Expanding Diagnostic Vision
with Medical Intuition
Interviews with ]ay Caliendo, Medical Intuitive,
and Abraham C. Kuruvilla, M.D., M.D.(H)
Russ Mason, M.S.
Introduction
the early part of the twentieth cen-
In tury, a remarkable "seer" named
Edgar Cayce startled the medical
community by being able to see and
diagnose patients—as though he had X-
ray vision—while he was in a trance.
From his couch, Mr. Cayce would begin
by saying: "yes, we have the body. ." .
and go on to explain, in startling detail,
what was wrong with the patient. Medi-
cal analysis later confirmed Mr. Cayce's
diagnoses, and the patients were treated
successfully. In the 1980s, another "seer,"
Carolyn Myss, Ph.D., a New Age writer
and publisher, went public with her rare
ability, identifying herself as a "medical
intuitive." Like Mr. Cayce, Dr. Myss was
able to "scan" and diagnose anyone,
whether the person was in the same
room or thousands of miles away. All
that was necessary was for her to be told
the person's first name and age and that
she had the person's permission to scan
him or her. Dr. Myss later formed an
association with a Missouri neurosur-
geon, C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D.
founder of the Shealy Institute for Com-
prehensive Health Care, Springfield,
Missouri, and, as a result, was able to
bring a rare diagnostic insight to many
of Dr. Shealy's patients. Together, Drs.
Myss and Shealy wrote The Creation of
Health: Merging Traditional Medicine with
Intuitive Diagnosis*
*New York: Crown Publishers, 1998.
In a nearly identical way, Jay Caliendo,
of Phoenix, Arizona, is able to "read"
people and to discern problem areas—
whether they are physical or energetic in
nature. In 1973, when Mr. Caliendo first
received this gift, as he terms it, several
aspects of it baffled him: Why was he cho-
sen? Where did this gift come from? And,
what was he supposed to do with it?
Now, 28 years later, Mr. Caliendo has a
pretty good idea. In 1995 he began to
offer his readings to the public and has
since read hundreds of individuals—usu-
ally over the telephone—as well as via
seminars and personal consultations. In
addition, he works with Abraham C.
Kuruvilla, M.D., M.D.(H.), at the Marico-
pa County Health Center, also in Phoenix,
and, together, they offer patients rare and
comprehensive diagnostic care. Our inter-
views begin with Jay Caliendo, the medi-
cal intuitive.
Interview with Jay Caliendo
Russ Mason: Are you a native of
Phoenix?
Jay Caliendo: Yes. I grew up here. My
earliest memories are of my dad and the
horses he raised. I was just a normal kid.
After high school I started a business with
some members of my family—a weight-
lifting and racquet-ball club. This was the
first of its kind in Phoenix that was open
to the public.
RM: Have you been interested in
health and fitness for a long time?
JC: Yes. In fact, in 1972,1 was a competi-
tive power-lifter and was ranked 21st in
the top twenty-five in the world, by
bench-pressing 385 pounds. I was a young
punk, but [this activity] meant a lot to me,
because I worked very hard at it. As I got
older, I became interested in the nutrition-
al side of it and eventually helped to train
people. We had the fitness club and that
was my primary job for a while. Then, in
1981,1 joined the Phoenix Police Depart-
ment. I felt that I would like law enforce-
ment, and the job also provided medical
and dental benefits, which can be expen-
sive. But I've been a medical intuitive
longer than I have been a police officer.
RM: Please tell me how all that hap-
pened.
JC: Believe me, it's not fascinating. You
talk to some people who call themselves
medical intuitives—and they went blind
and then got their sight back, or they fell
in a frozen duck pond, and when they
were thawed out.. .
RM: So, there was no frozen duck
pond?
JC: No, mine was simple. In 1973, I
became a Christian.
RM: Did you join any particular kind
of church?
JC: Just a nondenominational Christian
church up in Flagstaff [Arizona]. It was
in the woods and we loved the preacher.
