What role does your inner voice have in medicine?

The latest episode of The Side Woo with metaphysical researcher Tracy Poff

Last week on my podcast The Side Woo I released a new epsiode with a researcher named Tracy Poff who is doing her PhD on medical intuitives. After visiting a medical medium to help with her daughter’s recurring illness, Poff felt compelled to study transpersonal psychology and then pursue her doctorate in medical intuitive practices. We talk about what exactly that is, how to discern a good one, and a general discussion of how intuition can inform our decisions to make us more in tune with our bodies and ourselves - a favorite topic on The Side Woo. 

The idea for this episode originated after I read an exposée in Vanity Fair about a celebrity medical intuitive called the Medical Medium. The article proposes that his assistant died of breast cancer after forgoing traditional treatment for alternative healing, potentially a result of neglect on his part. It was a compelling article with high stakes and celebrity names. The Medical Medium, aka Anthony William, later responded to this article on his podcast. (The whole thing is too long and crazy to go into. )

As someone who has studied energy work and believes in using expanded healing modalities to complement Western medicine, I wonder what this type of article meant for alternative practitioners.

It had me especially wondering about the purview of the average medical intuitive, and how it might be possible to sniff out the good from the bad. Shortly after reading the article, I was introduced to my guest who is writing her Ph.D. dissertation on medical intuitive practices.

During our conversation, some familiar themes came up from past episodes, specifically an emphasis on learning to trust intuition as a way to develop discernment - specifically the kind of intuition you can feel in the body as a frequency. Tracy says,

“For me, [discernment] shows up internally with this cellular response. There's probably an intellectual aspect of it, but in my experience, there's also a felt sense. I would think many people have had the experience of talking with someone and getting an inner signal of their genuineness.

Teachers in my spiritual psychology program used to talk about the energy that the words ride on is more important than the words themselves. I think we all have that built-in detector. You know, when we speak with someone, is it genuine, is it honest within that person? There’s that meter going off in our mind or in our body in a felt sense way, saying something feels wrong, something is out of alignment.”

Regardless of the credentials of someone in a healing role, or in any role of authority, we are responsible for our care and for keeping track of our inner voice because no one else can hear it.

In the medical field, sometimes this looks like getting a second opinion or even cutting a visit short because it doesn’t feel right.

A few years after graduate school, I went to a new dentist after a few years’ break because of no health insurance. When I finally went to a place recommended by a friend, I was nervous. I have had no less than 16 teeth pulled before the age of 18 to make room in my tiny mouth, so there’s definitely some trauma there. But I went anyway because I didn’t get 4 years of braces only to have my teeth fall out.

So there I am at this fancy dentist in downtown San Francisco. I sit down in the chair to get my teeth checked. A handsome dental bro comes in, and horror of horrors, after I tell him it had been 3-4 years since my last visit, he begins berating me and complaining he would need a second visit to finish the cleaning.

I almost start crying, mortified. I think for a moment about sitting through it. Maybe he was right that I should have been more attentive to my teeth and somehow deserve his complaints. But after a moment of spiraling, I check in with myself. No, this is not ok.

I still have that gross mix of water and teeth scrapings in my mouth as I walk up to the reception desk and tell them what happened. The Receptionist is very understanding and says that Bro Dental Assistant is leaving soon to start his own office, so they could absolutely book me with someone else. I never hear whether he was fired or really moving on to start his own dental practice for fascist flossers. I go to my next visit with no issues, and for the record no cavities.

That moment felt like a small win for my inner voice in the face of an authority figure, one I associated with childhood trauma. Once you do act on that quiet voice, it gets easier to hear it the moment when things don’t feel right- or when they do.

Is there a moment when you listened to your inner voice to stand up for yourself, or walk away from a bad situation?