The Downfall and Arrest

Adobe Firefly is the all in one creative studio with AI powered image and video editing for today's creative process Built for creators of every kind, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast Because the asks aren't getting smaller The budgets aren't getting bigger, and the timelines, o yeah, still tight With all the best creative AI models in one place, Firefly brings your ideas to life. Unlock a better way to make with Adobe Firefly My name is Shannna Mald Donato. I'm the fnder of Yai. I giveift shopum the lens of artists and handmade objects. I chose Shopify because when I was testing other platforms, it was definitely one of the most user friendly. It was important to me to think about where we would be in the future, all of the tools for reading your sales like planning inventory, They're just right there on your dashboard. For anyone starting a small business, the biggest thing I can tell you is it doesn't have to be perfect. Shopify can help you build upon it Start your free trial on Shopify. com Ryan Reynolds here from MintMobile, with a message for everyone paying Big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just fifteen dollars a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile d. com slash switch. Upront payment of forty five dollars for three month plan, equivalent to fifteen dollars per month required, intro rate for first three months only, then full price plan options available. taxes and fees extra, CfF terms at mintmobile. com. heading right back to Brazil again this week for a very different reason Joo, Tezaria, Daaria, also known as John of God, is a self proclaimed medium and psychic surgeon from Brazil. Jell ran a wildly profitable spiritual healing center in the rural city of Abijania called the House of St. Ignatius of Loyola, or just the Casa for short. Joo claimed for decades that his treatments which consisted of anything from meditation and prayer to shoving forceps deep into a person's nose, to scraping a patient's eyeball without anesthetic or antiseptics, or cutting into their flesh and pulling something out with his fingers could cure any ailment. And it wasn't really him performing these miracles. No, no, no, it was one of his many spirit guides ghost basically that took over his body, possessed him and healed the unhealable How cool Millions of people came to see him for physical and spiritual ailments, often making donations to the Casa or purchasing Jild's special herbal prescriptions to ensure they would be cured. sixty Minutes Australia would estimate that he earned over ten million dollars a year from prescription sales alone So I received coverage on CNN, ABC, even the Oprah Winfrey S showow, which brought even more tourists from all over the world There were, of course, skeptics People who thought inating healing benefits were just placebo effects, but their voices were down out by the thousands and thousands of believers and stories of miracle cures There are also rumors of something much darker going on There are reports from young women who were invited to private sessions with Choao, where they were reportedly sexually assaulted under the guise of healing themselves or their loved ones For decades these reports were dismissed as nothing more than rumors, spread by opportunistic women who were trying to tear down a spiritually powerful man victims were told, they were lying that they didn't understand that was all part of the healing process that if something was done to them, it was for their own good This week, we'll talk about how Joo used locals' belief in spiritism A reincarnationist and spiritualist doctrine born out of a nineteenth century seance craze. people to believe that it was totally normal. from and to use the spirits of past healers to help cure people in the present of their afflictions. It's gonna to be another wild ride. In this week's cult, cult, cult adjacent Faith healing, Grifters and Ghost seditions of time suck This is Michael McDonald and you're listening to Time Suck Well, happy Monday. And welcome and welcome back to the Cult of the Curious. H hope you're doing great I'll be doing fucking great. How about that I'm Dan Cmins, a stuck nat guy who will never and I do me never. uncharted Amazonian territory and you are listening to Time suck Hail Nimrod, Hill Luciffinea praise be to good boy boy Jjangles and glory be to triple him question Are you ready to learn about some really weird and fascinating shit Are you ready for another reminder off how absolutely fucking insane an a logical our species so often is Okay good Me too, mother fucker Me too We'll be starting things off today by talking about your childless uncle. What the fuck exactly is going on with that guy I mean, why doesn' he ever date anyone anyone that you know of any way Why does your mom still talk about how weird he was when he was a kid when she gets drunk Why is he so hyper focused on his nieces and nephews, especially his nieces? It's weird I mean, you tell yourself, he's just a really sweet guy, that he just loves kids and kids love him. that people should make such a quick judgment about him that he shouldn't be reduced to some negative stereotype, just because he'd rather volunteer at the local gymnastic studio and spend his weekends with nine year olds rather than people's own age. But should you be alarmed Yes. When are you gonna fucking say something to him? When are you going worry less about creating a quote needlessly uncomfortable situation and quote, really hurting his feelings and damaging your relationship with him forever and more about your kids He has an old Hannah Montana poster in his bedroom for fuck sake. wake up, Nancy The writing isn't just on the wall, The wall is nothing but writing Glad we got that out of the way That was unpleasant We're not going to be talking about that all anymore going forward Instead in a moment, I'll go over spiritism A common religion in Brazil, one than not everyone who practices it defines as a religion or thinks of it as a religion And the foundational beliefs of John of God's cult Ns not really a cult organization I wouldn'tider it to culp but it's culty foollowed by a timeline of this group's development and how its leader was eventually brought down after being a grimy, grifty fucking creep for his entire and sadly very long adult life according to Joe Nichol. author, skeptic and hald and widely respected paranormal investigator who passed away last year at the age of eighty, R in peace, a good dude who investigated John of God's little group Spiritism, quote, is essentially spiritualism A belief that one can communicate with spirits, but with the added conviction that spirits repeatedly reincarnate in a progression towards enlightenment In Brazil, which is steeped in superstition and has a climate of belief in African spirits Spiritism has become a powerful religious movement overlaid onto Catholicism that may involve mediumistic searches for past lives and even so called psychic surgery The beliefs of enslaved Africans brought to Brazil syncredibically mixed with Catholicism for centuries, eventually opening the door for a unique merger of Christianity and spiritism As written by the Sydney Morning Herald likeike a constantly revamped car Spiritism has come to accommodate all manner of esoteric add ons from reincarnation to past lives and nature worship Spiritism hasn't around that long in the grand scheme of life guiding religious or quasi religious belief systems First ofolved not in Brazil but out of American spiritualism which began with the Fox Sisters, who I've talked about here on and on scared to Death before on many occasions U Their sties we're sharing here again today, a wild case of butterfly effect When you trace today's grifter all the way back to some old upstate New York seances In March of eighteen forty eight Two young teenage sisters came up with what they may have considered as nothing more than a fun prank in Hydesville, New York wasn't a town, but rather a named rural community in Wayne County, a little east of Rochester Maggie Fox and her younger sister, Kate claimed that there was a spirit communicating with them by making otherworldly wraps on the walls and furniture of their house Th when their mother asked how many children she'd had, the spirit appeared to wrap out the correct number She was amazed Then one of their neighbors reportedly witnessed these sounds and word soon spread as more and more people witnessed this phenomenon that there was something strange and supernatural going on the fact at the fox household girls were speaking to essentially the living dead Wthy? Maggie and Kate may have, in fact been making these noises by subtly cracking their knuckles, toes and other joints, something Maggie literally confessed to, in an interview for the New York World some forty years later in eighteen eighty eight She would then quickly retract that confession for the record, but still, regardless of what was true By that point, this childhood prank, if that's in fact all it was, had spun way out of control And now the adult sisters had become famous mediums whose notoriety and money that they were making inspired countless others to jump into the medium game Fox sisters and their public seences help spark a whole spiritualism craze in the United States and Europe built on the belief that it was possible for living humans to communicate with the dead a few years of word of the Fox sisters coming out, something called table turning spread type a seance in which participants sit around a table, place their hands on it, wait for rotations The table was purportedly made to serve as a means of communicating with the spirits The alphabet would be slowly spoken aloud and the table would tilt at the appropriate letter thus spelling out words and senses Are you picture a nice period piece horror movie set for the nineteenth century Within a decade, these table turning sessions led directly to the creation of so called talking boards or spirit boards precursors to the Wija board flat surfaces marked with letters, numbers, yes, no, and other symbols, used in Sances to again supposedly communicate with spirits partarticipants place their fingers on a moving pointer or planchette which spells out messages. They become popular enough by the eighteen eighties that people were thinking of commercializing them, commercializing them. And then in eighteen ninety Baltimore medum and practitioner of spiritualism, Helen Peters Nosworthy coined the termuijai board and patented it Helen born in eighteen fifty one was far more interested in death than the average kid growing up. She and her siblings would often take buttons from dead soldiers after civil war battles near their home. Her sister Mary would marry an entrepreneur named Elijah Bond who had invented a talking board with his business partner, Charles W. Kennard Koswy became a stockholder in the Kennard novelty Company they needed a marketable name before manufacturing the board And one night in eighteen ninety, they decided to hold another seance. and during this seance, Knasworthy repeatedly asked the board what it wanted to be called And it spelled out O U I J A When they asked what that word meant board answered Good luck More and more people. began to engage in what had already begun to be called spiritualism by the early eighteen fifties, backacking up a little bit I began to draw a lot of interest not only from boored housewives, grieving mothers and fathers, mystics and spiritually curious and religious leaders who largely condemned it as a cold and satanic but also from academics, intellectuals and scientists very curious as to whether it was real or not akes sense, right? I mean, who doesn't want to try and talk to those who have passed on Who isn't curious, at least a little about what might lay ahead for all of us Or if there are other entities living all around us, you know, invisible for the most part, but possibly able to become known and be communicated with. V' exciting And not all of this was brand new, to be clear. various people going back to records from the world's first civilizations. and likely people long before that have had oracles, necromancers and others who have claimed to be able to walk in both this world and the world of the dead in some form. So this was the first time it really turned into a large movement like this Even if some people truly were talking with the dead, let's justpend a little disbelief Entertertain that Many others at the very least saw this as a great opportunity to cash in and take advantage of other people's grief fraud became widespread unsurprisingly And a number of mediums and spiritualists were taken to court and convicted quite a few of them of various fraudulent crimes Also, interestingly, on the other end of the spectrum, a number of skeptics and scientists who investigated this phenomenon ended up becoming believers. such as chemist and physicist William Crooks Evolutionary biologist Alfred Russell Wallace. Noble laureate, Pierre Curie and physician and famed author Arthur Conan Doyle even famed inventor Thomas Edison attended Sances and got so excited about them that he wanted to develop a so called spirit phone, an ethereal device that would summon to the living the voices of the dead and also record them for posterity crazy This movement, of course, didn't stay isolated to America for long spread throughout the world On in the United Kingdom did it become as widespread as in the United States Spiritualist organizations were formed in America and Europe such as the London Spiritualist Alliance publish a newspaper called The Light. featuring articles such as evenings at home and spiritual seance. Ghosts in Africa Chronicles of sppirit phhotography It also featured advertisements for mesmerists and patent medicines and letters from readers about personal contact with ghosts In Britain by eighteen fifty three, invitations to tea among the prosperous and fashionable often included table turning. and and afterwards, spirit board sessions By eighteen ninety seven, spiritualism was said to have more than eight million followers between the U. S and Europe alone Also important to note that spiritualism was primarily a middle and upper class movement especially popular among well to do women Women who unsurprisingly became big targets for grifters due to their means American spiritualists would meet in private hom, typically for seances Sometimes at lecture halls for trance lectures. at state or national conventions and even at summer camps attended by thousands Books on the Supernatural began to be published more and more frequently for a growing middle class, such as eighteen fifty two's Mysteries by Charles Elliot which contains, quote Setches of spirits and spiritual things including accounts of the Salem Witch trials, the Le ghost, and the Rochester wrappings, There was also the night sideide of nature by Catherine Crowe, published in eighteen fifty three. They provided definitions and accounts of withs Dppelgangers, apparitions and haunted houses Perfect fodder from my other podcasts Scared to Death Mainstream newspapers treated stories of ghosts and hauntings as they would any other news story. An account in the Chicago Daily Tribune in eighteen ninety one, quote, sufficiently bloody to suit the most fastidious taste ells of a house believed to be haunted by the ghosts of three murder victims seeking revenge against their killer' son, who was eventually driven insane twenties Jumpinghead a little bit, numerous psychic books now being published. Books were often based on excursions, supposed excursions initiated by the use of Ouija boards. I should also note that while spiritualism is oftentimes called a religion, it's really not. It doesn't have anything equivalent to a Bible or the Quran or You know, some unified set of beliefs outside of just believing in a pretty vague sense that's living can interact and communicate with the dead. The movement was always extremely individualistic with each person relying on their own experiences and readings to discern the nature of the afterlife somethingomet that also made it very easy for con artists to exploit since there was no official doctrine or rules People claiming a bunch of fantastical shit Also, while you might link spiritualism with theosophy, they both grew and developed primarily in America and Western Europe in the mid and late eighteenth century or nineteenth century, excuse me, and share some similarities, Madam Lovatski was actually very critical of spiritualism. and distanced theosophy from spiritualism as far as possible and aligned herself with Eastern occultism And then linking all this to our topic today, There was a dude named Alan Cardeck a French intellectual who began to promote a version of spiritualism called spiritism which combines spiritual communication with reincarnation popularized by nineteenth century French romantic socialists Spiritism also established a peculiar relationship with the philosophy of positivism Positivism rejected theological and metaphysical explanations, valuing only empirical and scientific knowledge. Cardex sought to integrate this vision with the belief in the existence of the Spirit and in communication with the dead Thus, spiritism presented itself as a quote positive faith attempting to reconcile the rational and investigative method of posositism with the faith based belief in the immortality of the soul and in reincarnation Cardeck appropriated the scientific language of the today in an attempt One that largely worked, I should add to give legitimacy to his doctrine structure and is a kind of spiritual science. offered evidence of life after death and promoted a reforming morality. in a context of a widespread social and religious crisis in the nineteenth century Now let's learn a bit more about this dude before moving forward Alan Cardck was once a schoolteacher from Lyonne, France when he codified the new spiritist practices he came up with. now known as the Cardicist spiritism often just called spiritism. With his eighteen fifty seven publication, The Spirits Book He then founded the magazine Spiritist in eighteen fifty eight, as various forms of spiritualism, including his you know, spiritism spread further throughout Europe. The movement reaches its peak in Europe in the early twentieth century, when in nineteen seventeen, the Vatican. formally forbade Catholics to participate in any spiritist sessions Catholic Church used to worry a lot more than now about competition. After this declaration, the movement gradually decreased in Europe interesterestingly, it expanded in South America especially in Brazil. where it had already existed for decades and where it now became more popular than it is anywhere else in the world. As early as eighteen fifty eight, Brazilian elites heard about the new spiritist doctrine in Europe The first Brazilian spiritist gathering appeared in the state of U b ya. then in Ro De Janiro in eighteen sixty five Brazilian intellectuals also collaborated directly with Cardx Spiritist magazine. It really resonated down there. Spiritist newspapers were introduced in Brazil, and the Brazilian Spiritual Federation was founded in eighteen eighty five Nearly a century later, in nineteen fifty nine There were now three thousand six hundred approximately spirit centers throughout the country decade earlier in nineteen forty nine, some spiritist federations had met in Rio and sign the Noble pact committed them to remaining faithful to the fundamental concepts and core tenets of Carticist spiritism core tenets of Cardis' spiritism are existence of God God is defined as the suupreme intelligence and first cause of all things sovereignly just and good immorality or yeah, immortality, excuse me Aittle different