❝ The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.

We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. ❞

Albert Einstein (paraphrased)

Introduction

My interest in this topic began over twenty-five years ago. I was living just outside of Raleigh, North Carolina, and somehow I ended up ferrying around Ray, a blind saddler (saddle-maker and -fitter) from New Zealand who'd come to the US on a short working visit.

I was fascinated by how he worked. Totally blind since losing his sight to type-1 diabetes in his early-twenties, Ray ran his hands lightly over the horse's body, head to tail, feeling for abnormal myofascial tension — or so I thought. He then did some bodywork on the horse before he even began to examine the saddle and check its fit on the horse's back.

I'd been interested in holistic medicine for only a short time, so my eyes were glued to what Ray was doing. I asked questions as he worked, but his answers were brief and perfunctory, his attention focused entirely on the horse. Now that I know more, I'm sure Ray was using his intuition as much as his sense of touch to evaluate the horse.

Also present that afternoon was a woman named Patti, whom I met for the first time that day. Patti was a human massage therapist and an experienced dressage rider. She hadn't brought any of her horses along; she was just there to watch, curious about this blind saddler and bodyworker she'd heard about.

As we stood chatting while watching Ray work, I jokingly said to Patti, "I wish I had one of those scanners the Doc uses on Star Trek. He just points it at the patient, runs it up and down in front of the body, and the machine tells him what's wrong with the person."

Even though it was science-fiction, the idea of that scanner really appealed to me. I was still entrenched in the conventional medical paradigm, so my focus was on making the right diagnosis. I reasoned that, if only I had the right diagnosis, then I'd know how to treat it. (Note that I was still fixated on identifying and treating the disease, rather than examining and treating the patient.)

"Oh, you don't need one of those," Patti said matter-of-factly, the hint of a laugh in her voice; "you can do that yourself."

I looked at her with polite incredulity, and then she proceeded to tell me how, which is what I'm going to share with you in this book.

What Patti taught me that afternoon, in just a short conversation, was a form of remote viewing she'd learned some years earlier, called the Silva method. I've since adapted it for my own use — for my own inclinations and interests — and I don't call it anything other than medical intuitive evaluation.

I went home that afternoon and at my earliest opportunity sat down on the sofa and 'read' one of Patti's horses, as we'd agreed. She'd given me the horse's name and a few basic descriptors (age, breed, gender, color), and that was it.

Well, I was astonished by how much I could see with my mind's eye! I was also very surprised by how easy it was, particularly by how easy it was for me to do. In Chapter 2 I'll talk about my particular barriers to harnessing my intuition. Suffice it to say for now that it still amazes me how easy it was for me to do from the start; and so my message to you is this: If I can do it, then you can, too.

Back then, I was very interested in functional anatomy and biomechanics, and I could describe pretty much every skeletal muscle in the horse's body: origins, insertions, actions, interactions, counteractions, fascial planes, and so on. I can't do that anymore, not without a quick refresher, as my interests have changed; but that was my primary focus when I sat down to intuitively evaluate ('read', 'scan') Patti's horse.

When I called her the next day to discuss my findings as we'd arranged, she stopped me about a page in to my several pages of notes. "Hold on," she said. "It's great that you were able to see all that detail. But now you need to learn how to filter.

“Now you need to determine what's important, because this horse is healthy and happy and performing well. It's good for me as his rider to know all these little things, and I'm certainly going to pay attention to those areas the next time I ride him. But what I most need is the big picture. What do I most need to know about my horse in order to keep him healthy and happy and performing well?"

You or I might say, "What's the take-home message?"

I've been working on that ever since. I've been refining my understanding of how bodies work (schooled, I might add, by my intuitive mind), and I've been learning how to share this information with my clients, with the person who is responsible for the animal's day-to-day care.

In this book I'll talk a little about intuition as a universal or common sense, and I'll give you a detailed description of how I harness my intuition in my veterinary practice. My process may or may not be a good fit for you; and it's fine either way.

What I'll be encouraging you to do throughout is begin to develop your own intuitive style, based on how you naturally function in everyday life, and on your specific interests and your particular approach to veterinary medicine.

Chapter 4 is all about harnessing your intuition in various clinical situations, such as when you're pressed for time, when you practice one of the alternative medical approaches, in specialties such as behavioral medicine and sports medicine & rehabilitation, and when using telehealth and telemedicine.

This list, and the book as a whole, is not meant to be exhaustive. I encourage you to let your intuitive mind lead the way so that you can make the best use of your intuition in your practice, and in the rest of your life.

The only limits are those we set or accept for ourselves.

Okay, let's begin.

. . .

❝ Our talent for division, for seeing the parts, is of staggering importance

— second only to our capacity to transcend it, in order to see the whole. ❞

Dr Iain McGilchrist

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