From the Inside Flap
The Brazilian Healer with the Kitchen Knifeand Other Stories of Mystics, Shamans, and Miracle-Makers
Moved by her own struggle to recover from breast cancer, Sandy Johnson explores with curiosity and a measure of healthy skepticism the work of healers, miracle-makers, and transformers of the mind, body, and soul. She travels the world-- from a beachside compound in Hawaii to a remote village in Brazil-- to meet face-to-face with the most acclaimed healers. She often experiences their work first-hand and reports, with fascinating detail, the story of their real-life miracles and incredible feats. She also writes about the wonder of the "placebo effect," which seems to give some people the faith they need to begin healing on their own.
You'll meet Katie Engelhardt, a young woman from Tennessee, who is able to intuit and then often heal the ailments of people while in a trancelike state. Sometimes, after entering her trance, goldlike metal flakes appear on her face, neck, back, and hands. In another chapter, "Bundji," an Australian man with Aboriginal ancestors, tells how he was led to resurrect the healing methods of his people and now travels the world to heal those in need with "love, light, and energy." Dr. Ruth Ziemba, a traditionally trained nurse and chiropractor, explains why her treatments require only the lightest pressure with hands her patients say emanate an intense, healing heat.
You'll also meet John of God, the Brazilian with the kitchen knife, who treats as many as 3,000 people at a time, excising tumors, ending blindness, and curing arthritis and cancer at his Casa de San Inacio in a remote Brazilian village.
The Brazilian Healer with the Kitchen Knife grants an unprecedented view of this simultaneously ancient and modern phenomenon, and its most compelling practitioners. Sandy Johnson allows you to meet these spiritual magicians so that you can attempt to understand their gifts and motivations, and witness the best and worst of their work.
From the Back Cover
The Brazilian Healer with the Kitchen Knife
"I saw with my own eyes as Joao, in front of hundreds of people, lifted a woman's blouse, and with what appeared to be a plain kitchen knife, made a small incision in her breast and removed a piece of tissue. When he finished, Joao wiped the blood from the incision on his shirt. The tissue was then sent off to a lab in Brasilia and found to be a cancerous tumor."--from The Brazilian Healer with the Kitchen Knife
In The Brazilian Healer with the Kitchen Knife Sandy Johnson takes on the role of interested observer and journalist to tell the often incredible stories of the gifted people who tend to wounded bodies, spirits, and souls outside of traditional medicine. From the spectacular to the sublime, these are the people some turn to when the "white-coated wizards" say, "I can't help you" or "There is no hope." Their work is controversial and profound-- and there are opportunities for exploitation. But for many people it had made all the difference in their lives, leading them to complete healing-- mind, body, and soul.
Sandy Johnson attended the University of Pennsylvania, the New School for Social Research, CIDOC in Cuernavaca, and studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, and the Actors Studio in Los Angeles. Johnson has appeared in numerous television shows and feature films. She has also written several screenplays and television episodes and is the author of five fiction and nonfiction works. She lives in Marina Del Rey, California.