Episode 2: The Body Reader - Taichi Iwano
How to stop outsourcing your healing and practice self honesty - a profound interview on intuition, pain and what the body knows that the mind doesn't.If you’re a client or friend of mine, I’ve probably recommended you see Taichi at some point or another when you were suffering from some unexplained symptoms (physically or emotionally).Taichi Iwano is trained as an acupuncturist (among many other things) but his technique of reading the body - speaking to specific organs and chakras - blurs the boundaries between medicine and channeling.While he used to only do in person sessions in Toronto - which meant sending friends and family on a train for a day trip - in lockdown years, he discovered he could work with the same precision remotely, even just with the voice (this was my experience with Tarot).This made clear that not only does Taichi bypass the thinking mind when he makes his highly accurate observations about the body (including exact dates of influential events), but that the body is actually a conduit to something much vaster - “the earth as a storage USB,” as he puts it.Find out more from this remarkable healer and man on the first interview and second episode of my podcast.TRANSCRIPTNatalie (0:00)Welcome to episode two of the Soul Detective podcast. When I started this, I had intended it to be long-form solo episodes. And much to my surprise, as soon as I released the first one, I immediately thought of who I wanted to have as my first guest, and was actually very surprised I hadn’t thought of this sooner. Taichi Iwano is something of a rock-star figure to me in the world of intuition.Now, he doesn’t call himself an intuitive. He’s very discreet and private. He doesn’t advertise his work, and he doesn’t need to, because his abilities are so exceptional that word of mouth keeps him very, very busy. He’s actually asked me not to include his profile picture or contact information with the public so that he’s not dealing with a lot more client inquiries from all the people I refer to him — and that all of his other clients refer to him as well.And he’s so generous with his time and energy, but is in a phase of his life where he’s looking to slow down. And everyone has that right. But I just so admire, in this day and age, seeing someone with this kind of success as a healer or a guide who is so much in their gifts that they have never needed to rely on any kind of marketing. I think that is such a sign of being on your Career Camino. It’s a term I use in my work to describe someone really being on their professional and vocational path.At the tail end of when I was living in Montreal, I was in a stage where I was really deeply debating what my career path was meant to look like. I had been out of the acting game for a long time. I’d been in the art world. And when I was in the professional contemporary gallery system, it didn’t feel right. And my friend Matt and I were co-producing a vlog for a gallery called Article — that was the name of the vlog — an interview series with different contemporary artists that were exhibiting at Arsenal Contemporain in Montreal and different galleries and museums across Canada and some in the US. And it recalled to me how I did love the world of production.And I contemplated a return into the entertainment industry. I actually left the art world, declared it publicly, and started to look at what compelled me most in that arena. And I didn’t feel very lit up by the acting dreams I had when I was younger, when I’d had success in film and TV. But I was definitely into comedy — specifically a lot of female comedians.I started working on a pilot, and I pitched a sitcom around, and I actually got it optioned, which was very exciting, but things kind of dwindled and the option expired. And I found myself in 2020 in Costa Rica, in Nosara where I live now. And I was like, “Okay, I’m going to launch this by myself. I’m going to do a crowdfunding campaign and make this pilot on my own and not wait for anybody.”And the day that I was going to launch that crowdfunding campaign was the day the world shut down with the pandemic. People were notified that they weren’t going to be working anymore. This was before they were announcing the subsidies they were going to be giving people. And so everyone got really panicked about money, and I was like, “This could actually be the worst possible time to ask people to donate money.” So the timing didn’t feel aligned, to put it mildly.And after so many years of auditioning and feeling deflated — getting really, really close, getting on the final lists, and it falling through for sometimes very banal reasons like height or coloring — I was really debating if I wanted to be in that world again the way I had so enjoyed when I was younger. And at the time I had been giving tarot readings to friends and family members because I was in such a deep-dive soul-searching phase that I acquired a lot of spiritual tools to try to understand my place in the world better. And at the time, I had people suggest that I start to charge for readings, and that’s how Tour De Soul was born — the previous incarnation of my business before it became Soul Detective, which is the current form.So I found myself back in Montreal and the world was still in lockdown. And I started to compare what an eventuality would look like in the best-case scenario in both career paths. So I imagined myself as an Emmy-award-winning showrunner. And actually, specifically, I was imagining the Oscars, because when you’re an actor or a creator in that industry, that’s considered the end-game of achievement.And then I tried to compare: Okay, what would an equivalent look like in this other, new industry that I’m in — the one of intuitive guidance? And I saw Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday and I imagined myself being interviewed by her and sharing the ideas in my book and wanting to help people.And it immediately became clear to me how much more exciting it felt to have a platform from which to share my thoughts and beliefs and the principles that have worked for me with other people, rather than the idea of being on a red carpet and being asked what designer I was wearing and gaining the statue. Now, I’m not saying that for actors their be-all and end-all is winning an Oscar. But it was pretty telling to me at the time that I didn’t even watch the Oscars, let alone dream of attending them. And in that moment, it became clear to me that I needed to shift my energy onto this other path.Now, I still love female comedians. I’m not saying that there’s nothing in that world for me to learn from and create from in the future. But I always remembered that idea: If you’re feeling indecisive, compare your two visions of success in both scenarios. And whichever vision of success speaks to you the strongest is very revealing of what you authentically desire and are motivated by.So I’m saying that because for me to interview Taichi and hear what he has to say would be what, for an actor, it would be like to interview Matthew McConaughey, for example. He is a celebrity for me. And as you can hear in