It was all very personal. On Wednesday
nights, we went to group meetings and,
after several of those, I decided that, if I
had the guts, I would walk down the
aisle and give myself to the Lord. The
preacher was inviting people to do this
and finally I got up the nerve and walked
down also. Then, a month later, I had a
public baptism; and it was after the bap-
tism that I began to see images of people,
health images. I could see cancerous
tumors—anything and everything, really.
I don't know why God picked me, as I
331
332
"I would be standing in
line at the
grocery store and notice that there was
something abnormal about the person ahead of me."
JayCaliendo and Abraham C. Kuruvilla,
M.D., M.D.(H), Maricopa County Health Cen-
ter.
am not a particularly good Christian. But
for some reason I have been blessed with
this gift.
RM: Do you remember a moment
when you actually saw a tumor?
JC: Yes. I was at some friends' house
for dinner, and, as we sat in their living
room I "saw" that my friend's wife had
a lump in her breast. As tactfully as I
could, I said to her: "Did you know that
you might have a lump in your breast?
Have you ever felt one?" She said: "No
I didn't. Why, Jay?" And I said:
"Because I think you do." So, she got
up and went into the bathroom and
then came back and said: "You know, I
do feel a lump." Soon after, she went to
see a doctor and, sure enough, it was a
tumor, which she had removed. She's
fine now.
RM: What was your path, from the
first intuitive visions to today? Where
^Miramax Films, 1996
ALTERNATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES—DECEMBER 2000
you are now as far as diagnosing people
from all over the world?
JC: When it first started, after the bap-
tism, I began to see images in people, usu-
ally at random. I would be standing in
line at the grocery store and notice that
there was something abnormal about the
person ahead of me. Of course, I didn't
say anything, but I could see things. I
shared what was happening with my
family and close friends. I told them that I
had these "sights," that I had this ability
to see people and it was kind of. .crazy. I
. then, in 1995,1 was getting my back treat-
wasn't sure what it was that I had and
what it was I was supposed to do, so all I
could do was experiment.
At first, I was like a kid with a new toy.
I tried it in my police work to see if I
could solve crimes. .1 was able to
describe a house some people had lived
. .
in years before. I could even read cards,
and I wondered if I should go to Las
Vegas and make some money with it.
RM: Reading cards? How did you do
that?
JC: If you held up a card, I'd tell you
what it was. But I found out, through my
experimentation, that, as soon as I veered
off into other areas, instead of health, my
accuracy level dropped drastically. This is
how I felt God was talking to me; not by
appearing at the foot of my bed, but
through the accuracy of my readings. I
had to learn where the real value is and
what I should focus on.
RM: It must have been unnerving for
you suddenly to have this ability. Was
it?
JC: Well, back in the '70s there was no
name for this kind of thing. People
thought I was psychic. I simply see
things. I have a sort of a sixth sense that I
use. A few of the members of my Chris-
tian group told me that I should stop
doing it, that it was the work of the devil.
I told them I was not doing anything, I
was just seeing things. Yet, for about 20
years, I had to endure people looking at
me strangely. If you ever saw the movie
Phenomenon ' with John Travolta, you
would understand a little of what I went
through. He was misunderstood and
people looked at him like he was weird.
And that is how I felt for so long. But
ed in a clinic by a practitioner who did
Rolfing.™ I struck up a conversation
with him and he told me that—despite
his best efforts as a therapist—he was
unable to help his wife, who had chronic
pain. As he said this, I suddenly had an
image of his wife. I pointed to my side
and asked: "Is the pain here?" And he
said: "Yes, how did you know?" I told
him of my ability to read people. It
turned out that this practitioner knew all
about Carolyn Myss and her medical
intuitive practice. That was the first time
I had ever heard the term medical intu-
itive or that someone else had this ability.
I had never heard of Carolyn Myss, and
this practitioner gave me a cassette of
hers to listen to. I nearly fell off the couch
when she described her visions and how
she worked; it was virtually identical to
my experience. The practitioner later
introduced me to the director of the clin-
ic, and the director had me do readings
for some of the children patients. And
those were my first readings for the gen-
eral public.
RM: So until 1995 is it the case that
you had not talked with any doctors
about this?
