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Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 1 SIMILLIMUM

Editor: Neil Tessler ND, DHANP Simillimum is a journal published by naturopathic physicians for all people interested in homeopathy. It is dedicated to the practice of classical homeopathy as formulated by Samuel Hahnemann in the Organon of Medicine. The editors encourage homeopaths of all professions and backgrounds to write. Accounts of cured cases, essays, articles and letters to the editor are welcomed. The journal is published in March, June, September and December. Material must be submitted eight weeks prior to publication (the first of January, April, July or October) to be considered for the coming issue. General HANP membership is open to everyone, and includes a subscription to Simillimum.

Contact HANP Office: LeeAnn Daus, Executive Director Neil Tessler, Simillimum Editor P.O. Box 8341 3566 King George Highway Covington, WA 98042 Surrey, B.C. [email protected] Canada V4P 1B5 Phone: 253-630-3338 [email protected] Fax: 815-301-6595 Phone: 604-542-9759

Advertising: Neil Tessler [email protected] www.hanp.net

HANP Board of Directors: John Collins ND, DHANP John Millar ND, DHANP Gregory Pais ND, DHANP Manon Bollinger ND DHANP Neil Tessler ND DHANP Stephen Albin ND DHANP Brent Mathieu ND, DHANP President: Neil Tessler ND, DHANP Executive Director: LeeAnn Daus

Spring / Summer 2005 Volume XVIII Double Issue Simillimum (ISSN 1526-1964) is published quarterly by the Homeopathic Academy of Naturopathic Physicians P.O. Box 8341 Covington, WA 98042. The HANP is a non-profit organization with no owners or stockholders. Subscription price in USA is $50 ($47 for subscription, $3 for dues), Canada $55 ($52 for subscription, $3 for dues) and outside North America $65 ($62 for subscription, $3 for dues). Periodicals postage paid at Kent, Washington and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send Address Changes to Simillimum, c/o HANP P.O. Box 8341 Covington, WA 98042 [email protected]. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 2 

  ...... 6 :         Neil Tessler ND, DHANP...... 11       : an Interview with Joseph Kellerstein DC, ND Neil Tessler ND, DHANP...... 14   : An Introductory Article to the Chronic Diseases. Samuel Hahnemann MD...... 30   Michael Austin Ph.D...... 34  : From an Interview with David Grove By Penny Tompkins and James Lawley...... 39      Julia M. Green MD...... 44           -    Baron C.M.F. Von Boenninghausen...... 49   Bruce Lipton Ph.D...... 56    Pearlyn Goodman - Herrick ND, DHANP...... 58         Brent Mathieu ND, DHANP...... 67      Amy Rothenberg ND, DHANP...... 74

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 3   Ian Watson, RSHom...... 80        An Excerpt from What About the Potency by Michelle Shine RSHom...... 91     .  Including bastyr’s practical homeopathic materia medica By Melanie J. Grimes RSHom (NA), CCH ...... 100  :     Rajan Sankaran Review By Neil Tessler ND, DHANP...... 105  -       An Excerpt from Homeopathy for ASD: Exceptional Medicine for Exceptional Kids - By Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman, ND, DHANP, Robert Ullman, ND, DHANP, and Ian Luepker, ND, DHANP...... 108  :  -       By Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman, ND, DHANP, Robert Ullman, ND, DHANP, and Ian Luepker, ND, DHANP Review By Neil Tessler ND, DHANP...... 117  :     A Compendium Guide to Homeopathic Poteny and Dosage By Michelle Shine RSHom Review By Neil Tessler ND, DHANP...... 118  :     Ian Watson, RSHom Review By Neil Tessler ND, DHANP...... 120  :       Liz Lalor Reviewed by Jennifer Sherman-Tessler...... 122     By Susan Drury...... 124

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 4 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 5          ,     C.J. Hiware...... 128

   Tsunami Relief Effort By Rene R. Guarnaluse Arce MD...... 133       Lycopodium and Pulsatilla By Liz Lalor...... 143   ...... 160     ...... 168

This Issue is Dedicated to the Memory of Julian Winston

Editor: Neil Tessler ND, DHANP Graphic Design: Jason McMillan of Neosonic Design Corp. Copy Proofing: Jen Gully Cover quote from Organon of the Medical Art by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann Edited and annotated by Wenda Brewster O’Reilly Ph.D.

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Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 4 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 5   : Neil Tessler ND, DHANP

NCH Proposes A Joint Professional Convention

Recently, the National Center for Homeopathy put forward the suggestion that the conferences of the NCH, NASH, AIH and HANP come together under one tent, along with the Association of Veterinary Homeopaths, the Homeopathic Nurses Association, and Homeopathy Without Borders. All have agreed that this could be very exciting. Although initial discussions were for 2007 in December, it has now been decided that the planned NCH conference set for San Jose, in April 2006, will be the first united convention. The approximate structure would be for a joint conference (Saturday, Sunday) that also allowed for separate meetings to serve the needs of the various organizations (Thursday, Friday).

The goal is to bring together as many practitioners, students and vendors as possible. It is also expected that the weekend will include many high quality, peer-reviewed presentations. This is a great opportunity for the North American homeopathic community to come together. The HANP board will work for the widest possible participation of our members and interested students.

The HANP will use the occasion for meetings of the board, general membership, CNCHE (faculty), HANP student reps and probably various combinations thereof, depending on the degree of participation. All of the HANP meetings would occur on Friday, for which a room has been set aside from eight in the morning until ten thirty at night.

New York Naturopathic Legislation and Professional Homeopathy

Recently we were alerted to concerns arising from the homeopathic community of New York regarding naturopathic legislation in that state. Upon our inquiry, Doni Wilson ND, President of the New York Association of Naturopathic Physicians, made a swift reply and also sent a copy of the bill. These are some of her comments:

Thank you for contacting me and the NYANP… I have been in communication with homeopaths in NY for a couple of years now, and plan to continue those relationships.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 6 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 7 Please know that it is not the intent of the NYANP to restrict homeopaths or any other practitioners of natural health modalities from practicing now or in the future. It is not the intent of the NYANP to restrict the use of natural therapies, including homeopathy, to naturopathic doctors. The only restriction we promote would apply to those who identify themselves as naturopathic doctors or naturopaths, whom we believe must have a license in order to identify themselves as naturopathic doctors, and as such, also be eligible to prescribe a homeopathic remedy or any other natural therapy.

…We would like to receive input from any and all health professionals and practitioners who have concerns regarding the bill language.

Here is the language from our bill related to exempting homeopaths. We hope this language helps the homeopaths in NY to feel comfortable with this bill.

§ 6580. Exemptions. Nothing contained in this article shall be construed to: 3. Limit a person who makes recommendations regarding or is engaged in the sale of food, extracts of food, nutraceuticals, vitamins, amino acids, minerals, enzymes, botanicals and their extracts, botanical medicines, homeopathic medicines, dietary supplements, and nonprescription drugs or other products of nature, the sale of which is not otherwise prohibited under state or federal law from doing so, provided such person is not practicing medicine or naturopathic medicine without a license or using a title protected pursuant to this article; or...

Thank you again for contacting me. I look forward to working together to pass legislation that will benefit NDʼs and not impinge on the practice of homeopaths.

Doni Wilson, ND NYANP President and Legislative chair

It may be useful if we add to this the definition of naturopathy as contained in the bill which adds further clarification:

5. “Naturopathic medicine” or “naturopathy” means the medicine as taught in board approved schools of naturopathic medicine and in clinical, internship, preceptorship and postdoctoral training programs approved by the board and practiced by a recipient of a degree of doctor of naturopathic medicine licensed pursuant to this article. --- This specifically tells us that the definition of naturopathy as used in the bill relates to graduates of approved naturopathic schools. Therefore limitations of the proposed legislation pertains only to those who would Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 6 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 7 call themselves naturopaths but have not met the prerequisites or been duly licensed. They fall outside the act and could be subject to legal action. This cannot however pertain to homeopaths, chiropractors, herbalists, physiotherapists, midwifes, nurse practitioners, or any others who may do some procedure that falls within the wide scope of practice of naturopathic medicine. There will always be intersecting circles of practice modalities between naturopaths and numerous other professions.

Licensing legislation is an important consideration when the profession includes modalities and methods that contain a larger degree of potential harm to the public. Naturopathic medical education includes various invasive diagnostic and treatment procedures, as well as obstetrical training. The effort, therefore, is to define a broad scope of practice inclusive of the breadth of naturopathic education, while safeguarding the public, as well as the profession itself, through appropriate licensure.

Gathering this information on the clearly expressed intent of the naturopaths and the specific wording of their bill, both of which proved to be absolutely benign in terms of the homeopathic profession, took all of a day. Unfortunately, so much energy has been expended for months on anxiety for which there appears to be no cause. Forget for a moment the lawyers who will always find something to make someone nervous. The clear intent expressed by Doni and the clear wording of the bill are – well - very clear.

We believe that licensing legislation and health freedom laws can co- exist, serving the differing needs of the various professions. It is our sincere hope that homeopaths in the various affected states communicate more with local naturopathic officials and visa versa, in order to find mutual understanding on issues of importance to each group.

Again, when real problems do arise, the HANP is committed to working with both sides to create an outcome that fully protects the rights of unlicensed homeopaths while supporting the right of naturopaths to seek legal regulation of their membership and practices.

HANP Naturopathic Student Representatives

One of the founding mandates of the HANP was to encourage the development and improvement of homeopathic curriculum at naturopathic colleges. After many years of stalled efforts, we are beginning to find a positive path towards this goal. In the fall of last year, we held the first conference of the homeopathic faculty of the naturopathic colleges. This very exciting two-day meeting, it is hoped, will be the start of ongoing efforts towards sharing pedagogical methods, and institutional concerns, while working together on issues of curriculum and clinical training. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 8 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 9 Having had a go with the faculty, we have turned our attention to the students. The HANP has now created a system of student representatives at the six naturopathic colleges. The students recently engaged in a phone conference that included Dr. John Collins and myself, on May 24th. The board had posed a number of questions regarding their homeopathic education, their collegeʼs attitude toward homeopathy and what help they could use from the profession.

The student reps will also be a vehicle of communication between the active profession and interested students. The students have asked us to create a list of preceptors and post-graduate programs to raise their level of homeopathic training to a proper professional standard. Another request from the students was for an online forum for students and young graduates to ask questions of experienced practitioners. This and other forums will be created during the extensive redevelopment of the HANP website on track for this summer.

We are excited that graduates will enter the profession with an active relationship to the HANP from their student years. It is our hope that they will be more likely to aspire to the specialty degrees and recognize the organizationʼs value to the profession.

The Place of Homeopathy in Naturopathic Medicine (Written with Dr. John Millar)

In due course, the student reps and faculty association, along with the HANP, representing the profession, may prove to be effective advocacy groups to the naturopathic college administrations with regard to homeopathic programs. In some schools there is ongoing frustration at the steady marginalizing of homeopathy. Naturopathy is in many respects a progressive form of the prevailing medical model and could lose sight of the vitalism, holism and empiricism that guided naturopathic medicine in its earliest years.

Despite the fact that homeopathy is one of the most thoroughly developed and holistic systems of medicine in the world, in the eclectic education programs of the Naturopathic Colleges it is given inadequate time to create competent practitioners. In some of the programs, naturopathic students receive less than a hundred hours of homeopathic training, and yet on graduation are legally entitled to practice. Many graduates advertise homeopathy as one of their practice modalities, putting themselves in direct competition with certified homeopaths. Yet the actual training hours of these naturopaths is often only a fifth as great as professional homeopaths, at best only half, and they would be unable to qualify for certification examinations. Even the most ardent homeopathic programs at the Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 8 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 9 Naturopathic Colleges give no more that two hundred fifty to three hundred hours. Contrast this with the five hundred hours required by the Council for Homeopathic Certification, as well as the Homeopathic Academy of Naturopathic Physicians, which utilizes the CHC examination as part of its specialty certification.

With the advent of homeopathic student and faculty inter-collegiate relations, the foundation is there to invite each individual naturopathic institution to invigorate its relationship to homeopathy, which will strengthen the students and the profession. The next phase of work for the HANP, is to help support and unite the faculties to decide on the kind of homeopathic education they would ideally like to see in the colleges, and to work together along with the college administrations to see what can be achieved.

One of our goals would be to have the naturopathic profession and its educational institutions offering postgraduate training, perhaps in conjunction with some existing programs, so that graduates might easily gain the further homeopathic education unavailable within the limitations of the naturopathic program. This will raise homeopathic competency in the profession, show that the colleges recognize the importance of offering a complete homeopathic education and inspire many to become properly certified. Work towards these ideals will likely be the primary focus of our organizational activities for some time to come.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 10         Neil Tessler ND, DHANP

Major changes are afoot. The journal is experimenting with publishing two double issues per year, while maintaining a subscriber- based online and regularly updated journal through our website, to be implemented over the next several months. You will continue to have a tangible journal to have and to hold. Along with this, if you do a lot of reading in the electronic environment, as many of us do these days, you can read us online. Many will wish to check for periodic updates. You can even download individual articles for use in your study group, classroom or project.

We would like to send warmest appreciation to all the good people we met or had the chance to spend time with at the National Center for Homeopathy convention in Orlando, Florida. Special thanks to the twenty individuals who took new subscriptions! We have never previously attended a homeopathy event on the East Coast and it was great to finally meet some of the good people out there.

Jo Kellersteinʼs interview is extremely worthwhile reading and is followed by a series of referential articles. His Hahnemannian approach reminds us of the philosophical and methodological foundations of homeopathic science. As students and practitioners, are we well schooled in the fundamental literature and philosophical basis of homeopathy? If we are, well and good, but if not, it is something to which we should aspire. This is why in every issue we try to publish valuable, instructive pieces from the past. They are chosen for their inherent interest and relevance, not just to history, but also for today.       Dr. Kellersteinʼs criticism of modern provings is valuable but might best be regarded in context. There are also poor nineteenth century provings and demonstrably unreliable provers in the old literature. The fact is, plenty of people are getting good results utilizing modern provings. New remedies are being successfully applied in conscientiously taken and followed cases brought before seminars and published in journals and books. It appears to us that things were not perfect then and are not perfect now. It is our hope that ongoing dialogue within the profession will continue to raise the bar on proving quality so that all segments of the profession can justly appreciate the present and be excited for the future. Dr. Herscuʼs recent two volumes Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 11 on provings are a valuable contribution on this important subject.

Jo asserts it is simply “not homeopathy” the moment there is a front end filter that ruins inductive purity. The phrase “not homeopathy” is nettlesome and invites defense and reaction. However, if we just let our reaction pass and consider, there is much useful value in the conservative argument. There are pointed truths to be heard and applied as correctives in both education and practice. This is particularly felt after several years of reviewing cases that indicate a lack of fundamentals and a superficial application of kingdoms, doctrine of signatures, etc. It does become a caricature of homeopathy when we find more of magical thinking and less of a carefully taken case and a rational analysis.

We have to admit that there a kind of “pop” homeopathy that is not a healthy trend, though I donʼt believe the problem is new ideas. The problem with the spread of Georgeʼs work, was the superficial use of ʻessencesʼ. It misrepresented his ideas. That was the “pop” homeopathy of the eighties and substantially the same kind of thing is happening today. The first hedge against the superficial application of new ideas, however brilliant and worthy, is a careful grounding in the fundamentals of Hahnemannian philosophy and practice. Rajan Sankaran states this very firmly in his new book.

Thoughts like those expressed by Dr. Kellerstein, are, at their heart, a positive impetus towards maintaining the balance of the profession as a whole. The profession is composed of individuals of differing nature approaching homeopathy from various angles. He urges us to approach homeopathy from a homeopathic angle. We have invited Dr. Kellerstein as well as Dr. Saine to help the HANP in its efforts to insure a better future for homeopathic education in the naturopathic colleges, and they have warmly signaled their assent. Making common cause over issues of general concern, such as homeopathic education, is a practical way to preserve our professional unity; workng together for the betterment of the profession as a whole.

Neil Tessler ND, DHANP is a Diplomate of the HANP since its founding year. He is a lecturer at the Vancou- ver Homeopathic Academy and has been in full-time practice in British Columbia since 1983.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 12 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 13 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 12 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 13        Interview with Joseph Kellerstein DC, ND By Neil Tessler ND, DHANP

NT: Tell something about your background

JK: In Ontario I have a dual license as a naturopath and a chiropractor. I graduated in 1980 as a chiropractor, feeling extremely insecure. I was feeling as if there was a lot to potential in chiropractic but perhaps it hadnʼt been explored.

At the same time there were some renegade chiropractors that had acquired the charter for naturopathy from the chiropractic college. These were people who had actually taught at the chiropractic college but were interested in nutrition and lifestyle and how these things might affect disease. One of my friends was attending these naturopathic lectures about fifty miles outside Toronto, in a small art gallery in the old city of Kitchener. Through my friend I became really interested. They were talking about a lot of exciting information on vitamin therapy. They were bringing in all these speakers from the Contreras clinic in Mexico as well as other people doing some pretty cutting edge work in nutrition at that time. So I went up to Kitchener and I audited some of the courses and was totally fascinated. They were a small but great group of people, very dedicated and very intelligent, so I ended up taking some of the naturopathic programs as soon as I graduated Chiropractic College. We had some really old time naturopaths lecturing to us.

NT: Was this CCNM?

JK: Oh, yes, this was CCNM in its formative stages. I was in the third class. This would have been 1981. CCNM was in a small art gallery with no heating in the winter in Kitchener. The people who were lecturing; some we brought in from the States, most of them were radionics operators and thatʼs where they acquired their homeopathy. Yet even that kind of diluted homeopathy caught my attention so dramatically. I was addicted immediately.

NT: Homeopathy does that to you.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 14 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 15 JK: Once I graduated from CCNM I was practicing homeopathy almost exclusively for a year or two and a little chiropractic. Then an old colleague came back from NCNM. We knew each other from Chiropractic College as he has been in my class. I certainly respected him. He hadnʼt even shown up at graduation. He went straight from Chiropractic College to NCNM where he had made friends with Robin Murphy.

NT: Andre.

JK: Yes. He and I and another naturopath, Gary Hardy, had decided to get together and form the Canadian College of Homeopathic Medicine. We wanted to teach homeopathy and we wanted a decent academic level and Andre was going to be our teacher because he had certainly been out there studying all the old literature. So in 1986 I began studying with Andre. Prior to that I had done a few seminars with Vithoulkas, when he came to New York. Robin Murphy had come to Toronto quite a bit to speak to our group over the course of a few years prior to this as well. So I spent two or three years studying with Robin.

Then Andre came and just blew us away with his knowledge. When we did that original course with Andre, we saw a lot of brand new patients and we always saw follow-ups, and the follow-ups went on and on throughout the three years we were there. After each session he was welcoming all kinds of questions and we wouldnʼt leave it alone until we could clearly comprehend exactly what he was doing and weʼd tell him if we disagreed with his remedy choice.

We would see the follow-up a month later. These were often severely pathological cases. We saw what homeopathy could do. We saw failures but we mostly saw successes and we saw ways around difficulties. It was quite amazing. It made a huge impact on clinical practice. Andre was very open and giving with his information. I preceptored with him for quite a while and you never look back as homeopathy is just the most amazing thing in the world.

For a while I became very interested in Dr. Sankaranʼs method. Iʼve never seen him lecture himself. I have seen Sujit and Sunil in Boston. We were fascinated by his first book. We also studied with Sadhna. We were reading furiously. But I could never make that approach work for me (early nineties). Though I found the thinking gorgeous and many of the objective observations on video really insightful and beautiful, I couldnʼt do it for myself on a predictable and regular basis.

Later on reflection, I realized that what I was doing was not inductive. On reflecting on theOrganon and inductive methodology, that this is Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 14 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 15 a beautiful method and perhaps many people are able to make it work for them, but by definition it is not homeopathy. Maybe itʼs better than homeopathy, but it is not homeopathy if we allow Hahnemann to create the definition of homeopathy.

NT: Elaborate on that?

JK: If we look at the introductions, I might be wrong on this one, the third and the fifth editions, it says if we take one step outside the strictly inductive method, there is no going back, there is no footing, there is no substantial way to create knowledge. (See footnote one)

The way I understand it, the inductive method (according to Hahnemannʼs wonderful article, The Medical Observer, that completely defines the Zen like stance the practitioner needs to have) means you come to the table totally without presupposition. If you come to an interview and you have in the back of your mind, (letʼs say you love Vithoulkasʼs work and the essence writings), “Iʼm going to really work at this and find this patientʼs essence”, “Iʼm going to find their theme”, “Iʼm going to find their central delusion”, “Iʼm going to find the ʻvital sensationʼ”, “Iʼm going to really get to the heart of this matter deeply”, any of those paradigms constitute a deductive paradigm through which your thinking will automatically deflect.

The way to come to the table is totally formless. Whatever is, is. No preconceived set of ideas or notions as to how to direct, within limits of course, just according to the Organon, and to help the patient sculpt the case in itʼs entirety, whether itʼs predominantly or entirely physical or whether itʼs predominantly or entirely mental. Whatever it is, it is. The only importance is completeness and thatʼs all there is to it.

Then with this kind of thing in mind, I went back and began studying Hahnemann constantly. I realized, on reflection, that at the time of Hahnemann there were many deductive paradigms in medicine. Predominantly the Paracelsian one: The Doctrine of Signatures, which to a large extent is what weʼve got going today when we talk about the different kingdoms, itʼs predominantly using a kind of Paracelsian paradigm overlaying homeopathy. So its really far closer to alchemy then it is to homeopathy. Hahnemann knew of Paracelsus, thereʼs no question. He took care of a library immediately after his graduation, I think it was Liepzig and the complete words of Paracelsus were there. There was no way Hahnemann would have missed out on that. Why he denied ever knowing about the Paracelsian similarities in his teachings in his later years, I donʼt know. (See footnote two on Hahnemann and Paracelsus). (Editorʼs note – Constantine Hering owned the second largest collection of Paracelsusʼs writings in the United States.) Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 16 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 17 He understood the Doctrine of Signatures perfectly well but he wanted to keep it strictly out of homeopathy. He says in the Organon, When youʼre considering the medicinal properties of a substance, disregard anything of its physical, chemical or natural properties, only the pure language of nature meaning experience, i.e., a proving and well-verified clinical experience, but especially the provings, and not reading into the substance anything. So when we do that, by definition again, weʼre not practicing homeopathy, unless you say again, “Well, its got to move on.” But you know what, if you go back to the original provings, for example going back to Hughes Cyclopedia of Drug Pathogenesy, even before the assembled symptoms in Materia Medica Pura, if you go back to the original provings and read some of the daybooks of the provers, how they got their symptoms as they were doing the provings, its every bit as beautiful as any one of the modern lecturers talking about the psychological or philosophical nuances of the substance. The provings have an infinite number of possible connections. Itʼs really quite an art just to read them and create the connections internally yourself.

So I found: a) Stay as inductive as possible, staying open and b) Trying to develop a love for the original provings because as a proving occurs thereʼs a similarity between that and the way disease occurs – at least thatʼs what weʼre hypothesizing in homeopathy. The development of the medicinal disease, the development of the natural disease, all of the connections, and all of the feelings, itʼs so full that it makes a statement all on its own. I tried to go back and rediscover that. I mean, I was as madly in love with essences as anybody. I was certainly very impressed by the way Sankaranʼs students could see a central delusion, but I couldnʼt make it work. So coming back to this kind of homeopathy. Then I began connecting with other homeopaths. There are a substantial group of homeopaths now, some in North America but especially in Germany, who are going back to the Boenninghausen method, some of them trying to be ultra-orthodox Hahnemannians, which may be going a bit far, but there is such beauty in original homeopathy and I donʼt think that weʼve nearly enough mined the beauty out of that. Yet we jump ahead to conclusions and authorʼs paradigms about it that donʼt really bear a resemblance to Hahnemannʼs work or the early prescribers and their amazing results. I mean, my God, these guys were dealing with life threatening diseases on a daily basis and mental disease and look at the results they got that they could write up. Unbelievable! Iʼd be happy to be able to duplicate a quarter of that.

NT: So how do you take a case?

JK: I do use Andreʼs basic outline. So we start with the various aspects of the chief complaint but Andreʼs basic outline is essentially whatʼs Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 16 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 17 found in the Organon, just elaborated a little bit. You start with trying to elaborate the chief complaint, just as anybody would. So the patient comes in, theyʼve got the questionnaire filled out. If the patient starts talking, I let them talk, unless I feel theyʼre getting too far away from the issue. Otherwise, Iʼll ask (from the questionnaire) whatʼs most important to talk about right now. Then Iʼll go down the list trying to get at that.

The questionnaire says, please list the chief complaints in order of importance to you. I may read the list out loud back to them. Then Iʼll say, “Weʼve got here that rheumatoid arthritis is most important and the bowel issues are second.” Iʼll watch his eyes and if I donʼt get any strong correspondence from his eyes, Iʼll say to him, “I want to talk about whatʼs most important to you right now.” And Iʼll wait for it. And Iʼll do the old, “What else, what else, what else?” The idea is to first select the initial frame, the frame of most importance and to empty it out of spontaneity just with the “what else”, or anything that might help the patient open up their sensory based description of their present state. So once youʼve emptied it out of spontaneity, to go in and make sure youʼve covered all the chief aspects of that complaint. So Iʼll go back and ask about etiology, mode of onset, the rhythm of the progression, location, sensation, modalities and concomitants. If any of those have branch points Iʼll follow the branch points. Normally one of the aggravating factors, one of the modalities will be mental or emotional, a stressor and Iʼll try to take a mini case on the stressors, trying to get all the emotional feelings of each of those stressors. What Iʼll also do is get all the bodily representations of that stress state as well.

NT: How do you do this?

JK: Iʼll say, “And when youʼre feeling…?” I believe many of Rajanʼs students do this. By the way there are some wonderful questioning techniques developed by a man named David Grove (see accompanying article), its called Clean Language Techniques. Dr. Grove is in New Zealand. If you look at cleanlanguage.com, there are tapes and books on developing clean language. These are techniques of asking questions that add absolutely nothing to the expressions of the patient but only try to flesh out concepts in time and space. Iʼll say, “And when youʼre feeling that anger, what are you feeling when you feel that anger?” The object there is to get really specific descriptors on the emotion and then Iʼll ask what heʼs feeling in his body and Iʼll try to get sensations, yes, but I donʼt know if itʼs a “vital sensation” or not. But Iʼll try to get “Iʼm feeling burning in my gut. Iʼm feeling tension in my traps. Iʼm feeling tightness in my jaw and I sense increased saliva.” Iʼll try to put that state together for them and Iʼll feed it back to them.

“So youʼre feeling anger and your body temperature is up and youʼre Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 18 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 19 feeling this here and that there” and “Are you feeling that right now?” Iʼll try to get them to associate to that state and once associated to that state, Iʼll try to get them to go back along a time line to the etiology of that state in their life. When theyʼre associated like that itʼs almost like a mild hypnotic state. So Iʼll do that with each of the emotional stressors that create a significant modality to the chief complaint. Iʼll try to make sure that before I leave each complaint, all of the components Iʼve just mentioned are outlined. And Iʼll do that with each of the chief complaints.

Then Iʼll do a general case. Iʼll do a thermal profile on the patient; the temperature and the weather, how it affects the global state and different parts of the body, if applicable. Iʼll do the same thing for perspiration, menses and there are whole panels of questions that are possible for each of those. Then at the end, hopefully after weʼve developed a really good rapport with the patient, Iʼll specifically ask him to describe his nature. Of course that one I stole from Sankaran lectures: “Describe your nature”, as opposed to your personality or character. I like that better. Iʼll steal questions wherever I can find them that are good. Questions are quite a passion with me. Have you ever taken any NLP?

NT: No.

JK: There is a wonderful thing in NLP that was partly developed by Chomsky, partly developed by the people who created NLP and some of the people who came shortly after. NLP is wonderful because it too, in its finest practice, is extremely inductive and it says some beautiful stuff that is so applicable to homeopathy. Iʼve studied NLP for about ten years now. It says stuff that is extremely important to the art of questioning. So, for example, what we all experience when we interview a patient, what we find so frustrating is that patients will talk to us in generalizations. They abstract their sensation into socially appropriate or easily communicated language that really has very little specific sensory meaning. A proving is an altered sensory experience, the alteration of feeling and function. When weʼre trying to get symptoms from a patient, ideally we want it in the same form as a proving symptom, which means we want vivid adjectives and we want it in a manner that depicts a sensory rich situation.