this podcast, he’s very humble and doesn’t invest a lot of stock in thinking that he has an exceptional ability. But I can tell you, after referring countless people to him, that he has honed what might be a natural ability to all of us into an exceptional form.And I try to get specific how-to answers from him on how to be able to replicate what he does, but he won’t give us that convenient answer. And when I’ve thought about this interview since we recorded it, I recall, in myself, some of what he describes from when I was younger.When I was a kid and acting, I had a really strong inner world. And so when I would project myself into a scene, into a character, I was working very hard in my mind, in my imagination, in whatever in us generates energy or moves and directs energy. It felt very magical. It felt very intentional, and there was a lot of power there.And I think when that ability started to peter out, it was as I hit adolescence and I became more self-conscious, which happens to a lot of people in puberty and in the desire for belonging in high school. And so, given that I was self-conscious, my attention was directed more to how I came across externally rather than the depth and richness of my inner world, and my acting ability just plummeted. I remember at the time my agent asked me, “What happened to you, Natalie? Where did it go?” And I didn’t know how to answer him.And I think that as I was investigating spirituality in those years — the years prior and the years creating my business — I was spending a lot of time with this idea of spirit guides and our divine guidance team, meditation, channeling, self-healing. And as I was working in those frameworks, I was starting to redevelop that inner world.So I think that the clues that Taichi gives us in this interview are that we can develop our sensitivity. And it does take work, but we all have access to it. And I can confirm this as a teacher of my group readings workshops — I’ve done probably hundreds of them at this point. I was doing several a week here in Nosara the first few years. And I would get people to channel for one another. I would connect them with their teams, and they were incredible — almost miraculous — at being able to identify really specific factoids or pick up on really subtle things going on for the person, or even some predictions, even though it was their first time even exploring intuitive work. And I got some messages from strangers that were as accurate as anything I’ve ever heard from a professional medium.So I do agree with Taichi that we are all intuitive. That doesn’t mean that it’s just given to us for free if we want to rely on it more heavily, if we want to work with it. And so just keep that in mind as you’re looking for something really tangible to grasp onto as you listen to him. If you’re wondering when he’s going to give you that quick hack — we’re all looking for a shortcut these days with our short attention spans, being overstimulated, and our obsession with biohacking and optimizing.Can we reframe that rush to get to the finish line, and instead shift our attention to the incredible, innate power within us?So with that in mind, I leave you now to the interview, and I hope you will enjoy listening to him as much as I did. And I hope that these ideas will stay with you and percolate as they have for me since we recorded it — in such a powerful way — in shifting my perspective of health, healing, and spirituality.This is such a magical person who has such concrete abilities. And I could give you dozens and dozens and dozens of examples of clients and friends and family members that I have sent to him. And he told them such specific things without knowing anything about what he was speaking about from the person. He would give very specific dates or years or ages that important, formative, influential events in people’s lives happened — events that really affected them and stayed with their bodies or left an impact on their psyche. And he would also give very targeted feedback around things that were dietary, lifestyle, emotional — other physical ailments — that had such precise evidence that could never be transposed onto another person and have the same accuracy.And powerfully — and tragically — he saw my father a few weeks before my father’s passing. I had suggested my dad go see him because my dad was confused about some of the symptoms he was having, and he didn’t even know what specialist to see. I said, “Maybe if you see Taichi, he can help you hone it down.” And ultimately, Taichi didn’t diagnose exactly what was going on internally in terms of his heart or his circulation. But what he told my dad was: You need to slow down. You’re like a smoking car, and if you keep your foot on the accelerator, there’s going to be fire.And this was not based on something my dad was saying, because he was quite energetic. He dealt with periods of fatigue, but everything he was occupying himself with was healthy — daily exercise, walks on the beach, swimming, friends, a little bit of work with clients or teaching things. And those were things that made my dad very happy. And so he was very quick to defend them and to want to keep those activities in his life because they made him feel good.But as Taichi says, it’s not what we believe or think to be true that he cares about — a.k.a. “exercise is healthy.” He is listening to the body. And my father’s body was asking him to slow way down. And in the end, while my dad was resistant to that at the time, after the session he felt this incredible relief that he was going to surrender to being a retired older man — because he never wanted to be an old man and he never acted like one. And in the end, only a few weeks later, he passed really suddenly.And of course it was difficult to think of his interview with Taichi in hindsight. But I give you that anecdote — and I know it’s a difficult one to hear — just to keep in mind that I think one of the most important takeaways we can have from what he shares in this recording is: we have a lot of deconditioning to do around what we think we should do and what the wellness industry tells us we should do. We have so many “shoulds,” and whether it’s in health or any area of our lives, shoulds can really interfere with intuition — with true listening.So, may Taichi inspire us to listen better. To develop our inner muscles of discernment. And to be truly honest with ourselves.Now, I’ll let you hear from the man himself.Natalie (16:27)So first of all, I just want to thank you so, so much for taking your precious time to do this with me because I know you don’t accept these invitations very often for people to learn a little bit more about you and how you work and your history. And I think you mentioned a couple of people had asked you, and we can talk about that later. For the people who don’t know you, I know you as Taichi Iwano. This is almost as much as I know about your personal life other than the fact that you’re from Japan. But how many people do you think that I’ve referred to you by now over the years?Taichi (17:04)I don’t count. I don’t count. But people send me their people, their