João de Deus (medium)
Encyclopedia
João Teixeira de Faria known also as João de Deus ("John of God"), is a self-described medium and "psychic surgeon
" from Brazil
. He is based in Abadiânia
, a small town in the state of Goiás
, southwest of Brasília
.
(now Cachoeira de Goiás
http://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/dtbs/goias/cachoeiradegoias.pdf). There are no records of his early life, although his associates have made a variety of contradictory claims. De Faria himself is unable to provide precise details. His most widely known biography is The Miracle Man, written by Robert Pellegrino-Estrich, who runs tours to Abadiânia
and cannot be considered an unbiased source.
De Faria has no medical training and describes himself as a "simple farmer." He completed only two years of education and spent many years travelling from village to village in the states of Goias and Minas Gerais
.
told him he should go to the small Goiás town of Abadiânia to fulfill his healing mission. Around 1978, when João first claimed to have performed healings there, he just sat outdoors in a chair near the main road where people soon began to arrive seeking cures for their various illnesses and conditions. Gradually the numbers increased to thousands per day and he developed his centre, Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola.
Millions of people have consulted with de Faria since 1965. Up to 3,000 people per day stand and wait in line to see him individually. De Faria claims to encourage research into his healing abilities in the hope that medical science can make use of his success in the treatment of humankind. The scientific consensus rejects his claims as pseudoscience and probably deliberate fraud.
When called for a "surgical operation" by de Faria, patients are offered the choice of "visible" or "invisible" operations. If they select an "invisible" operation (or are younger than 18 or older than 45) they are directed to sit in a room and meditate. De Faria claims to perform "Surgeries" on a "surrogate patient" when the actual patient is unable to make the trip. The concept of carrying out procedures on a "surrogate patient" is rejected by the medical community as quackery
.
De Faria tells people not to stop taking their medicine and says not everyone he serves will be cured, but a concoction of passiflora (passionfruit) herbs is always prescribed. Herbs prescribed by de Faria cost around 30 Brazilian Reais
per container (around $19 USD/container).
(ABC) ran a news report about de Faria on Primetime live
. The program featured five people with various medical conditions, including chronic fatigue syndrome
, Lou Gehrig's disease and an inoperable brain tumor. Each patient saw de Faria and ABC claimed that in three of the cases there had been an improvement.
ABC's update on the five subjects, while not mentioning one of the subjects, indicated that two are making either slow progress or none at all, one is worse, and one is much better. According to other sources, Matthew Ireland is now free of his brain tumor, which is physiologically possible and one has since died.
ABC also reported that a local district attorney claims to have received death threats from De Faria after investigating his claims.
While Casey acknowledges that the whole experience sounds unusual, she claimed that she's "not a woo-woo person," and that de Faria helped her find healing. Casey claimed that she was a neutral observer.The show also advertised that they would interview skeptics, but no scientific experts were interviewed on the show, such as an oncologist or other medical or scientific expert. Dr. Jeff Rediger, a psychiatrist from Boston was provided as the token skeptic but he is not a surgeon. No scientific analysis was provided in the show nor in the article by Dr. Rediger nor anyone else. The procedures involving the insertion of scissors into the nasal cavity was clearly shown. On the show and in Casey's article, no rational explanation is provided as to why an untrained and medically unlicensed individual scraping a cornea or inserting foreign objects into the nose would be advisable. There is no medical or scientific reasoning for these procedures.
's AC360, Dr Sanjay Gupta interviewed two of the "researchers" Oprah had sent to meet de Faria. The credulous manner in which the claims made by de Faria were presented and the overall positive tone of the segment has led to criticism from a variety of sources.
has discussed de Faria on several occasions. On Episode 281 Steven Novella stated unequivocally that de Faria is at least to some extent consciously committing fraud. Novella pointed out that it is impossible to palm chicken parts and remove them from a simulated or real incision without being aware of doing so. Novella was also critical of Winfrey's promotion of de Faria, accusing her of irresponsibility and lack of diligence in her comments on de Faria.
