MFM Presents… Two-Faced: John of God

Summary

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My Favorite Murder Presents… Two-Faced: John of God

Episode 1: “The Last Hope”
Release Date: February 13, 2026
Hosts: Karen Kilgariff & Georgia Hardstark (Intro)
Featured Journalist/Host: Martina Castro
Podcast Network: Exactly Right & iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

In this gripping introduction to the new limited series “Two-Faced: John of God”, journalist Martina Castro explores the astonishing rise and secret abuses of João Teixeira de Faria—known globally as the Brazilian spiritual healer “John of God.” The episode investigates why so many, from celebrities to the desperate and dying, placed their faith in him, and how faith, hope, desperation, and a charismatic leader converged to create a cult-like phenomenon that would later be shadowed by allegations of fraud, abuse, and trauma.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. John of God’s Supposed Miracles and the Phenomenon of Faith Healing

• Opening Scene: An unsettling description of an “invasive medical procedure” performed by John of God (João), where scissors are inserted deep into a patient’s nose in front of a crowd ([02:48]).
  • “He then shoves the scissors all the way up his patient’s nose and starts twisting them like he’s unscrewing the top off a bottle...[the] patient is grimacing...not making a sound...a tiny stream of blood...” – Martina Castro ([04:05])
• John of God claimed to channel the spirits of deceased doctors to heal people’s serious medical conditions including cancer and paralysis, often performing dramatic physical “surgeries”—and even more “invisible” treatments for the crowds ([06:10]).
• Faith and belief are foregrounded: people came from around the world, including public figures and celebrities (Oprah among them), desperate for hope when conventional medicine failed ([06:26], [07:48]).

2. Personal Accounts: Why People Sought Out John of God

• Ana Paula’s Story: A lifelong “spiritist” from Brazil, tried to save her father from terminal brain cancer after doctors gave up. Moved by stories of miracle cures, they traveled to John of God’s “Casa” in rural Abadiânia, a town transformed by his presence ([11:00], [12:00]).
  • “My father had just become a grandfather and he wanted to see his grandson grow up. And so we went to Abadiania.” – Ana Paula via Martina Castro ([12:10])
• Michael Bailot (American visitor): Witnessed what he called “real miracles,” like people cured of cancer or suddenly able to walk. Became an Abadiânia tour guide to help other foreigners make the trip ([13:08], [13:55]).
  • “This is real. This guy’s actually doing surgery and it’s a miracle. I never believed that miracles were real until that point.” – Michael Bailot ([13:46])
• Different visitor motivations are revealed—from terminally ill patients to “spiritual tourists” seeking transformation ([14:52]).

3. Abadiania: The Setting and Rituals of John of God’s “Casa”

• The town is described as unremarkable except for its draw as a pilgrimage site ([12:18]).
• Every Wednesday, hundreds arrive by bus, all dressed in white (sometimes barefoot)—a requirement said to enhance spiritual “energy” absorption ([19:28], [19:49]).
  • “The vibe there was just a wonderful vibe. I used to say it was a little piece of heaven on earth.” – Ana Paula ([19:28])
• Visitors pass through a three-room ritual process:
  • First Room: Collective prayer and meditation to “detoxify” and prepare the spirit and body ([23:04]).
  • Second Room: The actual audience—queue to see John of God, described as almost theatrical ([24:09]).
    • “He sits at the head of this room surrounded by crystals and followers...usher people toward him...” – Tim Elliott ([24:09])
  • Third Room: “Invisible surgeries”—spiritual healing en masse, no touch necessary ([31:27]).
  • Prescriptions of “blessed” herbs and holy water are given (all items identical, claimed to be individualized by spirit blessing) ([31:27]).

4. Atmosphere of Belief, Hope, and Community

• The structure of the ritual and the collective energy amplify the sense of group belief, making skeptics start to question their doubts. The “energy” was palpable ([24:40]).
  • “You can feel if you have hundreds of people meditating in one room, there is an energy.” – Tim Elliott ([24:40])
• Visitors report sensations in the ritual—aromas, peacefulness, music, and a profound sense of community ([25:17]).