friends, their family, and you are the one with them. You’re sending me many people, but I didn’t count.Natalie (17:18)I think over the years I’ve probably sent you, I don’t know, 50 people or something like that because I’m a huge fan of your work. And I have grown up in the world of natural health or alternative healing approaches my entire life from both of my parents being practitioners and being in that world. And I think that you are the most accurate and detailed of these practitioners that I’ve met. I don’t even really know how to describe what you do. And hopefully by the end of today, I’ll be able to do that a little bit better. But I’m always just so impressed at how the advice or observations that you make with an individual patient are so specific to them. Because when I’ve spoken to my friends and family after meeting with you, they always tell me things that if you had told me that, I would say, “No, he’s off. He doesn’t get it.” But it’s so dead on for them. And what you say is always so spot on for me. So that’s my little introduction.And I would love to know just a little bit of a history of Taichi as a person. Where did you grow up? What childhood was like for you in those younger years? And maybe what brought you to Canada?Taichi (18:39)Basically, I studied—no one asked me about my education—but I studied social work in the university. But after, I didn’t work as a social worker. I worked as a stockbroker for two years. After that, I questioned about my job or future. Then I decided to go back to school. Then I studied my field of acupuncture, and that’s my history in terms of education.And I wanted to help people who were going to die. So I studied hospice. So I came to Canada because my country in Japan was quite behind in hospice. We don’t have a strong religion, one reason too. Europe and the United States or Canada have more of an advantage in hospice. So I came to Canada and I tried to apply for a position to help people dying, but no one took me. But an association took me.So I worked there, but it was volunteer work. I was working in a clinic and I did volunteer work at the AIDS Society Clinic. So I gave my treatment to my clients. They belonged to the association—the AIDS Association. AIDS: people living with AIDS.Natalie (20:16)AIDS?Taichi (20:21)Yes, AIDS. That’s my experience. So you’re going to edit that, OK? You said you were going to send me the list of questions you were going to ask but didn’t send it.Natalie (20:35)I know, I didn’t send them. Well, maybe it’s better because the answers will be…Taichi (20:37)Yeah, that’s true.Natalie (20:39)So you said that the hospice care system was not very good in Japan and not very advanced. And so you came to Canada looking for a position in that, and instead you found some positions in AIDS associations.Taichi (20:52)That’s right. I did volunteer work to give treatment to clients for one year, maybe more than one year. But I recognized there are people who accept dying. They are fine. Even one of my clients offered: “Taichi, your English is not too good, so I can teach you.” That’s one of them—he offered me to teach me English. So after two weeks he passed away.He wanted to help me with my English because he found that my English wasn’t good. But no one else asked me. Other people—“I can help you”—no one. But he offered, wanted to help me with my English for “your future”—that’s what he said. But two weeks after he offered, he passed away.So I questioned: what’s hospice? I wanted to help. I studied to support people who were dying. But I recognized they are fine in many ways. We are not OK. We have a job. We have a kind of a house. We’re OK. We don’t have to worry about food tomorrow. But we are not happy. We need help.So I went back to normal, like creating work to help people. That’s my history that way.And also COVID was… it’s interesting. I’m almost 60 and COVID was: everything stopped. That’s not what they wanted—they didn’t want it. But it’s interesting that people complained about their life before COVID, during COVID, and even after COVID, they still complain. Why are we like that? We have everything, I think—looks like we have everything, many things—but we are not happy because we don’t feel happy. Yeah.So I try my best to support people. And one thing is, I had a challenging family. My life wasn’t easy. University four years, three years of college, I had a full-time job. So since I left my parents’ house after high school—since age of 18—until today I have had a full-time job. That’s why: I go to school, I had a full-time school and a full-time job. So it wasn’t easy. I was on the edge. My life is always on the edge. I never felt secure enough. But I was happy though. I was OK.Yeah, and I came to Canada when I was age 27 and I had only $1,000. That’s what I had: $1,000 with me and a one-year work permit. That’s how I started my life in Canada. But for me, no risk. That sounds like a high risk, but for me, no. I just wanted to.So after 30—since 27—it’s almost… 32 years now, 33 now, I’m in Canada, right? People are… anyway (chuckle).And also I read some article: human beings make 20% of their thinking positive, 80% of their thinking negative. Yeah. So let’s say, “Oh, looks like today we are going to have rain”—then we worry about this. 80% of our thinking is going to be negative. It’s true. It’s true. I’ve worried many things and they never happened. But I worried. Yeah.Natalie (24:53)What were some of the things that you were worrying about?Taichi (24:56)I worry about… So only a few people ask me: “What’s your goal?” My goal is: no one needs me, no one asks me, no one remembers me. They can do their way. They can find solutions by themselves. They can find… doesn’t matter where they are from, what way they are living, what kind of job they have, how much money they make—doesn’t matter. If they feel happy, they are winners. But they have a full-time job, they have a cottage, they are on vacation twice a year or three times a year, but they’re not happy.So my goal is that people can be happy. That’s my goal.Natalie (25:35)Do you feel like you’ve been able to accomplish that for yourself?What helps you to shift your thinking from the worrying and the 80% negativity to being happy in your circumstances?Taichi (25:47)Probably one reason is: human beings… Probably we have a weapon, we are living in a house—but in the Stone Age, we couldn’t survive. If outside is minus 20 degrees, we are going to be difficult to survive. So probably we have to worry. Risk management—also thinking worst case to survive.But if I go to the jungle, without weapon, without a house or without something, we are very weak. I’m weak. But a lion, zebra, elephant, snake—they are stronger in nature. So probably we worry about many things; then we can survive. “Everything is OK if I’m positive,” but probably I can survive. Still, we worry. Doesn’t matter that we have a house. Yeah, we don’t have to worry about food, but still we worry everything.Natalie (26:46)What do you do to remind yourself to get out of that survival mode?Taichi (26:53)First, I don’t worry about anything. When I started hospice, then probably religion