John of God: The Globalization of Brazilian Faith HealingIn just over a decade, the Brazilian faith healer known as John of God has become an international superstar. Oprah Winfrey, Ram Dass, Wayne Dyer, and Shirley MacLaine have all visited him, as have the wealthy and the desperately ill. Renowned for performing surgeries using rudimentary tools such as kitchen knives and scissors, without anesthetics or asepsis, John of God allegedly channels "entities," or spirits, and goes into a trance-like state in order to heal his visitors. In recent years, a transnational spiritual community has developed around John of God, comprised of the ill, those who seek spiritual growth, healers, tour guides, and, according to followers, even spirits whose powers transcend national boundaries. Cristina Rocha offers the first ethnographic account of this global spiritual movement. Drawing on a decade of fieldwork in Brazil, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand, Rocha examines the social and cultural forces that have made it possible for a healer from Brazil to become a global "guru" in the 21st century. She explores what attracts foreigners to John of God's cosmology and healing practices, how they understand their own experiences, how these radical experiences have transformed their lives, and how the healer's beliefs and healing practices are globalized and localized in different ways in the West. |
Contents
| 1 | |
An Uneasy Beginning | 26 |
2 How Does He Get His Magic? | 45 |
3 Reenchanting Healing | 73 |
4 Abadiânia as a Touristic Borderzone | 106 |
5 Spiritual Tourism Cultural Translation and Friction | 134 |
Building a Transnational
Spiritual Community | 165 |
Healing the Land of Its Suffering | 197 |
Conclusion | 222 |
Notes | 235 |
| 245 | |
| 263 | |
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Abadiânia Aboriginal adherents Age spirituality alternative medicine Anápolis anthropologists argued arrival asked Australian Casa beliefs biomedicine body Brasília Brazil Casa cosmology Casa staff Catholic Catholicism ceremony chapter charismatic authority Chico Xavier concept connection cosmology Cultural Translation Current sessions entities Entity’s experiences explain Facebook feel felt followers foreigners global cities Global North God’s cosmology healer healing center healing event healing practices hybrid illness Inácio Indigenous interviewed John of God John of God’s Kardecism Kardecist Spiritism Kardecist Spiritist land live in Abadiânia locals magic Maori Medium João mediumship movement Mullumbimby nostalgia one’s overseas people’s perispirit physical Portuguese pousada powhiri prayers Re-enchanting Healing religion religious rituals sacred Saint sitting in Current social Spiritist Spiritist centers spiritual tourists stories Sydney talk things tion told tour guides Touristic Borderzone town traditional transformation Umbanda visible operation woman worldview Zealand