Dr. Katie Deming [00:00:00]:
How can taking a break accelerate our healing? Welcome to the Born to Heal podcast. I'm doctor Katie Deming, your host and integrative oncologist. I'm taking a short break to recharge and reflect. But don't worry. Instead of going dark, I'm excited to share episodes of other podcasts I've been a guest on. This is your chance to learn more about me and deepen our connection. These conversations explore my journey from traditional radiation oncology to integrative healing and offer insights into holistic approaches to health and well-being. While I'm away, consider downloading my free guide, the 3 things you need to know about cancer.Dr. Katie Deming [00:00:40]:
The link is in the episode description. And stay connected with me by following on Instagram at the conscious oncologist. I'll still be posting there, and we have a few surprises in store for you when we return here in September. Thank you for being part of this healing community. Remember, we're all born to heal. So let's continue this journey together.

Scott Britton [00:01:05]:
Evolution FM. Uplift yourself to uplift others. It's time to evolve.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:01:23]:
I had an experience that's called a shared experience, and it's similar to a near death experience, although less common. And when it does happen, though, it most commonly happens to health care providers or emergency personnel who are at the scene when someone dies. And those people, even though they are not dying themselves, may experience a life changing experience similar to a near death experience. And so, that happened to me in the fall of 2020. After that, I just knew. Like, I knew something was wrong, and I knew that I needed to leave Western medicine, and the way that we were healing was not the way that healing actually happened.

Scott Britton [00:02:10]:
Katie Deming was a leading oncologist who was at the top of her field until she had a profound metaphysical experience that changed her life and worldview. In this conversation, we explore how her life and approach to healing has changed after having what's called a shared death experience. Her new work puts consciousness and living an aligned healthy lifestyle at the center of healing.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:02:33]:
Cancer or illness is absolutely a crisis, and in every crisis, there is opportunity. And this is our body's way of showing us we have to pay attention. There's something here that needs a deeper look. You you're out of alignment. And when you see it that way, you can have such a different viewpoint on it. It's not like you're fighting something. You're, like, not at odds with your body or the cancer or whatever. It's like your body is speaking to you, so let's get quiet and listen.

Scott Britton [00:03:05]:
Viewing illness as an opportunity can be difficult. But in Katie's experience, taking responsibility creates far more agency than how things have traditionally been done in Western medicine.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:03:15]:
I had to learn this a little bit the hard way when I first started talking about emotions and illness and people getting really triggered, like, I have cancer and now you're telling me it's my fault. And I was like, no. I'm not telling you it's your fault, but it's you're responsible. Yeah. Like, now that you're seeing this, like, it's not I'm not saying that it's your fault. We're we're living in a traumatic world and all of us are experienced trauma, you know. And so, it's not surprising that if trauma is correlated with illness, that there's things there to be healed. But now that you know that it may be related to emotions or trauma, it's like, now you can do something about it.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:03:57]:
Isn't that better than, like, just having having the doctor say we have no idea? Like I, for years, I would just say, I have no idea. It's like bad luck that you got cancer. Katie's new approach to healing integrates the whole person, from working on detoxification to healing

Scott Britton [00:04:05]:
suppressed emotions and trauma. Katie's new approach to healing from working on detoxification to healing suppressed emotions and trauma.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:04:13]:
I believe that our bodies are designed to heal And actually, that all of the illnesses that we're seeing as chronic illnesses like diabetes, obesity, neurodegenerative disease, cancer are all related to the lifestyle that we're living, and that healing actually requires a fundamental shift in our lifestyle. But what's interesting is I believe that consciousness is the foundation of all healing. And so my practice, I call it conscious oncology because the foundation of it is consciousness.

Scott Britton [00:04:56]:
Before we get into the conversation, I wanna ask for your help. The first thing potential guests do before deciding to come on the show is look at the number of reviews on places like Spotify and iTunes. If you have a moment, it'd be immensely helpful to leave a review for the show wherever you're listening to it to encourage guests to come on the show and share their wisdom here with you. In return, my promise to you is to continue to improve the show and raise the bar with high quality guests to help you on your own journey. Thank you. Now, let's get into it. Katie, it's wonderful to have you on the show.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:05:35]:
Thank you, Scott. It's my pleasure to be here.

Scott Britton [00:05:38]:
There's so many things that I'm interested in talking to you about. But I think really to kind of frame things up before we get into the evolution in your practice and how you see medicine and healing is what was your background as an oncologist coming into all this?

Dr. Katie Deming [00:05:57]:
Sure. So, my background is I'm a radiation oncologist by training. So I trained at Duke University in North Carolina and then practiced for 16 years as a radiation oncologist and also health care leader. So I was interested in in addition to my practice, I was interested in how do we deliver better health care that's more patient centered. And so I spent a lot of time designing and, leading end to end cancer services for a large health care organization that service the northwestern portion of the United States. And I'm also an inventor and had a an apparel line actually designed for women with sensitive skin. And so that was my background. I was really very heavily invested into western medicine and believed in the system, to be honest, from the whole spectrum from prevention and screening through treatment.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:06:55]:
So I had done that until 2020 as my career had been really pretty traditional.

Scott Britton [00:07:03]:
And what was the inflection point that started to shift that?

