Sonderbooks Book Review of Diary of a Medical Intuitive

Reviewed June 30, 2006.
Queen's Court Press, Palm Springs, California, 2004. 183 pages.

Here’s another book that came into my life with amazing timing. Normally, I wouldn’t have paid much attention to someone claiming to be a “Medical Intuitive.” In fact, I was taught as a child that anything like that must be coming from the devil.

But Christel Nani believes that her gift comes from God, and she won’t even do readings for someone who’s dabbling with “dark forces.” She was an Emergency Room nurse, and found that she could look at people and know their diagnosis before the test results came back. She resisted using the gift for a long time. She didn’t believe in anything so unscientific. But finally God got through to her, and she admitted that she could see truth, even if it was "unscientific."

Right at the front of the book, she answers some Frequently Asked Questions and explains a little more of what it means to be a medical intuitive, and how one can help. “A reputable Medical Intuitive can quickly identify the true cause of your symptoms, both at the physical level and at the emotional/spiritual level where illness has its roots…. In addition, an energy scan by a Medical Intuitive can identify any vulnerable points in your body (or spirit) where disease could take hold in the future. This is because all illness shows up as a block in your energy system before it invades your body…. Finally—and this is something most people don’t know—a Medical Intuitive can tell you what’s blocking your ‘health’ in terms of relationships, career, and finances. The causes of ‘illness’ in these areas are also apparent in your energy system.”

She also says you do not have to believe in it for her to read your energy system. Of course, you aren’t likely to want a reading if you don’t believe in it. One thing I like about her teachings—and I’ve also listened to her audio CD, “Healing Your First Three Chakras”—is that she gives good advice, even if you don’t believe that we have an energy system or seven “chakras” in our body. She doesn’t ask you to perform any strange rituals—just to examine your life and your beliefs and to notice the things that drain your energy and health rather than enhancing them.

Since I believe in God, I believe in the spirit world. It makes sense to me that there is more to each of us than our physical bodies. The “energy system” or “aura” of each person is easy to believe in. Haven’t you ever met someone and instantly known that they were a kindred spirit? I think that our spirits can sense one another. It makes sense to me that there might be people out there who can actually see this phenomenon. (And I’ve been told that it is possible to photograph a very slight electromagnetic field around people.) Christel Nani didn’t seek this power, but even in childhood, she seemed to have it.

She says, “Studying medicine is a good pursuit for skeptics. Hard science satisfied my need for facts, formulas, and forthright answers to complex problems. It also gave me a wealth of information I could use to logically explain (to myself) how I instantly knew what was wrong with the people who came into New York City’s busiest emergency room, where I worked.” Still, incidents happened over and over again that she couldn’t explain away. She learned not to mention what she saw, because people thought it very strange.

“Of all the technical and emotional skills I had to learn as a trauma nurse, the hardest to master was accepting the fact that I was intuitive. However, once I stopped fighting it and shifted from my old stance as the New York skeptic who says ‘Absolutely not!’ to a new—but still cautious—stance of intellectual curiosity, the E. R. became a whole new kind of training ground for me.

“I started to learn how different diseases ‘look' psychically. I became skilled at distinguishing the energetic signature of cancer from that of AIDS or multiple sclerosis. I learned that the signature of chronic fatigue is similar to that of fibromyalgia.”

She says a person’s “energetic signature” is “the unique electromagnetic vibration that emanates from each living thing. This vibration can be detected by certain people or by use of a spectroscopic microscope. The energetic signature serves as a unique identifier for every single being or substance that exists. Even identical twins have different energetic signatures.”

Don’t think that she’s against the medical establishment. “I don’t scoff at Western medicine. I spent too many years working as a registered nurse in some of New York and New Jersey’s busiest and best emergency rooms and trauma centers. I know firsthand what the wonder of modern science can do for people in pain.

“I also know what it can’t do.”

She talks about how your energy system can get run down and lead to illness. “At one time or another, you have no doubt had the experience of letting yourself get run down and catching the cold or flu that is going around. You know that getting run down—whether because prolonged lack of sleep, overwork, or emotional distress—lowers your resistance to illness. Every part of you gets sluggish, from your muscles to your immune system to your mind. Getting out of bed feels like a Herculean task. Making decisions is impossible. Your energy level is just too low.”

