A much-publicized science fair project by a ten year-old, published in the American Medical Association Journal, showed no abilities of a series of healers to identify the presence of the hand of the experimenter held near their own hand.

Some healers report that they can see the bioenergy field around people as an aura of color. Various colors in several layers around the body reveal the condition of the person on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels. Curious as to whether the bioenergy field is perceived by different healers similarly or differently from each other, I set up a pilot experiment in which a panel of eight healers simultaneously observed the same people who had known medical conditions. The differences between readings were far more obvious than the similarities. However, the people being observed validated that seven out of the eight intuitive aura readings were accurate. Repeating this pilot study with another four healers who appeared to have more highly developed aura reading abilities produced similar results.

Channeled information
Another explanation for inspiration is that it comes from spirits of people who have passed on from the physical world but remain available to help those of us who are still in the flesh. Other report they sense the presence of angels, saints, Christ, or God, lending their guidance – particularly in times of serious need.

In many societies, this ability is highly respected. In Western society is it often denigrated and rejected

If you talk to God, you are praying; if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.
Thomas Szasz

This source of information may be only as good as the knowledge of a guide from other dimensions. We must be alert to the apocryphal, succinct warning from a Native American shaman who was asked why she didn’t consult the spirits in her work. She replied, “Dead no make smart.”

Numerous healers report that they are aided by spirits and angels. For instance, the late Harry Edwards, one of England’s great healers, reported clear communications from spirit guides.

There must be a healer to act as the human instrument or medium for the applied spirit-healing forces. Through him are the forces that can transcend and overcome the causes of the illness and restore the physical distortion of harmony. To enable the human instrument to be well used, there must be the willing co-operation of the total organization of the healer: mental, physical, etheric and spirit. Using the human instrument is the spirit-healing Guide or Guides. The two, the healing medium and the healing Guide become co-operators. The human mind interprets the condition of the patient—the spirit-healing minds are concerned with the diagnosis and correction of the disharmony.

Collective consciousness
Intuition can extend to include more than one individual.

Carl Jung identified this as the collective unconscious. He and many other Jungian therapists after him have noted that there are archetypal images that appear to be present in the unconscious minds of their patients. Patients resonate very deeply with mythic stories that touch on their psychological conflicts, and may be able to resolve their problems by relating to these images.

Larry Dossey has written extensively about “non-local mind,” the ability of the mind to reach beyond the physical boundaries of the body.