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Using Vital Sensations to Connect the Disturbed Vital Force and the Simillimum
by Jeff Baker, ND, DHANP, CCH This paper presents a case, which illustrates
a somewhat new way of practicing homeopathy. Let me assure you straight away,
this is not about gimmicks, tricks or short cuts. The usual hard work,
persistence and sharp focus essential to solid homeopathic practice is still
fully required. And in the end a single remedy must, as always, be selected on
rigorous criteria. It is “new” only because it involves utilization of
phenomena known as vital sensations in tandem with the miasm of the case. I’ll
define these terms later, and elaborate on their significance in the context of
the case, where they will have a very tangible, specific meaning and
application. I am well aware that utterances such as “a
new way of practicing homeopathy” may be charged words for some who are
reading this presentation. My objective has centered on a desire to place what I
consider to be important new work before the professional homeopathic community
and allow it be judged on its own merits. The methodology is wholly inductive. I
believe that there is genius and elegance in this new way of
working that speaks to the purity of Hahnemannian Homeopathy, which continues to be amenable to
further elaboration (not deviation), long after the master has left this earth. At the outset, I would like to give full
credit to Dr. Rajan Sankaran for developing the ideas responsible for my being able to present this
paper. This is the culmination of ground breaking work he has been doing for
more than three years, though of course it very much depends upon and utilizes
his earlier understandings regarding kingdoms, miasms and case receiving. He
first presented these ideas, in a rather rudimentary form, at a twelve-day
workshop at Esalen Institute, in October 1999. Then at a follow up workshop at
Esalen, in October, 2001, Rajan presented a much more refined version of the
same principles and methods, including many clinically cured cases, backed up
with impressive long term follow up. In all honesty, those two seminars would not
have been nearly sufficient for me to grasp and then implement this approach. I
was fortunate to be one of a very small number of participants (fifteen in all)
who attended an intensive two-week clinical workshop at Dr. Sankaran’s clinic,
in the latter part of November 2001. In a highly intimate and interactive
environment he was able to discuss, demonstrate and clarify the various facets
of the method. This means of working has made homeopathy come alive in a way that I have
never previously experienced.
Understanding a patient along these lines
creates an internal system of checks and balances, which is to say that if
the practitioner does not see a definite and clear connection between the chief
complaint and the overall state of the patient then the patient has not yet been
properly and thoroughly perceived, in which case the simillimum is
relatively unlikely to be found. If,
on the other hand, the similarity between chief complaint and overall state is
very evident, then the likelihood of selecting the correct remedy is greatly
enhanced and with it a certainty in one’s understanding of the patient.
My firm belief is that with this approach
prescribing eventually leads (after much practice) to a success rate only previously imagined. Excellent
results are much more consistently obtainable
and along with that confidence in
how to proceed in the management of cases is greatly enhanced, since the correct
remedy has been
mapped from two directions and then reconfirmed.
Until now, the best one could do was approximate as closely as possible
to the indicated remedy. I would
call this a system of triangulation where the possibility for error is greatly
reduced. Once again, though, let me assert that this is not easy.
It takes a lot of practice, a great deal of diligence and an uncanny
ability to notice what might appear, in any given case, to make no sense. Speaking from personal experience in over
twenty years of homeopathic practice, I would say that in the past the really
great results I have seen have come in, at most, fifteen to twenty per cent of
my cases, which is not to say that I did not see results in the other
approximately eighty per cent,
but those were of a far less satisfactory type.
Those were the types of cases where, over a period of time, typically
several other remedies would be given, with relatively greater or lesser
benefit, most often not long lasting and/or deeply curative nor out of a feeling
of very high practitioner confidence.
So here is the case itself.
The patient is a 56 year old woman, who was coming back after a hiatus of
over six years. Previously she had
come to me sporadically over a four year period (1991-1995), primarily for
stitching, stinging, strong pains in her left nipple.
There was a feeling of guilt with regard to her now deceased husband, of
having done wrong by spending time thinking about another man, a “fantasy
relationship.” Her ex-husband had been very sick for a long time.
He provided little companionship because of the gravity of his illness,
spending most of his time in bed, resting, sleeping and convalescing. She attended to all his needs and did so without complaint.
She would occasionally talk on the phone or meet for a meal with the
“fantasy” man. I had given her
Naja for the pains and the feelings of done wrong, neglected duty.
While physically she responded quite well to the remedy initially,
repetitions (in various potencies), over time, worked less and less and finally
not at all. Before I had a chance
to retake her case, she stopped coming for treatment.
12/10/01 Please tell me what are your problems?
