However, James Randi and Joe Nickell exposed his healing procedures as nothing more than carnival tricks,[3][4] and there is no evidence that the benefits reported by patients are anything more than placebo effects.

Around 1978, when he first performed healings there, he just sat outdoors in a chair near the main road where people began to arrive seeking cures for their illnesses and conditions.

[12][13] Much of his income came from selling passionflower preparations, the single herb prescribed by Faria to cure a variety of ailments.

The company which bore his initials, JTF Ltda., marketed the drug and was registered in the name of his wife, Ana Keyla Teixeira, and his driver and employee Abadio da Cruz.

Those practices, such as inserting scissors or forceps deep into a nose or scraping an eye without an anesthetic or antiseptics, were scrutinized by medical authorities and skeptical investigators such as James Randi, who called for Faria to stop victimizing people with stunts and trickery.

Often the treatment included capsules containing pure passion flower which he would say carried special blessed spiritual energy to support the individual's healing process.

[12] The programme featured five people with various medical conditions, including chronic fatigue syndrome, Lou Gehrig's disease and an inoperable brain tumour.

[20] Despite undergoing Faria's psychic surgery and being declared cured, Lisa Melman's breast cancer got progressively worse.

[23] On 17 November 2010, Susan Casey wrote in O Magazine about her trip to see Faria in Brazil and was subsequently covered on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

While Casey stated that the whole experience sounds unusual, she said that she is "not a woo-woo person" and that Faria helped her find healing.

[23] On 17 March 2013, Oprah's Next Chapter, Season 2, Episode 116, aired a televised show titled "John of God".

After the allegations became public, Oprah deleted the interviews from her site and released a note stating that she hopes justice will be served.

[30] On the 22 December 2010, episode of CNN's AC360, Sanjay Gupta interviewed two of the commentators Oprah Winfrey had sent to meet Faria.

[24][38][39] In Part 1 of the follow-up, reporter Michael Usher revealed that a woman declared as cured of breast cancer by a spirit entity channeled by Faria died in 2003.

In an extended interview, emergency medicine specialist Dr. David Rosengren personally examined and reported these practices as horrendous and barbaric, saying: "… the modern medical world could not condone this behavior in any way whatsoever".

He also reported that in 2010, when Faria visited Sedona, Arizona, the police department investigated him because a woman said he took her hands and placed them on his genitals.

Brian Lucas, issued a televised verbal warning, stating "John of God doesn't have any official affiliation with the Catholic Church".

He cautioned all to be very skeptical of people seeking publicity with claims of miracles and faith healing, more so when there is a lot of money involved.

[50][51] The number of claims led to the Prosecution Office of the State of Goiás creating an email address and phone line to receive all accusations towards him.

[52] Claims were reported by the prosecution's office as having potential to be the biggest sexual scandal in the history of Brazil, overwhelming the Roger Abdelmassih case.

[54] On 11 December, four days after the Conversa com Bial show, the number of sexual abuse complaints against Faria had reached 206, prompting him to limit his appointments at Casa Dom Inácio de Loyola.

[57] Faria's daughter Dalva supported the accusers, calling her father a "monster" and alleging that she was beaten and raped by him until she ran away when she was 14 years old.

[61] He was temporarily released from prison on house arrest when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, due to his age and poor health.