When a person describes their feeling or state to you, they usually come in with all of those things generalized. Theyʼve abstracted their experience to make it easily expressible. We have to reconnect them through questioning to their original altered sensory experience so it can be vividly described to us with rich emotional context with adjectives, adverbs, etc. NLP developed a series of questions called the meta-model, exactly in order to do that and Iʼve been working with this in case taking for many years. When a patient explains something I will use questioning techniques to get at as primary a sensory level as I can. That way I know Iʼm getting at Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 18 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 19 something I can match to a proving. I also know Iʼm getting to the primary experience of the person. So thatʼs my goal in questioning. When Iʼve hit a vein of sensory rich clear information, vividly described, and when the patient is clearly congruent, really attached to what he is saying, you see their eyes move up and drift to the right, theyʼre very comfortable, theyʼre sitting back somewhat, using a lot of clear language, you know youʼve got a vein of pure information.

NT: Youʼre very unhurried.

NT: You have to be. That initial interview is your first and perhaps youʼre only shot of getting an outline of this altered universe of this person that youʼre being privileged to be allowed to be a tourist in.

NT: How long does it take you?

JK: Usually about two hours, just like everybody else I imagine. Rarely three.

NT: So what comes next?

JK: Now I hope Iʼve learned a great deal about the patient, as much as I can. Iʼm not thinking about a remedy. Iʼm thinking, “I really want to know about this person in every conceivable manner.” So Iʼll want to know about their lifestyle, their foods. Iʼll want to know about breaches of lifestyle that might be a primary hindrance to the remedy. I want to know what in their background or education or belief systems might be a hindrance to healing or at the basis of an illness. So the first thing Iʼll do is read the case over and over until Iʼve got a sense of the various foci or centers of gravity in the case, as per systems and then specific symptoms, if I have some good delineation and clarity. Then Iʼll have to ask myself, “Whatʼs primary in this case? Is this primarily a hygienic case? Is the issue here that there is an imbalance in life, or a food which may be a sensitivity, or a working condition, or a life condition, or is it a dynamic disturbance? To what extent is it hygienic, to what extent is it dynamic?” Then Iʼll put together a treatment system based on that construct. A treatment system could be exercise, diet, or referral to another practitioner. Maybe I wonʼt do any homeopathy for a while. Maybe I have to work with them on a counseling basis in order to unearth certain belief systems that are better approached by some other methodology.

NT: What is the role of counseling in homeopathy?

JK: The role of counseling in homeopathy is extensive. Hahnemann, in the Organon, say that many, many of our psychological problems are traceable not to a dynamic disturbance, i.e., not to a true disease, but are due to faulty Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 20 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 21 education. Now education can refer to their schooling, and even to their upbringing, even to their own assessment of what is true and not true in life. That is a belief. That is something to which they have educated themselves. Some people habituate themselves to certain patterns or behaviors then attribute reality to those patterns. “All people who wear glasses are liars.” I once dated someone whose father was actually a doctoral student in Vienna at the time when Freud was teaching there, and he was a brilliant man, but had the belief that those who wore glasses are liars. He hated me, because I wear glasses. The crazy thing is he wore glasses too. Belief systems, in my opinion, are the number one cause of patients relapsing. Belief systems are at the root and in this way I guess I do agree with some of our modern authors that belief systems are at the root of chronic illness. Even in those cases where I have seen pathologies vanish, sometimes for up to ten years, with pathology gone, I see that if the belief system becomes reactivated, chronic disease will ultimately recur. Gary Hardy and I were talking about this. Weʼve had similar voyages in practice and both of us have studied a lot of Ericksonian hypnotherapy and a lot of NLP. Thereʼs a gentleman – Bruce Lipton, the author of The Biology of Belief. Basically, heʼs saying that belief systems govern genetic expression. (See Electrochemical Medicine in this issue). Thatʼs huge. Some hypnotherapists are saying the same thing. Certainly some homeopaths are saying it as well. I donʼt know who is more effective at limiting the expression of those belief systems. Now the question arises, how do we know when things are dynamic as opposed to “hygienic”? Hahnemann says in the Organon, that a clever deception, or counseling may, in fact, ameliorate the expression of certain belief systems or maybe even alter a belief system. Thatʼs where counseling comes in. (See the article Emotional Case Taking in this issue). When you notice that trying to mollify or counsel a patient seems to do nothing but aggravate the situation, odds are itʼs dynamic and not “hygienic”. When the occurrence of the mental or emotional belief structure coincides with the onset of pathology or the beginning of pathology, itʼs more likely dynamic. If its unique to that individual and truly a disease symptom, its probably dynamic as opposed to just a variant of what we would consider today to be normal. Remember proving symptoms were considered to be real disease symptoms, not just variants of normal. The whole Organon was founded on the concept that all symptoms are undoubtedly diseases.

NT: So what if the problem is based on belief systems?

JK: Well, if it based on belief systems there are many techniques, such as NLP and hypnotherapy, which will help the individual address the belief. If I feel the person requires more in depth NLP or psychotherapy than I can personally offer, because my primary focus is homeopathy, I will then refer them to another practitioner appropriate to what I perceive to be their need. So in case analysis you need to discriminate. Aphorism 153 is Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 20 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 21 essentially saying, there are two kinds of information. The kind of information that will narrow the field for you and help you find the remedy and the kind of information that wonʼt. If it doesnʼt help to characterize the person and lead to a remedy, itʼs not helpful. So general and vague symptoms are out, if only for the reason that they donʼt help to narrow the field immediately. Hahnemannʼs discussion in 153 is beautiful and totally consistent with modern linguistic and information theory. The more weʼre creating information and knowledge the more were looking for the most unique patterns. Weʼre creating foreground, background and for each foreground we constantly search for the most unique pattern. The pattern that is the most unique one has the least probability of coming into existence and therefore contains more information. Thatʼs the whole point of the most characteristic and peculiar symptoms. So with a background of having read provings, of hopefully knowing some materia medica, you search the case for those symptoms which may be distinguishing.

NT: Which texts do you reference for the provings?

JK: Hughes Cyclopedia of Drug Pathogenesy, where the original daybooks of the provers are reproduced, Materia Medica Pura, because I canʼt read German, (wish I could), Chronic Diseases, even though I know theyʼre flawed translations, especially in the mental symptoms, but itʼs the best Iʼve got. I also love Heringʼs Guiding Symptoms.

NT: Allenʼs Encyclopedia?

JK: Of course I use it, even though I know there are many errors in the translation of the provings. My German scholar friends say there are huge errors of translation from the original German provings, especially in the mental symptoms and the nuances of mental symptoms. Itʼs the best Iʼve got in my language so thatʼs what I use. I trust certain authors like Lippe, Nash, Boenninghausen, Boger, Guernsey. Iʼll trust them and their interpretations. I want my mind to be impressed with what might be characteristic in a proving and what might be characteristic in a case. And you get a feel for those symptoms. We all know our keynotes, etc. Weʼve all used a repertory and know how patterns tend to assemble themselves through repertory. However, we have to be careful with repertories because they are rather artificial in terms of their construction. They can put together completely false representations. I use a repertory to try to surprise myself. Try as I may, I am only human and Iʼll often form prejudicial pockets of remedies that I want to prescribe and I may see a partial image in a case. So while Iʼm taking the case I will tried to disprove my prejudice by asking an indirect question, but if I canʼt Iʼll repertorize several different ways, using the different clip boards, and Iʼll try to surprise myself with a remedy I havenʼt been thinking of and Iʼll study that remedy. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 22 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 23 Iʼll repertorize a case in many different ways but the idea is to get to an original piece of literature that will satisfy me in terms of the most unique symptoms in the case. These are the ones that sound like unique proving symptoms, that have that feel to them, that specific finish. The more experience you have in reading provings, the more you can create and frame questions that might, in a non-prejudicial manner, lead you to symptoms, because the more experience you have in reading what people experience in the raw state. And you have to be able to frame questions.

NT: So now youʼve taken your case and done some repertorization. How do you proceed?

JK: Youʼve got it down to ten or twelve remedies. Then Iʼll go through the process of trying to logically support or deny any remedies based on differentiating symptoms from the case. So just as Andre taught us we start with symptoms of highest value in the case. We call them “guiding symptoms. First there is the selection of those symptoms that are going to guide me into this massive materia medica of ours. Which ones am I going to lean on, which ones feel right in this case? Then which symptoms can I use to help distinguish between similar remedies? Iʼll do this first. When I teach my classes I tell them that if youʼre a dieter before you go shopping you make a very strict list. Otherwise you go to the market and you go, “Well, that looks good and that looks good too!” If you have a list while youʼre walking down the aisle youʼve got something to help, to keep yourself focused. So if you have selected your guiding symptoms, and your differentiating symptoms, you have something to keep you balanced in your search through the materia medica so that you donʼt get lost. On the other hand, you need to have the latitude to surprise yourself. Youʼre reading one of these remedies and you really didnʼt think it was appropriate but you left it in the top ten or fifteen. Then you run across a symptom in Hering that just nails something else the patient said and you realize, “My God, thatʼs very characteristic, and look at this characteristic and look at this”. Thatʼs when I really feel good about a remedy. It has nothing to do with whether a remedy is a small or a polychrest. Whatever it is, itʼs about discovering something new in each case. What the remedy is, that is really of no importance, except in the fact that it contains a core likeness to what you perceive to be most characteristic about this case of disease. You know, thatʼs so hard to do. So Iʼve decided to limit myself to this method. Yes, there is Andreʼs influence, which Iʼm endlessly grateful for, but it didnʼt stop me from exploring other avenues. I just find it the most fun and there is total freedom in it, total freedom, wandering in this amazing forest of well- proven remedies. The connections are so infinite itʼs staggering.

NT: Then there are the less well-proven remedies. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 22 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 23 JK: And Hahnemann mentions that when you consider these it is more difficult. Yes, it is more difficult to select them, thereʼs no question. Theyʼre probably underutilized and need more fleshing out and better provings. We have a lot of work to do, donʼt we? Heringʼs Guiding Symptoms had all of the well-known proving symptoms and clinical symptoms up to his day. That was 1879 and no one has done it since. The quality of provings weʼre getting today is nowhere near the quality of proving that they were working on back then. Last night I was with a study group and we were studying the remedy Tilia. Tilia was proven on people of many different ages, male and female, and it took a full year to prove it. They wanted to go through all the different seasons. The meticulousness of the proving was unbelievable. We donʼt see stuff like that today. We have to learn how to do it really well and it takes really good provers. When we read a proving today, how much do we have in the way of very characteristic physical symptoms? I find it quite rare in the modern provings and how full are they in very rich sensory-based descriptions in multiple systems that really could identify the characteristics of the remedy. So we rely on themes, we rely on mental symptoms and it doesnʼt seem very solid to me and especially in comparison to the daybooks of the provers in Hughes.

NT: How about dosage?

JK: As Luc de Schepper would say, Iʼm somewhere between a fourth and a fifth edition prescriber. I guess because a lot of the literature Iʼve read and a lot of the original experience I saw and had was with single dose or single does in water, I pretty well am very plain in this area. If I have an average case in a fairly healthy individual of mostly functional symptoms and who is not hypersensitive, Iʼll start with a 200. The lower the vitality, the more sensitive or more serious the pathology I might detect underneath, the lower the potency or the more dilute the potency down in water I might use. The clearer the case, the more striking the symptoms, the more acute the pathology right now, the higher the potency Iʼll feel OK with, without fearing aggravation. A very cut and dried method.

NT: So you donʼt use the LMʼs?

JK: Only because I havenʼt had a lot of experience with them. I figure if you use a tool, learn how to use it real well. Play with it, put it into different permutations and combinations. I might put a 6C or 30C in water and divide the dose. I might put a 6C down in ten glasses of water diluted sequentially in a hypersensitive patient. I havenʼt had a lot of experience with LM potencies and I feel real comfortable with a C scale. I figure that the whole idea of a potency is first to get a curative response moving in the patient, as evidenced by a complete case, and then by comparison of the Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 24 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 25 follow-up to the initial case. The second goal is to keep the case improving as rapidly as possible with the fewest relapses, which involves navigation on the hygienic levels for antidotal influences in the patientʼs life, which involves knowing when to dose. So getting to understand the patientʼs tempo of improvement and when you sense or can see by data a plateau of improvement, not a relapse but a plateau, to keep the momentum going. So those are the basic principles I use. I might use the 200C to start the case and might not dose again for three, four, five months. On the other hand I recall a case of very severe hyperthyroidism where I was giving CMʼs four or five times a day. I had to do that in order to prevent a relapse.

NT: How do you see the state of homeopathic education?

JK: When I first got into homeopathy it was said that you really couldnʼt get good with homeopathy unless you were some kind of intuitive genius. Iʼm not. Iʼve got to read a lot before it sinks in. Iʼve got to do it a lot, probably with some help before I can get to do it correctly. I want to be a good homeopath, thatʼs my real mission here, and I believe homeopathy can be taught as a skill and that Hahnemann thought so too. What I see happening today in homeopathic schools everywhere is extremely upsetting. The Organon in its original sense is rarely taught. Itʼs taught mostly to support individual authorʼs perspectives, instead of simply studying the Organon. I was asked to teach the Organon in one of the schools here and we read it out loud aphorism by aphorism and really had major discussion about it. I think that the Organon should be taught in almost the same way as Hebrew scholars study the Talmud, where you sit across the table from somebody and you argue out what does this mean in practice? How can we see this, what can we do with this? So far the Organon has been mainly used as a wonderful cure for insomnia and thatʼs about it. When people say theyʼve read the Organon, itʼs like Woody Allen saying he read War and Peace in two minutes, “I think itʼs about Russia”. The Organon if taught is rarely understood. I donʼt claim to be an expert on the Organon but I think that Iʼm coming to a good basic understanding of it, yet I donʼt see students having even a cursory understanding except through Kentʼs Lectures On Homeopathic Philosophy, which isnʼt even Hahnemann, is it? Itʼs a Swedenborgian interpretation of Hahnemann. So, number one, the Organon; theyʼre just not teaching it in a way that is easily understood and comprehended. If it were, people would not be so easily swayed as to what homeopathy is and is not. Geography is geography and the guys who originated geography get to name it and get to define its parameters and thatʼs what Hahnemann did and thatʼs what I want to study. Secondly, just straight knowledge of repertory is extremely lacking, knowledge of case taking. There are very few schools that teach how to do a detailed follow-up. There are very few schools that teach old-fashioned materia medica. Now why is that important if somebody is honestly Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 24 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 25 much more interested in the modern authors? Itʼs because we have such extremely rich literature and people should be able to dive into any part of that literature and understand exactly what these old guys were doing, how they were thinking and why, and be able to refer themselves to the original literature. We should be literate as to homeopathy.

NT: Three cases were sent from one school for publication and showed plainly the unfortunate results when new concepts are brought in at the student level, before the basics are solidified. The cases were a caricature of homeopathy that showed both a poor grasp of homeopathic fundamentals and only a very superficial understanding of new methods and their application.

JK: Youʼre so right. I practice five days a week between eight and ten hours a day and I teach two weekends a month. I have about fifteen, twenty, twenty-five preceptors come in, the odd time once, twice, three times, four times a year from various schools. About three years ago something happened that switched me into overdrive in terms of this particular topic. I had a patient who was a young man and the problem was a skin eruption. He was a warm-blooded person and was worse at eleven. He is kind of aggressive and selfish. The itching was worse at night and from the heat of the bed. He craved cold drinks. He was rather rude at points and slovenly. I turned to the preceptor, which I usually do, and asked, “Well, what do you think?” He said, “The remedy?” and I said, “No. Just tell me what strikes you about this case?” He said, “Well, clearly because of his interest in sex and the way he was aggressive clearly indicates an animal remedy. The fact that he was constantly touching his neck makes me think he is a snake remedy. Probably sycotic miasm, because he talked a great deal and went on and on.” I said, “OK, anything else?” I realized that we were on different planets. My point is that people are paying huge sums of money, investing their lives and really they have no fallback position. The function of a school, whether itʼs a naturopathic institution or a homeopathic college, is to teach excellence in homeopathic skills. If you are taught, for example, Sankaran, before youʼre ready, then itʼs a tragedy both ways, as you donʼt really understand either Sankaran or the fundamentals of homeopathy but end up with a superficial version of both that will not serve you in practice. My perspective is not that one should hide oneself from any modern thinking. My perspective is that I fear and I have seen, especially in the schools close to me, and in fact, in every school Iʼve had contact with so far, the balance has shifted far too far the other way. People donʼt know, have never even seen, one of the old provings. Most of the students Iʼve seen have never even looked inside Hering, or Allen, or Materia Medica Pura and have really never read much of Hahnemann at all except for snoozing through the Organon.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 26 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 27 Footnote 1: Organon, excerpts from the Preface to the Second Edition: “The true healing art is in its nature a pure science of experience and can and must rest on clear facts and on the sensible phenomena pertaining to their sphere of action, for all the subjects it has to deal with are clearly and satisfactorily cognizable by the senses through experience. ...every one of itʼs conclusions about the actual must always be based on sensible perceptions, facts and experiences if it would elicit the truth. If in its operation it should deviate a single step from the guidance of the perceptable, it would lose itself in the illimitable region of fantasy and arbitrary speculation, the mother of pernicious illusion and of absolute nullity.”

“Now in order to decide something positive with regard to the instruments of cure, the powers of different medicines in the materia medica were inferred from their physical, chemical and other irrelevant qualities,...without interrogating the medicines themselves in this only admissible way of pure experiment, and listening to their response when questioned”

Quotes from: Hahnemannʼs Organon of Medicine B.K. Sarkar

Footnote 2: Certainly Hahnemannʼs own thinking was unencumbered by metaphysical systems, such as astrology, alchemy, etc., which played a large role for Paracelsus. Nevertheless, there is much in Paracelsus that poetically prestates many of the assertions of Hahnemann regarding dosage and the nature of disease and cure, etc. However, it appears Hahnemann had not read or had not absorbed references that existed in Paracelsus regarding the similars priniciple. Hahnemannʼs approach, while entirely empirical, was more practical, incisive and refined – in a word, it was more scientific. He distanced himself from the forms employed by Paracelsus.

From Samuel Hahneman, His Life and Work, by Richard Haehl: “In the same year (1825) he (Dr. C.F. Trinks) made the personal acquaintance of Hahnemann when he visited in Kothen. On this occasion Trinks is said to have pointed out that the principles of homeopathy are to be found in Paracelsus. Hahnemann replied that, until that moment, he had known nothing of it.” - Page 425}

“And when the idea of the relations of similarity between illness and medicinal effect flashed upon Hahnemann in 1790, he had no suspicion that Paracelsus had similar ideas... In a letter to Stapf, Hahnemann refused very definitely and with some indignation to be associated with Paracelsusʼs fantastic and none too seriously written ʻWill of the Wispʼ…” Page 274.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 26 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 27 A good overview of Paracelsus with many excerpts on his medical thought can be found in Paracelsus: Selected Writings Bollingen Series XXVIII Princeton University Press - NT.

Joseph Kellerstein DC ND has been practicing homeopathy since 1984. He is in private practice in Oshawa and Toronto, Canada. He teaches a post graduate course( for naturopaths and homeoapths) called Homeopathy by the Book. [email protected] or www.homeopathybythebook.com.

The Mystery of Nature Concealed in a Poison Paracelsus

Is not a mystery of nature concealed even in a poison?…What has God created that He did not bless with some great gift for the benefit of man? Why should poison be rejected and despised, if we consider not the poison but its curative virtue?… And who has composed the prescriptions of nature? Was it not God? In His hand there abides all wisdom, and He alone knows what He put into each mysterium. Why then should I be surprised and why should I let myself be frightened? Should I, because one part of a remedy contains poison, also include the other part in my contempt? Each thing is to be used for its proper purpose, and we should use it...without fear, for God Himself is the true physician and the true medicine… He who despises poison does not know what is hidden in it; for the Arcanum that is contained in the poison is so blessed that the poison can neither detract from it nor harm it. In all things there is a poison and there is nothing without a poison. It depends only upon the dose whether a poison is poison or not.

Paracelsus Selected Writing Bollingen Series XXVII Pp. 95-96 Bollingen Foundation 1973

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Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 28 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 29    An introductory Article to The Chronic Diseases. 1825. Samuel Hahnemann

(a fragment.)

In order to be able to observe well, the medical practitioner requires to possess, what is not to be met with among ordinary physicians even in a moderate degree, the capacity and habit of noticing carefully and correctly the phenomena that take place in natural diseases, as well as those that occur in the morbid states artificially excited by medicines, when they are tested upon the healthy body, and the ability to describe them in the most appropriate and natural expressions.

In order accurately to perceive what is to be observed in patients, we should direct all our thoughts upon the matter we have in hand, come out of ourselves, as it were, and attach ourselves, so to speak, with all our powers of concentration upon it, in order that nothing that is actually present, that has to do with the subject, that can be ascertained by the senses, may escape us.

Poetic fancy, fantastic wit and speculation, must for a while be suspended, and all overstrained reasoning, forced interpretation and tendency to explain away things, must be suppressed. The duty of the observer is then only to take notice of the phenomena and their course; his attention should be on the watch, not only that nothing actually present escape his observation, but that also what he observes be understood exactly as it is.

This capability of observing accurately is never quite an innate faculty; it must be chiefly acquired by practice, by refining and regulating the perceptions of the senses, that is to say, by exercising a severe criticism in regard to the rapid impressions we obtain of external objects, and at the same time the necessary coolness, calmness and firmness of judgment must be preserved, together with a constant distrust of our own powers of apprehension.

The vast importance of our subject should make us direct the energies of our body and mind towards the observation; and great patience,

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 30 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 31 supported by the power of the will, must sustain us in this direction until the completion of the observation.

To educate us for the acquirement of this faculty, an acquaintance with the best writings of the Greeks and Romans is useful, in order to unable us to attain directness in thinking and in feeling, as also appropriateness and simplicity of expressing our sensations; the art of drawing from nature is also useful, as it sharpens and practices our eye, and thereby also our other senses, teaching us to form a true conception of objects, and to represent what we observe, truly and purely, without any addition from the fancy. Knowledge of mathematics also gives us the requisite severity in forming a judgment.

Thus equipped, the medical observer cannot fail to accomplish his object especially is he was constantly before his eyes the exalted dignity of his calling – as the representative of the of the all bountiful Father and Preserver, to minister it His beloved human creatures, by renovating their systems when ravaged by disease. He knows that observations of medical subjects must be made in a sincere and holy spirit, as if under the eye of the all-seeing God, the Judge of our secret thoughts, and must be recorded so as to satisfy an upright conscience, in order that they may be communicated to the world, in the consciousness that no earthy good is more worthy of our zealous exertions than the preservation of the life and health of our fellow creatures.

The best opportunity for exercising and perfecting our observing faculty is afforded by instituting experiments with medicines upon ourselves. Whilst avoiding all foreign medicinal influences and disturbing mental impressions in this important operation, the experimenter, after h has taken the medicine, has all his attention strained towards all the alterations of health that take place on and within him, in order to observe and correctly to record them, with ever-wakeful feelings, and his senses ever on the watch.

By continuing this careful investigation of all the changes that occur within and upon himself, the experimenter attains the capability of observing all the sensations, be they ever so complex, that he experiences from the medicine he is testing, and all, even the finest shades of alteration of his health, and of recording in suitable and adequate expressions his distinct conception of them.

Here alone is it possible for the beginner to make pure, correct and undisturbed observations, for he knew that he will not deceive himself, there is no one to tell him aught that is untrue, and he himself feels, sees and notices what takes place in and upon him. He will thus acquire practice to enable him to make equally accurate observations on others also.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 30 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 31 By means of these pure and accurate investigations, we shall be made aware that all the symptomatology hitherto existing in the ordinary system of medicine, was only a very superficial affair, and that nature is wont to disorder man in his health and in all his sensations and functions by disease or medicine in such infinitely various and dissimilar manners, that a single word or a general statement is totally inadequate to describe the morbid sensations and symptoms which are often of such a complex character, if we wish to portray really, truly, and perfectly the alterations in the health we meet with.

No portrait painter was ever so careless as to pay no attention to the marked peculiarity in the features of the person he wished to make a likeness of, or to consider it sufficient to make any sort of a pair of round holes below the forehead by way of eyes, between them to draw a long- shaped thing directed downwards, always of the same shape, by way of a nose, and beneath this to put a slit going across the face, that should stand for the mouth of this or of any other person; no painter, I say, ever went about delineating human faces in such a rude and slovenly manner; no naturalist ever went to work in this fashion in describing any natural production; such was never the way in which any zoologist, botanist, or mineralogist acted.

It was only the semiology of ordinary medicine that went to work in such a manner, when describing morbid phenomena. The sensations that differ so vastly among each other and the innumerable varieties of the sufferings of the many different kinds of patients, were so far from being described according to their divergences and varieties, according to their peculiarities, the complexity of the pains composed of various kinds of sensations their degrees and shades, so far was the description from being accurate or complete, that we find all these infinite varieties of sufferings huddled together under a few bare, unmeaning, general terms, such as perspiration, heat, fever, headache, sore-throat, croup, asthma, cough, chest-complaints, stitch in the side, belly-ache, want of appetite, dyspepsia, back-ache, coxalgia, hemorrhoidal sufferings, urinary disorders, pains in the limbs, (called according to fancy, gouty or rheumatic), skin diseases, spasms, convulsions, &c. With such superficial expressions, the innumerable varieties of sufferings of patients were knocked off in the so-called observations, so that – with the exception of some one or other severe, striking symptom in this or that case of disease – almost every disease pretended to be described is as like another as the spots on a die, or as the various pictures of the dauber resemble one another in flatness and want of character.

The most important of all human vocations, I mean the observation of the sick, and of the infinite varieties of their disordered state of health,can only be pursued in such a superficial and careless mannerby those who Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 32 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 33 despise mankind, for in this way there is no question either of distinguishing the peculiarities of the morbid states, nor of selecting the only appropriate remedy for the special circumstances of the case.

The conscientious physician who earnestly endeavors to apprehend in its peculiarity the disease to be cured, in order to be able to oppose to it the appropriate remedy, will go much more carefully to work in his endeavor to distinguish what these is to be observed; language will scarcely suffice to enable him to express by appropriate words the innumerable varieties of the symptoms in the morbid state; no sensation, be it ever so peculiar, will escape him, which was occasioned in his feelings by the medicines he tested on himself; he will endeavor to convey an idea of it in language by the most appropriate statement, in order to be able in his practice to match the accurate delineation of the morbid picture with the similarly acting medicine, whereby alone, as he knows, can a cure be effected.

So true it is that the careful observer alone can becomes a true healer of diseases.

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Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 32 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 33   By Michael Austin Shepherd University

Characteristics of Inductive Reasoning Unlike deductive reasoning, Inductive reasoning is not designed to produce mathematical certainty. Induction occurs when we gather bits of specific information together and use our own knowledge and experience in order to make an observation about what must be true. Inductive reasoning does not use syllogisms, but series of observations, in order to reach a conclusion. Consider the following chains of observations:

Observation: John came to class late this morning Observation: Johnʼs hair was uncombed Prior experience: John is very fussy about his hair. Conclusion: John overslept

The reasoning process here is directly opposite to that used in deductive syllogisms. Rather than beginning with a general principle (People who comb their hair wake up on time), the chain of evidence begins with an observation and then combines it with the strength of previous observations in order to arrive at a conclusion.

An Illustration of Inductive Reasoning

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 34 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 35 VI. Generalization The most basic kind of inductive reasoning is called induction by enumeration, or, more commonly, generalization. You generalize whenever you make a general statement (all salesmen are pushy) based on observations with specific members of that group (the last three salesmen who came to my door were pushy). You also generalize when you make an observation about a specific thing based on other specific things that belong to the same group (my girlfriendʼs cousin Ed is a salesman, so he will probably be pushy.) When you use specific observations as the basis of a general conclusion, you are said to be making an inductive leap.

Fallacy #1: Hasty Generalization: Unlike deductive fallacies, which are easy to point to, inductive fallacies tend to be judgment calls. Different people have different opinions about the line between correct and incorrect induction. The fallacy most often associated with generalization is hasty generalization, which you commit when you make an inductive leap that is not based on sufficient information. Look at the following five statements and try to determine when the line is crossed.