I’m having symptoms, which I think are angina for a long time; it’s daily and probably blood sugar
type problems. I get very light
headed. I’m still having my
periods. I’m sure there’s
hormonal changes going on. So I’m
really concerned about having some serious blood sugar changes.
Describe the angina?
There’s a feeling on the left side and also it’s usually when I’m
laying down, but it does happen when I’m sitting or standing.
It’s a very sharp, stinging, sharp pain.
That’s the pain part. And
I also have a lot of numbness in my left hand.
It’s worse in the morning when I wake up and also in the day.
Especially if I have my hand up (indicating with her left hand). Say if I have my hand up holding a book it’s pretty quick,
within a minute. Please say more about this sharp stinging
sensation? It feels like several
probes of stinging, not just one spot, a few things.
I feel quite light headed usually now.
I could just be standing and think that I might faint.
That’s been happening pretty much daily.
For how long? This frequency
for about four months and prior to that it wasn’t really that regular.
Where is the stinging?
Concentrated in a one and a half to two inches diameter (upper left
chest, medial aspect). That’s been the last couple of years, but up till the past
few months it was very infrequent, once every two weeks. Now I feel this pain daily, sometimes many times a day.
Now it’s really getting my attention.
I’m thinking these are kind of serious
symptoms, especially passing out things. That’s
kind of a bad sign for one’s health. Of the symptoms you’ve mentioned, which is
the worst for you? Probably the
lightheadedness because the pain isn’t always there, but the lightheadedness I
can feel for hours. Describe that a
little bit more. A lightheaded
dizzy feeling. There are times
during the day it’s not there and it’s not there as bad every day, but
it’s there quite a bit. Then of
course it’s hard to concentrate. It
does effect my memory. I think to
do something and then I go in the other room and can’t think to remember and then I go back into the other
room and then I go back. How does this effect you?
It does make me feel like I have to rest.
I can’t always do that, but whenever I get a chance I like to lay down.
Then I feel a little better, for a little while and then it starts
getting weird again. The resting
helps, but not for too long. Thinking it has to do with blood sugar things,
I have gotten things from the health food store and those do make me feel
better, but then I forget to take them (laughing in a big awkward burst).
Does the light headedness, dizziness remind
you of anything? Period related
things. In my late teens, early 20’s I had some dizziness, not
the same kind of dizziness, but some kind of dizziness then.
My gynecologist...I had an exam and I had an ovarian cyst and they said
to take birth control pills . Then
it had gotten better. That’s the
only time I can think of. What would be exactly opposite to the
stinging, sharp sensation? It would
be soft sensation. When have you
experienced that? It would have to
be a feeling and that would have to be with something with my mother, feelings
of that type, something related to that. There
are actually many times. Any one
that comes to mind? I suppose
having a meal together or something like that.
When in your life have you experienced the pains?
Maybe the jabs, but not the stinging part, the pain part.
The only thing I can think of with that would be relating to my father.
He was a violent person, so he definitely...there were three of us kids
and he regularly beat us up, so that...I can relate it to that kind of thing. What was that like for you?
That was something very hard to live with.
We all really pretty much hated my father.
My sister and brother have never really forgiven him, but I have.
One time I had overdosed on aspirin.
I had taken 100 aspirin. I’m
not going to go through that again. In
the hospital I remember him being at my bedside
and I could tell because of his demeanor. I
could tell that he cared, so for me I got the message.
The minute I turned eighteen I left.
Up till eighteen it was still the same old stuff.
Was this after the aspirin incident?
Yes. There was a lot of fear
and I would learn how to control my emotions very well. I discovered that what would upset him is if he did this and
you didn’t cry. So I discovered
that would upset him a lot. I
wouldn’t cry and he would yell more. If
I cried it meant you were sorry for whatever you did and if you didn’t cry
then he would, in addition, take something away from you.
But at least in my own way I felt I was getting back at him in some way.
But of course growing up it really instilled in me not having any worth.
No matter what you did I had a normal amount of kid stuff, but there was
always the negativity; “You’re worthless.”
That’s a hard thing. I
know it comes out even now in ways. I’m
surprised when someone praises me...wow, never thought of it in that way!
It’s a deep feeling of not feeling worth much.
Tell me more about your father.
He was definitely a really violent person.
He did drink also. And he
liked to make fun of you. And if
you played games, a board game, you could never win.
You got in trouble for that.
He had this warped thinking. Also
because of my mother being from where she was, he always thought of the children
being half-breeds, he would make comments about that.
What do you mean? The reason
you aren’t smart is that half-breeds aren’t smart, things like that. He was very oppressive.
