João Teixeira de Faria (born June 24, 1942), 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.
Contents |
João Teixeira de Faria was born in Cachoeira da Fumaça, Goiás (now Cachoeira de Goiás [2]). 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.[1] 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.[2]
De Faria has no medical training and describes himself as a "simple farmer."[3] He completed only two years of education and spent many years travelling from village to village in the states of Goias and Minas Gerais.
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 Xavier 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.[4]
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.[5] 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). [6]
On July 14, 2005 the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) ran a news report about de Faria on Primetime live.[7] 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,[7] 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[8] and one has since died.[9]
ABC also reported that a local district attorney claims to have received death threats from De Faria after investigating his claims.[10]
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 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.[11]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.[12] 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.[13]
On the December 22, 2010 episode of CNN's AC360, Dr Sanjay Gupta interviewed two of the "researchers" Oprah had sent to meet de Faria.[14][15][16] 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.[17][18]
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe 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.[19] 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
Media