About Braco
Childhood and youth
Braco was born on November 23, 1967 at 06:15 in Zagreb. His parents, Victor and Ivanka Grbavac named him Josip. His later mentor and friend Ivica ProkiÄ gave him his current name Braco (Croatian for ālittle brotherā). Braco spent his childhood and youth in his homeland and never traveled outside the borders of Croatia. He has always loved nature, especially water and the sea. Even though he grew up with every material thing he could ask for due to his fatherās professional position, he always carried within himself a longing for something he couldnāt name. After studying business administration, Braco started his own company, which became highly successful.
Braco as a young man
Braco and Ivica at their center in Zagreb, Srebrnjak
The meeting with Ivica ProkiÄ
For years, Bracoās mother Ivanka suffered from painful migraines that could only be relieved by medical treatment. In 1993, a neighbor told her about a special man in Zagreb who helped people for free: Ivica ProkiÄ. On October 8, 1993, Ivanka went to see Ivica. He was able to help her and her pain disappeared. Her son Braco had never been interested in healing or spiritual issues before, but he was interested in where his mother had gone. So one day later, on October 9, 1993, at the age of 26, he met Ivica ProkiÄ.
Ivica was working in a house at Srebrnjak 1 in Zagreb. That day was the turning point in Bracoās life. To the horror of his parents, Braco never returned to lead his company. From one day to the next, he closed this chapter of his life and decided to stay with ProkiÄ. Braco felt connected to Ivica because of their same inner values. As different as their outward appearance was, they were very similar inside. Braco was constantly by Ivicaās side over the next months as many people sought Ivicaās help. In April 1995, Ivica traveled to Durban at the invitation of a South African man who had been greatly helped. Ivicaās love for the people of Africa was well known. In South Africa, he again drew many people seeking help. On April 23, 1995, Ivica had an accident while swimming in the Indian Ocean and died. The sudden death of Ivica ProkiÄ greatly troubled Braco. He didnāt know what to do next when he returned to Zagreb.
The new beginning
Braco had never expected to continue Ivica ProkiÄās work. He couldnāt believe that he too could help people as Ivica had. A few days after returning from South Africa, a middle-aged woman came to Braco at Srebrnjak and asked him to touch her daughterās picture in order to help her. Braco at first refused, but then he granted her wish as a favor. A few days later, she came bearing a bouquet of flowers and thanked him sincerely for her daughterās recovery. She was no longer having nightmares. Now there was no hiding the fact that Braco also had a gift for helping people. When he realized this, Braco decided to dedicate his life to those who wanted help.
In the following years, more and more people came. First there were hundreds, then thousands. In the early days Braco talked to the visitors, touched photos and signed books to convey help.
In 2004, there were 7600 visitors hoping for help from Braco in just one place in Bosnia. After more than 36 hours of working one on one with the people, it was clear that he had to change his approach. Since that day, visitors to events with Braco come only in groups, and Braco offers them his gaze. Since then, he also no longer speaks in public.
Braco in New York
On November 16, 2012, a UN organization invited Braco to New York. It honored his international work with a peace award, the Peace Pole. The Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and Pope Paul II, among others, had previously received this award.
Braco has traveled by invitation to events and conventions in more than 30 countries on five continents. He doesnāt promote any philosophy or teaching. Instead, he stands silently for a few minutes in front of groups of up to 1000 people and offers his gaze. There are now more than 100 films about Braco and his work in which people report improvements in all areas of their lives after meeting Braco. Renowned doctors and scientists are interested in his work and refer to him as a phenomenon. Some have written books about him and his gift.
Braco commented on his tireless activity over the decades in a conversation with Croatian scientist Drago PleÄko:
āI can only say that Iām happy. I think thereās no greater happiness and satisfaction than when you can help someone or accomplish something good. Iām really satisfied with it. Helping people is my greatest prize. Itās an indescribable feeling of satisfaction and happiness.ā
The encounter with Bracoās gaze
At an āencounter,ā Braco stands on a stage or platform and gazes silently at groups of people for about five minutes. Braco doesnāt speak or touch the people. Itās enough for them to open inwardly, that is, to open their hearts to receive what Braco offers through his gaze. Braco doesnāt promote any theory or philosophy or impart any knowledge to the visitors of his events. He simply offers the possibility that what he shares with people can help them personally in some way. It isnāt up to him or his decision who receives help.
Braco belongs to a rare group of gifted people who do not appeal to the authority of sacred scriptures or deities. He is open to all people regardless of their nationality, religion or education. In the same way that Bracoās work has nothing to do with medical or healing activity, it has no connection with institutionalized religion, which Braco respects in the same way as he does the medical profession.
For our sense of reason and logic and our previous conception of life, what happens in connection with Braco and his silent gaze will remain incomprehensible. To the external senses, nothing happens. That an external nothingness without words or visible activity can convey something else is understandably difficult for some people to understand. What Braco offers through his gaze is only perceivable to feeling, which is to say psychically. People can feel it and experience it in themselves. His gift becomes visible in the many improvements in the lives of countless people in many countries since 1995. Swiss Professor Alexander Schneider, a physicist by training and founder and director of one of the worldās largest conventions on consciousness and healing, put it the following way:
Ā»What emanates from Braco is a striking effect on peopleās consciousness without accompanying theories, philosophies or teachings. Born with appropriate charisma, he acts as a ānormal,ā friendly and endearing person simply by his wordless presence. Most people who come to his meetings embrace this atmosphere and feel a transformation within themselves without having to interpret it. They gratefully accept its effects: a fuller feeling of life or healing in body and soul. (ā¦) Ā«
Some would like to compare Braco and his gift to the silent yogis of India, but Braco follows no spiritual tradition and does not meditate. It is in his case a pure gift. Many visitors to events with Braco come back again and again because they simply feel better, their life has become easier and nicer and they again feel happiness and joy in life.