Rubens Farias Jr. (born 1954) is a Brazilian

psychic surgeon file:Gutierrez3.jpg, An alleged psychic surgeon at work Psychic surgery is a pseudoscience, pseudoscientific medical fraud in which practitioners create the Magic (illusion), illusion of performing surgery with their bare hands and use sleight o ...

, who claims to be a channel for the spirit of

Dr. Fritz Adolf Fritz, generally called Dr. Fritz (Munich, ? – Estonia, 1918), was a hypothetical Germany, German surgeon whose spiritism, spirit has allegedly been mediumship, channeled by several Brazilian Psychic surgery, psychic surgeons, starting ...

. His clinic is in Bom Sucesso, a suburb of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. Rubens was trained as an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

. He is not the first Brazilian to make the claim. He follows Zé Arigó, who died in a car crash in 1971, and a string of other claimants. Farias began claiming

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a ...

as early as 1986. On a typical weekday, as many as 800 patients will line up outside the hall he uses (on weekends, it serves as a bar), waiting for treatment sessions which might be as short as 30 seconds. While in character as Dr. Fritz, he adopts a German accent and expressions such as "

Schnell Schnell is a surname of German origin meaning ''fast'' or ''quickly'' and may refer to: *Claude Schnell (contemporary), heavy metal keyboardist * Edward Schnell (fl. mid-19th century), German arms dealer in Japan; brother of Henry Schnell * F. Wolf ...

!" In some cases, patients get a homemade injection, reportedly a mixture of

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

iodine Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid at standard conditions that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , and boils to a vi ...

and

turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a special ...

. Medical hygiene is minimal. The Regional Medical Council for the state of Rio de Janeiro labels Farias a "charlatan" taking advantage of the chaotic Brazilian public health system, and has sued to halt his activities.

References

Sources

Rio Journal;Live, in Brazil (Again): The Reincarnated Dr. Fritz

External links

*

1954 births Living people Supernatural healing Channellers {{Brazil-med-bio-stub