Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilian police may not be able to repatriate the body of a Japanese woman who was found murdered in Brazil where she had sought treatment at a spiritual retreat an investigating officer said on Thursday.Hitomi Akamatsu was found on Monday by a waterfall on a property owned by disgraced spiritual guru João Teixeira de Faria known as "John of God." The self-proclaimed healer who became a celebrity after appearing on a show hosted by Oprah Winfrey has been convicted of raping women at his retreat.Police have arrested Rafael Lima da Costa an 18-year-old who confessed to killing Akamatsu on Nov Police tracked him using security camera footage and found where he had burned clothes according to detective Isabela Silva.It may be difficult to send her back to Japan Silva said."Due to her body being in an advanced stage of putrefaction we don't know if we will be able to embalm her," Silva said.Police said Akamatsu arrived at the ranch roughly two years ago to seek treatment for radioactive exposure she said she had gotten from Japan's Fukushima blast She had stayed on after John of God's arrest and was well-known by residents in the town of Abadiânia some 120 kilometers (75 miles) southwest of the federal capital Brasilia.Japan's embassy in Brazil said in a Wednesday statement that it had been informed of her death by local police on Nov Japanese diplomats said they were liaising with officials and those who needed to be alerted to her death without giving more information.Reporting by Leonardo Benassatto; Writing by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Steve Orlofsky Steve Orlofsky Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. All rights reserved While he waits for the Brazilian faith healer to arrive Paul Simon is supposed be meditating quietly with his eyes closed “I want to see what’s going on,” Simon said, recalling his visit to the Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola in Abadiânia, Brazil, where, in the summer of 2014, he underwent a "spiritual operation" performed by João Teixeira de Faria — a medium and psychic healer known as João de Deus (or "John of God”) John of God enters the room where Simon and about a dozen other pilgrims “He speaks in Portuguese — I assume a prayer — and he leaves,” Simon said “And then everyone gets up and leaves the room when is the operation?’ And she says You had it.’ … I felt nothing.” While in Brazil — a 10-day trip he took at the urging of his wife, the musician Edie Brickell, who had traveled to Abadiânia for her own "spiritual surgery" several months earlier — Simon began writing the song "Proof of Love,” a six-minute epic that is the centerpiece of his masterful new album I trade my tears To ask the Lord For proof of love If only for the explanation That tells me what my dreams are made of… Stranger to Stranger is rich with the singularly vivid storytelling that long ago earned Simon his place in the American music pantheon He invites listeners on a sonic journey with more than a whiff of spiritual exploration — a familiar theme for careful listeners to his half-century of music-making Simon’s spirituality is experiential what the German theologian Rudolf Otto might have called “numinous” — it expresses a connection to the “wholly Other” that is deeply personal and awesome (in the literal meaning of that word) In his The Varieties of Religious Experience the philosopher William James might have described it as “mystical,” as in “mystical states seem to those who experience them to be also states of knowledge … illuminations all inarticulate though they remain.” a conversation about transcendent experiences that unfolds as much in the sound as it does in actual words that Simon sings Simon’s musical dialogue with his audience has been an adventure: through the mean streets of pre-Bloomberg New York City That conversation (and adventure) continues with Stranger to Stranger at the velvet rope of a nightclub with a homeless “street angel,” in a hospital emergency room and a village in central Brazil that some might describe as a “thin place” — where the veil between this world and whatever lies beyond it is like gossamer Simon, who turns 75 this year, hadn’t made the journey to see João de Deus because he was physically ill But he has suffered from violent nightmares for most of his life and in the months leading up to his unlikely pilgrimage the bad dreams had become more frequent — sometimes once or twice a week “I was kicking and punching in my sleep,” Simon said ‘You better go down there.’” He traveled to Brazil alone and checked into his single room at the Posada a simple hostel-like lodging affiliated with the John of God ministry He didn’t take much with him — a couple of books his laptop in case he wanted to write anything which was about as useful in the remote Abadiânia as a subway pass the singer donned all white (think an afternoon of lawn bowling not Druids on the Salisbury Plain) and joined the queues for an audience with the healer pilgrims from all over the world have traveled to Abadiânia seeking miraculous healing from João de Deus who has no medical training and only two years of formal education He is perhaps best known for performing physical surgeries with only rudimentary tools — forceps or just his bare hands — to remove tumors and pull various viscera out of their noses It all sounds rather horrific (as evidenced by several documentary videos that are not for the faint of heart) but reportedly patients experience little bloodshed or pain despite the absence of even topical anesthesia “I was standing on the line and waiting and I thought to myself that this doesn’t feel right I really don’t feel like I belong here,” Simon recalled my mother she would probably be furious that I went and my father would probably just think it was stupid many of whom were disabled or visibly unwell including cancer patients suffering the effects of chemotherapy “And here’s me who’s not sick I’ll ask why I’ve had violent nightmares since I’m four years old.” After his “spiritual surgery,” Simon returned the Posada and slept for 18 hours Simon said he meditated on his nightmares — exploring what and whom he saw in the recurring dreams that often took place in and around his childhood home in New York cling to you and they’ll keep coming back in the dream,” Simon said And if you want to begin to get rid of them you say this prayer: ‘I’m sorry thank you.’ And then you mentally cut the cord Essentially what you’re saying is … goodbye.” When he returned to the Casa the second time John of God invited Simon to join “The Current,” a small group of pilgrims who flank the modest raised platform where the healer sees patients and meditate or pray during the three-hour sessions while he waited his turn for another healing consultation “Finally it’s my turn to come up in the line — I’m the last person that he sees — and I say to my guide A translator explains to João de Deus what Simon’s said Your suffering is no less important than anyone else’s It’s not like if we deal with your suffering someone else gets less relief.’ He takes my hand and he says to me You will return here three times and you will always be welcome And would you sing one of your songs?'” and he began to sing the only one that came to mind: his iconic 1969 song About 200 people were gathered in the Casa’s three rooms as Simon began walking from room to room as he sang “As I walked toward people some people would begin to weep and some would fall down and … I say to myself some big energy thing is happening that I don’t understand and it’s happening through me but I don’t know what it is and nobody told me about it.’ I don’t know whether I’m doing anybody any good It’s pretty strong so I’m afraid to get too close to people because the closer I get the more they shake,” he recalled “Then I start to move over to the [chemotherapy patients] and let them weep for a while There’s something about this that feels like this is OK I’m just playing ‘The Sound of Silence.’ I walk into other rooms and the same thing happens I finish the song and hand the guitar to somebody and leave,” he said “That’s what happened … I don’t know how to describe it I hadn’t experienced that before.” Simon continued to work on “Proof of Love,” the most “spiritually themed” song on the album one that is laden with spiritual imagery and allusions I ask the Lord For proof of love Love is all I seek Love is all I seek And when at times my words desert me Music is the tongue I speak Silent night Still as prayer Darkness fills with light Love on Earth is everywhere Simon's experience with John of God — a not-uncontroversial figure who claims he has no power on his own but that God (and helpful spirits of healers from the past) move through him to heal people physically and otherwise — affected the singer-songwriter in ways he says he hadn't anticipated and still is processing He declined to say what had motivated Brickell But she’s more attuned to the mystical than I am.” Last week he told the sold-out audience at his Hollywood Bowl concert about another trip to Brazil this one down the Amazon River in the 1980s where he visited a “brujo” who invited him to partake of Ayahuasca — a psychedelic brew said to elicit strong spiritual visions about the meaning and purpose of life led him to write “Spirit Voices” from his 1990 Rhythm of the Saints album meant to be sung Song from the mouth of the river When the world was young And all of these spirit voices rule the night A natural skeptic who insists he is not "religious" and had “no interest” in exploring his native Judaism beyond his bar mitzvah more than 60 years ago Simon admits he is intrigued by the faith of others But before anyone tries to nominate him for a Dove Award Simon insists most of the spiritual imagery and allusions in his work are largely unintentional and likely more in the eye (or ear) of the beholder “I don’t think that way,” Simon said “You know that I believe in [the spiritual] aspect of our nature and that I find it fascinating That hasn’t changed and so it pops up in the songs For whatever reason this stuff comes through me or out of me or whatever it is and I put it down and a lot of times I just say hmmm In recounting his spiritual adventures in Brazil Simon also revealed a few intimacies of his creative process “It comes from the sounds,” he said “If there’s anything that’s mystical about the whole experience When I’m satisfied with the way the tracks go then they inspire a thought or a lyric.” Simon describes himself as a conduit or an “editor,” a musical medium “I keep trying to be open to what the sound universe is offering rather than struggling to come up with stuff that’s from my own limited life,” he said Case in point: the new album’s opening track “The Werewolf” got its name (and narrative inspiration) from the sound made by an Indian instrument called a Gopichand “I thought it sounded like the word ‘werewolf,’” he said The song “Street Angel,” has an even more intriguing provenance “Here’s how it happened: I made the rhythm track … and then I played this gospel quartet from the late ‘30s and I slowed it down in pitch to fit the overtone of the drums so that made the whole thing get very slowed down And then flipped it backwards and listening to the sounds — what I heard sounded like ‘street angel,’” Simon explained They’re telling me what to write about.” is a lyrical passage from “Street Angel,” that says: It’s God goes fishing And we are the fishes He baits his lines With prayers and wishes They sparkle in the shallows They catch the falling light We hide our hearts like holy hostages We’re hungry for the love ‘God goes fishing and we are the fishes.’ The rest of it is finishing the rhyme and finishing the story But also the part about being ‘hungry for the love,’ I almost put ‘hungry for his love’ — we hold our hearts like holy hostages we’re hungry for his love,’ but then I thought there were too many Hs and I didn’t want to do that much alliteration,” he said it wasn’t a theological question,” he said Cathleen Falsani is a longtime religion journalist and author of six nonfiction books. You can follow her on Twitter @godgrrl and read more of her work via The Numinous World Got something to say about what you're reading Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker João Teixeira de Faria, known as “John of God”, was arrested in December, and faces accusations from dozens of women, who allege he sexually abused them while they were seeking spiritual guidance and treatment. the small town in central Brazil where Faria’s spiritual center is located accepted the charges brought against him by four women Prosecutors allege that Faria raped two of the women and used fraudulent means to sexually abuse the other two who became internationally famous when Winfrey broadcast a report on his psychic healing methods in 2013 The first accusation was made on a TV Globo programme in December by a Dutch choreographer Globo TV spent three months investigating the story and interviewed a dozen other women who said they had been abused by the healer Faria’s fame has been boosted by supposedly miraculous surgeries he claims to have performed with his hands and without anesthesia Winfrey said in a statement that she visited Faria’s center in 2012 to explore his controversial healing methods for an episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter that aired the following year “I empathize with the women now coming forward and hope justice is served,” she said Prosecutors are still investigating other allegations against Faria said his client had not yet been notified of the court’s decision “We’re calm and believe justice will be served,” he said Brazil — John of God grabs what looks like a kitchen knife from a silver tray and appears to scrape it over the right eye of a believer The "psychic surgeon" then wipes a viscous substance from the blade onto the patient's shirt The procedure is repeated on the left eye of Juan Carlos Arguelles who recently traveled thousands of miles from Colombia to see the healer which thinned his cornea and severely blurred his vision a 69-year-old miracle man and medium to those who believe He's a dangerous hoax to those who do not For five decades he's performed "psychic" medical procedures like that for Arguelles He asks for no money in exchange for the procedures The sick and lame who have hit dead ends in conventional medicine are drawn to Abadiania a tiny town in the green highlands of Goias state Faria says he's not the one curing those who come to him "Psychic surgeons" are mostly concentrated in Brazil and the Philippines with roots in spiritualist movements that believe spirits of the dead can communicate with the living they often appear to go into a trance while doing their work dead doctors or other spirits to flow through them Such practices have been roundly denounced The American Cancer Society has said practitioners of psychic surgery use sleight of hand and animal body parts during procedures to convince patients that what ails them has been snatched away the 29-year-old Colombian who had his eyes worked on by John of God doesn't care what the medical establishment says A week after visiting Brazil and undergoing the procedure he said his vision had improved "by 80 percent" and was getting better each day Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information National Report RIO DE JANEIRO--The Japanese woman whose body was found next to a waterfall in Brazil’s Goias state died as a result of a blow to the head according to the detective leading the investigation The 18-year-old Brazilian man who confessed to killing Hitomi Akamatsu claimed in his first interrogation that he had used her blouse to strangle her detective Isabella Joy told The Associated Press by phone A forensic report from Goiás state’s crime lab that came back on Friday indicated cranial trauma was the actual cause of death who local press has identified as Rafael Lima da Costa is under preventative arrest for homicide resulting from a robbery and for hiding a cadaver Akamatsu moved to the city of Abadiania to seek treatment for her skin cancer after she survived a nuclear accident in Japan She remained there after the arrest of the spiritual healer known as Joao de Deus who drew people from all over the world to his small city two hours west of Brazil's capital with promises he could treat everything from depression to cancer he was found guilty of committing multiple rapes Akamatsu's body was found in a ditch beside the waterfall after her friend reported her missing which prompted authorities to send out a search party with tracker dogs Security camera footage showed da Costa following Akamatsu and later returning with his blouse over his shoulder While the woman’s blouse hasn’t been located other clothes of hers as well as an exercise mat were found burned inside an abandoned home near the waterfall Almost one week had passed between Akamatsu’s death and the day her body was found The time elapsed combined with the humid environment caused fast decomposition and made it impossible to confirm whether she had been raped which da Costa hasn’t confessed to having done Da Costa said he had intended to rob somebody to pay off a drug debt Another interrogation is expected next week The man doesn’t have a lawyer and will most likely be appointed a public defender The AP was unable to reach him to seek comment Information on the latest cherry blossom conditions Please right click to use your browser’s translation function.) A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II In-house News and Messages No reproduction or republication without written permission BRASILIA: A