Dr. Katie Deming [00:07:07]:
Well, in 2020, I had just finished interviewing for a very high position. I was nominated for the medical director position for all of cancer care for one of the largest health care organizations in the US and had spent, like, 5 months interviewing for that position. And it came down to me and another woman, and, ultimately, it was awarded to the other woman. And I knew when that happened, I was like, I know this is happening for a reason. I actually didn't really want the job because I was kind of becoming disillusioned with Western medicine at that time, but couldn't articulate it quite well enough to say what it was that was the problem. But I had the sense when that happened that I was like, oh, this is happening for a reason. And then, literally, it was within a couple weeks. I had an experience that's called a shared death experience, and it's similar to a near death experience, although less common.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:08:02]:
And when it does happen, though, it most commonly happens to health care providers or emergency personnel who are at the scene when someone dies. And those people, even though they are not dying themselves, may experience a life changing experience similar to a near death experience. And so, that happened to me in the fall of 2020. And after that, I just knew. Like, I knew something was wrong, and I knew that I needed to leave Western medicine, and the way that we were healing was not the way that healing actually happened.

Scott Britton [00:08:40]:
Can you share a little bit about the specifics of the shared death experience?

Dr. Katie Deming [00:08:44]:
Sure. So, and mine is a little bit different because I wasn't at the scene. It wasn't like it happened at the scene. Oftentimes, these experiences are ER doctors or ER nurses or emergency personnel, like, at the scene where someone's physically dying. And mine was different in that the person was not physically with me. And the other interesting thing about it was that I didn't know the person, although I was entangled with her energetically. And so what happened was is that one night in the fall of 2020, I was meditating. And in my meditation, a woman's voice came in, and she started talking to me.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:09:27]:
And she said, I can't leave, but it's not because of me. It's because of them. And, instinctively, I just knew that she was dying. I've spent a lot of my career around death and dying and, have cared for over 5,000 patients in my career, and about half of my practice was palliative. And I really actually enjoyed being with people who are facing the end of their life. And so when she started talking to me, I just instinctively knew that she was dying, and so I started talking to her as if I had been physically with her. And so I said to her, you know, there's no rush. You'll know when it's time, and I'll stay with you.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:10:07]:
And so then I just sat with her in my meditation, and I was probably in that meditation for about 35 to 40 minutes. But at some point, I saw who it was that I was sitting with, and it was this woman who was connected to one of my colleagues. So one of my colleagues that I worked with had a young friend. So my friend was in her early or my colleague was in her early thirties, and her best friend from childhood, who was also in her early thirties, was dying of breast cancer, and this woman's name was Misty. And so Misty was dying of breast cancer, and I had been helping my colleague care for Misty. So Misty lived in Seattle. I live in Portland, Oregon, and my friend had been going back and forth to help take care of Misty. And so I would help her make sure that her wishes were honored, that she could stay home, that she was you know, her pain was well controlled, that she was able to be at home when she passed.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:11:15]:
So, really, just coaching my friend on how do you maneuver through this. And, like and when you're in your thirties, you don't know how to help someone through this, you know, end of life transition. And so I was helping my colleague with that and also coaching my colleague on how to grieve and how to deal with the loss of such a close friend at such a young age because it's not something that we expect. And so, anyway, I saw that this was Misty, and so I just still stayed with her. And then at some point in the meditation, I started to feel her body her soul pulling away from the body, rather. And so it was like this pulling, like, this upward sensation that I could feel that was pulling up. And then, all of a sudden, I heard these, like, pops, like, pop, pop, pop, pop, like strings popping. Like, somehow, there was something tethering her to her physical body with her soul.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:12:11]:
And as that was releasing, I heard these pops. And then as soon as the last pop happened, it was like the sky opened up, and all of a sudden, I was in something, like, the brightest light that I could describe and also felt just pure love. And at that moment, Misty gasped, and she was like, oh my gosh. It's so beautiful. I never had to worry. And there was so much peace. Like, I just felt so much peace from her and then she was gone like that. She was just gone and then I was just in this space and all I could feel was just this love that is ineffable, like, totally indescribable and the warmth and the love and the light, and I didn't know at all what was happening except for that it was overwhelming and that I was just soaking it all in.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:13:10]:
And I don't know how long I was there for because time doesn't exist outside the veil, and so, I don't know what how long I was actually there. But when I came back, I was confused because I was like, what just happened? I had no context for this. If you, you know, you have to understand that at the time, I was like, just a traditional, like, 3 d doctor. Like, I didn't have metaphysical experiences. I didn't even have a context for what that could have been. And so I thought I was, like, did I just make that up? Like, what just happened? And so I went up and I went to bed, and I didn't tell my husband at the time because I was nervous. I was like, he's gonna think I was, like, you know, making things up or maybe I'm going crazy, and I was like, I'm not doing drugs. I didn't know what had happened.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:13:57]:
I went to sleep, and the next morning when I woke up, I woke up to a text from my colleague. And it was, I can't remember if she sent a picture that morning. It was just a text that basically said, thank you so much for helping me with Misty. Misty transitioned last night, and I really appreciate all your support. And she had no idea that this had happened. Right? And I didn't know how to even say to her, like, oh, I know. I know she died last night. I was with her.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:14:29]:
And so I just I was like, I know, you know, this is a strange question, but can you tell me what time Misty passed last night? And the time that Misty passed was within minutes of the time that my meditation had finished. And I knew that that had happened for a reason, to give me confirmation that what had happened was real, that I really did have this metaphysical experience, and that I wouldn't just brush it off. But it took me time to integrate and understand what had happened to me, but, basically, you know, I had connected with her soul in some way to experience what is outside that veil. And that experience fundamentally changed me. Much like people who have near death experiences, they come back, and they're different. And so that happened to me, and I came back, and I was different. And, also, I had very clear knowings about certain things that I didn't, like, know something. I can't say, like, where I gained the knowledge.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:15:33]:
It was just like I know, like, something to be true. And one of the things that became very, very clear was that I wasn't doing what I was supposed to be doing in Western medicine and specifically within radiation oncology, and I needed to leave. That was a huge decision for me to make, but that was one of the things that came out of that experience.