Definitely there was never any talking; you couldn’t talk.
You said two words and if he felt it wasn’t the right time you got
smacked. It wasn’t that anyone
was noisy. He would just smack you.
If I used a new term I used in school, like “Pardon me”...He would
react, saying, “Who do you think you are using those uppity terms!”
Now I do speak to him a couple of times a
year; it’s a very short conversation, but I know he likes to keep in touch, so
I do out of duty, but it’s nothing I want to do or that’s enjoyable or that
sort of thing. This is interesting!
Mainly because the things that are going on with (my husband) and myself,
I’ve discovered that he’s a very negative person also and it really reminds
me of my father. The glass is not
half full; it’s half empty. So
it’s really trying to flow with it, but it’s stressful.
Also, when I do get upset I think I do go into the mode of what was going
on with my father? When he upsets
me with something it’s a very similar feeling of why bother?
This seems so hopeless.
I don’t think of that in a million years, so
whatever it is he puts a slant on it. It’s
very draining. If I try to talk to
him about it. Why don’t you try
to do it this way? If we have a
conversation it’s terrible. I
guess he must feel very useless. I’m
sure he must feel very inadequate and useless, so when we have these
conversations he actually starts yelling, like my father.
I’ve told him, “If you have suggestions, fine and you can’t talk to
me in that tone of voice and there’s the door.”
Then he says, “If you would just change then
we wouldn’t have to have these conversations.”
All these conversations are useless.
He just yells. He just goes
in the other room. He just calms
down. He says, “I wouldn’t yell
if you didn’t make me yell.” I’m
just wrong. To have conversations
like that the way I feel; I can’t. The
amount of energy I have is just enough to do this work.
I don’t have energy to have conversations like this that just end this
way. He’s a nice person, but
he’s just not much help. There’s
not much for him to do, but even that (doing next to nothing) it seems like he
can’t cope with very well. So I
kind of feel that I am just not getting...don’t look for anything from him. We are married, so that’s the way that is.
Of course he’s not going to leave.
He doesn’t have anywhere to go. That’s
not going to happen. I’ve thought
of just having some divorce papers ready. He
yells...and if that happens again I’ll just hand them to him.
I have a police officer friend and she said, “How can you live with
someone who just doesn’t work?” One
thing she brought up is the lease and it’s just in my name and she said,
“He’s history; he’s out of here.” The
yelling is a type of abuse and I just don’t like it.
We’ve had it a few times and if it comes up again I just can’t cope
with it. Feel when he yells at you?
It does feel like abuse. Well
it used to make me angry. I used to
get angry back and not really yell, but I can say a few sharp things too.
But now the last couple of times I realize that that doesn’t do
anything. So I just realize that
“If your life here is so uncomfortable, there’s the door.” And that cools
him off and he goes in the other room. It
does make me feel...it’s very upsetting.
What does it make you feel? I do feel assault; it’s like an assault.
He says it in a very mean way and with the screaming it’s very bad.
But now I realize that it doesn’t help for me to get upset about it; it
doesn’t do anything except hurt me. But
I kind of feel, I do feel at this point it would be a lot better for me if we
were not together. It seems also
like it would be pretty mean to do that to him.
As long as there’s not the yelling I can sort of put up with the other
stuff, the negativity. I’m
learning to deflect. I see patients
in this small apartment where we live and he’s in the bedroom, so we’re
pretty much together. It’s not
like he’s a people person, not like he goes out and has friends, so he’s
always there. What’s the best part of being in relation
with him? Getting that karma over.
I do feel this is some account that I’m settling.
Obviously I do feel that it’s from past life association and also from
this life association. In some way
I’m paying for things I did. Like
what? I still feel very bad about
(her deceased husband). I don't
know the extent that he was effected with that infatuation with (her present husband).
I still do feel guilty about that. Thinking
about it in those terms I feel it’s something I’m settling from past and not
so past, things that I have to pay for. That’s
really the way I feel about it. Also there are some days I can tell he’s
happy. I kind of feel good...at
least he’s happy (that same blurted out awkward laugh, which she’s done
numerous times, not really a laugh). Pretty much boiled it down to that type of
thinking. And I don’t expect my
happiness to come from him at all. Luckily
from my teacher and my meditation I get a lot of joy from that.
For me it’s far beyond... it’s wonderful.
I’m enjoying meditation so much more (laughing) that’s my refuge, my
nice quiet peace, part of the day. As
opposed to? The rest of the day.
You know how it is? Listening
to patients, hearing about all these problems.
