The Power of Focused Intention – a story from Brazil
Miracles are possible in real life, not just in fairy tales. And we are the ones who create them.
If you’d told me in 2013 that I’d be sitting here 10 years later writing an article about miracles and intention, I’d have laughed you out of the room. Life sure has a sense of humour.
Early on in my spiritual quest, every May for a number of years I would visit a small town called Alto Paraiso in Brazil. Located in the state of Goias, 3 hours drive from the Brazilian capital city named Brasilia, “Alto” (as it is affectionately known) and the surrounding areas sit atop one of the largest bedrocks of crystal on earth. Abundant in fresh water, pure spring water waterfalls are everywhere, with pools so clear and clean that you can drink the water that you are swimming in.
I knew nothing about the crystals the first time I visited (and probably wouldn’t have believed they had any effect anyway). I learned about them when after three days of barely being able to sleep 5 hours a night, my host said to me “it’s the crystals, dahhling.”
The natural landscape is breath-taking, a mixture of mountains, jungle, and rolling green pastures. All interspersed with said waterfalls. No wonder the name Alto Paraiso translates to “High Paradise”. I’ll write a travel article about it another time.
An Unplanned Pilgrimage
On one of these trips in 2018, I heard that a very famous Brazilian medium and faith healer was located a few hours drive away. Oprah Winfrey had filmed an entire show about her trip to visit him and her experience of the healing sanctuary he had set up.
Known internationally as “John of God’, hundreds and sometimes thousands of people per day would queue up in long lines to see this man. They would receive a spiritual healing from him and light “entities” that he worked with. Tales abounded of piles of discarded wheelchairs as the previously infirm walked for the first time in years. Cancerous tumours that disappeared within weeks.
My local friends told me I needed to see it for myself before it was too late, he was getting old. I trusted them, and off I went to visit.
The Casa
I arrived at the “Casa de Dom Ignacio” (the name of his facility) on a particularly poignant morning, the Feast Day of Saint Rita. The advocate of the helpless, she was celebrated widely in the area. Nearly 2000 people were in line to go in front of John of God that day. The whole place was staffed by dozens of volunteers dressed in white.
The venue itself was stunning, overlooking lurid green mountains and hills. Amongst the various buildings were lush gardens filled with colourful flowers, and people sat in quiet contemplation on rows of benches overlooking the valley. There were a few shops selling crystals and books, and a lower level food area where everyone could receive a free bowl of blessed soup with some bread.
Beyond the Veil
A few months after I visited that day, John of God was arrested and later imprisoned for several cases of rape and sexual assault spanning nearly 20 years. I shouldn’t have been surprised, given what I was starting to learn by that point about the abuse of power in the spiritual industry. What a shame that someone who had become famous for healing so many, had been creating so much pain for others.
However, even prior to the scandal, within a few hours of being at the Casa I came to the conclusion that all the tales of healing had absolutely nothing to do with him. Which is why I’m writing this. He was a sham; nothing more than the architect for a level of healing that probably even he didn’t fully grasp. Here’s why.
Not speaking Portuguese, I had signed up to join a group of Americans with a guide and translator. She showed us around, and then gave us a choice as she explained how the process worked. Whoever was there for healing and wanted to go in front of John of God, would join the queue with her. Otherwise, we could join her assistant in sitting in one of the “current” rooms.
Everyone in line for healing would slowly pass through two “current” rooms before meeting John. The first current room had approximately 150 people sitting on row after row of benches, with eye masks on. Each person was in deep concentrative meditation for the benefit of those needing healing, who were slowly making their way through the room. As each individual entered, a volunteer at the front would call out their name and their reason for being there, as a form of instruction to the meditators.
“Next we have Ana Beatriz Luchi, suffering for the past two years with breast cancer. She is 31 years old, and has two young children…send her all your love, send her all your prayers and healing.”
This went on and on. For every single person in line. The volunteer could also be heard in the adjoining second current room, where at least another 200 people were sitting in the same meditation process, praying for each individual as their name was called out. John “of God” sat at the top end of this second current room, supposedly in a mediumistic trance state. He would look at every person as they walked in front of him and gruffly dish out his prescription, which varied from a “spiritual surgery” to be conducted in the room next door, to “blessed” herbal pills of Passiflora (conveniently sold on site).