Scott Britton [00:15:58]:
Wow. What a what an amazingly powerful story and directive about what you should be doing or what was wrong with the medical system because I've heard you talk about how that was also present for you.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:16:19]:
Yeah. So that was the hardest part was that I didn't get clear information about what the answer was. The only thing that I knew was what was not right and that whatever we were doing in western medicine was not true healing. And this is actually what created so much confusion and chaos in my life because in 2019, I had started to have this feeling like something wasn't right and but I couldn't put my finger on it. And I had talked to my husband about it and said, there's something telling me that maybe I'm not supposed to be practicing radiation oncology. And he's like, that makes zero sense because you didn't have your first job until you were 32. Like, I trained until I was 32. And now I had been practicing at this point.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:17:08]:
It was, like, 16 years, and I was good at my job. You know? I was successful. I was being nominated off for these big positions. I was basically had everything from the outside that you would think you would want. Right? I was at the height of my career. I made lots of money. I was good with my patients. I had respect of my colleagues, and I had a lifestyle that was awesome.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:17:33]:
You know? I worked 4 days a week, and so my husband was like, you know, I wonder if it's you. Like, I wonder if you're just not gonna be happy. Like, no matter what you have, it's like you're just restless and you want more and more, and maybe that's the problem. And I don't think, like, it sounds bad. And in the end, we did end up splitting because of all of this, but it wasn't coming from, like, a, you know, bad place. I think he was really trying to help me at the time, but he was suggesting that maybe I was never gonna be happy, that that there wasn't necessarily something wrong with the job that that what was wrong was with me. And so I sat with that for a while and, like, gosh, maybe it is me. Maybe I'm never gonna be happy.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:18:17]:
But then when this shared death experience happened, it just showed me, no. This is not me. Like, actually, the problem is I've been fighting this. I knew something was off, and it took this very dramatic experience for me to see the truth, which is I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. And the problem was is that there was not a clear path forward. It wasn't like it showed me like, oh, go do this fellowship and learn this, and then this is gonna be the way to teach people how to heal. And so I knew to say, okay. All I know is what's not right, and so I wanna take time and learn and study about what makes the body well because everything that I had been taught in western medicine was about pathophysiology, like what's wrong with the body and how do you give medications or, in my case, radiation to fix what's wrong in the body, but not as not anything about what makes a body healthy and vital and how do you restore health in the body.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:19:21]:
So that's what I did was I just started studying what makes us well.

Scott Britton [00:19:26]:
It's just such an important juncture that I think a lot of people listening face where they have this kind of mismatch between the intellect and an inner knowing where objectively, your circumstances were amazing. You went through the freaking many years of studying to become a doctor, right, and practice and reach a certain level of your career, and to walk away from that just is really, really hard for a lot of people to grasp, even when there's just kind of this inkling inside themselves that there's a misalignment. Was there something that gave you, like, a trust or courage to, like, pull the ripcord? What helped you actually trust that inner inner wisdom?

Dr. Katie Deming [00:20:11]:
Yeah. Well, I think that my time spent with people who are dying really helped inform that decision because I've heard the same thing over and over and over again from people who are facing the end of their life, which is I wish I had the courage to just be me and live my life and not do what everyone else told me to do. And so I knew that if I ignored this, that at the end of my life, I would be just like them. And I had seen so many of them that I wasn't willing to do that, and I have had an experience in 2019 where I had helped one of my patients use medical aid in dying, which is medical aid in dying is where someone who has a terminal illness can take a medication to end their life on their terms and not go through excessive suffering and pain. So I helped one of my patients, and this is legal in some states. So I live in a state that this is legal in in Oregon. And so in 2019, I had helped one of my patients with esophageal cancer die on her terms. And it was one of the most beautiful transitions I've ever experienced.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:21:30]:
And I remember, after I left her house, I had this very clear knowing that when I left, I was gonna be leaving alone, just like she left alone. Like, so it was her her daughter and myself who were with her when she passed, but it was very clear to me that wherever she went, she was going by herself. And so when I left her house, I had this just knowing, like, when I leave here, I'm leaving by myself, and I'm gonna be accountable to myself. So I can't let other people peer pressure me into living my life in a way that is counter to myself because, ultimately, they're not coming with me. And I was thinking about my husband specifically at the time that I was like, he's not coming with me. Like, when I leave, I can't point to him and say, gosh. I stayed in that, you know, job that made $500,000 a year because he wanted me to stay. It was like, no, I knew that that was just not gonna fly.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:22:29]:
And not that there's, like, some, you know, fire and brimstone and that I was gonna be, like, held accountable in some punishment way, but just that accountable to how I live my life. Was I true to who I came here to be? And so that experience in 2019 and then my experience of spending so much time around death gave me this clear knowing that if I ignored this, this would be my biggest regret. And I would say I'm a very courageous person. Like, people oftentimes it's funny. One of my best friends who's a g one oncologist, she's like, it surprised me that you say that you're afraid because you're, like, the most fearless person I know, but I'm not fearless. I'm just not afraid to do things scared. And so that's just something that I've always done in my life. I was kind of an adrenaline junkie.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:23:24]:
I was a springboard diver in college, and I loved pushing myself past my fear. I'm comfortable pushing past the fear, but for me, the biggest fear in this lifetime is to get to end my end of my life and look back and realize that I wasn't true to myself. That's my biggest fear. And so that informed my decision. And to be honest, it was hard because my husband and I ended up getting a divorce because he didn't understand. He, like, could not wrap his head around this. He's like, what are you talking about? You're just gonna, like, leave and have no plan, and, like, then what? And I was like, I don't know. All I know is that I can't continue to do that, and so it created total upheaval in my life.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:24:11]:
And I think that what you're describing for other people, this makes no sense in our you know, the world that we live in. But one of the things that I always say is that your intuition is likely not gonna make sense in the world that we've been conditioned to live in. And that's because what we've been conditioned into is not truly living. It's a structure of what the powers that be want us to live according to. And so if your intuition is telling you something and it doesn't make sense, like, logical sense, that's probably correct. Like, your intuition is likely not gonna make sense in the 3 d world because a lot of the things that we do in our current lifestyle is not really conducive to becoming the fullest version of ourselves.