It would be nice when the patients are gone; you didn’t have to hear
about health problems. If I say
something about my arm, my neck, he (husband) says, “Welcome to my world.”
His pain is always worse. It’s
about his health. There’s never
many moments that are peaceful and happy. That’s
why meditation is the fun thing and it’s great to have it. Can you describe a little more what meditation
is like for you? I think the
feeling is that I feel stronger. I
feel definitely some sort of...sometimes it’s bliss, a very nice really happy
feeling. Other times I don’t feel
anything. Sometimes I do feel very
good, been very peaceful or reached sort of a level of feeling love, maybe
contacted...but also a feeling sort of a stronger feeling, a brighter outlook,
more positive. How are you about keeping things in order?
When it has to do with work it’s very orderly.
But if it’s my personal things, I’m not very good at personal things.
My closet is not very good. My
personal things aren’t very good, but the part that has to do with patient’s
records is very good, very organized. I’d
say other parts of the house, like the kitchen is pretty organized.
The bathroom, cause I share it with him is organized.
It’s just very personal things, which are a mess...(laughing). How are you with plants, trees, flowers, and
greenery, things that grow? I love
plants!! Gosh that’s really nice!
Of course I only have a few indoor plants because we don’t have much
room, but I do love plants, especially flowers, more than bushes or trees.
I have a lot of happiness with flowers.
But with plants I feel good taking care of them and I even like talking
to plants and saying, “How are you? You’re
so beautiful.” (laughing more
genuinely) How are you with animals?
I could kind of ... they’re fine, but I don’t care about having
animals. I don’t have much
interest in animals. We had animals
growing up, but my father was very mean to them.
Tell me about your dreams.
A lot of my dreams have to do with water, the ocean, a lot of ocean Childhood dreams? No ... try to forget all childhood things.
It was that bad? Oh, yeah. Desires:
I definitely crave potatoes. When
it’s before my period I definitely crave chocolate.
Aversions:
I don’t like anything ice cold. Like
what? Ice water, ice cream,
anything really cold. I like hot drinks or room temperature drinks.
I don’t care for raw food much at all.
Salad, maybe once a week, just the coldness of it...it doesn’t sound
good, taste good. When it’s humid I definitely feel more
tired; it’s harder to breathe. It
becomes difficult? Yes, if I had to
exert myself, like if I had to walk a couple of blocks then yes, it would be
harder to breathe. Sleep? Sleep
is ok. I can sleep ok, but now it
seems like I have to get up more often just for urination.
But now it’s gotten more and I have to get up two or three times at
night. That’s been 2 or 3 months.
But the sleep itself, once I get up I can fall asleep and I sleep fine. I sleep on my back. But
I don’t get a very good...I’m not sleeping on a very good surface.
That bothers me. What happens is our bed, because I snore and that keeps him
awake...then I sleep out in the living room and there isn’t a good place to
sleep in the living room and I say, “Why don’t you sleep in the living
room?” and he says that the noise from the air conditioner (is worse
there)...he has to have it on. So I
haven’t figured out. I just
can’t argue with him about these things.
I don’t have enough energy. I
have to save my energy for work. Periods?
I do feel nauseous a couple of days before they start and have a
headache. Then it starts and that
goes away and then at the end of the period I feel nauseous and have a headache
again. If you had extra time what would you do
besides meditate? If I had room I
would definitely grow flowers because I did that on the Mainland.
I love that. I liked going to symphonies and art on the Mainland.
They don’t have that here. As
far as a hobby I had quite a collection of plants and flowers; that’s what I
did then. Discussion and analysis:
So this was the entire case as I received it, nearly verbatim, which is
of the highest importance, since the exact words and expressions of the patient
are essential for the correct application of this approach.
I had just returned from the workshop in India
at Dr. Sankaran’s and I was attempting to utilize the case receiving tools
that I had imbibed while there. During
the consultation I had no thoughts as to a remedy.
My focus was only on trying to understand my patient, as completely and
fully as possible. There were two aspects that I understood while
sitting opposite from my patient. First
was that my patient had very little structure.
She easily moved from one complaint to another, from one subject to
another. Even the tonal quality of
her voice, how she laughed uneasily and then, just as easily, changed into quiet
speech, all these irregular patterns, the breaking up of sentences, the
hesitations and stops (denoted as...), the adjusting, the randomness of her
expression was something that I could not miss.
Secondly, she expressed her complaints using
sensations. I didn’t ask her
directly to give me sensations; they came out very spontaneously and easily and
almost immediately. She
specifically mentioned “sharp, stinging pains” as well as “probes and
jabs.” Sensations indicate sensitivity as well as reactivity.
