The rain was pouring down when we arrived in Abadiania in February 2004, a small town an hour and a half from Brasilia. It had taken me 3 flights to get there from Cyprus via Heathrow (where I met up with more than 20 other people) then on to Sao Paulo and an internal flight to Brasilia. On the final leg of the trip the coach had broken down and by the time we had arrived we were all exhausted. The lodgings were very basic, small houses with asbestos roofs and my room just about big enough for a hard, narrow, single bed. It felt as if I was in a monk's cell, but I didn't care as I had gone to see Joao de Deus, the famous spiritual healer and psychic surgeon.

The Casa is the centre where Joao practices healing and psychic surgery. It is made up of one story rooms around a covered courtyard. There is a series of meditation or "current" (energy) rooms, a recovery room, kitchen, herb dispensary, crystal therapy rooms and offices. It is a simple wood and plaster building decorated in blue and white, the colours that Saint Inacio Loyola used. Pictures of Christ, saints and crystals decorate it. Joao is a devout Christian, like almost all Brazilians. The town has expanded around the Casa and has over twenty small guest houses of the simplest kind, some shops, a juice bar and an internet café. Just a kilometre away is a secluded valley filled with trees, flowers and a waterfall; its waters are blessed and are known for their healing effects. Joao was inspired to buy land in Abadiania by his spirit helpers because of the huge natural quartz crystal beds underneath the town. These add an energy and healing effect around the whole place, like a huge bubble of tranquillity and light.

Joao works three days a week at the centre, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, starting at 8 am to around 11 am with the next session at 2 pm. Free soup made from vegetables grown at the Casa is served to all at lunchtime. He does not charge for healing, the centre runs on donations and profits from a small shop selling crystals and blessed water. Brazilians come from miles away, often arriving by coach after travelling for more than 24 hours. There is a small percentage of foreigners from Europe, the USA and the rest of the world who make their way there. Even doctors come to observe, those who arrive as sceptics often leave convinced of the healing.

The Casa felt a little chaotic when I first arrived and I thought "Wow, what's going on?" Imagine between 500-1000 people each day all trying to get in line, wondering what is happening and signs saying "Silence" all over the place. Everything else is in Portuguese although there are a few well meaning interpreters. Towards the end of my first two weeks, I just about knew what was happening. The leader of our group was a "daughter of the Casa", a British volunteer healer who herself had been operated on by Joao for an "incurable" spine tumour. Some members of the group were seriously ill and found the simple accommodation, frequent power cuts, and lack of facilities very hard to put up with. Between Friday and Wednesday there is practically no support available, so in an emergency what do you do? Therefore I can't recommend it for people who are travelling from abroad and are really sick. It is simply too much for them and their helpers, although I am not deterring anyone from visiting the Casa as it is a wonderful experience and Joao helps many people.

Visitors form four queues in the courtyard. There are queues for first time visits, a second queue for repeat visits whether that's a day later or a year or more, an "operations" line and a "review" line.

I eventually got in the right queue with my message "I am a practicing healer who is trying to develop invisible psychic surgery. I'd like to share my love and energies. What would you like me to do? How can I help and learn?" The question is written down with the help of an interpreter because you may have several questions to ask and there isn't enough time, so this makes you focus with intention on the most important one. Joao sees every one for only a few seconds. Portuguese speakers ask their own questions so often speak to him longer. Before my interpreter even had a chance to read my question to Joao, Joao answered and told me to sit in the "current" room.

The current room held about 90 people (but has since been extended) and is used for meditation and sending out energies. Whilst sitting in this room for up to three hours at a time you are asked to keep your eyes shut, but it is not easy in the Brazilian heat with no air conditioning and people around you who are very sick, children playing and other distractions. Despite all this there was so much energy in the room that having a deep meditation was simply amazing. Everybody walks through this room on their way to see Joao. It acts as a cleansing filter and I could feel the energy going out to them as they passed through.

Joao puts most of the people on cleansing herbs for a minimum of 40 days. The Brazilians will go home with the herbs and are told not to eat pork or chillies (the local staple food), drink alcohol or have sex. This can be difficult for them, but it is really important as they have to cleanse and prepare their bodies before invisible or visible operations on their return. I heard about Joao and his visible surgery several years ago and have been quite sceptical of the stories even though I am a practicing healing medium.

