João Teixeira de Faria, or João de Deus, as he is affectionately called in Brazil, is undoubtedly one of the most gifted and powerful spiritual healing mediums working in the world today. In the 48 years since he started his mission, it is estimated that he has healed hundreds of thousands of people. Seemingly, no disease is outside of his purview, not even those that conventional medical science holds to be incurable. He has healed people with aids, cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, chronic arthritis, Parkinson’s and so on. His work has been scientifically documented by a number of medical teams from universities in different countries. These studies have produced fully documented cases that report miraculous healing from aids, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other so-called terminal diseases.1

Although medical science cannot as yet explain what is happening, there is no drought of researchers that come on a regular basis to observe the mysterious operations that are performed at the Casa de Dom Inácio. Why is it that no infections occur during the operations, despite the presence of hundreds of other sick people? And why is there so little blood when he is performing surgery apparently even without anaesthesia, on people that remain fully conscious during the procedure?

Watching these operations over time, one is forced to adopt a radically different paradigm of healing; one that not only encompasses the body, but also the soul. The healing modality employed at the Casa is actually one that is relatively widely adopted in Brazil. João is one of the many spirit mediums that dispense healing in many spiritist centers all over Brazil.

Although the Casa is a non-religious, non-denominational organization and welcomes people from all beliefs, the guiding philosophy of the Casa is spiritism à la Allan Kardec. Within spiritism, spiritual healing is understood to be accomplished by advanced souls who continue their good works even on the other side of death. Their healing is the result of a soul collaboration on the part of the entities and the patient, with the entities lending themselves as vehicles for the grace of God to assist the healing soul to return to God and the path designated for this lifetime.

João’s Healing Mission

João started his healing mission at the early age of sixteen. An unruly youth, he drifted from job to job, barely hanging on and frequently expelled because of his notoriously bad temper. One day, while trying his hand at becoming a tailor, he was characteristically thrown out by the master tailor at noon after having started the job at seven that morning. Exhausted and hungry, he stopped at a stream where he met a beautiful woman who engaged him in conversation. Only later did he realize this woman was Santa Rita de Cassia, the patron saint of Brazil.

At the end of this conversation, he was told to go to the Redemptor Spiritual Center in Camp Grande where people would be waiting for him. He went and upon arrival was promptly welcomed into the center, as she had predicted. He then fainted and upon waking up was told by the congregation that the spirit of King Solomon had entered him and he had healed many people. He protested saying that his fainting was surely due to his hunger and exhaustion, whereupon the elder of the center took him to his home and fed him. Despite his protestations, the many witnesses to the event eventually managed to persuade João that it was indeed him who had incorporated King Solomon and healed the people. Thus, his mission as a healing medium started.