word. sounds similar, but very different meaning. Immortality of the soul. Spirits are distinct from the material body They are created simple and ignorant, but evolve towards perfection, existing before and after life reincarnation, AKA plurality of existences Spirits undergo multiple successive physical lives to advance intellectually and morally repairing past mistakes communicative oh my gosh Cunicability of the spirits, AKA mediship. Communication between the living and the dead is possible through mediums, providing evidence of the afterlife and also And this is big for today's subject. spiritual guidance And finally, plurality of inhabited worlds The universe is populated by spirits and Earth is not the only place with life. And then real quick, some fundamental concepts of spiritism include Hiry spirit. This is supposed to be a semiaterial body that links the immaterial soul to the physical body. Paraspirit is the fluidic body of spirits that allows them to interact with the physical world, float in the atmosphere transport themselves, you know, when we die, this etereal skin of sorts. keeps our soul intact. It's like a Fucking ectoplasm Saran wrap evolution All buildings have the potential to evolve with spirits classified into three main orders, imperfect, good, and pure free will and moral responsibility human actions are based in free will, with moral responsibility for choices leading to consequences in future lives And finally charity as morality The Moral Foundation is quote, withithout charity, there is no salvation. fooccusing on moral improvement rather than strict ritual as you go through these reincarnated lives. Cardicist spiritism. also smartly connected itself to Christianity by adopting the moral teachings of Christ as its core guide, viewing Jesus as the ultimate model of the evolved reincarnated spiritual you know body. justust, you know, humanity perfected. It reinterpreted Christian tenets through a belief and reincarnation, mediumship and the evolution of the soul considered itself to be the quote third revelation That completes and explains the gospel Allowing people to believe themselves to be spiritists and Christians fueled a fucking ton of growth,surprisingly. Right shrewd business mo And something we've seen here over and over with various cults and new religious movements, right? The easiest way to gain followers to your new belief system is to ground that system in another older accepted belief system peopleople have grown up in become familiar with. Thanks largely to the syncretic mash upp of spiritism and Christianity, the largely Catholic Brazil experienced a surge of spiritism in the nineteen fifties According to Time Magazine during the taking of the nineteen fifty census. about nine hundred thousand Brazilians declare themselves as spiritists. And thanks to spiritism being part of mainstream culture, more and more people started to revere, not just mediums but medium healers Spiritism's version of the faith healer And these people became some of them national celebrities. And one of those healers, the most famous one was a man named Chico Zavier so called psychographer And what is psychography Well I'm glad you ask It's also sometimes called automatic writing and it acclaimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing them Pitioners engage in automatic riding by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spirits to manipulate the practitioner's hands. instrument may be a standard riding instrument or maybe one specially designed for automatic riding such as a Ouija boards planantchette Davier would be one of John of God's main inspirations and really his primary inspiration Over a period of sixty years, Zavia wrote or rather spirits using his body as a humble vessel. wrote Almost five hundred bucks neearly five hundred and thousands of letters supposedly again through this process of psychraphy dutifully served as a writing vessel to share the message of all the helpful noble spirits working through him who would conveniently never share in the profits he was making. He sold an estimated fifty million copies of his books fifty million claim that all the revenue was given to charity and that is bullshit But that's what he claimed. His most popular work was probably nineteen forty four's Nasolar. Life in the spirit world Also known as Astral City A book adapted into a hit Brazilian movie in twenty ten called Astral City, a spiritual Journey And then two years ago, got a sequel, Yay distributed by Disneyless L less. Yeah yeah, cool cool cool this book tells the true. Story obviously true of Andrey Louis a supposedly prominent doctor who lived in Rio de Janeiro, a formally prominent doctor who shared his entire story after he was dead afterfter dieding Andre Louise found himself neither in heaven or hell depicted in the teachings he had received in his Cathic upbringing, but rather in the so called umbril Spiritus region where less than perfect souls face the consequences of their unfortunate actions, you know that they committed back when they were alive. After a while, he's able to perceive the presence of Clorencio AK Carance a friendly spirit who'd been trying to help him all along during his time in Umberal Clarence then takes him to Naso Lar, which translates to our home, the spirit colony or Astral City where Andre becomes acquainted with the intricacies of afterlife and reincarnation And we're all very familiar with Astral cities and spirit colonies, right? Vibrant communities in the spiritual realm whereere discarnate souls, AKA spirits, live, recover, work and receive ongoing education after death? Yeah, who isn't excited to die? And then find out, you have another fucking job And you have to go to school on top of it. That's awesome Often described as existing near Eth, these colonies are places for spiritual evolution, work and study is intermediate areas for souls preparing for future lives Vy cool off her followers of spiritism Very sci fi, the story of Andrey Louise. psychographed My chek go's out here is considered a narrative based on real spiritual experiences. The locations and events described in Nasalar are believed to reflect actual places in the universe. and real occurrences in the Spirit realms Nasalar is depicted as a highly organized spiritual city where a bunch of discarnate spirits live, work, learned under the guidance of higher order spirits. The colony basically serves as a kind of spiritual rehabilitation center We're sooul residents, work on their moral evolution and prepare for future incarnations one hundred percent We'd like to hear passage from this incredible true story O coursese you fuckking w what. Please enjoy some celestial teachings from chapter thirty one Get a further taste of what believers in spiritism will It was nine o'clock at night We still hadn't rested. Axtcept for brief moments during which we discuss various ways to solve spirit related problems here patient begging for help there Another in need of comforting magnetic passes When we went to assist two patients in Ward eleven, I heard screams in a nearby ward I instinctively moved toward the noise, but Narcissa quickly stopped me No, don't That is where the sexually unbalanced patients are The scene would be too painful to look at. Save your emotions for later. I didn't insist but thousands of questions rushed to my mind A whole new world was unfolding for my intellectual examination I absolutely had to remember Laura's advice in every moment. so as not to become distracted from my duty. Soon after nine, someone arrived from the back area of the enormous complex He was a strange looking little man. who seem to be a humble worker Narcissa welcomed him kindly. What's the matter, Justin No What is it The worker was a member of the Sentinel Corps of the Chambers ofatification Rctification He was distressed and answered. I come to inform you that a poor woman is begging for help at the large gate that leads to the agricultural fields I think she must haveescaped the attention of the frontline sentinels Why didn't you yourself see what you wanted? inquired the nurse. The worker made a scrupulous gesture and explained, accccording to our regulations, I couldn't because the poor woman is covered with black spots What replied Narcissa, alarmed. Yes, ma'am then the case is very serious I was curious and followed the nurse across the moonlit field It was no short distance We saw the silent trees of the vast complex side by side as they rustled gently in the soft breeze After walking for more than a mile, we came to a large gate mentioned by the worker There before us on the other side stood the miserable figure of a woman begging for mercy I saw nothing but the shadow of the unhappy creature who was dressed in rags and had a grotesque face and legs covered When soars. Judging from the alarmed look stamped on her ordinarily calm face, Narcissa seemed to see many more details that I could not perceive Children of God cried the beggar, unseeners, Give shelter to a weary soul. Where' the heaven of the elects so that I may enjoy the peace I've longed for The mournful voice moved my heart. Narcissa in turn also seemed to be moved, but spoke confidentially D you see the black spots Your spirit sight still is not sufficiently trained After a short pause, continued If it were in my hands, I would open the door right now But on dealing with creatures in this condition. I can't make that decision on my own I have to talk to the chief warden on duty She approached the unfortunate woman and spoke to her in a caring voice. Please, just wait a few minutes tappe this place. We hurried back For the first time, I met the Director of Sentins of the Chambers of Rctification Narcissist introduce me and then reported what it happened. He moued a meaningful gesture and remarked You did right in tell me about this Let's go We went to the gate When we arrived, the chief warden, Brother Paolo, I carefully examined the newcomer from the umbroll and stated Tim being, this woman can't receive our help She is one of the strongest vampires I've ever seen. She must be left to herself I feltandalized Would we be neglecting our Christian duties if we abandon this suffering creature to our fate assistant seem to share my view and was quick to plead. Paolo, is there no way that we can shelter this miserable creature in the chambers? File out that. He explained. I would be betraying my responsibility as a warden pointing to the beggar who was waiting for a decision and shouting impatiently, he exclimed to the nurse, Narc sisa, have you noticed anything else besides the black spots Now was my instructor who said no Well I can see something else and to the chief warden. In a lower voice, he suggested The spots Narcissa looked at the unhappy creature and replied after a few moments. H fifty eight. With the patience of those who know how to explain things lovingly brother Paolo continued Bots represent fififty eight children. Murdered at birth In each of the spots, I see the mental image of one of those destroyed little ones Some were clubbed to death, others were suffocated. This unfortunate creature was a professional abortionist. She used to exploit the affliction of an inexperienced young woman and committed these terrible crimes under the pretext of easing their consciousces Suucicides and murders may sometimes present mitigating circumstances, but her case is worse by far I was astonished As I recall the medical procedures that I often witnessed up close during my earthly days when in order to save the mother's life It was necessary to sacrifice the unborn child because of the danger However Paulo was reading my mind and I did I'm not referring to legitimate measures that make up part of a trial of expiation but to the crime of murdering those who are just beginning the journey of their earthly experience endndowed with a sublime right to life Displaying the sensitivity of a noble soul, Narcissist pleaded, Brother Paolo I also made many mistakes in the past. Let's help this unfortunate creature. If you would allow it, I will treat you with special care The Chief warden was impressed by sinerity, but answered My friend I realize that all of us are indebted spirits However We have in our favor the acknowledgement of our weaknesses and the willingness to expediate ate our debts. But for now this creature wants only to disturb those who are trying to work, spirits who bring sentiments hardened by hypocrisy and destructive energies, which is why we have a guard service in our colony And smilingexpressively, he continued. prove it to you The chief warden approached the beggar and asked Sister What do you wish of our fraternal cooperation? Help, help, help She replied tearfull But my friend He said assertively. We must learn to accept expatory he fucking loves that word. exppiratory suffering Why did you often cut short the lives of fragile little infants? who with God's permission were about to begin their earthly struggles Uon hearing this she threw a terrible of hatered and shouted Who's accusing me of such infamy? I have a clear conscience, you wretch. I spent my existence on Eth helping motherhood Chitable and pious, good and pure A acccording to the living picture of your thoughts and actions, that isn't so, said the Ward. I believe, sister, that you have not yet experienced the benefit of remorse When you open your soul to the blessings of God and acknowledge your needs, then you may come back here Agrily, the woman shouted, Devil, sorcerer servants of Satan I shall never come back. I'm looking for the heaven. they promised me, and I plan on finding it Yeah, that's how people talk. Assuming a firmmer attitude, the chief warden spoke with authority. Please go your own way The heaven you are longing for isn't to be found here the droid you're looking for, not here. We live in a house of work where patients are aware of their evil and want to be healed with the help of workers of goodwill. beggar objectively Inly Ior Beggar objected instently. I haven't ask for any remedy or assistance I'm seeking the heaven I deserve after having done so many good deeds shooting us a dreadful look of extreme wrath. She discarded the appearance of a wandering infirm person and walked firmly away as though completely in charge of herself crazy can be fucking gimped up there. Brother Paolo gazed after her for several moments, then turned to us and n added Did you see what the vampire was doing Her criminal condition was obvious. And yet she was pleading innocence She is profoundly wicked and yet declares herself good and pure She suffers desperately in feigns tranquillities she has created a hell for herself tends to be looking before heaven. in the fuckking dystopian sci fi pulp fiction E Ron Harard was that Holy shit My favorite part was the Vampiric professional abortionist cllubbing boarded baby to death like a fucking seal hun Yeah I'm sure that's super common loveove how that professional abortionist vampire was apparently only aborting late term babies who were in their final fucking tribaster when they were abarded Never fetuses who would need to be clubbed or smothered because they're a little puddle of cells. They don't have fucking lung Uh, many saw And still see Chico Xavier is nothing more than a very financially successful drifter with a good imagination peddaling horseshit many others revered and continuue to revere this dude to this day in Brazil And a guy who claimed all that shit is true. two thousand nine the Brazilian government gave the name ChicoZavier to a passage of an important highway. In two thousand six, he was elected history's greatest Brazilian a contest performed by Ypaka magazine There are busts of him, memorials dedated dedicated to him all over the country A little more about this guy before we move on since again He is John of God's primary influence and role model. right after today's first of two Mitow spponsor breaks If you don't want to hear these ads ever again, please sign out to be a Space liizard on Patreon. 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Upront payment of forty five dollars for three month plan, equivalent to fifteen dollars per month required, introate for three months only, then full price plan options available. taxes and fees extra, CfF terms at mintmobile. com. Thanks to listen to our sponsors But now let's learn a little bit more about Chico Xavier Chico born Francisco, de Paula Condio AZavi here. I was born in April of nineteen ten, died in June of two thousand two On May of nineteen twenty seven, when he was seventeen, Zaviera's sister Maria was having some sort of mental disturbances that he and others around her believed were caused by spiritual sources hundred percent had to have been that couldn't have been mental illness definitely with spirits fucking her And shortly thereafter, Zavier began to financially support his sister with his apparent medium capabilities. After being introduced to the spiritism doctrine, he soon claimed he received a message from his dead mother. And what she recommended, he study the books of Alan Cardeck Right, sounds about right. Okay, mom I'll get the studing. Fuck expect you to keep Nagam me once you were dead. Xavier would go on to quickly found the sppiritist centered Louise Gonzaga in nineteen twenty seven, linking it with Catholicism He began to dabble in psychography in July of that year under the guidance of some benevolent spirit He later claimed that several deceased poets began to manifest through him, but they did not specifically identify themselves until nineteen thirty one. Zavia became widely known in nineteen thirty one. Man is crazy He lived a fucking long ass time doing this stuff when he was so young Uh, when he published his book Parnassus beyond the tomb which contained two hundred and fifty nine poems allegedly composed by fifty six deceased Brazilian and Portuguese poets Tottally, makes sense good for him That year, he claimed to have met his primary spirit guide Emanu who once lived in ancient Rome as senator Publius Lentilus and was later reincarnated in Spain as Father Damien and then later still as a professor at the Sorbonne in Paris Rangers told him that he would write thirty books to him How generous Emmanuel also instructed Xavier to be loyal to both Alan Cardck and Jesus Christ, even if that went against his religious beliefs He let her know that Jesus was a man who had achieved a perfect life in philosophy after having been reincarnated a fucking shit ton of times And after he attended so many fucking spirit classes in Astral cizenship As Xavier would call Brazil the adopted countountry of spiritism and appear on the nation's most popular talk shows in the sixties and seventies Beoming a big celebrity and helping to establish spiritism, his flavor of Carticist spiritism as one of Brazil's major religions that now had over five million followers A religion again without a real biblical equivalence. It's not really religion. people call that in sources call it that Uh, you know, and because it didn't have some, you know, core document, all kinds of mediums, none of them quite as well known as Chico or putting all kinds of spins on this shit. And more and more of these spins were involving various forms of spiritual healing Spirites practicing their own fucked up versions of medicine which is illegal in Brazil, was becoming a real problem. In more and more spiritist societies, it was becoming more and more common for a medium to channel a spirit and prescribe some sort of spiritual cure for serious and often incurable illnesses. Of course it was. That's how people could make quick money. Brail's criminal code had actually first addressed this growing problem way back in eighteen ninety two contontaining three articles focusing on theillegal practice of medicine, faith