JC: Not one. In the first 20 years, I read
ALTERNATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES—DECEMBER 2000
maybe a couple of hundred people. But,
1995 was the first time I read a stranger,
someone in a public situation. And that is
when I realized: "Wow! There are some
people who really want me to do this for
them!" And the director of the clinic
asked me to come in on my days off, so I
went in twice a week and read her kids
for her. Before you know it, I was reading
all of the staff, and eventually they all
told me: "You've got to go public with
this, and write a book, and here—take
this tape home!"
They had me going! But, if that thera-
pist had not told me about his wife and
her pain, I would never have mentioned
it. The enthusiastic reactions of all these
people led to my founding Inner Insight,
Ltd., in Phoenix, to do readings for people
on a part-time basis. I hope to do this
work full-time after I retire from the
police force next year.
RM: How does it work for the average
individual who wants a reading?
JC: I send the person a disclaimer to fill
out, and that person sends it back with a
check for $115.00 and we set up a time for
a 1-hour phone conversation. Once the
person is on the phone and has given me
their age and permission, I do a reading. In
the course of it, I write down everything.
RM: What do you see? Can you
describe it?
JC: It's like a series of black and white
X-rays. It's kind of a blotchy negative
image, and those blotchy spots are, to me,
abnormal. This means the normal person
has not been born with them. For me to
see those images is very easy, and all I
need is the person's name, age, and per-
mission to see them, and the images
appear immediately in front of me.
"I can 'see' why someone came down with
RM: How long does it take before you
get an image of a person?
JC: Instantly. Someone has barely fin-
ished saying their name and age and I
see that person. But, as I said said, seeing
the images is easy. The challenge has
always been defining what it was I saw.
For example, if I read an energy block-
age, was I seeing calcification or scar tis-
sue? If I saw a fatty tumor, I could not
tell if it was benign or malignant, or if it
was a cyst. It could be a million things.
Now, after doing this for nearly 30
years, for those people who really do
have cancer, I'll tell them exactly where
it is located, how bad it is, and where
they're headed with it. I can probably
even tell them how they got it.
RM: You can tell how a person actual-
ly got a disease?!
JC: Yes. I can see why someone came
down with cancer. But how helpful is
that? The person already has the disease.
RM: But what you are saying implies
that you can see into someone's past.
Isn't that so?
JC: Oh absolutely. I read someone's
entire biography, and I flip through that
person's history in microseconds. For
example, one man was suffering from
cancer of the prostate. I saw that the cause
was exposure to certain kinds of chemi-
cals. When I asked him about this he
replied that he had worked for many
years with industrial dyes. The soft tissue
had absorbed some of the chemicals, and
was the source of the problem. You see,
everyone has strong points and weak
points in their bodies—you have yours
and I have mine. So, when we get sick, it's
because the weak part of our bodies were
attacked.
333
cancer."
Mr. Caliendo and Dr. Kuruvilla work on a
patient at the Center.
RM: Is the process of doing the "read-
ings" tiring for you?
JC: Very much so, especially doing
readings for people over the phone,
because I have to remain focused for so
long. I have to write everything down or
else I will forget it. As soon as the reading
is over and I hang up the phone, I forget
the reading. Part of the gift is having the
ability to forget, so I don't dwell on people
or their problems for any length of time.
RM: In working with Dr. Kuruvilla, it
seems you have formed a great partner-
ship. Tell us about that.
JC: This is very much so. First of all,
we like each other, so it's easy for us to
work around each other. He is a com-
fortable person to work with—there's
not a drop of arrogance in him. And one
of his biggest assets is his versatility in
combining Traditional Chinese
Medicine with Ayurvedic and, of
course, Western medicine. I mean, if he
were strictly an allopathic doctor, 50
percent of what I say would make no
sense to him. I mean none.
334
"Jay came to the center and I had him read a patient, whom I
knew well, and he read the patient correctly—100 percent correctly."
Contact the
Diagnostic Team
Jay Caliendo
Inner Insight, Ltd.