1) Microserf is a sexist company. They have over 5,000 employees and not a single one of them is female.

2) Microserf is a sexist company. I know twenty people who applied for jobs there--ten men and ten women. Though all of them were equally qualified, all of the men got jobs there and none of the women did.

3) Microserf is a sexist company. I have five female friends who have applied for jobs there, and all of them lost out to less qualified men.

4) Microserf is a sexist company. My friend Jane, who has a degree in computer science, applied for a job and they gave it to a man who majored in history.

5) Microserf is a sexist company. My friend Jane applied there, and she didnʼt get the job.

Generally speaking, the amount of support needed to justify an inductive link is inversely related to two other factors: the plausibility of the generalization and the risk factor involved in rejecting a generalization.

Implausible inductive leaps require more evidence than plausible ones do. It requires more evidence to support the notion that a strange light

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 34 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 35 in the sky is an invasionary force from the planet Xacron than the notion than the notion that it is a low-flying plane. The evidentiary requirements are greater for the first assumption simply because induction requires us to combine what we observe with what we already know, and most of us know more about low-flying planes than extra-terrestrial invaders.

Generalizations require less support when there are tremendous negative costs involved with rejecting them. Consider the following two arguments:

1) I drank milk last night and got a minor stomachache. I can probably conclude that the milk was a little bit sour. 2) I ate a mushroom out of my backyard last night and I went into violent fits of projectile vomiting and had to be rushed to the hospital to have my stomach pumped. I can probably conclude that the mushrooms were poison.

Technically, the amount of evidence for these two arguments is the same. However, most people would take the second argument much more seriously, simply because the consequences for not doing so are so disastrous.

Fallacy #2 Exclusion: A second fallacy that is often associated with generalization is the fallacy of exclusion. Put in simple terms, “exclusion” occurs when you exclude an important piece of evidence from the inductive chain used as the basis for the conclusion. If I generalize that my milk is bad based on a minor stomachache, I should probably take into account the seven hamburgers that I ate after drinking the milk. Otherwise, I will very possibly be making an invalid induction.

VII Analogy To make an induction based on an analogy is to draw a conclusion about one thing based on its similarities to another thing. Consider, for example, the following argument against a hypothetical military action in the Philippines.

In the 1960ʼs, America was drawn into a war in an Asian country, with a terrain largely comprised of jungles, against enemies that we could not recognize and friends that we could not count on. That war began slowly, by sending a few “advisors” to help survey the situation and offer military advice, and it became the greatest military disgrace that our country has ever known. We all know what happened in Vietnam. Do we really want a

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 36 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 37 repeat performance in the Philippines?

Fallacy #3 False Analogy : This argument enumerates the similarities between one event and another event and argues that these similarities will produce a similar result. While arguments by analogy tend to be very persuasive, they can very easily fall into the trap of the false analogy, which is the major fallacy associated with this kind of reasoning. Both valid and false analogies compare similar things; false analogies, however, use hasty generalizations as the grounds for comparison. Consider the following pair of statements.

A war in the Philippines would be disastrous. Our soldiers had a terrible time fighting in the jungles in Vietnam, and the terrain around Manilla is even worse. If we decide to attack the Philippines, we should probably do it in January. We attacked Iraq in January, and look how well that turned out.

The first of these statements is a valid analogy in that the comparison meets the test of inductive validity: it takes an observation (we had a hard time fighting in the jungles of Vietnam), makes a generalization (it is hard to fight modern warfare in a jungle terrain), and then applies it to another instance (we would have a hard time fighting in the jungles of the Philippines). The second statement, on the other hand, is a false analogy because, though it goes through the same process, the inductive leap it makes (we win wars because we fight them in January) is a hasty generalization.

Statistical Inference A third variety of inductive reasoning is statistical inference. We make statistical inferences whenever we assume that something is true of a population as a whole because it is true of a certain portion of the population. Politicians and corporations spend millions of dollars a year gathering opinions from relatively small groups of people to use as the basis for statistical inferences upon which they base most of their major decisions. Inductions based on statistics have proven to be extremely accurate as long as the sample sizes are large enough to avoid huge margins of error. However, when amateurs attempt to use statistics as the basis for inductive leaps (and as evidence for arguments), they often end up committing the fallacy of unrepresentative sample.

Fallacy #4 Unrepresentative Sample: An unrepresentative sample is a statistical group that does not adequately represent the larger group that it is considered a part of. Any sample of opinions in America must take into account the differences in race, age, gender, religion, and geographic location that exist in this country. Thus, a sample of 1000 people chosen to represent all of these factors would tell us a great deal about the opinions Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 36 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 37 of the electorate. A sample of 1000 white, thirty-year-old Lutherans women from Nebraska would tell us nothing at all. Because samples must be representative in order to be accurate, it is a fallacy to rely on straw polls, informal surveys, and self-selecting questionnaires in order to gather statistical evidence.

Reprinted with permission of the author from a forthcoming textbook.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 38   From an interview with David Grove By Penny Tompkins and James Lawley

David Grove, is a New Zealander currently living in the USA and making one of his regular pilgrimages to England to conduct healing retreats and workshops for therapists. He has developed a unique way of working with the metaphoric and symbolic nature of our inner worlds. He is continually expanding and refining his approach as he discovers more about the structure and processes of the magical faculty of humans to represent their deepest experiences as metaphor.

David: I used to watch other therapists work. I wondered, why did they ask that question? I started analysing the questions major therapists used; people like Virginia Satir and Carl Rogers. To begin with I thought it was because they had this huge vast experience. After a while I twigged that, jeepers, they were coming out of their hallucinations, their model of the world. Take Carl Rogers, who I thought would be really ʻRogerianʼ! I found his language wasnʼt clean in the sense that he kept shifting people. He would use past tense in the present, and then use the future tense and move them back to the present. So he was often redefining verbally whatever anybody said. He would amplify or redefine the words the client used. Well, when you do that it robs the client of some of their experience. I wanted to know the questions you can ask that donʼt have any presuppositions.

Erickson didnʼt use clean language but at least he was aware of the presuppositions of his language. So I came up with a set of six basic questions which were neutral and did not interfere with a clientʼs process. And they all start with the conjunction ʻandʼ... and what that does is facilitates a trance. So the use of clean language is very trance inducing without an induction. Itʼs a natural induction because the questions donʼt pull the client out of their experience. The questions are aimed at the metaphoric part of their experience so they donʼt go through normal cognitive processes.

Penny: Can you give us an example?

David: If you ask “And thatʼs like what?” itʼs clean language as it directly addresses the clientʼs experience and it goes straight to the metaphor.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 39 Whereas, if you ask “Whatʼs that like to you?” the client immediately goes to cognitive process and looses their direct relationship with the particular metaphor.

So clean language is the language of facilitation. It doesnʼt bring the client out of their natural trance and there is no resistance to the questions because they can be answered easily. The acoustical parameters in clean language, the rhythm and tonality, are such that a person can reject the question very easily without much ego affect. I want the client to chuck out any question that doesnʼt feel right.

So clean language is language that stays in the experience and in the body of the client. The locus of the information is out here between two people. Itʼs not a shared language as in normal discourse.

In normal counseling I ask the question to you, you get the information and then you give it to me so itʼs a whole shared experience. The locus of attention moves backwards and forwards between us. But once I ask you a clean language question, the locus shifts from you to where the information is sourced without it having to be triangulated between your head and your body. That is why you donʼt have to think about answers to clean language questions, because the answers come from the source of the information.

So any question that drags you out of the experience is not clean language. For example, when a client repeats your question it is a good indication the question wasnʼt the right one. So clean language is about a delivery system that delivers a question without any resistance. Itʼs about a question thatʼs just the right question a client wants to be asked. As soon as the question is asked, the client already knows. The ability to get the question that feels right to the client and that they can easily reject if its not, is the art of clean language.

In clean language, youʼre only as good as your last question. And it doesnʼt matter what else you were going to do, if you didnʼt get the last question right. The use of conjunctions of language and the use of the indefinite article make it a funny, unusual language, but itʼs very simple. Itʼs a natural language of trance.

James: One of the by-products of using clean language, it seems to me, is that there is a natural separation between the metaphor and the person observing the metaphor. They get a chance to look at whatever it is in a way they probably never have, from an angle theyʼve never been aware of before.

David: Yes. There is a separation in that you separate out the ego state of the person and then you objectify the experience so it becomes the client Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 40 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 41 interrogating this other entity in metaphor. I ask the metaphor directly for information and it can answer. And the client is often amazed, amused and somewhat bemused about it. In that sense the client has a discourse with the metaphor. The client becomes a dispassionate observer of whatʼs going on. So in order to get that type of information you need to split it from the clientʼs current experience and then it takes on a life of its own. And the reason why that stuffʼs there is because it has information in it. The metaphor is a carrier of information.

Penny: You work with people who have had disturbing symptoms, memories and so forth, for a long time. How does working with metaphor allow a process thatʼs been a source of pain for decades to be healed? Clients will often say theyʼve had this problem for as long as they can remember.

David: Thatʼs a very intriguing question because some symptoms seem to be very intractable. What makes them intractable? I had this notion: What if you didnʼt stop at childhood? What if there were conditions contained in your family of origin that were passed on ancestrally? What if the anger that you have is simply a continuation of your fatherʼs anger? What if the depression that you experience is an endemic depression and is carried down your family line, and is simply not an expression of situational depression? So that led to a sortie into the world of genealogy.

When I pursued the origins of a particular symptom I found there are some experiences which are not arrived at as a child; they are not born in childhood. You may be a carrier of information passed on for generations and it expresses itself in you. It might have missed your siblings. It might have missed your parents. The depression is not from you. So then your ordinary resources, those resources within your own experience, arenʼt sufficient to heal the situation. So sometimes you donʼt have everything you need to heal yourself.

Excerpt from: Less is More ... The Art of Clean Language

by Penny Tompkins and James Lawley Client: Iʼm stuck with no way out.

CLQ: And what kind of stuck with no way out is that stuck with no way out?

Client A: My whole body feels as if its sinking into the ground.

Client B: I canʼt see the way forward. Itʼs all foggy. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 40 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 41 Client C: Every door that was opened to me is closed.

This gives the client maximum opportunity to describe the experience of ʻstuck,ʼ and therefore to gather more information about their representation of the Present State.

Another Clean Language question you could ask would be:

CLQ: And when you are stuck with no way out, where are stuck?

Client D: Itʼs as if my feet are frozen to the ground.

Client E: Iʼm in a long tunnel and thereʼs no light at either end.

Client F: I see myself wrapped up like a mummy.

This question works with the clientʼs metaphor of stuck, and only assumes that for something to be stuck it has to be stuck somewhere.

When the therapist is in rapport with the metaphoric information, questions like the above make perfect sense, and clientʼs responses have a quality of deep introspection and self-discovery. New awareness of their own process ʻupdates the systemʼ and the original neural coding will automatically begin to transform; albeit in minute ways at first.

Clean Language questions are then asked of each subsequent response and each symbolic representation is explored. Thus the client is continually expanding their awareness of their Metaphoric Psychescape. The process ultimately accesses conflicts, paradoxes, double-binds and other ʻholding patternsʼ which have kept the symptoms repeating over and over.

The 9 basic Clean Language questions are:

* And is there anything else about ...... ? * And what kind of ...... is that ...... ? * And where is ...... ? * And whereabouts? * And what happens next? * And then what happens? * And what happens just before ...... ? * And where does/could ...... come from? * And thatʼs ...... like what?

Where ʻ...... ʼ is (some of) the exact words of the client. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 42 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 43 To help navigate around the clientʼs Metaphorical Psychescape we have devised a 3 dimensional compass:

Reprinted for Simillimum with the kind permission of the authors Penny Tompkins and James Lawley The Developing Company 9 Southwood Lawn Road, London N6 5SD, England Tel/Fax in UK: 020 8341 1062 International: +44 20 8341 1062 email: [email protected]

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 42 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 43      By Julia M. Green, M. D. Read before I. H. A., Bureau of Materia Medica, June 1946 Homœopathic Recorder, April, 1947.

One might almost say that each doctor has his own method of studying materia medica so that methods are legion. If this is true, it surely confirms once more the statement that homeopathy is intensely individualistic. Let each one have his own method, go at it his own way; the chief thing is that he goes at it and pursues it eternally through professional life.

In a search for golden threads running through several different methods of study, let us try to list those most generally used:

The first homeopathic doctors were hard students and most diligent symptom chasers. They made the provings; their minds compassed any quantity of minute detail; their noses were in their records of symptoms; they were able to distinguish between remedies by careful comparisons; their success depended on memorizing detail and this required long study of each case treated. They were the pioneers upon whom much depended. All honor to them!

Perhaps the next distinct method came when classes were formed for the study of materia medica. The lecture method became the usual one. Many professors have left, us treasures in lecture form. Of course the personality of the teacher enters in largely to help impress characteristics of remedies on the studentʼs mind. We think of Dunham, Farrington, Allen, Kent, as names connected with the lecture form in the classroom. This method is very good for beginners, an acquaintance at the start with remedy characteristics. Also it becomes valuable for reference in after years.

Then there is a study of remedies by classes, for instance, chemical groups, botanical families, nosode grouping, reptile and insect remedies, etc. This becomes valuable after the studentʼs introduction to the remedies singly. It will help the older practitioner to decide between remedies most similar to the case in hand.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 44 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 45 Like this last method is the one by comparisons based on symptomatology. Several teachers have found this fascinating and very useful –Hering, Boger, Kent, Roberts have given us good samples of such study. It comes to the mature student better than to the beginner unless the studentʼs mind follows such a method naturally from the start in homeopathy.

Another useful task is to investigate and absorb the prefaces to symptom lists in Heringʼs Guiding Symptoms, for instance, in-Clarkeʼs Dictionary and, if one likes to get close to original provers, in Allenʼs Encyclopædia.

Another method bringing satisfactory reward to those whose-minds follow such sequence well, is the search through the provings-or through several kinds of materia medica for the general symptoms of the drug being studied, with a comparison of emphasis by different provers. This is to be followed by a pursuit of particulars the same way. Such study gives one a deep sense of the roots of our materia medica and a new confidence in homeopathy. One cannot easily forget the general symptoms after hunting them out in this fashion.

Then there are rich gems of materia medica knowledge to be found in perusing the repertory. The habit of thumbing through parts of Kentʼs Repertory, for instance, during scarce idle moments is an excellent habit. One acquires new slants on old remedy friends from finding these in a list where their appearance is real news, or finding a grading for a symptom which one did not know before. Or, hunting for a peculiar symptom, one finds it in a repertory list belonging to a drug never before associated with such a symptom. Or reportorial analysis of a case brings for study a small group of remedies with new lights on them often unsuspected even after many long years in homeopathic practice.

Finally, what can be more interesting as a method of discovering gold nuggets of materia medica than to go through the files of old medical magazines full of such treasures? Volumes of homeopathic literature, so-called. The Homœopathic Physician, The Medical Advance, The Homœopathician are full of wisdom; and, of course, The Homœopathic Recorder. Dr. Woodbury no doubt could name a much longer list.

The beginner in homeopathy generally has Heringʼs Condensed Materia Medica, Cowperthwaiteʼs TextBook, Nashʼs Leaders, Allenʼs Primer, Boerickeʼs Materia Medica. In my early days he would have Hughesʼ Pharmacodynamics, too, and possibly Heringʼs (misnomer that it is!). These lend themselves to study by symptom lists, but not so much to a comprehensive knowledge of characteristics. To do more than “symptom matching” one must go to the large materia medica and learn how to pick out characteristics and also how to work from generals to particulars. From Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 44 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 45 a confusing mass of intricate detail one must become familiar with picking out the character of the drug studied. It is there that materia medica study grows fascinating and the use of it in practice richly rewarding.

Too rapid growth of practice for the beginner is a pity, for the young doctor needs some time each day on philosophy and two hours on materia medica. The seasoned physician needs one hour daily. How many of us get it? I venture to say that Dr. Erastus E. Case did and perhaps Dr. C. M. Boger. Dr. H. A. Roberts may, too, in the early morning hours.

Anyway, the study of materia medica is almost half the armamentarium of the homeopathic physician.

Dr. Lucy Clark: I think it was Dr. Rood who told me the worst thing that a young doctor starting out could do would be to marry a wealthy woman (or a wealthy husband too, I suppose). She said they needed to work hard and start with very few patients the first month out. That would be all right and one could study well and learn well, and that was the stuff that stuck with you through the years. I was interested in hearing Dr. Green mention that too.

Dr. Farrington. I cannot keep still with a subject like that before us. Although I lectured on materia medica consecutively for only twenty years, I have been teaching it ever since, on the floor of conventions and by writing. Naturally different teachers follow different methods, but there are certain general rules that should be observed, rules which will help the beginner. An outline of the general characteristics should be given first, then enough of the particulars to give a picture of the remedy. We do not have to have a large number of particular indications in our minds. In fact it is impossible for any mind to encompass the whole pathogenesis, even that of a master prescriber. The essential thing is the genius of the remedy. In teaching, especially at Dunham and Hering colleges, I began with the characteristic generals, as for instance in Pulsatilla, with its aggravation from heat and relief from gentle motion, its aggravation in the evening, etc. Then I gave a number of the particulars that are affected by these generals, to fill out the picture of the remedy, emphasizing those that are most characteristic. When writing the Extension Course several years ago, I placed the important generals above the text something like Boger does in his Synoptic Key, although his presentation was more brief than mine, principally because I intended to write an advanced course, using the general synopsis as a basis or text. The texts of the lessons are word pictures of the remedy. At the end seven essential characteristics are given. It is a strange thing that in formulating these paragraphs which might be called “Tabloid Materia Medica,” in nearly every instance and without definite intention on my part, they worked out to seven; in the science of correspondence, seven signifies complete. Take Aconite for an example : Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 46 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 47 1. Intense anxiety, Fear, restlessness and tossing about. 2. Sudden, violent acute conditions, due to fright, shock, cold, dry winds; getting chilled while sweating. 3. Hyperpyrexia with burning thirst, hot dry skin and rapid, bounding pulse. 4. Profuse arterial hemorrhages. 5. Numbness and tingling of affected parts. 6. Congestions and inflammations with sweating, redness and burning. 7. Amelioration from warmth and after sweating.

If you are interested watch the pages of the American Institute Journal. These little write-ups will appear as fillers whenever there is space for them. Analyze them and you will find that they are not composed of key-notes as such, and that they include practically no particulars; only the essential features that mark the nature or genius of the remedy.

Dr. Hubbard. When I was taught materia medica by Pierre-Schmidt, he always made me, in studying a remedy, work out the twelve leading symptoms of which the first one, two or three were mentals, the next three or so were general, then a couple of leading, particulars, and a keynote, if any, that was particularly notable.

He even went so far as to draw pictures in color, of the tongue-of every one of the remedies that has a famous tongue, and put it in a card index. If it was a remedy that affected the eye, I had to draw a picture of the eye. Then he had me make a clock of the remedy. There were infinite methods if you wanted to work hard enough by which you could make these things graphic. Perhaps it would appeal to some of the modern students, to be made to do that kind of thing.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 46 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 47 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 48           From Lesser Writings Baron C.M.F. Von Boenninghausen

Among the manifold criticisms which have been made in superabundant manner of the old Hahnemannian Materia Medica Pura I miss one, the appropriateness of which has only become really clear to me during the last years. This is the statement as to the time after the first taking of the medicine before the symptom in question appeared. While leaving all the other assumed defects unquestioned – though the younger critics have not so far produced anything better or more useful – I desire to say something merely about this point, because it seems to me of no little importance for practice.

If my old (seventy-two years old) memory does not deceive me, it was first and till now only the genial Dr. C. Hering who - I do not now remember where or when – suggested that the proving-systems appearing last are the most important, and far from being useless to therapy.

There does, indeed, at first appearance seem to be a paradox in this remark as in many others made by this indefatigable investigator. But to condemn apodictically from the mere appearance at first sight would in this case show little reason, since every homoeopath can without great difficulty convince himself satisfactorily at the fountainhead as to the correctness or falsity of this assertion. He need only compare the symptoms observed last in the four volumes of (the second edition) the antipsoric remedies with the brief hints given by Hahnemann himself in consequence of his own experience for the excellent adaptation of these remedies, and which are found throughout to the thoroughly reliable in our practice. He will then probably convince himself that in most cases an analogue to this, frequently with a more close completion of the symptoms, is often preferentially contained in such symptoms as were observed late.

The assertion of Hering seems therefore to be founded on a truth which has been too little regarded hitherto, and which makes us feel sorry that in many of the newer, as well as of the older, provings so little attention has

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 49 been given to this statement as to the time when the symptom appeared after taking the medicine, and this especially in the “peculiar” and “particular” symptoms in which the characteristic of the remedy s especially to be found. One fact serve, indeed, to excuse the earlier provers, that the recognition of the importance of the statement of the time, of necessity had to await the state of comparative study; nevertheless, this lack is none the less to be deplored, and we are often compelled to learn only by the long way of experience what might have been at that time so easily supplemented by the addition of a few numbers and letters.

It might be of interest to draw into consideration this apperception mentioned above, in a general way; this may at the same time serve as a contribution to the more exact characterization of this remedy, which has been perhaps too much neglected. If I deviate from the later (assumedly more scientific) way of elaborating this, I would beg you to consider that my aim here is special and limited, and especially that I make no concealment of the fact that I belong to the old (almost extinct) school of Hahnemann.

With Respect To Borax

1. At the very beginning, in the symptoms four and five, of which the first was observed during five weeks and the second during three weeks, we meet with a peculiarity which does not belong to any other remedy in the same manner. This is anxiety while moving quickly downward. This is in no way to be confounded with the only distantly similar symptoms which we know of in Carbo veg., Sepia and Sulphur. This anxiety, according to my experience, is very clearly pronounced in the case of swinging, and especially in the movement when the swing starts forward, hardly ever while it is moving backward. I have noticed this indication, which is not rare, not only in children, but also with two ladies already adult, and every time I have considered it as a useful indication, the worth of which was not only proved by the success against this ailment, but also against the other ailments present. (I would exceed the limits of this article if I should adduce in the case of such short indications the image of the whole disease. I, therefore, limit myself to stating briefly that the one lady, thirty years of age, was suffering from a menstrual trouble. And the other, well advanced in the forties, from oft recurring erysipelas of the face. (Illness from riding in a carriage, especially while riding backwards, as also sea-sickness, have little in common therewith, and Borax will probably be of little use in those cases, though in some varieties of the latter disease it might well be tried.

2. No less characteristic appears to be symptom seven (without any statement as to its time) with respect to being violently frightened at a shot, even when heard at a distance, and I only mention it, as it were, in passing, because, according to my experience, it is an excellent remedy for hunting- Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 50 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 51 dogs who shy at a shot, a fault which, as my colleagues who are fond of hunting-dogs know, occurs not infrequently and is difficult to correct. But there are also children who shrink at every shot and have a great and unnatural fear from it. The over-great fear of thunder also would seem to belong here.

3. Among the symptoms referring to the eyes we find two symptoms, namely, 77 and 78, which belong especially to this one remedy, and have so far been only noticed besides among the effects of Silicea and Pulsatilla. This is that especial kind of inflammation of the eyes which causes and is sustained by the in-growing of the eyelashes, which constantly irritate the pupils, and which are not even permanently cured when, in the good old allopathic way, the corpus delecti is removed and the hairs are plucked out. Everyone of us has probably noticed in a number of cases the excellent effect of Borax in this kind of inflammation of the eyes – of course, only when also the other symptoms corresponded, and I need only add that symptom 77 was only observed after six weeks and No. 78 after thirty-five days.

4. Among the morbid symptoms in the ears, from symptom 88 to 106, and symptoms 51 and 60 may well be combined with them, those have proved themselves most decidedly by healing effects, which were combined with a flow of pus from the ears. But these are No. 95, 96 and 97, which were only noticed on the twenty-seventh day, and on the nineteenth day. Symptom 51, which I have also mentioned in this connection, only appeared after thirty-two days, thus at (The similar the same time with 96).

5. The crusts in the nasal cavities, with inflammation and shining redness of the tip of the nose, which is found not infrequently with (psoric) patients who have neither been syphilitic at any time nor have abused Mercury, often find their remedy (besidesSepia or Silicea) in Borax, as many a one of us may have found out. The symptoms here concerned, 109, 111, and 112, are not, however, among those appearing in the first days after trying the medicine, but date from the tenth, sixteenth and eighteenth days.

6. So, probably several among us have had opportunity with myself to cure with this remedy the painful erysipelas, usually on the left side of the face (the similar Belladonna erysipelas usually occupies either the whole face or only the right half of it). This kind becomes intolerably painful when drawing together the muscles for laughing. The two symptoms pointing to this, 120 and 121, were not observed before the thirty-first and thirty-fourth day.

7. Of the toothaches that received a quick and permanent cure through Borax, I only remember those corresponding with symptoms 137 and 139, in connection with No. 133, on account of the influence of wet, cold Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 50 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 51 weather, and with symptom 136 on account of aggravation thorough cold water. I would here call attention to the fact that both these symptoms appeared on the fortieth day. Besides this, Borax, on account of symptoms 147 and 148, and in connection with No. 125, is not infrequently used successfully in the teething of children, where it must rank among the most successful remedies, especially in the cases where the indications under symptoms 150 to 153 are also present. Also, here I would mention that the two symptoms 147 and 148 were observed after forty and after thirty-six days.

8. Borax has been known to allopathy for a considerable time as a remedy useful in the aphthae of children, whose mouths are washed or penciled with a solution of it. Also, every one of us has, no doubt, seen it successfully used in this disease of children, which is often very troublesome, of course, only when it is otherwise homeopathically chosen, i.e., when there are no opposing indications. Thus there can be no doubt as to the relative curative power of this remedy. Nevertheless the four symptoms referring to this ailment all appeared late: Symptom 150, after four weeks; No. 151, after thirty days; No. 152, after thirty-three days; No. 153, after five weeks.

9. Symptoms 218 to 223 describe with great definiteness a certain ailment of the spleen, and, indeed, with clear and pretty accurate indications, which seem to secure the correct selection in a concrete case. Nevertheless I must confess that I have never seen any noticeable result in any kind of ailment of the spleen from the use of this remedy, and I only mention this at present because these observations were observed on an average at a very early period of the provings and only a few days after taking the remedy, only symptom 22 having arisen after fifteen days. Even this negative fact seems noteworthy.

10. Among the urinary ailments, from symptom 267 to 280, conjoined with symptom 434, at least those which appeared late have been best and most frequently verified in practice. Especially should here be mentioned frequent micturition at night, which, as symptom 268 shows, occurred after twenty-four days, and No. 434 observed after thirty-four days. The same may be said of troubles after micturition, mentioned in numbers 275 to 280. Of these I have found most frequently the chaps in the urethra, as given in No. 276 from the thirtieth day on, and no. 278, from the twenty sixth day on.

11. Among the symptoms concerning the menses, the ones which regard the too early and too protracted menses, according to experience, deserve the preference, although also in this, as in many other remedies, too late an appearance or too short a duration does not really present a contra indication. The former irregularity is indicated, however, in No. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 52 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 53 294, observed after twenty-five days, and in No. 295, observed after seven weeks.

12. Among the chest troubles the most prominent is a very painful affection of the intercostal muscles, especially on the right side; closely related to this are also the cough and the respiratory troubles, and even sneezing (symptom 311) and irregularity of sleep (symptom 435). Although the greater number of these are entered as having appeared in the first week after taking the medicine, it is yet to be noted that, nevertheless, symptom 349, according to which the aggravation takes place when lying on the (right) painful side, lasted four full weeks. The contradictory symptom, 435, which states the opposite, has, according to experience, a much less value, and has never been verified with me; this was observed already after seven days. I have, therefore, reason to suppose that it can only be effectively used in new and acute attacks of this kind, where I have not tested it, as in such cases other and approved remedies are at our disposal.

13. Although the running out of milk from the breasts of a nursing woman is found in various other remedies (Acon., Bell., Bry., Calcarea., China., Con., Iod., Lyc., Phos., Puls., and Rhus.) I have, nevertheless, had repeated opportunity to verify symptom 360, which appeared after thirty- two days, especially where, beside other coinciding concomitants, also symptom 360 was present, i.e., a disagreeable sensation of emptiness in the breast which had been emptied in nursing; this we find in no other remedy.