is very important to understand—accept dying, I think. Then I studied religion. Basically, my grandpa—my grandfather on my mother’s side—and my uncle on my mother’s side were monks, priest monks. And my grandpa owned some small, poor temple. Yeah. And my grandpa was a teacher, high school teacher. My uncle was a professor at the medical school. But they had a license to be priests of Buddhism. So every summertime they serviced the funeral or like that.Yeah, and I grew up with Buddhism since childhood. And my uncle—first he introduced fasting, chanting with a monk priest, and yoga when I was 16. I was a high school student. First year of high school. He took me to fasting. A teenager boy going to do fasting for five days. I didn’t say no to my uncle, so I did it.And I did many things. Then I felt strong. If I compare to other people, I feel strong because I’m not interested in myself. I’m not interested. I don’t. I don’t care about myself in that way. So I don’t… I’m not looking for expensive things. Even—I wear the $20 watch from my son. I don’t mind. So I don’t have muscle, I don’t need muscle. So basically, I feel strong inside.But many people: “I have to wear a nice watch and people recognize I’m working very well,” like that. And the muscle is the same—they go to gym. But probably if you are living in the jungle and you have to hunt, probably you have to get the muscle. Or you don’t have to go to the gym—if you start hunting or surviving, you get the muscle. But people go to the gym to get the muscle, like: looks better.Because I think people are really… Many people, they start to control everything—sleep, schedule, everything—right? Because they worry about the future or mistakes or missing something. Then they schedule. I don’t schedule—of course I schedule for appointments, I don’t schedule for my life.Natalie (29:49)So tell me a little bit about your typical routine in a day.Taichi (29:52)So I wake up. And quite often I wake up at nighttime. And I don’t take it seriously: “Oh, I have to take medication or meditation.” I don’t. I just wake up; if I wake up at nighttime, I play a silly game. Silly game means I pre-download—I don’t bet any money. So I just play a silly game. And if I want to go back to sleep, I sleep. So basically, I don’t take things seriously in many ways.So some people come to see me: “Taichi, I can’t sleep well. What can I do?” Me neither—I don’t sleep well or I wake up at nighttime, but I don’t care. I play a game. So I don’t have to go to Costa Rica to do meditation or… Because if I wake up at nighttime, I just play a free game, then I feel OK. But most people: “Oh, I have to go somewhere, I have to do vacation.” But once in a while they do escape. But it’s nice to escape from real life. Everything can be an escape.For me, just play. I don’t do any drugs or I don’t drink any alcohol. When I was young, I drank alcohol, but not anymore. So I don’t escape. People are too smart. Too smart. Too smart. “Oh, I don’t sleep well. Probably I need to take medication, or I have to see some therapist to get help.” And people try to get better. I understand—try to get better, try to be very smart. And also, you get too much information. If you Google your symptoms, there is much information you get. And I have many clients—they did too much after they found something to help them.Natalie (31:44)Yes, I’ve sent you many people that you told me didn’t really need your help.Taichi (31:51)But they believe they need help. Well, they think they need help. But in many ways, we don’t need help. In many ways. I don’t get any help in many ways. In many ways, I don’t.Natalie (32:07)But you did say that you thought that the people who were not in hospice needed more help than the people who were dying. And clearly, you have the ability to have such a perspective on what people need.Taichi (32:21)People worry many things. And then they think they need to get help. So that’s why I studied hospice. And I wanted to understand how I can help people going to dying. Probably, I think everybody is difficult to accept disease or sickness or problem or dying. Yeah.My older generation—they were living with their grandparents. And they could see grandfather die in front of them, or pregnant. But now it’s more co-work family. Even they don’t know—they never met their grandparents. So they don’t deal with dying or death in many ways. People who are working in hospitals or funeral homes, they understand well in many ways. But still they worry about their health. I understand. They really worry about health-wise and they are scared to die. It’s true.About me: it’s just a part of life. If you are… since you are born, well, everybody is going to die anyway. That’s Buddhism too. Christianity and others—they know, everybody knows we are going to die anyway. Right? So I wanted to help people. Then I wanted to get rid of my worries first. Yeah, so I tried to get some help through religion and to understand about death, dying.Some people believe we have a heaven after—we don’t have to worry. After we die, we can go to heaven or something like that. And so that’s why first I wanted to help people. Then I wanted to try to get rid of what I worried in many ways. Yeah. And it worked. So.Natalie (34:18)For sure. I can’t wait to talk more about your work. But I’m wondering: do you think there was any sign in your childhood, when you were younger, of where this desire to help people came from—or what I would call intuition—where your ability to read people and their bodies… Did you have any evidence of that in childhood?Taichi (34:39)That’s again: people thinking too much. I think many years ago—many years ago—many fishermen could feel weather, what’s coming. Now people Google: “OK, what’s the weather today?” They Google. Which—technology, I understand. Many years ago, my technique is many years ago. Nine thousand years ago technique. Before, we didn’t have any textbook or technology. I think many fishermen could feel thunderstorms by skin or by smell or something. I think human beings made their way to survive. Human beings are very weak in nature—very weak. So everybody has some of this feeling. But they forget to ask, or they don’t think that way, or they don’t believe that way. Then they ask technology or: “Oh, you’re a doctor, you should know something.”I think—I believe—everybody can do it. But first they have to try. They have to feel they can do it. But most… “Taichi, I want to…” Some people said… I have many clients who are therapists and incredible doctors. They asked me—they said, “Oh, I’m going to be like you.” I’m not a special person. Everybody can do it if they believe, if they wish, if they want to do it, if they practice. I’m not special.So of course everybody has a different history, some family history or different parents, different school, different country. I understand. But I think everybody can do it. Probably they don’t do it, but they are in a hurry to do it. I’m doing this 35 years. Probably 35 years ago—probably if I compare 35 years ago and today—probably I felt I could do something. That’s 35 years ago. But my skill level was nothing. But my mind: “I can help people. I