João Teixeira de Faria (born June 24, 1942), known also as João de Deus, is a Brazilian medium and "psychic surgeon" who has been accused of being a confidence trickster. He is based in Abadiânia, Brazil, where he runs the Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola, a "spiritual healing center".
João Teixeira de Faria, is world famous as a psychic healer and spirit medium called John of God. With publicity from Oprah and Wayne Dyer among others, his healing center has spawned a tourist industry in Abadiania Brazil. Many depend now on his attraction for travelers seeking a mystical cure. The economy of this hamlet is based on catering to the visitors.
Zahira Lieneke Mous, a Dutch choreographer with family ties to Brazil hopes to help other women come out of their shadow of sexual abuse at the hands of João Teixeira de Faria. She has been speaking out for years and finally the whole world is listening. This sordid story is another case of abuse by those wielding power over vulnerable people.
Dutch choreographer Zahira Lieneke Mous, 34, first revealed the abuse she alleged had happened four years ago on Facebook. Last Friday she described it to TV Globo’s Pedro Bial on his chatshow, which also broadcast interviews with three other women whose identities were hidden.
Mous claimed she had gone to De Faria looking to cure a sexual trauma and was taken into a private room and made to masturbate him. Afterwards, she said she was given a gemstone. She said she returned to the house and was given special privileges. On another occasion, she alleged De Faria raped her. She said she hesitated in coming forward out of fear. “We don’t have to feel ashamed. He needs to feel ashamed,” she said.
On the same show, American “spiritual guide” Amy Biank, who took groups of foreign visitors to see Abidiânia in the early 2000s, claimed she had entered a room where a kneeling woman was being forced to perform oral sex on De Faria. After she reported what she had seen to employees, she received death threats, she said.
