That evening, Joel Andrews, a trance-medium harpist, played a concert for the entire audience, and I had my first out-of-body experience, floating above the crowd! Indeed, the “Week of Attunement” thrust me well into another world. A few weeks later, Joel visited me and did a harp concert in the chapel at St. Francis Hospital, and I did my first recording of a guided imagery exercise for past life therapy. That was part of the first holistic medical meeting, with four hundred attendees! We also had Dr. Wilburt Fordyce; Dr. Richard Sternberg, a leading chiropractor; Dr. Fred Barge, a Christian Scientist expert; and a few others outside “convention.” The local medical society spent two hours attempting to get me censored for having the chiropractor on the program! Fortunately, I had more friends than enemies and it was not passed.
In the fall, I visited Olga Worrall at Mt. Washington United Methodist Church in Baltimore, where, for over thirty-five years, Olga and her husband, Ambrose (who died in 1971), conducted spiritual healing services every Thursday morning. Three hundred people crowded into the tiny church for the laying on of hands. Among the miracles that began that day, I was allowed, after the service, to examine a professor of English from a major university. She had advanced breast cancer, eroding through the skin as a black, gangrenous malignancy. One month later, a letter from her stated that her cancer had totally disappeared! This began my interest in spiritual healing. I wanted to publish a book, Twenty-five Cases Suggestive of Spiritual Healing. I began to have Olga send me letters so that I could get permission from the patients to obtain their medical records.
Eventually, my interest in spiritual healing became the book Sacred Healing. Equally important, Olga shared with me one of my favorite all-time booklets, Essay on Prayer, written by Ambrose in the '50s. Several other booklets by Ambrose were also treasures, and Olga gave me permission to reproduce the booklet to keep it in print. She also approved my doing a guided meditative tape of the Essay on Prayer. Much later that booklet became the foundation for my DVD on holistic healing, Medical Renaissance—The Secret Code. Olga also introduced me to Religious Science and Science of Mind.
Shortly after that week, I phoned Henry Rucker and arranged a one-hour consultation with him for December 19th. As I walked into his office, Henry said, “I've been waiting nineteen years for you. My teacher told me you would come.” I spent three hours with Henry, who told me much more about me than I could have dreamed! At the conclusion of our visit, I invited Henry to come to LaCrosse to see how well he could diagnose patients.
One month later, Henry arrived with eight other psychics, eight of the nine being black. I noted that they had just doubled the black population of LaCrosse! Meanwhile, I had told my twenty-five in-hospital patients what I had in mind, and all were quite eager to participate. One at a time they were brought into my office, and each of the psychics looked at them or a handwriting specimen. They were not allowed to ask any questions. When they all were in agreement, their diagnoses were 98 percent accurate. There were three paraplegic patients—all from different causes—gunshot wound, trauma, and infection. The team correctly gave the cause of paralysis! I took Henry on rounds in the hospital. One of my patients had had surgery a few days earlier and had spiked a white blood count to forty-two thousand. We were concerned that a latent leukemia had been evoked by the stress of surgery. Henry stated that there was just a problem with the liver and that the patient would be fine. Two days later, the results of the bone marrow exam came back, and it turned out that he had a leukemoid reaction to the anesthetic—a very rare event. The patient left the hospital well within a couple of days!
I was hooked! I wanted Henry to work with me. At the time, I was a consultant with a Fortune 500 company, and I asked them for a $50,000 grant to study psychic diagnosis. They gave it with the caveat that I must never mention their name in association with the study! I had a ball! Going on word-of-mouth referrals, I visited a total of seventy-five “psychics” around the country. They were given only a photograph of patients with name and birth date. I had designed a form that could, at best, give a 10 percent chance of making a correct diagnosis by chance. Most of the psychics were 50 percent accurate—five times chance and highly statistically significant!
Five of those I studied were 70 to 75 percent accurate; truly amazing. Incidentally, physicians are said to be 80 percent accurate with an initial history and physical exam of the patient. The results were published in the A.R.E. Journal, (Shealy, C.N. “Perspectives on psychic diagnosis.” A.R.E. Journal, September 1976; 11, pp. 208-217), which may be read in Appendix A.
Among the notable intuitives I studied was Jack Schwartz, who was 75 percent accurate and who told me that I was trying to cram seven lives into this one. He also introduced me to photostimulation with his I.S.I.S. I was intrigued enough to purchase twelve of his units and have an electronics person change them from flashing alternatively into right and left eye to flashing them simultaneously into both eyes, to enhance relaxation. Eventually, this led to my later devices, The Shealy RelaxMate I and II, and my first patent. Incidentally, Medtronic told me my ideas for DCS and TENS were not patentable, and in my naïve early days, I believed them! They actually patented both devices. I now patent all my discoveries and currently have applied for number 12. Incidentally, all of my inventions are related to my own medical intuition. More on that later!
By April 1973, I wanted Henry Rucker to become a counselor at my clinic at St. Francis Hospital. The problems—he was black, had no college degree (two years at a junior college), and had created his own metaphysical church, something like, The Holy Essence of the Wisdom of the Light of Hermes! I said, “It won't fly, Henry.” By this time, I had become quite acquainted with Unity, Religious Science, and Science of Mind and learned that all Science of Mind churches are independent. So Henry and I formed the Science of Mind Church of Chicago. Philosophically, we were totally compatible with Ernest Holmes' philosophy. I was ordained. I figured that I was so far out on a twig that if my physician colleagues objected to my research, I could truthfully say it was part of my religion. Henry was immediately accepted as a pastoral counselor in my clinic at St. Francis! Many of the nuns and physicians consulted him. And, of course, the creation of the church was a remarkable intuitive (synchronistic) foresight, as it became the foundation for our school, Holos University Graduate Seminary.
Henry was the best one-on-one counselor I have ever known. Although he was 70 to 75 percent accurate in making a medical diagnosis, his forte was counseling. The son of our congregational minister had had severe drug and behavioral problems for years. One hour with Henry and that young man came out saying, “Why didn't anyone talk to me like that before.” He has been free of drugs and behavioral problems for the subsequent thirty-six years! Henry was also a healer. One of the most striking situations was a six-year-old whose skull fracture had not healed in over a year. One session with Henry and the fracture healed rapidly. Later, we demonstrated that his healing could raise DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) with a single session. Henry worked with us until his retirement. He was a friend and confidant throughout the rest of his life. My children looked upon him as a major friend and counselor. He died at age eighty-four.
In January 1974 I was told by a friend that I should meet Dr. Robert Leichtman, a board-certified internist, who was quite psychic—by far the best of all those I studied initially and who will be discussed in a later chapter about the best Medical Intuitives. Suffice it for now to say that he was 80 percent accurate in physical diagnoses and 96 percent accurate in evaluating the psychological status of patients. Bob has also become a lifelong friend and advisor.
In 1974, I also entered my Ph.D. in psychology (which I completed in 1977) at the Humanistic Psychology Institute. It was one of the great learning experiences of my life. I focused on creating what I call the software of biofeedback, Biogenics. My first major public book, 90 Days to Self-Health, based upon my dissertation, was published the week I passed my defense of dissertation.
Bob Leichtman and Henry became for many years my major consultants when I had a problem with making a diagnosis or “getting through” to patients. Bob remains