can help people. And I’ll be better than yesterday.”Yeah. So people ask me: “What can I do? I want to do the same way.” No. Take some time, I think.Only a few people ask me: “Taichi, how did you learn? Who is your mentor?” I say: my clients are mentors. Every time when I talk to my client or when I try to help a client, that’s where I get more skill, case study, and I feel more experienced with people. So my mentor is my client. So I have to spend time with the client as long as possible, as many as possible. Well, right now, it’s already 35 years passed.So I think inspiration or intuition is more feeling. So everybody has a feeling—everybody. But if they are in a hurry, if they want to learn from a textbook or YouTube, probably very difficult, or probably they don’t feel it. So if you really want to understand people, just start to understand yourself and your family members—especially difficult people.Let’s say you have difficulty with your mother. Just analyze your mother: why she started to feel difficult? Or probably: “I know grandpa, I know grandma”—that’s why probably my mother couldn’t feel secure enough. But more understanding. You don’t have to interview people or friends for why they started to be difficult. But you can really take a look at their family, their experience, and then you can really get some idea. That’s the case study too.My intention is to work with your family members first or friends. You don’t have to interview them to judge, or you don’t have to ask them what’s the problem they have. But you can really analyze by the information you have. That’s my technique, I think. And just a feeling.Once I mentioned to you—I talked to seven people because my client asked me to do it. But probably no one understood, or no one believed they can do it. One reason is: feeling, not from textbook. Feeling and experience. And how much you’re serious to do it, I think.And one thing is: also, many people start more spiritual way. But I try to be between spiritual way and real life. I want to be bridge between real life and spiritual ways. I could wear the white clothing with a lot of jade or stone or incense or something—probably looks like I have a spiritual (identity)—but I’m not looking for that way. I want to see real life and spiritual wise.And really be careful: we don’t have to live only real life. Also sometimes we don’t have to live only spiritual life. It’s nice to understand both. And you can see which side you like—I understand. But you have to see both. But most people: “No, I’m spiritual. I can’t take real life.” They want to go somewhere—can be escaping.Yeah, probably. Escaping means: “I have to go this way. I don’t like Toronto. I don’t like winter.” Then they try to go some different city or different country. Then they expect: “I will be happy.” But probably it’s not. It can be happy, but can be escaping.I want people to believe they are stronger and unconditionally. Yeah, people are weak now. People want to get more, more, more. If they have this finger pain, they don’t like it. “What’s the problem? I have this finger pain.” But they are OK—nine other fingers. They don’t focus on nine fingers. They focus only on one finger that has pain. Then they don’t feel happy or they are concerned about the problem. Then they start looking for help.So it’s OK—they can focus on, they can feel something wrong—but it doesn’t mean they have to fix it, they have to change it, they have to focus on it, or they have to get (rid of) it. Still, they can do many things in many ways. People started to make more condition—conditional. They feel stuck easily. They feel hopeless. They feel bad about the future—because they made a condition. “OK, I want to be happy. But I don’t like winter. Winter makes me unhappy.” They make condition.Doesn’t matter. I started to recommend to people: do something in winter time. If you don’t do any winter sports, OK—if you are an artist, write a book or read a book to get ideas for your writing. Or if you’re a musician, just write a song during winter. You don’t go out. Even at a coffee store, if they’re artists, they can think about the song or something.People just—“Oh, I don’t like this winter. I can’t do anything. I don’t like any winter sports. I don’t like outside.” But they can do something in the house—if they have a house or apartment. But they make the condition.But no one should go to some country under war. They don’t have to. But some people under war, they cannot leave. They don’t want to leave—they stay there. I understand. But the people in Canada—at least we are fine so far. So that’s my experience. People focus on the problem. They focus on things they don’t like. Then they feel uncomfortable.I try not to focus only on the problem. I try to focus on other things. For example, I have a finger—this finger has pain. But still, I can use it. People think I don’t have any problem. No—I have a lot of problems. But I don’t care too much. This is not the (same for) people. I wake up at nighttime. I don’t have to take medication or anything for sleep. I just play a silly game. Then I’m OK.Natalie (44:13)The muscle of intuition—I do that kind of stuff in my work, and for other people I have a pretty good ability. But there are so many things about myself that I might miss. So for example, one time I asked you: I had neck pain, and I was sure that it was how I was sleeping or my pillow. And you said, “Do you wear a helmet?” And I said yes, and I wear a helmet for my ATV. And you said it’s too heavy. And as soon as you told me that, I said, “Of course—my helmet is too big, it’s too heavy, it moves around.” So I guess what I’m saying is: we can have clarity and feel things in certain areas, and then in other areas, it’s completely off the radar.Taichi (44:53)The first… The body is made to avoid problems. Let’s say you touch the really hot kettle—you’ll touch, right? Let’s say you accidentally touch the kettle, already boiling. You right away—like this—because the brain gives you… Brain tries to protect you.So also pain—let’s say, I don’t remember what we talked, but you said you have pain on the neck. And I mentioned—I don’t remember—but I mentioned you wear a helmet. Because the body wanted you to know: something wrong, something too much for your body. But people don’t like pain.But the body just wants to tell you something wrong, something difficult. But they don’t know—then it causes pain. It can be pain physically, can be emotional pain too. Pain is not a bad thing. It’s the caution, or trying to help you, trying to protect you. That’s pain—doesn’t matter physical pain or mental, emotional pain. But people don’t want to feel pain. They question: “I have pain—what’s the problem?”Natalie (46:09)But if someone is asking you that, it’s because they’re trying to understand what their pain is trying to tell them. They want to know how their pain is trying to help them. Because in the end, if you say “Don’t worry about it,” maybe you’re not listening to what your body is trying to tell you.Taichi (46:25)No—(it) doesn’t mean. Just probably they don’t try to listen to the body, or they don’t want to try.Let’s say your