a master’s degree in computer science. As a science writer, Nogueira was a regular columnist for Skeptical Briefs—the newsletter of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He has also made contributions to Skeptic magazine. His articles can be found at https://skepticalinquirer.org/authors/felipe-nogueira/ and http://skepticismandscience.blogspot.com/.





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