14. Hitherto we have had only one remedy, so far as I know, namely, Sepia, which corresponds with the sores on the upper side of the joints of the fingers and toes in chronic (psoric) patients, forNux vomica will benefit only sores on the joints of fingers, and its action is not permanent.Borax furnishes us a second very useful medicine in accordance with symptom 385 (no time mentioned), symptom 387 observed after thirty days and symptom 405 observed after fifteen days. It is worth noting also that in indications which do not conflictBorax deserves the preference when, according to symptom 408, the skin in general heals up with great difficulty and when the sore keeps spreading, which is not at least so much the case in such sores with Sepia. It is especially frequently useful with children.

15. Finally we ought yet briefly to mention the predominant sensation of cold, which is quite peculiar to this remedy, and which offers an excellent indication for its selection. This symptom also appeared quite late, i. e., after twenty-three, fourteen, thirty-three days, and even after five weeks.

In order that I may not commingle what is uncertain with what is well attested I have in the foregoing extracts confined myself to the comparatively small number of well attested cases, though no doubt there are many other curative features among the virtues of Borax. Nevertheless Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 52 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 53 what has been said will suffice to accomplish my proximate end to shoe that the dictum of Hering mentioned in the beginning of this article has a real basis and is confirmed in a striking manner by experience. There is, therefore, a sufficient reason for warning earnestly, especially in remedies having a long duration of action, against the practice of some provers of accounting the symptoms that are late in appearing to be mere after-effects or mere curative effects. This was a rashness which even Hahnemann can be shown to have been guilty of, though most cases were corrected later on, and these cases are only found among the oldest provings. At that time he could not anticipate this, and some symptoms marked with this cautionary warning have still remained among the provings.

Even at the risk of being proclaimed a heretic by some of the young colleagues, who, in spite of the warning of Hahnemann, only operate with low dilutions and with doses frequently repeated, I do not hesitate to add from my many yearsʼ and pains taking experience the definite assurance that the very symptoms which are most deeply in rooted are cured in the quickest, surest and most permanent manner by using such remedies as, while perfectly suitable, offer in the symptoms last discovered the corresponding indications, and especially when these remedies are used in very high potencies and in small and infrequent doses. Whoever has experienced the reverse of this should report that fact openly, faithfully and frankly, for only through a frank and open exchange of many, even contradictory, experiences can the whole pure truth be discovered, and only by such means will Homeopathy either fall into deserved oblivion or finally truimphant will it unite all the world of medicine under its banner.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 54 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 55 ��

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Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 54 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 55   Bruce Lipton, Ph.D.

(In the following short excerpt from a longer essay, Dr. Lipton, referred to in Dr. Kellersteinʼs interview, discusses the importance of the electrical nature of the cell to the field of medicine. Listening to Dr. Lipton speak last year at the Northwest Naturopathic Convention, it seemed like a wonderful presentation on a modern scientific way of understanding homeopathy. However, speaking to him later it was clear he only had a superficial familiarity. While he does not have any specific interest in homeopathy, his various talks and writings often seem to have a direct relevance to homeopathy and the dynamic nature of homeopathic medicines. - NT)

It is well established that the function and metabolism of the human body is an electrochemical system. Modern medicine is preoccupied with studying, analyzing and treating mainly the chemical side of the equation. For the most part, the electrical half of human systems has been completely ignored. Physicians use several of the bodyʼs electrical systems for diagnosis (e.g., EKG, EEG, EMG and MEGs), though even fewer uses of the electromagnetics are found for therapeutics (e.g., cardiac pacemakers, defibrillators, TENs devices, bone healing instruments).

Physiology reveals that most of the bodyʼs natural chemicals are released by an electrical signal or an electrochemical reaction. Can these same chemicals be released by applying an external electrical signal? Can different EM parameters stimulate different chemical systems?

Simply stated, can externally applied bioelectromagnetic fields influence cell and organismal behavior and expression? The answer is a clear, resounding, and unequivocal, YES! Electromagnetic energy fields, which include energies in the ranges of microwaves, radio frequencies, the visible light spectrum, ELF and even acoustic frequencies, have been shown to profoundly impact every facet of biological regulation. Specific frequencies and patterns of electromagnetic radiation regulate: cell division; gene regulation; DNA, RNA and protein syntheses; protein conformation and function; morphogenesis; regeneration; and nerve conduction and growth.

If electromagnetic fields can affect enzymes and cells, there is no reason

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 56 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 57 of principle why one should not expect to be able to tailor a waveform as a therapeutic agent in much the same way as one now modulates chemical structures to obtain pharmacological selectivity. The high specificity of electromagnetic signals may result in the “direct targeting” of activity, without many of the side-effects common to pharmaceutical substances.

Reprinted by permission of the author.

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Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 56 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 57    Pearlyn Goodman-Herrick ND, DHANP

To participate in homeopathic case taking is a unique opportunity for both patient and practitioner. This may be the first time in his life that the patient has ever felt truly listened to. He may even have the wonderful experience of feeling understood. The practitioner has the privilege of having another human being reveal his innermost, authentic self.

Obtaining a clear picture of the patientʼs physical problems and sorting out their merit in choosing the simillimum is relatively easy, while learning the mental/emotional make-up of the patient and the contribution to the symptom picture is usually more challenging. Some mental symptoms are readily observable. The patient neednʼt report symptoms such as swears a lot, answers slowly, weeps when consoled or angered by interruption because these features are behavioral and are apparent during the interview. Most resolved cases, however, depend on obtaining the mental symptoms from the patient himself. First, we may need to deal with patient expectation. Unless prepared, the patient may be shocked to find he is asked to reveal his emotional state, his fears, anger, anxiety, etc. Then he may have trouble understanding why this information is relevant--”What does this have to do with my back pain?” Once this is dealt with, (unless the patient is unduly embarrassed), symptoms of a more concrete nature such as fear of spiders, or fear of the dark, are also easily obtained. These symptoms may also be visible to an observing parent if the patient is a child; the child jumps when he see a spider or wonʼt go into a dark room without his parent.

The revelation of a subtler and perhaps more significant mental/ emotional symptom picture depends on both the patientʼs trust and skillful questioning by the practitioner. However, even the informed, trusting patient may not be able to reveal his internal state. Inability to reveal the emotional life may include cultural and familial prohibitions, where the individual has learned that one simply doesnʼt discuss this sort of thing. There may be shame regarding the problem, which can be an important symptom in itself. With some encouragement by the practitioner this material can be elucidated. Often we find the patient is surprised and relieved to discover that he is not the only one on the planet suffering from the particular problem. There may actually be delight when he discovers that he is not a bizarre individual, but suffers from common human

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 58 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 59 difficulties. This alone is freeing.

A more difficult situation is the one in which a person does not reveal emotional states simply because his self-awareness is undeveloped. Early on the patient may have learned that his feelings were unacceptable--”thatʼs a stupid way to feel” or “you donʼt really feel that way, now do you?” Over time the person with this type of experience becomes less and less aware of his feelings. By the time he comes for homeopathic treatment he may simply not know what he is experiencing emotionally. He or she may report such vague symptoms as causeless weeping or depression without apparent reason. What exactly does he mean when he says “I am anxious” or “I am depressed”? These terms require complete elucidation as far as possible.

It is not helpful to take these symptoms at face value and simply look for rubrics to match these states. If we do so, we may find ourselves lost in the repertory, while the patient returns with these complaints time and again and may turn to other modes of treatment such as antidepressants. We miss an opportunity to understand the true nature of the patientʼs suffering. More importantly, the patient loses an opportunity to understand himself better. When the nature of his problem is more clearly brought to light, the patient often acquires valuable self-knowledge. He may become more aware of his feelings, his emotional patterns, and his response to life. Very deep healing and the opportunity to change can occur simply through a well-conducted interview. As the practitioner gains a clearer understanding of the patient, it will become apparent what might be most helpful to the patient. From a homeopathic perspective we will discover whether the patient is in need of a remedy and hopefully we perceive that remedy. Simply bringing their issues to light is beneficial to some patients, while others will need a remedy to assist them. Many are benefited by both remedy and direct psychological work.

Hahnemann himself was aware that patients who report emotional suffering, are not all benefited by a remedy, or by a remedy alone. Hahnemann wrote in the Organon:

Aphorism 224 If the mental disease is not yet fully developed and if there is still some doubt as to whether it arose from somatic suffering or whether it stemmed from faulty upbringing, bad habits, perverted morality, neglect of the spirit, superstitions or ignorance, the way to decide the point is as follows: 1. If it stems from the latter (faulty upbringing, bad habits, etc.), then the mental disease will subside and improve with understanding, well- intentioned exhortations, consolation, or with earnest and rational expostulation. 2. If it is a mental or emotional disease that is really based upon a somatic disease, it will rapidly worsen with such treatment. The melancholic patient Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 58 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 59 will become still more downcast, plaintive, disconsolate and withdrawn; someone who is maliciously insane will become still more embittered; and senseless talk will become obviously more nonsensical.

Aphorism 225 By comparison, there are certainly a few emotional diseases that have not simply degenerated from somatic diseases. In these cases, the emotional disease develops in an inverse manner. With but little infirmity, it develops outward from the emotional mind due to persistent worry, mortification, vexation abuse, or repeated exposure to great fear or fright. While initially there is but little infirmity, in time emotional diseases of this kind often ruin the somatic state of health to a high degree.

Aphorism 226 It is only these emotional diseases, which were first spun and maintained by the soul that allow themselves to be rapidly transformed into wellbeing of the soul by psychotherapeutic means (displays of trust, friendly exhortations, reasoning with the patient, and even well camouflaged deception). With appropriate living habits, these diseases apparently also allow themselves to be transformed into wellbeing of the body. However, such approaches will be effective only if the emotional disease is new and has not yet deranged the somatic state all too much.

Clearly there is a role for psychotherapeutic considerations in the context of homeopathic practice, just as there is a role for nutritional and dietary counsel. It should also be noted that the need to illuminate the patientʼs symptom totality should not be confused with the requirements for homeopathic success. Even if a patient is thoroughly capable of discussing his mental state, it may well be the carefully elucidated physical symptoms that lead us to the simillimum.

The following two cases will demonstrate some aspects of emotional case taking.

Case 1 ML-thirty-two year old female History: ML had been seen over the course of 6 months. Her last prescription was Natrum muriaticum 1M and at her one month follow up we both concluded that she was doing well on all levels and that she would call if she needed further care. Three weeks later ML called in distress and reported that she had becoming increasingly depressed over the last two weeks. As she was frightened by her unexplainable symptoms she asked to be seen on an emergency basis. This thirty-two year woman was a recovering alcoholic and drug user who had maintained sobriety for the previous four years. Her substance abuse had been so severe that she had lost custody of her daughter to her ex-husband. At the present time she Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 60 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 61 maintained her job responsibly and had established excellent relationships with both her daughter and former spouse. Because of the nature of her symptoms, I saw her as soon as was possible that day. At our meeting I searched for possible antidotes to her treatment. None were discovered. I wondered if she simply needed a repetition of the remedy. Perhaps a new remedy was needed. I reviewed her case; her physical symptoms that had resolved with Natrum muriaticum were still gone and there was no new remedy in sight. Perhaps I had given the wrong remedy which had suppressed her symptoms and lead to this deep depression. As my own thoughts started to spin a bit out of control, I somehow brought myself back to the patient herself!

Doctor: Can you tell me what you mean by depression and why it scares you? Depression can mean different things to different people. I wonder what it is for you.

Patient: Depression, well, you know, like I feel really miserable, awful. Iʼm not sure why itʼs scary, it just is.

Further questioning in this direction revealed no information that would be of use to solve this womanʼs depression.

Doctor: Were you under any stress two weeks ago? (Stress is a word that many of our patients can relate to.)

Patient: No. Everythingʼs been going fine--you know my job, my daughter.

Doctor: Did anything happen two weeks ago? Anything unusual?

Patient: No, Everythingʼs really pretty much the same. (Patient seemed to be taking a moment to think). Hmm, two weeks ago… let me see. Oh, yes. I went on a blind date. But that was no big deal.

Doctor: Could you tell me what happened on that date? (Since that is the only occurrence out of the ordinary in her life, this is a question worth asking. Now we all know that a blind date can be depressing, but a depression that has been increasing over two weeks... This needs to be considered.)

Patient: Well we decided to keep it casual so we went out for pizza.

Doctor: Could you tell me more?

Patient: Oh sure. We ordered the pizza, and then I ordered a soda and he ordered a beer. He was really easy to talk to. Well we kept eating and talking and he must have ordered four beers. He told me about his family Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 60 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 61 who all drink a lot and love to drink a bunch when they get together. Well heʼs a really nice guy and we said weʼd get together again. But when I got home, I donʼt know what happened, but I just didnʼt want to see him again. Heʼs called me and wanted to go out again. I donʼt know why I donʼt want to see him again. I must be crazy. I donʼt want to see him. There must be something really wrong with me. Yes, thatʼs whatʼs happened and Iʼve been feeling worse and worse.

With further questioning the patient reported the following: When I was a kid, Iʼd be really upset by all the drinking that went on in my family. Iʼd tell them they were drinking too much and that they should stop it. Theyʼd tell me they werenʼt drinking too much and that there must be something wrong with me for thinking that they were drinking too much. Then theyʼd tell me I was crazy. By the time I was thirteen I was an alcoholic. (This is a sad example of that old adage, “If you canʼt beat ʻem, join ʻem!”)

As we continued talking the patient started to realize that she had clearly recognized her date and his family to be alcoholics, but since he seemed so nice, she couldnʼt reconcile his pleasantness with the alcoholism. With her familyʼs help she had become very adept at denying what she knew to be true. The only conclusion she could draw was the one she had learned from her family, that there was something terribly wrong with her, even crazy and so she entered and continued to slide down the deep hole of depression. Once she recognized what had happened, she felt much better. She realized that her observations were correct and she had a healthy pride in being able to see the truth. It was also helpful and encouraging to her to have someone else validate her experience. She learned that it would be useful that when she started calling herself crazy or thinking that there was something wrong with her to explore if there were some uncomfortable observations she had made and tried to bypass. No remedy was needed or given.

This case represents a situation where despite a remedy the current problem relates to “faulty upbringing.” In such a case, as suggested by Hahnemann, “earnest, rational expostulation” resolved the difficulty.

Case 2 SB, fifty-one year old female

SB returned for treatment a year after her last visit. Her chief complaints were menopausal symptoms that had started 6 months previously. Her symptoms included intense hot flashes, fatigue and a lack of interest in things that used to give her pleasure. She had been on hormone replacement therapy that she thought was the only solution to her problem. Unfortunately with HRT, her symptoms had only worsened and now her situation had deteriorated to the point where she felt hopeless about her Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 62 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 63 chance for recovery. However, since I had helped her in the past she decided to come back and give homeopathy “a try”. She was started on Sepia 12c b.i.d and because of the severity of her symptoms I decided to see her 10 days later to make sure she showed some improvement.

With patients who present either intense chronic physical or emotional symptoms, I frequently ask them to call or come in for an early follow-up, rather then waiting a full month.. Four weeks without contact with the prescriber is usually too long a wait for a patient suffering from symptoms of this nature. If the remedy was incorrect, it is certainly in the patientʼs best interest to discover this earlier than later. In any case, most patients in this situation benefit from more contact and support. If the prescription has been correct, there is usually the beginning of change sooner than one month and the patient is heartened to see some progress.

At our follow-up, the patient was better on every level. She had much better energy overall; the hot flashes were minimal. Her interest in life had returned and because of all this, her sense of hopelessness had disappeared. She noted, however, that within the past few days a scar from surgery performed several years ago for skin cancer hurt a bit. She also reported that in the last two days she had “been crying without any reason.” Sepia can be found in italics in the well known rubric Mind,Weeping, causeless.

Since the patient has been feeling better except for the past two days, there is curiosity regarding what is occurring. Perhaps the prescription of the remedy and/or the potency is not correct. Perhaps the patient needs to cry before she gets better, crying is possibly a better state than indifference. Since we donʼt know, we go directly to the patient herself to discover precisely what is going on. Perhaps the rubric is, after all, “causeless weeping.” That is what the patient is clearly stating.

Patient: I have been crying for the past two days for no reason at all.

Doctor: You sound very sad. I wonder if anything happened in the last few days to bring on this weepiness.

Patient: No, everything has been fine. Except of course for the crying.

Doctor: Has there been any stress that we havenʼt talked about?

Patient: No, everything has been as usual.

Doctor: Could you tell me what has gone on in the last week? Iʼd really like to know and it may be important.

Patient: Well letʼs see. Nothing really. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 62 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 63 Doctor: Try to review the week day by day.

Patient: OK. Letʼs see. Wednesday, I worked in the garden. I love doing that. And I was finally able to have lunch with a friend of mine who I hadnʼt seen in along time. We can really talk and laugh together. I had a terrific time with her. Thursday and Friday I went to work and you know how much I enjoy my job. Everything went really well and my co-workers even told me what a terrific job Iʼm doing. Certainly nothing to cry over that! Saturday and Sunday my twenty-five year old stepson came to visit. Well, that went as it usually does. (At this point the patientʼs eyes drift away. She is losing contact with the doctor and she looks very sad. She sighs and looks as if she is giving up.)

Doctor: Could you tell me tell me about your stepsonʼs visit? By the way whatʼs his name?

Patient: His name is Peter and Iʼm sorry to say itʼs always difficult when he shows up. I would like to like him, but I find his behavior so difficult. (The patient stops talking and volunteers no more information).

Doctor: (Has waited a bit to see if the patient will continue talking, but the patient doesnʼt and just continues with that look of having given up.) Could you tell me what was difficult this time? (This is stated more as an encouraging remark than as a question).

Patient: Well, Peter is big into ecology. He asked to borrow my car and of course I let him. When he returned he started yelling at my husband and I; but even more so at my husband, that we were disgusting Americans consuming the worldʼs resources. He continued this harangue. I know my husband finds it almost impossible to set limits with Peter. I wanted to say something, but I thought that it would make matters even worse so I just walked out the door, visited a friend, went for a long walk and didnʼt come back until late. (Patient continues to look very sad). Well, the next morning Peter left without saying a word about what had happened and neither did I. (She hesitates). Well, then, uh, um, my husband Joe got very upset. (She looks as if she beginning to “get” something.) He told me my behavior was unacceptable, that walking out when Peter was doing his tirade was insulting to Peter and that I should send him a letter of apology. As a matter of fact, he insisted that I write Peter a letter of apology. We argued a lot about this. (Patient stops talking look eyes downward. Now there is a look of both sadness and intense shame in her face),

Doctor: What did you do? Did you write the note?

Patient: (Looking up, meeting the doctorʼs eyes calmly). Yes, I wrote it. I Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 64 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 65 didnʼt want to, but I did. It seemed easier. (There is a pause and she looks as if she is thinking about something.) (Pause) Do you think thatʼs why I have been crying?

Doctor: I wonder. What do you think?

Patient: Yes, thatʼs why Iʼve been crying. Absolutely. My husband is a great guy, we have a great marriage and get along really well, but when it comes to his son...Yes, I can feel it now, thatʼs why Iʼve been crying.

Doctor: (meeting the patientʼs eyes very directly) Iʼm not sure I understand what exactly the crying was about?

Patient: Well, the whole situation is so sad. Peter and Joeʼs relationship, my relationship with Peter, the way my husband treated me. It wasnʼt right. (The patient looks at the doctor a bit hopelessly.)

Doctor: Is anything else going on for you now?

Patient: I think thereʼs something even sadder. The way I treated myself...

Doctor: The way you treated yourself?

Patient: Yes. By writing the letter I violated myself. Yes, I did violate myself. That felt awful, just awful. I didnʼt know what else to do. It all seemed so hopeless. I will never do that again. Never. I feel much better just talking about it.

We both agree that since the patient is doing so much better and now has more understanding of her situation, we will do a follow up in a month and keep a watch on her scar. If there are any problematic symptoms, she is instructed to call me. In addition, she has agreed to call her psychotherapist who she also has not seen in a while and find a way to resolve her situation with her husband.

Three days later SB came to see me because not only was the pain increasing in the scar, but she also developed pain in several other surgical scars as well. Sepia does not cover this symptom. Under Generalities, there is the rubric: “Wounds, painful.” Sepia does not appear in this rubric, but Staphysagria along with Hypericum appears in bold type. This symptom began to appear at the same time as the “causeless weeping” developed. Staphysagria is a remedy noted for being one of the important remedies in which symptoms develop from suppressed anger, disappointed love and mortification--all of which applied here. Staphysagria 200c was prescribed. Several days later, the patient called to report that the day following the dose of Staphysagria the pain decreased dramatically and was now gone. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 64 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 65 However, within following few days, her menopausal symptoms started to return. This time one dose of Sepia 200c was administered leading to the resolution of her menopausal symptoms.

This case is interesting in several respects. The first is that just as treatment was beginning, the patient found herself in a situation she didnʼt know how to resolve effectively. This led to the need for a new remedy on an acute basis, before the patient could return to her more fundamental remedy. Despite an awareness of how the patient had experienced emotional injury, this was not enough to clear the physical symptoms. Perhaps the understanding needed to go to a deeper level, but in any case Staphysagria was needed before the patient could move on. Both Sepia and Staphysagria can be found in the rubric “Weeping, causeless,” but unless we understand the reason for the symptom, we will not be able to find either the correct remedy or a true understanding of what is going on in the patientʼs life. The prominent physical symptoms are also important in leading the way to this curative remedy. SBʼs situation with her husband and stepson is one in which family therapy may be of vital importance.

Homeopathic case taking is obviously more than the gathering of symptoms leading to a correct homeopathic prescription. Through questioning and interacting appropriately, the patient is given the opportunity, not merely to provide a symptom list, but perhaps just as significantly, to learn about himself. Homeopathy, understanding of how we function as a human being, and the ability to change our patterns of behavior are all important aspects of true healing.

Pearlyn Goodman-Herrick, ND, DHANP has been in practice for over 25 years and maintains practices in Westport, Ct. and New York City. She recently served on the Board of the DHANP.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 66         Brent Mathieu ND, DHANP

Patient is an Eighty-six year old woman. First visit: September 3, 2002.

The patient is a pleasant, warm, engaging woman similar in manner and dress to Auntie Em of the Wizard of Oz. Plain spoken, alert, articulate, kindly and practical. She often dresses in plaid blouse and pants suitable for housekeeping and gardening, which is her main occupation.

A neurologist diagnosed her condition as Peripheral Neuropathy three years earlier, and led her to believe she would eventually be paralyzed. This caused her great anguish over the prospect of losing her independence. Medical doctors had prescribed B12 injections with slight benefit. One MD encouraged alternative medicine and she began self-treatment without guidance by taking a multiple vitamin, and a mineral formula.

The patient begins her story:

“I enjoyed good health as an adult for years. I had many minor infections as a child. My problem started with me feeling tension around my ankles, like the pressure of a tourniquet. Three years ago I injured my knee and required surgery. For a while, I had difficulty walking. My legs were stiff, like cement. Itʼs getting better. I made myself continue to work and exercise, and began feeling stronger. (One perceives this woman has strong self-determination. Sheʼs a widow, living by herself and quite independent in manner and attitude).

“Then I began to lose sleep. Legs cramp at night. All of my life Iʼve had restless legs, even as a child. I canʼt sit and watch a movie. I have to move legs constantly. It gets on my nerves. Itʼs better walking and from massage. My legs cramp severely and suddenly. Monthly B12 injections lessen the cramps, but donʼt prevent them.”

Rx: Recommendation of sublingual B12 1000 mcg daily in addition to monthly injections.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 67 “Iʼm active during the day, walking and gardening. I used to walk four miles a day.” Now only walks in the yard and still mows her one-acre property. “For a time, I had poor balance and almost needed a walker.” (Her gait and balance are now normal).

“I have shooting pains across the top of toes (2). My legs are tender. Wherever I touch the legs below the knees is painful everywhere. When I touch my legs I feel electric shooting to toes. (Impression noted: Argentum metallicum, Phosphorous. Argentum comes to mind from a case of insomnia published in Simillimum by Mona Morstein with the characteristic of electrical shock sensation. Phosphorus was considered for neuropathy generally and her sympathetic nature).

“I desire quality of life, not just long life. I could care less if I donʼt live to see tomorrow.”

Tell me more about your leg pain?

“Itʼs like when you bruise yourself, but Iʼm only aware when I touch the legs. It doesnʼt affect me, or hurt me when I walk. I feel weakness in the legs upon arising and have to stand for a moment.”

Sleep?

“Iʼve always been a person that had 8 hours of sleep. Now I lie down, and am about to fall asleep, then Iʼm wide-awake, and it takes 3 hours typically to fall asleep. Itʼs like Iʼve had a shot of coffee. This began 6 months ago for no apparent reason.”

Other health problems?

“General good health. No headaches, no stomach problems. Blood pressure is normal like a 17 year old.”

Tell me about yourself?

“I feel moments of depression at times. Iʼm not a person to be depressed. My sonʼs voice pulls me right up whenever he calls. I lost my husband in the 80ʼs. That took lots of adjustment. I donʼt socialize, and donʼt go to church. I wonʼt watch vulgar, violent TV. I volunteer often to help elderly with transportation or laundry. Iʼm generous with family and friends. With the loss of my husband, I turned to myself. I donʼt depend on others, or my children. Iʼm self-dependent. I grew up knowing I had to care for myself. Iʼve done lots of landscaping. I left home at an early age, and relied on myself. I didnʼt trust or depend on others. My belief was, Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 68 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 69 ʻYouʼre on your own and you canʼt give up.ʼ”

Tell me more about your legs and sleep?

“When Iʼm asleep, my legs start bothering. When I awake, I think itʼs going to be morning already, and maybe Iʼve only had minutes of sleep, and Iʼm surprised.”

Energy?

“I have good energy. I garden and can vegetables. Iʼm active physically.”

Howʼs digestion, and elimination? (I want to know if neuropathy has affected peristalsis).

“I have 2-3 bowel movements daily. Itʼs not a problem. I eat what I want. I eat finger foods, like I love sardines. Mostly I donʼt sit down to a table and eat. My diet has lots of dairy, fish, real buttermilk, cheese, cottage cheese. Only a little meat. I love to microwave green peppers and cheese. I grow vegetables and can what I donʼt eat fresh.”

“For a time, I was dizzy a lot. So dizzy I couldnʼt walk and so I took medication. I used to work as an office assistant. Doctor diagnosed me with inner ear disease. Specialist did tests, which were normal. He advised salt restriction. I loved dill pickles and used to eat a pint daily. I quit pickles, reduced salt and the vertigo disappeared. Now thereʼs no dizziness at all. I was unsteady with the onset of the neuropathy but itʼs gone now.”

“Iʼm dyslexic. It stops me from reading. I turn numbers around and have difficulty understanding what I read. I donʼt retain and canʼt concentrate. I was punished in elementary school because I was left- handed. I went through a lifetime of difficulty of understanding. Once Iʼve learned a task, I never make a mistake, e.g. needle point. Mentally Iʼm sharp.”

“The MDs ruled out everything as a cause of the neuropathy including diabetes.”

She regularly uses nutritional supplements including a Mega Multiple Mineral with 1000mg Calcium, 500 mg Magnesium, others minerals in an herbal base. She takes antioxidants, vitamins E 100IU, A 10000 IU, C 150 mg, D 400IU, B complex 100mg with 400mcg folate.

Her pulse is 56, strong and regular. She has tenderness of the lower leg and ankles. Reflexes normal. Legʼs skin color and temperature good. No Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 68 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 69 edema. Foot pulses normal. Numbness to touch. 1+.

Assessment: Focus of case is physical, especially affecting peripheral nerve sensation. What I thought was most peculiar and characteristic was the electric shooting sensation. Emotionally she is healthy.

Some possible rubrics from Murphyʼs Repertory in Cara were:

Legs, restlessness, legs, restlessness, lower Legs, restlessness, legs, night Generals, Electric shocks, sensations Sleep, Insomnia, restlessness, from legs, in Legs, Cramps, legs Legs, Cramps, legs cramps, calves Legs, Shooting, pain shooting, lower Legs, Sore, pain sore, lower Nerves, Numbness, sensation single, parts, in Vertigo, Vertigo remedies Food, Pickles, desires Food, Cheese, desires Mind, Mistakes, reading

On repertorization, Calc carb; Lyc; Rhus tox; Sep; Zinc; Ars.; and Caust., are the top remedies. I also thought of Conium for keynotes of the lower leg numbness and history of vertigo, and Argentum metallicum for the electrical shock sensation associated with insomnia.

