By Anna Olson
It wasn’t my idea to go to the John
of God event in Toronto, the middle of March of 2013. The push to go started
when I was having a Craniosacral Therapy session with Tanis, my therapist for
four years. I have a spirit guide who often appears to add her energy and to
give messages for me. This time, she told Tanis to tell me about John of God.
When I got home, I looked him up on
the Internet and found that the 68-year-old Brazilian healer (spirit entities
work through him) was going to be in Toronto, March 15 to 17. Too bad, I thought. I can’t go because I’ll be speaking at a conference that weekend.
Then I looked up the conference
website and found the speaker page. There I was, my picture and my write-up. As
I read my blurb, the type gradually melted off the screen until there was
nothing left but my picture. What?! I scrolled up and everyone else’s material
was there. I scrolled down and ditto. Back to my spot – there’s my picture but no
write-up. Oh, I think I’m supposed to go
to Toronto, was my painful realization.
I wrestled with the decision for
two days. I was keen on talking at the conference, already planning my speech,
and I was annoyed at this interference in my life. But what won out was the
appreciation for the spirit guidance I have had in the past. I have learned to
trust that good things happen when I follow it, often life-changing in the
affirmative. So I phoned the organizer of the conference to explain my dilemma,
and scrambled to get ready for TO.
The Metro Toronto Convention Centre
You can spot the John of God attendees; they are a moving sea of
white because the organizers asked everyone to dress in white. Some women are
dressed in layers of filmy white: billowing skirts, lacy shawls and white
shoes. The “fancy” men are in Nehru-type shirts and white slacks. These are
people who enjoy dressing up and like the challenge of doing it in all white.
Others have a “cobbled together” look (my type). It’s as if they’re saying,
“I’m not spending any more money. This is what I have in my closet and it will
have to do.” Some are rebels, wearing cream and beige, as if that’s close
enough to white. One fellow had on a cream-with-black-stripes pullover. Those
black stripes really stood out. No one else rebelled to that extent.
I was tempted to wear a silky
purple tank top under a white blouse with white slacks but I didn’t have the
nerve. It was an interesting exercise deciding what to wear: do I dare rebel
against the wear-white order or do I submit to authority and wear what they
tell me to? I submitted – but my runners were gray with purple laces. That was
my way of asserting myself against the demands of conformity!
I guessed about 90% women, some men
and a few children. Many canes, a few in wheelchairs. No one on a stretcher.
Most looked like white, middle class “walking well.” But it’s hard to tell what
anguish lay beneath the placid exteriors.
There were drawings of the Entity
helpers tacked to the front wall of the room. (Capital E is used for the
Entities, the spirits who work through John of God. He goes into a trance and
the Entities perform the medical procedures: physical surgery at his clinic in
Brazil, psychic surgery everywhere else.) A wooden triangle (each side
about two feet) graced the front as well, with a big basket on the floor beside
it for written wishes. People lined up to interact with this “wailing triangle”
(as I called it), to ask for help with their own and others’ health or emotional
problems. They would lean their heads against the middle of the triangle, hands
on the sides. We were encouraged to bring pictures of loved ones so that they
could receive help as well.
John of God (I don’t know if others
called him that and it stuck, or he chose the moniker) came up on the podium to
speak. He was unintelligible as far as I was concerned. His heavy Portuguese
accent made every third or fourth word a blur. Other speakers came through more
clearly. One woman got us chanting his name plus “tulo bono” (or something like
that) to raise our excitement level. It was like a New Age revival meeting with
the purity garb and high hopes for a cure for what ails us. Just before the
Entities worked on us, we held hands and said the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary
Full of Grace.
Someone had a bottle of essential
oil and wafted through the crowd with it.
We were supposed to buy a case of
12 2-litre bottles of water (the label had John of God’s picture on it) to help
us with our recovery ($36 per case). The Entities would bless it at the point
of sale so that the blessing was special for each of us. I refrained because I
didn’t have a means of carrying it.
