The Casa of Dom Inacio

Thirteen years later standing in front of a fully incorporated spiritualist medium healer.
           Along the desert plateau of northern Brazil nestles a curious "village" within a small town called Abadiania. In one corner of the small town is a little spiritual hospital, which sits on a few acres next to vast ranch lands on the outskirts of town where some of the streets are paved and others are clay dirt. Horse and donkey-drawn carts clack along cobbled streets while every kind of modern vehicle passes them by. Very humble people living in modest surroundings frequently stand in their doorways to watch people from around the world walk toward the Casa, where they will stand in line with Brazilians from every walk of life. They are all there to receive spiritual healing for physical, mental and emotional conditions or simply to be in the presence of spiritual mastery. Many of the local people rely totally on this spiritual hospital for all their medical and spiritual needs while others ignore the place entirely and think it's all a hoax.
           The little hospital is called Casa de Dom Inacio (the House of Ignatius Loyola) after the signatory spirit in charge of all healing activity. A single person, a spiritualist medium, supported by many volunteers, offers free healing to all who come. Authentic healing sometimes occurs right on the spot with a complete cure and full restitution, be it physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. Whatever the condition, there's a documented track record of it having happened one or more times. This is not to say that everyone leaves cured and healed, nor does anyone make such a claim, but in my experience most are helped if not healed and report the same.
           Known affectionately around the world as Joao de Deus ("John of God"), this Brazilian spiritualist medium treats everyone who arrives at the Casa of Dom Inacio. His given name is Joao Teixeiria de Faria and he is the most powerful full-trance medium healer in the world. At least that is the opinion of many who know about these things. In his trance he willingly and intentionally becomes entirely unconscious, vacating his mind and body to allow a spirit referred to as "Entity" to entirely take over. The Entity Consciousness that takes possession of Joao's mind and body sometimes has abilities that are clearly paranormal. On a previous visit to the Casa, Joao's Entity healed me of a debilitating injury without physically touching my body. A hernia that required imminent surgery for standard repair disappeared in forty-five minutes of sitting in prayer session with the Entity occupying the body of Joao, the medium.
           There are only a handful of spiritualist mediums world-renowned for their accomplishments and demonstrations, and Joao Teixieria de Faria of Brazil, known as Joao de Deus, is rightly at the top of anyone's list.

           Joao is the very kind of person Shaman don Eduardo had told me dwells in the world at any given time and who meets the ancient Inca criteria to qualify as "a Shaman of the South," a healer with extraordinary abilities. Not only did I meet a healer who satisfied the ancient criteria of the Incas, and gain some modest admittance into the personal world of the medium Joao, but I also made deep contact with several of the thirty or more spirits whom he incorporates. Some are known historical figures, such as Ignatius Loyola, the supposed founder and patron saint of the Jesuit priesthood within the Catholic Church while others are medical doctors from the last century such as Doctors Augusto Almeida and Oswaldo Cruz. Both doctors were well known in Brazilian circles when they were alive in bodies and for the past century these beings, along with many others, have worked closely with the Brazilian spiritualist community. Many of the entities are not recognized, historically or otherwise, and have not offered much information about their physical lives, preferring instead to simply treat people and only talk about what the patient needs to get well. The Entities that manifest through Joao's mind and body are dissimilar in personality and appearance, which is evident in Joao's physical demeanor while an Entity is present. Each Entity's presence is distinct, sometimes holy or profound, sometimes strangely beneficent, sometimes quiet and steady, and oftentimes powerful. Although witnessing these incorporated entities is sometimes confusing and difficult to decide how one feels, it is still a positive experience. It's the "real deal," as contemporary slang would say.
           I stood in the middle of a long line of people dressed mostly in white clothing, which is the custom when visiting the Casa. The line slowly flowed, one by one, through a small door at the far end of the little auditorium. I had been to this spiritual hospital on several previous visits to this central high desert of Brazil, waiting my turn in line to speak face-to-face with a four-hundred-year-old spirit. On this day the medium and his entities would bring me to an excruciating threshold of tension regarding the promise I made to Shaman don Eduardo Calderon years earlier: that I would never release myself entirely to a spirit and would always retain recognition of my own identity. It had been years since I had even considered the possibility, yet on this day the shaman's nagual seeped through the fabric of time and influenced another kind of initiation I was about to face. There would be no San Pedro to empower me to leave my mind behind and no ceremonial protocols to guide my actions except a promise I had made to Shaman don Eduardo that final day at Marcawasi. Now its full portent that I had never realized was about to land in my lap with consequences that could not be escaped.
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