Scott Britton [00:25:04]:
I completely agree, and I think, you know, intuition is largely misunderstood and not well defined in Western society. You know, if you take the scientific perspective, it's essentially, oh, it's pattern matching based on repeated exposure to many circumstances, like a like a doctor being able to diagnose something after he's seen it a 1000 times. But that's actually a very shallow form of intuition, and there's much greater depths of access to information that are non local, that are outside of the experience of space and time. And, you know, that's been a big part of my journey as well, and it's kinda like once you have access to that type of information, reason and logic, although they have a place, they're just one input and often quite limited.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:25:55]:
Yeah. Well, I what's interesting is since this event, reading David Hawkins' work has really helped me understand some of what happened. And in power versus force, he talks about near death experiences. And what happens to people who have near death experiences that they are bathed in these very high frequencies, and it, like, tunes their antenna to higher level information. And that is really I feel like what happened to me is that it's more like my antenna was tuned. I could sense when something felt aligned or true for me or or not. You know? And and so just following that. But what's interesting is it's really flipped on its head the way that I use my logical mind.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:26:44]:
So I am a scientist. I am a medical doctor. I have all of this information, and I also know how to research. And it used to be that I would just fill my head with all of the information that was in front of me. And since this event, I do research and inquiry much differently now. Now I I allow myself to be kinda drawn to something. And if something resonates with me, then I dive deep into it, And then I look at the literature. And then I make sense, does this fit with what I'm sensing inside me, which is the complete opposite of what we're taught.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:27:24]:
And I actually think that we're designed to operate much in the way that I've just naturally started doing it now, but we're conditioned in this idea that you're just supposed to learn everything that everyone else is putting in front of you.

Scott Britton [00:27:37]:
Which, by the way, a lot of that information is is a derivative of a limited understanding and misinformation. So you're kind of, like, building a house on a poor foundation. And even if you, like my experience of intuition is that, for me at least, it's, like, I'm connecting to a part of my being that sees the past, present, and future all at once. And so it knows what's best for me in any instance. If you were just to limit yourself of the intellect of just, like, trying to read and consume every piece of information, like, there's just an inherent limitation to that system. You will never be able to have total information.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:28:22]:
And

Scott Britton [00:28:22]:
so, in terms of, like, like, a big thing that I'm trying to promote in the world is, like, you know, we live in a society that is obsessed with expanding the intellect. Everyone is constantly listening to podcasts, filling their self with books and all this stuff, and that's fine. There's lots of utility to that, but, like, if there was a more emphasis on working on the consciousness so that these channels could open up so that your vibration would reach a level where you start to resonate with information that that is available at at a at a higher vibration. Like, man, like that, there's just so much more leverage that you get for that.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:29:02]:
Absolutely. Someone told me a statistic couple weeks ago that they said in the 1700, we consume more in information in a day that someone in the 1700 would consume in a whole year. You know, and and that's just even, like, a tiny drop in the bucket, but you're absolutely right is that we are inundated with information, but and some of it in misinformation and, you know, misdirecting us. But that's why I read so much less now. Like, I spend so much more time just tuning to information that's available to us, but I think that, you know, our lifestyle has really handicapped people from accessing that information. And I can see it now, and I'm, you know, undoing that for myself after that event happened, it tuned me, but then I realized, like, oh, I actually have to do some things because the modern lifestyle will actually draw me back into that trapped reality of lower vibration if I don't consciously, you know, take care of my body in a way that keeps that open.

Scott Britton [00:30:15]:
Totally. It's a really interesting experience to have to let go of old habits that just no longer resonate. Things like alcohol, things like stimulants, being around certain people, consuming certain types of information, like, you just feel it in your field that it is not sitting well. And, you know, those all represent choices of, kind of, which direction you want to invest in. Absolutely. So you had you kind of had this tuning experience. You realized, okay, healing isn't what we're told, and then you went on this exploration. And I'd be curious to know what you believe now about healing the physical body and how you're putting that into practice with the people that you work with.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:31:04]:
Sure. Well, I believe that our bodies are designed to heal, and, actually, that all of the illnesses that we're seeing as chronic illnesses, like diabetes, obesity, neurodegenerative disease, cancer are all related to the lifestyle that we're living, and that healing actually requires a fundamental shift in our lifestyle. But what's interesting is I believe that consciousness is the foundation of all healing. And so my practice, I call it conscious oncology because the foundation of it is consciousness. But I'm treat teaching, you know, techniques that involve the the 6 pillars that I teach are about water. So the water that you're drinking, but also the water that we are, because we are bodies of water with 99.9% of our molecules and our body being water. But water is one of them. Diet and supplements is another.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:32:07]:
Physical practices, like connecting with the sun, circadian biology, you know, grounding, connecting with the earth, emotional healing, power of mind, and spiritual healing. These are the pillars that I teach, but I don't believe that any one of those things is the cure to cancer. But if you teach people what their body is designed for in terms of the natural inputs that we are created to receive in terms of nourishment and then also the toxins that we're exposed to and how to detoxify your body. If you can help bring people into balance with getting the right nourishment and detoxifying the things that don't belong in our body, the body will heal on its own, and that comes from connection with our higher self. But you have to align these other pieces to get that right. So my my practice is hard to explain to people who aren't in the world that you're in. Like, for you, it probably makes sense, and for your I'm