Calcarea carbonicum covers well the legʼs sensations of restlessness (2), cramps (3), electric shock (1), numbness (2), soreness (1), and tension (2). Calcarea carb, has vertigo (3), and desires cheese and salt. Her weakness on standing would fit withCalcarea carb, and she has some mild anxiety about loss of independence that resonates with Calcarea carb. Her history of childhood infections though not explored, might confirm.

Lycopodium covers the physical sensations almost equally well, including the vertigo. Being quite independent, and self-actualized, she does not have Lycopodiumʼs typical lack of confidence. Nor does she have any of the usual digestive complaints of Lycopodium.

Rhus tox also covers well, especially indicated for her legs restlessness with amelioration from motion, though Rhus tox doesnʼt have the electrical sensation.

Sepia, Zinc, Arsenicum and Causticum cover less well. She doesnʼt exhibit Sepiaʼs typical exhaustion or irritability. She lacks Zincʼs characteristic twitching, fasciculations and jerks that one would expect Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 70 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 71 associated with the cramping. She lacks Arsenicumʼs exhaustion, anxiety, burning sensations and chilliness.

Causticum is well known for its nerve affinity with numbness. Causticum likes cheese and salt. Furthermore, while analyzing the repertorization, I confirmed with her a history of chronic hoarseness, loss of voice, and dry cough.

Her voice was noticeably weak during the interview, taking effort to speak as the case progressed. She confirmed: “There are days when Iʼm alone that I donʼt speak, and may have no voice. It can be difficult to talk on the phone.”

So I added Larynx, Weak, Voice to the rubric list.

However, the remedy I prescribed was Argentum metallicum. Primarily, this was based on recollection of the cases of Argentum metallicum published in Simillimum, Fall, 1996, and the keynote of the electric shock sensation. In her article in that issue, Nancy Herrick, described Argentum metallicum patients:

“They can develop the famous electric shock sensation, especially in the lower extremities, which occurs mostly when going to sleep, or in sleep. The nervous system is sending out signals of complete over-taxation. Also, sudden vertigo can come with mental effort. This is a keynote for Argentum metallicum. Argentum metallicum patients can get hoarse from overexerting their voices… They have many pains and symptoms that appear suddenly. This suddenness is a keynote. All the symptoms are worse from rest, and better from motion.”

In Mona Morsteinʼs article in the same issue, she quotes Heringʼs description of Argentum metallicum:

“No rest at night, has to urinate so often; cannot fall asleep easily and her sleep is very restless; soon as she sinks into a doze, an electric shock of whole body or single limbs occurs and interrupts sleep.”

We can easily perceive how the above description fits the patient with the exception that she has no history of nocturia. I relied on intuition, memory, and Morrisonʼs Desktop Guide.

Plan: Argentum met. 200C Thorne Basic Nutrients, and NutriRice stabilized rice bran (source of antioxidants such as tocotrienols and alpha lipoic acid indicated for neuropathy).

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 70 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 71 Follow-up Sept 12, 2002.

“First day was remarkable, just beautiful. I felt well like three or four years ago. Then there was an aggravation of the insomnia for three or four days. I slept thirty minutes and then woke. My sleep was disturbed. Then four or five days after the remedy, I felt like a new person. Everything is better. Attitude is better. Strength improving. Sleep improving though still bothersome with waking. Every day Iʼm better. My voice is the same as I have no one to talk to since I live alone. Restless legs maybe the same?”

Exam: Leg tenderness less.

Assessment: Correct remedy. Aggravation with improvement. Plan: Wait. Continue supplements.

October 10, 2002

“Iʼm very good. Occasionally tired after a day of exertion. Iʼm sleeping better. I never perspired before in my life. Never. Now Iʼm perspiring all over on exertion. Itʼs a new experience. (Vitalistic discharge?) The perspiration doesnʼt bother me. Everything is great. I think happier thoughts. Before I thought I was going downhill. MDʼs had told me Iʼd be paralyzed. Iʼve noticed hair loss in last year. Itʼs thinning. My voice is stronger, and improving. Iʼm not coughing. The improvement is unbelievable. I feel no tension around ankles except occasionally. Sometimes I have restless legs at night. >ice pack. I have no more shooting pain across toes or legs. Itʼs gone. Iʼm very pleased.”

Assessment: Much improved. Plan: Wait. Continue supplements.

November 5, 2002 “Within several days after last visit, symptoms setback. Last week I had real trouble with leg pain. It prevented sleep. My legs are restless. I need to stretch and move them or they burn. I sleep one or two hours then wake from leg pain. Iʼd be fine if not for the leg pain.”

She confirms return of electric sensation, especially when touches the legs.

“My legs at times feel numb and heavy. It comes and goes. No vertigo. Voice still better, and Iʼm hardly coughing since first visit. Still craves dill pickles. Mouth is dry when awakes at night, not bothersome during the day.”

Assessment: Remedy exhausted. Partial relapse. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 72 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 73 Plan: Argentum metallicum 200C 2nd dose

November 12, 2002 Phone call: “Iʼm doing great. Next morning after remedy mentally and physically drained for two or three hours. Iʼm going strong ever since. Mind is clear. Iʼm planning ahead, with good energy. Several nights after second dose, I had a coughing spell, and since then never coughed again. Leg restlessness is going away. Last night I slept all night through. No leg cramps in last two nights.”

Assessment: Remedy acting. Plan: Wait, follow-up 1 month.

Patient did well with occasional relapses needing repeat of Argentum 200C until January 30, 2003. In response to a relapse, I misprescribed by accident Argentum nitricum 200C (realized after remedy given and charted). She developed new symptom of postnasal sinus drainage, which was first time ever experienced in her life. Argentum nitricum did not benefit her voice. Voice weakened. When she was informed at subsequent visit, February 6, 2003, of the mistaken prescription she nodded knowingly and stated she felt there was something wrong and different with the remedy. This is an interesting bit of evidence contrary to the theory of placebo mechanism for homeopathy. She improved again with the Argentum Metallicum. She has continued to do well until present with occasional relapses every few months, and a repeat of the remedy in 200C, and then 1M potency. Her last dose of Argentum 1M was given September 14, 2004. During her brief phone follow-up of December 10, 2004, she was again “doing better”. “Those silver pills sure start me well”.

This case is a good demonstration of the keynotes of Argentum metallicum.

Brent Mathieu ND, DHANP is a member of the board of the HANP, as well as a former President and Executive Director. He is the HANP representative to the CHC and maintains his private practice in Boise, Idaho.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 72 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 73      Amy Rothenberg ND, DHANP

Ginger first presented three years ago, a 33 year old receptionist, with severe interstitial cystitis (IC). She came in with her husband who was very concerned about her problem, as was she, because it was ruling her life and making it increasingly difficult for her to work. Her job allowed her to visit the restroom often, but she was beginning to feel awkward about constantly getting up to use the bathroom. She had been having the problems off and on for about six months but it was getting worse over time.

She described the IC discomfort in the region of the bladder, which gave her a tremendous sense of urgency and frequency. She did not have any actual pain with urination but would experience bladder spasms at the end of urination. In general, her discomfort was worse if she had to urinate, worse if she was tired and worse if she attempted intercourse.

Ginger also experienced vulvodynia pretty much all the time, but it was much worse if she tried to have intercourse. She felt a kind of pressure in the labial area and in the perineum. She had found nothing to give her relief. She has used a very low dose birth control pill for many years, not so much for birth control, but rather to prevent what she described as severe and intolerable premenstrual tension and protracted and difficult periods. The pill regulated her cycle and made the whole menstrual situation less difficult to handle. The primary dysmenorrhea of which she also complained, was likewise addressed by the pill.

Interstitial cystitis is a chronic bladder condition, where the bladder wall becomes inflamed; the etiology largely unknown. IC can cause scarring which in turn causes the walls to stiffen, making it difficult for the bladder to expand, hence the feelings of urinary pressure and frequency. Like many women who have IC, Ginger tended to be worse the week or so before “menstruating,” (even though her menses were greatly altered due to the BCP,) or if she were particularly stressed out. Ginger had undergone a bladder distension procedure, which is curative for some, without relief. She had also taken amitriptyline (Elavil) to help block pain and reduce bladder spasms. It worked minimally, but made her very sleepy; which she

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 74 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 75 could not tolerate; she also did not like the idea of having to take medication over the long run.

Ginger also complained of moderately severe seasonal allergies for which she took over-the-counter medication. At times these led to anaphylactic responses. She was allergic to several foods, especially fruits and nuts, as well as dust mites and animal dander of cats and dogs. She kept an immaculate house to reduce her exposure to allergens, and ate only foods to which she was not sensitive.

With regard to her digestion, Ginger liked to eat a lot, most especially pizza, tomatoes, raisins, beans and prunes. She disliked sausages, fatty meats, spicy food, Chinese food and Thai food. Her thirst was difficult to assess as she drank plenty believing it was good for her bladder.

She was better from warmth, though she perspired profusely. Her nails peeled easily. She tended towards acne, and had taken antibiotics and other medications as treatment for it.

She was involved in an automobile accident ten years earlier, which injured her back, and caused pain in her neck and back.

She maintained several file folders, which housed her health information and data, lab work and medication records. She enjoyed her work for the most part, keeping her employers papers in order and interfacing with the public. In short, she was organized, focused and on task.

That said, Ginger had an overarching sensation of anxiety and could worry about most anything, but her bladder and vulvar problems made her immensely uneasy. It was difficult not to think about the problem, because it constantly called her attention. She had tried to do everything she could think of to help, with regard to hygiene, allopathic, medication, natural medicines, etc., which in her particular situation was very frustrating, as none of these really helped her complaints.

Ginger also had a moderate fear of robbers, of being raped, of car accidents and the death of loved ones. When she was at her most anxious she could be comforted by the kindness and support of her husband and family.

Though the patientʼs husband was ten years older than her, she seemed to run the show. She was strong-willed and forceful in our interactions, earnest and energetic. She was acutely sensitive to her environment, her physical symptoms and the nuances of her relationships. Her attention to details was impressive. She spoke in a rapid staccato voice, sitting at the Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 74 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 75 edge of her seat, not wanting to miss any of the action.

She sighed frequently during the interview, and described that there was tightness in her upper chest and throat, making it difficult to take a deep breath.

During our interview, I kept hearing ideas that showed how disparaging Ginger was. From criticizing her in-laws to being finding fault about her employer to being critical of friends, her judgmental nature and critical eye came up repeatedly as she talked about her life.

Assessment: This is a short representation of this case, most of the salient points that came up during our hour and half together. Even though itʼs just the nuts and bolts of the case, one still needs to decide what to pay attention to in order to prescribe. Depending on what you pay attention to, that will be what you repertorize. One could have looked just at the physical symptoms leading to remedies like Cantharis or Staphysagria, or the emotional symptoms and prescribed Nux vomica or Sepia. With Cycles and Segments thinking, I hear a symptom or observe a symptom and think to myself, what is that symptom an example of, and are there other examples of it in the case. Most always there are many examples of an underlying idea, so I would group those symptoms together in to one Segment. In this case for example, her hypersensitivity came out in her allergies and hay fever but was also represented by her sensitivity to the emotional issues of her life. I was also able to group the bladder, vulvar and perineal discomfort all in the same Segment, as they represented the same idea.

In this way, instead of having a repertorization that limits the remedies considered, instead of having to choose the EXACT right rubric, I am more comfortable adding rubrics together, as long as I cover the ideas essential to the case. I am also free to combine both physical and mental or emotional rubrics as long as they represent the same idea.

I understood the Cycle of her pathology as reflected in the repertorization below. The pain and discomfort triggered her heightened worry. The anxiety called upon her to do whatever she could to help the problem. She would work and do what she was able to fix the problem, but her efforts would over shoot the mark, leave her exhausted and more susceptible to the hypersensitivity from which she already suffered. She would reach out, try to connect, but in the end, her bladder and vulvar symptoms would get the best of her. You can see the rubrics I chose, which reflect these major Segments in her case below.

First is a screen from the Herscu Module on Radar which shows the repertorization used in this case. I have grouped symptoms that represent Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 76 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 77 the same concepts into Segments and put the Segments in to what I felt represented the Cycle of her pathology. For more on Paul Herscuʼs Cycles and Segments approach to case taking and analysis see www.nesh.com and follow prompts to the Herscu Letter; you will find information about Cycles and Segments.

Here are the rubrics used:

What follows is a picture of the Cycle of the case:

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 76 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 77 And lastly, here are the remedies that came through all six Segments, with the remedy I gave, highlighted. The rubrics to the right are the ones in which this remedy was found:

I gave her one dose of Arsenicum album 200c. The other remedies that also strongly came through the repertorization were Nitric acid, Phosphorus and Silicea. When I use this approach to case taking and analysis, I like my repertorization to lead me to a handful of remedies, perhaps 4-9, or so. Then I can go through that short list and feel fairly certain my patient will need one of those remedies. Instead of hundreds or thousands of remedies to choose from, I am down to a more manageable number. I then use my understanding of physical general symptoms, my knowledge of materia medica and my clinical experience to help me hone in on one remedy. In Gingerʼs case, I knew I could never give her Phosphorus as temperamentally it did not fit, ditto forSilicea . Nitric acid became my strong second choice, something I like to have in my back pocket, when prescribing for the first time.

I also asked Ginger to follow portions of a naturopathic protocol for the treatment of IC, including the following supplementation:

L-Arginine -500mg three times each day which has been shown to decrease pain and urgency in some women.

Vitamin E-400 IU/day-for its overall immune support and to help create healthy mucosal lining in the bladder.

Beta carotene- 25,000 IU/day, also for overall immune support and to

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 78 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 79 help create healthy mucosal lining in the bladder. . I had her return to the office one month later. Ginger reported that she had considerably less frequency; she could now get through a whole morning or afternoon at work without taking a break for the bathroom. She had less discomfort overall and was able to have intercourse without pain for the first time in close to a year. She still felt anxious and worried, though she felt good that the bladder and vulvar symptoms were improving. I did not repeat the remedy, but encouraged her to remain on her supplements.

I saw her four months later where Ginger came in quite happy, she felt like her bladder and vaginal area were normal. She was less anxious and feeling well. We waited at this point.

I saw her about a year after our first meeting where I repeated the Arsenicum album 200c; she had not had a return of the IC symptoms, but her seasonal allergies and her anxiety were worsening again. The remedy took the edge off of those complaints and we have gone up to Arsenicum album 1M during the fall allergy season. She may well need another remedy to address the anxiety or it may be that the Arsenicum, over time, will do the trick.

Whereas our allopathic colleagues often have problem treating interstitial cystitis, a few gentle naturopathic approaches along with a good constitutional remedy can offer these patients hope for effective and long lasting treatment.

Amy Rothenberg ND, DHANP, practices in Enfield, Connecticut. She teaches for the NCH and the New England School of Homeopathy. She writes and teaches on topics in natural medicine both here & abroad. Information on the upcoming New England School of Homeopathyʼs Two-Year Course to take place in Portland, Oregon, can be found at www.nesh.com

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 78 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 79   Ian Watson RSHom

Introduction At college I was taught that there were certain types of person that would most likely require the remedy Kali carbonicum. They were rigid, closed individuals with a strong sense of duty and an excessive control over their emotions. They would have a great need for order and structure in their lives, and would tend to understate their sufferings until they had progressed into a pathological state. They were probably to be found working in middle management, or as bank managers or police officers. They would be unlikely to come for homœopathic treatment, except perhaps as a last resort, and even then it would be difficult to find the remedy because of their closed, rigid nature… I expect that this picture is familiar to many. The impression I carried for quite some time was that Kali carbonicum would be needed in practice on rare occasions, and that only those types of person described above would require the remedy. Fortunately, however, a patient came along to teach me otherwise.

The Patient A forty-six year old woman presented with pre-menstrual syndrome of many years duration, which acupuncture and previous homœopathic treatment had only palliated. Before each period for at least one week she suffered with the following: aching pains in the legs, worse on lying down; insomnia, waking around 3am and unable to get back to sleep; great exhaustion; emotional instability (ʻlike being on a tightropeʼ) with frequent changes of mood; menstruation at intervals of three weeks. She had a tendency to recurrent backache in the lumbar region, since giving birth fifteen years previously and a history of post-natal depression lasting many months. She had two children and had difficulties during both pregnancies; the first birth was a forceps delivery. She was generally chilly. She sweated easily, especially at night in bed. Several times weekly she would have to rise to urinate at 3 or 4am. A sore, bruised pain was felt periodically in the region of the liver, with occasional sharp stitches. She had great sleepiness after her evening meal, suffered a lot from flatulence and her stools tended to be very pale. She was very well dressed and during the interview she was extremely open, extrovert and quite loquacious. She tended to worry about the family,

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 80 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 81 about her children being ill and about her own health. She said she was a coward as she was frightened of pain. When I had taken this case I was not sure what remedy she needed. I could see aspects of Lycopodium, Arsenicum and Phosphorus, but none of these seemed quite right. I could also see a few ʻkeynotesʼ suggesting Kali carbonicum, but her openness and extroversion seemed to strongly contradict my image of the ʻtypicalʼ Kali carbonicum person. The mental/emotional symptoms that I had elicited did not seem that strong or problematic to her anyway, so I decided to find a remedy that matched the physical generals, which by contrast were clear and well marked.

Repertorization I quickly repertorized the case using Phatakʼs Concise Repertory, taking the following rubrics: Menses, before agg. (p. 229) Menses, early (p. 232) Pregnancy, childbed, affections of, or since agg. (p 276) Liver (& right hypochondria) (p. 217) Time, 3am agg. (p. 360) Changing moods (p. 46) Because so many of her sufferings were worse before the period, to save time I used the rubric ʻMenses, before agg.ʼ as an eliminator, that is to say I only considered the remedies in that rubric. Whilst Cocculus and Calcarea carbonica featured strongly in the repertorization, Kali carbonicum was the only remedy to be found in every subsequent rubric. Reading the materia medica it seemed to match her overall state very well, so I prescribed a single dose of Kali carbonicum 30 (the only potency I had in stock at the time).

Results The result was an aggravation of her symptoms lasting almost five weeks, during which time she had a lot of pain in the liver region and she felt quite depressed. A number of old symptoms (some from fifteen years previously) returned and subsequently disappeared. After this she suddenly started to improve in every respect and her periods then established a four- weekly cycle and she had none of the pre-menstrual symptoms. All of the liver pains disappeared and she felt better than for years. The improvement lasted for three months, after which a return of some of the cured symptoms called for a repetition. Kali carbonicum 200 was given, which produced another lengthy but less intense aggravation and she then remained well for almost a year, when a further dose was needed. The curative action of the remedy was very deep, and it was obviously a remedy that she had needed for many years. Discussion What this patient taught (or rather, reminded) me was that the psychological profiles of remedies can be terribly limiting if we seek to Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 80 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 81 fit all of our patients into the ʻfamiliar imageʼ we have of the polychrests. These images provide wonderful confirmation when they are found, but I have learnt from experience that there are many other aspects of a person that a remedy may be ʻsimilarʼ to, and that there are many facets to a remedy other than those that we were taught. I would like to share some of the experience I have gained with Kali carbonicum over the past two years, emphasizing the physical aspects of the remedy which I have seen manifest in a wide spectrum of personality-types. There are a number of key areas of disturbance that have featured strongly in a majority of my cases, which form the general headings given below.

Water Balance Kali carbonicum is a major remedy for fluid retention - the materia medicas state that it is suited to dropsical states, and I have found this to be frequently the case. But the water issue goes further than that. There is a generalized sensation of dryness which runs through the whole remedy picture and which crops up here and there in a great many patients. Dry cough, dry stools, dry skin, dry hair, dry eyes, dry throat, dry tongue and so on. The urine flows too slowly, and the perspiration is scanty or suppressed. As with many of our polychrests, there is a polarity within the picture of Kali carbonicum so that symptoms of excess water are just as pronounced. There is a strong tendency to weep in the remedy picture - weeping with headache, during chill, in sleep, without knowing why, when telling symptoms etc. The remedy also has continual gathering of water in the mouth, excessive lachrymation, diminution of sight after working in water, regurgitation of water from the stomach, and a tendency to profuse sweats and night sweats. Even more strikingly, there is a sensation as if the stomach is full of water, and even dreams of water and dreams of weeping. Wherever there is an issue to do with water or the lack of it, Kali carbonicum ought to be considered along with Alumina, Bryonia, Natrum muriaticum and Nux moschata. I have verified the water sensation in the stomach on several occasions - the strangest was a man who described to me a feeling that he had a U- shaped tube in his stomach partly filled with water. Whichever way he turned, the water seemed to slosh over to that side of the tube. In this case I took the rubric in Phatakʼs Repertory ʻSplashing, swashing, as of waterʼ where Kali carbonicum is to be found, and the remedy helped him a great deal. My wife Sally also prescribed Kali carbonicum successfully for a woman who had a ʻsensation as if the eyes were full of waterʼ. I have not seen this symptom listed under Kali carbonicum, but it was cured in this case along with her other symptoms which were characteristic of the remedy.

Digestion Kali carbonicum has a strong affinity with the digestive tract, particularly the stomach and liver. Emotions are felt by the patient to Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 82 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 83 affect the stomach area, particularly anxiety, fear or sudden shocks like the slamming of a door. There is nausea from emotions or after vexation. Often there are palpitations, dyspnoea and other respiratory or heart symptoms which are secondary to digestive trouble. One of my patients had a pain in the praecordial region extending down the left arm. She naturally thought it was heart trouble, but questioning revealed that it only came on after she ate fatty foods, which confirmed my suspicion that it was a referred symptom from the gall-bladder or the liver. Kali carbonicum helped her generally and cured the chest pains. One is constantly reminded of Burnettʼs injunction to ʻget behind the symptomsʼ and find the seat of the disorder, which often lies elsewhere even on a purely physical level.

Comparisons Kali carbonicum has much in common with Lycopodium in the digestive area, and they are a pair that I have often found myself differentiating. Both have problems with eructations, flatulence and distension. Both share a great desire for sweet things, Kali carbonicum also having a specific desire for sugar. Kali carbonicum has additionally a strong desire for sour things, like Sepia, Hepar sulph., etc. Both remedies have an aversion to bread and to meat. Both remedies can be full after a small quantity of food (although this I think is more pronounced in Lycopodium), and both have a sensation of heaviness in the stomach after eating. Both remedies have stomach ulcers within their curative range. Both remedies can suffer from going too long without eating, and both shou ld be strongly considered in patients with liver pains or gall-stones when the characteristic symptoms are present. The typical sharp, stitching pain in the right side often crops up in patients needing Kali carbonicum, either as part of the presenting picture or at some time in the past history. To differentiate, Lycopodium may have aggravation from onions, shellfish and ʻflatulent foodʼ, whilstKali carbonicum can be affected adversely by bread, and also by warm food, which Lycopodium tends to crave. Eructations can either aggravate or ameliorate in Kali carbonicum whilst in Lycopodium they virtually always ameliorate.

Physical Structure The ætiologies of Kali carbonicum have guided me to its use on many occasions, and have helped me to understand certain aspects of the remedy of which I was previously unaware. The remedy should be strongly considered in patients who have never been well since childbirth, abortion, miscarriage, back or pelvic injury and overstraining the back. The key theme which all of these ætiologies share is that they are all capable of producing a degree of physical misalignment. When childbirth or abortion leaves a residual infection, Pyrogen would be the leading remedy, and where the trauma is predominantly emotional, Ignatia, Staphysagria and others would be most likely indicated. With Kali carbonicum, however, it seems to be more of a mechanical trauma affecting the uterus, pelvis or Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 82 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 83 the back, especially the lumbar region. Hence it is often the case that Kali carbonicum is particularly indicated after a prolonged or difficult childbirth, such as a forceps delivery. One of my patients who responded to the remedy said to me: ʻI feel that some of my problems have to do with the rapidity with which I had children - my body took a terrible bashing at that timeʼ. Another ætiology I have been able to add to this list is never been well since hysterectomy, which again is a pelvic trauma from which the organism may not fully recover. I discovered this indication after treating a woman in her early fifties who was suffering from severe, right-sided sciatica of several years duration. She had intense, sharp pains travelling from the hip down to the knee and was woken by them most nights between 3 and 4am. I noticed that she walked and sat hunched over forwards and to the right. The trouble had started almost immediately following a hysterectomy, carried out to cure prolonged menopausal flooding, which it apparently did. I prescribed a dose of Kali carbonicum 30, and the next day she telephoned to say that she was hemorrhaging. I asked what it was like, and she said that it was just like having a profuse period, which she found rather alarming given that she no longer had a uterus. The bleeding lasted for just one day, and by the next day the sciatica had disappeared and never returned. That was incredible enough, but I was even more amazed when I saw her and found that her entire posture had altered and she was now upright and relaxed - she looked as though she had just completed a course of the Alexander technique! I have since verified the indication never well since hysterectomy in several other cases and have found Kali carbonicum to be the leading remedy where some mechanical problem has resulted. One of the few men I have treated successfully with Kali carbonicum also had a right-sided sciatica, with the characteristic sharp pain, travelling from the hip to the knee. He had a feeling that the knee would give way on him and a history of back injury. He also made a good recovery on Kali carbonicum 30. I have noticed that several patients who have been helped by the remedy for some mechanical problem such as back trouble or sciatica have given the appearance when walking or standing that they have one leg longer than the other, and in some instances this was actually the case. I was therefore fascinated recently to discover a rubric in Kentʼs Repertory ʻLonger, legʼ (page 1033) with Kali carbonicum. as the only italicized remedy.

Female Organs The only thing I can recall being taught about Kali carbonicum in this regard is that it can ʻbring on the mensesʼ when Natrum muriaticum fails, though apparently indicated. Having freed myself of the stereotype image of a Kali carbonicum person, I have found it to be very frequently indicated for various types of womenʼs complaints, certainly as often as Pulsatilla, Sepia and our other polychrest female remedies. I have used Kali carbonicum successfully in womenʼs problems more frequently than in Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 84 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 85 any other single category of complaint. Pre-menstrual syndrome, as in the case above, is an area where Kali carbonicum is often useful, as the remedy has a general aggravation of symptoms before the period. I have found sleeplessness before the period to be a good indication, particularly if it occurs between 2 and 5am, and also ovarian soreness, backache or pains in the legs before the period. Another indication is vaginal itching before the period, and one which I have confirmed often is constipation before the period. The remedy should be strongly considered where there are uterine pains before or during the period which extend down the thighs. It is also the leading remedy to think of during labour where the labour pains extend into the thighs (Viburnum). The menses are most commonly early, profuse and protracted, but they may also be late, scanty or suppressed. Menses which are offensive, acrid and excoriating also indicate Kali carbonicum very strongly. The remedy has proved curative in uterine displacement, fibroids and cysts, and I have obtained curative results in dysmenorrhoea, metrorrhagia, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease and menopausal complaints where the characteristic symptoms were present. It should also be strongly considered in cases of hemorrhage or other disturbance following mechanical removal of afterbirth or retained placenta, or after a D & C for any other reason.

General characteristics I would like to conclude by listing some of the other general features of the remedy which I have frequently come across in practice and which are reliable indications. Sensation as if the back, hips, knees or legs would give way. This symptom often crops up in patients with back or joint problems, and is a very strong indication for Kali carbonicum. Aggravation between 2 and 5am.There are different opinions as to the exact aggravation time of Kali carbonicum some sources state the time as being 3-4am, others state from 3-5am. I have seen 3 or 4am to be the commonest aggravation time in patients who have responded well to the remedy, but sometimes the aggravation starts an hour or so earlier and sometimes it may continue as late as 5am. Often there is sleeplessness for a few hours during this period. It is also the leading remedy where asthmatic attacks occur between these hours, particularly when the patient has to sit leaning forward with the hands on the knees. I have treated patients who simply had to rise to urinate around 3 or 4am and, whilst this is a common symptom, it can provide useful confirmation if other symptoms of the remedy are present. Pain in the back relieved by lying on a hard surface, particularly on the floor. Here the remedy must be differentiated withNatrum muriaticum, Rhus tox., and Sepia. The back pains tend to be aggravated by walking, standing and sitting upright. There may be amelioration from sitting bent forward or from having the back supported, typically with a firm cushion pushed between the back and a chair. Kali carbonicum should be the first Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 84 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 85 remedy to think of during labour when the labour pains seem to centre in the back. There is a general over-sensitivity to noise, touch, draughts and to pain. Hypersensitivity of the soles of the feet is present in many patients for whom Kali carbonicum is indicated. I once asked a woman with menstrual problems how she would respond if I was to tickle her feet. She looked me straight in the eye and said: “I would kill you!” I was sure that she meant it, so I took it as confirmation of the remedy and assured her I would never do such a thing. Sharp, stitching pains. The combination of dryness plus stitching pains in a patient bring Bryonia and Kali Carbonicum equally to mind. In the latter I have found stitching pains most often in the liver region, the chest and in the joints, particularly the hip joint and especially the right hip. Other types of pain found under Kali carbonicum are stinging, needle-like, shooting, jerking, cutting, drawing and tearing. It also has pains which go to the side lain on, like Pulsatilla, Bryonia and others. Puffy, bag-like swelling above the upper eyelids is given great emphasis in the texts, but I must confess to only ever having seen it once in a patient for whom I prescribed Kali carbonicum. The literature suggests that this symptom would be found more commonly in patients with respiratory disease such as hydrothorax and pericarditis, in which I have had relatively little experience.