5. Cracks Appear: Signs of Exploitation and Abuse

• Ana Paula describes being treated with special favor—gifts and invitations—due to her father’s prominence ([32:24]).
• She recalls a chilling moment when she was called alone to João’s office, he locked the door, and she felt “something was not right.” She complied, trusting it was a spiritual treatment for her father ([33:50]).
  • “As soon as I entered, not only did he close it, but he locked it with a key. At that moment I felt bad.” – Ana Paula ([33:50])
• The episode hints at darker truths, to be explored more fully in future installments: intimidation, fraud, sexual abuse, and mysterious deaths ([09:15], [09:44]).

6. Reflection on Faith and Manipulation

• Martina Castro reflects on faith: what leads desperate people to trust miracle workers, and how long we “hold and keep that faith even when we can feel something is not right?” ([08:40]).
• Future episodes promise a closer examination of how João built his reputation, amassed power, and created a culture of silence, manipulation, and abuse ([35:25]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• The Power of Faith in Desperation
  • “You’re playing with your belief because you really want to live. All you have is faith.” – Martina Castro ([07:58])
• Confronting the Collective Experience
  • “After a while, I was like, well, can all these people be wrong? Like, is it possible? Maybe, maybe they’re right. Maybe they have been saved.” – Tim Elliott ([20:30])
• On the Atmosphere in Abadiânia
  • “It was peace, delicious aromas, fresh air, very pleasant music and meditation music...a little piece of heaven.” – Ana Paula ([25:17])
• Hints of Abuse
  • “At that moment I felt bad. He said that he was going to do healing work for my father.” – Ana Paula ([33:54])
  • “He would always say, do you think they’ll believe me or you?” – Tim Elliott (recounting intimidation) ([09:33])
• On the Mythology Around João
  • “He has always been very pleased to be the greatest healer in the world. The vanity is expressed there.” – Marcelo Stoduto ([35:48])
  • “It’s a business and everyone around him knew...they were part of the business.” – Ana Paula ([35:57])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:48] – Introduction with graphic physical “surgery”
• [06:26-07:58] – Firsthand desperation: why people seek faith healers; international draw
• [11:00-12:18] – Ana Paula’s spiritist background and journey to Abadiania
• [13:08-13:55] – Michael Bailot’s spiritual awakening and witnessing “miracles”
• [19:28-21:44] – Buzz and rituals of a “Casa day”; busloads of believers dressed in white, personal testimonies
• [23:04-24:40] – The three-room ritual process and collective energy
• [31:17-33:37] – The “entity” experience and Ana Paula’s uneasy personal encounter
• [34:36-35:25] – Ana Paula’s realization and tease for future revelations
• [35:48] – Reflections on João’s ambition and business

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Tone & Style

The episode is highly evocative and atmospheric, combining somber, empathetic narration with raw, often unsettling eyewitness accounts. It balances skepticism with an understanding of why desperate people may suspend disbelief. The show is respectful toward survivors and critical of manipulation, abuse, and cult dynamics, foreshadowing a deep, investigative true crime series in line with the “My Favorite Murder” ethos: compassionate, informed, and unflinching.

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Conclusion & Teaser

The debut episode sets the stage for a harrowing unraveling of faith, healing, charisma, and betrayal. As survivors and insiders recount the extraordinary hope João inspired, subtle warnings and discomfort foreshadow the revelations to come about the true cost of misplaced trust. Listeners are left on edge, awaiting revelations about John of God’s ascent to “mythical” status and the machinery that protected him for decades.

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Listen to future episodes of “Two-Faced: John of God” for an in-depth look at the man, the movement, and the painful legacy he left behind.

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Transcript

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[Georgia Hardstark]

Hello Big news everybody. Exactly right's newest podcast, two Faced John of God is out now.