For eight days after the
intervention we were supposed to rest as much as possible. No spicy food like
peppers (black peppercorn and chili peppers), no alcohol, no fertilized eggs,
and no heavy lifting. Also, we were warned against psychic readings and energy
work for eight days. No sex for 40 days! A woman complained to me that she had
just started dating a guy and didn’t like that restriction. We were given
blessed soup and a sandwich (unblessed) before we were sent off to rest.
My criticism: why weren’t we told no sugar? Sugar pulls down the immune
system as much as alcohol.
Our psychic stitches would be
removed in seven days, we were told. We’re to wear white to bed, pray to have
the stitches removed, put a cup of the blessed water next to our bed, and in
the morning drink the water.
My reaction: My skeptical mind had
a lot of fun poking holes in the routine. But I trusted the spirit guide who
asked me to be there so I tried to keep an open mind.
At the event, I asked for help
dealing with a sore on my face that could be cancerous. Maybe there’s a deep
root that needs pulling out. My spirit guide wanted me to have surgery here in
Winnipeg but I refused. I didn’t believe the surgeon would get it all, and I
didn’t want a hole in my face. Refusing surgery is the only suggestion from her
I have nixed. But I was willing to travel 1,300 miles and pay $1,500 for the
trip (includes the $188 ticket for one day at the event) to have psychic
surgery. Go figure! I could have stayed home and had physical surgery for free.
So far (three weeks later), it looks like the sore is clearing up.
The trip as a whole was worthwhile.
I saw relatives and friends in the “far east,” and I met interesting people on
the train. Adam (from Australia) and I had a great talk about the damage cane
toads are wreaking there. The toads were brought in to eat the cane beetles but
the sugar cane heads where the beetles live were too high for the toads to get
at. So now Australia has a problem with the proliferating toads and the beetles
as well.
I also met an interesting man from
Seattle who used to be an engineer on freight trains. The glass at the front of
the train is bulletproof, I learned. Also, counseling is now available for
engineers after the train hits animals, people, and various vehicles. “You
didn’t cause the accident,” engineers are told. “You have witnessed one.”
So, is John of God a true healer or
a charlatan? Perhaps I should declare my bias: first, I would not have gone had
not my spirit guide suggested it. The event was too big for my taste, handling
a few thousand people each day. One helper told me that if all the tickets
sold, there would be 12,000 people put through in three days.
Second, I am inclined to believe in
the possibility of spiritual healing.
I am familiar with therapies like Reiki where energy is directed to problem
areas of the body and often effects a cure. Also, I benefit from Craniosacral Therapy, a
form of energy healing. I also believe in spirit entities wanting to help
people on earth.
The success of this event is hard
to assess. On the positive side, it looks like this John of God “business” has
grown gradually over the years. As John says, “You can fool people for a year
or two, but not for 35 years.” In the beginning, doctors and politicians in Brazil
tried to shut him down for practicing medicine without a license but he’s still
going strong. One article on the ‘net says his methods helped a number of
high-ranking officials who then supported his work and protected him from the
critics.
Another aspect to admire is the
number of volunteers willing to help organize and oversee such a huge event. To
be accepted as volunteers, they need to have been to John of God’s clinic in Abadiania,
Brazil. There must have been over a hundred workers willing to give their time
and energy free of charge. They were all well dressed (in white, of course),
calm and smiling in their duties. The whole event was well organized if my
experience was any indication.
On the negative side, it’s hard to
assess the success of whatever medical procedures were done as people disperse
after the event is over. We were told to allow 40 days before deciding whether
the intervention was successful or not. How do you contact thousands of people
to judge the rate of healing? (You can browse the Internet for articles for and
against. Pro: An Oprah staff person investigated and was helped to overcome her
deep grief about her father’s death. Con: One woman states she was assaulted at
the clinic in Brazil, in that she was operated on physically without her
consent, and later developed an infection.)
My inclination is to accept that John of God and the Entities must be doing something right for this high level of public interest to continue for so many years.
Anna Olson is a Winnipeg freelance writer and editor.
You can reach her at annols@mts.net. Check out more articles at
www.annaolsononline.blogspot.com
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