The Mental Picture Whilst the majority of my successful prescriptions of Kali carbonicum have been based upon physical characteristics exclusively, I have found, often in retrospect, that there were certain mental symptoms of the remedy present in a fair number of these patients. An emotional instability is often present, and Kali carbonicum should be thought of particularly when this instability becomes intensified in the week or so before the period. This has been described to me by different (women) patients as “terrible mood swings”; “feels as though I am on a tightrope”; “feels as if I am on a knife edge”; I have to walk the middle road all the timeʼ; ʻitʼs like being on an emotional see-sawʼ. In the repertory we find Kali carbonicum listed under ʻMood, alternatingʼ and ʻMood, changeableʼ, as well as ʻContraryʼ and ʻCapriciousʼ. Many of my patients have used the word control when describing their emotional state, as the following quotations will illustrate: “Iʼm afraid that I might lose control”; “my husband says I should stop worrying about things that are outside my control”; “I like to be in control of the situation”; “we have an on-going battle about who is in control”. Irritability or touchiness seems to be almost always present to some degree. This tends to be worse on waking; in the evenings; before or during the menstrual period. One patient told me if she felt a cold draught it annoyed her immensely. There is often a quarrelsome tendency, particularly with oneʼs own family. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 86 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 87 An element of fear is usually present, and the fears will often suggest remedies such as Arsenicum or Phosphorus. Fear of being alone; anxiety about health; fear of impending disease; fear of death, especially when alone. I have also found fears regarding oneʼs children to be very strong in patients who have responded well to Kali carbonicum. One patient presented with a crystal-clear physical picture of the remedy, mentioned a fear that she experienced whenever she had to rise to urinate at night, and which I asked her to describe in detail. She said: “Itʼs to do with the emptiness in the house; fear of a presence, of something unknown; that someone will come and touch you; it (the fear) seemed to be pressing on my back”. I was amazed to discover later how well she had described a number of Kali carbonicum fears in that sentence - in the repertory we find ʻfear of evilʼ, ʻfear of ghostsʼ, ʻfear of touchʼ and ʻfear of being alone in the eveningʼ. Also listed is ʻfear at 3amʼ, which was the time at which she invariably had to rise. On the emotional level Kali carbonicum seems to overlap closely with Phosphorus in many areas - the over-sensitivity, fearfulness, desire for company etc. Often with Kali carbonicum however there is additionally a hard edge to the personality that is not seen with Phosphorus, which manifests as a kind of obstinacy, dogmatism or rigidity in a certain area of their life. I have read that patients needing Kali carbonicum will withhold or play down their symptoms - in my experience they will often withhold or de- emphasise emotional symptoms, but I have never had difficulty in eliciting physical generals and particulars.

Related Remedies The remedies I have found to be most closely related are Lycopodium (especially in the digestive sphere); Natrum muriaticum (problems with water/dryness, backache, menstrual problems); Sepia (female pelvic, pregnancy and childbirth, menopausal and lower back problems) and Phosphorus (emotionally and respiratory problems). The commonest acute satellites of Kali carbonicum seem to be Bryonia, Colocynthis, Nux vomica and Carbo vegetabilis. Patients needing Kali carbonicum who have a pronounced weakness in the liver and/or gall bladder will very often benefit from a course of Chelidonium in tincture or low potency at some stage during the treatment.

Ian Watson is co-founder of the Lakeland Collge and author of A Guide to Methodologies of Homeopathy. He lives in Devon with his wife and daughter and is known internationally as a lecturer and workshop leader in the fields of homeopathy and self-development. Visitwww.i anwatsonseminars.com for details.

This article has been reprinted from Simillimum Fall 1991 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 86 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 87 HAHNEMANN LABORATORIES, INC.

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Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 90       

An excerpt from “ What About the Potency” Michelle Shine RS Hom

MS: How do you select a potency, what method do you favour?

IW: I would favour using a combination of factors in each case, rather than use a certain method, and that would include, for example: the age of the patient, my perception of the strength of the constitution, the depth of the pathology, any features like ongoing medication, or anything else that might interfere with the treatment. All of these factors are what I would look at, but the main thing for me would be the clarity of the prescribing image.

MS: The age of the patient would be, the younger the patient the higher the potency?

IW: In general, yes, but that could be overridden, for example by constitutional strength. If I saw an older person but they had good vitality and they werenʼt on drugs and the picture was clear, I would give them a high potency too.

MS: Can you clarify the perception of the constitution?

IW: My in-the-moment, snapshot-understanding of what that personʼs underlying constitutional strength is. Obviously I am making a best guess at that, because in reality you donʼt know what that is until youʼve started treating the person.

MS: So are we talking about the vital force, the strength of the vital force? The energy there or…?

IW: Yes, I guess you could put it that way. I tend to just talk about constitutional strength and I donʼt really use the term vital force that much, because itʼs relatively immeasurable isnʼt it?

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 91 MS: When you talk about the constitutional strength, do you mean certain types of constitution, certain remedy pictures…?

MS: No, itʼs irrespective of remedy picture. I am talking about the underlying strength of the body itself. So, I have an assumption there that some bodies are built better than others and my experience supports that. Is it someone who is very sensitive and relatively fragile, or is it someone who is basically robust? That is what I am looking at. It is has nothing to do with the remedy picture.

MS: Right, to clarify, if you have someone who is relatively robust they would get…?

IW: They are more likely to get a higher potency, unless there are other factors that over-rule that. For example, they are taking loads of drugs or something similar.

MS: And sensitivity would go the other way, would it?

IW: Exactly.

MS: Depth of pathology is an interesting one and something I am trying to get my head around at the moment. Are you familiar with Dr. Ramakrishnanʼs book on cancer?

IW: I know of its existence but I have not read it.

MS: He tends to use 200c potency plussed and repeated for cancer, and that is a highish potency and a deep pathology. He is getting very good results, so I am still learning around that area. Do you have any sort of information that you can share about pathology and potency with me?

IW: For me, its an open question because I studied the book Principles of Prescribing by Mathur. I studied that years ago and it gives examples of different prescribers, one of whom was a high potency prescriber, I think he was an Indian, and he was treating mostly advanced pathologies using 50Ms and CMs. I was exposed to that early on in my homeopathic career, and I always had this thought in the back of my mind, well why not? The results seem to be suggesting that that is quite do able.

Then again, I have also studied with Eizayaga, who would say that in serious pathologies you want to start with a 3c and 6c and you can always work your way up. So for me, I think that depth of pathology is a factor, but not necessarily an overriding one. I would say that even in a case of advanced pathology, if the picture is clear and there are no other interfering factors like being overdosed with chemotherapy or something Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 92 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 93 of that kind, then I would not necessarily go against using high potencies. Similarly, if there is a lot of pain or intensity in the situation I am more likely to use high potencies, because in my experience the body will burn it up quickly in that instance. The only time I would really favour the low potencies exclusively would be if I think the person needs a lot of doses on a regular basis, and thatʼs usually because they are on a lot of medication.

MS: What about aggravations then, especially if you are using very high potencies?

IW: I donʼt think aggravation is a function of potency primarily. I mean, some of the most difficult to handle aggravations I have experienced have been with clients who have been on 30c. Sometimes lower than that. You know, I have had people take one dose of a 6c and all hell breaks out, so you canʼt say that its just from high potencies. Some of the most gentle cures Iʼve seen have been from 1Ms and 10Ms, and sometimes even 200cs, and with no aggravation whatsoever.

So Iʼve let go of the idea that high potencies aggravate and low potencies donʼt. I think that is more determined by things like the sensitivity of the patient, and also the expectation of the prescriber. I think thatʼs a big factor. You know sometimes we set people up to aggravate, so they do. I have had people aggravate on Sac lac, just to kind of prove to myself that that was possible. I have actually experimented with that, sometimes with patients who are highly suggestible and also sensitive types, and they will aggravate on anything. So I think potency is a secondary thing as far as aggravation goes.

MS: Sensitivity is a big issue, isnʼt it, for us homeopaths. Have you got any information to share with us on that?

IW: Sensitivity to me is the same as susceptibility. Itʼs another way of looking at that phenomenon. So, on the one hand itʼs the bane of our lives because we are always wondering, is this a sensitive patient or not? But at the same time, we need a degree of sensitivity otherwise we donʼt get any response at all. So understanding a personʼs type of sensitivity I think is one of the most crucial things about case taking. To me that is more important than gathering a list of symptoms. Itʼs getting a sense of, not only how sensitive they are, but what is the nature of their sensitivity. In other words what are they sensitive to, what is it that makes them a unique individual?

MS: And I guess itʼs this sensitivity that leads you to the remedy.

IW: Absolutely, itʼs one of the key things that will formulate the remedy Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 92 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 93 picture. For example, if you have a list of food sensitivities we associate that with a certain remedy type, but I also look at in a more general sense. Some people are more sensitive to the weather, some people are sensitive to the presence of the homeopath, some are not.

MS: I believe you have to be very, very clear about what you want to give really sensitive people otherwise they are going to aggravate, but if you get the remedy right, and the potency and dosage right, then I donʼt think they will. What do you think?

IW: That is an interesting belief. I have really studied this a lot with different practitioners, and I tend to find that our patients confirm the unconsciously-held beliefs of the practitioners to a large extent. So if you believe that ʻif I get the remedy right, they wonʼt aggravateʼ, that will be your experience. Whereas I know other homeopaths who believe that if you get the remedy slightly wrong, that will create a big aggravation, so they have a different belief which their practice experience will tend to confirm. So to me it is worth uncovering what kind of assumption you hold about what you think will happen, because you will tend to see that mirrored in your practice. I know from my own experience that when I change my internal reality around it, then what happens to the people I am treating changes too.

MS: I suppose my internal reality should therefore be that all my patients are going to get better and not aggravate?

IW: You could choose that one. I came around to the realisation that some people will, it seems, as part of their healing process, need to aggravate. And in that sense, this is something which is independent of us even though we influence it. I know that some people feel they havenʼt got their moneyʼs worth if they donʼt aggravate. In the north of England, itʼs quite popular for people to think they need to suffer a bit in order to feel well, and I donʼt want to take that away from them. So the kind of strategy that I tend to adopt is that people will get well in whatever way is right for them, rather than me saying that they should never aggravate or they should always aggravate. And the ones that do aggravate - if you let it be OK, then it generally is. Itʼs not really about whether they aggravate or not – itʼs whether you and they are OK with the fact that they aggravate.

MS: I think that is true and I think as you become more experienced as a homeopath that is easier to do.

IW: Yes, you become less worried about those things and you tend to think, ʻOh yeah, itʼs just an aggravation, itʼs fine, it will passʼ, rather than losing sleep over it. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 94 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 95 MS: What do you actually do with aggravations, do you always wait or do …?

IW: No, I donʼt always do anything. I think if you always do something then you are an allopath not a homeopath. For me homeopathy is about individualising everything, so there is no always and there is no never.

MS: In that case what would make you wait if somebody aggravates?

IW: If the person is doing fine. If they are OK with the fact that they are aggravating, then itʼs none of my business and I tend to work that way. I donʼt make myself particularly available. People know that ahead of time and they have to be fairly self- responsible in order to work with me in the first place. Which means, if something comes up and I am not around, then they must be willing to ride it, or to deal with it in their own way. If they get a lot of pain or something and they canʼt handle it, then they know it is OK with me for them to take painkillers if they need to, or they can prescribe a first aid remedy if they need that for themselves. I donʼt make it that conditional that they have to wait for instructions from me. I tend to trust that people will do what they need to do, and I will support them in whatever that is.

MS: What about somebody who actually finds you who has an aggravation and they donʼt want to put up with it?

IW: I prescribe on it.

MS Do you change the remedy?

IW: I tend to just look at the image thatʼs being thrown up, because I find that a lot of what people call ʻaggravationʼ is actually just another state that they have gone into. So itʼs not an aggravation at all but is in fact another layer that has been thrown up. Therefore, I tend to act as though I donʼt know what remedy they have taken before, and say to myself, If I had never seen this person before in my life, what would I give them now? And I give them that. So if itʼs midnight and they are freaking out, I give them Arsenicum album or Aconite, regardless of the fact that they may have been given Calcarea carbonica six hours ago. I find this works pretty well, and you can prescribe without prejudice.

MS: If a remedy does not work at all, have you ever stuck with that remedy because you felt itʼs still indicated or the best for them, and changed the potency?

IW: Yes, although I would say that is pretty rare. Usually if a person says Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 94 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 95 that it hasnʼt worked at all, obviously sometimes we find out that in fact it has, but they just didnʼt notice. If it has really not done anything, usually I find that means that they have not been given enough of it, if I am sure itʼs the right thing. So, if I have started with a low potency - say they are taking a 6c and they have only had one or two doses - well itʼs reasonable that it hasnʼt done anything yet, so they maybe just need to take more. But if they have taken a reasonably high potency and it hasnʼt done anything and they have waited what to me is a reasonable time (and I donʼt have any fixed criteria of that, a reasonable amount of time in one case might be a day and in another case it might be a couple of weeks), then I am more inclined to change the remedy. I am not asking the patient to wait around for months.

MS; I donʼt think most patients are either.

IW: Neither do I. They pay good money to have something happen and if absolutely nothing has happened I tend not to stick with it. I tend to say, well OK, I have missed something here.

MS:What are your views on dosage?

IW: You mean repetition?

MS: Yes.

IW: I think itʼs a guessing game when you start out, and to me the best approach is that you just start with your best guess but you give the patient permission to modify it themselves. Thatʼs the way I found works best for me, and for the patient. It is much better than me being in charge of it, pretending that I know what is best! I just say, weʼll start on this basis, you know, once a day, three times a day, once a week, whatever it is, but as soon as you feel like something is moving I want you to monitor it yourself. If you feel like you are taking too much, you cut it down. If you feel like it is not doing much you can increase it. I build that in right from the beginning. Then they report back to me with what they found was their optimum dosage.

MS: So, if you are starting off with higher potencies, but not very high potencies, say 30cs and 200cs for example, would you tend to give one- off or repeat in that situation? How would you start?

IW: I would make a guess as to how much I thought they would need in order to get the ball rolling. So, if all the factors are favourable - they have good constitutional strength, a clear remedy picture, nothing in the way, no drugs - then I may well give a single dose and this should be enough in this case to at least see where it is going. Where the underlying vitality Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 96 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 97 is weak, the remedy picture is a bit hazy, they are taking medication or have been, things of that kind, I am more than likely to give it repeated for a few days until they feel it working. Here it is more the idea of kick-starting the constitution, because it is likely they will need it. If my guess is that they are going to be a bit sluggish, then I say start to take it two, three or four times a day for a few days, and I will give them enough doses for three, four, five days. I tell them, once you feel the treatment is on the way, then you can stop. So I will leave it up to them.

MS: If someone is on medication I normally give an LM, but if someone is on medication and you are giving a 30c for example and you kick-started it, do you find the medication can interfere with it later on and the remedy has a very short life span, or not necessarily?

IW: No, I donʼt think itʼs the remedy life span. I donʼt think remedies have a life span! To me that is a bit of a myth. I think that individual people have varying degrees of ability to respond, and thatʼs both to remedies and to other substances like drugs and so on. Some people, even though they are on medication, will take a remedy and sail through it, whereas for someone else, the fact that they are on medication will slow everything down for them. To me itʼs not that the drug is interfering with the remedy, but that itʼs affecting their system on a daily basis. If you only give the remedy once, and every day following they are taking something that is powerfully impinging on their system, the chances are they are going to need more of that remedy in order to keep improving. You know, itʼs like a counter balance. I donʼt believe that these substances interfere with our remedies. There is nothing there for them to interfere with.

MS: When you repeat a remedy, what makes you want to change the potency?

IW: They have had enough of it. They have done well up to a point and they seem to plateau or they start to slip back, and the remedy picture has not altered substantially, so they still need the same remedy. What they are saying is that they have had enough of it at that level. And I donʼt pretend to know in advance whether that will happen, or when it will happen.

MS: Just wait for the patient to tell you really.

IW: I give them permission to detect that and to let me know, because all the times I changed it on my own accord, itʼs usually been premature and Iʼve regretted it. So, I have learnt to keep my hands off. If they want to take a 6c for six months and do well on it, then thatʼs fine with me now.

MS: Do you ever use water-potencies? Do you use LMs or plus remedies? Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 96 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 97 MS: I have done. I found that these are things that I do in a phase and then I suppose I get bored with it and I go back to giving pills. I have experimented quite a bit, more so with centesimals in liquid form and less so with things like LMs, although I have used LMs as well.

MS: After experimenting, what would make you want to give a water-potency now?

IW: If I havenʼt got many pills left, I wouldnʼt want to give the whole bottle away! Thatʼs the main one. The other would be over-sensitivity of the client, for example, someone who describes themselves as the type who will over-respond to anything in a normal dose. That to me is a way of diluting it a little bit further, and it gives them more adjustment possibilities. They can vary the amount of drops if they have got a dropper bottle. So I use it for people who seem to need that fine-tuning, but I would say that itʼs not that common.

MS: Do you find that it makes the remedy more gentle if you put it in water?

IW: It does when it does. It doesnʼt always.

MS: Do you have any questions on dosage or on potency that you would like answered?

IW: Yes, there was some interesting work that came out a couple of years ago where Tony Pinkus from Ainsworths was involved in some research and there was a suggestion that potency did not go up in a linear scale, which is what we have been taught. You know, the idea that it starts at the tincture and it goes up to infinity via 6c, 30c and 200c etc. Rather than it being linear in that sense, it had more of the shape of a kind of wave form, with peaks and troughs. That was something that intrigued me, but I would still have an open mind about it. The suggestion being that a 200c, for example, could in fact be ʻhigherʼ than a 1M. Which was interesting to me because there is a lot of folklore in homeopathy that says that 200c is the one that really aggravates and that 1Ms are relatively gentle, and my own limited experience would go along with that to some extent.

So that would be an open question for me that Iʼd be interested to have answered. Whether in fact potency isnʼt this linear thing, and that ʻhigherʼ doesnʼt necessarily mean ʻhigherʼ. And I donʼt know what the answer is or whether there is any research that has drawn any good conclusions about that. But I remember it raising a question in my mind that intrigued me. It would be worth knowing, wouldnʼt it? And it might give some explanation as to why some of these high potency prescribers Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 98 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 99 can give what we would classify as very high potencies with great frequency and apparently no problems. You know, maybe they are not as high as we think.

MS: To be honest with you when I look through all my old cases, I tend to have more aggravation in the lower potencies, or the medium potencies.

IW: That has been my experience – interesting, huh?

MS: But then could that be because I am normally really sure of my remedy when I give a high potency?

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Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 98 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 99     .   Extracted from Dr. John Bastyr: Philosophy and Practice Including Bastyr’s Practical Homeopathic Materia Medica by Melanie J. Grimes, RSHom (NA), CCH $24.95 Alethea Book Company ISBN: 0-96595500-3-6

(Dr. John Bastyr (1912 – 1995) was a naturopathic physician of tremendous skill and widespread respect. He mentored a new generation of naturopathic physicians and was the namesake of the Bastyr University of the Natural Health Sciences, formerly the John Bastyr College of Naturopathic Medicine. – NT)

“Basically I may be somewhat eclectic, but I am a homeopath. I really believe in it fellows. So we still use it.”1

Dr. Bastyr considered himself a homeopath. Whenever he lectured for more than a few minutes he mentioned homeopathy. He used homeopathy in nearly every case that came in, and said, “Eighty to ninety percent get homeopathic treatment at some time.2 He used homeopathic philosophies in the way he evaluated his patients and his practice, and he enjoined his students to study homeopathy “in depth”. As much of his practice and philosophy was devoted to homeopathy and large quantities of his clinical notes relate to homeopathy, this chapter delves into his practice of homeopathy at length. Bastyr was part of the early homeopathic heritage in the United States. His personal contribution to homeopathy has been lost until now. Bastyrʼs practice of homeopathy provides us with a view into an early practitioner of homeopathy in the United States. Bastyrʼs study of homeopathy followed his training in chiropractic and sanipractic. He and others of his time combined these modalities and created an important connection between them for naturopathic medicine. But Bastyr was unique because he trained extensively with a surgeon who used homeopathy in a hospital setting, to surgery, in obstetrics, and as a family doctor. Bastyr was deepened in the most classical homeopathic education available at the time.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 100 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 101 From Hahnemann to Lippe, to James, to Bryant, Bastyr was only five steps away from the founder of homeopathy. Most homeopaths in Bastyrʼs time were educated in homeopathic colleges. Most of the chiropractors and naturopaths were trained in colleges teaching those specialties. But Bastyr bridged that gap. Bastyr was exceptionally well trained in homeopathy, compared to his peers, whose formal training was geared more towards hydrotherapy and nutrition. According to Julian Winston, “Bastyrʼs education was unique in that he had good homeopathic mentors.”3 Because he was fascinated by homeopathy and used it consistently and successfully in his practice, homeopathy has become a vital part of the naturopathic tradition.

Bastyrʼs conversion to homeopathy was an important move for the modern naturopathic profession. Homeopathy had been part of naturopathic medicine for decades, but its role had been much more peripheral. The majority of practitioners had not received such intensive, classical instruction as Bastyr. In the 1950ʼs when Bastyr became involved in establishing and teaching a naturopathic curriculum, his balanced emphasis of homeopathy as a therapeutic modality coequal with nutrition, hydrotherapy and botanical medicine assured its place in the ongoing development of naturopathic science. 4

Classically trained, Bastyr was both a low and high potency prescriber. He used homeopathy to treat both acute and chronic disease, as well as using homeopathy prophylactically to prevent diseases like polio and pertussin. He used nosodes, isopathy, and even made his own remedies. He studied one remedy a night, from books he kept by his bedside, frequently Farringtonʼs Materia Medica. He used homeopathy frequently during childbirth and with children, whom he found like to take the remedies. He successfully treated breast cancer, and polio, with homeopathy. He used homeopathy from birth to death, treating women for infertility, turning infants in utero, and using homeopathy to soothe the pains of elderly and terminal patients. Bastyr used constitutional homeopathy as we know it today, as well as treating acute diseases in a manner currently called “homeospecific”, i.e., the use of specific remedies for specific disease conditions. An example is using Arsenicum iodatum (2x) for bronchitis. For classical prescriptions based on constitution, he relied on the totality of the remedy. “Each remedy is a person and you soon become acquainted with them. See people; donʼt memorize a list of symptoms. This gives you insight into remedies. This is useful in diagnosis.”5 The pharmacy in his clinic was filled with liquid bottles from which he would medicate pellets to fill prescriptions. He purchased the remedies from Boericke and Tafel, Luyties, Standard, Dolisos. Dr. Bastyr also used Schusslerʼs tissue salts. “I think every student should have a core knowledge of homeopathy,” Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 100 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 101 said Bastyr in 1983. Bastyr understood the amount of study it took to be a homeopath. “We have quite a few remedies of course, and they do run the gamut.” 6 To be a competent homeopath, Dr. Bastyr recommended three hours of classes for three years, a total of nine courses. This, he believed, would generate a “core understanding” of homeopathy. “You canʼt learn it in a week. Itʼs a constant study.”7 Bastyr was involved in medical politics in the beginning of his studies, attending meetings of the International Hahnemannian Association. He also attended meetings of the West Coast Hahnemann Society, with his mentor, Bryant, who had been a past president of the IHA. Bastyr enjoined his colleagues and students to use homeopathy. When other physicians referred cases to Bastyr for homeopathy consultation, he tried to get them to learn to use homeopathy themselves. He advised, “You must have confidence in what you do and in the remedies too.”8

Dr. Bastyrʼs conversion to homeopathy -- First cases When Dr. Bastyr was interning at Grace Hospital, he was also working in his fatherʼs pharmacy at 23rd and Madison Street, in Seattle. His father had become interested in homeopathy through his son. One day a woman came to the pharmacy with a bladder infection. She asked for something for the bladder infection but had already taken all the traditional medicines they had to offer. The woman was chilly and crying, and in great pain. She felt pressure, and described her condition as follows. “If I donʼt sit here with my leg crossed everything will fall out.” Dr. Bastyr happened to be nearby, studying the remedy Sepia from Farringtonʼs Materia Medica. He asked the woman if she would mind taking some powders. There would be no charge, and all she had to do was to report back on how she was doing. She said she would take anything if it would help. Bastyr gave her four powders of Sepia 200c to take one hour apart. The method of dosage was Bryantʼs traditional way of giving remedies, by a divided dose. The woman returned the next day and said, “What did you give me? I donʼt have to sit in front of the fire. I have no pain and donʼt leak all over the place.” Bastyr noted that Farrington had described her to perfection. Bastyr felt he had “witnessed something magic. My eyes opened up. This is one of the first things that convinced me there was something in the remedies.”

Conclusion When I was a first year naturopathic student, eager to learn as much as I could, I approached Dr. B asking for additional study materials. He graciously offered to loan me some books and to talk with me after I finished reading. He loaned me his copy of Hahnemannʼs Organon. I reread the first three paragraphs over and over, amazed, letting the words seep into me, never completely grasping the ideas, overwhelmed by the depth into which I was plunged. After six months, I returned the book, not Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 102 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 103 yet ready to take him up on his offer of discussing it. This book loan began a lifelong trajectory for me. I still strain to comprehend the enormity of Hahnemannʼs primary vision. In writing this chapter, I marveled that of all the books in Bastyrʼs library, he chose this one to loan out. I venture to guess that this was not an individualized “prescription,” but rather his typical response to students. I never heard him lecture on the Organon, but his gesture is louder than words. Dr. Bastyr used homeopathy every day in his practice. He found that homeopathic remedies brought about quick results. He had a deep understanding and training in both classical and acute prescribing. His joy in homeopathy was spread to generations of students. He carried a link from Hahnemann to the present. He investigated new ideas but kept his focus on the classical and most importantly, the treatments that brought about clinical success using the smallest doses to promote the most “rapid, gentle, permanent restoration of health.”9 (Endnotes) 1 Bastyr, John, Audiotape, Dec 1982 2 John Bastyr, Videotape (BU Library), Homeopathy, 1983 3 Winston, Julian, Interview, 2004 4 Kirshfeld and Boyle, Nature Doctors, Buckeye Naturopathic Press, 1994 5 Bastyr, John, Audiotape (NCNM Library), Face and Tongue Diagnosis 6 Bastyr, John, Audiotape (NCNM Library), Jan 7, 1983 7 John Bastyr, Videotape (BU Library), Homeopathy, 1983 8 John Bastyr, Videotape (BU Library), Homeopathy, 1983 9 Hahnemann, Samuel, Dr., Organon of the Medical Art (O’Reilly, ed), Birdcage Books, 1996

Melanie Grimes. RSHom (NA), CCH, began studying at NCNM in 1972, but left to focus on homeopathy. She is the editor of The American Homeopath, and author of Dr. John Bastyr: Philosophy and Practice, as well as numerous provings (Shark liver, Meteorite, Dragonfly, Blue-Green Algae). She lives in Seattle Washington.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 102 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 103 ��

��

�� WHOLE HEALTH NOW �� *Bibliophile (bib �le ə fīl �, -fil), n. a person who loves or collects books.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 104     Rajan Sankaran Homeopathic Medical Publishers Mumbai Hardcover 732 pages. $94.00 Review by Neil Tessler ND DHANP

The Sensation in Homeopathy is a detailed statement of Sankaranʼs thought to the present. The book is richly illustrated with cases, charts and a stage-by-stage unfolding of the concepts that have gradually formed into an entire integrated system. As with his last two books, there are a great many cases in order to ground the reader in the practical understanding and application of the ideas proposed. At the outset, he asserts that his concepts have developed from a solid homeopathic education and experience of the foundations of homeopathy and crystallize his knowledge of philosophy, materia medica and repertory. Without this foundation, there may be a tendency to oversimplify and misapply these ideas. “The reader is thus advised to strengthen his foundations through diligent study of the fundamentals.”