grandparents—grandparents: there’s no technology, there’s nothing—no supplements. Now we have options: medication, technology, blood work, X-ray, MRI, supplements. So we have more options. Then we are going to rely on the options.Before, we didn’t have any options. Then they tried to find by themselves, or they didn’t care—or they couldn’t care because no options to fix it to be better. Now there’s many options. Then they try, try, try. But that’s not what the body wants—that’s thinking wanting.So first we have to respect the body first. Immune system—we have an immune system. Probably you don’t remember—when you were probably three years old, you got a high fever. And your parents tried to help you, to sleep in a bed, or tried to put some cold towel on your forehead to cool down. You don’t remember—but the body was fighting. That’s the immune system.So people understand some diseases—it’s not curable. Then people get disappointed or maybe hopeless. They try to find hope—I understand. But most things, the body can deal with. You remember that. You can—three years old—you don’t remember, me neither, but probably you had a high fever. Maybe parents worried. But we are fine after five days sleeping—that’s the immune system.Probably—I think—many people started to rely on other people or rely on information or rely on options. But we can still… Let’s say—we use technology now. So you are in Costa Rica and we are in Toronto—we can do. Before only phone—not like this. Many years ago was only phone, only sound. Now it’s like a screen. It’s technology. We can still use technology. We just appreciate the technology. But that doesn’t mean I want to worry more. We have to be confident. You have to feel confident: “Oh, it’s easier. I don’t have to go to Costa Rica to talk to you. You don’t have to come to Toronto to talk to me. This is fine because of technology.” Yeah?Natalie (49:09)For example—let’s say when you decided to stop drinking, for example—where does that decision come from? Are you listening?Taichi (49:17)Because first, I don’t enjoy drinking anymore. I don’t need it anymore. I mean, before—when I was younger—I would drink and I feel happy and people are happy with drinking. But now drinking doesn’t make me happy or I don’t feel so.So basically, I don’t do any drugs or gambling or anything. But I understand: many people are difficult to deal with the reality or how they feel. They need to escape. I understand.Natalie (49:50)So when you’re in a session with someone, it looks like you’re talking to something or someone. Like, you actually—you don’t necessarily look at the person in front of you while you’re reading their body. You actually look to the side and then you’ll be asking a question: “Yes… how long? When?”—and you’re getting answers. And you get very specific dates. And so…Taichi (50:16)Right.Natalie (50:18)Can you just tell me a little bit about that process—what it’s like?Taichi (50:21)First, I thought people’s bodies are holding memories. But since COVID, someone asked me to do a virtual session. And a few of them asked me to do—not virtual—on the phone, just by phone. So probably I don’t have to see people. Screen—I can see you. Phone—I can hear their voice, but I don’t see. So obviously not from my eyes.I thought first: the people’s body is holding their memory, like experience. Then I can find—like for you, teenager—something. Well, as a teenager it’s normal. Everybody has something. And I can… So I thought the body memorizes their history. But recently, I started to believe: Earth, Earth’s memories. Earth is like USB—the memory. Memorizes everybody’s experience.Natalie (51:25)So, OK—Earth remembers everything?Taichi (51:28)I think—it memorizes everything, like a storage room.So let’s say—probably I can tell your mom is not there. Yeah. But probably I can tell what your mother (feels) through your body. I saw through your body. But it must be the Earth holding every information. But you are of course a daughter of your mother—(so it’s) more easy to connect, easy to get the line.So then I don’t have to get information through your body about my mother—you don’t know my mother. Also it’s difficult to connect, because you don’t know my mother. But the Earth is holding this information—everybody’s information. Especially if I talk to you: if I want your information about your mother, it’s easy to get the information through your body because you and your mother—mother and daughter. But Earth is holding this information.Natalie (52:34)If I were to ask you something about my mother right now, would you have to go into a specific process to get yourself into the working mode, or would you be able to access it anytime?Taichi (52:45)I think anytime. And it depends on your question. If you say: “My mom—she is OK?”—probably I can say OK. It depends on the question. Or what you’re concerned about. Problem is: might be you are concerned, but maybe your mother isn’t concerned.Let’s say if you worry about your friend who is a smoker—probably you worry about your friend, but the friend says: “No, I’m OK, I enjoy smoking.” Probably he or she doesn’t care. But you care. So it depends on the question. But it depends on how they feel. You question—you worry about your mother—but the mother doesn’t care about what you’re worried about. But I can still probably pick up how she feels. Might be, “Well, leave me alone. My daughter worries too much.” Might be I pick up that.If you worry about something she doesn’t care about—probably your mother feels she doesn’t care what you worry. That’s what I pick up.Natalie (53:41)Are you feeling that now?Taichi (53:43)No, no, no, I’m not checking right now.Natalie (53:46)So to give people an idea—when you have a session with someone, you are speaking to their chakras and also to their organs. And you’re asking different parts of the body for information. So you’re kind of doing a scan. Let’s say you’ll stop and you’ll say, “OK, right lung.” And then what happens then, when you’re reading? How does it work?Taichi (54:07)Just—my technique is asking. Let’s say right now… Can I tell the truth?Natalie (54:16)Please. Would love—if you want to read me, go ahead.Taichi (54:18)I read your lung—right side lung. I read your right side lung. I feel anger. I feel anger from your right side lung.Natalie (54:22)You read mine?Taichi (54:33)I feel anger related to some people in Costa Rica. You’re in Costa Rica. So some community in Costa Rica. You’re really upset about something or someone—that’s the feeling from your right lung.Natalie (54:48)A specific person or many people?Taichi (54:51)Three days ago.Yeah—few people, not only one.That’s the right lung. I feel it. A people—three days ago in Costa Rica. Not in Toronto, not in Montreal. That’s how I feel.Natalie (55:07)And I can cut what?Taichi (55:08)I mean you can edit it.Natalie (55:14)No, I was hoping you would give a little bit of a reading so people could get a sense of how you’re doing it. And so how do you get, for example, the date? How do you know it’s three days ago? How do you know it’s a few people?Taichi (55:24)First, probably you try to help, or they asked you some question. Looks like they asked