Healing Amongst the Fulnio

Classmates with the Fulnio healer, author, Lorelei, kneeling center

Classmates with the Fulnio healer, author, Lorelei, kneeling center

As part of our exploration of the global performance of healing, we had the opportunity to meet an indigenous Brazilian shaman named Kafcho. Kafcho is a healer from the Funio tribe of northeastern Brazil. He speaks only his indigenous language and Portuguese, but with the help of a friend who spoke some Portuguese, we managed to learn the who, what, where, when, why, and how of his healing practices.

For context, it’s helpful to understand what a shaman is. Kafcho used the labels “shaman” and “medicine man” interchangeably, defining both as someone who connects with spirits and heals. Kafcho emphatically expressed that the first healer is not him or any other shaman, but rather spirit. In his words: “without spirit, I see nothing.”

Kafcho told us he was destined to become a shaman; he didn’t choose to be. He learned medicine by spending ninety days in the Mata (the Amazon). Throughout those three months, he wore no shoes, no shirt, and no shorts–only a feather headdress and paint on his face and body. Throughout the journey, spirit communicated to Kafcho which plants could be used to treat various ailment.

Kafcho typically sees about 3 to 5 people each day for healing. In contrast with John of God and his seemingly impersonal healing methods, Kafcho tailors his healing to each patient with a remarkable degree of humanizing attention. To treat a patient, Kafcho would ask what the person is experiencing, then smoke tobacco out of his sacred pipe–the method he uses to connect with spirit–in attempts to glean insights into how to heal that individual. In the interaction we witnessed, he sat cross-legged on the floor before one of my classmates, holding both of her hands, then smoked about ten hits form his pipe, said a prayer in his indigenous language, and determined her diagnosis. The tobacco pipe is key. After smoking it (without inhaling the smoke) for the patient at hand, Kafcho receives energy as the spirits communicate to him what treatment the patient needs. Based on what the patient says, what Kafcho believes the patient needs, and what spirit communicated the patient needs, Kafcho will then go out and pick the appropriate plant or plants that will become the patient’s remedy. He might instruct the patient to boil a plant in water, inhale the steam, drink the concoction, or perhaps just rub it on their face or body.

Author Lorelei with Kafcho

Author Lorelei with Kafcho

Before we parted ways, without saying a word but maintaining his subtle and welcoming smile, Kafcho gently placed a native headdress on each of our heads and blessed us one by one by smoking his pipe in front of us and blowing the smoke once toward our chests and once toward our stomachs, leaving us with a prayer as we all stood holding hands in a circle.

The difference between Kafcho and John of God was striking. Whereas Kafcho develops an obvious connection with each patient, John of God sits in a large throne-like chair and makes his way through thousands of patients each day, barely looking into the eyes of each and writing a prescription before even hearing a patient’s full complaint.

By Lorelei Christie

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