healing, and Charlatanism Anyone practicing medicine without proper accreditation could and often did face jail time. stestimates vary wildly, but today spiritism likely has about fourteen million followers. largest concentration being in Brazil with maybe up to about six million While once outlawed for a short time in Brazil, spiritism, now considered a quote, religion of public utility. followers of sppiritism have opened and continued to open nurseries, hospitals fking shitty hospitals where people don't actually get real medicine. schoolchools where they're taught nonsense and all kinds of other stuff They continue to try and cure ailments read snake oil, sell it to you know people, tortch them with false hope who struggle with any number of diseases and afflicions So that was a bit of a detour, I know, but it needed one to help understand why so many people were willing to believe John of God's claims that if he didn't know all that would come across as much more fucking crazy they than they already They believe this shit because many of them, if not most of them, had grown up, believe that all sorts of people talk to spirits, that the dead are always all around us, and sometimes they work through mediums to help us out this was a mainstream belief in many parts of Brazil. Still is. Because in addition to spiritism, there were and there still are other similar belief systems now F find out how John went from the son of a working class family wealthy spiritist grifter In today's Time suck timeline Trap on those boots, soldier We're marching down a time suck timeline So Jo, Tekzara, Dfaria born in the municipality of Kashuaya Kashua Kashuaa Uh, D Goyas june twenty fourth, nineteen forty two later described himself as a simple farmer. His father was a tailor and John, and I will just call him John or John of God, for the most part, it'll be better for all of us. The youngest of six children According to Maria Helena Machado, historian and biographer of John, Goyas was a place full of devotional Catholicism is where he grew up again. individuals practiced an old version of Brazilian Catholicism where people have direct and very personal relationships with various saints Another belief system, very similar to spiritism actually Talking to saints, basasically talking to dead people John's family were Catholics and he described himself as a Catholic and a devotee of Saint Rita of Kasha, the Saint of the impossible to whom many miracles have been attributed Rita's a fucking wild sinkt. She's of portrayed with a beding wound in the middle of her forehead symbol of partial stigmata representing the wounds of Christ what he received, when he was nailed to the cross. She was, while she was alive, apparently, according to several sources big into mortification of the flesh can be every bit as insane as it sounds Mortification of the flesh can also mean just merely denying oneself certain pleasures, right? Like permanently or temporarily abstaining from Fasting, you know, not having meat, alcohol, sex Avoiding some area of life that makes the person's spiritual life more difficult or burdensome. But that's not all that was going on with Reada it seems ppears she also practiced self flagellation According to numerous sources whipping her own back like a fucking maniac until it was bloody with a scourge with seven tails, representing the seven deadly sins as a way to feel some version of Christ's physical pain as he carried his cross prior to his execution and he was as he was beaten that fucking batch youa craz That's very concerning. C clearly growing up John was used to people believing it and doing some really weird shit. in the name of God John grew up in a home of blended spiritual beliefs He described his mother as a feverish Catholic very devote who reported having visions of Mother Mary speaking to her. So that's interesting and she also practed tarot card reading His father was an herbalist who harvested and sold Garfada additional folk remedy in Brazil. It's a homemade mixture of medicinal plants, bark, roots, sometimes alcohol That is one thousand percent snake oil nonsense that is still sold all over today There is literally no scientific evidence that it works for many of its touted uses, particularly for fertility John grew in a household where people claimed to communicate with the dead and where they sold snakewil two foundations of his later faith healing spiritist empire John only received about two years of formal education. He stopped going to school in the second grade osey never learned to read or write. That just a humble, simple healer His father taught him how to tailor clothing. And he eventually left home in search of other work No age referenced as far as when he did that, but he got jobs apparently doing things like digging wells, laying bricks, you know, manual labor jobs. Never, you know, stuck with one job for long acccording to John's own lore that we definitely cannot and should not trust to the age of nine He predicted that a sudden storm would destroy houses in a local village The weather was clear, people dismissed his vision, but then, fifty homes damaged by tornado force winds He also claimed at the age of sixteen He was sheltered under a bridge. when the spirit of a beautiful woman appeared before him and directed him to a nearby church I mean, yeah, okay I believe this one sure. Okay, should talk totally. He said that the woman came to him was none other than Saint Rita, of Kasha. Okay, now this still feels, know totally plausible. He said that he fainted once he arrived at the church And then later when you woke up, whenn't you fucking know There was a big crowd of people gathered around him And then he was told, how cool is this while he was unconscious, he became possessed by the spirit of King Solomon And healed a whole bunch of people. Fuck yeah, bro. Oh yeah, that totally happened. I'm gonna to file that right under fucking no, didn't? That marked the start of John of God's career as a healer. I mean, it actually didn't, because there's no fucking' way that happened If that happened and you can prove it I will fucking behead both of my children in front of you. I w't have to do because for sure that never happened According to a nineteen ninety five book on John, after Dropping out of school, he was, quote, forced to live as a wanderer, traveling from city to city, healing the sick, living from their donations of food. Did that start when he was like nine or Eleven, twelve, never made clear He claims he spent years traveling to different villages around Brazil And that soon his spirit guide told him he needed to expand his work to reach more people. Great job spirar gu guys, what' a fucking push b John also claimed that the famous medium who we met, ChicoZavier met him toold him He should travel to the super easy to pronounce town of B Jhn Pabaiana Jana God in the state of Gaos. to fulfill his healing mission Abajana ro probably fucking completely butchering that Portuguese word. Already had a reputation for being a place where paranormal events occurred regularly. so it seemed like the perfect place for him to take advantage of, I mean set up shop and help people Although sources do not give an exact date. It seems like John moved this little town in the late seventies He performed his first healings in town around nineteen seventy eight. At first he just sat in a fucking chair near the town's main road And people I guess just started to show up seeking cures for illnesses Gradually, his client base increased and eventually Thousands of people were coming to see him. You know sureure. whyy not? Why go to a doctor When you can just see fucin chair dude in the town square Let his spirits knock out that gout. By the early eighties, John had built and developed his healing center called Casa de Dom Anacio de Lola or do L Lola A House of St.t Ignatius of Lyola founder of the Catholic Jesuit Order, this guy, even though there's nothing Jesuit about John of God, where millions of people would eventually come to be healed in the coming decades or so' claimed A lot of people have though. For over forty years. He held sessions on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays seen up to allegedly ten thousand patients a week Oh. It's a lot. It's cramming a lot there in those days From Saturday through Tuesday, he lived at his farm outside the nearby city of Annapolis. Where about four hundred thousand people live now So you know, he had a nice work week cut out for himself Three busy days. three days A visitor to the casa would be sorted into first time and second time lines They were also required to wear apparently to make it easier for John to see their spiritual aura, off course, white and wear white. You can't show up to a spiritism house of healing. wearing some a obnoxious Hawaiian shirt. And expect to get your MS cleared up. You silly goose, getet the fuck out of here, dummy. You you need to dress more like a hospital orderly from the nineteen fifties orr that one guy from Fantasy Island. or Colonel Sanders. If you want to be healed, Despite needing them to dress in all white, John of God also claimed he could view each individual as a hologram. prettyret cool And he can see every aspect of their well being I mean, you would think that if he had that kind of hologram power, it wouldn't matter what they wore, but you know what? whatever 'm no I'm no spiritist. U First timers were rel led to the Great Hll where staff members would lead a group prayer and a TV would play a loop of John performing quote spiritual surgeries. More on what the hell that is later The first timers then went into the so called first current room where people would meditate According to author Heather Cumm who seems like a fucking lunatic person who became one of the official translators for John of God and was a so called daughter of the Casa. and a shamanic practitioner just so you get a feel for who this source The room is a quote, spiritual washing machine where each person's energetic field is cleansed on all levels. Oh. Thanks for clearing that up, Heather Uh I bet that's totally true. And also every time I come, diamonds and gold shoot out the end of my dick and my balls sing a flawless rendition of journeys Don't Stop believing the stated purpose of the room is to generate quote current Fucking spiritual power. The John sppiritual Hper slash guide entities can use to tap into to then perform their healing work People could and would remain in the current room for hours at a time, right? Just fucking making spirit gas to fuel the spirit engine or something. They were instructed not to open their eyes or cross their arms because or legs. Don't cross your legs either because that will cut off energy flow It's interesting that magical heal energy is pretty fragile After leaving the current room, the first timers got to see John sittit in a chair end of another room. Mother fucker love the chair. Loved a nice chair He would briefly talk to each patient and write them a spiritual prescription By briefly sometimes just a few seconds. Yeahah fuck get out of here. nexte, d That's how we see all these thousands of people While John did not charge for these consultations, his treatments are where he made his fortune The costs are rented out crystal beds For sixty dollars an hour, do not tell Lindsy And the gift shops soold books CDs, DVD's, tote bags, t shirts, coffee mugs, pendants, postcards, travel pillows, glow in the dark, Johns stickers and blessed crystals Blessed crystals, what a world. What a great profit margin those must have, since it costs nothing to bless them but get a charge more Gift shop also sold blessed water as did the Spiritist cafe. owned more solid profits But their biggest revenue generator was Pasalora The flower of the passion fruit plant Oh Pasiflora, the vessel for the spiritual prescriptions written by John. whichich cost about twenty five dollars, you know, US a bottle just a few years ago before he got shut down. I found while researching this excuse me A bottle of sixty these things online from Nature's Answer for fourteen dollars. Iess' cheaper because they're not bled this plant does act as a natural sedative to reduce anxiety and improve sleep quality It works by increasing levels of GABA in the brain, which lowers brain activity, promotes relaxation, helps ease nervous, stomach, pain and menopausal systems. might also help with ADD and ADHD. and even drug withdrawal, nicotine and opioids It does have benefits Numerous studies have shown it truly does help with anxiety and insomnia for many people. More studies need to be done and its other supposed abilities, but it is not Cir all. Nothing is And you don't need to get it from some spiritous quack sixty minutes, Australia estimated at the peak of his operations John was making over ten million dollars a year. from selling this fucking Passion fruit flower O sources claim he's making up to fourteen million dollars year. The intentions of John's spiritual prescriptions were said to be transferred to the Pasalora, these capsules at the time of purchase. How convenient John himself was quoted as saying, For each case, there is a specific spiritual dosage of that medication Uh But all the bottles have the same amount in them but it's customiz Totally in your mind it is According to one of the volunteers the Casa, the person opens it puts their mind into the purpose of those pills Theure for cancer the cure for AIS. When the person is going to open the medicine, when they take the first pill, they must think of its purpose because the energy is on the tip of their fingers When you take the pill, then it will be ready for the treatment you've asked for Well, if that was true, you would think there would be some research out there about it. But of course or isn't And also if that was true Why would you need to visit this tip shit buy some online less money, fucking have it dropped off your door. and then just, you know, think about your own intentions. Touch it with your own intentions at home in between watching episodes of, I don't know, some showing Netflix or something John was most well known for offering spiritual surgeries that he claimed could cure literally any ailment. fuck yeah Patients were offered a choice between receiving a visible or an invisible operation when they were consulting with him And this is actually pretty normal My doctor does the same shit. You know, when I show up, he's like, do you want a visible exam or do you want an invisible exam And I always choose the invisible one. And then he leaves the room, leaves me in there alone. anden he comes back about five minutes later and he askks me how the exam went I didn't realize it happened. Just like your doctor does, I'm sure John also claimed that spiritual physicians could perform surgery on the patient via a surrogate If the actual patient couldn't make it A, what an option for the person always on the go Right? How convenient Hey, Tim, I have too many meetings this week. I just can't miss. I do not have time to have that lung tumor removed Would you mind go to the hospital for me? Just get my surgery knocked out on my behalf Patients' younger than eighteen. How about that lip smack? That's probably aggress. Patients younger than eighteen are older than fifty two and those who could choose invisible operations were instructed to sit in a room and meditate. strange age cut offs Only a small percentage of people of any age ever chose the visible operation. If that was chosen, John would use some energize mineral water And also the spiritual energies of the volunteers themselves in the current room, right? That spirit gas they there if fucking make it by thinking really hard to help him work as Mojo magic And by Mja magic, I mean torture slash carnival tricks His practices included inserting scissors or forceps deep into a patient's nose or more fun scraping a bit of the white off of patientss eye No anesthetic or anteseptics. Or making random incisions into somebody's body then sometimes inserting his bare fingers into their flesh No anesthesia, no disinfectant, No gloves. Who did this guy think he was? Dr. Rock from the Anhill Kids Sometimes he would pull out large chunks of matter he claimed were cancerous tissue More on all this later. Also and I really love this foollowing surgeries Patients are told to follow some very strict and unusual post operative protocols Do not ingest. bllack pepper pork Don't drink alcohol Don't have sex of any kind, including masturbation for forty days Interestingly, no mention of smoking crack or eating, say two dozen donuts a day. or I don't know, shovving a hot wheel, you know, little car replica into a condom and shoving that condom up your ass. So that stuff, apparently is totally fine for the healing process That's why took away from that. The Costa also featured a so called museum full of discarded crutches, wheelchairs, canes and glasses from completely cured patients who would no longer ever need that shit Oh A plus props. Awesome set dressing. This guy had his gift really worked out The backroom also had a glass cabinet filled with jars containing alleged tumors, gths and other obtrusions. O. A, Chef's kiss, anotherother nice theatricalou You might be wondering how a man with no medical training who only fucking had a second grade education perform these spiritual surgeries Well, it wasn't him doing it John claimed while he was performing these surgeries, he was channeling taking over taken over by the spirits of people like King Solomon and other deceased doctors I don't know about King So King Solomon said to have liveduring the tenth century BC I would not want him to oversee any surgery hard no, hard passass. Medical practice wee bit different back then I would want him to oversee me having a fucking hangnaail removed But he was a magical healer, you say Pixure never happened One healer entity that frequented the Casa was Oswaldo Cruz physician who help eradicate yellow fever Brazil And also a hard note of that motherfucker, Dude died in nineteen seventeen really do not need to have him oversee any medical procedure on me Another entity that entered his body was Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order, that Catholic Order. He died in fifteen fifty six No wonder later investigations found out that his healings didn't do shit And people he claimed to have cured died all the fucking time a little while later. He was picking the wrong spirits to heal people. Goddamn it He should have tried to find like a real life doogie haouser you know, died like the week before. Soty moder U Or maybe partner with Thrive. There that's what he should have done. He could have slapped like a few Lavelle Thrive Dermafusion technology DFT, astro healing, spiritism patches on their hologram auras and cured anything from chronic back pain to cardiac arrest to cancer. If notopving d. in total Jon claim you could channel thirty eight different entities who all performed healing miracles What a roster I wonder what they were doing when he wasn't actively using them Just kind of hanging out in some Astral city, right? stretching, staying loose, you know, waiting for the in the proverbial batters box 'til it was their time to step up the plate and swing John was said to even take on the physical characteristics of whatever spirit he was channeling For example, when channeling the spirit of Stain. Ignati, he would walk with a limp So it had to be true Cosaint Ignatius had his leg shatered by artillery fire during a battle in fifteen twenty one. In an interview, John once explained that when his spirit enters his body He feels some sort of heat. makes him a bit dizzy This is accompanied by, quote intense spiritual peace and an indestructible happiness Okay sure yeah, that expls it. Moments later, he would be