Rajan writes candidly of the evolution of his understanding and the reader is therefore able to trace the entire pattern.

The Sensation in Homeopathy proposes that disease is a non-human state possessing the human one:

“Disease is a song of something else that is playing within us. That song, in itself, is perfect, but being in the human being, it is in the wrong place. Thus there are two songs within us: the human song which should be there and some other song which is out of place. In a case, we need to remove or go past all the human expressions. Then the other song can be heard clearly. That other song does need not to be there; is the reason of disease, the stress that is the whole disease itself.”

He goes on to tell us that the path to the diseased state is through the chief complaint:

“The chief complaint is the best route to the non-human level; it is perhaps the most direct route. Learning this was a very big step for me. Instead of getting lost in the emotions or the story or the situation, one could

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 105 use the chief complaint to go very directly to the central disturbance. By sticking to the chief complaint everything in the case, the deepest sensation and everything peculiar unfolds before us.”

With regard to case taking he states: “One does not add to or subtract from, interpret or analyze anything concerning the patient. One only has to uncover the patientʼs inner turmoil so that it is seen as clearly and in as much detail as is possible. One is only required to bring that which is hidden in darkness to light, to make what was unknown known.”

Sankaranʼs miasm map and his view of kingdoms are all restated in complete detail based on his current understanding. To this he adds the concept of the “vital sensation” and the “seven levels”. Each of these concepts, aside from the issue of their utility in practice (which will depend on the practitioners grasp of the material), are positively helpful in understanding and even identifying various subtle points that reveal themselves in case taking. Taken together, this is certainly an entire modern system of practice.

Through is discussion of the “seven levels” The Sensation in Homeopathy shows a path into and through the depth of the patient to homeopathically meaningful insight. It shows a way to prevent becoming lost in the story of the patient and for the practitioner to recognize where they are within the structure of the patients state through the characteristic expressions of the patient at any given point in the interview.

Towards the end of the book there is a chapter titled “Clarifying Doubts”. In it, Sankaran discusses some of the questions that might arise:

“I do not say that this new method is the only method, or that this is the only right method. The way I see it is that there is no one right way; it is not this or that, rather it is this and that. There are still many cases that have to be solved using the Repertory and materia medica. What I only recommend is that one should not cross over to the textbooks prematurely, before having identified the central disturbance of the patient. Our textbooks are essential, and the new method is founded upon my knowledge of these books.”

One of the issues often discussed these days is when new methods should be introduced to students of homeopathy. Sankaran comments make clear his views on this issue:

“…I would recommend to all students of homeopathy to first strengthen their foundations in the Organon of Medicine, various materia medicas and repertories before moving onto any contemporary approach. My advice to them is that they should first be thoroughly acquainted with the works of Hahnemann, Boenninghausen, Kent, Clarke, Allen, Schmidt, Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 106 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 107 Phatak, and all the other masters of Homeopathy. Once their foundations are strong and their concepts clear they can adopt any method that yields satisfactory results while still conforming to the tenets of Homeopathy…. In every single case that we see the patient may not be able to lead you to the source… So one doesnʼt adopt one approach as exclusive of all others. Nothing is exclusive. Nothing excludes the other. Everything is helpful. That is very important.”

The Sensation in Homeopathy offers a tremendous amount of practical and useful information covering every phase of practice. However, buyer- beware; ultimately Sankaran is offering an entire and integrated system of homeopathic practice. It requires much study and exposure to apprehend and develop skill in its various elements. It may be used alongside other approaches, but will not be learned well and is apt to be misunderstood and misapplied, without plenty of exposure to his seminars and literature.

The Minimum Price Books A huge selection of professional homeopathic literature including textbooks, provings, tapes, journals, seminars, and rare self-published gems. For book reviews, tables of contents, and online orders, visit www.minimum.com To order books or free catalog, call toll free: 1-800-663-8272 Minimum Price Homeopathic Books, 250 H St., PMB 2187, Blaine, WA 98230

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 106 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 107  -      :      By Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman, ND, DHANP, Robert Ullman, ND, DHANP, and Ian Luepker, ND, DHANP

An excerpt from a new book Homeopathy for ASD: Exceptional Medicine for Exceptional Kids

Homeopathy may be unique and unconventional medicine, but it can produce exceptional changes in children with ASD. Not only can homeopathy address the social, learning and behavioral problems typical of ASD, but it also can help many acute and chronic health problems. Since homeopathy treats the whole person, it takes into account all of the factors that make up your childʼs unique blend of symptoms and behaviors, likes and dislikes. Because homeopaths individualize treatment, there is not one homeopathic medicine used for all cases of ASD. Instead, a homeopathʼs job is to match the child to one of over two thousand medicines. In this chapter we will cover how homeopathy is a good match for your ASD child, how the correct medicine is found, and what to expect from a course of homeopathic treatment. Why ASD Children Are Excellent Candidates for Homeopathic Care The More Unusual the Child, the Easier to Help Him with Homeopathy The more features that differentiate one child from all others, the easier it is to identify the one “matching” medicine. It is far more difficult to find the correct medicine for a NT child with run-of-the-mill allergies than it is for a child with ASD, most of whom are quite unusual. Whenever we hear a feature or symptom that we have never before heard, it intrigues us. Unusual symptoms or behaviors narrow down the possibilities in choosing the correct medicine from over two thousand medicines.

Gentle Medicine for Super-Sensitive Kids Many ASD children may be highly sensitive to prescription drugs, foods, and other substances. Since the ingredients in homeopathic medicines are so highly diluted, allergic reactions, sensitivities, or even side effects are rare. Homeopathy is one of the gentlest forms of medicine known. For the few children who do react adversely in some way to homeopathic medicines, virtually all such reactions can be minimized or

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 108 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 109 eliminated by an alternative form of dosing.

Homeopathic Medicines Pass the Taste Test ASD kids are often extraordinarily picky about what they will eat. The smallest amount of nutritional supplements, given in capsules, liquids or hidden in foods, is often easily detected and adamantly refused. In contrast, many children enjoy taking their homeopathic medicine and ask for more!

A Homeopath Does Not Need to Physically Examine a Child to Prescribe a Homeopathic Medicine

Hypersensitive kids often find being touched, especially by strangers, extremely uncomfortable. We rely on the childʼs pediatrician to perform physical examinations, draw blood, and give shots as needed. This allows us to maintain a therapeutic relationship as the childʼs ally and confidante rather than someone who inflicts pain or causes discomfort.

A Perfect Opportunity to Talk About Their Grand Passions Homeopaths love to engage kids in a lively discussion of their favorite subjects or activities. Even more than the background information parents may give, hearing the child talk about what fascinates him, observing his gestures and body language, and listening for impassioned tones of voice can lead a homeopath directly to the right medicine. Every word the child utters is of significance to us, particularly words or language that are unique. Whereas parents, teachers, and caregivers may roll their eyes if they hear even once more about the cube root of 4096, our eyes light up, and we record the words of the child feverishly, trying not to miss a single word.

Homeopathy Can Help Children Make Friends Parents of ASD kids typically come to us looking for help with their childʼs unmanageable outbursts or academic difficulties. Another concern might be the ASD childʼs inability to make friends, or not being invited to birthday parties. Although some ASD children may seem oblivious to social ostracism, it often hurts them deeply, even though they may lack the skills to express those feelings. Others experience social rejection and derision with extreme sensitivity, frequently to the point of depression.

Parents of Children with ASD are Highly Motivated to Find Help For Their Kids These parents are frequently a homeopathʼs dream, as they are willing to go to any extent to help their children, including searching for any treatment that can turn around their youngstersʼ symptoms and disabilities. They are willing to travel long distances to get the best possible treatment, sometimes even flying across country to see us. All told, parents of children on the autism spectrum tend to be committed to their childʼs treatment and well-being for the long haul. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 108 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 109 Typically, one parent hears about homeopathy first and introduces it to the other. It is not uncommon for the mother, for example, to feel strongly, after reading one of our books, that homeopathy is the route for her child. The father may agree to the plan quite readily, or may be more reluctant. It is not necessary for both parents to have the same conviction that homeopathy will work for their child, but it is essential that everyone who is intimately involved with the child is willing to provide as much information as possible to the homeopath. When both parents are on board for the treatment journey, it certainly increases the odds of success.

Homeopathic Interviews Can Be Conducted by Phone Conducting homeopathic interviews by phone can be a blessing for parents and children with ASD. We recognize that many parents have difficulty in traveling with their ASD children. Transitions are difficult for many of these children, making arriving on time for a scheduled appointment a real challenge. Additionally, some children prefer phone consultations because they fear face-to- face interactions with strangers.

What to Expect from Homeopathic Treatment of ASD In our experience, the following list contains reasonable expectations for a child with ASD. If your child is more impaired, his progress may be slower or more limited. Having said that, we have worked with some children on the less-able end of the continuum who exhibit spectacular responses to homeopathic treatment! Some ASD symptoms respond more readily to homeopathy than others. The list below details our own experience in treating ASD kids. Each child is different, but the changes shown here have been our general overall experience:

Highly Likely to Improve with Homeopathic Treatment

• restlessness • mood changes • impulsivity • concentration difficulties • school performance • angry outbursts • oppositional behavior • socially inappropriate behavior • most physical complaints • hypersensitivity • confidence and self-esteem issues • awkwardness in interpersonal relationships • social isolation • ability to make friends

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 110 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 111 • obsessive behavior • inability to participate in team sports

Will Probably Get Better with Homeopathic Treatment

• perseveration • eye contact • learning disabilities • pickiness • self-stimulatory behavior • tics • hyperfocus on special interests • encopresis (bowel impaction) • bedwetting • echolalia

You May Possibly See Changes with Homeopathic Treatment • developmental delays • “pedantic” speech • lack of empathy • inability to speak

Cody

Too Sensitive for Words

We were just about to leave for Switzerland to present an ADHD seminar to professional homeopaths when we received an e-mail message from Codyʼs mother asking for help. An American family living in Italy, his mom had read Ritalin-Free Kids and very much wanted us to treat her two children. She was willing to do the consultations by phone, but was overjoyed to hear we were on our way to Europe. Unfortunately, Codyʼs mom already had a trip to the United States planned for that time, so his dad brought him and his sister to Zurich to see us. Cody was a whole lot easier to interview than his sister, Riley. Articulate and friendly, his interview was in stark contrast with his sister, who refused to utter a word. Fortunately, we were still able to find a medicine that helped her considerably. You can read about Riley in chapter sixteen. Codyʼs dad cut to the chase: “Cody has a problem with sensory overload. If you say too much to him for too long, he simply throws his hands over his ears. He just canʼt take it. He breaks down and starts crying. Cody screams at the top of his lungs for no apparent reason. It is like his emotions hit a boiling point and he spews them all out. When he goes into one of those tirades, thereʼs nothing you can

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 110 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 111 do to make him feel better.”

From the time he was a toddler to age five, Cody developed a high fever and inconsolable crying after each round of immunizations. His reactions were so severe that his mom refused to allow the children to be immunized again. Ear infections had been a recurrent problem when Cody was younger, perhaps because he was switched to formula after having been breastfed for five months. Later he suffered from asthma, as did his older brother. Bright beyond hi s years, Cody had skipped from kindergarten to second grade. His peers belittled him, and he suffered terribly from the derision. The first words out of Codyʼs mouth upon arriving home from school were, “they think my ideas are stupid”, at which point he would sigh heavily and break into sobs. Conventional medications resulted in a twenty- pound weight gain. Now, in addition to being the youngest kid in his class (eight-years-old and in the third grade), Cody was fat and clumsy. He was so heavy that any physical exertion caused him discomfort and overheating.

Cody and his older brother were both diagnosed with AS. His dadʼs words were reminiscent of what we hear so often from parents of children with AS: “Heʼs different than his brother and sister. Itʼs like he marches to the beat of a different drummer. It might not be the time or place to do it socially. Codyʼs kind of in his own little world.” Cody was certainly not a demanding child. Capable of entertaining himself with video games or books, Cody often disappeared to “do his own thing.” Although very intelligent, the youngsterʼs grades were only average. Without his medications, Cody would “rant and rave and be set off by the smallest thing,” like his sister touching him. It didnʼt take much at all for him to “go off the deep end.” When unmedicated, Codyʼs blowups occurred daily, which his dad referred to as “a short fuse.” For example, if his dad came home from work and, in a normal tone of voice, told Cody to go do his homework, the boy might react by throwing his book bag, insisting vociferously that he was not going to do his homework, raising his hands to his face, and falling into heart-wrenching sobs. Once the lid blew off, there was no consoling Cody and no reasoning with him. The ensuing thirty minutes consisted of Codyʼs muttering under his breath and slamming doors. Video games were a serious matter for this young man. Losing was not an option. When it did, unfortunately, occur, Cody would throw the game to the floor and burst into tears. “Weʼre here because weʼre starting to get complaints from school that Cody is disruptive in class. Itʼs his emotional outbursts. The school psychologist wants him to stay on Risperdone, and his mother and I would like to have him off of it. I know, when I was a kid, I was a hellion. So were my brothers and sisters. But we werenʼt drugged, doped up, and drooling.”

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 112 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 113 A Lot Like His Older Brother

“His brother, Dennis, was diagnosed first with ADD, then Aspergerʼs. And now, Cody. In the grand scheme of things, I think his real problem is dealing with his emotions in a way that is socially acceptable. Cody is a real sensitive guy. One night, as I got home late from work, I found Cody bawling. ʻItʼs sooo cute,ʼ he cooed. He was going gaga over one of the teddy bears in my wifeʼs collection that had just come in the mail. Cody went on for an hour sobbing heavily about how adorable it was. He just couldnʼt contain it. Those are the kind of outbursts I mean. It can be over something sad or happy or just out of frustration.

Neither one of the boys is much into athletics. They donʼt climb trees or run or play ball. They donʼt interact well with others. Dennis didnʼt have friends till he was thirteen.

Before I left for the Middle East, Cody and I were buds. When I returned after seven months of active duty, our relationship wasnʼt the same. It was true for Dennis, too. They kiss their mom goodnight but not me. To this day, if thereʼs a problem they go to her rather than me. It didnʼt used to be like that.

Codyʼs hearing tested normal. I think itʼs just sensory overload. He has to dash out of the classroom if the noise is too much for him. Being touched by strangers puts him over the top. He just flinches. Itʼs as if youʼre invading his personal space. And Codyʼs pain threshold is way low. Before he totally freaked out when we took him to the dentist. Heʼs still skittish about going. Having his blood drawn is traumatic. Cody yelled and squealed after he threw up with a flu - it was almost a panic reaction. I had a hard time calming him down. Iʼd say his level of sensitivity is about eight out of ten.

Smells are tough for him, too. The odor of peanuts is unbearable. Heʼs over-the-top picky about food. He hates tomato sauce and sugar. Cody canʼt stand noise and lights or someone brushing up against him. And chaotic situations with too much activity or visual stimuli. Iʼd call it a fear of overstimulation.”

An Exquisite Sensitivity to Needles

Cody was delightfully communicative. First we discussed his favorite video games, a typical lead-in we use to break the ice with children during the initial interview. Then Cody shared with his how hard it was for him to concentrate because a classmate made so much noise. When annoyed by noise at home, Cody would retreat to his room and play

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 112 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 113 Nintendo or Game Cube. The youngster continued to describe the nature of his sensitivities: “When I hear loud noise, it feels like a bunch of arrows going into my eardrums. The pain is like needles. And my face is sensitive, too. The last time I tripped during recess, my face dragged on the sharp ground. Itʼs a good thing I didnʼt scrape my eyes. My whole body is sensitive. Sometimes I get smacked on my hand and it feels like a bunch of splinters going into it. Like my hand is made of wood.

When I go to the dentist and get drilled, itʼs like thereʼs electricity coming right out of my mouth. Like an electric shock. When the dentist gives novocaine, it feels like a giant arrow going into my gum. And when people step on me, it feels like a million needles going into my foot. God, it hurts! Or when somebody at school smacks me or punches me. My whole body can feel like that. Oh, God! When people tease me, I just want to beat them up. Kids who threaten me and say theyʼre gonna beat me up or kill me. And they curse at me. It happens very often. Some people are not very nice to me when I want them to be nice.” Cody complained that his sister would scratch his arm until it nearly bled. “It was cut open, well not exactly cut open because her nails werenʼt sharp enough. And she used to bite me!” With Cody, everything was about being pierced or poked.

About Arrows, Swords, and Anvils

Few patients, adult or child, are as in touch with and articulate about their peculiar sensitivities as Cody. One of the keys homeopaths use to unlock the door of the subconscious to better understand our patients is to inquire about interests and hobbies, fears, and dreams. These can give us valuable clues that can help lead us to the best medicine for the child. Cody loved to cook, especially Italian and French cuisine. He particularly e njoyed speaking in an Italian accent while he prepared meals. “Even if itʼs French food, I say, ʻMama mia!ʼ ” When we inquired about fears, you can guess Codyʼs response: “Iʼm really scared of hornets. Theyʼre huge. About as big as my hand. Really huge. Iʼve seen them on TV. Iʼm also afraid of starfish because they suck on you. In fact, when I see one, I feel like getting a shotgun and shooting it. You know, starfish sometimes crawl up on my hand and suck on it and wonʼt get off. And ticks. Because they bite you. I really hate that! And I really frigginʼ hate blood! It scares me so much that I want to pass out. Blood mostly scares me because of how much the pain hurts when I bleed.”

Initially, Cody complained that he was “sick and tired of telling people my dreams”, but his reluctance was short-lived.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 114 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 115 “I had this wonderful dream where I had a sword case with a big sword and I started bashing people with it. I liked to cut them and other things in the dream. I just like doing because it was fun- swinging the sword and cutting things. I was also shooting arrows. Regular arrows, fire arrows, and light arrows with a golden crystal.”

When we asked Cody if there were anything he would like to change about his life, replied, “Iʼd change everything into magic. Be the emperor of the world. Iʼd be the half emperor and half warrior. Be the emperor for a little while, then go out in the world and fight people because I like to go on adventures and kill the people who beat me up. Iʼd kill them, maybe with a sword.” Finally, we questioned Cody about his recurrent headaches. Again, we were amazed by his ability to describe the pain so vividly: “Itʼs kind of like thereʼs a giant anvil on my brain. Being crushed by a giant anvil. Like itʼs crushing my head. Turning, rotating, going up and down. Thatʼs what the anvil feels like on my head.”

Exceptional Features

You donʼt have to be a homeopath to be able to identify what stands out most about Cody. The primary issue of patients needing homeopathic medicines made from plants is sensitivity. There is no question that this was the case with Cody. His specific sensitivity was to being injured by anything sharp. His definition of sharp extended beyond needles, knives, arrows, hornets, and fingernails, to objects we do not routinely consider sharp, such as starfish or playground gravel. This hypersensitivity expressed itself even in Codyʼs dream life. One plant family that is indicated for those sensitive to pain is the Loganaceaes. The specific medicine Cody needed was Spigelia, or pinkroot. The best known features of children needing this medicine are the extreme fear of needles and sharp, pointed objects as well as migraine headaches that feel like a sharp, red hot poker is piercing the left eye. It was fascinating to hear Cody explain so clearly just how sensitive he was. It might be quite difficult for someone not as exquisitely sensitive to comprehend this heightened sensitivity, particularly a callous schoolyard bully.

Moods, Headaches, Sensitivity All Improve

We typically schedule the first follow-up appointment six weeks after the medicine is administered. Codyʼs mom was not able to give him the Spigelia until one month after we saw him, and his first follow-up telephone consultation was delayed until five months later. Cody had responded well for several months: more cooperative in school, less vulgar, no headaches. Then his behavior began to deteriorate. We wished his mother had Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 114 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 115 communicated with us earlier, because we would have promptly repeated the medicine when this deterioration started. Following another dose of Spigelia, Cody again improved for a couple of months, though his response was somewhat confused by a Risperdone dosage change, which resulted in an even more dramatic weight gain, from forty to eighty pounds! The response to the higher dose of the medicine was even more dramatic. The youngster was now better able to get along with other children. Despite having discontinued the Risperdone, his irritability had diminished considerably, and he was back to his “sweet, lovable” self. “Most of the time heʼs just a very sweet soul.” The headaches had not returned, the episodes of sensitivity were far less frequent, and Cody no longer dreamed of hurting other children. He no longer experienced the splinter-like sensation in his face, the fear of hornets was less, and Cody no longer screamed at the sight of a knife. Now, a year after beginning treatment, Cody continues to do well, has been off the Risperdone for six months, and his clothing size has dropped from an eighteen to a twelve.

Excerpted from: A Drug-Free Approach to Asperger Syndrome and Autism: Homeopathic Care for Exceptional Kids. By Judyth Reichenberg- Ullman, ND, DHANP, Robert Ullman, ND, DHANP, and Ian Luepker, ND, DHANP

Please visit www.drugfreeasperger.com to order a copy of our new book!

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 116  : A Drug-Free Approach to Asperger Syndrome and Autism Homeopathic Care for Exceptional Kids By Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman, ND, DHANP, Robert Ullman, ND, DHANP, and Ian Luepker, ND, DHANP Picnic Point Press Edmonds, WA Paperback 290 pages 22.95 Reviewed by Neil Tessler ND, DHANP

The Reichenberg-Ullmanʼs, now joined by Ian Luepker, are making an outstanding contribution to the advancement of homeopathy through a series of books that address health issues of deep concern to the general public. This new volume is another excellent addition that is sure to be of tremendous value to those that find their children suffering from disorders affecting mental and emotional functioning. Although the book is essentially directed to parents and those working with these children, there is much to be absorbed by practitioners looking for practical hints for their own cases. Furthermore, the authors show a mature and well-studied use of old and new homeopathic methods. Remedies such as Nupar luteum, Oenanthe, Panther, Falcon, Chocolate, Baryta sulphuricum and Zincum iodatum are among the remedies applied to produce some of the exciting results described here. This is an excellent example of using diverse tools to understand and solve a wide range of cases. Highly recommended for practitioners seeking a better understanding of autism spectrum disorders and their homeopathic treatment.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 117  : What About The Potency A compendium guide to homeopathic potency and dosage Michelle Shine RS Hom Food for Thought Publications, London Soft cover, 224 pages 49.95 Forward by Miranda Castro RS Hom. Reviewed by Neil Tessler ND DHANP

Potency is an area where many experiments are performed and few absolutes seem to apply. Last week I treated a boy with relapsing evening and night fevers, a tight, dry, hacking cough and pain of the left chest on coughing. His appetite, which was generally indifferent, became voracious when his fever reoccurred. After a small but definite response to Phosphorous 30, which had been prescribed over the phone, I did something very rare in my practice and that is repeating high and higher potencies daily over the course of four days.

The next dose was Phosphorous 1M and the overall improvement was greater. Fevers were still there but the chest no longer hurt on coughing. I gave a 10M the next day, and now the chest became better altogether, with a complete absence of coughing, but the fever still returned. Another 10M and the fever did not return.

The entire course of the illness was four days. There was confidence in the remedy, yet a relatively sluggish response. This led to the decision to jump directly from the thirty, to high potencies and then at fairly quick intervals. Many children will react deeply to a thirty given once or twice. This was simply not the case here, though there may have been good reasons such as a long history of antibiotic use.

Now, others might have given the same number of high potency doses in a day, or multiple daily doses of a 6, 12, or 30, perhaps in liquid, maybe with added successions and dilutions. Some might have applied teaspoon doses of LMʼs at frequent intervals, maybe through a series of cup dilutions, and perhaps ascending the scale of potencies. It is possible four days could

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 118 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 119 have been reduced to one. This is the mystery of homeopathic posology.

Michelle Shine takes stock of her experiences regarding questions of potency and shares this with us at length and in detail. She turns many sides of the question and covers a wide range of considerations. There are various suggestions that readers may find useful. The middle section provides a practical summary of her views on potency as applied to a variety of situations. There are many case examples through which she illustrates her changing and evolving experiments with dose, that very likely mirror the experiments and experiences of many of us. In the process, we also learn about her case taking, repertory and case analysis approach. Though these are meant as direct illustrations, at times this can be distracting to the discussion as one weighs her case, her analysis, the repertorization and remedy choices, quite apart from the issue of potency. In some respects the bookʼs greatest value to practitioners is as a vehicle of reflection and contemplation on their own experiences.

The last seventy-five pages is a series of interviews with various experienced practitioners. These are full of value, especially as it is a rare treat to have the words of an entire collection of homeopaths on the same subject. There are many insights and worthwhile thoughts throughout.

The book is also esthetically pleasing, a warm violet, well bound, on heavy paper and designed for easy reading.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 118 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 119  : The Tao of Homeopathy Ian Watson Cutting Edge Publications, Kendal, Cumbria, England Hardcover 91pages Reviewed by Neil Tessler ND, DHANP

Signs and Symptoms

To a homeopath, everything is a symptom. There is meaning in everything, if it can be perceived. A person’s gestures, hairstyle, posture, gait and mannerisms. A handshake. A dream. The patient who arrives early reveals himself, as does the one who arrives late and breathless. The homeopath’s task is not to interpret any of these signs according to some preconceived notion of what they might mean. She simply becomes aware of whatever meaning is being conveyed by that unique individual in a particular moment. She allows meaning to reveal itself, it if is there, without imposing any value system of her own. Periodically she reminds herself that there is no intrinsic meaning in anything she sees, and in this way she remains open to new possibilities every day.

Homeopathy abides in contradictions; dualities that play in, out and around each other to form a whole. Ian Watsonʼs thoughtful reflections, written in the manner of the Tao Te Ching, poetically reveal this dynamic interplay. Each turn of the page is a new topic considered, a new luminosity, an unfolding of the simple yet mysterious nature of the

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 120 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 121 homeopathic healing art.

As a firmly gentle mirror, this is a wonderful vehicle for slowing down, softening and feeling oneʼs way behind the daily doing of practice.

Beautifully illustrated with remarkable Arabic calligraphy. A gem.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 120 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 121  : Homeopathic Gujde to Partnership and Compatibility: Understanding Your Type and Finding Love Liz Lalor North Atlantic Books Berkeley, California Soft cover, 274 pages 18.95 Reviewed by Reviewed by Jennifer Sherman-Tessler

(As this book seems more suited to a general audience, we thought it might be good to have a layperson write the review. So we grabbed the first layperson we could lay our hands on and fortunately she agreed. – NT.)

Liz Lalorʼs, Homeopathic Guide to Partnership and Compatibility is designed for those who know little or nothing of homeopathy. The focus is on recognizing yourself and significant others through summaries of homeopathic “constitutional” types and using this knowledge to make positive changes and/or compromises in your relationship.

After the usual introduction to homeopathy and homeopathic remedies, she offers a guide to the use of the book. In explaining the notion of a constitutional type, she states, “There has to be compatibility between how each person behaves mentally and emotionally, and the particular types of physical complaints that they have a tendency to suffer.” In other words, the physical and emotional pattern must suit each other for the remedy to be appropriate. This is followed by information on nineteen remedies, with easy to read summaries of the mental, emotional and physical characteristics, at the end of each discussion. The heart of the book is a discussion of various partnership combinations.

The partner combinations section explores themes, strengths and emotional challenges of each remedy, as well discussing some remedy “types” as partners. She also describes what she terms each remedyʼs “emotional legacy”, a phrase that seems to refer to the ʻbaggageʼ they carry. Well-known movie characters are used to illustrate the different constitutional types, their compatibility and challenges. For instance, the

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 122 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 123 film Hannah and Her Sisters illustrates the unfaithfulLycopodium , Michael Caine and the sweet Pulsatilla, Mia Farrow.