515 East Carefree Highway 299
Phoenix, AZ 85085-8839
Voice Mail: 623-465-0130
e-mail j@medicalintuitive.com
medicalintuitive.com
Abraham C. Kuruvilla, M.D., M.D.(H)
1492 South Mill Ave, Suite 307
Tempe, AZ 85281
(480) 968-4200
Fax:(480)968-4201
RM: How do you work together?
JC: I go down to the clinic on Monday
mornings. It's my morning off. I sip a cup
of coffee with him and read four, five, or
six patients, and go home.
We have also been doing seminars
together also. Mostly people just want
readings, and not to hear me talk, so I talk
for 10 minutes and then usually do a short
reading for everyone in the room. It's not a
full, detailed reading that one would get
on the phone—there isn't time. But what I
can do is to answer questions that have
baffled them. Nobody leaves without a
reading. That's what they came for.
RM: How do you do it?
JC: When they enter the room, they are
each given a piece of paper. They write
down their first names and their ages and
pass the papers forward. Then I take the
each paper and say, for example: "OK
^-Published in 1996 by The Foundation for
Inner Peace.
ALTERNATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES—DECEMBER 2000
Diane, I have your name and your age.
What is your question?" Diane might
answer: "Well I have been coughing a lot
lately and I don't know why." I read
Diane and say: "OK, here's what I think is
going on. and I tell her what I see.
"
Boom, it's done. "Is there an Alex in the
. .
room? What is your question?" And it
goes very fast. By the end of the night, I
am bouncing off the walls and staggering
to my car. In fact, one evening I did fifty-
five readings, [laughs] I couldn't have told
you my own first name when I got done.
RM: Well it is certainly a rare
helpful gift.
JC: Yes, and yet I still have no idea why
God chose me to do this kind of work.
RM: To paraphrase a line from A
Course in Miracles:^ "Because you'll do
it."
JC: That's what I've been doing!
Interview with Abraham C.
Kuruvilla, M.D., M.D. (H)
RM: What got you interested in
medicine?
Abraham C. Kuruvilla: I am originally
from India, and my father was an allopath-
ic medical practitioner, so I have always
been in that atmosphere. In fact, Ayurvedic
practice has been in our family for eleven
generations—which is as far back as we
could track it. However, when I went to
medical school, the accepted medicine—as
it is here in the United States—was the
standard allopathic medicine.
My medical school in India was Trivan-
drum Medical College of the University
of Kerala, Kerala, India, but all my post-
graduate training, beginning in 1972, was
in the United States. I did my residency in
pediatrics here in Phoenix and became
board certified in pediatrics, neonatal
medicine, and family practice, between
1977 and 1997. As I was getting into fami-
ly practice, I had the opportunity to work
in an alternative medicine center. As a
result, I studied alternative medicine for 5
years and became certified in acupunc-
ture and licensed in homeopathy and
Ayurvedic medicine. The title M.D.(H) is
given to M.D.s who pass the licensing
examination of the Board of Homeopathic
Medical Examiners of Arizona.
and
RM: How did you meet Jay Caliendo?
ACK: I met Jay through a friend who
said that he could do intuitive work. I had
heard about it, but I had never worked
with an intuitive before. At the time, I
was working with a physician's group at
acounty clinic, Maricopa County Health
Center, mostly doing alternative
medicine. Jay came to the center and I
had him read a patient, whom I knew
well, and he read the patient correctly—
100 percent correctly. Not long after that,
we started working together.
RM: Is that where you and Jay current-
ly work?
ACK: Yes. Maricopa County has sever-
al family health centers and I am at the
Seventh Avenue Family Health Center in
Phoenix. I was able to get a grant so that
we could start an alternative medicine
center, mainly for the poor county resi-
dents who could not—because of the
cost—ordinarily get such care. This was
the basis for the grant, which was used to
start the Seventh Avenue center.
RM: Given your background, you
have a wide variety of protocols at your
ALTERNATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES—DECEMBER 2000
disposal—standard allopathic medicine,
acupuncture, homeopathy, Ayurvedic
medicine. .It seems as if you have
. .
more treatment options to offer your
patients than a traditional allopathic
M.D. Do you agree?