Criticism (Concludes there is no medical effect.) ("strongly urges individuals who are ill not to seek treatment by psychic surgeon")
Media
Psychic surgery
Psychic surgery is a procedure typically involving the supposed creation of an incision using only the bare hands, the supposed removal of pathological matter, and the seemingly spontaneous healing of the incision....
" from Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. He is based in Abadiânia
Abadiânia
Abadiânia is a small town and municipality in the state of Goiás, Brazil. It is home to a famous Brazilian medium and "psychic surgeon" — João de Deus.-Location:Abadiânia is part of the Entorno de Brasília statistical micro-region...
, a small town in the state of Goiás
Goiás
Goiás is a state of Brazil, located in the central part of the country. The name Goiás comes from the name of an indigenous community...
, southwest of Brasília
Brasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...
.
Early life
João Teixeira de Faria was born in Cachoeira da Fumaça, GoiásGoiás
Goiás is a state of Brazil, located in the central part of the country. The name Goiás comes from the name of an indigenous community...
(now Cachoeira de Goiás
Cachoeira de Goiás
Cachoeira de Goiás is a small town and municipality in eastern Goiás state, Brazil.-Location:*Distance to the state capital: 172 km.*Distance to regional center : 77 km....
http://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/dtbs/goias/cachoeiradegoias.pdf). There are no records of his early life, although his associates have made a variety of contradictory claims. De Faria himself is unable to provide precise details. His most widely known biography is The Miracle Man, written by Robert Pellegrino-Estrich, who runs tours to Abadiânia
Abadiânia
Abadiânia is a small town and municipality in the state of Goiás, Brazil. It is home to a famous Brazilian medium and "psychic surgeon" — João de Deus.-Location:Abadiânia is part of the Entorno de Brasília statistical micro-region...
and cannot be considered an unbiased source.
De Faria has no medical training and describes himself as a "simple farmer." He completed only two years of education and spent many years travelling from village to village in the states of Goias and Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the...
.
Abadiânia
De Faria claims he was told by his spirit guides that he must expand his work to reach more people. De Faria claims that an alleged spiritist medium, Chico XavierChico Xavier
Chico Xavier, born Francisco de Paula Cândido was a popular medium in Brazil's spiritism movement who wrote 413 books, ostensibly using a process known as "psychography"....
told him he should go to the small Goiás town of Abadiânia to fulfill his healing mission. Around 1978, when João first claimed to have performed healings there, he just sat outdoors in a chair near the main road where people soon began to arrive seeking cures for their various illnesses and conditions. Gradually the numbers increased to thousands per day and he developed his centre, Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola.
Claims of "Faith healing" powers
De Faria claims to act as a vehicle for God's healing. "I do not cure anybody. God heals, and in his infinite goodness permits the Entities to heal and console my brothers. I am merely an instrument in God's divine hands".Millions of people have consulted with de Faria since 1965. Up to 3,000 people per day stand and wait in line to see him individually. De Faria claims to encourage research into his healing abilities in the hope that medical science can make use of his success in the treatment of humankind. The scientific consensus rejects his claims as pseudoscience and probably deliberate fraud.
When called for a "surgical operation" by de Faria, patients are offered the choice of "visible" or "invisible" operations. If they select an "invisible" operation (or are younger than 18 or older than 45) they are directed to sit in a room and meditate. De Faria claims to perform "Surgeries" on a "surrogate patient" when the actual patient is unable to make the trip. The concept of carrying out procedures on a "surrogate patient" is rejected by the medical community as quackery
Quackery
Quackery is a derogatory term used to describe the promotion of unproven or fraudulent medical practices. Random House Dictionary describes a "quack" as a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, or...
.
De Faria tells people not to stop taking their medicine and says not everyone he serves will be cured, but a concoction of passiflora (passionfruit) herbs is always prescribed. Herbs prescribed by de Faria cost around 30 Brazilian Reais
Brazilian real
The real is the present-day currency of Brazil. Its sign is R$ and its ISO code is BRL. It is subdivided into 100 centavos ....
per container (around $19 USD/container).
