John of God, Brazil, Legal, Sexual Abuse, Twelve Tribes, Flow
"Over four decades, he worked as a celebrity faith healer in Abadiânia, a small town in central Brazil.
It was there - conducting bizarre and unproven medical procedures - that João Teixeira de Faria became known as John of God, building a legion of believers across the world, including a band of loyal followers in Australia who were happy to open their wallets for his supposed miracle-giving touch and ethereal blessings.
Each week, people from all corners of the globe flocked in their thousands to John of God's compound, Casa de Dom Inacio, 130km south-west of Brasilia.
There, dressed in all white, many hoped to find a cure for cancer, blindness or to stand and rise from their wheelchairs.
Faria's rising fame was elevated to a new trajectory, courtesy of some Hollywood star dust, when Oprah Winfrey came calling in 2010 for a series titled "Do You Believe in Miracles?"
In a since-deleted column on Orpah . com, Winfrey wrote how she was overwhelmed by the experience of seeing Faria cutting into the breast of a woman without anaesthesia and that she left feeling "an overwhelming sense of peace"."
Independent: Everything we know about Twelve Tribes 'cult' living on land where Colorado fires allegedly began
"Authorities have narrowed possible ignition site of devastating fires to area occupied by Christian sect.
As investigators continued to probe the cause of devastating fires last week which levelled more than 1,000 structures northwest of Denver and burned 6,200 acres, they were zeroing in on a specific site - which is home to members of a fundamentalist fringe group called The Twelve Tribes.
Who are The Twelve Tribes?
The Twelve Tribes describes itself on the group website as "an emerging spiritual nation".
"We are a confederation of twelve self-governing tribes, made up of self-governing communities," the website proclaims. "By community, we mean families and single people who live together in homes and on farms. We are disciples of the Son of God, whom we call by His Hebrew name Yahshua.
" ... The Twelve Tribes has come under fire for its teachings on race and homosexuality in addition to its treatment of children.
According to a 2018 article in the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report, the organization is "a Christian fundamentalist cult ... little-known to much of the country".
It continues: "Beneath the surface lies a tangle of doctrine that teaches its followers that slavery was 'a marvelous opportunity' for Black people, who are deemed by the Bible to be servants of whites, and that homosexuals deserve no less than death.
"While homosexuals are shunned by the Twelve Tribes (though ex-members say the group brags about unnamed members who are "formerly" gay), the group actively proselytizes to African Americans, yet one of its Black leaders glorifies the early Ku Klux Klan.
"The Twelve Tribes tries to keep its extremist teachings on race from novice members and outsiders, but former members and experts on fringe religious movements who've helped its followers escape paint a dark picture of life in the group's monastic communities — especially for Black members, who must reconcile the appalling teachings on race with their own heritage and skin colour. "
On top of that, the group has been under investigation in the US for child labour violations; no charges were filed but the organisation did lose various contracts after questions were raised about its use of juvenile members in work. In Germany, the Twelve Tribes has butted heads with authorities over its practices and homeschooling, which is illegal in the country except for rare circumstances."
" ... Members of the Twelve Tribes' Boulder-area community live on land that has emerged as a focus of investigations into wildfires last Thursday that were the most devastating in Colorado history.
Despite initial reports that downed power lines had sparked the blazes - which swept through the region thanks to hurricane-force winds and dry conditions - Colorado authorities said over the weekend that telecommunications lines, not power lines, had been found.
Instead, video footage of a burning shed - combined with eyewitness accounts - raised questions about whether the fire originated on Twelve Tribes' land.
Neighbour Mike Zoltoswki told Colorado Newsline that he saw a blaze and went to the sect's property, meeting two men and seeing about seven children and five women, "where he estimated 20 to 25 people on average live at any given time".
"When I went over there to help them, their entire field was on fire," Mr Zoltowski said.
Given the tinderbox conditions, authorities had banned burning of any kind."
"Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi's research on flow started in the 1970s. He has called it the "secret to happiness." Flow is a state of "optimal experience" that each of us can incorporate into our everyday lives. One characterized by immense joy that makes a life worth living.
In the years since, researchers have gained a vast store of knowledge about what it is like to be in flow and how experiencing it is important for our overall mental health and well-being. In short, we are completely absorbed in a highly rewarding activity – and not in our inner monologues – when we feel flow.
I am an assistant professor of communication and cognitive science, and I have been studying flow for the last 10 years. My research lab investigates what is happening in our brains when people experience flow. Our goal is to better understand how the experience happens and to make it easier for people to feel flow and its benefits.
What it is like to be in flow?
People often say flow is like "being in the zone". Psychologists Jeanne Nakamura and Csíkszentmihályi describe it as something more. When people feel flow, they are in a state of intense concentration. Their thoughts are focused on an experience rather than on themselves.
They lose a sense of time and feel as if there is a merging of their actions and their awareness. That they have control over the situation. That the experience is not physically or mentally taxing.
Most importantly, flow is what researchers call an autotelic experience. Autotelic derives from two Greek words: autos (self) and telos (end or goal). Autotelic experiences are things that are worth doing in and of themselves. Researchers sometimes call these intrinsically rewarding experiences. Flow experiences are intrinsically rewarding.
What causes flow?
Flow occurs when a task's challenge is balanced with one's skill. In fact, both the task challenge and skill level have to be high. I often tell my students that they will not feel flow when they are doing the dishes. Most people are highly skilled dishwashers, and washing dishes is not a very challenging task.
So when do people experience flow? Csíkszentmihályi's research in the 1970s focused on people doing tasks they enjoyed. He studied swimmers, music composers, chess players, dancers, mountain climbers and other athletes. He went on to study how people can find flow in more everyday experiences.
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