https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joao-teixeira-de-faria-john-of-god-rape_n_5c7ec996e4b06ff26ba30b19 How does it happen? I have heard the stories of the magical healing in the small village in Brazil for many years. I never considered going there. But I know personally around twenty people from my close surrounding, who visited the John of God’s retreat and have spent many months. They told amazing stories of healing through light and crystal energies. Several of my personal friends went - and came home healthier than before. When I was listening to those stories, I was always having double feelings - joy, that my friends had become more healthy and happy, and disbelief in this easy magical solution. John of God (João Teixeira de Faria) was also invited to the United States to lead healing retreats in Omega Institute, one of the most established spiritual centers in the country. The news about sexual charges against the guy didn't surprise me. Through the past ten years I observed multiple cases, where all types of male gurus and teachers were charged with sexual assaults. Most of them were misuses of power and breaking the boundaries. But not monstrous crimes. Some of those teacher's books stay on my bookshelf as a great source of knowledge and inspiration. I am aware that Castaneda and Sogyal Rinpoche weren't the best human examples to follow, but I can still enjoy their brilliant writing. And I am compassionate to their life stories. The story with John of God ( João Teixeira de Faria) is much more dramatic. It looks like this guy had been involved in a lot of crimes, which are beyond the border of any human tolerance - human trafficking, murder, pedophilia. When I heard about this news, I was shocked with the scope of incomprehensible polarities. On one hand are the thousands of people, including Oprah and Bill Clinton, who had experienced healing or at least gained peace of mind, under his guidance. On the other hand, there were young girls, who were kept as sexual slaves, incest with his own young daughter and more. It looks like the whole scope of black and white polarities which we can find in human history, came together in this small Brasilian village and created a space where good and evil came together in yet another action of the universal wild dance. When I observe this modern Shakespearean tragedy I see several levels: 1st level: A leader of any sort is not only a normal human being, he/she is also a role which reflects a scope of powerful energies present in the organization, community, or country they lead. For example, Mr. Trump is not only an interesting human who happened to become a president, but also a mirror of the polarity of good and bad in our society. João Teixeira de Faria, the healer from the Brazilian village took the role as a “magical healer” for the suffering crowd looking to unload their karmic trouble and disbalance in emotional energy. But, while doing so, he was also collecting and holding the emotional load people came to unload there. Ultimately, he was not able to deal with the energy in a healthy way and ended up manifesting the emotional load in the world through terrible crimes. 2nd level: One of the mottos of our culture - Let’s do things faster and more efficiently. The price of speed and efficiency is that things become unsustainable. We end up producing a lot of material things, but also now have to deal with the pollution and toxic waste. Likewise, we are looking for fast healing through western medicine or through magical gurus, but none of them can deal with the pollution of toxic emotions, and unbalanced energies, which caused the sickness. Western medicine has become robotically inhuman. Healers are just going crazy. Why have I become triggered by this story, which is not connected to me directly? I am a very small leader, teacher, and healer. My community is tiny. I actually try not to heal anybody, but teach how to be conscious and how to accept all kinds of imbalances within one’s own system. I also teach myself and others how to look at those imbalances with curiosity and kindness. But year after year I set my goals to grow my healing/teaching business into something bigger. And now I am looking at this John of God tragedy with a lot of fear and confusion. Will I be able to sustain it, if I grow my school? Maybe not me, but one of my dear healer friends, who will become more famous and successful may turn into a monster? I am writing a book right now on integrating ayahuasca medicine ceremonies. Ayahuasca is a fast and efficient healing modality. People say one ceremony is worth a whole year of psychotherapy. The number of those ceremonies are growing in the States. Will ayahuasca become a fast and efficient healing modality for the modern human being, or will it turn into one more way to develop an addiction? Tobacco, coca and opium were known as powerful healing herbs in native communities they came from. But those communities knew nothing about being fast and efficient. Actually the idea of time is very different in those communities than in our culture. 3rd level: Healing through light. This Brasilian healer, João Teixeira de Faria, he wasn't able to digest all these polarized human stories and energies, which were moving through him and his healing business. He was claiming that he was working with Angels. Maybe. But looks like if the Angels are here, the Demons make their appearance as well. It seems to me, that hope for healing from the "light force" is childishly naive. If we are going to heal ourselves, we need to be more conscious of all the range of powers within us - creative and destructive, and be able to hold them. If we are looking at a leader, teacher or healer of some sort, let’s try to observe, before going there, if she/he can hold some scope of polarity. If the leader claims that he or she comes from the light force, knows all truth, is pure and can discern exactly what is good and what is evil for you, be careful and look for the monster in the closet. There are spiritual traditions which have some ability to deal with dualistic energies. Tibetan Buddhism, Daoism, Shamanic tradition. And there are many other healing traditions. They can help. But only to some extent. Most of the load is still on imperfect human beings, which are put into the leadership role. My vision on this complicated topic is that in the future, many organizations, communities and countries will be structured more horizontally, based on collaboration of many leaders. The conscious group, may be more able to sustain the tensions of polarities. Those communities need to have a strong mechanism for processing a conflict in between the leaderships figures. Another of my visions is that there will be more female leaders, or male leaders who lead in more feminine styles. It is a big load for a female to be a leader. We, women, are naturally more flexible, more emotional and less inclined to keep a certain structure and keep boundaries, which is a necessary quality for a leader. But we are learning. Slowly. Women are more relationship oriented. We are attuned to listen and feel the emotions of others. We are made by nature to care and maintain. And the tasks, which we have in the modern era, are not to conquer the North Pole, and to kill all tigers, but on the contrary, to make sure the North Pole is still covered by ice and the small amount of tigers, which are left on this planet are not going to be extinct. So hooray, to slower, more conscious, more collective and relationship oriented styles of leadership! I know the many topics I raised in this article are controversial and require more discussion and explanation. What is your experience with healing and guru healers?