SPIRITUAL ALLIANCES:
Discovering the Roots of Health at the Casa de Dom Inacio
by Emma Bragdon, Ph.D.

Advance praise:

“SPIRITUAL ALLIANCES reveals ancient dimensions to healing that have been forgotten by conventional medicine. One day these methods will be taught in our medical schools because of a compelling reason: they work. Dr. Emma Bragdon's book is highly recommended.”
Larry Dossey, MD
Author, HEALING WORDS
Executive Editor, ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES IN HEALTH & MEDICINE“

This is an important and fascinating look…at some of the mystery of
healing and wholeness.”
James S. Gordon, M.D.
Founder and Director of the Center for Mind/Body Medicine

Alternative and complementary medicine is one of the most vibrant growth areas in health care today. Acupuncture, therapeutic massage, chiropractic and herbs used to be considered so fringe no insurance company would cover them and no reputable doctor would ever dream of recommending them to a patient.

In the past twenty years, a revolution has occurred and this has all changed. These modalities have gone mainstream, much to the benefit of millions of people and thanks to some visionary physicians such as Dean Ornish, Andrew Weil and Bernie Siegel. They popularized and legitimized the benefits of so-called “alternative” treatments and posited that there was a lot more to healing than just surgery and drugs.

The next frontier in healing is just beginning to peek over the horizon; although it’s been practiced for hundreds of years, it is still not readily available in the western world. But thousands of recipients have experienced dramatic results. More and more conventional physicians are trekking to a foreign country to witness the work first hand. What they find often astonishes them, and challenges everything they were trained to believe in medical school.

The treatment? Spiritual healing.

It’s the subject of a fascinating and compelling new book, SPIRITUAL ALLIANCES: Discovering the Roots of Health at The Case de Dom Inacio (Lightening Up Press/$19.95/Trade paperback/November 15, 2003) by Emma Bragdon, Ph.D. In the book she tells the story of Joao de Deus (“John of God”), a world-famous Brazilian healer, successful in helping people heal from all manner of physical and emotional problems through the application of spiritual healing.

Joao's center, The Casa de Dom Inacio de Loyola, welcomes people of all faiths. Joao accepts no payment for his services. He has been practicing spiritual healing for over 40 years, and all kinds of people including well-known luminaries (actress Shirley MacLaine, politician Bella Abzug, among others), visitors from around the world and the local poor have benefited from his ministrations.

The philosophical basis of Joao’s work is derived from the teachings of Allan Kardec, the French educator who codified Spiritism - the belief that spirits (angels and human beings who have passed on) exist and can interact in meaningful ways with those of us in body. Despite its overwhelmingly Catholic population, millions of Brazilians endorse Spiritism with a passion. They rely on the techniques and philosophies of Spiritism to help them manage their health. There are over 1,500 centers similar to The Casa de Dom Inacio throughout Brazil.

What makes Joao de Deus’ work so unusual? He makes contact with benevolent beings from the next dimension, who, though him, uniquely treat each patient. As an "unconscious medium," Joao has no memory of what he does while he is in this altered state of consciousness. His skill, in all diagnostic, prescriptive and surgical procedures, relies on the wisdom and training of channeled entities. He uses no pain or anxiety medication and prescribes no antibiotic before, during or after surgery. Patients reportedly don’t need them.

Joao’s amazing work has been documented by University studies in Brazil, research teams from around the world, and stories in a handful of trade books. Visiting doctors, trained in conventional medicine, are invited to stand near Joao as he does surgery and are stunned; “There is an energy generated … which is very real and effective in healing,” notes Dr. Frank Salvatore, a Board-Certified Urologist visiting Joao from New Jersey. “If the developed countries want to be leaders in health care, we need to take a closer look at Spiritist healing.”

The book also includes testimonials from patients, photographs and diagrams of the Center, travel information on visiting the Casa, a glossary of terms, and a detailed diary of one couple’s day-to-day experience while receiving healing.

John of God and the community of the Casa are living demonstrations of spiritual healing in a most dramatic form. “Witnessing the healing work at the Casa has opened my mind to new possibilities in healing and health maintenance,” states Bragdon. “I hope that this book will encourage further discussion here in the United States about stretching the boundaries of our understanding of healing modalities that are still yet to be fully utilized by Western medicine.”

About The Author:
Emma Bragdon, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist and author of two previous books; A Sourcebook for Helping People with Spiritual Problems, currently used as a textbook in graduate schools, and The Call of Spiritual Emergency: From Personal Crisis to Personal Transformation (published by HarperSanFrancisco). The daughter of a physician who taught at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Bragdon has had a life-long interest in health and healing. She has been visiting The Casa since 2001, studying Spiritism. When not abroad, she lives in Vermont.

SPIRITUAL ALLIANCES:
Discovering the Roots of Health at the Casa de Dom Inacio
Emma Bragdon, Ph.D.
(Spirituality and Health/0-9620960-3-2/$19.95/142 pages)
A Lightening Up Press Trade Paperback/November 15, 2003

To set up an interview call Emma Bragdon, 802-674-2919 or email EBragdon@aol.com

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