[Karen Kilgariff]

This is our newest limited series about a Brazilian spiritual healer who claimed he had the power to perform miraculous medical procedures and the dark truth behind that mission.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And this is our first limited series presented in both English and Spanish.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Hosted by journalist and Adande Media founder Martina Castro, the series looks at how belief, power and silence allowed one man to control his followers for decades.

[Georgia Hardstark]

You're about to hear episode one entitled the Last Hope.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And once you're hooked on the show, episodes two and three are waiting for you over on the John of God feeds. Again. Available in both English and Spanish, new.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Episodes of John of God drop every Wednesday on the iHeartRadio app app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And don't forget to like subscribe and leave a review because it really helps new shows find their audience.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Now please enjoy episode one of Exactly Right's newest podcast, two Faced John of God.

[Martina Castro]

Goodbye. Please note that in this episode there will be a graphic description of an invasive procedure. Listen at your own discretion. Pinosukes Diatom. A large group of people is praying in Portuguese. They're all dressed in white and seem to be in the main hall of a social club or a community center. But this isn't a normal spiritual gathering. An invasive medical procedure is about to take place. This homemade video is focused on a man who's standing on a small stage. Stage. He's also dressed in white, with people huddled around him. He's in his late 60s, with thinning brown hair and a stocky build. There's a point where you can see his demeanor change. His blue eyes grow wide and his movements get slower. He's no longer him, he tells the crowd. He's now channeling the spirit of a well known doctor who died in the 1940s. The man who I'll call the doctor at a certain point turns to three people behind him on stage. They're holding metal trays and seem to be his assistants. Right next to them, there's this one guy who sticks out. He's standing stiff as a board up against the back wall with his eyes closed tight, as if he's bracing himself for something. The doctor reaches into one of the trays with his bare hand and picks up a long pair of surgical scissors. He uses them to grab a piece of gauze and dips it in water. He then goes up to his patient, the guy standing against the wall with his eyes closed. What happens next is as bizarre as it is disturbing. The doctor tells his patient to open his eyes and tilts his head back with his hand. He then shoves the scissors all the way up his patient's nose and starts twisting them like he's unscrewing the top off a bottle. Twisting, twisting, twisting, sliding the scissors deeper as he continues to twist. All this time, the patient is grimacing, mouth wide open, but he's not making a sound. Then, all of a sudden, the doctor pulls the scissors out of the patient's nose, letting out a tiny stream of blood. The patient is placed in a metal wheelchair and as he's whisked away, you see a smile spread across his. The video you just Heard is from 2009, but there are countless more online recorded over the Span of decades, they feature similar procedures, all performed by the same man, the renowned spiritual healer Joao de Deos. John of God.

[Tim Elliott]

A man who claims.

[Michael Bailot]

To work miracles and heal the sick.

[Ana Paula]

He says he's a faith healer, and.

[Martina Castro]

People from all over the world flocked to see him.

[Ana Paula]

He had healed the wives of ministers, presidents and politicians and owners of big companies. And they were.

[Martina Castro]

Even Oprah has gone to see him.

[Tim Elliott]

Over the past four decades, John of God says he's treated millions of people.

[Martina Castro]

John of God claims to be a medium capable of channeling spirits with tremendous powers, powers that can heal cancer and help people walk again. The treatment he offers can be invasive, like putting scissors up a patient's nose or scraping their eye with a knife. But more often, the spirits have him conduct invisible surgeries, which he can do on many people at the same time without ever touching them. This might sound crazy or very fringe, but I can assure you it is not. Celebrities, Supreme Court judges, lawyers and doctors. Thousands of people have traveled to see John of God at his spiritual hospital in Southeast Brazil. And not just from other parts of the country, but from as far as Germany, Australia, and the United States. Desperate, that's what I was weighing. Freaking 80 pounds with a child to raise. No doctor figuring out what was wrong with me. It engages the acute chroma piper.