“I read and measure your energy by scanning your entire body—not just a specific area like your heart or brain, as an MRI or a CAT scan would do. At the same time, I also scan your energy field, reading the electromagnetic vibration in the area immediately outside your body. Like the people who read and interpret MRIs, I am an experienced medical professional. I can identify not only the frequency (ranging from high to low) of the vibration in your chakras and energy field, but what disease—if any—it indicates.

“While each disease has its own unique frequency, all diseases have a low vibration. This is another reason why a Medical Intuitive can pick up signs of illness that modern medicine cannot. Besides scanning the whole body, not just the area where the symptoms have appeared, I can sense vibrations across a much broader range of frequencies than today’s medical equipment can register.”

She felt that God was leading her to quit her job as a nurse and use her intuitive gift full-time. However, she resisted that guidance. She says, “Eventually I would have to face several important—and uncomfortable—truths about guidance. First, praying for guidance requires that you be fully open to whatever answer comes. You can’t put conditions on the guidance you ask for. For example, I prayed for guidance on how to use my intuitive gift, but my mind wasn’t quiet and open. I only wanted to hear one thing: Continue to do the nursing work you love, and just use your intuition when it’s needed.

“That’s not what I heard. This taught me the second important truth about guidance: You will not always like the guidance you receive. I certainly didn’t.”

Christel Nani says that one advantage of consulting a Medical Intuitive is that “I don’t look at symptoms. Symptoms can be misleading. I look directly at what’s causing those symptoms. I do this by scanning your energy field and your seven energy centers. When a diagnosis is based on energy, it can be trusted. Energy never lies.”

She learned that “focusing on raising one’s vibration would not only lead to physical, emotional, and spiritual health, but could actually prevent illness.”

In the book, Against Depression, by Peter Kramer, I already read how depression can actually affect the chemicals in your brain. Christel Nani mentions the work of neurologist Dr. Candace Pert. “These ‘molecules of emotion,’ as Pert calls them, are amino acid chains called neuropeptides. They carry their messages (such as contentment, sadness, or embarrassment) to all our cells, including those of our bones, muscles, and internal organs. In fact, neuropeptides literally put our minds—that is, our thoughts, emotions, and beliefs—into every cell in our bodies. They are the hyphen in ‘the mind-body connection.’”

“The overall energy of your body (this includes your thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes) produces a vibration that can be read in your chakras and your energy field. The emotions attached to your thoughts significantly contribute to your overall vibration or chakra health.

“Positive thoughts and feelings raise the frequency of your vibration, as do good feelings like high self-esteem, love, trust, generosity, and happiness. Negative thoughts and feelings like anger, pessimism, hopelessness, the need for validation, narrow-mindedness, and cynicism lower the frequency at which your energy vibrates.”

“You have a choice about whether to have negative or positive thoughts and feelings. You have a choice about whether to put a negative or positive spin on the events in your adult life.”

She has many wise things to say about healing. I’ll quote some of them. “Too many people were not loved unconditionally as children. They were loved for what they did, not who they were. This sets them up for a life of doing, doing, doing in the vain hope of earning another’s love. Why do I say their hopes are in vain? Because the best you can earn by doing things for others is approval, a sense of obligation, or gratitude. (The first two you don’t want, and the third won’t do you any good unless you have the ability to receive it.) The truth is, you can’t earn unconditional love, but you can give it to yourself.

“Dig deep, my friend, and see what lurks in your subconscious mind. All those fears and worries about whether others really love you can strangle you. They can keep you from loving yourself unconditionally. They can also keep you from loving someone else. When you feel unworthy of love, you distance yourself from others; you are lonely, disconnected—and alone.”

She warns the reader that “Positive thoughts about yourself will not raise your vibration if, in your heart of hearts, you don’t really believe them.”

“Healing is a three-step process consisting of awareness, ownership, and action. First you must become aware of the unconscious beliefs that lower your vibration. Then you take ownership of the ways in which these beliefs are interfering with your life. Finally you take action to change them.”

“Speaking the truth about your needs and your feelings will enhance and extend your life because it raises your vibration by dramatically increasing your sense of self-worth.”

“Your predominant negative belief is found in your energy field, and it influences almost everything you say and do. It is a reflection of how you feel about your personal worth. Some examples of predominant negative beliefs include I am not pretty, I am not lovable, I’m stupid, or I’m a failure. Interestingly, some of the most successful people I’ve met carry the belief I’m a failure, and some of the most well-liked individuals carry I’m not lovable. These beliefs drive them to achieve beyond all expectations, yet they still feel that they never do enough. They have to give endlessly for fear that if they stop giving, people won’t love them anymore.”

