current articles
Medical Intuition: A Visionary Path to Wellness
By Wendie Colter, MCWC, CMIP
When I tell people I teach medical intuition to healthcare professionals at some of the top integrative health and education centers in the country, their reaction is often: "How can you teach that? Aren't you just born with it?"
Intuition is a natural human trait. Whether we realize it or not, everyone uses their intuition. People will say that they “had a hunch,” or a “gut feeling,” or that they “just knew” which choice to make before they made it. We may also feel empathy when “picking up” the emotional energy of others.
The idea of using intuition in healthcare is not such an odd topic to clinicians. Healthcare providers routinely count on their intuition to let them know when something seems “off.” Practitioners understand that intuitive hunches may lead them to information that could have been missed otherwise.
In addition, there is a large amount of scientific research on the phenomenon of intuition in healthcare. Published in respected medical journals, this research acknowledges the use of intuition as a key factor in the successful care of patients and clients.
WHAT IS MEDICAL INTUITION?
Medical intuition is not a treatment, intervention or healing modality. Although it uses the word “medical,” it is not to be considered the practice of medicine, or any other licensed healthcare practice. It is not meant to be used as a substitute for licensed medical care or advice. A qualified medical intuitive should always refer a client to their primary care provider for their health care.
So, what is it? Medical intuition is a foundational whole-person energetic assessment skill for mind-body-spirit wellbeing. It is designed to support all healthcare methods, from allopathic to integrative, to complementary and alternative.
Medical intuitives use various methods of intuitive scanning (also known as “reading”) intended to gather information from both the physical systems and the energetic systems of the body. Our energetic systems, also referred to as the biofield, include the chakra system and the auric field.
Medical intuition is designed to assess energetic patterns in the physical body and biofield that may correspond to the underlying causes of illness, imbalance, and disease. Medical intuition can also assist in addressing the energetic influence of thoughts, beliefs, and emotions, and how they may impact our health and wellness. This process is intended to help promote physical wellness, as well as emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing.
In this way, medical intuition supports the principles of mind-body medicine, which is based on the intrinsic connections between our bodies, minds and spirits, and how these connections can play a strong role in the state of our health (The Random House Dictionary, 2017).
BEGINNINGS
Many children show an early interest in art, sports or math. From a young age, I was naturally drawn to intuitive perception. One of my earliest recollections of intuitive skill was when I was about six years old. While humming a popular song to myself, I asked my mother to turn on the radio, as I just “knew” there was a song I liked that was playing. When she turned the radio on, the song poured out of the radio at exactly the place where I had been singing it to myself. Similar experiences happened over and over again, and I thought nothing of it. I assumed everyone else could do this, too.
Later in life, after reading Deepak Chopra’s seminal book, “Quantum Healing,” I healed myself of a small tumor using mind-body visualization techniques. This powerful result kick-started a life-long study into the relationship between the mind and the body, and how our thoughts, emotions and energetic “vibration” can affect our health. I studied many different energy-based modalities and skills over the years.
In my professional energy healing practice, I found I was able to “see” into both the physical body and the biofield in great detail. I also noticed that I could discern the origins of an imbalance by intuitively “viewing” a client’s life experience, with detailed and relevant information. I began to shift my work away from energy healing to build on my medical intuitive assessment practice, as I found that this held the foundations for addressing the root causes of clients’ imbalances. The feedback I consistently received was that the intuitive assessment provided my clients with a unique opportunity to gain a deeper and more positive awareness to support their health and wellbeing.
RESEARCH AND RESULTS
Although there is a good deal of research on intuition in healthcare, unfortunately there is not very much research specifically focused on medical intuition.
In 2019, I completed an exploratory study to gauge the accuracy of the skill, with the support of Dr. Paul J. Mills at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. The study included five of my certified graduates and 67 volunteer participants. The sessions were blinded, as there was no access to the participants’ medical records or backgrounds. Additionally, the medical intuitives kept their eyes closed throughout the session. Afterwards, the participants filled out an anonymous survey. The participants rated the medical intuitives as 94 percent accurate in evaluating their main physical issues, and 98 percent accurate in intuiting events from their lives that related to their health issues. About half of the participants had received a diagnosis from their doctor for their health issue. It was exciting to see that they rated the medical intuitives’ evaluations as 94 percent consistent with their known diagnoses. (To be clear, the medical intuitives did not diagnose, but described the intuited information only.)
These groundbreaking results were published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and represents the first published research on medical intuition in 20 years.
I wrote my book, "Essentials of Medical Intuition: A Visionary Path to Wellness" (Watkins/Penguin-Random House, 2022), to highlight the colorful history, diversity of uses, and remarkable effectiveness of this distinctive skill. The book includes many case studies from medical intuitive practitioners, compelling patient and client experiences, and interviews with medical professionals and researchers who understand the need for a new, paradigm-shifting integrative approach to healthcare from the whole-person perspective.
Wendie Colter, MCWC, CMIP, is a Certified Medical Intuitive, Master Certified Wellness Coach, and founder/CEO of The Practical Path®, Inc. Her accredited certification program, Medical Intuitive Training™, has been pivotal in helping wellness professionals develop and optimize their inherent intuition. Wendie’s trailblazing research on medical intuition is published in the peer-reviewed “Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine” and she is the author of the groundbreaking book, “Essentials of Medical Intuition: A Visionary Path to Wellness” (Watkins/Penguin-Random House). For more information please visit: www.thepracticalpath.com