He is a monster.

sight. She has tried many treatments, but nothing seems to work. So, when she hears about John of God, she becomes hopeful that maybe he can help her regain her eyesight.

She books a trip to Brazil with some friends, excited at the prospect of a miracle. Upon arrival, she meets the faith healer and immediately finds herself in an intense session. He has her sit down in a chair, tilts her head back, and starts to cut into her eye with a scalpel.

Now, this woman—let's call her my mother-in-law because she is my actual mother-in-law—has put all her faith in this man. To give a bit of background, let's talk about John of God. His real name is João de Deus, and he claims that he can heal people through divine intervention.

Despite having no formal medical training, he has built a large following and even established a spiritual healing center in a small town in Brazil. He is known for performing "psychic surgeries," which involve no anesthesia or sterilization but rather unconventional methods that often defy logic. John of God is notorious for using bizarre techniques—like shoving surgical forceps up people's noses or scraping the whites of their eyeballs with a scalpel—claiming these methods can cure ailments from back pain to cancer.

He asserts that he does not charge for his services, instead accepting donations and selling placebo items like "special healing pills" and bottled holy water. As his fame grows, media outlets like ABC take notice. They air a special that portrays him positively, interviewing women like Lisa Melman, who claims that her breast cancer is disappearing thanks to his treatments.

Oprah Winfrey also highlights John of God on her show, further boosting his reputation. Tragically, Lisa Melman later dies from her cancer, which she believed was cured. This fact, however, is conveniently omitted from the shows that promoted him, leaving behind a trail of disillusioned patients and heartbroken families.

Despite the controversies, my mother-in-law's hope persists. She travels to Brazil to seek healing, captivated by the stories and promises of miraculous cures. She goes into the session with great anticipation, but I can’t help but worry about her fate, given the growing list of people who have been hurt, misled, or, in some cases, died after placing their trust in John of God.

Vision, and she’s lost most of it at this point. She feels like, “Hey, maybe this John of God guy can help bring her eyesight back. ” She’s not dumb; she’s not gullible.

She’s just desperate for a cure. So, she comes to me and my wife and tells us that she’s going to Brazil. My wife and I are like, “Oh, please don’t!

We’re worried about what could happen to you. ” This guy is obviously a fraud and a turd for telling people he can heal them. But unfortunately, she doesn’t listen to us; she’ll do anything to fix her eyes.

So she goes to Brazil, meets him, and has a session with him. He sits her down in a chair, tilts her head back or whatever, pulls out a scalpel, and does the thing where he scrapes the white of her eye with that scalpel. He then has her put a cover over that eye and tells her that in a few days, she can take that cover off and her vision will be healed somehow in both eyes.

Meanwhile, my wife and I are there in the U. S. , just waiting to see when that cover comes off if her vision is actually healed.

Now this is where the story goes off the rails; you aren’t ready for this. Around this same time, a Dutch woman named Sahira is struggling with some mental trauma. She sees this guy on Oprah’s TV show, this guy named John of God, who claims he can heal people.

So she thinks, “Hey, maybe he can help heal my mental trauma. ” She flies to Brazil, shows up at the spiritual healing center, and waits in line. She sees him a couple of different times.

One of those times, something exciting happens: John of God offers her a private consultation, and she’s super excited. So she waits until everyone’s gone, and then he invites her into his office. While she’s there, he takes her into the bathroom and makes her hand touch him inappropriately.

Afterwards, she thinks, “That was weird,” and wonders if that’s just part of the healing process. So she goes back later for another private session with him, and this time, when they’re alone, he takes her into the bathroom again and he straight-up assaults her, like with a hard R. And here’s the thing: the mental trauma that Sahira went to see him for was specifically sexual trauma.

She went to see him and told him about her sexual trauma, and his response was to assault her. Poor Sahira doesn’t know what to do; she feels violated and sick to her stomach. She wants to tell someone, but at the same time, she believes this man is actually healing so many people.

So she decides not to tell anyone and buries it deep down with all her other sexual trauma. Then, four years later, the Me Too movement happens, and Sahira finally finds out she’s not alone. She posts about her experience with John of God on Facebook, and then she gets invited onto a Brazilian TV show to talk about it.

There, on that show, she meets a dozen other women, all of whom say that John of God assaulted them too. This TV show airs, and suddenly all of Brazil knows about these accusations; everyone’s talking about it, and bam, more women come forward. In response, the public prosecutor's office for the state is getting tons of accusations from a lot of different women.

They set up a hotline and an email address specifically to receive all of these accusations they’re getting about John of God. In the first day that hotline goes live, nearly 200 women come forward, saying John of God assaulted them. Then, in the weeks that follow, even more women come forward, and eventually, the number of women who claimed that John of God assaulted them is over 600.

Of course, John of God denies this; he claims that all 600 of these women are lying. But then his own daughter comes forward, claiming that he assaulted her too from the ages of 9 to 14. He would tell her that he was healing her, but instead, he would assault her.

She said that he finally stopped assaulting her when she was 14 because that’s when she got pregnant by another man. When he found out that she was pregnant by another man, he beat her so hard that she lost the baby. In fact, his daughter said, and I quote, “My father is a monster.

” So anyway, all of this becomes public, and the police are like, “All right, it’s time to get him. ” They issue an arrest warrant for him, but John of God ain’t going out easy. He immediately withdraws $9 million from his various bank accounts and goes on the run.

No one can find him; he’s just hiding out somewhere. But about a week later, I guess the pressure is just too much for him—like he knows he’s in trouble—and he turns himself in. They throw him in jail.

Here’s his mug shot. Eventually, he goes to trial, is found guilty, and is sentenced to a grand total of 489 years in prison. Good for him.

Okay, so at this point, I know what you’re thinking: “Ray, did he do anything horrible like that with your mother-in-law while she was there? ” First of all, let me just say none of that assault stuff was public when she went to visit, so none of us knew. What had been going on, and while she was there, lucky for her, she said she met him in a room full of people.

There were no private sessions, so nothing inappropriate happened with her. But it's also worth noting that she eventually took her eye cover off, and so did John of God. Did he end up healing her eyesight?

No, he did not. Shocker! Shout out to Brazil.