On the first Thursday night I was there, I felt so disillusioned. I spoke with my spirit friends saying "I'm not quite happy with some of the things I see here". They replied "Don't forget you come here with a British mentality and with European experience. Don't bring those influences here because this is a very poor population, a lot of them are not educated at all. So do not judge, just accept it". That is what I did and it became very easy after that, but not everybody felt the same.

Some protested about the strict rules the Casa put in place to keep some kind of order. For example, they won't allow anybody to practice any of their gifts whether healing or clairvoyance except under the direction of Joao. This is done to protect people who are sick and vulnerable.

Friday afternoon, my question for Joao was "I would like to see an operation". As I was approaching the entity room, one of my spirit helpers called Llhom, started to say "With profound thanks for your hospitality" and continued to praise and thank the spiritual entities who work with Joao on my behalf. They were not words I would naturally use. It was an acknowledgement and token of respect. I could not hear the reply, it was a bit like hearing one side of a telephone conversation.

Just at that moment, Joao looked directly at me. I was about 6 people away from actually asking him my question. He raised the arm of the man next in the queue and looked at the growth on it and picked up a scalpel. Now I am not very tall, and couldn't see what was happening, Joao looked at me again and moved all those in front of me to the side so I could get a good view.

He swabbed the skin, sliced into it an incision about two and a half inches long, put his fingers inside the wound and pulled out a growth of white tissue. I was so close; there was no mistaking what he did. He pulled the wound back together with his fingers. The man just stood there, unaffected by it all. Joao briefly acknowledged me, cleansed his hands in a big stainless steel bowl whilst one of the assistants cleaned the man's arm and gave him the growth on a tray to take away with him. I am not medically experienced, but seeing all this did not disturb me. I felt honoured by being personally shown the operation and was content to sit in the current room giving out energy, meditating and connecting with spirit to help Joao with his healings. My team had been right again.

At the end of three weeks I had booked my taxi to leave for Brazilia and was looking forward to the Amazon and a bit of fun. I went one last time with my written question to see Joao. He told me some local crystals would help me with my healing and to come back and meet him after the healing session in private. On returning to see him, along with an interpreter, I told him I live and work as a healer in Cyprus and was there any advice he could give me? He asked if I would still be there the next week. I had a small mental tug of war, between the prospect of the Amazon and more time at the Casa.

The Casa won and I then received an amazing invitation, to be there at every session the next week in the "operations room" sitting in Doctor Augusto's (chief spirit surgeon who he works with in trance) chair to observe and help, something usually reserved for doctors and for only one session! I was walking on air for the next few days and was invited to help work in the Casa. I learned a lot about how the centre is run.

The next week in the operations room was incredible. A group of strong healers and clairvoyants sit in meditation plus "witnesses" such as doctors or university professors. Different entities work in trance with Joao depending on the work needed. Hundreds of spirit helpers join to add their skills to those of the principal entities, such as Doctor Augusto or Dom Inacio.

The "visible" or physical operations take place in this room. He will sometimes cut with scalpels, use a pair of forceps to twist inside or scrape the eye with a knife. The patients feel nothing, there is a little blood, no after infections and large tumours or other tissue are often removed.

I saw a lot but because there was no interpreter available, could not hold the instruments for him as he wanted, and all that he was telling me as he operated sadly went above my head. I was near enough to see everything that went on, and St. John my surgeon guide was with me, making sure I was not affected by the sights of the surgery. I was in semi trance all the time and could feel my own channelled energies helping the recipients of the surgery.

In every session he would do a few visible operations and approximately 50 or more invisible ones simultaneously simply by saying "In the name of Jesus Christ you are healed". I saw him stitch occasionally and one of the doctors present said he was technically very good at it despite being a bit flamboyant and this from an untrained man! Each person who has had an operation, whether visible or invisible, is taken to a recovery room to rest and also given aftercare advice. The healing effect may go on for many months after people leave.

Joao De Deus is unlike any other healer I have seen to date. It's important not to limit our minds as there is so much in our world that we do not understand. My own views were changed by the experience.