All of this, taken together, both the way she delivered her case and the
sensitivity, vis-a-vis sensations, made me quite certain that she needed a plant
remedy. Moreover, her strong
affinity for plants, a definite aspect of her nature, is often seen in people
who are very connected to plants and the plant kingdom.
Admittedly, in a world of thousands upon
thousands of plants and hundreds of homeopathic remedies derived from plants,
knowing that a patient needs a plant remedy still leaves us with a long way to
go--or does it? Using Dr.
Sankaran’s vital sensations there
is a way to get directly from the sensations of the patient to those of the
indicated plant family. This is a
critical aspect of this case and the method I shall describe. First of all, what are vital sensations? They are the sensations of all living organisms. They are non-human (not exclusively belonging to humans). They are universal. In order to understand the exact vital sensations of the different plant families, Dr. Sankaran has done research with over fifty plant families, one at a time. The question he had in mind, which he hoped to answer, was: Within the plant kingdom, do these plant families have characteristics in common and are we even justified to think in such a way? In order to answer that critical question, he
took the remedies of individual plant families, examining them in a repertorial
software program (MacRepertory) with the sole intention of finding out what is
in common within families. The main
elements he was looking for were physical sensations, particulars and generals.
He did not concentrate on the mind, but the body symptoms, feeling that
then he would perhaps understand the mind much better through understanding the
body. His hypothesis was that both the body and the mind are the
seat of disease. So an overemphasis
on mental symptoms is a huge pitfall. He
felt that it isn’t that the body and the mind are different or separate, but
that they are both integral parts of the vital force. Using MacRepertory, he ran searches for
specific plant families e.g. Anacardiaceae, Papaveraceae, Solanaceae etc. and
then he would focus in on rubrics containing at least three members of that
family. This was an essential
criterion, that rubrics must have a minimum of three members of that family
since he was looking for commonalities within plant families.
This resulted in his being able to identify the vital sensations of the
various families. It isn’t a
particularly sophisticated or complicated manipulation.
It is actually something that anyone with a computer and homeopathic
software can probably do with a relatively small amount of acumen.
However, the extent to which Dr. Sankaran has taken this concept is
several levels beyond what I have described, in terms of the depth and breadth
of the work he has done. More
significantly is just the fact that he realized that there was potentially great
value in studying plants from this perspective.
What is interesting and highly significant
were the very words she recalled in reference to her father, “You said two
words and if he felt it wasn’t the right time you got smacked.”
Smacked is a very close equivalent to being slapped in the face.
Also in relation to her present husband and in the context of what she
referred to as abuse, she said, “I used to get angry back and not really yell,
but I can say a few sharp things too. “ This
clearly demonstrates that her vital sensations are not merely limited to the
physical sphere; they pervade the totality of her state. So now we’ve gone from plant kingdom to a
specific plant family. But there is
one more step and that is the choice of a single remedy within that family.
This is where understanding the miasm of the patient, according to Dr.
Sankaran’s miasmatic map, becomes critically important because in a specific
plant family most remedies are classified differently as to miasm.
Even without an in-depth understanding of Dr. Sankaran’s miasmatic
schema, many homeopaths readily understand that remedies like Belladonna,
Stramonium, Aconite, Arnica and Veratrum belong in the acute miasm.
Some well known malarial remedies are China, Chelidonium and Cina.
Thuja has long been renowned as an anti sycotic medicine. In the cancer miasm are, among others, Conium,
Bellis perennis, Sabina and Staphysagria. Many practitioners have been taught and
believe that miasm is simply an inherited disease predisposition.
While this is probably true, if one stops there then the clinical utility
of miasms is very shallow, since it would tend to relate only to family history
and past medical history. Some say
miasm is proportionate to the degree of desperation.
Basically, miasm has to do with the depth and rapidity of the disease
process. Dr. Sankaran, in his
various books and lectures has clearly delineated the characteristics of his
miasmatic model, with its ten miasms: acute,
typhoid or sub acute, ringworm, psoric, malarial, sycotic,
cancer, tubercular, leprosy and syphilitic.
Each miasm has its own sensations eg. in the acute miasm the sensation is
of sudden great danger, an acute intense threat, such that the threat itself
often feels too big and sudden. In
the state of acute miasm where the patient is still coping (termed acute miasm
success), there is a definite need to escape.