She also talks about “tribal beliefs”—“beliefs adopted from your family, teachers, and religious institutions.” “The biggest problem with tribal beliefs, however, is that you may not even realize they are beliefs. You may think they are facts.”

She encourages you to identify the tribal beliefs that you use to make decisions and examine them, deciding whether they are good for you or bad for you. “Tribal beliefs are almost always unconscious until you make a deliberate effort to uncover them. Depending on the nature of your tribe, these beliefs can be positive and beneficial or negative and harmful. The latter restrict your life force and lower your self-esteem, which lowers your vibration and opens up your energy system to illness, conflict, struggle, depression, or unhappiness.”

“Remember, these beliefs are not the products of your rational mind. They are unconscious. You do not know they exist. In fact, you often think that you believe just the opposite. In my work I am constantly amazed at the discrepancy between what most people think they believe and what they really believe.”

Later, she talks about linking emotional patterns with specific health issues. She warns the reader, “Here’s the bottom line: No one can tell you for certain that a particular symptom you have is rooted in a particular belief or behavior of yours unless they have read your energy field and seen the link.” There are many different causes for different symptoms. “There are, however, certain beliefs and behaviors that usually correlate with certain diseases. I want to tell you about them. I am trusting you not to apply these descriptions wholesale to your own situation. Think about them. Look into your heart. Ask your soul. See if they fit for you. If so, you may be at risk.”

I won’t get into specifics, because the book is worth reading yourself. But she has some interesting insights in this book as well as in the CD “Healing Your First Three Chakras” that seemed to make a lot of sense with my own physical problems, especially those I’ve developed after my husband told me he wants a divorce. For example, she says the energy in your pelvic area will be blocked if you are manipulating someone you love. Her example was “Like trying to get them not to leave.” What else have I been doing the past year? This definitely gave me something to think about.

She also talks about emotional health and “being in the flow.” Flow is “the state of serenity you feel when your heart, mind, and actions are in harmony with God’s highest desire for you. People usually think of flow as a state when external things are going well. But flow is really about internal things going well. It’s this internal state that smoothes the way for external success.”

“Being in the flow is being honest with others, not trying to manipulate them into liking you or caretaking them so they won’t leave you…. It’s being in the present with what is instead of worrying about the future or feeling guilty about the past.”

One reason I strongly believe that Christel Nani doesn’t do her work from the devil’s power is what she says about the most important connection of all—your connection with God. “Why does the strength—or weakness—of this connection matter? Because having a strong connection with God means we are in touch with our creator—the source of unconditional love, the source of our inspiration, and the source of our guidance, which supports our highest good and makes our life flow. On the other hand, spiritual disconnection shuts off the life force and dramatically lowers your vibration. It is the worst disease on the planet because we can live with an illness or without a limb, but we cannot live without the true source of unconditional love, light, and high vibration: God.”

She says, “I can see the quality of your relationship with God by looking at the health of your seventh, or crown chakra, which is at the top of your head. The crown chakra is where our spiritual connection resides. I see it as a door that is either wide open, open just a crack, or slammed shut. A wide-open door means the person has a strong connection with God. She is able to hear guidance and feels connected to a greater whole. Creative ideas flow freely and inspiration is routine. She feels safe and loved. Her life is filled with joy.”

She says about those with a partially open door that they aren’t usually completely disconnected spiritually. “He may acknowledge there is a God or Higher Power, but he isn’t sure if God listens to him. He doesn’t trust God. He asks for guidance, but with limitations, just as I used to do. He wants it how he wants it—which essentially means, he doesn’t want it. He doesn’t trust God to have his best interests at heart.”

For those whose door of spiritual connection is slammed shut, there is no connection to God and danger that all of their chakras will shut down. She calls this energetic suicide. “When I look to see how someone’s energetic ‘dam’ began, I see she has gone through something similar to the five stages of dying identified by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. At first she is shocked that God has apparently abandoned her. Maybe something very painful has happened to her or God hasn’t answered her prayers. Next comes anger at being abandoned. Then she tries bargaining. Well, bargaining with God never works, so she concludes that God does not exist.