[Ana Paula]

Nobody told me they were going to cure my father. No doctor, neurologist, neurosurgeon. No one said they could cure him.

[Michael Bailot]

We went to the hospital, we went to multiple doctors. They couldn't figure out what was actually the problem.

[Martina Castro]

I went there. You're playing with your belief because you really want to live. All you have is faith. Faith. My name is Martina Castro. I've been an audio journalist for 20 years. And while reporting this story, I've meditated a lot on that word faith and on its power. I'd say I'm a spiritual person. I'm both skeptical of anything that sounds too good to be true, and. And I like to leave room for the unexplainable. If I were desperate to heal myself or someone I love, I can absolutely imagine myself getting on an airplane to the middle of nowhere to find a miracle cure. But what this story has gotten me to wonder is not about what gets us to have faith in a given thing or a given person, but how long are we willing to hold and keep that faith, even when we can feel something is not right?

[Michael Bailot]

I simply thought that Juan's work was spiritual. When I first went there, I had no idea that there was a secret behind all of this.

[Martina Castro]

Over the course of this series, you'll learn how John of God became a celebrated healer at the center of an international movement. All while behind the scenes, dark secrets started to come out. Intimidation.

[Tim Elliott]

He would always say, do you think.

[Martina Castro]

They'Ll believe me or you? Fraud, sexual abuse and mysterious deaths.

[Ana Paula]

It's very difficult and it's very also lonely. One small person against God.

[Martina Castro]

From exactly right media and adonde media this is two faced John of God Episode one the Last Hope Hola. Hola. This is me speaking broken Portuguese with a woman named Ana Paula. Despite our language barrier and spotty zoom connection, Anapaula immediately came across as vivacious, warm and confident. She asked we only use her first name to protect her family. Anapaula ended up seeing John of God out of desperation. But not for herself, for her father. Around 2006, Anapaudo's father was diagnosed with late stage brain cancer. After many surgeries, doctors said there was nothing else they could do for him. He was in a wheelchair, in a lot of pain. He couldn't even swallow. So Anapaola turned to their faith as a last hope.

[Ana Paula]

I've always been a spiritist my entire life. I was born in a spiritist home and I grew up with relatives performing spiritual surgeries, healing.

[Martina Castro]

According to Anapaula's beliefs. Spirits are non physical beings that can interact with us. It just so happens that Brazil is said to have the largest concentration of spiritists in the world. And it was this spiritual community that first introduced Anapaola to John of God.

[Ana Paula]

People said very little about John of God, but always with a lot of respect and the certainty of a cure or some spiritual healing. So I remember he had written some books and I bought them for my father.

[Martina Castro]

In one of those books, Anapaula's father read about a man who John of God cured a man who had brain cancer.

[Ana Paula]

When my father read that, he said, I want to be John of God's next miracle. My father had just become a grandfather and he wanted to see his grandson grow up. And so we went to Abadianya.

[Martina Castro]

Abadianya, that's the small rural town in the middle of Brazil where John of God founded what he calls his spiritual hospital. Abadianna has about 17,000 residents and it's an hour and a half drive from the country's capital, Brasilia. Many describe it as a town you drive through to get somewhere else. A major highway cuts it in half, with most of the residents and local businesses on one side and the spiritual hospital or the Casa on the other. The Casa is short for Casa de Dominacio de Loyola, or House of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Ana Paula's inability to heal her father through traditional medicine is what led her to this place along with thousands of others.

[Michael Bailot]

People in desperate situations. They were dying and they had irrevocably fatal diseases.

[Martina Castro]

Then there were people like Michael Bailot. He first visited the Casa from the US because his girlfriend at the time was very sick. Doctors were not able to help her. So they traveled to Brazil to see healers that Michael had read about. And they ended up at the Casa. That's when Michael felt like he witnessed something really incredible happening there. He met people who said John of God cured their cancer. After treatment, some people were able to walk again after years of being in wheelchairs. Some people said their tumors disappeared.

