The reason for John of God being the most significant healer alive today could be that he humbly puts his work in God’s hands. Since the teenager Joao, more than 50 years ago, discovered his medial talent, he has devoted his life to spiritual healing. He has never allowed his ego, his personality, to distract him from this divine mission, even when at the beginning – during the dictatorship in Brazil – his healing work was frequently met with rejection and he was persecuted, often beaten up or thrown into prison; his only crime being that he healed people. At the same rate as the number of cures increased, the number of opponents, who were envious of his success or were following other vested interests also grew. Joao, who was not a doctor, was again and again denounced for practising medical treatments and reported to the police. But parallel to this, the number of people who were his admirers and patrons, some of them very influential, was also rising. Therefore, although his important healing mission was often threatened, it was never really in jeopardy. Precisely because among the numerous people who had been healed were many members of the legal profession, including some top county and state judges, he was able to escape the fate of his well-known predecessor Ze Arigo.

In the nineteen fifties, this healer, through whom the spirit Dr. Fritz also performed many bloody operations, was sentenced to prison for more than one year, even though his healing methods were very successful. In spite of a wave of sympathy in the Brazilian population, he actually had to begin serving this sentence. After a few months, however, the country’s president at that time, President Kubitschek, pardoned him, as his wife owed her life to the healer. John of God, whose work directly followed that of Ze Arigo’s, has in more than half a century treated eight million people, a sheer incredible number. The gratitude and appreciation which has grown out of this creates a powerful protective energy field which makes the continuation of his work possible. The one and only radical change in his work as a healer happened over 30 years ago: though the guidance of the great healer, and Joao’s patron, Chico Xavier, he settled in Abadiania in Central Brazil where he founded the Casa Dom Inacio de Loyola. Up until this time he had spent years of relentless travelling through the whole of Brazil. Then and today, Joao emphasises again and again that it is not himself who heals but God; he is only a channel for divine healing powers. His inner determination to serve and heal gives him the strength needed to, time and time again, go into a trance and to make his body available to the spiritual entities who work through him.

 

It is not Joao himself who treats and heals. He had to leave school very early, practically illiterate, in order to support his poor family. Therefore he has no knowledge of medicine or anatomy. It is the entities, spirits of dead personalities, who in their earthly lifetime were doctors, surgeons, healers, philosophers or theologians. Among these are Ignazius from Loyola, St. Francis of Assisi, King Salomon, Bezerra de Menezes, Dr. Fritz, Dr. Osvaldo Cruz, Dr. Augusto de Almeida, Dr. Jose Valdevino. They, or one of the other 36 entities, work through John of God when he is in a trance, whereby only one entity at a time is active; one entity can do the healing work in the morning, another in the afternoon.

There is no doubt that possibilities are available to the entities for which, up to now, science has no explanation. The spiritual operations and the physical surgery, which for legal reasons is only performed in Brazil, are clear evidence that higher powers are at work. Further evidence is the lack of pain, although no anaesthetics were used; or, although no antiseptic measures were applied, not a single case of infection has occurred as an aftermath to the infinite number of physical operations – to all this thousands of doctors have testified.

It goes without saying that these operations would not have been possible without the participation, in trance, of the powerful medium Joao. The spirits use the body, the hands, the voice of the healer to manifest their helping and healing work. For this to happen, he has to completely forego his will, his identity and his personality during the time he is in a trance to enable the respective entity to take possession of him. On the other hand, Joao’s success in healing would not be conceivable without the powers of the spiritual world, powers which are far superior to ours. It is this ‚spiritual medicine’, whose mysterious but very real effect science has as yet been unable to grasp, which time and time again heals people who have been declared incurable by traditional medicine.

 

Joao’s human splendour resides in his deep devotion to his God-given mission. With inexhaustible strength and endurance he has devoted his life to healing and has adapted his private life to fit in with this enormous task, something which wasn’t always easy. In the years in which he travelled from village to village treating and healing people in all regions of Brazil, his private life took an also-ran second place; planning his life apart from his healing mission was hardly possible. This only changed when he settled in Abadiania and founded his healing centre.
Meanwhile, Joao can separate his healing work from his private life, as he once explained in an interview in the Brazilian Sunday newspaper Revista. When a reporter asked him: ‚How do you manage to divide your time between the Casa Dom Inacio de Loyola, your Fazendas and your family?’ the medium Joao replied: ‚That’s easy. One just has to learn to diversify to be able to take care of everything. Three days in the week are reserved for my mission (in the Casa), the other four days belong to my work and my family. You have to be able to keep these apart and not mingle them.’

However, those who are well acquainted to Joao and his life know that even in the time reserved for his private life he takes upon himself other people’s worries and hardships, not only those of his very large family which comprises 9 children and many grandchildren. Continually people come to him seeking help and advice. Also his healing work is not limited to the days he spends at Casa de Dom Inacio in Abadiania. Frequently he leaves the healing centre on Friday evenings and flies to the Casa in the south or to another region of Brazil where he spends his weekend treating more than thousands of people. In addition, a few very strenuous healing trips abroad where the time difference and change in climate add to the stress.

Such a life, full of responsibility and stress, also raises the question about Joao’s own health. What protection, what help can he be given? When asked by the reporter from Revista who consulted Joao when he needed to be cured of an ailment, Joao’s comment was: ‚First God and then all of you. You are responsible for the Casa. I believe that in an hour of need, when I’m in a difficult situation, I’ll knock on your door and you will be there to help me.’

 

Fame and admiration have not changed Joao’s life – he is still the humble, loving person he has always been, staunch and untiring in his mission of healing. Many awards and letters of thanks can be found in the Casa – expressions of the outstanding significance of his work. A certificate from the Dalai Lama expressing thanks hangs decoratively on the wall in the Casa next to one from the second to last Peruvian President, who himself and whose son were cured by Joao.

In the last 52 years Joao has treated millions of people from all over the world, from practically every religion and culture on Earth – people who have come to him in search of healing. Among them were ‚normal’ people from all social classes, from all professions: Members of Parliament, government officials, even presidents, military personnel in high positions, judges, CEOs, entrepreneurs and freelancers, solicitors and doctors. Other professions such as scientists and professors, priests, bishops, nuns and dignitaries from all religions are represented and so are the socialites and celebrities from the world of sport, music and film – such as the actresses Shirley McLaine and Janet Leigh. John of God dedicates himself to all of them, whether rich or poor, famous or unknown, with the same care and devotion.

There are a vast number of books about his life and work, which are being translated into more and more languages. Numerous reports and documentaries have appeared in the print press, and on the radio and TV channels on every continent. In the German-speaking countries the Austrian film with the title John of God – Self-Healing in Six Steps, directed by the documentary film maker Clemens Kuby (who also directed ‘En route to the next Dimension’) was followed by an Austrian film entitled ‘Healing’. This film is an aesthetic masterpiece on the Casa de Dom Inacio und medium Joao’s touching healing work, and was awarded two prizes at a film festival in Salzburg. The film is not just a portrayal of the many people who have been healed; scientists and doctors have also been interviewed. Currently the prestigious Brazilian cineaste Bruno Barreto is planning to make a film about Joao’s life. A film contract with the American company 20th Century Fox was not signed because as a requirement Joao was expected to make himself available for 2 hours every day for nearly a whole year.