There is instinctive action and the afflicted individual may be beside
himself. In acute miasmatic failure, where the coping mechanisms are
no longer working, the person is in panic, shocked, perhaps stupefied, immobile
or cataleptic. In the case of my patient the strongest,
clearest miasmatic information comes from how her disease is effecting her in
her daily life and with her husband. Also,
she says that it could be a serious disease (more than once), but what she does
is rest, when she can. The worst
she can imagine is that she may have to change her life or maybe go live with
her sister. In essence she feels
that she has a problem, which could be serious. So in her view she feels she
must live with it, accept things as they are and lead a rather restricted life.
Similarly, in her marriage, which she would prefer not to have, she says,
“We are married, so that’s the way that is.
Of course he’s not going to leave.”
Again, she accepts the situation as it is, avoids the fighting and
yelling and lives with it as it is, reasoning that she’s “just getting her
karma over.” This is a very sycotic attitude.
Sycosis, according to many of the old masters and Dr. Sankaran as well,
is characterized by the feeling that there is a fixed weakness in me that I must
cover up and accept. By looking at
Thuja, the most famous and well known of the anti sycotic plant remedies, it is
perhaps easier to understand both miasm and vital sensation.
Thuja is in the Conifer family. The
vital sensations of the Conifers are brittle, broken pieces, shattered,
defenseless, vulnerable, hollow, old, fragile, cracked and disconnection.
The effect upon the patient with those vital sensations ultimately
determines the miasm. In the
sycotic patient, needing Thuja, the miasmatic reaction or effect is seen in its
“fixed ideas.” Then there are
poignant rubrics, which show us the way toward the miasm by emphasizing the
degree of fixety or rigidity, such as Fanaticism and Monomania.
In the successful state of sycosis the patient
will keep the weak spot hidden from the view of others.
There will be fixed ideas (“I just have to get my karma over”) and
ritualistic behavior. Usually
everything is covered up, which my patient does by avoiding dealing with her
husband, not yelling back, sleeping on the couch etc.
In the state of sycotic failure there is guilt, remorse and self
reproach, all of which she has to some extent.
I would say she is not in a completely failed state since she is
continuing to function. Hers is a marginally functional life, though it is quite
restricted. So the remedy that Dr. Sankaran has designated
as sycotic within the Araceae family is Caladium seguimum and that is the remedy
that my patient was given. What we
have identified is the intersecting point between the exact family and the exact
miasm, which in this case is Caladium. The
reason Caladium is considered sycotic is because it is very well known in the
literature for its usefulness in gonorrhea, impotency or secondary gonorrhea and
an array of other symptoms, which it is reputed to have cured subsequent to
sycosis. Interestingly if one resorts to a search of
the materia medica or repertory, Caladium has numerous references that
correspond very closely to the patient’s complaints, such as faintness and
“attacks like fainting.” It can
also be found for numbness of the hands and though there were very few
particular chest pains described for the remedy, stitching is, by far, the
predominant sensation, which is found.
Caladium also has a unique remedy rubric in the mind section, which was
virtually identical to how my patient described it:
Concentration, difficult, thinking, when. Considering the relatively small amount of
information in the literature on Caladium, I found what was available to be
impressive. But I would have given
the remedy, nonetheless, and with great confidence had I not found a single
symptom listed, despite the fact that I had never prescribed it previous to this
case. To many I am sure such an assertion might sound like blatant arrogance,
but I can assure you that I have already seen this approach work in many cases
where the remedies were so partially proven or where there was virtually no
information in the books supporting the prescription, yet where the results,
subsequently, have been absolutely brilliant.
I have observed that giving “off the grid”
remedies, such as Caladium, makes many homeopaths nervous.
In reality, the entire practice of labeling remedies small or rare is a
fallacy. Unfortunately, this
prejudices homeopaths, especially those who are more novice, toward relying all
too often upon a relatively small body of remedies, those referred to as the
polycrests. Consider this: For the
patient here needing Caladium, (A supposedly small, rare remedy) this must be
the largest, hugest in the materia medica, since it is the one she required. By
staying within one’s comfort zone and prescribing the same remedies with great
frequency, by readily settling for the obvious and not exploring, at least
contemplating the possibility of the wonderful, wide world of materia medica,
opportunities for learning and growing as practitioners are severely diminished.
I proceeded to mail Caladium 200c (from
Hahnemann Laboratories) to my patient on December 13th.
I got the following e-mail on the 15th: Thank you very much for the remedy.
I took it this morning at 5 AM. About
a half hour later felt quite a few needle-like pricks in the left chest area,
then about two hours later felt heavy chest pains in the left for about a
minute, not longer. Later in the
afternoon when laying down (about 1 PM) felt heaviness in chest and light dull
pain. My arm and hand were not as
numb and tingling today is probably about 70% less.