ACK: I do feel that way. For example, if
someone comes in with migraine, which
is very common, I usually offer that per-
son acupuncture. And, in 80-90 percent of
the cases, patients get cures.
RM: How does Jay work with you on,
say, a case of chronic migraine?
ACK: We ask if the patient would like
to get a reading careful to
and are
that this is and
explain rare diag-
a new
nostic procedure, which has not been
clinically tested. There are no double-
blind studies for this. Once the patient
consents, Jay sees the three-dimensional
"figure" as a two-dimensional image, in
a series of layers. And he can arrive at
precisely the same diagnoses as an
expensive work-up would. That is the
physical part of it.
Now, in something like migraine,
which is probably more of an energetic
disorder than a physical disorder, Jay can
actually see the flow of energy through a
person, the flow along the meridians that
we use in acupuncture. He refers to these
energetic readings as "spiritual" readings.
RM: Jay actually sees the energy flow-
ing along the meridians?!
ACK: Yes, he We had an interest-
can.
ing case one day when a patient
described a problem with pain and
numbness in the forearm, extending to
the elbow. Jay gave a reading and said:
"Well, the meridian at the elbow is
blocked so the energy is not going to the
shoulder area."
335
There are no double-blind studies for this.
How Medical Intuition Works
Three Case Studies
These case descriptions by Dr. Kuruvilla present familiar problems. Advanced medical
technology often can be helpful in diagnosis—at a high financial cost. However, Dr. Kuruvilla
says that "enlisting the skill of a medical intuitive may help to expedite a difficult diagnosis."
These cases illustrate the fact that modern Western medicine can benefit from the medical
intuitive's rare understanding of the human body to expedite diagnosis and healing.
Case I (JM)—A 42-year-old woman in excellent health had increasing fatigue, which she
attributed to caring for her 2-year-old son. She denied having cardiovascular-, gastrointestinal-,
and depression-related symptoms, and she had no tremors or change in weight or appetite.
The reading by the intuitive showed a burning, flame-like ¡mage of the superior lobes of her
thyroid. No other abnormality was detected. Her thyroid was normal per physical examination.
1 he laboratory evaluation yielded the following results: TSH, 9.55 (0.35-5.50); T4, 8.19
(4.5-12.0); thyroid antibody, 783 (0-34). Hypothyroidism, possibly Hashimoto's thyroiditis, was
confirmed by an endocrinologist, and thyroid hormone replacement was recommended.
Case 2 (TJ)—A 32-year-old woman experienced persistent abdominal pain. An abnormality
on a computed tomography scan appeared as a dilated common bile duct in the second part
of the duodenum before it emptied into the gut. The lesion was suspected to be a prestenotic
dilatation, possibly related to a carcinoma of the terminal bile duct. Ultrasound examination
confirmed the dilatation. An endoscopie retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) was
recommended. The patient seen by the medical intuitive was told that the stenosis of the
terminal portion of the bile duct was the result of scarring from a seat-belt injury that she had
sustained several years previously. Although the patient had given the history of the accident
to all her health care providers, only the medical intuitive paid attention and considered the
scar formation to be relevant. The ERCP showed obvious scar formation of the terminal
portion of the common bile duct and determined that the dilatation was related to scar
formation. The finding was so impressive that no biopsy was done to rule out the carcinoma
of the end of the common bile duct that had been suggested by the imaging studies.
Case 3 (HM)—A 50-year-old woman with proven immunologie diagnosis of Sjögren's
syndrome (Sjögren's SS-A, 196.0; Sjögren's SS-B, 152.0) and no respiratory symptoms sought
pain reduction via acupuncture. The radiologie examination that had been done 6 months
prior to the visit to the acupuncture clinic showed no positive finding on the chest film. The
medical intuitive read a parenchymal lesion in the lungs, although the patient denied having any
pulmonary symptoms. A chest X-ray showed pulmonary interstitial fibrosis, which was
considered as resulting from the autoimmune disease.
TSH, thyrotropin; T4, thyroxin.