[Michael Bailot]

This is real. This guy's actually doing surgery and it's a miracle. I never believed that miracles were real until that point.

[Martina Castro]

So Michael decides to stay and live in Abadianya.

[Michael Bailot]

When I arrived there, I'd been going through about a five year period in my life where I was having a big spiritual awakening. So my frame of mind when I arrived there was very positive and very open, and I was very altruistic also. So this situation looked like my God, there's nobody else in the world that's ever done this, and I want to be a part of it. I want to help people. Look at all the people. He's helped millions of people, and he did it for free. So it just sounded really enticing. Facing.

[Martina Castro]

Soon after moving to Abadianya, Michael became a tour guide to help other people from the US travel there.

[Michael Bailot]

Many people that went there and said, I have stage four cancer and it's metastasized and I'm in agony every day. Help me. I had several clients like that.

[Martina Castro]

But then there was this other group.

[Michael Bailot]

Of people, about a third of the people that came, or a quarter of them, they were just spiritual tourists. They'd heard about this guy and they wanted to have an experience. So a lot of people would go there and just say, can you help me on my spiritual path?

[Martina Castro]

So in this middle of nowhere town in the middle of Brazil, you had these various groups of people coming together, people who were really sick and desperate for a cure. Volunteers and spiritual tourists who wanted to be part of this experience. And tour guides like Michael, who were helping both of those groups travel to Abadiania and navigate the culture, the language and the town. The they came together around John of God's mission to bring spiritual healing to thousands of people from around the world.

[Michael Bailot]

I felt I was part of a very big, big miraculous event that was going to change the world.

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[Martina Castro]

Goodbye. The experience at the Casa takes place three days a week. It begins when you set foot in the town. Anapaula says, from the moment you get there, it's impossible not to get drawn in.

[Ana Paula]

The vibe there was just a wonderful vibe. I used to say that it was a little piece of heaven on earth.

[Martina Castro]

First of all, imagine that around 7am you start to see tour buses arrive and hundreds of people start to fill the streets, all walking toward the casa.

[Tim Elliott]

Everyone there was wearing white. So white pants, white shirts, white dresses, the whole town.

[Martina Castro]

That's Tim Elliott, a journalist from Australia who went to Abadianya in 2004. He says in addition to wearing white, you'd see some people walking barefoot. These things were encouraged by John of God so that you could free up your energy to the spirits and also absorb their healing more easily.

[Tim Elliott]

And people are blissed out. Yeah, like, they're pretty. They're pretty stoked to be there. Pretty happy to be walking around in his presence, you know, and about to see him.

[Martina Castro]

Tim admits he went to Abadianya feeling very skeptical about John of God.

[Tim Elliott]

So I thought, it's going to be rubbish, right? But then when you get there and you have literally thousands of people in white milling around and everyone tells you how they've been saved by this person. After a while, I was like, well, can all these people be wrong? Like, is it possible? Like, maybe, maybe they're right. Maybe they have been saved. And they were all like, I'll show you my medical papers, I'll show you my x rays, all that sort of stuff.

[Martina Castro]

The first person Tim met at the casa was actually one of those people who claimed to have been cured. She was also from Australia, and she.

[Tim Elliott]

Had gone there because she had, I think she said she had some degenerative disease in her back, and so she was finding it really hard to walk. And she swore to me that she, you know, she was made better and that she could throw her cane away. And she basically regarded it as a miracle, what had happened as a miracle and said to me, oh, he is pure love, you know, that's what he is. The power he radiates is like something from outer space. It's unbelievable.

[Marcelo Stoduto]

He represented a pillar of a labor of love by hundreds of thousands of people.