Scott Britton [00:33:08]:
like, let's freaking go. Like, this is it. Like, it has to be both sides of the coin.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:33:14]:
Yeah. But it's hard for people to understand. But what I explain to people is that it's really like my, approach is treatment agnostic. So I I realized that there's a reason that I was, you know, it ended up being 20 years that I was in western medicine. There's a reason that I was in that system for 20 years, and I'm now outside and I really understand the whole spectrum. And so I take care of people. Some of them do conventional therapy because if that's they feel like that's the right choice for them, they're gonna do that. And then I all the way to the other end where people are, you know, doing absolutely no conventional treatment.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:33:54]:
But my approach is really treatment agnostic because what I'm doing is I'm helping get their body in right alignment so that they can heal at the highest level regardless of what they're doing with different treatments. And but, you know, the truth is that I do believe this, and I've seen it now in my practice that you got can actually heal without conventional therapy. And, you know, Anita Moorjani is a beautiful story. This is a woman I don't I'm not sure if you're familiar with her. Her book is called Dying to Be Me. And she's a woman who ended up dying of lymphoma, and she had a near death experience when she died and she came back. Basically, her whole body was full filled with these, tumors in her lymphatics, and then her kidneys had failed. And what she saw when she left her body was that she's not that body and that she had created the illness in her body with her fear and that she was divine.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:34:59]:
And she came back into her body, and she knew that if she came back in, she didn't need any treatment that, basically, her body would heal itself. And that's exactly what happened as she came back in, and within 2 weeks, she walked out of that hospital with no tumors, and now she spends her life speaking to other people. That's a radical example of someone who connected with higher levels of consciousness and their higher self. Sorry. My puppy is having a nightmare. No

Scott Britton [00:35:26]:
worries. We love puppies on the show.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:35:28]:
Yeah. So she saw that and she came back in and it healed her. And so what I tell people is that that can be reverse engineered. You don't have to have a near death experience to connect with your higher self that we can do this by understanding the way that our bodies work. And so that's my practice now.

Scott Britton [00:35:49]:
That's beautiful. And I think, a uniform thing, I I've read a lot about the mind body connection, and what resonates most with me is that it is both. Right? It is working at the physicalist level, making sure you're detoxified. And it's also all of the kind of addressing all the trauma and inner woundings and misalignments that can tend to express physically. And I think a really powerful concept that I'd love your perspective on is that the body is like a communication and, like, for me, this was a very big realization. I read this amazing book when I was really sick, which I think happened because of the freaking COVID vaccine, called the anatomy of the spirit. And True. It talked about how the body, when it is in disharmony or when you're out of alignment, it basically uses illness to get our attention Almost as like a communication mechanism that's like, hey, something is off.

Scott Britton [00:36:54]:
And it you know, if you miss the sign, it just gets bigger and bigger until it hits you over the head with some serious type of disease. And, that was just such a powerful reframe for how to look at illness as a message that was trying to be communicated to us versus some major inconvenience that we we had no agency over.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:37:17]:
Absolutely. Well and I think that this flips that idea that somehow your body has failed you because this is something that I see a lot with cancer is people think they can't trust their body because their body has allowed cancer to grow. But when you take the approach that you just described, which I absolutely believe is true, that, basically, our higher selves is communicating with us in whatever ways that it can and if we're not paying attention. And, actually, my shared death experience was kinda like my frying pan hit over the head, Whereas, like, in 2019, I had that message. Right? But I wasn't listening. Like, you're misaligned. Like, you're not doing the work you're supposed to do. But it was just, like, you know, subtle.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:38:02]:
And then it was like I just got hit over the head. And I think illness is the same thing. It's the way that we can get our own attention to realize, like, something is not aligned here. Something's out of alignment. Something needs your attention. You need to slow down. You need to look inside. And that is the opportunity with illness.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:38:25]:
So in Chinese, the word crisis is made by 2 symbols. The first is danger, and the second is opportunity. Mhmm. And cancer or illness is absolutely a crisis, and in every crisis, there is opportunity. And this is our body's way of showing us we have to pay attention. There's something here that needs a deeper look. You you're out of alignment. And when you see it that way, you can have such a different viewpoint on it.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:38:58]:
It's not like you're fighting something. You're, like, not at odds with your body or the cancer or whatever. It's like your body is speaking to you, so let's get quiet and listen. And, you know, by clearing out your body with some of these physical practices and the way that you eat and and all of that can help you get clearer so that you can hear the message and you can figure out, okay, what is this all about? And I do believe that illness and cancer is a way there's something that's being communicated to you, and you're gonna miss it if you just blow past it and go have your treatment and and, you know, think that there's nothing more to it. I really believe that there is something for all of us in every crisis.

