It’s 9:24 CST and I am watching 20/20. They are currently spending the entire hour on a man known as “John of God”. He is, what can best be described as a faithhealer. So far it’s a bit of a puff piece. His methods are rather unorthodox. In order to cure a medical student of her back pain and asthma, he rams a foceps with a piece of gauze up her nose. Not just the gauze, but the entire forceps! He then turns it numerous times (rather violently) in this woman’s nose/head.
He claims to channel deceased doctors but what I think he is doing is preying on the fears and desperation of sick people.
Does anyone know anything about this man? Why is 20/20 (so far) running such a puff piece? This is starting to tick me off ((uh-oh, maybe this should be in the pit or IMHO). Regardless, I think he is a quack.
John Quinones is the same reporter who was involved with the Primetime Thursday show about the “reincarnated boy” and “psychic detective Carla Baron.” I sent ABC an email letter after that show (which was reprinted in both Michael Shermer’s and James Randi’s weekly column).
I can’t really fault these patients who went there - they have ALS, brain cancer, etc., and are desperate. I asked my wife after the show if she thought this John of God guy (Joao I think) was sincere, and she said she thought so. I told her that I didn’t think he is, because the things that he does are exactly like magician’s tricks. He knows that he can cram scissors into someone’s sinuses and not do any major damage, but it makes for a good effect for the rubes. They didn’t really show the knife scraping on the eyeball much, but I’m sure it’s the same.
The medical doctor sure didn’t have much to add. Speculation about mind-body connections and the remote possibility of the scissors in the sinuses stimulating the pituitary gland are really reaching. Before he started looking for possible explanations, he should have seen whether Joao’s patients really do get better, and I think we all know the answer to that.
I’m sure that most people watching the show came away believing that he’s sincere, and I’m sure that many plane tickets to Brazil are being sold right now.
20/20 is actually a fairly skeptical show. I’m sure John Stossel cringes when this kind of crap is aired by his network. But this show was on Primetime Thursday instead.