I just returned from a two-week trip to Abadiana, Brazil, where I once again experienced the phenomenal healing powers of John of God.I traveled with my wife Anita, where we stayed at the Pousada Caterinense, a five-minute walk from the Casa de Dom Inacio de Loyola. It is at the Casa that John of God provides healing to anyone who comes every Wednesday through Friday.For the first week and a half, Anita and I were the only Americans at the Pousada.

We ended up making friends with quite a few people that included six Australians, six Swiss, a Norwegian, a Dane and a large contingent of French.There were also a handful of Brazilians speaking Portuguese who were staying at the Pousada as well. For the cost of approximately $60 per day, the Pousada included a small room including hot shower and toilet along with three delicious meals. When the meals were ready, one of the cooks would walk around the Pousada chiming a bell to let us know that the food was ready to eat.Every meal included fresh fruits such as papaya, bananas, pineapple, watermelon and oranges along with freshly baked rolls and cheese for breakfast, while lunch and dinner included a table of fresh salads along with a buffet of eight hot dishes including beans and rice, a variety of sautéed vegetables, pasta, chicken and beef, occasional fish, and various casseroles and soufflés.There was always desert, which included cakes and various Brazilian puddings and mousses.It was the most delightful and healthy eating experience that we have ever had. There were many people there with all kinds of infirmities. Two people in our Pousada were blind or sight impaired, one young woman was autistic, one young man had suffered brain damage and could not communicate or walk, one of the Australian pharmacists had an aggressive brain tumor, two people there were suffering advanced progressive Lyme disease symptoms and those were just the ones that we knew about.We spent a lot of time at meals getting to know the Australians and the French Swiss, who we discovered actually speak fairly good English.The Swiss live in Geneva, a place we hope to visit sometime in the future.The Abadiania community is very quiet and fairly poor.Most people ride bicycles and there are very few cars, with the exception of the small taxis that drive-by occasionally, taking people to and from the Casa. While there is an Internet café, most of the Pousadas are now Wi-Fi enabled. We brought our laptops with us and were able to get some work done during the days John of God was out of town.The pace in Abadiania is very slow and lends itself to healing.This is not a tourist destination. This is a place to come to truly recharge your batteries.We did a lot of reading, sitting in cafés and enjoying Acai smoothies, resting in our beds and having long meals with friends.

The three days a week that John of God is at the Casa are filled with a frenzied activity.There’s a morning session and an afternoon session.If you’re going to be sitting in the current rooms meditating for up to 3-4 hours at a time, you need to be there by 7:45 a.m. or 1:45 p.m. for the afternoon session. This is the place where you connect to Source and do your very best to emanate healing loving energy from your heart. As 200 to 300 people each session bring their focus to their heart center, a powerful collective field is created that like a spiritual battery, enables John of God to bring through him the spirits of light and love to do the healing. He never asks for any money and accepts everyone who appears before him.As people gather together in the covered outdoor great hall every morning and afternoon session, lines are called into formation depending on whether or not you have seen him before or if you’ve been slated for a spiritual operation or invisible surgery. Other activities related to and often directed by John of God include visiting the sacred waterfall for purification and cleansing about half a mile away as well as laying under an array of specially configured crystals that are located above each of your major chakras as they alternate different colors of light to balance your energy body and bring into harmony any imbalances that are energetically compromising your health and well-being. John of God asserts and many people corroborate that sitting in the current room as well as laying under the crystal bed baths enable you to experience remarkable healings through the agency of the compassionate spirits that work through John of God. It is all rather mysterious yet everything there is working synergistically to help you to heal on whatever levels are needing to come back into balance.If you can afford the time off and the price of the airline ticket, the stay at a Pousada is actually very cheap since the exchange rate with the Brazilian Real is quite favorable (about 1.8 Reals to 1 American dollar). The Brazilians that we met are warm, friendly and generous.This was also the case with everyone else that we met at our Pousada. The first time you go, it is a good idea to contact a trip facilitator who will be your guide for that first two weeks.That’s what I did the very first time. Subsequent trips I did not need a guide and at the Casa, there are translators at each session to assist you to articulate your requests for healing specific issues as you come up in front of John of God.

As is always the case, it will take a while to integrate all of the experiences that I had during those two weeks.Overall, it was a wonderful and deeply healing experience.If you are interested in reading more specifically about some of the things I have experienced in the past, you can click the link on my website that says John of God where I go into greater detail.

Howard Brockman

August 17, 2010