Scott Britton [00:39:42]:
I think that's such an empowering mindset. And, yeah, the, you know, the interesting thing about the Western model is that it does seem to be more oriented towards these kind of temporary Band Aids that, like, blast something away for a while. But because it's not working at the core, at the consciousness level often, you know, that thing just returns in a new form. I've been a big big fan of David Hawkins as well, and maybe even talks about this. But, yeah, there it's like, okay. If you have something with your throat and you kinda just use medicine, make it go away, it's, like, alright. Well, then maybe something with your stomach is gonna be messed up next time. Like, it just kinda keeps coming back, and this happens in my kind of a funny example of this that I think is a fascinating thing to explore just in the broader reality of what is reality is, like, it's, like, you see this in relationships too.

Scott Britton [00:40:37]:
You see this in everything, right, where it's, like, if you don't address the core wound or the core thing, it just is gonna return. You know, you're just you're just gonna be in another relationship that looks like that or another job that looks like that or another manifestation with your body that looks like that, and it's why working at the fundamental consciousness level is so it's where it's at, in my opinion. Heather:

Dr. Katie Deming [00:41:01]:
Yeah, but one of the things that I think keeps people from discovering that is that we've been conditioned to take pills or do something that's quick to fix, like, to fix the problem. And so illness seems, like you said, like an inconvenience or something rather than this opening or invitation to doing something deeper. And and I think that this is actually I've had 2 clients do this to me, and so I know that there's something here is that when I explained to them, you know, that there's really something deeper here, both of them just started crying. They're like, it would just be so much easier if you just told me I needed to take this pill or whatever. And I think that that can be scary for people too. Like, oh, and this is actually really something with cancer, and I I had to learn this a little bit the hard way when I first started talking about emotions and illness and people getting really triggered. Like, I have cancer, and now you're telling me it's my fault. And I was like, no.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:42:09]:
I'm not telling you it's your fault, but it's you're responsible. Yeah. Like, now that you're seeing this, like, it's not I'm not saying that it's your fault. We're we're living in a traumatic world, and all of us are experience trauma. You know? And so it's not surprising that if trauma is correlated with illness, that there's things there to be healed. But this idea that people get that they're, like, oh, well, now you're saying it's my fault and it's, like, no no no, that's not it. It's actually much more empowering than that. Like, it may not be your fault that it happened or maybe it's your fault that it happened, but you didn't do it intentionally.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:42:46]:
I don't believe anyone does this to themselves intentionally. But now that you know that it may be related to emotions or trauma, it's like, now you can do something about it. Isn't that better than, like, just having the doctor say we have no idea? Like, I for years, I would just say, I have no idea. It's like bad luck that you got cancer. It's like, that's not that's scary in my perspective. I'd rather know, okay, there are things that you can do to heal.

Scott Britton [00:43:14]:
I completely agree. That's such an empowering mindset. And, yeah, I just have to imagine you have you have to have a ton of grace in communicating these concepts with people that are that are new to many of them.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:43:27]:
Yeah. Well, that's what I always say. Like, I love actually being around people who are facing life threatening illness because life is real. Like, there's no BS. Like, all that stuff falls away. So I love being in that space, but it's hard. And it's like you have to have a lot of compassion. And sometimes I need to help teach them how to have compassion for themselves, you know, and so it's a real different kind of dance practicing in this way because you can push people over the edge and then they're like, you know, they don't wanna hear it.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:44:01]:
But it's like, how can you help people look at their lives and see the things that may be making them sick without having them totally turned off and just, like, shut down from it. So it's been a learning experience for me for sure.

Scott Britton [00:44:17]:
When a patient comes to you and the inner exploration to healing, like, what are some of the things that you recommend?

Dr. Katie Deming [00:44:24]:
Well, it's different for everyone just because illness manifests in our body from different problems. Right? And it's usually not just one thing. But from an emotional standpoint, teaching people a couple of things around emotions. 1 is how to process and experience emotions without suppressing or getting overly emotional where they're afraid to experience their emotions. Most of us are not taught how to be with our emotions and allow them to run through us. But emotions are just like a wave. They come up and we're emotional beings, so we're designed to experience emotions. But if you allow them, they'll kinda come up like a wave, and then they'll peak, and then they'll neutralize.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:45:12]:
But most of us shove them down because we believe that they're being conditioned, like, that, you know, feeling emotions is not manly or whatever it is for boy or, you know, don't get overly emotional, that kind of thing. And and so we're not taught to experience that. So that's one thing that I actually work a lot with my clients on. It's like, how do we learn to experience our emotions? And one of the techniques that I love is PSYCH. It's PSYCH, like psychology, and then the letter k. And Bruce Lipton talks about this technique a lot, but it's a way of connecting the corpus callosum, which is the connection between the two hemispheres, the brain, and by doing specific positioning. So the name psych k comes from psychological kinesis. And kinesis just means, you know, muscle positioning.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:46:03]:
And so, basically, by putting your body in a specific position that can activate the corpus callosum, when you bring both sides of the brain online when you're experiencing emotions, you have much more control over that arc of the wave, and you can actually let it ride. And you can see that if you just stay with it, it'll come back down to neutral. And that is very powerful. That is the first thing that I teach someone who has a cancer diagnosis is how to be with your emotions because you can imagine, you know, we have studies that show us that emotional trauma leads to illness like cancer and cardiovascular disease, but that cancer in and of itself is a traumatic experience. So now they're being traumatized by the fear that's coming up around their diagnosis. So one of the first things that I wanna teach them is how to be with their emotions. And psych k is one of the techniques that I use. And then also releasing past emotional trauma.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:47:02]:
And psych k is also one of the techniques that I use for that, and that is just basically releasing those emotional traumas that they've been carrying around that have been trapped in the subconscious. So psych k is one option for that. Emotion code is another, type or modality that you can do that. I also send people for biofield tuning because biofield tuning is a way to get at those things that are trapped in our field. But maybe for someone who's less in touch with the emotions of it, biofield tuning can be a way to release that as well, kind of unblock those areas.