fully replaced by the entity and no longer aware of what was happening Totally John am asked a full staff of volunteers and devoted followers from Brazil and abroad H had about fifty staff members working at Casa at the peak of its operations and an unknown number of employees working at several area mines and farms he owned Heather coming, that fucking whack aoodle weirdo Author of a biography on John came to the Casa in two thousand as a student of Reiki and shamanism During her visit, she wrote that the Eity OkayK job invited her on stage to observe surgery. And then Heather passed out She recalled Codote, I suddenly felt a surge of energy, very pleasant, but very strong. And then I woke up on a stretcher I was crying And medium John asked me why. I told him I'd experience unconditional love For the first time Oh my god, lady Get some fucking therapy, Heather Sounds like daddy issues led you into this grift. U Heather was born and raised Brazil by her Scottish parents owned a hotel in that little town of Abagana When she first met John of God Jardell Wagner Volunteer at the Healing Center, we recounted witnessing the entity at work in his interview for the twenty twenty one four part Netflix docu series John of God, The Crimes of a spiritual Healer He said there's John the Man, the human being And there's John the Medium, who channels the entity You can see the difference When he channels one of our brethren, enlightened entities He falls asleep and does not see a thing. This is the moment when the spirituality of Stt Ignatius, Staint John the Baptist, o Dr. Augusto It's the moment when John channels them and all the divine work begins Mhm There's no way could be faking it He recalled how during sessions, John would stand before them. offtten asking to take someone's hand before he started praying. Some of the entities that took over him were stiffer while others were more talkative. Wagner explained, Entities are enlightened and evolve spirits that come here to serve people in the name of God And they serve as an instrument or a tool to our brother, John of God When John's work was done, the entity would disappar. John would be himself again And you'd have absolutely forsha no memory of what had happened. Uh, he definite wasn't role playing Wagner continued, while we are here The medium has already channeled the spirit there The treatment keeps happening outside as well, the entities our enlightened brothers are among us doing their job So many people got healed outside Anna Sharp, a therapist and writer, not good at either, said in her interview, I've known John for thirty years I visited every guru out there in this world. everyvery single fucking one, Anna, get out of here She said The number of miracles that I've actually seen and can prove that this man has performed is absolutely amazing. Shut the fuck up Anna, you' fish shit. Amazing things. I brought in so many people dying of cancer hopeless cases that he would heal just by touching them Good job getting those kill. There's way were killed An And his husband suffered a heart attack in nineteen ninety six, but then experienced a miraculous healing acccording to her, the doctor who examin him three months later, called he and Anna crazy saying These are two different hearts Youet a transplant. I have nothing else to say. And doesn'tound like a very good therapist. Another supposed success story comes from Angela Homater V volunteer, former volunteer at the Caset In the nineties when Angela was in her early twenties. She said she began to experience fainting spells She was hospitalized a few times, diagnosed with a brain tumor Angela eventually lost her sight, experienced severe headaches Her doctor told her she had forty days to live Angel's father in law told the family about a medium in Goyz who performed spiritual surgeries, Angela initially thought to herself These people are crazy Let me die in peace. Let me just rest in peace. Now your first instinct was right Not the dying part, but the crazy part. Still, her family believed the spiritual medium across the country could heal her. Angela agreed to go because, you know, they were desperate When they arrived, they saw buses full of people waiting to see the medium They all gathered around the small house about eight AM. John approached the crowd, asked Andgel's husband to take her inside, where he would be waiting to operate on her and heal her. Her husband had to carry her inside because she was so weak once she was inside, she was able to stand, quote, being supported by the hand of that entity or John with Ler hand. John started talking about her tumor And where it was located? He said early doctors could not remove it because then she would die pick up a long pair of scissors, put them upper right nostril Always with the nose Couldn't feel them inside her, John then instructed Angela Child count with me She twisted the scissor twenty one times and she felt the pressure in her head subside. I heard it inside my head as if a bone had cracked, she said When she woke up, the room was She was in a room of the sink John came from behind her, put one hand on her shoulder, one in her stomach, then applied pressure. She vomited some blood in the sink And then a woman picked up what looked like a steak Angela said she was then healed She said the woman who arrived on Wednesday, unable to walk or see, and the Angela who left on Friday I walked out of my own. didid that happen An investigation I will share before we're done did not find legitimacy to any of the healing claims that they looked into, like not fucking any of them. With the supposed success of his healing center and his rising national fame, John was able to start other business ventures. He bought a thousand acre cattle ranch nearby that I referenced briefly. also became a partner in some emmerald and gold mines in Toyas got rich entered the mining business. staff would insist the majority of his wealth came from farming and mining, not sales from the cost of that's bullshit because a lot of people working in the costa were unpaid volunteers Al also got married several times over the years and had an unconfirmed number of kids with his wives from various affairs. Sources vary, but the general consensus is at least nine kids seemems like with a lot of grrifters, he has worked very hard to keep his private life private Which makes sense considering how insanely shady he is, as you'll soon see John's success eventually caught the attention of Brazilian authorities He was arrested several times apparently early on for practicing medicine without a license jailed once Also charged for performing unlicensed tooth extractions for people who had difficulty accessing an actual dentist in rural areas He alleged he was once beaten by the police, causing him to realize he needed protection And from that point on, he would have a few armed goons surrounding him He would tell his congregation about how he had to bribe authorities because spiritual work cannot happen in the open And yeah, so it seems as if he bribed local authorities about lot for a lot of things for decades A district attorney who investigated John reported that he sent her death threats indirectly through a relative when she went to try and prosecute him John denied that and said in a two thousand five interview, there wass a lot of jealousy People talk Tates is the conscience toward God Hello guru spepeak. But what dictates is the conscience toward God. I wish if people said something like that they would immediate be punched the face by some It wasn't authorities who thought John was shady, though A lot of volunteers and visitors, the castle will notice shady happenings as time goes on Let's now hear from Michael Belot, a former tour guide who brought pilgrims to the castle for years before became disillusioned afterfter today's second of two Mid showow sponsor breaks. Fastest self care? Clean hair? K eighteen Airwash dry shampoo is the first biotech powered dry shampoo. It instantly eliminates odor and reduces oil and sweat for fresh hair and scalp for up to three days, and no white cast, starchy buildup or heavy fragrances. K eighteen studied the science of fresh hair, so you never have to worry about wash day again Shop at Sephora or get ten percent off your first purchase at k eighteenhair. com with code podcast. That's code podcast at k one eighthair. com. Ryan Reynolds here from MintMobile with a message for everyone paying Big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just fifteen dollars a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird Cain one judgment Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile d. com slash switch. Upront payment of forty five dollars for three month plan, equivalent to fifteen dollars per month required, intro rate for three months only, then full price plan options available. taxes and fees extra. Caful terms at mintmobile. com. Hey y'all it's me, Queen of Bad Magic and founder of Wet hot Bad Magic Summer Camp. and I am here with our fearless leader for a special message. Hey there all you amazing meet sex. 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I promise you, you will not regret it Tickets are on sale now and going fast, so get on over to badmagicproductions dot com and get yours today Thanks for listen to those sponsors. hope you heard some deals you liked, and now let's head to nineteen ninety eight Herear from Michael Baylott, former tour guide, who once brought pilgrims to the Casa Back in nineteen ninety eight, Michael started reading about shamanism At the time his wife was experiencing a bunch of health problems, he was desperate, right? That's when these predators get you He read about people receiving miraculous healings and John of God was mentioned He was so impressed with what he had heard that he and his wife took a trip to Brazil. And they liked what they saw so much, they moved there After Michael, his wife decided to move to Abaana, a little town permanently, one of theers owners of a little inn in town approached him and was basically like, so what are you doing here And that's how Michael found out that by around the year two thousand John A God essentially own this fucking town And if they were going to stay there, they would have to play by his rules if they wanted to keep access to John's healing powers. They would need to ask John's permission or the permission of one of his assistants speaking on his behalf before opening a business, hosting a party, wearing their hair a certain way. Those are just a few of the many unofficial rules of this town that, you know, John ran. Since almost all of the town's tourism was focused on the Casa, local business owners were extremely financially dependent on him and felt enormous pressure to do what he wanted. Before John arrived Abajania. At a population of about six thousand in a rural economy, by twenty twenty there would be over twenty thousand and it would basically be an economy based on pilgrimages to his fucking center many years earlier The bras conter the solver mayayor of Abajana fromrom nineteen seventy three to nineteen ninet or nineteen seventy seven He'd never heard of John then one day's friend called him. So there was a healer in town and that his business could promote the hotel and lodging sector in this town The friend involved at Bra or invited Braz and John over. They agreed that John should come to the town and stay permanently and the tou would essentially cater to him And for, you know, many people, this relationship worked for a long time, you know, financially Local businesses profited immensely from his healing center from the taxi drivers to the butcher shop In order to succeed, new businesses eventually had to be quote, T approved. which they apparently at one point were advertising was posted signs. That's a new one Iagine being such a fucking weirdo such a die hard follower of this guy If a business was not entity approved You just wouldn't go Hey let's pop in here real quick and grab sand. Ohh, whoa whoaa, whoaa. Do not go in Oh God Bagegel shhop is not entity approved, Oh, That was a very close call Michael agreed to follow John's rules shortly after moving town, he started to see John in a different light Later describing what he noticed about a typical day at the Casa, he said that when John came in each morning, he did not instantly go into a trance due to the spiritual energy of the place like he had professed Instead, he would scope out, noticeably just be scoping out young women who had traveled to see him and consistently picking the most attractive ones and then inviting them to private healing sessions Hm Coto Aldo, Tucado, a former accountant for the Casa noticed this too The John would typically call the prettiest women up to him, the women who had come without their husbands or travel companions. He did not usually call seriously wounded people or unattractive people. In his interview for the Netflix docus series, Tacato recounted how he got involved with theCasa traveled to this little town seeking treatment for a stomach ulcer At first, Ticado intended on staying for just a week, but then John asked him to stay for fifteen days And for month And then he ended up spending two years there She did accounting for the Casa, also became John's personal accountant during that time He said that during his first six months, he was in awe of John recall called John coming into his office and feeling like he was talking to Michael Jackson or the president Funny comparison. But he said everything changed O one day he saw a teenage girl who looked like she was about seventeen or eighteen girl who was stay at the local hostel, crying When you asked her what was wrong She told him John had abused her, had tried to touch her He also that the hostile owner seemed very worried about people seeing her crying and told her, calm down. Don't do this The girl's own mother told her she was just confused. Right how fucking sad But the girl was adamant that something happened because something did, that she was going to the police. then John showed up two minutes later. told the girl that she was lying and threatened to take legal action against her if she didn't stay quiet And after that, she quote, simply disappeared and never returned Hopefully they did not kill U Ticado left u A a gen on you. two years later fully healed, but was quick to point out, he didn't think that had shit to do with John's spiritual powers Following the first accusations of sexual misconduct, John and his staff made concerted efforts to keep accusers quiet. and visitors continue to come from all over Brazil and some internationally The numbers growing year by year In two thousand one, Australian writer, Robert Pellaggrino Estrich visited and then published The Miracle Man The lifeife story of John of God which was the first English book about John. After this book was published, the costa began attracting people from all over the world Pelleggrino Estrich, a former jewelry shop owner, air traffic controller and supposed Reiki master first met John in nineteen ninety five when he had traveled to Brazil with his wife He described Abajana as a crap hole when he arrived You know what? don I don't love when people say the word crapple. Just a fucking sh hole. Just a shit hole Grow up But John told him, Robert, you will write a book that brings the whole world. Abajana, And so I did Pellgrino Estrech's a book brought in a lot of people from Europe, making him an extremely valuable member of the Casa. I want to add that Robert Pellegrino Estrich Looks like a fucking dip shit. She's got a pencil stash and a fedora And check out this cringy description of a book The the wrote about John John of God is arguably the most powerful medium alive at this time and most surely ranks amongst the greatest of the past two thousand years. A medium as defined by the Oxford Dictionary is a person who is a spiritual intermediary between the living and the dead John not only communicates with sppirit, he incorporates the spirit entity. He is literally taken over by the Spirit and in so doing, lososees consciousness waking a few hours later without any knowledge of his actions during the incorporation Whilst in entity, his body is used as a means of conducting physical surgery and seemingly miraculous healing of the sick by the spirit entities who work through him Gift is not hereditary. It is not a learned technique, nor is it transferable to any other person At the age of sixteen, he accepted the responsibility of devoting his life to sppirit and cororporation for the purpose of healing the sick He accepted a lifelong task that would demand much of him and frequently repay him with abuse, personal deprivation, persecution, and unlawful incarceration To be trusted with such an awesome responsibility requires a strong, moral, righteous, but humble man with unquestionable integrity As if these restrictions and Puritan criteria were not enough He must also provide his service free of charge any to negate the criticisms of skeptics and to ensure that his divine gift is not denied. Dud. ust have been hard to write that book with John's balls in his mouth the entire time he was, you know, putting it all together. Unquestionable integrity. The greatest of the past two thousand years stop. I pictured him showing this to John before we sending it to the publisher and being like, D I do it right, Daddy Is it good enough Am I good boy Daddy? Do you love me the increase in tourism due to this kiss ass's book gave an even bigger boost to Abigano's local economy. Many pilgrims were coming there on two week tours now arranged through travel agents. These tours cost thousands of dollars were approved by John, who, of course, took a percentage a cut. the two operations Casa tour guide, Michael Blot who we met earlier. He would meet with John and local in AKA Pasada owners who would ask foreigners to go back home and do presentations for his healing center that would entice more people to travel to Abujania John wanted more foreigners visiting N Casa because they had more money. Dudes making millions and millions a year, but long enough. Don and his staff also traveled around Brazil to grrift slash heal others elsewhere St started doing that around nineteen eighty At his height, he would draw crowds up to twenty thousand people apparently Allegedly, he even held the president of Peru at some point with some random affliction and the mayors of different Brazilian towns, securing his status as a quote national Treasure the eyes of many While he was doing that, according to former volunteer, Marcellos Tadado, Many staff members and local business owners were fully aware of more and more credible sexual assault allegations being leveled against John. Staduto lived in the Casa for two decades. He said that for most of that time, quote It was the most sublime and spiritual experience I could have ever lived through. He claimed he had many transcendent and sacred experiences. And at first everything was genuine. slowly over time, the costa became more and more commercial. as money started to circulate in town Eventually the cost had a gift shop, a tea shop, It was all about the money According to Stadudo, the people who worked directly with John who later claimed they had never heard about assaults are full of shit They were acting like demagogues and they knew that if their leader went away, they wouldn't have any more power to wield over anybody anymore That sounds about right He said that many, many people knew about the allegations. It was an open secret that went back years. They did not report John because they're all making money off this motherfucker John himself frequently brushed off allegations, would even make jokes about them For example, back in two thousand one, he was captured on