My mind felt somewhat clearer, no dizziness today, but some brain fog.
I'm very grateful to be feeling better.
I’m amazed that the remedy is working this quickly. 1/21/02 (first actual follow up) I’m doing a lot better, just a lot better.
Definitely the numbness, gosh, there’s maybe...it varies.
Some days it’s pretty much steady at 70% better and sometimes it’s
better than that and it goes back and forth.
What’s nice is that I have to take pulses and again, for the first time
in many months I do it with either hand. I know I forgot to mention this, but also my
right, especially my big toe, tends to get a little numb and that’s been about
the same. Thinking has been a whole lot better, which
has been great. It’s so much
better than it was, so much clearer. This
past week I’ve had a little more tiredness, but up till then I’ve
dramatically had more energy, so that’s great too.
What about the pains?
Oh, yes I forgot about those...since they’re hardly ever there anymore.
Maybe once a week, so that’s amazing; that’s incredible! I think I’m much more positive actually.
Things don’t seem to bother me as much and nothing’s changed.
My circumstances are just the same.
Really I do feel lighter...things don’t bug me as much.
Like what? One of the things
is he’s become glued to the internet. He
hardly does the chores he even used to do because he’s always on the internet.
I still don’t feel like confronting him about it.
That’s still there. Now I
don’t care as much (bursting into her inimitable uncomfortable laugh).
Things that were irritating don’t seem as irritating.
And I’ve become more positive about work.
I guess it’s because I was so tired.
I had a dream the other night, but I know why
I had it. We had a dinner with a
couple of friends of ours and they think they have implants...from UFO’s.
Then that night I’d seen an interview with a designer on Larry King.
I was interested because he’d lost 90 lbs. in 13 months. My dream is about I’m in the fashion world and I know all
these secrets, so I have to get implants to be controlled. Secrets? Fashion
secrets. They were doing it so I
wouldn’t give away secrets to the companies I worked for.
Feeling? When I woke up it
was pretty vivid and usually my dreams aren’t that vivid.
I think I thought something like I was in an exciting kind of...you know
the spy world. Feeling in the
dream, to be implanted? I felt that
it was ok. I’m not sure why. Maybe because I have to be pretty important to have these
done. The sleep situation?
That’s about the same as before. I
haven’t really tried to fix that, but like I said, now I don’t care as much.
Is it ok the way it is? Yeah,
there’s still some level that it’s not ok, but then again I still feel like
the karmic part of it is definitely there.
And I do feel really bad thinking how he would be effected by a big
upheaval. He’s really sensitive.
I feel that even though it comes across as being selfish, I think he
really has these sensitivities. That
would really crush him and I don’t need to do that.
There’s not a strong reason to have to put someone through that.
So it’s Ok. How long does
this karmic thing last? I don’t
know. It might last forever, till
the end of our lives; I’m not sure. I didn’t have the nausea before my period,
but the headache (was there). Is
that unusual not to have the nausea? Yeah,
that is very unusual. What about the lightheadedness?
That has really improved! Assessment:
Brief aggravation, followed by an extraordinary response.
Significant improvement is obvious in all her physical complaints.
She is even finding it somewhat easier to cope with her husband,
something I would not have expected to hear for a long time.
Her dream is interesting in that it once again
points out the sycotic miasm. She
feels she has secrets, which she must not give away (reveal).
This is the essence of sycosis, the need to cover up what is wrong; I’m
not ok, so I must hide it and live with it as it is.
This is the significance of her feeling she needed to be implanted. Also interesting is how she spoke of her
husband as being sensitive, really sensitive.
This is the first time she used the word sensitive.
She is really only speaking about herself and her own sensitivity since
we only see what we are. This
further illustrates her plant-like qualities, her sensitivity and reactivity. Since then I’ve done three more follow-ups:
early March, mid May and late July. She
required a repetition of Caladium 200c at the time of the March 4th
consultation. The numbness in her
hands had, once again, increased, though not to the original level.
She also said that she was becoming more frustrated in her relationship. I asked her to describe the frustration and
she said this: I guess it’s kind
of in the area of feeling not as patient, not that he’s doing anything
different. What are you feeling?
Kind of a little more ... more abrasive, when I talk to him.
He kind of sets me off when he says things.
Instead of being polite I tend to become sharp; I snap at him. It’s a type of frustration...I guess that’s how I’m
feeling. Underlying that is anger.
Feeling like I need more help from him and he’s not giving it.