[Martina Castro]

Marcelo Stoduto first arrived at the CASA back in 1998, much like the woman Tim just described, to seek treatment for an illness. In Marcelo's case, it was to treat his scoliosis. But Marcelo had another reason. He wanted to meet Joo, John of God. He was very interested in honing his own spiritual gifts. Marcelo ended up staying at the casa to work side by side with Joo as a medium himself, and ended up being part of his community for almost two decades. He says the routine at the casa on visiting days was pretty much the same over the years. People would congregate in a big central hall that resembles an open air church, where each person is given a number, depending on whether you're a first timer, coming for a follow up visit, or requesting a physical surgery. Like the scissors up the nose, you're called to a different line. The day starts with some announcements, then everyone recites a series of Christian prayers, sometimes in three or four different languages. Marcelo says once people are told to line up, there are three main rooms where the treatment takes place.

[Marcelo Stoduto]

So the first room was the large center room. That was where we detoxify the pain and denser energies that everyone brought to that space.

[Martina Castro]

In this first room, everyone sits and prays or meditates. Mediums are also sitting in this room meditating, mixed in with people who are waiting to see John of God. The goal is to clean everyone's energies so that by the time people see Joo, it will be easier for him to diagnose and treat them.

[Marcelo Stoduto]

So it was as we were going to compare it with a car. The idea was like a car war. The person goes through the first room and receives a heavier cleaning.

[Martina Castro]

The music and noises you hear in the background are from a homemade video that was filmed in the second room at the Gaza. This is where you actually line up to see John of God. Tim Elliott, the journalist, stood in that line.

[Tim Elliott]

There's a massive queue, like, I'm talking, a huge queue that sort of snakes around. The whole compound leads into this private room that he has. He sometimes occupies. And you walk along, you shuffle along. He sits at the head of this room surrounded by crystals and followers who sort of usher people toward him. As you're walking there, all the while.

[Martina Castro]

Hundreds of people are sitting on either side of you, meditating.

[Tim Elliott]

And they're meant to be sort of harnessing this huge spiritual energy that it's kind of like spiritual baseload power that, you know, Xiao can then tap into to perform these incredible, you know, these miraculous deeds that he pulls off. So you walk through this room and you can feel. You can feel if you have hundreds of people meditating in one room, there is an energy that comes out of that. There's no doubt about that. So by the time you meet him, you're susceptible and primed to believe that someone has power.

[Michael Bailot]

Right.

[Ana Paula]

Sometimes I would walk in that chain of prayers on that line, and it seemed like I was just in the sea. You know, when you're walking through calm waves in the sea, I felt like I was walking in the middle of the waves. It was a very good thing. It was a very good feeling. It was peace, delicious aromas, fresh air, very pleasant music and meditation music, like calm religious music. So it was like. It really was a little piece of heaven.

[Martina Castro]

And all of this is happening before you've even talked to John of God. It's designed to be this way because according to John of God and other spiritist leaders, your illness is essentially a manifestation of problems with your energy. So as a medium, Marcelo says he doesn't treat the illness, he treats what causes the illness.

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[Martina Castro]

It can take hours to get through the line that Tim and Anapa and all the first time visitors have to stand in before they get their with John of God. But Tim says you can see him while you're waiting.

[Tim Elliott]

He didn't say a lot. He was a big guy, physically a big guy. So he had a presence.

[Martina Castro]

Finally, Tim got to the front of the line and it was his turn to meet Joao for the first time.

[Tim Elliott]

So I got to the head of the room and I think I took his hand briefly and he, his eyes rolled back into his head and his hand fluttered.

[Martina Castro]

So at this point, John of God is channeling a spirit or entity, as they're also called as a medium. His gift is to be able to embody these spirits that diagnose and treat people through him. So technically in that moment, he isn't himself, he is the entity.

[Tim Elliott]

And then you're ushered on your way and right literally you meet him. For it would have been, I don't know, 10 seconds max.

