João Teixeira de Faria

João Teixeira de Faria (born 24 June 1942), known also as João de Deus (John of God), is a Brazilian convicted rapist, self-proclaimed medium, and self-proclaimed psychic surgeon.

He was based in Abadiânia, where he ran a spiritual healing center called the Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola.

He received media coverage on CNN, ABC News, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

James Randi and Joe Nickell exposed his healing procedures as nothing more than carnival tricks, and there is no evidence that the benefits reported by patients are anything more than placebo effects.

João Teixeira de Faria was born in Cachoeira de Goiás on 24 June 1942.

He has no medical training and describes himself as a "simple farmer".

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.

Faria says 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 João 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.

The Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola has since been visited by millions of people seeking healing.

He also owns a nearby cattle ranch, which covers about 1,000 acres and is valued at over 2 million reais.

Much of his income comes from selling passionflower preparations, the single herb prescribed by Faria to cure a variety of ailments.

The company which bears João Teixeira Faria's initials, JTF Ltda., markets the drug and is registered in the name of his wife, Ana Keyla Teixeira, and his driver and employee Abadio da Cruz.

Faria regularly prescribes meditation and walks to a nearby waterfall as part of treatment.

The Casa also sells herbs, blessed items and artefacts such as magic triangles.

On 14 July 2005, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) ran a news report about Faria on Primetime Live.

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, while not mentioning subject 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.

It was estimated by 60 Minutes Australia in 2014 that these sales earn Faria over $10 million per year.

When called for a spiritual surgery by 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 52) they are directed to sit in a room and meditate.

Faria says that spiritual physicians can perform surgery on the actual patient via a surrogate when the actual patient is unable to make the trip.

A very small percentage of people choose a visible operation where Faria operates without traditional anesthetic.

Instead he says he uses "energized" mineral water and the spiritual energies present, the latter of which are provided by groups of volunteers who meditate in a separate room called the 'current room'.

These practices, such as inserting scissors or forceps deep into a nose and scraping an eye without an anesthetic or antiseptics, have been scrutinised by medical authorities and skeptical investigators such as James Randi, who has called for Faria to stop victimizing people with stunts and trickery.

Faria tells people not to stop taking their medicine and says not everyone he serves will be cured.

Often the treatment includes capsules containing pure passion flower that he says carry special blessed spiritual energy to support the individual's healing process.

Faria has undergone trials and scrutiny of his work.

He has been arrested several times for practicing medicine without a licence and has been jailed once.

Faria has travelled to other countries to perform healing ceremonies called Live Events.

Gail Thackray, Casa Medium, said in her book Spiritual Journeys: Visiting John of God that the main entities that incorporate in Brazil are the same ones at Live Events, along with thousands of other entities doing healing work.

Because of the medical laws around the world, blessed water is prescribed instead of herbs.

It is available for about $3 a bottle and everyone who receives a spiritual intervention must drink this blessed water.

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.

Currently, the sentences add up to 489 years and 4 months in prison.