videos smiling and saying, John has many flaws L love when people talk about themselves in the third person John has many flos. she's a woman izer 's a trouble maker But I've never ried any Never did surrounded by a group of men he also jokingly said, If I grabbed and raped her, I'd have to marry her because she's young he was also recorded saying, I'm old, but I can still get laid Just not here at the home of St. Ignatius. Oh, wow, spoken like a true spiritual healer and humble servant of God I've had Sain Ignati, told him to say that or maybe King Solomon. Probably King Solomon. That dude had according to the Bible, what was it Seven hundred wives three hundred concubines No one loved to fuck as many women as possible as King Solomon. Dude must have had a real dirty dingus getting that much strange in the days before condoms february tenth, two thousand five, ABC ran a news report about John on Primet Time Live in the US The program featured five people with different medical conditions who had supposedly been healed forever by John of God. quote in the program. The first traveveler was Matthew, Ireland of Gilford Vermont, who was told he had a quick growing inoperable brain tumor Kid undergone radiation and chemotherapy treatments, but almost two years after he was diagnosed, and after three visits to John, his tumor had shrunk Annabelle Sklippa of Boulder, Colorado has not been able to walk since her spinal cord was nearly severed in a car crash in nineteen eighty eight But after six visits with John, she's doing fucking back clips U She says she can now feel sensation in her legs and can nearly balance herself standing between handrails somethingomething her physiotherapist said was unusual 's her type of injur Mary Hendrison of Seattle was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and powerfully debilitating allergies now feels much more energetic There's no way I would feel this way if something hadn't changed inside me, she told Primetime Live Somethings made a difference David Ames of San Fancisco was diagnosed Lou Garr' disease in April two thousand three. His nervous system was slowly disintegrating and faced almost certain death He has had no physical improvement, but says his spirit has gained from his visit. Finally, Pat Sayjack of Chicago, Illinois, diagnosed with a compulsion to push elderly people down stairs, kick puppies off of cliffs, and drink the blood of children. he had met at his quote game show job children he had groomed, kidnapped and then kept in cages beneath his home in his quote kitty town fucklair No, sorry. It's been too long since Pat Sayjack took a random stay here The final person was Lisa Melman of Johannesburg, South Afric who discovered a year ago that she had breast cancer After visiting John, her doctor told her it had grown, although less aggressively than he expected to and that she should still have surgery. ABC later gave an update indicating that two of these five subjects were making slow progress or none at all. two were definitely worse. And one showed minimal improvement No one was healed Subject, David Ames died from complications three years after the program aired, july sixteenth, two thousand eight. complications of his, you know, existing illness, you know, he probably put pepper. on something, mayaybe some paper was't something he didn't realize within for four days of his treatment Lisa Melman's breast cancer got progressively worse She experienced chronic pain until she died in twenty twelve Prad some bacon too soon after her healing, ABC host John Qionees had an inflamed rotator cuff in his right shoulder He submitted to treatment from John's test He was instructed to undergo the invisible surgery, meditate for two days Followed of course by no sex, no pork, no alhol, no pepper and then wait forty days to see results He reported no change in his condition, but he did admit He didn't follow all the instructions. Fucking John, you couldn not jerk off for forty days That would be frustrating actually famamous skeptic James Randy was also interviewed for this ABC report. James Randy, who died on october twentieth, twenty twenty at the age of ninety two was a Canadian American magician, author, very famous skeptic Known to frequently challenge and debunk paranormal and pseudos scientific claims Randy was the co founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and the founder of the James Randy Educational Foundation The dude started off under the stage name of the ammazing Randy, was a very successful escape artist and illusionist for many years. then later chose to devote his time to investigating paranormal claims. He fully retired from Praxing magic at the age of sixty. and then retired from his foundation at the age of eighty seven. Dude wrote ten books. first gained international notoriety as a debunker in nineteen seventy two when he challenged theaim of Jury Geller. claim to be psych very interesting duke. who I admire greatly, who I could do an entire episode on Randy heavily criticized ABC for editing out the most critical comments he had made about John A God. And therefore you know ended up giving John a lot more credibility than he deserved Randy was interviewed inu on january twenty fifth, two thousand five, asked to offer his opinions, observations for the Primetime live broadcasts said he only got a few seconds of airtime in the final production But Randy would criticize John's healing in depth on his website where he would, you know Again, say the things that he wished ABC would have aired He wrote, quote, note to that the John of God organization has set up a situation in which they simply cannot fail If recovery is not experienced by their victims It's not a failure of the magical forces, but the fault of the patient They state that sometimes a person comes to them for a healing too late, so it doesn't happen If a patient doesn't have, quote, the right attitude. or doesn't quote keep the faith the healing will fail. If the rules are not followed, no healing will occur They say that one has to wait at least forty days to see any healing. Well, after the victim has well after excuse me, the victim has left Brazil. and sometimes up to two years have to pass before any effect will be seen. All this is a fail safe scenario, one I've come upon many times in the faith healing racket Racket is the right word. man, I have not come across a single case of a faith healer who, after I've looked into them I didn't walk away thinking that they were nothing but a complete and total morally bankrupt grifter Fucking Benny hin piece of shit That famous supposed faith healer He was hospitalized in March of twenty fifteen for issues related to atrial fibrillation, was treated in a hospital for reducce auction levels Why Motherfucker, why not heal your own heart I proclaim to have healed so many others L at these piece of shit J like Johny God who for decades has worn reading glasses, by the way. Dude can't fix his own eyesight Buts supposed to be able to fix supposed to be able to fix yours. Get the fuck out of here Faith he are wearing glasses, right? That's a dead giveaway that they can't do shit. D give Yeah give it because we see this do every day. everyvery day Im s that onet Faase's healing is a hundred percent drifter's game Back in the day King Solom himself really claimed that he could faith heal then in my mind, he was just as corrupt as the rest. wherever blasphemy and logic collide I choose logic Randy wrote about the spiritual surgeries, quote, the dramatic forceps up the nose stunt, I told a producer, and clearly stated to the camera during the video tape session is an old cararney trick that my friend Todd Robins tells me traces back to the Judahwallas of India and was adopted from their repertoire by an American performer named Melvin Burkhart. First being done on this continent in nineteen twenty six. It's now known as the blockhead trick. And is usually done with a heavy four and a half inch thirty D thirty penny iron nail, tapped up the nose and into the back of the throat, a clear straight path that seems improbable It's performed today by easily more than one hundred performers in carnivals and side showows around the world, and Johnagod simply use it to impress his victims, though he has a far easier time of it by using smooth, nickel plated or stainless steel forceps. And what's on that swab held by the forceps? U Just what is that holy water John of God uses We don't know. Regarding witnesses claiming to have seen with their own eyes, Johnag God pull out diseased tissue from patients of his psychic surgeries Randy noted that he himself had performed a psychic surgery stone trick many times, including once on this night show Johny Cars. She wrote quote It consists of the performer apparently reaching into the body of the personur on the table and extracting bloody lumps said to be tumors That was clearly presented as a trick, and I explained on this night show that it was done by exactly the same means that the fakers in the Philippines are still using it to cheat their victims. Imagine my surprise when Fred Fred D Cordova, the tsonights showow producer, called to tell me that at the NBC TV Los Angeles office alone They had received one hundred two phone calls following the broadcast every one of them asking how to contact the Filipino psychic surgeons. The simple message that they were grrifters had not gotten through evidently It's a slight of hand technique where the surgeon palms the material typically animal tissue using misdirection to make it appear as though the tissue is taken from the patient's body fucking magic trick person isn't even cut oftentimes. It's a card trick, just Goryrier Randy also provided an explanation for John's surgery procedure where he scraped a person's eyeball with the edge of a knife, writing I believe that this is a variation of the usual trick illustrated on page one hundred and seventy seven of my book Flim Flam in which a knife blade is inserted under the eyelid of a subject with little or no resulting discomfort With a Brazilian faker, the scraping motion gives it a much more fearsome aspect. But for several good reasons, I doubt that any contact takes place with the cornea The sclera, the sclera, the white section of the eye is relatively insensitive to touch Try touching that area with a finger or any clean object and you'll see this is true Corneia, however is very sensitive, among the most sensitive areas of the body. Incidentally, it's also the fastest healing organ, which accords very well with Darwinian standards. Being able to see is one of our best sensory means of defense Most persons and I am one of them have a difficult time watching the eye be touched We tend to empathize with the situation, and I am sure that some readers are at this moment involuntarily squinting in distaste as they read these words were that reactive to eyeball touching. ew persons will resist looking away when John of God seems to scrape an eyeball, and I noted that he is furiveully watching the position of the camera as he performs the stunt blocking the view with his body when a close up is sought. another trick A more dangerous one. since he's actually cutting the person's ey a little bit, but still a trick ude's not a healer. he's a fucking cararn Randy also wrote about John bleeding his patients as described here elsewhere An adrenaline rush is often experienced by people who are under unaccustomed stress or sudden shock all familiar with the accounts of soldiers in battle who are wounded in ways that would otherwise cause them great pain and bring an immediate reaction, but they remain unaware of the injury until the stressful conditions are relaxed I've seen this happen with people on stage in front of a faith healer's audience managed to do things that would have otherwise brought great discomfort and pain In the case of John of God's sudden incisions, and considering the relatively insensitive areas he chooses to make these cuts along with the fact that the victims are told to keep their eyes closed, I'm not surprised at the fact that, so far as the Casa de Dominaccio people will permit us to see, the victims show little or no reaction to the cutting procedure. But remember that we are only allowed to see the incision possible subsequent reaction after the cameras are taken away Basically John of God is a showman. kind of hucker who has been around in various forms for centuries. Uh, Joe Nichol Another American skeptic and paranormal investigator wrote about John for a two thousand seven edition of the Skeptical Inquire Journal Nickeol worked with Nat Gio on a segment for their Is it real series The program was titled Miracle Cures and included analysis of John A Godot Nickeol had a ticket to an event hosted by John in Atlanta. When that GeO contacted him, they worked together on their investigation John did not perform any visible surgeries at the event because he would have been arrested for doing that in the states But during the event, Nicol was chosen for an invisible surgery He was wearing a disguise using a cane, right? limping Like Randy, Nickeol explained that the miracles psychic surgeons perform are just slight of hand tumors they remove have been proven to be pieces of chicken intestines and cow blood Accord to Nichill, the twist of forceps up a pilgrim's nose is an old circus and carnival Seshow stunt explained in my book, Secrets of the Sideeshows, lookingking far more torturous than it is. The feat depends on the fact that unknown to many people, there is a sinus cavity that extends horizontally from the nostrils over the roof of the mouth to a surprising distance to accommodate a spike or other implement used in the human blockhead trick So there you go There's the explanation for all of his healing. Just sides showow shit dressed up in the language of spiritism, since his believers already believed in the concept of healing spirits before ever meeting John Spiritism gave him the blueprint for the contextual language to use. Carny tricks gave him the blueprint for performing his miracle healing tricks Now let's move on to Oside of fame and fortune. other primary motivation for John Agot to run his grift John visited Sedona, Arizona in twenty ten. A police department there, the police department there, investigated him after a woman reported that he took her hands and placed them on his genitals case never went to court O of John's associates reportedly encourag wom to drop allegations, probably brib her This case would be the first to really get people talking though about him being a predator U and eventually, you know, people are talking online now, right? The internet's more advanced Eventually a whole bunch of other women. will come and collectively finally take this motherfucker down Let's hear from some of these brave women who spoke out against John accused him of sexual abuse. They shared their stories for the John of God Netflix doocu series They came to the Healiian Center at vulnerable times in their lives when they needed hope and support instead were sexually abused by John who preyed on countless vulnerable women Hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands in twenty ten A stillill in twenty thousand ten, business administrator, Andrea Manelle, was living in Sa Paulo thirty years old married a self described superworkaholic Family had always been one of her most important pillars in life in addition to work. And in August that year, Andrea's mother began to complain of pain for the first time in her life Y mom had never been sick, always taking care of the family. You also naturally, they're very concerned for her And after they consult various doctors and specialists, she is diagnosed with cancer prognosis is looking grim. The family's worried. Andrea's sister had just attended a lecture by holistic therapist and a sharp who mentioned a medium who performed miracles in the countryside So they asked their mom if she wanted to go there. She said yes, because, you know, she's fucking desperate and wants to live It's so sad when you think about how many people visited this piece of shit over the decades, bought his fake pills, underwent bullshit surgeries because they were dying and desperate to live many of them didn't then bother with traditional Wesn medicine? because they were so sure that the great John of God, you know, would cure them This dude's body count probably way higher than any serial killer we've ever covered Andrew said in her interview I think the home has an atmosphere that feels like a peaceful place. Then the volunteers of the home guide you They say some prayers, they explain how the home works Call some people up to share their testimonials So you look at all that and you think to yourself, wow, I can trust this place They arrived in Abajana Tuesday. The next day, they went early to see the medium for her mother's cure When it was their turn, John looked not at Mom directly at Andrea He grabbed her forearm with both hands, stood up. She remembered that she felt afraid. He asked her why she was there. and before she could answer, he replied to her, saying, you're here because your mother has cancer Andrew was so shocked she started to cry John looked at her and said, you have a strong medium ship in you and you can save your mother. Andre're filled a mix of joy, surprise, hope, awe, right? No one ever told her that before. John then asked to talk to her after the session. Andrew said Looking back at some elements now I can see there was something weird about it When he locked the door, that caught my attention But I didn't question Then he asked me if I was wearing something metallic I asked him do you mean prosthetics or something like that? He said, No, arere you wearing any mle I said I had earrings on, a ring, something like that He asked me if I was wearing a bra. I said, yeah. And he said, You have to take it off because I'll do a cleansing and you can't have metal on your body process started with psychological abuse. He begins by telling you a bunch of things like you will heal your mother. Do you want to heal your mother If you want to heal your mother, you have to cooperate because if you don't, do what I tell you, your mother will die. Th then that man who is almost six feet tall, obese, rude, screaming at you, asking you to do something. so you don't question you say, no, I'm not doing it. You think it's weird because he starts violating your body. So you say to yourself, something doesn't add up So at first, when he started to abuse me, I started crying. When I started crying, he asked me do you want your mom to die Then he started yelling, Do you want your mom to die? That left me in a difficult position. and I thought, no, I don't want her to die So you have to cooperate, otherwise you'll die. And you'll be responsible for that because you can heal your mom. Every time that he would touch me, I would cry and every time I would cry, my mom and dad would listen outside. So his cruelty has no limits. He's capable of raping the daughter of a couple who are sitting outside, listening as if it is something ordinary, with no remorse whatsoever He steals away much more than your faith. He steals a lot of things along with your faith. He said, I would be responsible for my mother's death. Who in good conscience would want to bear that responsibility? Who would want to pay the price to see if it's true or not? If he really has the power or not, I was not willing to. That's fucking evil. raping the daughter of a woman dying of cancer while telling her this daughter that if she doesn't go along with it, her mom' going to die Oh my god, right No fate is too bad for this motherfucker. I would be cool with funneling a bunch of hyide beetles into his butth hole and letting them literally eat him from the inside out Not