Last year ‘Users Voice’ published a report by Chris H about his stay in a Brazilian spiritist healing sanctuary where he sought help for his hepatitis C and cirrhosis as an alternative to interferon/ribavirin therapy.
One week after his return from the Casa de Dom Inacio, eager to verify any changes that spiritual healing and psychic surgery may have produced, Chris had his 6-monthly blood-tests and ultrascan for possible cancer, and later that month a review with his consultant, Professor Geoffrey Dusheiko.
CH: What are my enzyme levels like?
GD: ALT is 45, that’s not bad. AST is 80, higher than the ALT. We often see that with patients who’ve got cirrhosis.
CH: It’s definite that I have cirrhosis is it?
GD: I think it’s very definite…The other test we look at is the alphafeta protein to check that there’s no evidence of hepatoma. It’s not an infallible test.. but that’s not raised.. Good liver function.. Albumin in the normal range.. Bilirubin is normal.. Phosphatase normal…The other thing we would do is look at blood counts: haemoglobin and white cells are normal. Your platelets are at the lower limit of normal. These sometimes fall in patients getting cirrhosis… At the moment your platelets aren’t too bad.
CH: Is cirrhosis reversible?
GD: If it’s treated early enough with antiviral therapy and the virus is got rid of, some fibrous tissue is reversible. Whether you could remodel the whole liver is a bit more difficult to know.
CH: So it’s not beyond a possibility.
GD: No. We’re beginning to think that it’s not a fixed state, and that it can be reversed…
Your liver function remains good, but there’s structural changes in the liver.. We know you’re Genotype 1. Your last ultrasound says your liver is normal size.. Sometimes with advanced cirrhosis the liver looks very heterogeneous. Ultrasound is a bit subjective.. They do report what they think looks normal to them. But I don’t think that’s as sensitive as a biopsy or an overall histologic assessment..
The fact that the ultrasound doesn’t indicate cirrhosis doesn’t exclude the fact that you do have cirrhosis.
CH: How confusing.
GD: The other thing we do the ultrasound for is to see there’s no lesions. Your portal veins and pancreas look alright.. but the gallbladder contains gallstones..
The ultrasound is not as sensitive as an endoscopy and it doesn’t show any evidence of varisces.. All in all the cirrhosis is stable. It’s a “compensated” cirrhosis.. The only question for me is whether you could bleed from varisces, if they are there and if they’re large. If we don’t see varisces on the endoscopy we can both relax.
CH: If the endoscopy showed varisces, what practical measures are taken?
GD: We use betablockers to reduce the pressure on the veins in the oesophagus.
CH: Thank you.
GD: We know you’ve got good liver function, and we know you’ve not had decompensating signs like swelling of the legs. The question is would you be at risk of varisces. The endoscopy would answer that.
CH: OK. I’ll have it done.
Shall I tell you something that might make you smile?
GD: OK.
CH: I’ve been to a healing sanctuary in Brazil. I’ve been exploring spiritual healing as a way of dealing with my hepatitis. The man I’ve seen is a medium with staggering healing capabilities. Obviously what he does is opposite to the mode that you work in, but I’m curious to know what your feelings might be about this kind of alternative.
GD: I’m a bit of a purist. I think it might help psychologically. It may be that it has a beneficial effect on patients’ overall health, and perhaps on the liver. I need some convincing. I’m a bit of a sceptic. This kind of healing doesn’t involve a bad drug. Interferon/ribavirin actually clears the virus. To my mind it’s the virus and the immune response to it which is doing the damage, and if you can get rid of the virus you can expect complete resolution of hepatitis C. A more natural healing process that leaves the virus there, well, I’m a sceptic. I need some convincing. I’m not necessarily saying it’s right or wrong – I need hard evidence.
CH: Well there is hard evidence. One is that he’s cleared 139 cases of AIDS.
GD: One would have to see hard evidence.
CH: It’s available on video. He’s videoed every day he works. He does psychic surgery publicly on huge numbers of people. It’s amazing to witness.
GD: Which part of Brazil?
CH: In a village called Abadiania, about 100 miles from Brasilia. He’s known as Joao De Deus, John Of God. His sanctuary is named after Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. He’s an ordinary man who’s been given extraordinary abilities to embody the spirits of long-dead eminent surgeons and healers and operate with their skills while in a trance state. If you don’t believe in a spirit world it’s impossible to credit what happens. Once you do see Joao at work you can’t deny this reality. He’s been seeing hundreds of people three days a week for 40 years or more.
GD: Does he profit financially?
CD: No. He works for free. He doesn’t need to work for money. Although he started life extremely poor, he’s now the part-owner of an emerald mine.
GD: Emerald mine! Sounds interesting.
What was also interesting was to register Professor Dusheiko’s words about cirrhosis – “We’re beginning to think that it’s not a fixed state, and that it can be reversed.”
The understanding that human tissue does not exist in a “fixed state” is at the heart of all healing.. All matter is mutable and can be energetically rearranged. Illness is caused by energy blockages, and a healer is an energy plumber with, so it would seem, divine diplomas.
The doubts I carried to Brazil on my first visit to the Casa de Dom Inacio had been radically diminished by the healing I’d witnessed there. Two particular memories persist: Gabriella discarding her walking sticks, and Lynn moving unassisted from the room where a long tumour had just been plucked from around her spine.
Healing for most people, however, is a process not a one-off event. My hepatitis may have been arrested as a result of spiritual healing, but at present the virus remains. So does my optimism that it will, in time depart, just as it did for Ricardo who believes that he became HCV negative due to the spiritual education he received in Abadiania. “I basically ignored the fact I had HCV and never escalated this issue in my head”, he said. Two sets of tests came back negative. “I knew right there that I was cured by the entities from the Casa, I just knew it.”
Miraculously, the funding for my second visit to Abadiania materialised along with the realisation that I needed to be more than a passive recipient of energy. I needed to give as well as receive, and greet what was on offer with no expectation of “results”, and let go of my infernal impatience. Addicts want immediate results and can’t be bothered with processes. In-entity (in trance state), Joao would more than likely direct such cases to meditate in the healing chambers known as current rooms, where there’s a powerful chance that hindrances like agitation and impatience get melt down.
The Casa is a spiritual hospital where it becomes apparent that healing will happen only when, consciously or not, one is spiritually ready. I learnt to expect the unexpected. When I queued to ask the Entity (Joao embodying a spirit) how soon my hepatitis C would disappear, the answer was “Operation at 2 o’clock”. Along with 70 others I sat, eyes closed, in the Operations Room, as I had done a year before. The same yearning devotional music played in the background. . Suddenly Joao’s voice, like a mild shockwave, uttered an invocation.
I heard that same tone of quiet authority when I asked him if it is possible for a person who does not have faith in God to be cured. He replied – “I think that a person who leaves their home to come to the Casa where God is present must surely believe in God”.
I want to return. Meanwhile I’ll see Professor Dusheiko in 3 months time to receive my latest test results. Perhaps he’ll be astonished.. God knows.
Chris H.
May 14th 2005
The work written here is the opinion and effort of the signed authors and not necessarily that of the John Mordaunt Trust/Users Voice | 