[Martina Castro]

So in those 10 to 30 seconds, he might send you to meditate or to take a bath in a waterfall they had on the property. He might send you to the third room. That's where John of God conducts invisible surgeries on a large group of people at the same time without ever touching them them. If you wanted a physical surgery, you had to request one when you arrived. And they happened in the middle of the day. But more commonly, John of God would scribble down a prescription for you on a piece of paper, telling you how many bottles of blessed water or passion flower herbs to buy at a shop on the property. All the pills were the same, but they were said to be blessed by the spirits to treat your specific problem. And that's how it goes, person after person. But when Anapaula meets John of God for the first time, it goes a little differently.

[Ana Paula]

That we would pass by the entity and the medium would give me crystals, give me candles, give me presents and roses.

[Martina Castro]

Again, when Anapaula says the entity, she's referring to John of God when he's in a trance. When she calls him the medium, that's when he's himself and not channeling a spirit. She thinks that she and her father were treated differently from the moment they arrived in Abadianya. Because her father was a well known and respected lawyer, she could tell people were going above and beyond to make them feel comfortable. Anapaula and her father saw John of God many times that year. And her father actually started to get better. He was able to swallow again, and with the help of physical therapists, he even started taking a few steps after being confined for many months to a wheelchair. So she and her father decided to move to Abadiania full time for a few months.

[Ana Paula]

Several times I visited John of God. And he would congratulate me on my father. He would ask me to go to his office. And I would always go, either with my father's assistant or with my father. But I never went alone.

[Martina Castro]

Until one day, Ana Paula ended up at the Casa by herself. She sat down in the meditation room as usual to pray. And she took off her shoes, as recommended by the community there.

[Ana Paula]

So I was there, barefoot, with my feet on the ground, feeling all that energy, the energy of the place, with my eyes closed. And I felt a hand on my shoulder. When I opened my eyes, it was John of God. And he called me to come to his office. I've been to his office several times, never alone. He would even close the door. But this time I went alone. And as soon as I entered, not only he closed it, but he locked it with a key. At that moment I felt bad. He said that he was going to do healing work for my father.

[Martina Castro]

Anapaula felt uncomfortable. Something was not right. But she also wanted to believe what he told her. That this was a special spiritual treatment to heal her father. So she did as she was told. But what would happen in that room that day was far from the kind of spiritual experience she had hoped for.

[Ana Paula]

No doctor, neurologist, neurosurgeon, no one said they could cure my father. But he said, I'm going to cure your father. You don't get it. This is a healing treatment and it's your energy and you represent your father. And I believed it.

[Martina Castro]

How did this happen? How did Joao gain an almost blind trust from his followers? In the next episode, we learn how Joo Teixeira de Faria became Joo de Deus, John of God. This almost mythical leader of extreme power and influence.

[Marcelo Stoduto]

He has always been very pleased to be the greatest healer in the world. The vanity is expressed there.

[Ana Paula]

So very quickly they learned that they had to protect him and protect the possibility of him to cure people, you know, to run the business. It's a business and everyone around him knew that they were, were part of the business. And then there was a moment that was the crowning of the expansion of the movement, of course, when Oprah Winfrey went.

[Martina Castro]

Listen to Two Faced John of God on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts there. You can also find this show in his Just look for Dos Caras Juan de Dios. Two Faced John of God is a production of Exactly Right Media and Adon de Media, hosted and written by myself, Martina Castro. Our senior producer is Mariano Pacela, reporting and fact checking by Eloisa Traiano, production assistance and research by Giovanna Romano Sanchez, sound design by Mauricio Mendoza and our mastering engineer is Martin Cruz. Original music was composed by Mariana Romano. The artwork is by Vanessa Lilac. Ana Paula was interpreted by Giovanna Romano Sanchez and Luciano Miranda by Andres Caballchero for Exactly Right Media. The executive producers are Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark and Danielle Kramer, with consulting producer Lily Latowig and associate producer Jay Elias. A special thank you to Michael Bailot for giving us permission to use audio from his recordings at the Casa. He recently published a book about his time there called Cult of the Secret Life of Joo de Deos.

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