sure that's actually possible It might be and I want it to be When the family return home as Alpolo, were hopeful for mom' recovery. Even Andrew, after being raped by John of God, still thought that he and her together could heal momom. Andrera's mom swept up in all this, believed John had cured her and her tumor had disappeared It hadn't, it was still there, had not decreased in size and her mom was admitted to the hospital for surgery a real surgery hour a half after her surgery, the family gets a call. The surgeon told them, he had witnessed a miracle saying, your mother does not have cancer. She has a benign tumor We have repeated the test three times. She does not have cancer And now the family firmly believes. that John was responsible for transforming the tumor from malignant to benign. I will add the phenomenon of spontaneous regression, rare, but not unheard of. happens all the time with no faith healer intervention Andrew's mother wanted to go back to the Casa after she healed from surgery, so they could thank John. Andrew's father was considering making a donation during their second day at the Casa for the second visit A young woman there approached Andrera asked her to go to the restroom with her. She then asked Andrera if John had ever done anything to her, Andrera was surprised. She said, what do you mean? I don't get Goom asked if John had called her in for a private session he had sexually abused her during that session And was shocked, She recalled, she felt like she'd fallen into a hole in the ground. but she now understood what was happening. She felt outraged, disappointed. How could she fall for the lie when it was so obvious? She went back to the Casa to find John She knocked on his door, tried talking to him. He wouldn't open it. But then she persisted. He opened it. She confronted him. She said you're a pig, you're a piece of shit, you're a son of a bitch How could you do this? He quickly called some assistants, some of his fucking armed goons She saw their guns and she left She thought about reporting him back when he first had thought about it, when he first assaulted her didn't because you know, he's a powerful man But after this other woman told her that she had been victimized also, and then she heard about reports from still more women, she knew it was time to come forward. and she wrote a nine page statement about what happened to her Andrew said in her interview for the Docus sereries, he can't cure anyone. He doesn't have the skill. He does have a structure that makes you believe though Many people endorse him and give him credibility Speakers who promote the home to the taxi waiting for you at the airport to take you to Abyana. to the Basada owners who collect your information. They separate you from your group, your family, putting you in a more vulnerable position. and when you get in line, they give you some water that makes you feel dizzy All this apparatus makes you understand that there is a well structured organization to fulfill mister John or excuse me, mister. well John of Godds, yeah, wishes What's in that water Right, a little bit of LSD Dude's drugging him with something make the whole experience feel more mystical, right? Cloud their judgment. Let's now hear from Rajanni Aruzo. Another survivor Rani came from a cardacist family, raised in spiritism. so she was primed to believe this bullshit She remembered her mom supposly channeling guiding spirits when she was just starting when she was like two years old Spiritism was always part of her household growing up By the time Razani traveled to Abajania, Her father had already been going there for a decade. The last ten years of her life, Johon and Nosa had been part of her family's everyday conversation Her mom had previously undergone several surgeries at the Casa with what she felt were good results And so no part of Rzani doubted that John had magical healing powers When she first went to the Casa, she was looking for spiritual healing Rzani worked a high ranking government job she was being harassed to work. and was at risk of losing her job if she refused to go along with this harassment that is not ever fully explained Exactly what it was. Rzani was obviously looking forward to hearing what John had to say and what she should work on Young and beautiful. He quickly picked her out of the line. At first he was speaking in a low voice to the others, but then he raised his voice. asked what she was doing there. He told her she was a medium, right? This is this fucking little formula. She's a powerful medium. She shouldn't be in line, she be sitting in one of the medium chairs And then after that morning session, after making her feel special, John asked her to see him in his private room. Mania waited about two hours until she was able to go in, once inside. John looked at her, stared intensely into her eyes, somethingomet you did not normally do And then he told her, you've got to cure me. Rzon only replied Who am I? I'm no one And John said, I need your energy and then immediately started to just unbutton his pants Rizzani blocked out a lot of what happened next. She said she doesn't recall much about the assault, but knows, you know, it happened to her Rzani told the producers of the Dcu series, manyany people don't believe it And there are people like me who are actually abused. I know what happened because nobody told me I was there. I was not the entity. I did not feel the energy it was not theery. I didn't feel the energy It was John himself He put his hands on his chakra on his heart As far as I can remember, he started to guide me, directing me, passing through his chakras. I can't remember what happened after he got to the Sacral chakra. I can't because I was hypnotized. So when I woke up, I heard the voice of the entity. It was screaming. It was slapping my hand like this because I was already touching his penis It was screaming, slapping both of my hands like this. It was screaming and saying, not her. How do I explain that to people who don't know about spirituality don't live this reality. Then I asked why me? And he said he didn't know why It Fascinating how she interpreted that through her lens of spiritism Survivor Marina Brito I've been trying to get pregnant for five years, doctors found nothing wrong with her So she sought out spiritual answers When she first met John, he told her she was going to get pregnant, but first the entity needed to see her then the Marine, of course, was sent to the private nce inside, John instructed her to close the door He sat in a chair in the corner of the room, asked to get on her knees in front of him told he was going to treat her so she could get pregnant talking about past lives said she was a powerful medium with strong energy, right? which was destabilizing him. Marina recalled When he told me that, I didn't know anything anymore I was led to do it and I just did it When I came to my senses he had taken his penis out of hisants, grabbed my hand with his hand and held it But while he was speaking, he kept doing this with my hand over his belly on his penis. When I tried open my eyes, he said, Close your eyes. breathe. you're destabilizing me. Y energy is too strong I don't know how long I was there When I left he told me, go back to the chain. I don't know what that means All part of his racket How many times had you already done that to somebody else before? rightight? Hundreds, thousands When Marina returned to the current room started to question, what did it just happened She wondered what she should do, decided to talk to the woman who welcomed her into the Casa She told her that Johny just sexually abused her and showed her his penis, made her touch it Dumman said that if he did do that, that's fine part of the treatment Th these fucuckkingie of sh Marina was not cool with that answer. She showed up at the cas early one morning. soon afterwards when John is having breakfast, she demanded to talk to him and confronted the people who were with him, saying that they knew what happened. They opened the door for her. they let her close it. They were all accomplices John then told her,ote, I'm a sick man He claimed he was under treatment for cancer and she would end up killing him Marina was then moved by compassion towards him and felt an urge to pray He took his hand No Marina Wh the fuck did this guy admit he was being treated for cancer? How did that not set off so many red flags? He's the healer Why would he have cancer? Marin later spoke to John's right hand man. this guy is known as Chico Lobo the main administrator of the home, when she again came to her senses. Sheic had been working with John for about fourteen years this point. He was once a councilman, vice mayor of the little town there. Marina told him that she had been sexually abused by John. She recorded their conversations smart And she captured this guy saying When you come to this world which is the opposite of all you know You must try and understand it better I'm trying to explain the facts. I'm not taking sides Here's a thing It may have happened Look into the biggest mediums in Brazil You'll find some interesting facts They get this kind of radiation we're not exposed to. it's instinct. There's human instinct And there's energy instinct P't prettyty sure that was his way of saying, Lh, calm down all the big mediums, sexually abused people. That's just part of the fucking grift Marina told John that he must be held accountable and that if he didn't do something about it, she was going to come back She went to the police, but they did not seem to take her seriously. They didn't seem surprised by her report either The Chief police a woman told her there was nothing she could do she's probably on the payll Well, John of God keeps sexually assaulted women and not getting in trouble for it, his business grows On november seventeenth, twenty ten, writer Susan Casey published an account of her trip to see John for O magazine which was subsequently covered on the Opra Win for show. The article was titled Leap of Faith John of God And then the episode will beitled, Do You belieelve in Miracles for Fuckake? In the article, Casey discussed her need to deal with the traumatic loss of her father who died suddenly in two thousand eight couldn't escape Tsunami of grief She wondered if John could help her heal Her grief was a physical weight she carried. She said she was angry at the world Casey wrote about witnessing one of the visible surgeries Quote from my vantage point, only ten feet away the change in his body and demeanor was easily visible Now his eyes were more intense, they flashed noticeably darker. His gait became stiffer, his movements more deliberate. He turned to the three women standing against the wall, took the one closest to him by the hand and gently sat her in a wheelchair Her eyes fluttered while Ash Her eyes flted white as she meditated Reaching to the tray, he selected a short knife with a wooden handle, a cheap looking type that you might use to pair an apple with. And held up to the room making sure everyone saw a sharp blade Right likeike a showan. He tipped her head backward, running his hand across her face and he opened her left eye, holding the eyelid wide. and then he began to scrape the knife across her eyeball back and forth with visible pressure Unbelievably the woman sat absolutely still without flinching or recoiling I had a hard time watching this belieieving as I do that the words knife and eyeball should never appear in the same sense After what seemed like an eternity, devoid of trauma, he put down the knife orderly took the wheelchair and steered it into the infirmary as she had the entire time the woman appeared to be napping How on earth could a knife across your eyeball not hurt Later, I would interview another recipient of this treatment Connie Price, sixty two from Jackson, Michigan There was no pain whatsoever, she said of the five minutute scraping I could feel the energy coming through him I remember the heat pouring through the man's body Price found the treatment beneficial I can see a lot better now, she said Casey wrote about the atmosphere of the Casas, saying there are countless DVD's that document the entities performing surgeries, like the three I just witnessed. But somehow they didn't capture the inexplicable aura of calm that permeated the scene P pundents often criticize these procedures as the equivalent of parlor tricks noting that the nasal cavity extends farther than one might imagine. or the scraping a person's eyeball is really no bigal unless you touch the corne But nothing, anybody could write explained to me how it was that none of the women had so much as flinched or how after their encounters with the entities, so many people feel better After watching tape of similar events, Mahet U Mahamette Oz Dr. Oz had his own theory those actions can stimulate aggressive immune responses It may be that what he is doing is tapping into a long lost healing tool that could be effective in treating other conditions. About her own experience, seeing the medium at work, Casey wrote I wish I could tell you I felt something magical when I saw him that when I kneeled down on the pillow at his feet, holding the photo of my father with Heather, author, Heather Cuming, that whack aoodle, translating in the current sitters in white all around me. dazzing bolt of lightning shot down and cleared up every last sorrow Instead, Ielterv And the entity seemed attached Rattling off some instructions in Portuguese, he waveed me away quickly. He said he wants you to take a blessing and then come back later, Heather said, putting an arm around my shoulders Don't worry, this is completely normal The blessing which consisted of a group prayer and took place in an ani room was over in three minutes I felt stunned and somehat disappointed by the brevity of the experience, but Heather was upbeat That's like a spiritual washing machine, she said And he says he will help you She loves to talk about the spiritual washhing machine. In her auto, Casey article, Casey shared more stories of miracle cures One famous story from the Casa is a supposed case of Luise Carlos Nones. former accountant whose tumors were allegedly displayed in the infamous cabinet Louis was supposedly healed of intestinal cancer in nineteen ninety six, but the following year, he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and given three months to live He was not offered chemo He returned to the Casa and John told him. I will help you, my son You'll be healed The cancer supposedly persisted, but Louise didn't die Louise came to the Casa every other month for three years. Each time he would say, Father, there's this problem John always told him, I'm taking care of you. Don't worry On october twelfth, two thousand Louise came to the Casa, was wrapped in a white sheet, John shave part of his head. He made a large incision where growth protruded According to Louise, enormous matter came out yellow and white, a lot of it Th then he got the medical tweezers and pulled out a lot more You rem moved to kind of sack and showed it to me Did't hurt all John cleaned the womoundb with holy water, no stitches were needed Pro because he didn't actually make a wound and Louise was allegedly now cancer free Now how did he do that? Well, some speculate he slapped a Lavelle, thrive, Derma Fusion technology, DFT King Solomon Healing sppirit, brain cancer begone patch on the Wheez's Dome. If're not thving you d of brain cancer Another story Is that of Jeanet L Dia who dealt with recurring cancer for seventeen years. The cancer started in her knee, eventually moved into her bones. No treatment was working. She went to the Casa as a last resort John told her to return twenty one times, and she would be healed. This was difficult for Jeanette. She had to take a forty hour bus ride from the South of Brazil left her weak and naches every time But she did she remain paithful ventually exxcuse me she said she you began to feel better Three years later, the cancer returned to her uterus, and she had to have a hyerectomy. ett returned to the cost, expressed her disappointment, but then John told, donon't be unhppy. I'm going to give you the present you hope for Six years later, with no uterus, she became pregnant Janette said her daughter was born april twenty sixth, two thousand Despite the fact that not only did she not have a uterus, she also had no fallopian tubes And that Never fucking happened literally impossible This is some bullshit, casa propaganda I looked and it couldn' have happened. Lalle does not sell any thrive utero regro smoothies or anything. Casey actually met Janette's daughter. In her article Casey noted that not everyone who visits the cas has healed, sometometimes the staff say healing is spiritual rather than physical. or the recovery is not as fast as expected. You must be willing to change habits and let go of things holding you back. And also no pepper No diddling, no pork, no alcool for days. can' forget that According to Heather Cuming The entities like spiritual obedience Over the years, the entities inside John have made many requests of patients, such as writing books, obtaining a pilots license, telling people to stop smoking weed, Be that causes a dense red aura Oh Oh fuck my aura must be so red Bloodshot is fuck. One day during her trip, Susan Casey attended a festival to celebrate Stain. Ignatius's birthday. She's able to see John with Heather acting as her translator. John took the photo of her father, asked her to sit in his current Totally normal, come sit my current h told Casey he was working on her. and taking care of things or hurt her family Casey sat down and meditated She recalled, quote, immediately I found myself floating in a lake at my family's summer cottage in Canada. It was a familiar place since I was about fourteen. Every night I was there. What fucking drugs is he giving these people Every night I was there, my father would accompany me on an early evening swim driving his boat slowly beside me, making sure I didn't run into trouble or another boat's propeller In the middle of the lake out often stop swimming for a moment and tread water as the sun dipped low, turning the water to bronze and washing the clouds with jewel colors. I would see my father with his golden retriever bare next to him looking out of the lake. place he loved more than anywhere else It was dreamy and beautiful. And instead of sobbing as I'd expected, As I'd expected, I reveled in moments and conversations I'd have with my father I felt asough I was literally reliving them Three hours later when a round of prayers marked the entity's exit at the end of the day, it seemed as if no time had passed When I stood up, I felt shaky and woozy and mellow Well, you were drgg Only weeks after I returned from the Casa would I fully realize how powerful my time there had been How in fact, the grief weighing me down had simply disappeared, replaced by peace Maybe' puttingsilocybid in the water When people would remark that I looked lighter. Some claimed the difference was startling I would hear myself laugh again before I left Abah fucking that town. I would have the chance to speak to Medium John privately While he rested after a long afternoon, his face looking tired but content, and he would tell me I am the happiest man in the world because I believe in eternal life Thanks to Susan Case' G gushing review of John's magical powers. On march seventeenth, twenty thirteen, Oprah's next chapter aired an episode where Oprah herself traveled to Brazil to meet this motherfucker Once there, she interviewed Swedish patient, Magnus Kempey and five Americans who hope to be cured by the medium Bg completely endors Palishit. And I'm not surprised. Oprah has done a tremendous amount of good in the world But her