Medical intuitive encyclopedia topics

In alternative medicine, a Medical Intuitive is a person who uses their intuition to find the cause of a physical or emotional condition. Medical intuitives claim to heal illness by connecting with the universally infinite healing powers of the divine. They are purported to be able to heal at accelerated speeds. Making medical diagnosis is not in the scope of practice for many Medical Intuitives, but there some medical intuitives that are also M.D.'s, these MD often support the findings of the medical intuitives that are not licensed to make medical diagnosis. These practitioners often label the diseases they see by stating the symptoms and those that are familiar with medical terminology may use the medical diagnosis. Many medical intuitives present information to the client in a way that is more holistic, and they often encourage the clients to be participants in their healing. Some Medical Intuitives claim to be able to diagnose, and in some cases, treat illness over the telephone. Many medical intuitives are not licensed medical professionals and their ability to accurately diagnose diseases and heal them has not been supported by scientific evidence.[Soul Medicine, Norman Shealy, M.D., PH.D., Dawson Church, PH.D. (2006) Elite Books]

History

The practice of using intuition or clairvoyance for medical information dates back to Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866) whose intuitive healing practice began in 1854. Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) was known as a Medical Clairvoyant and is probably to this day the most documented of all medical clairvoyants, although modern historical analysis has debunked the vast majority of his claims. Dr. Norm Shealy along with Caroline Myss first coined the term "Medical Intuitive" in 1987 as part of Shealy's research on intuition and medical application. Some Medical Intuitives report that they can 'see' inside objects as well as the body. Other Medical Intuitives assert that they can view energetic problems in a person's aura before any physical signs of illness can be detected. Some Medical Intuitives claim to 'see' areas of illness as dark, grainy, or sticky energy while others claim to 'see' the organ itself.

Faith healers often claim to have divinely appropriated medical intuitive abilities. William M. Branham, the father of the Pentecostal Latter Rain Movement was said by his followers to be able to discern the health condition of people that attended his services, and in many cases heal them of their affliction. Evidence for these healings is all anecdotal and testimonial and have not been medically verified. After his death, Branhams sons wrote a book cataloging many of his errors.

Evidence-Based Medical View

There are no peer-reviewed scientific studies which support the claims of medical intuitives and one study concluded that "patients relying solely on psychic diagnosis as the basis for therapy are at risk of serious medical problems going undetected" (p.39). Intuitives have countered that, as a direct perception of truth independent of any reasoning process (i.e., epistemology of individual experience), medical intuition is not a science and cannot be tested scientifically. Further, some medical intuitives and other alternative medicine practitioners consider the reductionist nature of empirical scientific research to be hostile toward (while systematically suppressing) holistic and innovative challenges to conventional medicine, and incapable of detecting universal truths.

While the theoretical underpinnings of many alternative medical approaches are indeed untestable, the practices and hypotheses derived from practitioners' believes can be subjected to experimental rigor. Regardless of whether intuition is considered a science, the claims made by medical intuitives, if true, should be relatively easy to demonstrate under controlled laboratory conditions: either intuitives can accurately diagnose a medically recognized illness at a rate more statistically significant than chance, or they cannot. Advocates of evidence-based medicine (EBM), such as the editors of the world's two leading medical journals, JAMA and NEJM, recommend that all medical claims be subjected to randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials whenever possible. According to the EBM perspective, if medical intuitives demonstrated evidence of the efficacy of their practices, the field would not be considered alternative. Empirical validation, and subsequent peer-reviewed publication affirming the validity of medical intuitives would indeed be a breakthrough in modern medicine. Considering the potential for scientific evidence to lend legitimacy to the field, many mainstream medical professionals consider it telling that so few medical intuitives and psychics have attempted to prove their ability. For several years, the James Randi Educational Foundation has offered a $1,000,000 USD prize to anyone who can prove under controlled conditions that he or she can diagnose or cure an illness using intuition or prove the existence of auras. To date, only one medical intuitive has taken the challenge using an experimental protocol that she helped to design. She failed to diagnose any documented illness beyond the level of chance. Many medical professionals and psychologists attribute perceived anecdotal successes by medical intuitives to a combination of wishful thinking, confirmation bias, the placebo effect, and regression fallacy associated with self-limiting conditions (e.g., back pain, headache, viral infection).