Scott Britton [00:47:40]:
What is biofield tuning?

Dr. Katie Deming [00:47:42]:
Yeah. So this was created by Eileen McKusick, and she basically was using tuning forks in sound healing. And what she started to notice was that there is you know, within the Taurus field, there was, like, a map that she would find certain, you know, emotions would be found in certain areas, and then the basically, there were rings, like, almost like rings in a tree in the biofield that she could date specific trauma to certain ages. And, basically, what they do, she now you know, this is, like, their thousands of biofield tuners now. But, basically, she mapped this whole biofield, and these practitioners, what they do is they use tuning forks, and they can feel where the energy is stuck. And then they'll ask the person, oh, what happened at age 3 or whatever? And then they basically can pull the energy into the center. The center of the Taurus field is like the open space, and it actually can release through there. And I've had a few clients who didn't wanna do traditional, like, either emotion code or site k or some of the EMDR, some of these other techniques, but the biofield tuning was something that was easy for them and very effective.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:48:59]:
So it's just another way to kinda lighten those things that have come become trapped in our subconscious.

Scott Britton [00:49:06]:
Nice. I would say emotion code too is also very, I've done it, and it's very light. It's like you're not feeling a ton of things in the actual experience, which is really powerful.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:49:18]:
Yeah. So, all of these techniques that I use are like that. Like, it is and, actually, this is one of the things that when someone is sick, their body is already compromised, and they're already doing so much work just to stay, like, the body is trying to heal itself. And so the techniques for emotional work need to be light because, basically, if you push someone over the edge, if you go into, like, deep therapy, you know, talk therapy or whatever that is retraumatizing, their system just can't handle that. And so I love emotion code because it's just easy. You know, it's a easy technique to release from the subconscious.

Scott Britton [00:50:04]:
You know, you're out here being a pioneer, bringing these 2 different parts of, I guess, inputs to well-being between the physical perspective and and lifestyle and then all of this kind of consciousness work. What do you think, like, is gonna be the inflection point for our system to start to actually make this connection in a more meaningful way?

Dr. Katie Deming [00:50:31]:
Well, I think that the system works exactly as it was designed, and the system does not want this shift to happen. And so I don't think that it will happen voluntarily. I think that what will happen is that we will have some kind of crumbling of the system and then these other ways of healing are gonna come up outside. I don't think that it'll be centralized. I think it'll be decentralized and that people will demand more holistic approaches. But I, you know, I'm curious to see what happens, and I have such a deep understanding from running large cancer systems within the health care system that I I have no idea what's gonna break the system, but I do see that happening. And I I see that, you know, people are waking up and people are, you know, voting or I don't wanna say voting, but, like, you know, exercising their, desires with their money. Right? And I think that's what's gonna happen is you're just gonna have people moving away from that kind of model.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:51:35]:
But I I'll be curious to see how it happens, and I think it's gonna be quite painful.

Scott Britton [00:51:40]:
You and me both. I mean, it's wild. Like, I do feel like, yeah, there's a much deeper acceptance and openness to the idea that what we're being told is not actually true. I think COVID really kinda opened that up for people. Once you start to get on the awareness path, I mean, it just becomes more and more obvious.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:52:03]:
Yeah.

Scott Britton [00:52:03]:
You just start to see it everywhere, and it and it can be really freaking painful.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:52:07]:
Oh, yeah.

Scott Britton [00:52:08]:
As you can imagine, literally committing 20 years of your life to something that you no longer fully believe in, like, it's really tough to go through that.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:52:20]:
Yeah. Well and for me, I mean, I know what it takes to walk away from the system. Like, as a doctor who still had student loans, you know, and then my partner not supporting me, having to basically sell everything and start over, most of my colleagues don't have the stomach for that. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, it's a big deal. And so and I think this is you know, you brought up COVID, and I think that's an a perfect example of the crisis with the danger and then the opportunity, and and it may be that it takes, you know, another bigger crisis for the opportunity of a new way of healing to emerge. But, you know, this is what we did we did for millennium, was heal this way, and it's only been the past couple 100 years where we've been indoctrinated into a system that is so different from true healing. You know? And I think that it's that that system will fall and and these other pieces will reemerge, but they've always been there.

Scott Britton [00:53:25]:
Has there been any kind of ancient healing information that has been particularly insightful or or resonated with you?

Dr. Katie Deming [00:53:37]:
Well, I mean, I think that what's interesting is the more I learn, the more I see that we've known these things forever like you know talk about healing hands the laying on of hands well people think that's voodoo, but it actually if you look at the work of Gerald Pollock in the 4th phase of water, that the water that we hold in our body, when we're receiving the right inputs, is structured as in the 4th phase of water, exclusion zone water. And the way that you can increase that, structuring of your water is through infrared. And our hands are a source of infrared. There's heat coming off the hands. And so, what's been most interesting for me is that now I can put the science. Like, I'm like, oh, there's science actually to explain these ways of healing that we've always done, and we would just pooh pooh. Like, oh, that's just, you know, whatever voodoo or, you know, not real, but, actually, what I think is interesting is seeing the science. So one of those things is, like, laying on of hands.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:54:48]:
But then, you know, a lot of these things are just the way that we lived before was healing in and of itself. Right? Laying on the earth. The earth is like nothing but free electrons, which basically neutralize free radicals and inflammation in the body. And so for me, it's, like, really simple. When you start to see the beauty and the design of the way that we were designed, We're a technology. You know, human beings are a technology, and that technology is designed to run with specific inputs. And the closer we get back to the life that we lived a long time ago, the closer we get to, you know, healing and health in the body. And I don't mean to say that we can't use technology.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:55:34]:
Like, of course, we should use the technology that we have, but use it in a very intentional way so that we're making sure that our bodies are getting the things that it needs. And if you do that, it's just beautiful what happens with the body. It will balance itself.