ABC news report
On July 14, 2005 the American Broadcasting CompanyAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
(ABC) ran a news report about de Faria on Primetime live
Primetime (TV series)
Primetime is an American news magazine show which debuted on ABC in 1989 with co-hosts Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer and originally had the title Primetime Live.-Early history:...
. The program featured five people with various medical conditions, including chronic fatigue syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome is the most common name used to designate a significantly debilitating medical disorder or group of disorders generally defined by persistent fatigue accompanied by other specific symptoms for a minimum of six months, not due to ongoing exertion, not substantially...
, Lou Gehrig's disease and an inoperable brain tumor. Each patient saw de Faria and ABC claimed that in three of the cases there had been an improvement.
ABC's update on the five subjects, while not mentioning one of the subjects, indicated that two are making either slow progress or none at all, one is worse, and one is much better. According to other sources, Matthew Ireland is now free of his brain tumor, which is physiologically possible and one has since died.
ABC also reported that a local district attorney claims to have received death threats from De Faria after investigating his claims.
The Oprah Show
On November 17, 2010, Susan Casey wrote in O Magazine about her trip to see de Faria in Brazil and was subsequently covered on the Oprah Winfrey Show. The article was entitled "Leap of Faith: Meet John of God" while 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 de 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 acknowledges that the whole experience sounds unusual, she claimed that she's "not a woo-woo person," and that de Faria helped her find healing. Casey claimed that she was a neutral observer.The show also advertised that they would interview skeptics, but no scientific experts were interviewed on the show, such as an oncologist or other medical or scientific expert. Dr. Jeff Rediger, a psychiatrist from Boston was provided as the token skeptic but he is not a surgeon. No scientific analysis was provided in the show nor in the article by Dr. Rediger nor anyone else. The procedures involving the insertion of scissors into the nasal cavity was clearly shown. On the show and in Casey's article, no rational explanation is provided as to why an untrained and medically unlicensed individual scraping a cornea or inserting foreign objects into the nose would be advisable. There is no medical or scientific reasoning for these procedures.
CNN coverage
On the December 22, 2010 episode of CNNCNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's AC360, Dr Sanjay Gupta interviewed two of the "researchers" Oprah had sent to meet de Faria. The credulous manner in which the claims made by de Faria were presented and the overall positive tone of the segment has led to criticism from a variety of sources.
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
The Skeptics' Guide to the UniverseThe Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is a weekly, 80 minute podcast hosted by Steven Novella, MD, and a panel of "skeptical rogues". It is the official podcast of the New England Skeptical Society, and is produced in conjunction with the James Randi Educational Foundation...
has discussed de Faria on several occasions. On Episode 281 Steven Novella stated unequivocally that de Faria is at least to some extent consciously committing fraud. Novella pointed out that it is impossible to palm chicken parts and remove them from a simulated or real incision without being aware of doing so. Novella was also critical of Winfrey's promotion of de Faria, accusing her of irresponsibility and lack of diligence in her comments on de Faria.
External links
Criticism (Concludes there is no medical effect.) ("strongly urges individuals who are ill not to seek treatment by psychic surgeon")
- Stop John of God
- Is John of God a Fraud?
- Claims of Miraculous Healing: True or False?
- Swift-Online Newsletter of the James Randi Educational Foundation
- For shame! Oprah Winfrey shills for faith healer John of God
- Oprah Show on John of God: OMG!
- John of God: Why Bogus Therapies Seem to Work.
- Why Bogus Therapies Seem to Work
- Faith Healer? Fraud!
Media
- BBC Documentary
- Nearer My God To Thee a film by independent filmmaker Marc IsraelMarc IsraelMarc Israel is a filmmaker and musician. He started his career as a traveling "one-man band", but later changed his focus to making documentaries and films about his life.-Life and Work:Marc Israel was born and raised in Cinnaminson, New Jersey...
documenting his encounters with John of God. - "John of God" a Guardian Films documentary by Irish director Fergus Tighe. http://www.johnofgoddvd.com
- Do You Believe in Miracles? Video
- Leap of Faith: Meet John of God
- The Amazing Cures of Brazilian Miracle Man
- Man on the Moon (Film)