“Now things go from bad to worse, because she enters the stage of spiritual depression. This is a terrible disease. People with spiritual depression look like the walking dead. They go through the motions of life. They are emotionally flat and have no real dreams, desires, or joy. Life looks gray to them, and their energy fields look gray to me. I see no color or vibrancy or movement in them.”

“If you close the door to your source of light, love, inspiration, ideas, feelings, safety, and joy, what is left? A feeling of emptiness—and the complete mess you make of your life because you can’t hear guidance. Without a Higher Power to nudge you in the right direction, you will make poor choices about your mate, your work, and your life.”

“The good news about people whose crown chakra is closed is that although they may have reached the stage of depression about God not being there, few have reached the fifth stage of accepting there is no God. A tiny part of them still hopes there is a God and that God cares about them.”

She says, “I often find that people with energetic suicide are constantly searching for something, trying new workshops or ideas or spiritual philosophies, but always moving on to the next promise of fulfillment. Their souls are restless because they are separated from God, so they wander in search of something—anything to fill that deep longing for the love that we all crave.”

She finishes up the book talking about what she does in readings. “Since I do not give you my opinion on what’s wrong but merely report what your body and energy system are telling me, my work goes to the heart of your issues very quickly. Your core objections to healing are compassionately exposed. This can be unsettling. So even though my style is gentle and loving, you need to schedule your first appointment with me for when you feel courageous enough to laser down to the very bottom of what blocks you from healing.”

“During a reading I receive a tremendous amount of information in a matter of two to three minutes. Generally, I see a running video of significant events from childhood, and I identify the predominant (and often negative) belief you carry about yourself, which affects all arenas of your life, such as career, relationships, and financial affairs. I also see your dominant archetypes and the unconscious traumas, decisions, and emotional patterns contributing to your physical, emotional, and/or spiritual illness. In addition, I identify for you the one priority task that will reverse these patterns.”

“I want to make you aware of your unconscious choices so you are free to make new choices that will bring you in alignment with your soul. Making such choices is the beginning of spiritual responsibility, and aligning with your soul is one of the most powerful, liberating, and healing experiences you will ever have—it connects you to your Higher Power.

“You see, when I read your energy, I see who you are and I see the person you are meant to be. This shows me the ways in which your energy is not matching up. It’s like seeing two pictures overlaying each other. The main picture—who you are meant to be—is clear and bright. It shows your highest expression, your most exciting possibilities. The other is the energy you are expressing now, which usually ranges from muddy to dark. I want to help you understand the muddiness so that you can change it. My goal is to see you become the person you are meant to be, the one who is clear, bright, and filled with God’s love.”

She talks about some spontaneous healings that have happened. She says that certain conditions apply. “You have to want healing and your energy must be focused in the present, not the past. You can’t be beating yourself up for what happened in the past. You can’t be reliving traumas from the past. You must be fully present and in your body. You can’t be worrying too much about the future either or your energy goes there. People who live in their heads are not in their hearts. Nor are people who live in the past or the future. They are not present and open to receiving healing because they are too distracted.

“In addition, all energy drains (such as having conflicts with your soul, carrying tribal beliefs that are not good for you, manipulating others from your second chakra, staying in abusive relationships, or staying in situations for which you have no magnetics) must be stopped. If not, any apparent healing you experience will just be a remission, not a true healing.”

I like her final note: “I hope that after reading this book you can at least entertain the possibility that your life can be however you choose. Our choices do determine the nature of our lives. You can be happy and healthy or vengeful and unforgiving. It is all up to you.

“Using the information from a Medical Intuitive’s scan of your energetic blueprint in order to become spiritually responsible simply means being able to see new possibilities where once there were none. It means making choices that are good for you—letting go of limiting tribal beliefs, life-draining attitudes, and, yes, even unhealthy people and jobs.

“This book is about changing your life for the better—easily quickly, and for the most part effortlessly. As English philosopher James Allen so aptly wrote, ‘Circumstance does not the man make, but rather, man makes his circumstances.’ If you are not happy with your life, you can change it.”

Christel Nani has a website at www.christelnani.com

Review of another book by Christel Nani:
Sacred Choices

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Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

******Diary of a Medical Intuitive*

One Woman's Eye-Opening Journey from No-Nonsense E.R. Nurse to Open-Hearted Healer and Visionary

by Christel Nani, R.N., Ph.D.