you opinion, but they don’t listen. That’s how I feel from your body. Interesting. They asked you: “I need this help,” or someone asked you. And you said something—but you could tell they don’t listen or they don’t change or they don’t accept it. That’s upsetting.Yeah. Many people—doesn’t matter teacher or doctor or therapist or counselor—if they are very serious to help people, they get hurt by people they care about. Because if they don’t listen or they don’t change, they don’t think that way—then they feel bad about what they do. All that—I mention: don’t feel bad about what you do. But don’t expect you are going to change people. That’s what I mention to everybody.It could be a wife or husband. “My husband doesn’t listen to me. I wanted to help him because he doesn’t look OK, but he doesn’t want to tell me, he doesn’t listen to me.” Then my client gets upset. But I said: you and your husband are too close, and he didn’t ask your help. But you wanted to help him—that’s your ego. If he asks you, “Hey wife, I need your help. I’m really depressed. I’m really sad. I need your help. Give me an idea, opinion”—then she can help. But she wanted to help—that’s the ego.What your body feels: you really started to be disappointed in people in Costa Rica. That I feel.Natalie (57:04)The local people or the people that moved here?Taichi (57:07)The people that moved there from other countries. Doesn’t matter—New York or Toronto or Tokyo or anywhere. So people move to Costa Rica. Might be you feel: “Oh, that’s the best escape,” or “They are just tired and they don’t listen to anybody anyway,” or “They just don’t want to take any responsibility after their country or their family.” Doesn’t mean they are bad people. But you feel uncomfortable about their way—that I feel.Let’s say even drinker… My father—for example, my father—after he drank, miserable. He complains about his life. He feels bad about himself. But if he is laughing, happy—I’m happy. But my father is always going to be miserable after drinking. So then I don’t like it.So for you—I think you are happy to help people, obviously, and you’re to help people. But probably this time it must be you have to choose people. If they call you—or just a couple months ago, some three people came at the same time, like a friend—three ladies, they are friends. They came. And I mentioned—one of them—I mentioned that she’s not ready to listen to someone’s opinion. I mentioned. And (she said): “No, no, I’m ready, I’m open-minded.” No—she’s not ready. That’s what I mentioned.So many people—probably I believe many people ask for your help and they contact you. You look like they need your help. But some people, they are not ready to listen to other people’s feeling or thinking or opinion. But you don’t care about this. Just you do your best. I did my best. So if they don’t like me, I take it.And I already mentioned to your friend or people: “OK, I’m not sure you’re satisfied or not, but you can complain to me. Don’t complain to Natalie.”I take it—“You are complaining, that is horrible”—but I take it. But don’t complain to Natalie.Natalie (59:33)You told them that?Taichi (59:34)Yeah. Not all of them, but some of them.Natalie (59:37)Thank you.Taichi (59:38)Yeah, because I take it. But the one thing is: there’s nothing I regret because I did my best. Doesn’t matter. They like or they don’t like or they didn’t feel anything. But I’m ready to—so basically, I don’t feel any different. Someone: “Oh Taichi, I heard your name, I recommend, my friend really trusts you.” I don’t feel any different feeling to do my best. Doesn’t matter—I do my best. Doesn’t matter people. But I appreciate of course—someone complaining, but someone says to me… But that doesn’t make any difference in many ways.Natalie (1:00:15)So I’m curious: you said there’s so much information on the internet and things like that. But obviously when you’re getting a feeling about someone and their body, you are using some of your knowledge, right? For example, one time my toe was hurting—my toe joint—and I asked you about it and you said to avoid gluten for inflammation. You must learn some of that information somewhere, and then it works into the feelings that you get when you’re talking to the body.Taichi (1:00:47)First, I studied acupuncture and emotion, psychology and nutrition. That’s my basic. Doesn’t mean I just talk to your body and get something I never learned. I learned many things, but I don’t use it to analyze people. So I have knowledge, actually. But it’s not necessarily to show my knowledge. But I can still use my knowledge—but always through the inspiration, intuition.I don’t have to talk to you about something. If you don’t have any toe problem, I don’t have to talk about your toe issue. But if you mention “I have a toe pain,” then I try to find what causes (it) through my experience, through my knowledge.Natalie (1:01:44)It’s so specific. With my toe joint—what you had told me is you said that I ate too much of the cabbage family and you used kimchi as an example. And the night before, I had a huge mountain of kimchi. I’ve looked online and I couldn’t really find any link between the cabbage family and inflammation. But whenever I would feel my toe joint again, I would reduce broccoli or cauliflower or cabbage, and the pain would get better. So you’re learning that stuff from the body.Taichi (1:02:13)So basically, body—so pain included—but the body doesn’t tell you detail, right? But people can: “I have a stomach ache this morning—what did I eat last night?” Then they can guess, but they don’t guess that way. Especially healthy foods—they don’t question. Cabbage family: vegetable, coleslaw, bok choy, kale.People think that quinoa is a healthy food—I understand. And recently many people just switch to matcha tea instead of coffee. It can be better than coffee in many ways. But triple caffeine included—that’s our knowledge. I have some knowledge. Many people don’t know—just “matcha tea is good for you” because websites, stores: “Matcha tea, healthy food—that’s why Japanese people live longer.” Some people just believe. But they don’t say about many things about caffeine.I can tell—even I don’t know their life—but your body is suffering, really difficult to deal with caffeine. And “What do you drink?” “No, I don’t drink coffee.” “And how about matcha?” Then—matcha tea. Because matcha tea consumes more caffeine than coffee. That’s the body. If I ask the body with knowledge or some information in my brain, then I can tell what’s the problem.So basically, it’s nice to have many knowledge, different fields in many ways. For example, even work-wise, people feel bad if they don’t do their dream work. If they are working somewhere not really ideal work, they feel bad. But every experience—I did many different jobs in my life: tutor, stockbroker, chef, waiter, mover—I did many things. So I understand people’s job well because I did many different jobs.So nothing is wasted in your life. But people: “Oh, I have been doing this for 20 years. I am sick of it.” No—this experience really helps you if you use it.So the body gives you some information. But quite often you can find detail