The so-called spiritual surgeries were non-invasive healings conducted en masse to a few hundred people over the space of half an hour. They sat meditatively and silently in rows in a chapel-like room, as a volunteer called out prayers. Here people were told that light entities and angels would be called upon, to come to the assistance of those that had made the pilgrimage to this house. To heal them of their ails. Once it was over, participants were then instructed to go home and rest in bed for 24 hours.
Electric
I sat in meditation in both the current rooms for hours that day, as other members of my group joined the healing line. One had a brain tumour, another had debilitating lyme disease, as examples.
Its hard to adequately describe in words my experience, but I’ll try.
There was an unbelievable power in those rooms, as nearly 400 people focused their energy and intention on the people walking in line. You could feel a charge. The people in the line could feel a charge. Some people would faint within minutes of coming in, overwhelmed by the wave of energy. My eyes were covered, but every now and again I would hear a bustle as someone collapsed and was taken to lie on a nearby bench or stretcher, reserved for this purpose.
We are electrical, magnetic beings, and we have forgotten this. Some might arch their eyebrows in doubt whenever someone mentions “energy”. It’s worth remembering that when a person’s heart stops, emergency services often use a defibrillator – an electrical charge – to spark the heart’s own electrical impulses and get it going again.
That electricity, that magnetism, can be altered and charged by our intention and emotions. We are only just beginning to investigate how we can measure the differences in these impulses. Thermal imaging is a start, and shows marked changes in the surface temperature of different parts of the body according to various emotions. With that said, imagine what kind of magnetic field 400 people would be generating in this kind of situation.
I didn’t have any of these opinions before I visited the Casa de Dom Ignacio. I’d heard about some of these theories, but had never experienced them. I jokingly referred to it all as “a bit woo-woo”.
Miraculous Remission
I didn’t see anyone get up out of a wheelchair that day. But I did have feedback from the people in my group. I’ll share the most profound one.
The American woman with the brain tumour left her spiritual surgery feeling absolutely overwhelmed by some kind of force. She retired to her hotel room nearby, and said that she slept for 25 hours. She reported that she awoke feeling a profound sense of peace, surrender, and connection to God, that stayed with her. She felt enormous gratitude for her experience, for all the people who had prayed for her, as well as to John of God.
We stayed in touch for several months afterwards. By October, her brain tumour had completely disappeared, without any kind of medical intervention. Gone, evaporated, without a trace. Her Doctors in Minnesota were not able to provide any scientific explanation. She told them that she believed it was due to her healing at the Casa in Brazil, and to her renewed faith in God.
Was it the group healing, or the Casa, or even just a placebo effect that created this seemingly miraculous healing? We can’t know for sure. I came away wondering how much of life generally could be attributed to a placebo effect. I firmly believed at the time (and still do) that John of God himself had nothing to do with any of the healings that were happening there.
I can say that I experienced something that showed me definitively that life exists beyond the visible. That human belief, human intention and attention, do make a difference.
The Power of Groups
An author named Lynn McTaggart wrote a book called “The Power of Eight” about this very subject. How the energies of small groups can be harnessed for healing ourselves, others, and the world – including data to back up her theory. She runs workshops worldwide where she demonstrates this work. I highly recommend reading her book. Her work and my personal experience were the inspiration behind the large group meditations I have run for my community platform zenish.
It would also be worth seeking out Rupert Sheldrake’s works on Morphic Resonance.
The Power of Prayer
I choose to share this story this week for a reason. All around the world, and particularly close to my ancestral home in the Middle-East, people are suffering right now. Some of those people have come to feel that no one cares about them. That perhaps even God has turned his/her back on them.
Our prayers matter. When invoked with reverence and deep concentration, they land somewhere. As a society, many have forgotten about this. But I no longer have any doubt.
Pray for the people suffering in the world. Pray for the people of Gaza. Pray for the Israeli hostages held in Gaza. Pray that they all find it in their hearts to forgive each other.
The Tibetans practiced a healing meditation for others, called Tonglen. Look it up, and if you can put aside 15-20 minutes a day to do it, you too will reap the rewards.
Have a great week.