John of God – Trip of a Lifetime to Brazil

I just returned from one of the most amazing trips of my life to see the miracle healer, John of God, in Abadiania, Brazil. I had heard of John of God for years but never really had a reason to go see him being that I have no major physical issues or illnesses to require such a journey. Recently his name kept coming up in my life and when my partner decided to go for his own physical healing, I wanted to offer my support.

The town where John of God does his healing is very remote and basically in the middle of nowhere. It is not exactly a tourist destination. When I arrived, I wondered what the heck I was going to do for the 2 weeks while I was there. I soon found my hangout, Fruitie’s, the coolest cafe in town where you can get the best smoothies of your life as well as fresh Acai puddings and Passion Fruit Iced Teas. I was in heaven. This is pretty much where everyone hangs out when not at the Casa – the place where you see John of God.

Millions of people have visited John of God over the last 50 years to receive healing. Many have been healed of life threatening illnesses such as cancer, MS, Parkinson’s as well as paralysis, mental disorders and much more. I was skeptical but could not help but be curious after hearing so many healing stories. The beautiful thing about being in Abadiania is that people of all faiths from all over the world come for one purpose – to heal. There were many folks, young and old alike, in wheel chairs, walking with canes or with obvious diseases or ailments as well as many people that looked completely normal and healthy that were there for more of a spiritual purpose – to heal internal negative thought patterns or ways of being that did not serve their highest good.

As I approached the day when I would go before John of God, I pondered what I would ask healing for. I wanted to feel something tangible happening so I asked for healing of my lower back pain which I have had for the last 15 years after a cross country bicycling trip. I had tried everything to get rid of this pain and spent thousands of dollars and many hours trying to relieve it. I had pretty much surrendered to the fact that I would live with this pain forever. Yes, back pain, definitely ask to have the back pain relieved. What else? What about sadness, anger, impatience – all the emotions that affect my well being maybe not on a daily basis, but still somewhat regularly in my life. And my liver and gallbladder – probably the areas of my body that I have had to give the most attention to keep well. It would be nice if they didn’t need quite so much work. There it was – my healing requests.

The day came when I went before John of God and gave him the piece of paper with my top 3 healing requests. I went thru the line to see him, he took my hand for a moment, looked into my soul it felt like and off I went – whisked off to another room to sit and pray and think about my requests. The next day came when I was to have my “surgery”. This is actually an invisible surgery where you go into a room with many other hopeful people who are there for healing, place your hand on the part of your body where you want healing, sit quietly and pray. I placed my hand on my lower back. The “surgery” lasted for about 2 minutes and then we were told to go back to our room and rest and not to open our eyes for 24 hours. This is very difficult, by the way. I did as told though and awoke the next morning to find a 2 inch incision scar on my lower back. I couldn’t believe it! I also discovered that my back pain of 15 years was gone! I was so excited and somewhat in a state of shock. I had done nothing but asked for this pain to be healed and overnight after this supposed surgery, not only did I have a incision scar just as if I had had a real surgery, but my pain was gone.

The next week more magic unfolded as I felt a weight of all the sadness, anger, irritation, impatience and other negative feelings I had been storing in my body for years lift. I realized these were emotions that had been stuffed and not just stuffed as a figure of speech, but literally stuffed into my lower back. As my back pain was cleared, the emotions also cleared. They came out in the process though and this was challenging. I had a lot of anger arise but allowed myself just to feel it. Other emotions arose and I compassionately sat with them too. I knew these were all the emotions I had never felt, never held, finally surfacing and releasing. Some felt very old, like they had been there since childhood.

I have long believed in the connection between emotions and physical health but realized this connection at a much deeper level in Brazil. My experience showed me first hand how unfelt emotions can get stuck in the body and create dis-ease. It had happened to me – a health practitioner, a nutritionist, a natural food chef, a yoga teacher, an organic, natural living person of many years that does a lot of inner and outer work to keep myself balanced and healthy.

This was basically the experience of many people there – they were working on the spiritual, emotional, mental layers to heal the physical. Sometimes in that order and sometimes the other way around. The beautiful thing about going to John of God is that miracles can happen and happen quickly. As I said, I had been working on healing my lower back pain for years and all the things associated with it but for some reason everything accelerated and my prayers were heard when I went to Abadiania. John of God and the healing spirits heard my pleas and did their part to bring about my healing.

Now I sit here back in Austin without back pain. I still touch my back for that familiar pain and smile in gratitude for not only the physical pain that was removed but also the energetic and emotional clearing of emotions that have been stuffed inside of me for who knows how long. I feel lighter, happier and not so bogged down by my long “to do list”, ever-over flowing email inbox and many, oh many things to do.

The last day I was at the Casa, I was speaking to a film maker before I was about to be interviewed to be in his documentary. As we were walking to find a good spot for me to share my story, I asked him if he was there just to film or to ask for any healing himself. He replied that he didn’t think he had anything that needed to be healed. I remember thinking, ‘everyone needs healing’. Even if you don’t think you need healing, we all have experienced so many little (if not big) woundings (or perceived woundings) in our lives. If you don’t tend to these woundings and deal with them, it seems your body may manifest a way to deal with them sooner or later.

This trip was a challenging one but also one of the most beautiful heart opening experiences of my life. It required me to really do the inner work, look within and see the parts of me that have been holding myself back from living the most amazing life imaginable. Returning to my life back home, I feel inspired to slow down and take more time to be with old unfelt hard to feel emotions and compassionately sit with challenging new ones that arise. This feels just as important as building my business, exercising, and eating right. Thank you, John of God, for helping facilitate healing for my body, spirit and soul and for reminding me of the vital importance to take care of my spirit. I am forever grateful.

Blessings and love, Amanda Love