In place of comfort, disappointment. Families who sought psychographed letters from Máira Rocha accuse the medium of collecting information on the internet to produce supposed messages from the dead.
For more than two months, reporters investigated the complaints, listened to researchers and representatives of spiritual entities and reconstructed Máira Rocha's trajectory.
There are also accusations against her of threats, charlatanism and embezzlement. Contacted by Fantástico for more than two weeks, Máira did not want to record an interview.
For businesswoman Marina Escames, the loss of her husband Thiago was devastating: "When he left, for us it was a rupture and it was very difficult to learn to live without him."
Trader Marcela Magalhães recounts the pain of burying her 18-year-old son Henrique, who died in a car accident: "You need to hold on to anything, because otherwise you drown, you go with him. Burying a child is going through the greatest pain.
Often, for those who remain, death creates a need to seek answers in spirituality. Thiago, Marina's husband, died of leukemia. "I've been a Kardecist spiritist since I was born, so I've always believed a lot in psychography, in mediums. So I really wanted to hear from him."
The spiritual help for Marina also aimed to alleviate the suffering of her youngest son, Matteo, who was just 3 years old when his father died. It was also her father that Diva Mascarenhas Borges missed. "I had information that there was a person who received letters, and who was very good."
Diva and Marina looked for the same person, Máira Rocha. The medium publicly declared: "I want to spread the word of God."
Marina says that she truly believed in Máira due to videos recommended by her father: "I truly believed that she would be a bridge between me and Thiago".
Máira Rocha — Photo: Reproduction/Globo
Lawyer Máira Rocha is known as a medium in Brasília. In spiritualism, a medium is someone who serves as an intermediary between people and spirits. She also works at the Ministry of Health. At the beginning of this year, Máira Rocha built her own spiritist center, Casa da Caridade Inácio Daniel. The institution serves around 5 thousand people per month, surviving on donations and helping people in need with food, clothes and warm clothing.
In one of her live broadcasts, she declared: "Try to do good, in the name of whoever you believe in, because God will be there."
This initial generosity delighted former volunteer Antônio Carlos Felizola. "We held a bazaar, we also donated clothes, and Maira, as soon as she arrived, founded the soup".
Much of Casa da Caridade’s activities are focused on spiritual care. The work on psychographed letters, also called comforting letters, is coordinated by Máira, and donations serve as a thank you from the families.
Marina Escames recalls that she contributed frequently: "When I received the letter, I felt very grateful, so I really wanted to make some donations. She was building the new House of Charity. You bought the brick and she would put the name of the person who had left on it."
Máira defended the financial collection claiming that her mediumship could not move away from the matter: "The House of Charity could operate with its only mediumistic work, if it were only mediumistic, but there is no possibility of Máira's mediumship moving away from the material field".
Another form of fundraising at the center was auctions of clothes and objects that the medium used in her consoling letter sessions.
Retired Arlete Pereira justifies her participation in the auctions: "We trusted her, so I wanted clothes with her energy because she lived with our spirits, our children, our family members."
The Greek eye was one of the most expensive pieces sold by followers. Máira Rocha highlighted the value of the amulet when giving it to a follower: "I put my energy into this amulet. He took away all the bad energy I had and brought me a lot of joy. I go into the house every day and see a lot of spirits there near them."
However, auction practices are rejected by official spiritualism institutions. Jorge Godinho, president of the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB), makes a clear criticism of the model. "The doctrine does not authorize us, does not teach us to hold auctions, this type of practice. She teaches us to serve. And serve selflessly."
In several videos, Máira Rocha stated that her mediumistic gifts had emerged in childhood, when she lived in Jati, Ceará, a city of 8 thousand inhabitants. "My mother tells her first experiences from the age of four. I remember from the age of seven."
This mediumship, however, was never noticed by his family in the small town. When asked about Máira's gift, her cousin Márcia Rocha declared: "No. New, new for all of us. As the city is small, this mediumship that she claims to have would not go unnoticed."