Scott Britton [00:55:49]:
Yeah. And and I think you bring up such a good point that, like, our body is a technology. Basking in the frequencies of nature is a technology. In fact, it's a much more advanced technology than the iPhone, but we have kind of lost sight of that and kinda become modern technology instead of being our servants. You know, we're often serving it. And so, yeah, I'm just excited that, you know, people like you who are credentialed, right, who have done the whole thing, you've done the whole science thing, doctor thing, or wards running hospitals. All these things are kinda coming out boldly saying this because it's certainly not the predominant narrative, but it is it does seem to be an emerging one that's getting louder and louder.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:56:36]:
Yeah. More people are waking up for sure. And I love seeing people who are deep in the system starting to wake up because it's helpful to have people who really understand the mechanism and the underpinnings of the incentives of what makes the systems work. To have those people coming out and explaining, I think, is really powerful. So and like yourself, you know, coming out of your background, it's like we can all use our deep understanding of the systems that we were trained into to help others understand the limitations of those systems and also create a bridge out. And I do believe we're in a time out of an awakening, and more and more people are waking up. And so I love the message that you share with people to help them. You know kinda through that like you know as they're waking up.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:57:29]:
How are you seeking information and and seeking guidance?

Scott Britton [00:57:33]:
One powerful idea that maybe we can close on is I've heard you talk about how there was a moment where you started to have this revelation and were were kinda like, what the heck? Like, why did I have to go be a doctor? Why did I spend all this time studying these things that isn't actually a full representation of a deeper truth? And then the revelation that that was actually an intentional positioning. So, I'd love to hear more about your perspective on that.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:58:04]:
Yeah. I mean, there were moments where I was like, shoot. Why wasn't I just born into a family where they believed in, like, natural healing, and I, you know, just did that? But then I realized, like, there is true power in my credentials and in my traditional training and also experience functioning at a very high level within the system. And I think that it makes my voice now more powerful than if I had started in the natural space and just kinda come up in that way. And then, also, this is why I share my stories because I know there are other people out there waking up, and I think it's helpful to hear stories of people who had a lot to lose to step away. And so for me, in sharing my story, I like being honest about, like, you may not know what you're supposed to do, but just knowing what you're not supposed to be doing anymore is enough. And I think that following those little internal signals of, like, something's not right here, whether it's in your relationship, whether it's in your work, your higher self is talking to you all the time and also with illness. And it's like, okay.

Dr. Katie Deming [00:59:23]:
That it's scary, and it's not supposed to make sense necessarily. And I'm not saying, like, throw caution in the wind and do crazy things, but listening to that inner voice, I can promise you, from spending so much time around people who are dying, that at the end of your life, you will never regret listening to that inner voice and being true to yourself.

Scott Britton [00:59:46]:
That's deep wisdom there. And there's one of the things I love I know we talked briefly about David Hawkins and kind of his map of consciousness, but it really does help contextualize your experience in a way that may be hard to understand by having that kind of like, oh, well, this is what this experience looks like and feels like and at this level of awareness or consciousness. And I think it's such a beautiful revelation when you kinda look back at all the things you went through and realize that it was very intentional that you had to go through that and for the purpose of serving, for the purpose of contribution. And I think you're just an amazing example of that with you know, now you're able to kinda go out and share this information in a in a way that people will listen to that they probably wouldn't if you were, like, a sound healer, you know, from the get go. So it's so beautiful. And, yeah, I just wish that for everybody listening, you know, that the reverence for all that we go through for a higher purpose, I think it's, it's just so real and so beautiful.

Dr. Katie Deming [01:00:58]:
Thank you.

Scott Britton [01:01:00]:
Well, Katie, if people wanna learn more about what you're up to and where they can follow your work and maybe even work with you, what's the best place for them to do that?

Dr. Katie Deming [01:01:11]:
Sure. So my website is katiedemming.com. That's katiedeming.com. And I also have a podcast called Born to Heal. And on my podcast, I share my story of leaving Western medicine and then, also, I invite guests on to teach me and also my listeners the things that I was not taught in medical school that I believe that we should have been taught. And so I bring on all of these different practitioners, Eileen McKusick talking about biofield tuning and site case. So, we talk about all of the things. I just bring on the experts that I wanna learn from myself and, you can come along and listen with me.

Scott Britton [01:02:00]:
Amazing. We'll link all that out so it's easy for people to find in the show notes. And, Katie, thanks again. It was just such a wonderful joy to spend this time with you.

Dr. Katie Deming [01:02:09]:
Thank you, Scott. It's my pleasure to be here.

Scott Britton [01:02:20]:
Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Evolution FM. I'm truly grateful that you decided to spend this time with me and our wonderful guests. I put a lot of time and effort into making these conversations as insightful and helpful as I possibly can for everyone who listens to the show. If you feel called to it, it'd mean a lot to me if you could take a few moments to leave a review on whatever platform you're listening to the show right now. I feel a deep call on my heart to share these ideas with the world and reviews help other people discover these conversations. Thanks again for your support and I wish you nothing but love and positivity as you move through your day.