I feel frustrated in that I can’t talk to him about it because it’s
not doing anything. If it had been only the increase in the
numbness of her hands I would not have repeated the remedy, Until now she has only had two doses of
Caladium 200c. In only eight months
she has made great progress in terms of her physical health.
All of her symptoms and problems are dramatically reduced.
Her mind has cleared up to the extent that she has no problem whatsoever
with concentration and thinking. Her
energy level is quite adequate. Here is an excerpt of what she said on the
brief follow up that we did on July 30th, 2002. I’m doing very well. What about the numbness?
That’s actually much better. It
still happens but not anywhere near as much.
How are the jabbing pains in your chest? They
are sharp, just a sharp feeling in the left upper area of the chest.
It’s just for a second and that’s it.
When I came it was much more frequent.
Now I get them once or twice a week. How often were they before?
Oh gosh, maybe about six to ten times in a day...and they lasted much
longer.
What about the frustration with your husband?
Better, much better. I
don’t have so much of that feeling. How
is that feeling that you would just like to leave?
No, I can live with it like this (This still expresses the sycotic miasm,
where there is a fixed feeling of not being okay, so she has to live with
herself, accept things as they are, hide it, cover it up, as it is her weak
point.).. So there is the case as it stands up to the
present time. Although the results,
thus far, are impressive, I believe my patient still has a long way to go, but I
do not see another remedy on the horizon. In
two or three more years she should be much more healthy in terms of her overall
state. It takes a long time for
sycotic patients to break loose from their deeply ingrained ways of being.
Sycotic cases typically move much more slowly than cases that are in the
acute, typhoid, malarial, psoric or ringworm miasms. A question that some might ask is “Why do we
need new ways of working?” Some
say that anything that does not follow exactly along the lines of what Hahnemann
himself espoused is altogether unacceptable.
Similarly, others have been known to claim that we have all the remedies
necessary and that there is no need to introduce new remedies and provings into
the materia medica. It is my belief
that critically honest homeopaths acknowledge that there are all too many
failures in practice. The work of
people like Dr. Sankaran comes from the realization that we are not curing
enough of our patients enough of the time.
People come to us in great need and maybe we help them a little, but all
too often the results are far from optimal.
This method gets its impetus directly from
dissatisfaction with failures in practice.
It is born out of a never ending spirit of inquiry and a firm belief that
we can do better. I am certain that
a similar drive within Hahnemann himself is what kept him always striving to
change and grow, right up to his dying day.
It is folly to believe that merely because his life ended, that the quest
is over, that his work was finished and that homeopathy is perfected.
Taking a page out of the book of some, who would call themselves
“pure” homeopaths, I pose the following question:
What could be a purer homeopathic approach than matching the innermost
vital state of the patient to that which is most characteristic, most central,
most basic in a remedy? This is the
quintessential, inductive approach. Recently an experienced homeopath, who is very
new to this way of working had an
exciting success. I got a note from
him in which he said, "The long and the short was that I came to Pulsatilla,
hilariously, by kingdom and miasm alone, the repertorization was entirely
unclear." That's the whole
point. Repertorization is not
reliable; it is man-made. Repertorial
rubrics are out-of context extractions, veritable artefacts of a much larger
truth: provings. Though provings
have and continue to be a most reliable tool, they are often too big, too
unwieldy to utilize effectively. While
rubrics can be very seductive and misleading, vital sensations will never lie.
They represent the innermost truth from the microcosm to the macrocosm.
I would be remiss were I not to mention that
this modus operandi is equally amenable to cases where the indicated remedy is
derived from a substance outside the plant kingdom. In such cases sensitivity ie. vital sensation, will not be
the deciding factor. Where minerals
are concerned a break in structure will be the primary feature, while in a case
requiring an animal remedy the focal point will be upon issues having to do with
survival, competition and hierarchy. I
look forward to presenting model cases illustrating such cases in future
articles. I find it extraordinary that Dr. Sankaran is
enthusiastically and generously sharing his breakthroughs in homeopathy, without
reservation. It is only a matter of
time until more of us have the opportunity to learn about these ideas, to put
them into practice and experience the immense satisfaction of seeing patients
getting well with greater consistency than we might ever have imagined possible.
Jeff Baker, ND, DHANP, CCH lives, with his
family, on the island of Maui, where he practices homeopathy with his wife,
Susie. Jeff directs the Maui
Academy of Homeopathy, which, for the past twelve years, has presented seminars
and more recently extended courses in advanced homeopathic practice. He welcomes
feedback or enquiry and can be reached by e-mail at mauiacademy@earthlink.net
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So how does living with (your husband) effect
you?
related dreams and usually they’re pleasant.
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