if you like it. I already mentioned: have some… Let’s say you got a stomach ache this morning and you start to think about last night’s dinner or drink. Or maybe “Oh last week I met my friend who is sick—probably I got that virus or bacteria flow through my friend.” It’s possible too.But: “I have a stomach ache—something wrong. My parents, my grandparents had a stomach issue, some cancer”—they start to worry. They go to hospital, they take a look—they didn’t find anything wrong—but they still (have) stomach ache, they start to worry more. Might be just last night—you ate wrong food. It’s possible. But they start to think, think, think. They try to get more information, information. And they started to create: “I know my uncle died by stomach cancer”—then she starts to worry about the stomach issue.Natalie (1:05:37)So when you’re saying the body doesn’t give you details—like, let’s say the body sends you pain, it doesn’t give you details, right? Let’s say the stomach pain—it’s just sending you pain. It doesn’t give you the information. How do you as a practitioner go from that pain to information—to details? How do you get those? OK, it was the kimchi you ate last night, or it’s the cabbage family. How do you get to that point?Taichi (1:05:58)Let’s say: if I believe you watch your diet well, you try to be healthy, you work out very well—you work out, you care about the health. But if you are going to be sick, or if you are going to have symptoms—doesn’t matter (if it’s) good food or good drink or good supplement—probably things you’re taking, doesn’t matter good or bad, cause a problem if you’re watching your diet well.You eat kimchi—but the kimchi from Korea. You are not Korean. But again, easy to get—import, export—easy. Your grandparents never ate kimchi in their life. Right? Now we can eat everything.Natalie (1:06:40)Yeah.Taichi (1:06:42)So when you’ve got a problem, maybe you can really question your favourite food—including the healthy food.So if you have this thinking: “I watch my diet, I’m doing well, I should be in good shape, but I have something wrong with my body”—then you can leave a question about your favorite food. Then you can find it—in many ways. You can find it by yourself.Natalie (1:07:10)But how do you know which of the foods it is? I mean, because you know a lot of people eat similar things every day.Taichi (1:07:17)People think—even now, when you ask me—when I take a look here, right side of the lung, (it) looks like I’m just sitting, like I don’t do any effort. No—my inside is working very… like overheated to find what’s the problem. But it looks like I’m calm. I don’t—OK, I’ll take… It’s not an easy job. My mind feeling is… 100%—more than 100%—trying to be sensitive.People can help themselves by themselves. That’s my opinion. Of course, we need another opinion or idea or a different way. But most things we can handle, we can deal. But people—when they get to think—they don’t want to spend time for this. They’re: “OK, I feel sick, I have to go to the hospital.” And they are waiting—waiting in Toronto—three hours waiting, and they get the X-ray. Doctor said: “No, wrong (nothing wrong) with your lung.” But still they have symptoms. They still question.Yeah—but they can start to think. Let’s say, last week I went to my mother, she was coughing. “OK, I have to call Mom. How are you feeling?” “I feel sick—I’m coughing more.” “I see. Now I feel coughing—I started coughing.” Then they can find what’s the reason. But the people want to skip.Natalie (1:08:43)When you say that you’re working hard in your head to figure it out, what does that process look like? Are you asking questions?Taichi (1:08:50)Yes.I have no idea what you’re thinking. But your body feels it. That’s my technique.Probably you start to think a lot—not only ten minutes to think, to get this answer. But if I talk to your body, I don’t know how long you spent time for this decision, but your body gives me the answer as well.Fortunately, you know yourself well and you are honest with me. But some people—“No, I don’t think so.” I take it. But you accept it. So for me, it’s easy to deal with you. But many people are difficult. They don’t accept it. They don’t want me to read. But they come to see me. Then I say: “You are not ready.” Many people are not like you. That’s what I wanted you to know.Natalie (1:09:40)Thank you.Taichi (1:09:41)We don’t know anything about the future. That’s why some people come to me and: “Taichi, I heard you’re a psychic healer.” I’m not a psychic healer. I don’t know even tomorrow’s lunch. Well—I don’t care tomorrow lunch. But people: “Taichi, what do you think of my relationship? What do you think of my boss? What do you think of my new job? Do I have to stay in Toronto or not?” People ask me. I’m not a psychic healer.Natalie (1:10:08)But you do make predictions.Taichi (1:10:11)Because the body predicts. Body knows. Body causes pain—emotionally, mentally, or physically—before worse. Yeah? Some disease—let’s say pancreatic cancer—is very silent. But most things—like you have tooth pain—might be root canal. Or that—they give you idea before worst, worst case. That’s the body. Emotional too.What’s really important right now? What’s the most important? Then if you have idea what’s the most important thing, that’s… you have to talk to yourself how you can deal with your wish, how you can deal with other people for your wish. So what you wish—no one knows what you wish. So you have to talk to yourself: most important right now.My opinion is: it’s nice to analyze yourself well first. Yeah. It’s a good example because you don’t deal with other people—you can talk to yourself. You don’t need anybody. Then it’s a good experience for you to help other people. Talk to yourself—put your real feelings. You don’t attack anybody, don’t complain to anybody, but you have to honour yourself.So be honest.You don’t have to be honest with me. I’m a stranger. I’m nobody. I’m nothing.Just be honest to yourself. Be honest to the people you cared for, from your heart.Natalie (1:11:49)So we had to end the interview there because he had to go to a client session. And the reason that we went a little over time is that he started to read my body in the interview. He returned to the right lung and found a lot of information that was really accurate but too private to share publicly.And so I will end it here by saying I am so grateful to Taichi for coming on and sharing his wisdom with us—these nuanced truths. And while being our own self-healer shouldn’t be a replacement for all forms of medical intervention, I think this is such a great reminder on the power of honesty with ourselves as the most important vehicle for self-healing.As usual, if you would like to show your support for this podcast, please subscribe to my Substack, my show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Leave a comment, rating—show me that you’re there. As many of you have sent me messages after the first one. I appreciate your ears, your attention. And as always, I hope this allows you to trust yourself more in following the clues along your own path. 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