whack aoodle detector Never been great Johny got far from the only dangerous nut who has managed to convince her that they're magical John's global fame reached new heights after the Oprah episodes, but behind the scenes A accusations continue such as one in twenty thirteen involving a sixteen year old girl She claimed that she and her father entered a private room with John who at this point is seventy one years old Once inside, he ordered her to close her eyes and for her father just to turn his back and keep his eyes closed And then over her clothing, he fondled her breasts, her ass, and her genitals Fucking clearly he was getting off on doing that with the dad in the room. She later told her dad and then they went to the police and the case went to court. But the judge ruled that although the victim was vulnerable, it did not explain why she did not react because she was not alone in the room. Why didn't she say something to her dad? Because he's fucking scared and confus The judge said that the acts of the defendant John were immoral It did not characterize a sexual violation and he just was let go Around this time Ca tour guide, Michael Baylott, was growing more and more outraged at what continued to happen behind the scenes In his Dcu Series interview, Michael recounted how his friends wanted to invite John abroad agreed under certain conditions He wanted to bring an entourage of to ten people. All of them had to fly first class. He wanted to stay in a five star hotel. He also wanted to bring a big container of his fucking pasta flour pill bulls shit sell it. He wanted to charge people to come see him for the evening. He wanted to keep every penny of whatever money was spent on him Th terms were agreed to And the first foreign country they visited was New Zealand Bayot was disgusted that his friends were not alarmed by what he knew they were also seen He said that during the healing sessions that the costa, quote, when John sits there, supposing incorporating and says to everybody in the room, You can't open your eyes. Keep your eyes closed The majority of the people in that room have their eyes closed. They don't see what's happening. What's happening in front of everybody, even people standing in the line is that he molest women right there in the line. She goes up to him, he takes her hand, he puts it on his pants, he has an ejaculation. herer hand comes up with semen on it. fucking brazen Bayailoutot's two friends who were afraid to go to the authorities about this, the ones taken New Zealand then we're going to do anything John continued to say that all the accusations were a lie But that if anybody was assaulting women, it was the entity Not him Oh my Godd, he would use the old ventriloquist defense I didn't say that horribly offensive thing. Puppet did Naght puppet Bad puppet What? I didn't touch you I didn' touch you hooha? Wh you're sleeping and that' was Charles Gubman He does your hoo ho. Same man who has his hand in my ass up to the wrist right now Oh, woody where have you been budd Probably drunk Bela started talking to more and more locals, many who said they had no idea about the accusations. Others suggest the John of God's inappropriate touching was, again, a healing technique For fucks sake. they couldn't have made it easier for this dude to do what he did It's like a bad jo This is like literally getting fucked in the ass by your doctor during your annual checkup and then not going to the police because you're like, I don't know. Maybe that's just how checkups go sometimes. I didn't go to medical school. Finally Bela decided he'd had enough He was supposed to pick up a group of forty people to the airport, bring them to the you know, Casa for a tour, but he just couldn't do it anymore in good conscience He wrote a letter informing them that it would not be safe for them to visit that John was a fraud Baylot's email end up getting back to the local Pacada owner who did a lot of translating for the group and that owner showed up one morning, with the letter in his hand printed out He told Baylor or bay lot, excuse me. You don't you don't understand one thing here in Abidjana. It only costs thirty reals for a man to pay to murder another person And that's equivalent to about sixty bucks by the ucking big threat mur's real che Bayon obviously picking up on what to do with laying down talalking to the man went over found his wife, talked to her, and then afraid for their lives, they left town within a week. former accountant Turakoto who we met early in the timeline, said he was also hoping somethingomet would be done that he couldn't do anything himself because John was too dangerous His goons would say things to intimidate people. There are rumors of extortion, threats, even murder. People from town who dislikeed John would rather stay silent than risk going against him Dicota also went in depth on some of the sketchy business dealings that was happening around town. He said John kept a lot of his cash and trash bags that he was stuffed in the ceiling. that depending on the week, the costa would earn twenty five, thirty, forty, even sixty thousand dollars. John had a dozen brand new cars, walked around with two armed bodyguards at all times because he claimed people wanted to assassinate him. A acccording to Takado, the hosts had to pay a monthly fucking fee to John, likeike he's a mafia donon Taxi drivers had to give half their wages to keep operating to him. People who brought tour groups needed John's permission, which they only secured with a bribe. On payday, if people did not have money, Turcado had to tell Claudio the house manager and then he would deal with it Cotter didn't know how, but the money always showed up Donagot had Kos, right enforcers, clearly, you know hired muscle to shake people down The Baylot also noted that multiple Pada owners were instructed to tell John about any troublemakers or people asking too many questions And he was kept informed about any wealthy visitors town. John made a lot of money, you know, to anyone who off of Anyone who expressed interest in crystals tell me get a certain powerful crystal crystal that could cure like cancer, thenen sell it for an exorbitant price. I guess one man from South Africa paid fifty grand for a crystal twenty fourteen, John visited Australia hosted a live event from november twenty second to twenty fourth that year at the Sydney Showground in Sydney Olympic Park got a bunch more media attention. He was claiming to have healed over eight million people now over the course of his life Sessions at the Syney Showground cost two hundred and ninety five bucks for a single appointment or seven hundred and ninety fiveents for three sessions Ahead of his visit, the City Morning Herald published an in depth piece on John and his success The hererald reported that by twenty fourteen, John received almost two thousand visitors a day Almost all of them received a prescription for herbs. The average purchase was about twenty bucks. he's making about forty thousand dollars a day in herbs sales alone. The Herald interviewed forty seven year old Jononna Sue Jones. nosed with AS or Lou Garg's disease way back in two thousand one. She was given three years to live Just seven months after her diagnosis, she needed a cane to walk We tried mainstream medical treatments, herbalist medicine, acupuncture Nothing worked One day, her doctor mentioned that he had just seen a patient who had recovered from stage four lung cancer after visiting some guy in the jungle of Brazil Johon then read a bunch about John God. His supposed miracle cures She told the Herald Once I heard about it, I came straight here traveled to Brazil, arrived in that little town in the spring of two thousand two, was overwhelmed by a sensation of limitless love She recalled that there were tears running down my cheeks I've been a mother, and I experienced joyful moments, but nothing like that. Johnah saw John the following day. He performed a visible surgery where he stuck a pair of forceps, upper nose, right? one of his big tricks jiggling it around until the back of my throat filled with blood. afterfter experiencing severe headache for twenty four hours, quote It was like a il' lifed Like I had a new brain. I wanted to roar like a lion John has said, medium John healed me spiritually physically mentally Pure love, that's what he is purchased land in Abaana. two thousand four, so she could be closer to the area's healing energy would often walk around sheless so she can absorb healing vibrations through her feet. reporter Tim Ellliot was able to go to Brazil, now vit Casa, talk to patients and staff rifly interview John Elliott asked John how these entities came to him and he responded, I surrender myself to the highest being And then the work happens When asked about the sexual abuse allegations He quickly ended the interview. saying I thought you came to talk about me, not other people The reportter was able to ask one final question about the alleged misappropriated funds that were used to renovate his home as he walked away. And then John went into a long rant, said he was not a thief that people who accused him of things were thiefves sixty minutes Australia, which I love, by the way. They do great investigative journalism. aired a critical investigative report october twenty fifth, twenty fourteen examining John's healing practices, how much money he was making, raising questions about sexual assault allegations This was actually a follow up to a nineteen ninety eight investigation done by reporter Liz Hayayses And part one of the follow up, host Michael Usher revealed to a woman who is declared cured by breast cancer by a spirit entity died a few lers, years later of cancer in two thousand three B backack in nineteen ninety eight, a woman with MS said she visited the Healing Center with the expectation of walking again. But in twenty fourteen, she was in a wheelchair condition greatly deteriorated trip to the healing center cost for five grand Asher noted that none of the forty Australians who made the trip to Brazil in nineteen ninety eight that they interviewed This trip that Liz Hayes joined actually improved when you really dug into their medical records. An Australian doctor who traveled with the crew to the compound in Brazil was horrified by what he saw. He said the modern medical world could not condone this behavior in any way whatsoever Michael Usher said ahead of John's e I can understand people's faith I can understand how powerful hope is What I cannot tolerate is someone like John Faria taking advantage of people who only have hope left I would say personally, do not go and see him It will be a waste of money. You will walk out of there hundreds of dollars out of pocket and be none the better for it two of the investigative report Usher noted that there had recently been two deaths at the Casa that had warranted investigations, but no one had been charged, right? Bribes again, I'm assuming sixty minutes interviewed, John for their episode, but the interview was cut short when Usher started to ask about business dealings John's employee told him that those questions were not on the approved list I should then ask John if he sexually assaulted anyone and asked about a sexual assault complaint lodged in the US. that one from Sedona, Arizona John ended the interview, then actually said to Usher's translator, Yes, your mother. when she asked him if he had abused other women Jesus. John soon returned and demanded to see the tape of the interview. But sixty minutes was like, get the fuck out of here. They refused to give it to him Yeah, dude, you're not actually powerful outside of that little town Still, operations continue to Casa as normal But in just a few years. It would all that long last, come to an end when dozens of women came forward to publicly accuse John of sexual assault in a way that could no longer be ignored or suppressed many more women would follow December of twenty eighteen, now seventy six year old John Aot. accused of sexual abuse, rape, and pedophilia by more than two hundred women two hundred accusers, women who did not know each other, women who did not commiserate before they made their accusations, women decades apart in age, telling eerily similar tales of sexual abuse that had gone back many, many years On december eighth, twenty eighteen, the talk show Cversa Combel H hosted by journalist Pedrob Beel. revealed that multiple women had provided exceptionally similar accounts of unwanted sexual advances These women said they were groped, forced to rub Johns generals after being summoned to his private room for spiritual cleansings Four women accused John of abuse during the deecember eighth broadcast on air. The investigation was led by journalist Camila Appell. started when Pedro Ball considered doing an interview with John of God. Pell looked into him to understand why he had such widespread support. She spoke to an acquaintance who lived in Aba Giania The source was reluctant at first, but then agreed to talk when Pedro Bal gave up on doing an interview because he didn't believe in John's healing powers and the Aainans introduced Appel to several other women who all accused John of sexual abuse now Zahira Len Ki Mouse The only woman who agreed to be identified by name on the show She explained how she traveled to the clinic to heal her trauma from prior sexual abuse, my God I heard about John from a friend saw the Oprah documentary, thought if Oprah signed off on him, he must be good. During her visit, she was summoned of course, for a private consultation Once they were alone, John placed her hands on his penis and instructed her to move them After that, he invited her to choose a gemstone from his cabinet. And then during a second encounter He forced her to have anal sex kept silent for four years, but then went public on Facebook before appearing on the show. She said, I always thought I was the only person I was in my own emotional prison When I realized I was not alone, I realized I was probably I realized it was probably still going on and I had to go public Another witness on the broadcast was American spiritual guide Amy Bianc who took groups of foreign visitors to Abajan Yam In the early two thousands, Bianc claimed she walked in once on a woman being forced to perform oral sex on John She said she then received multiple death threats from his fucking goon squad december tenth, twenty eighteen, dozens more women came forward with reports of sexual assault They spoke to news organizations and the DA's office of the State of Goyos. which set up a task force now finally In a day and a half after the talk show broadcast, the task force received seventy eight complaints Investigations suggested the abuse started in the nineteen eighties, if not earlier, and occurred in and outside of Brazil Dude was doing this shit like his whole life, He constantly Hold adult life. The staff at the Caston now scrambled to cover their own asses. They thought maybe things would calm down after initial flurry of reports, the problem work itself out but it escalated Some of the volunteers were conflicted. They did not know what to believe because they hadn't personally all witnessed anything, or so they claimed are the task force madeade up of five prosecutors Prosecutor Paticia Otani said, we have a serious challenge ahead. We want to show the victims that they can trust us, that even someone who is famous and internationally admired can be investigated. But we also need to analyze each complaint before rushing to conclusions The number of complaints Led, the prosecutor's office set up an email address and a phone line. and in just thirty hours in early deecember, twenty eighteen, they received over two hundred complaints from nine states and another two claims from abroad Some of the women were as young as fourteen When they were sexually abused, one woman claimed she was abused for three straight days John lawyered up, once he you realized the severity of the situation H representative, Mario Rosa said the accusations had taken on a lynch moop quality It's like this person is being turned into a villain for the world to see Uh ye Yeah, dude that's how its supposed to work when the person is a villain december twelfth, twenty eighteen, the public prosecutor called for John's arrest deecember fifteenth, John is declared a fugitive after missing his deadline to surrender to authorities A warrant issued for his arrest. He is not found in twenty different locations searched by the police. Several newspapers report that John withdrew about eight point nine million US dollars from several bank accounts on december twelfth Cvincing authorities, he was planning to flee the country or hide the money in case of future compensation claims Right, He fucking knows this is not going to go well for him. Which is crazy because why can't he just have all his spirit guides Come to his defense, helpel out Why not just get all his best dead lawyers? R the world's best at lawyers to help with his defense n december sixteenth, John surrenders himself to the police on a dirt road near where he had been hiding in Abujinano. Abijan The arrest was recorded. John said that when heard the allegations, quote, I surrendered to divine justice and is promised I now place myself in the hands of earthly justice. John told his followers before leaving I thank God for being here. I'm still John of God But I want to observe the Brazilian law. I'm in the hands of a Brazilian law. John of God is still alive May God's peace be with you storyro. After the arrest, police conducted search warrants on John's properties. Aording to one prosecutor, half the drawers in his house had false bottoms Elevator went down to a secret floor with a panic room Police found six guns, one with a serial number filed off sees cash equivalent to three hundred thousand US dollars and over a hundred pieces of what appeaar to be quite valuable jewelry. Reports continued to come in throughout December of twenty eighteen. One of the victims who came for it was John's own daughter Dalva, Texera S sus She accused her father of beating and raping her for several years until she home ran away from home the age of fourteen Why are these guys always so fucking horny Iteels like this guy was just fucking or forcing hand jobs from numerous women around him onn a daily basis like many times a day And doing that when he was in his sixties and seventies still I'm in I need to get my sex drive checked out I'm just not nearly that horny And I'm not even fifty. and I love sex, right? Lindsey's very sexy, but like, you know, a good movie, TV show, those are also fun Working on stuff is cool Have a nice meal is fun, sitt in hotubs nice Jon G's Lbito somehow just got stuck att the level of like a fifteen year old boy who just can't stop jerk enough In her D dou sereries interview, Dalve remembered living with her mom, brother and stepfather, had a good life together. She didn't meet her biological father, John until she was nine He promised he would pick up within a week so we could send her to school At first, she said she thought her dad was like a prince But she later learned quote He was as good as he was evil He had a different kind of care towards me. He was very jealous He wouldn't let me have any friends. When I was nine, almost ten That's when he abused me for the first time. Just right away started Just zero sexual boundaries for that slimy piece of shit. Go, but beetatles, go, eatem alive twenty eighteen sounded not the first time Dalva had told her story Two years earlier, she reached out to a journalist and radio host, Diago Mendes told him she enjoyed his show had a story to tell him. In her interview, she described the severe physical and sexual abuse she had suffered at her father's hands She said that