Márcia also demystified the story of Máira's nickname, "Lê", which the medium claimed to have received from a spirit who taught her how to read. "In fact, the nickname Lê came from the name Alexandrina, from Máira Alexandrina."
Former volunteer Antônio Carlos Felizola recalled constant arguments between her and her husband: "Her husband, they fought a lot. He said: I'm going to tell everyone that this is a hoax. You're a hoax!"
The allegations of fraud gained strength from inconsistencies in letters sent to bereaved families. Marcela Magalhães, vulnerable due to the pain of losing her 18-year-old son Henrique, tells how she felt when seeking help: "It's so much pain, it's so much pain that you, you believe in anything."
She reports that she received two messages from her son Henrique during a live broadcast carried out by Máira Rocha. In the live, Máira mentioned the young man: "I'm with Henrique, a football player who passed away very early, but mom, he's fine."
However, Henrique was never a professional football player, a fact that alerted Marcela's husband: "My husband turned to me and said: but he's not a football player. For me it was a mistake, hers."
Marcela later identified the source of the error: a photograph of Henrique wearing a sports uniform that was linked to a newspaper report about his car accident. The original report had made the same mistake when describing Henrique as a football player.
A second message from Máira generated even more suspicion, associating Henrique with two other people in the car. The medium was wrong to assume that the friends who appeared in the photo were involved in the car accident.
The image was actually a montage of a food campaign carried out during the pandemic, bringing together photographs of three young people who died at different times and in different circumstances as a tribute from Marcela in her networks. "Henrique died of an accident in February 2020. João died of a stroke in April 2020, and Letícia died of a sudden illness in 2005."
The systematic crossing of data is a common practice for those who investigate online scams, as YouTuber Guga Guimarães explains. "So, in addition to cross-checking the data available on the internet, there are also online articles, when the death is tragic, and also the relatives' social networks, which are also easy to find. Unfortunately, our entire lives are available on the internet for anyone who wants to see."
Former volunteer Antônio Carlos Felizola revealed that he already had serious suspicions about the suitability of the information obtained by Máira: "And, honestly, I started to suspect. People arrived who had already received a letter, questioning the letter."
Fantástico spoke with some of the greatest experts and researchers of spiritualism and mediumistic activities in Brazil. Everyone reinforces the importance of the photographed psycho letter, done in a serious way, which brings comfort to those who lose someone. But spiritualist doctrine authorities also warn about fraud committed by false mediums.
The report is about people who felt deceived during the most difficult period of their lives and how, despite the pain, it is necessary to pay attention to details.
Pedro Camilo is a spiritist writer and researcher who investigates fraud in psychographed letters. According to him, data provided to the medium and requests for long deadlines to deliver the letter are some of the points that deserve attention.
"With this information it is possible to scan the databases that exist on the internet, prepare a dossier on that person and on possible disembodied relatives who may have had their information transmitted."
Marina Escames described the rigid bureaucratic protocol required by the Máira center before the sessions: "Before the date of the psychography, 60 days before, you need to register, you and your companion, and provide your full name, the CPF of the person who is going and the companion."
Marcela Magalhães reported similar documentation and ticket requirements: "Full name, without being abbreviated, and send proof of either the hotel or the plane."
This bureaucratic model differs drastically from the conduct of the best-known medium in Brazil, Chico Xavier, as Jorge Godinho reinforces: "There was a crowd of people, he didn't know who was there. He didn't have a CPF, he didn't have an address, nothing like that. Because the phone rings from above to here. And then those spirits that were there, that would bring some information, he psychographed."
During her visit to Casa de Caridade Inácio Daniel, Marina Escames witnessed a ritual known as the "hug line", carried out before the psychographic session, where the medium used to extract information in a direct and subtle way. "So, in reality, she also has this contact, she makes a hug line before the psychography." .
When informed by reporter Lilia Teles about data collection, Marina confirmed. "She asked my husband's full name, she asked what he had died of, I gave her a photo and, really, in that line of hugs, she got a lot of information."