famous Brazilian "spiritual healer" accused of sexually abusing female followers has been sentenced to more than 118 years in prison for raping four women better known as “Joao de Deus” or “John of God,” treated tens of thousands of people per month at his “spiritual hospital” in the small town of Abadiania in central Brazil He shot to international fame when US TV star Oprah Winfrey profiled him in 2013 But hundreds of women later came forward alleging he had sexually forced himself on them in order to “cure” them of ailments Goias state criminal court Judge Marcos Boechat sentenced him Friday to a prison term of 118 years six months and 15 days on charges of “rape rape via fraud and rape of a vulnerable individual,” the court said in a statement The ruling grouped a total of 17 cases against Faria who already had several criminal sentences against him The judge also ordered him to pay the victims damages of up to 100,000 reais (around $20,500) must be included in national decision-making Water data says normal flows remained above 30,000 cusecs per day Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi had met PM Modi Trump’s suggestion of possibly seeking third term has been sharply questioned by legal and constitutional scholars CM directed School Management Councils to provide necessary facilities in schools worth Rs10 billion within 90 days Victory propelled Karachi to second place in standings with 10 points pushing Islamabad to third and Lahore to fourth Copyright © 2025. The News International, All Rights Reserved | Contact Us | Authors Pakistan bans Indian ships in retaliation for New Delhi's port sanctions Four Pakistani mountaineers launch high-altitude missions in Nepal Indo-Pak tensions' fallout on Kabul Church of Pakistan leads march backing armed forces Rain, thunderstorm predicted in Karachi today: PMD Weddings go on in Pakistan's Kashmir border Prince Harry: No way home Russell Brand appears in court on rape charges The fragrance of music Knee-jerk reaction for Kneecap Netflix's 'Eternaut' depicts fight against tyranny Maybe Happy Ending' leads Tony nominees Trump proposes cuts to renewables Businessmen slam tax ordinance Govt decides to replace PARC head Gold reigns supreme in times of crisis Direct Karachi-Skardu flight launched Ride-hailing service for EV transition Santa Ono, University of Michigan president, leaves role amid controversies WWII Spitfire plane crash lands in Kent field ahead of VE Day events Cold war-era Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 482 to return after 53 years in orbit Measles surge signals post-herd-immunity era in North America, experts warn Apple opens door to external payments after Epic Games court ruling Iran’s FM visits Islamabad amid Pak-Ind tensions sexually abused them while they were seeking spiritual guidance and treatment.Prosecutors have requested the arrest of João Teixeira de Faria a small town in central Brazil where he has his spiritual center a law enforcement source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.Since the first accusation was aired on television on Friday 258 women - some of them foreigners - have come forward accusing Faria of abuses according to the prosecutors' office for the state of Goias where Abadiania is located.Faria maintained on Wednesday that he is innocent in his first comments since the scandal began He denied the accusations and said he would comply with the law.The first accusation was made on a TV Globo program on Friday by Dutch choreographer Zahira Maus who said Faria sexually assaulted her Globo TV spent three months investigating the story and interviewed a dozen other women who said they had been abused by the healer.Faria's fame has been boosted by supposedly miraculous surgeries he claims to have performed with his hands and without anesthesia.Winfrey said in a statement that she visited Faria's center in 2012 to explore his controversial healing methods for an episode of "Oprah's Next Chapter" that aired the following year she said."I empathize with the women now coming forward and hope justice is served," she said.The scandal has shocked the town of Abadiania whose economy has become dependent on the tourism brought by Faria's healing center Thousands of Brazilians and foreigners flocked there but the industry has now come to a halt.Some followers of Faria have rejected the accusations and harassed reporters who descended on the town on Wednesday for the first public appearance of the healer since the scandal broke receiving him with loud cheers and applause."Brothers and my dear sisters I am in the hands of the law," he told them in a brief appearance "John of God is still alive," he said.Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Bill Rigby and Lisa Shumaker Professor Cristina Rocha talks about the balance of power between spiritual leaders and their followers and highlights the strong connections of John of God with Australia.Cristina Rocha who wrote a book about João de Deus and the globalisation of Brazilian rituals of spiritual healing highlights the new astonishing claims against João de Deus She also discusses the accusations brought up by activist Sabrina Bittencourt which are being investigated by the Prosecution Office in São Paulo Guias australianos levaram centenas de seguidores ao centro de João de Deus em Abadiânia Até na Austrália aparecem denúncias de abusos sexuais contra João de Deus Brasileiro ‘estuprador do Instagram’ preso por oito anos na Austrália João de Deus é transferido para Complexo Prisional em Goiás João de Deus está foragido da justiça brasileira após denúncias de crimes sexuais Médium brasileiro João de Deus vem à Austrália pela primeira vez “Posso tirar sua blusa?” a lista de acusações contra o apresentador Don Burke só aumenta Gostaria de receber as principais notícias do Brasil e do mundo O jornal Folha de S.Paulo (1921 - 2025) é publicado pela Empresa Folha da Manhã S.A