in one incident John approached her with a candle, asked her to scratch the wax with her nail. Dalva asked why, and her dad told her he was performing spiritual work with her through Sain. Ignatius of Lola. Fucks ache He then removed her clothing and his clothing and molested her for hours In her docum series interview, Delv revealed that her father sex abuser for the first time, right when she was not quite ten years old. At the age of fourteen, she started to date the man who would become the father of her children without John's knowledge. John was infuriated when he found out. he asked Alla if she was pregnant and then quote, trampled me down all over my belly. beat her with a cattlerog Then apologize and ask forgiveness Wek after that, he forced her to get married. Then the following month wanted her to known the marriage because he's fucking insane Dalva decided to stay with her husband She had kids with them of the aggees of fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, then got divorced a year after her third child was born Holy shit. Three kids and an ex husband by the age of seventeen. Dad did a number on her, that mother fucker. She explained that she and her husband fought off and she only married him to get away from her dad. She said she spent years of her life then trying to run away from John. who told her, If you're not mine, you lose your children, your house, you lose everything you have And she did lose nearly everything because of John There was a time when her kids had nothing to eat but bread, water and sugar Seeing her kids crying and hungry, she called her ex's husband told him that she was sending the kids to him. She told her ex that she needed time to get back on her feet. She agreed to keep custody And then she didn't see her kids for eight years. Dcribbe that phase of her life as Rck Bottom One day she hitchhiked, you know to Abigjana because she had no money John, of course, found out she was there asked her for her forgiveness, told her things would be different this time She tried to stay away from him, but he lured her in by promising to give her what she wanted most, her kids back. She agreed to stay U with her dad because she wanted to be with her children more than anything else And then John Wned her that in exchange for this, she would quote have to be mine And the sexual abuse started up all over again Fast forward to twenty sixteen, when Dalv's son, Pallo wanted to press charges now against his grandfather on his mom's behalf who tried to bribe him so he would dismiss the case. John asked his other sons to go after Dolva even offered her a house in financial assistance in exchange for her dropping her suit against him Dol encourag journalist Thiagogo Mendees not to publish a story in twenty sixteen because John had too much power She worried that if he published it, John would have him killed And you waited now until the time was right and then distributed the material to the press once the story broke. by twenty eighteen. A Dg was living in Sao Paulo Nve not seen her kids, you know, for six years, started using drugs, trying and forget her problems And then John Fououndnder brought her back to Abujana put her in a clinic One day his lawyer asked Alva to record a video denying everything that had happened to her She knew that if she wanted her kids to be safe to get them back. She had to make the video What she did, it was released in december twenty eighteen While stroking her father's head, she said in the video, I want to say to everyone that this sweet man. next to me has never committed any sexual abuse with me He has never left me unassisted nor my kids, my siblings, my nephews and nieces What you're doing him is unfair It's all about money I'm sorry for everything, Dad A. decemember twenty sixth, twenty thousand eighteen. John is indicted for rape by deception and accused of abusing hundreds of women. Prosecutors reveal that the investigation began when they were approached by one of the most recent victims The thirty nine year old woman reported that on october twenty fourth, twenty eighteen, John invited her into his office for a private session at T Casso then he turned off the lights and sexually abused her. By the end of December, almost six hundred women Ranging in age from nine to sixty seven Nine reported that they'd been abused byndon John. So obviously, not just women, girls and women U six hundred claims it all the way back to nineteen ninety six. Unfortunately, the statute of limitations of six months limited the product. That's fucking crazy Six months statute of limitations That limited the prosecutor's ability to investigate these claims But they still encourage women to come forward Dalva could not have her father criminally prosecuted because of the statute of limitations with her, but did file a civil suit against him january ninth, two thousand nine, a judge ruled that John would face trial on charges brought by four of the women He was accused of raping two of them using fraudulent means to sexually abuse the other two O of Joh's attorneys, Alberto Terone speculated that the accusers were after profits saying Lint jans are always potentially unjust and lead a society to find scapegoats and individuals betteretter in Portuese. Behind the scenes, many of the survivors were supporting each other with a WhatsApp group Prosecutor Gabriella Monsur created the Justice Wears a skirt Institute and survivor Andrea Manneelli was appointed director of communication and content to help sexual abuse survivors cope with all this shit Justice wears a skirt helps women get back on their feet and recover after surviving sexual abuse On july twenty fourth, twenty nineteen, John's defense team announced they had left the case Alberta Tarrone said he left the case with a heavy he Jhn experienceced an economic strangulation Okay, so you guys knew you weren't going to get paid what you wanted and the c case was doomed. Got it while preparing their case against John. prorosecutors tried to get his right hand man Chicolobo cooperate with him But then he mysteriously died. In the spring of twenty eighteen after refusing help december nineteenth, twenty nineteen, John is sentenced to nineteen years and four months in prison for four rape charges L life in prison sense, basically for a seventy seven year old man A lawyer said that they plan to appeal As for House arrest with electronic monitoring. He still faced additional charges related to ten sex crimes. Over three hundred women had already pressed charges against him, But again, statute of limitations expired in many of these cases. In Brazil, a defendant is allowed to give their side of the story after victim impact statements and John's statement lasted an hour and a half im he didn't remember any of the women who accused him because it wasn't him. it was S spirit. Oh, I was just a puppet. Damn you horny Solomon. You fucking set me up january twentieth, twenty twenty Joh was sentenced to an additional forty years in jail, bringing the total sentence to sixty three years and four months cost continued to receive visitors, ith no leader, the numbers dropped off exponentially Cost was still being run largely by unpaid volunteers, of course M people being gifted March of twenty, John is temporarily put on house arrest at the start of the pandemic due to age and poor health Wek Fuck that poor health he's healer. Tell him to just have his spirits fix his ass up, then leave him in a cell. prosecutors appealed that decision During his house arrest, he was interviewed by the for the Netflix doccus series He was asked what he had to say about the accusations and he responded Everyone who preached the Wordd of God were nailed to the cross. Even his son was nailed to the cross. If he went, why would notie? What I told the authorities is what happened, not what people are saying Oh man, the old Jesus was persecuted too bullshit That's a fuckingired old st I hate that one about as much as the Yeahah, but Einstein also struggled in school.uh? Yeah, you did But exception to the rule. People, not the rule Einstein struggled in class, even though he was genius, doesn't mean that you're a genius if you struggled in class It's just like you're probably not Christ likeke. if you are being persecuted You might just be a stupid asshle John was asked what he thought would happen to him and he answered At this moment, I truly believe in the authorities I put my life in the authority's hands. I put my life in God's hands I am conscious that God But he didn't september fifteenth, twenty three John is sentenced to another one hundred and eighteen years, six months and fifteen days in prison for rape, rape, via fraud, and rape of a vulnerable individual U this ruling combined seventeen additional cases Even though that statute of limitations was so fucking narrow, but you're just raping so many people. She was also ordered to pay damages of twenty thousand five hundred, seems very low Uh, there have been other convictions Currently, all of John's cumulative prison sences add up to four hundred and eighty nine years and four months in prison Spirit guides have remained strangely silent When it comes to questions over how they're going to get him out of this fucking mess And now let's get out this timeline. Good job, soldier. You've made it back Ban Soow, Txera, Dfara. John of God will not die a free man. also will not be punished nearly enough for what he did. And his story in some ways started long before he was born back in Hydesville, New York in march eighteen forty eight teeenenage girls, Maggie and Kate Fox claim they were talking to his spirit through making noises, It sounded like somebody rarapping their knuckles against a waller table That led to a seance craze which became known as spiritualism, which then led to spiritism. which then blended with Catholicism, a lot of isms, down in Brazil which led to people growing up believing that spirits regularly communicated with the living, and that some people could use those spirits to heal others, which led to Chico Zavier, claiming that spirits wrote a bunch of books through him, books that influenceced and provided the blueprint for John of God to run his grift in many ways retty crazy butterfly effect, right But what about the people who claimed that John of God truly did heal them miraculously Making the impossible possible such as that woman who had her uterus surgically removed, still getting pregnant. Well, not a single one of those claims have ever been scientifically verified, notot fucking what There is no medical record of that woman or any other woman in history Definitely having her uterus removed, then definitely getting pregnant later while having no uterus still because that is fucking impossible That can't happen justust like someone who's blind cant become an NFL all pro quarterback or safely race a motorcycle down crowded street Likewise, faith healing has never been scientifically proven to cure diseases or injuries through supernatural means. However powerower of belief has been proven to accelerate healing in some cases A large body of scientific research has suggested that the power of belief often expressed through placebo effect, mindfulness, and or spiritual practices can significantly influence healing by triggering biological changes and the faith system does not seem to matter It's not about Christianity or Hinduism or Islam or Judaism or some new age stuff It's about really, truly, powerfully believing that your prayers and under your beliefs, etcetera can heal you The mind body connection is real. powerful And maybe there really is something mystical, magical or even spiritual and celestial to it all through it I actually believe there is but how exactly it works H has yet to be proven A lot more research is needed. And one day I bet it will be figured out, but that day is not today. We do not know spirits can truly help heal us, but we do know for sure that grifty grimey motherfuckers like John of God are real and that they will for sure nefariously take your money and possibly do much worse to you than that Be careful Be careful, right? Protect yourself. Protect your loved ones in their most desperate and vulnerable moments for making a bad situation worse by falling into the clutches of these sick selfish predatary fucks Predreditory You know what you know what I me T time for the takeawways Time suuck T five takeaways Number one, I will never be able to consistently pronounce words correctly. Number one Acording to Lend sixteen year old John taken shelter under a bridge, when the spirit of a beautiful woman appeared before him and directed him into a nearby church he fell asleep he woke up to find a crowd of people gathered around him And he was told that while unconscious, the entity of King Solomon entered his body, performed healing miracles, and that marked the start of his career as a traveling healer. And that story is just as real as that one time I scored one thousand points in an NBA all star game while being guarded by Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Jquil O'Neil at the same time Number two In the seventies. John set up his home base in the rural Brazilian city of Abajana Started off with nothing more than Joh, a chair and an open road but it eventually expanded into a full compound that hosted visitors from all over the world who came seeking spiritual and physical healing John offered multiple treatments for visitors popular product was Pasaflora capapsules which he infused with a personalized spiritual prescription or didn't but said he did This was his biggest money maker, earning him upwards of ten million dollars a year at the height of his business also offered invisible surgeries. allowing entities inside of him to work with the power of meditation supplied by other visors, right? That spirit gas The other option was a visible surgery where the entity would heal by cutting the flesh, scraping the eye, or shoving forceps up the nose to remove things like tumors But really fucking just pulling out magic trick, chicken, fucking liver bullshit Skeptics have debunked these techniques as nothing more than impressive carnival tricks Number three John claimed that numerous entities could enter his body at any time perform miracles. There was of course, King Solomon from the Bible as well as gnacious Lyola Founder of the Jesuit Order, and Oswaldo Cruz, a physician who helped eradicate Yellow fever. Number four in December of twenty eighteen. The National talkalk showh. Conversa Combial. aired interviews with women who were sexually abused by John They recounted how they were groped and forced to rub John's genitals or worse after being summoned to his private room for a spiritual cleansing Dozens more women came forward to news organizations in the DAs office, prompting an official task force. Within days hundreds more women came forward. and John would eventually be convicted of enough crimes to be incarcerated for the rest of his life Number five, new info How God's healer? gets healed In twenty fifteen, John would experience health issues that would force him to choose between faith healing and modern medicine You you want to know what one you chose? I bet you can guess. Yeah modern medicine. John complained of stomach pain to his cardiologists and yeah, you had a cardiologist He underwent an endoscopy that revealed a tumor in his stomach and then had a ten hour surgery and went through chemo He was cured by modern surgery and modern drugs. He did not initially report his diagnosis and treatment to the public for obvious reasons, claimed he was hositalized only for hernia, which is still weird When the truth eventually came out and he was asked why he didn't just heal himself, he replied, quote What Barber cuts his own hair And you know what That's pretty funn I'll give him points that answ Time suck, top five takeaways The John of God, ghosts, grrift, and psychic surgery has been sucked Thanks to the Bad Magic Production team for helping making time suck. Thank you to Queen of Bad Mag, Lindseay Cuminons, doing so much shit running our lives so I can focus on this stuff Thanks to Logan Keith, helping to publish this episode desesigning Merch for the store at badmagicproductions d. comot And thanks again to Olivia Lee for more great research Also thanks to the Allsen e, who continue to moderate the cult of the cururious private Facebook page. The modod squad m sure your Dcord keeps running smooth. Everybody over in the time sucks subred it and bad magic subred it. so many awesome folks. And now let's head on over to this week's Tim sucker Updates. Get your time sucker updates Unintentional cringey corker Adam S send a message to Bo Jjangles to Tesick podcast dot com. with the subject line of fun with Commonss Law Was it fun I don't know if it was funn at Now for Adam He wrote, Hi Dan, new sucker here. I've beeninging time suuck, binge time suuck, excuse me like a madman for the last four months after randomly discovering it in Febrary. Oh thank you. I love the Time suucker updates, especially the Cummonss Law reports, but I never thought it would happen to me. I'm a forty two year old man, My field is mostly female dominated, including a lot of younger women I generally get along well with everyone and work really hard to be a professional and not make anyone uncomfortable 's awesome Inespite my best efforts, there are some women who are slower to trust men and honestly I get it, given all the violent and pervy dirt bags out there who are overwhelmingly male which is true Anyway, there was a new coworker, female early twenties who has been very slow to warm up to me But recently, I felt like we had a breakthrough and actually had some good conversations Well, yesterday I was listening to the Bill Cosby suck when I walked into work She was standing right by the door, and as I took my earbuds out and approached her to say hello, The podcast resumed playing on my phone speaker at full volume while you were talking about how much raping Cosby did tried to explain what the podcast was about, but the confusion and disgust in her eyes made it clear she did not care Iess you just can't win them all day Thanks for all the free entertainment and making my life more interesting. two out of three stars. Wouldn't change a thing. Yourre loyal me sack Adam. Adam, two out of three stars. Oh man, my ratings it iss droppingur Here's how you fix this Next time you see here. I doal with when no else is around Just tell her that you're disgusted by Cosby and that you don't think it's any it's okay, excuse me It's not okay for anyone ever raped that much. And then just stand there and don't say anything else. And that'll probably fix everything up nicely No no, don't do that. don't do that You might you might have to give that lady a lot of space for a while A long while, maybe forever don't ever talk about rape Rounder ever again. Nots what you werereking about. D' don't You know what I mean? Sorry, but not sorry because your story really cracked me up And next up, super sucker, Domy sent in a super gay message She wrote Dear Director Dan of the Denitarium It is I. So and an sin starts with it is I, by the way It is I, the gay from the First state I've emailed a little bit with Lindseay via scared to deeath emails where I literally shared photos of my first born, because that's normal to do with's your favorite podcast, right My wife and I are from Delaware and I have force fed her bad magic podcast for the past few years to the point where she wishes Whipple was a real drinko, fuck y out. My real life Lucifina is on the right in the photo in our signature. Anyways, I saw this trailer and immediately yelled, I have the power and felt the need to rel listen to the DND episode Do you think you' go see him man? Trade a link is here