I worked on the meridian with could see the energy flow. And, it so
acupuncture and, as I worked, Jay could happens that this is a rare meridian that
actually see the energy move up into the crosses the midline, and he was describ-
shoulder, into the face—where the ing it exactly through the anatomical
meridian crosses behind the nose—he channel.
336
"As far my allopathic colleagues are
as
concerned, what Jay does is close to voodoo."
RM: Do many of your allopathic col-
leagues know that you're working with
a medical intuitive?
ACK: Yes, and they are skeptical. But I
have a good reputation in Phoenix, plus
all the background training, so they are
somewhat gentle about it. However, they
simply cannot understand this and they
keep reminding me that I have to tell the
patients that medical intuition is not a
tested form of anything. So, as far as my
allopathic colleagues are concerned, what
Jay does is close to voodoo. But we take
one patient at a time and we always ask
for permission. In fact, in the grant setup,
Jay's services are free.
RM: It must have been quite a revela-
tion for you to work with someone with
Jay's abilities.
ACK: Yes, I was also very skeptical.
Even after he did the first reading and got
it right, I was still skeptical. Most people
would be. But the more and more I work
with Jay, the more I develop greater
respect for his ability.
RM: Has Jay ever been wrong?
ACK: If he were to describe his reading
to an allopathic M.D., with no insight
about Traditional Chinese Medicine, or
other forms of alternative medicine, the
M.D. would find what Jay reports diffi-
cult to interpret or even to understand.
RM: Can you give me an example?
ACK: Yes. Jay will look at a patient and
say: "There's something wrong with the
blood." In allopathic terms, this means
the doctor should conduct a series of
§MRI magnetic resonance imaging.
=
ALTERNATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES—DECEMBER 2000
blood tests. However, if they all come
back normal, then—by all appearances—
there is nothing wrong. However, in Tra-
ditional Chinese Medicine, blood is the
solid form of chi; and the circulation of
the blood is through various organs, in
which there can be stagnation, which
could produce a symptom. That is what
Jay is talking about, and this is not neces-
sarily something that would show up in a
conventional blood analysis.
RM: How long have you been work-
ing with Jay?
ACK: Not quite a year and a half. We
began in August of 1999. We plan to con-
tinue to see patients and then publish our
findings. Jay and I are putting together a
history of the cases we have worked on,
and will do a chart analysis to explain the
outcome. We are being as professional as
possible, with the slant of alternative
medicine, for the journals that publish
such reports.
RM: Do you still use conventional
diagnostic tools, such as an MRI§?
ACK: Oh yes. We never replace an
MRI with Jay's reading alone. Besides,
we want as much information about the
patient as possible. What is slightly frus-
trating, however, is that allopathic doc-
tors—those who would regulate this
kind of thing—would not be able to
understand what Jay does. We have to
work at it and publish our results in a
careful and methodical way. Maricopa
County has requested a research proto-
col to incorporate Jay's work and we are
doing that.
RM: Would you say that your unusual
team-up makes diagnostic work-ups
much more comprehensive for patients?
ACK: I feel that way. But again, this is
an unusual gift and I am fortunate that I
came across Jay. The skill he brings is
certainly rare; my job is one of interpre-
tation. In fact, the blood deficiency is an
excellent example. Acupuncture was
able to restore movement to the blood
in a very real way when, by allopathic
standards, the blood count remained
the same. And yet, the patient was
fatigued and traditional methods of
diagnosis revealed nothing. Yet, with
Jay's reading and the application of
acupuncture, the patient was restored to
healthy activity.
RM: And yet, many allopathic doctors
don't want to hear about meridians or
acupuncture. How do you feel about
this?
ACK: Well, if Traditional Chinese
Medicine turns out to be consistently right,
that means what allopathic physicians
have studied is not really complete and
that they will have to do more training. So
it's easier for allopathic doctors to put this
stuff down than to acknowledge it. I spent
5 years studying alternative medicine and
I am more and more convinced that this is
where medicine is going.
RM: Would you say that a combina-
tion of allopathic and Traditional Chi-
nese Medicine is the future of medicine?
ACK: Very much so. But we could use
more medical intuitives like Jay Calien-
do. D
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