In the same session, Matteo, Marina's youngest son, ran to deliver a personal letter to the medium: "Matteo ran before me, because he was quite full, he came to her with a little letter he had made, which he wanted her to deliver to his father."
Days later, during a public lecture, Máira announced a revelation: "look, there's a husband I talked to yesterday who said he loves his wife. He really does."
Marina found the jargon unusual for her husband's profile: "It didn't sink in at the time because my husband never spoke like that. He always said that he loved me more than anything, that I was his life, but not that word."
However, when searching through her photo archives and social networks, she identified an old print of a congratulation from her husband that had the same expression: "I went into my photos, which I have prints from social networks. And there was a message that Tiago sent me for my birthday. And at the end he said: 'I love you so much'. Then I said: 'Wow, so it's Tiago, right? It's Tiago who sent this message."
Marina also discovered that Máira had taken the ready-made letters to the location: "That day she said that she had already taken the ready-made psychographics from home."
When asked by Lilia Teles about the terms described in the letter, Marina said: "He said he was a very passionate father and said I was his anchor. And he actually had an anchor tattoo with my name."
The letter also reported moments of hospitalization and mentioned chamomile tea: "We spent terrible nights, of pain, fever and you there, in those chairs, with me. He's saying he can't even bear to see chamomile tea."
Marina recalled that this detail appeared in a video she published on the internet: "There's a video that he's putting out, that I'm putting in iced chamomile tea, because his arm was infected, inflamed."
It was his son Nicolas who realized something was wrong. He accessed his father's social network, which was inactive. "I went in and ended up seeing a lot of similarities in relation to the letter. And then I called my mother and said: 'Mom, look, it's all here!'".
The mother confirmed the discovery after looking at the profile. "There was the chamomile video. There was my tattoo and the "I love you so much" at the end. And then I saw that it really was all on the internet."
The only element missing from the networks was the mention of an episode of bullying suffered by the youngest Matteo, highlighted in the psychographics. "The little friend said he was fatherless. And she mentioned that in the letter. "'Matteo, now you're going to show everyone that you have a father.' He cried, he was nine years old, he was jumping up and down crying. And deep down I was very, very happy that he saw that his father was alive, that his father loved him."
The surprise was dispelled when Marina realized that Matteo had reported the bullying in the note delivered directly to the medium. "I sat down to talk to my son. I said: did you talk to her? The day he left giving the letter, he talked and I didn't see it."
When questioned, the boy confirmed: "no, mother, I talked, the only thing I really said to her, I said was if she could give the letter to my father, and for him to send me a letter so I could show it to my little friend who said that I am without a father."
For Marina, the lie was devastating: "OK, the only thing I was attached to was my son who told her! What hurt me the most was what she did to my son. It was the second grief, both for me and for my son."
The boy went into depression after discovering the hoax. In support of the victims, seven spiritist leaders signed a manifesto and presented a criminal report against Máira Rocha in court for embezzlement, charlatanism and for a crime committed based on article 232 of the ECA: subjecting a child or adolescent to shame or embarrassment.
Criminal lawyer Luiz Henrique Machado explains the crime of spiritual fraud: "The type of fraud is precisely when it seeks, in this specific case, to instrumentalize faith, that is, to deceive the person by saying that they have extraordinary information, when in fact they are deceiving the person, they are searching for information in databases, possibly on the internet, and delivering a psychographed letter that is actually fake."
Diva also found errors in her father's letter.
"Right at the beginning of the letter it says that my uncle wanted to talk to Judite. Judite is my uncle's wife. But my aunt had already passed away a year before my uncle passed away. So, it seemed that my uncle didn't know that his wife had passed away."
Diva also found it strange how the letter refers to two of her brothers.
"And they are adopted children, just like me, they were registered as Edvano and Edvani. When my mother and father adopted, they added the name Sheila and André Luiz. So no one