This book is similar to a study of astrological signs with their strengths, weaknesses and compatibilities. It is easy and fun reading that might also be useful for homeopathic clients and teachers seeking images with which to express certain aspects of a remedy.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 122 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 123     Susan Drury

This past October, Terra Homeopathy presented a five-day seminar in Vancouver, B.C. by Dr. Divya Chhabra, one of the famous Bombay-group of homeopaths. The seminar participants ran the gamut from students new to homeopathy, to many well-known North American homeopaths, many of whom have studied with Dr. Chhabra at previous seminars or in Bombay. Dr. Chhabra has been teaching her unique methods of case taking and analysis for several years at international seminars. In this seminar, she illustrated both her methods as well as her understanding of disease and remedies. While the main thrust of her seminar was on bringing forward new knowledge of materia medica through individual cases and family themes, there were also plenty of explanations around her methods of case- taking and analysis. By the end of the five days, even homeopaths new to her methods had received solid insight into her techniques, and left with new information to apply in their own practice.

In Dr. Chhabraʼs opening introductory remarks, she talked of each person being a union of body, mind and soul, living in a world of their own making. Each is driven by a unique, unconscious inner story that is constantly but unknowingly acted out in external reality. When oneʼs life circumstances block the inner story from being acted out externally, then an internal conflict is created. Such a conflict causes tension that eventually will be expressed through symptoms. Unless a new resolution is created between the inner story and the outer world, pathology begins. Both our genetic pre-disposition and our inner stories combine to dictate which body organs or processes can best express the conflict of our inner stories and external reality. Therefore case-taking becomes a process of moving backwards through a sequence of events in order to find the clues that can lead us to understand that deep, fundamental unconscious story that drives the pathology of the patient. Once this unconscious story is uncovered, then it is the job of the homeopath to match it to the remedy or substance in our material world whose inner reality most closely reflects the inner reality of the patient.

In her case taking, Dr. Chhabra uses the analogy of a spiral and her case hand-outs included diagrams of words around a series of circles which

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 124 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 125 became smaller and tighter as the center of the case is approached. Her technique is to start the patient consultation at the level of pathology or the presenting complaint and seek to discover how it relates to the mental/ emotional state. She gave several signposts, which indicate that the case is moving in the right direction into the spiral, rather than out into larger circles. The first signpost is when the patient uses the same words to describe both their physical symptoms, as well as their mental/emotional feelings. Second are spontaneously expressed polarities in the case, which point towards the inner conflict, or the place where the patient has become stuck and cannot move beyond. The third signpost indicating a deeper direction in the case taking, is when the same expression/symptom/group of phrases runs repeatedly through the case, whether referring to different situations in life, different parts of the body, etc. Any repeated words or phrases that exist in different areas of the case are of prime significance. Peculiar, inappropriate words are also important signposts. Once a body- mind connection has been established in the mind of the homeopath, these words/phrases can be used to move both patient and homeopath more deeply into the case, with the aim of discovering the delusional state/story of the patient.

For many homeopaths, the deepest expression of the patient is in understanding those situations patients react to time and again, and finding the consistent words or expressions that connect the body/mind together. At this level, often there will be a number of remedies that could cover the situation of the patient and differentiation may be difficult. Dr. Chhabra, however, feels true-life scenarios only reveal pieces of the delusional state but do not encompass the entire picture so she takes the patient one final step further: from the subconscious world of their inner delusion as played out piecemeal in reality, to the unconscious world where their delusion can be fully expressed, and consequently fully reflected by only one or two particular substances in nature. By using dreams as well as her technique of free association, she frees the patient from the barriers of rational thought and allows them to go into the outer bounds of their imagination. Unobstructed by rationality or limits, the patient is encouraged to imagine the most extreme situations related to key words or expressions they have previously used in the consultation, and it is here that one reaches the center or deepest dimensions of the spiral. This ultimate, fully expressed delusional situation may even include the description of the actual curative substance or its kingdom - several of Dr. Chhabraʼs video-taped patients spontaneously connected with the situation or image of their curative remedy as it exists in nature - although such direct connection by the patient is the exception rather than the rule, and is by no means necessary in order to prescribe.

Presentations of video-taped cases made up the bulk of the seminar, and many different families of remedies were presented and discussed. In the Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 124 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 125 preceding seminar literature, a long and specific list of remedy groupings was promised. Some of these were omitted as Dr. Chhabra fine-tunes her case presentations with recent patients that represent clear examples of specific remedies and offer a thorough learning of both the particular remedy and the themes of the family from which it comes. There was nothing to be disappointed in here, as we covered a multitude of remedies and studied them within the context of family themes as well as comparing them to other remedies within the same family. Her case selections included patients who were curatively treated from the following groups: snakes, carnivorous plants, insects, spiders, the lacs, wild cats, worms and parasites, fungi and the Ranunculaceae family. A multitude of hand outs were provided, as well as case transcriptions for some of the patients and her circle diagrams of key words illustrating the spiral method.

Although a number of these remedies and their family groupings are quite new to the materia medica, she offered family themes as a way to recognize patients that reflect those same themes in their inner stories. The family themes express the common aspects of their collective situation in the world, further refined to the individual delusions of each specific substance at this evolutionary point in time. In every case, Dr. Chhabra clearly showed how the delusional state of the patient was reflected in the delusional situation of the substance itself. For substances or creatures whose situations in nature we have an understanding of, such as carnivorous plants, animals or parasites, whose survival depends upon their feeding off another creature, this was beautifully reflected in the cases where patients were sensitive to feelings/conflicts that mirrored both the hunter/feeder/ predator, as well as that of the victim/host. For substances whose inner experiences are more hidden, such as the Ranunculaceae family, she drew on classic information as gathered through past provings and historical materia medica to further illustrate family themes and remedy information.

Dr. Chhabra is a wonderfully humorous and insightful teacher who has the energy to teach as long as participants are willing to listen. She and Heather Knox have worked together for some time, and the affectionate bantering between them as well as a number of funny overheads and jokes helped break up the huge amount of information and learning that was being offered. Breaks, lunches and end-of-day timing was kept on target by Heather, as Dr. Chhabraʼs generosity would have kept her teaching long past the designated schedule. Like a banquet with an unending array of delicacies and delights, there was more than enough for any level of participant at this seminar, from students to long-time practitioners. Everyone left with new knowledge and learning as well as renewed enthusiasm and gratitude for this healing art that brings all substances available in our physical world together in a mutual journey of understanding and healing.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 126 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 127 Susan Drury is a graduate of the Vancouver Homeopathic Academy and a practicing homeopath on Vancouverʼs North Shore. She became interested in homeopathy after suffering for many years with a seriously debilitating chronic pain condition that no medical techniques or medicines could alleviate. Studying homeopathy went hand in hand with working towards her own healing. Now completely pain free, it is her greatest joy to work with others seeking from their own health limitations.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 126 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 127 Effect of Fortification of Mulberry Leaves With the Homeopathic Drug, Chelidonium on Bombyx Moril HIWARE C. J. Reader, Department of Zoology, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad-431004, (M.S.), INDIA.

Abstract:

The Mulberry Silk worm Vth instar larvae were fed on the Mulberry leaves fortified with the homoeopathic drug, Chelidonium mother tincture. Its impact on the larval weight, mortality, during rearing and while spinning, cocoon weight, shell weight, pupal weight, shell ratio %, average filament length, average weight of filament, average denier of filament and No. of breakages during reeling were investigated during the period of experimentation. The results were positive in all the parameters under study except cocoon weight and pupal weight.

Key Words:

Mulberry leaves, Bombyx mori, Homeopathic drug, Chelidonium, Larval and Post-Cocoon characters.

Introduction:

As silk industry plays an important role in Indiaʼs rural economy, the research on silk worm and mulberry crop enhancement has achieved prime importance. The Bombyx mori L. is a beneficial monophagous insect which has been reared for getting the valuable commodity silk feeding only on mulberry leaves. The production of good cocoon crop is totally depending on the quality of leaves. The leaves of superior quality enhance the chances of good cocoon crop (Ravikumar, 1988). The nutritive value of mulberry leaves depends on various factors of an agro-climatic nature. Deficient quantities of nutrients from leaves affect on silk synthesis by the silkworm. The dietary nutritional management influences directly on quality and quantity of silk production in B. mori (Murgan et, al.1998). The supplementation and fortification of mulberry leaves is a recent technique in sericulture research (Murgan et. al., 1998). Murugappan et.al Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 128 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 129 (1996), who studied the effects of fortification of mulberry leaves with jaggery on B. mori. In recent years, many attempts have been made either to fortify the leaves with nutrients, spraying with antibiotics, juvenile hormone, plant products, with JH-mimic principles or using extracts of plants etc. to improve the quality and quantity of silk. It is seen that, there are so far no attempts made using homeopathic drugs for improving the status of sericulture industry. For the benefit of poor, common farmers, this is the first ever attempt to find out the effect of Chelidonium, homeopathic drug on the biological parameters of Silk worm, Bombyx mori L. The drug picture is explained nicely by Tyler (2002). The importance of homeopathic drugs and their effective sustainable use other than human is explained well by Naveen (2005).

Materials and Methods:

The disease free layings of CSR2 x CSR4 strain of silk worm, Bombyx mori. L. were obtained from the State Sericulture Department, Aurangabad District. They were incubated, brushing was taken and reared under laboratory condition up to cocoon stage at temperature range 25-28 C with humidity range 80-100% during September, 2004 rainy season. The experiments were conducted by taking randomly freshly moulted Vth instar larvae in two groups, each containing 50 larvae. For fortification, the mother tincture of Chelidonium, homeopathic drug was procured from a local homeopathic pharmacy and the test solution was prepared as 1:4 V/V, drug to distilled water (10 ml. of drug with 40 ml. of distilled water). The quantity of feed given to both the groups was 40 gms.of matured mulberry chopped leaves for each feed and 4 feedings per day was provided. One group was kept as control and given feeding with non-treated mulberry leaves but the experimental group was given first feed sprinkled and mixed with the 2 ml. of drug test solution. Three replicates were kept for the experiment. All the rearing operations were carried out according to Krishnaswami (1978) and Hiware (2001).

The evaluation of fortification was based on economic parameters such as the larval weight, mortality of larvae during rearing and while spinning, cocoon weight, shell weight, pupal weight, shell ratio %, average filament length, average weight of filament, average denier of filament and No. of breakages during reeling. This was investigated during the period of experimentation and the values were compared in between experimental and control groups by showing percent change over control.

Results and Discussion:

The results obtained were presented in Table no. 1. The results were

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 128 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 129 very encouraging and there was an increased or positive trend seen in all the values of different parameters except the cocoon and pupal weights in the experimental group when compared with the control group. The larval weight was increased by 10.666%, silk ratio % 6.005%, average Filament length 9.435%, average weight of filament 06.965%, average denier of filament -2.100% and the number of breakages during reeling were -50%. The larval mortality increased in experimental group during rearing as well as in spinning. The present report of increased larval weight was in accordance with the Kumarraj et. al. (1972). The slight increase in weight of larvae, pupae and silk shells were observed by Verma and Atwal (1963) when supplemented alone with distilled water but in present investigation there were more or higher value seen in weight of larvae and is due to feeding fortified mulberry leaves with the drug, Chelidonium diluted with distilled water. There were no change observed in shell weight; this is not in accordance with Verma and Atwal. Alok Sakay and Kapila (1993) stated that if the nutrients are present in excess it leads to diseases, retarded growth and deformed cocoons but in the present experiment, the results are not in accordance with Alok Sakay and Kapila hence from the study it is clear that the supplementation with homeopathic drug, Chelidonium is important to increase the biological parameters of Bombyx mori L. and it has very good effect on the length and size of filament. The drug can be used to produce gradable silk like Chinese silk with long, thin filament (low denier). These results are in accordance with G., V., Kalpana, et al. As there is increase in shell ratio % it will help the poor farmer to gain at least fifteen to twenty five rupees more for each kg. of cocoon where the purchase of cocoon and the rates are given on shell ratio %. Further more, it is important to determine the optimum dose. The same drug is claimed to be a liver remedy in human, Boericke (2001).

Acknowledgements:

The author is thankful to the University authority, Campus Development Program for providing the essential facilities to conduct and complete this work and also to Dr. (Mrs.) Kadu for providing the drug required during experimentation.

References:

Alok Sakay and Kapila (1993) Role of nutrients in synthesis of Tassar Silk.Indian silk: 8-11.

Boericke, W. (2001) Pocket Mannual Of Homoeopathic Materia Medica. 9th ed. Indian Books and Periodicals Publishers, New Delhi, India.

G., V., Kalpana; N., Suresh Kumar; N., Mal Reddy; P., G., Joge and A., K., Palit (2002) Productive bivoltine silkworm hybrids of Bombyx mori L. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 130 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 131 for longer filament length and thin denier. Advances in Indian Sericulture Research. Proceedings of the National Conferenceon Stratages for SericultureResearch and Development, (2000) pp129-133.

Hiware, C.; J. (2001) Agro-Cottage Industry Sericulture. Daya Publishing House, Delhi, India pp 57-93.

Kumarraj, K; Vijayaraghavan K and Krishnaswamy S. (1972) Studies on fortification of mulberry leaves for feeding Silk worm. Indian J. Seri. 11(1) 68-72.

Krishwamy S. (1978) New Technology of Silk worm Rearing. Bulletin No. 2. Central Seri cultural Research and Training Institute, Mysore, India pp.1-28.

Murugappan.; R, M.; Balamurugan N. and Manonmani P. (1996) Effect of fortification of mulberry leaves with Jaggary on Silk worm, Bombyx mori. J. Ecotoxicol. Environ. Monit. 6 (2): 153-155.

Murugan K, Jeyabalan, D.; Senthil Kumar, N.; Senthil Nathan, S; and Sivaprakasan, N. (1998) Growth promoting effects of Plant products on Silk worm. J. Sci. Ind. Res.;57: 740-745.

Naveen, P., K. (2005) The Relevance of Homoeopathy in Veterinary Therapeutics and Safe Animal Food Production. Proceedings of the National Seminar on Application of Homoeopathy in Plants, Animals, Birds, Fishes, Soil, Water and Environment.Thrissur, Kerala, India.pp.120-134.

Ravikumar, C. (1988) Western ghat as a bivoltine region prospects, challenges and strategies for its development. Indian Silk, 26 (9):39-54.

Tyler, M., L. (2002) Homeopathic Drug Pictures. Indian Books and Periodicals Publishers, New Delhi. India. pp. 601-609.

Verma, A. N and Atwal,A. S. (1963) Effect of Chloromycetin and Molasses on the growth and production of silk by Bombyx mori L. ( Lepidoptera : Bombycidae ).Indian J. Seri. 1:1-14.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 130 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 131 TABLE : I Effect of homoeopathic drug, Chelidonium mother tincture on Vth instar larvae, mortality, cocoon and post cocoon characters of Silk worm Bombyx mori. L. reared during September, 2004 Rainy season.

Sr.Parameters Control group Chelidonium Percentchang No. under study. Treated group Over control

1. Larval wt.(gm.) 3.000 3.320 +10.666 (Average of 10 ) 2. Mortality

During rearing 03 09 +200.00 During Spinning 01 02 +100.00 3. Cocoon Wt. (gm.) 1.871 1.765 -05.665 (Average of 05) 4. Shell Wt. (gm.) 0.372 0.372 +00.000 5. Pupal Wt. (gm.) 1.499 1.384 -07.671 6. Silk ratio (%) 19.882 21.076 +06.005 7. Average length of 757.12 828.56 +09.435 Filament (mts.) 8. Average Wt. Of 0.201 0.215 +06.965 Filament(gms.) 9. Average Denier 2.38 2.33 -02.100 10. No. of breakages 02 01 -50.00

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 132   :           Rene R. Guarnaluse Arce MD

The tsunami struck, it was the end of the year 2004 and the world paused for a moment from the seasonal celebrations, the shopping and the toasts to sit in front of the TV screen to see over and over again the footage of Thailand and Sri Lanka where the sudden surge of ocean engulfed everything.

My first thought after coming out of the perplexity in which I myself was drowning, was to make decisions. In New York, and as part of the Board of Homeopaths Without Borders-North America (HWB-NA), we were working to associate ourselves with the United Nations, and through our communications with Homeopates Sans Frontiers (HSF) in France (mother organization), with the European Union. I asked our French colleagues for a decision though they were also still considering how to respond.

That particular request marked the beginning of an exchange of more than eight hundred emails. This is part of the present history and development of the use of Homeopathy in our time.

Thank God it was not only me, a couple of days after this first email to France, I received a message from the President of the Homeopathic Action Alliance (HAA), Jean Hoagland asking me as the representative of HWB- NA, what we were going to do about the tsunami situation. As the helping arm of HAA we were supposed to do something.

Jean wrote:

Dear Rene,

As HWB representative to HAA, I am asking you if HWB is aiding the tsunami victims. NCH has gotten one request about homeopaths doing

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 133 something, and we may get more. If we are to do anything it would be best to do it through an organization and in a coordinated way.

Let me know, ok?

Jean Hoagland, President National Center for Homeopathy

This is not the way it works in Europe where the sections are not necessarily connected to a bigger organization. It is one thing to wait for a decision and another to make them. This time the ball was on our side.

Needless to say this was a holiday, so when I read Jeanʼs message my wife and daughter were already in the car waiting for me to go skate at my brother-in-lawʼs nearby lake. On that trip, I came up with the notion of a clinic of thirty-three people distributed in different areas with the capacity to attend more than a thousand persons a day.

Life sometimes has other plans very different than the ones we have. It turned out that without the massive thrust of volunteers that were somehow expected to come in and with the experiences in the field later, it was better to have one to three practitioners acting in different villages. A community medicine approach would take us to where we were most needed.

Nonetheless, that vision was offered to the board of HWB. I was too excited to wait for a response. Unfortunately, people were on vacation or were going to be on vacation sometime soon. There came the other lesson, everything takes time. Evidence of that would come again and again.

The President of our North American section, Mrs. Nancy Kelly, was out of reach. I felt like I was in the middle of a crossroads where coordination, understanding and consensus were needed within the board. The suggestions and recommendations to Jean and the HAAʼs different organizations had to be addressed. Following Julian Winstonʼs homeolist, feeling the tone of the homeopathic world where ultimately the connection with Colombo manifested, and the attempts to reconnect and unite efforts with the European sections, were happening in a continuous and parallel manner. More than a month of hourly and daily discussions ended in the presence of HWB-International in Sri Lanka.

The Board

In the beginning, even with the perception that something had to be done, the board of HWB-NA, an NGO in progress and yet to be associated with a large organization like the UN, had questions as to the real possibilities for us to assume such responsibility, or to join the bigger Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 134 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 135 organizations (Red Cross, Care, OCHA) since we had doubts about our status.

Another question raised by respected voices both inside and outside the board was the validity of homeopathy in areas of disaster, especially having to come face to face with the establishments that exist in this arena.

Even the functions of HWB-HSF were reconsidered. Was it in the charter of the organization and the intention specifically for long- term training in areas where homeopathy was otherwise unavailable or did it include emergency intervention. Little by little, through close communications, the understanding came that we had a lot to offer the tsunami survivors, or any other disaster for that matter.

In the meantime, while we in the west were grappling with the issues from the ground up, homeopaths from Malaysia and Sri Lanka were already doing their best in some of the places affected by the tsunami.

Homeopathic Action Alliance (HAA)

After Jeanʼs letter, communications were sent about to the various HAA organizations, towards gathering volunteers and resources (money and medicines). Web pages and email networks were also used as a means of advertising the need.

In a teleconference of HAA representatives convened January 10th, 8pm EST, I responded to questions to the best of my ability. Two things I found important to emphasize: I suggested that nurses with training in Homeopathy should come in a proportion from 1:1 to 1:5. Previous experience indicated that most of the attendants in our outpatient areas had skin lesions to clean and two nurses could have done wonders in the villages of Sri Lanka.

The second point was the academic background of the homeopaths to go to Sri Lanka. Right after our connection with Colombo, we learned that in order to get official clearance, the Ministry of Health (which was not taking responsibility for the clearance of homeopaths or homeopathy) was focusing on the entrance of MDʼs, nurses or pharmacists into the country.

The Director of Health distanced himself from any responsibility of official clearance for non-Medical Doctors. Homeopathy, as it was officially understood, was going to intervene in the emotional shock post- tsunami. Otherwise, the six hundred foreign practitioners already in place in two months were supposedly going to be able to stabilize the health situation in the island.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 134 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 135 The reality showed that homeopathic MDʼs were not available other than Dr. Luc de Schepper and myself and that is when we received the recommendation from Dr. Steven Messer (SCNM) of one of the teachers on his staff, Eric Udell, ND. Then another ND from Canada, Denis Marier, appeared by sending me an email addressing Dr. Michel Pontis (HSF) introducing himself and his willingness to volunteer. So a group of three was put together and soon we started talking about malaria prevention, mosquito nets and water purifiers to say the least.

In the teleconference my response to the director of the non-MD homeopaths was: let the MDʼs go first to get things going and the non-MDʼs can come right after that. As it happened a nurse, a pharmacist, an MD and two NDʼs, opened the way to HWBʼs work in Sri Lanka. This has paved the way for non-MD homeopaths to work in the relief efforts.

Moreover the close relationship with HAA, namely Jean Hoagland and the rest of the members, has validated an important, productive bond.

HSF-International

After one of the members of our board visited the meeting of HSF- International last May, the connection was closer.

However in this emergency situation, things were not flowing in the beginning with Europe until a number of phone calls, a teleconference and some emails back and forth. Mutual understanding prevailed and it was very rewarding to read the message from Dr. Michel Pontis representative of HSF and webmaster of the HSF web page (homeoweb.free.fr) affirming the intention of sending people in a common effort to help in Sri Lanka.

Later a message in the homeolist.com from Holger Bauer included the commitment of the HSF-Germany in the venture of HWB in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately we missed Rita Pasquale the representative of HWB- Switzerland who left the day before our arrival to Colombo

The willingness to do something was manifested by many in Julian Winstonʼs homeolist forum and others (minutus.com comes to mind) and that is why we agreed (the Board) to send an official message to the list laying out the plans and ideas of HWB-NA at that point.

The breakthrough came with the introduction of a practitioner of Homeopathy in Colombo by Dr. Leela to Sheri.

The rest is history. I had a response from Joe de Livera of Colombo, with a warm welcome to Sri Lanka and an electrifying description of the situation: Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 136 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 137 Dear Rene, Thank you for your offer to help those who were affected by what has now been accepted as the World's Greatest Natural Disaster. I have been in contact with the Director of Health Services a short while ago who is a medical doctor, and I was agreeably surprised at his reaction when I first mentioned my proposal that your organization Homeopaths Without Borders had contacted me with the proposal that you come over to Sri Lanka to help those in need using homeopathic remedies instead of drugs which have arrived here literally in tons and which are now dumped all around the country with no doctors to use them. This is because many doctors in the government hospitals have themselves been the victims of the tsunami in many parts of the Island and over 100 are among those listed as missing or drowned.

I am glad to inform you that he was most receptive to my offer and suggested that I give him a proposal as to the number of homeopaths that can come to our assistance and what their modus operandi would be to help those affected. He also wanted information on what your specialty would be and I informed him that it was most likely to be in the use of homeopathic remedies which are better able to help with the post- trauma alleviation of problems caused by the tsunami than are drugs like Prozac, Valium, etc. I informed him that I shall give him a project report ASAP.

He assured me of his full cooperation in helping you in the establishment of a homeopathic camp and indicated that the present conditions for the housing of the personnel who may arrive will be very basic as the hotels and other facilities have all been washed out by the deluge. To add to it, we had received torrential rain yesterday in the areas inland, which were not affected by the tsunami, which was a few hundred yards to the shore in the Eastern province. This resulted in a four-foot flood, which has now made transport virtually impossible to that area temporarily.

It will be necessary that you carefully consider the problems that your personnel will have to face in establishing a center in the East, which will be very difficult. It is however in these areas that the greatest need for assistance is felt. However in the West province conditions are not all that bad as the tsunami was only about fifteen feet in height while in the East, it had reached epic proportions of thirty-five feet. Those most in need are in the East where the death toll was about thirty-five thousand while here on the West coast it was not so high at about twenty thousand. This figure only represents the bodies that were counted but it is possible that those who were swept out to sea can be equal to or even exceed the counted dead.

It is indeed unfortunate that homeopathy does not have the same status Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 136 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 137 today that allopathic medicine enjoys in Sri Lanka. The reason is that we do not have any Institution or University that can train and qualify those who practice homeopathy. Our government has often stated that they intend establishing an institution for this purpose but nothing has been done so far for the last ten years. I believe that this is largely due to the problems associated with the lack of qualified teachers who would like to share their knowledge with those who are interested in this science.

I feel that if your project can go ahead it would be an excellent opportunity for making the public more aware of the curative aspects of homeopathy, not only in daily life but in emergency situations as well. We may be also able to promote its wider use in this Island after we have proved to the government and the general public that homeopathy is perhaps equivalent to or even more powerful than the allopathic drugs used so far to relieve human suffering.

I shall be happy to give you all the assistance that I can to help you to come to Sri Lanka.

Kind Regards Joe De Livera

This email literarily glued the efforts of our organization in the world and all of a sudden everything made sense, we had somebody in Sri Lanka that was standing up for our intention and efforts.

Various Contributions

Thanks to contributions from so many selfless and aware donors we were able to finance the presence of homeopaths in areas of disaster (as I write these line homeopaths from Canada are finding their way to a natural disaster in Guyana). Donors who knew either from the local papers, the different online homeopathy forums, and a special mention to the members of the Katonah study group, the Awakenings store and the Yoga Center directed by my wife in Westchester County, New York, who were providing the basis of the opportunity to help others in the areas affected by the tsunami.

We Are Going!

Finally, by the middle of January things were rolling well along and each of us had clear tasks to accomplish: HSF-France were almost ready to go and had an official letter from A. Harsha de Silva the Director of Health. Kim Sikorski in Mexico, John Millar from Canada and Joe Lillard at Washington Homeopathics were working on remedies, manuals and

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 138 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 139 rising money. Sushila Lalsingh, also in Canada, was helping with remedies, funds and volunteers to focus a bit later in the Guyana disaster. Our President, Nancy Kelly and her assistant, Vanessa Bield were taking care of the reception of personnel, money, press releases and details of our travel needs and supplies. They also made arrangements with organizations that would provide clearance for our people and cargo, while also seeing to the least expensive travel. We were and are a whole team at work that I lived intensely from the beginning and until the present.

Once Nancy sent the itinerary (needless to say HWB covered the trip, remedy kits, shelter and many of the expenses down the road), and I had gathered up visas and stamps, we were good to go for Sri Lanka.

We arrived on February 11th. Once there, we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Joe de Livera and his family and we took also a few minutes to talk to Mrs. Sylvie de Sigalony and Mrs. Francine Drieu, the two members of HSF who preceded us in our trip. They were leaving in a few hours after spending about ten days in the Baticaloa area and directly experiencing what then was unknown to us. We were the second group of HWB to continue to work even if we were not going to the same place. In fact, ten days after our departure, Holger Bauer (HWB-Germany) and others would continue the work not far from where the French had been working.

The next day after our arrival lead by Joe de Livera and his son Johan we met with the authorities or Urban Council of the town of Amabalangoda. They have 3 refugee camps, which were gradually on their way to be emptied since the people were going back to what was left of their homes. After being told that there are no problems, even our visit came to question for a moment or two. Almost with a disaster-sight-seeing spirit we went down the road in the direction of Galle and Joe asked his son to turn at a sign with Singhalese words and a few recognizable English words: Peralya Boyʼs Camp.

What came next was the unfolding of our future in Sri Lanka in a too good to be true kind of way. We talked to the medical head of the camp Dr. Allyson and she welcomed us and briefed us in a very eloquent way regarding the situation and invited us to do our homeopathic work in the camp. The next step was to find our place in Hikkadoa, a nearby town and work in different “used to be villages” for the next 21 days. In addition to that, Denis Marier visited and worked in an orphanage in town. Everything started from a commitment, an idea, an intention to serve, then came the actual service that is happening now, continuing with another group that arrived once we were returned on the 2nd of March. There were more than 600 consultations delivered among the first group (Sylvie, Francine, Rita) and us. At the moment, no numbers have arrived from the German group.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 138 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 139 Homeopathic Activism

I have to say that there is something in the Organon that was an obstacle to my understanding of the principles of homeopathy that Hahnemann was explaining in his writings. There was bitterness that accompanied his promotion of the therapy he thought best for those suffering, for the diseased. His adamant criticisms towards the conventional medical practice of the times were not easy for me.

Now, when my capacity to support my family was and is put in jeopardy by responding to a humanitarian call, I now understand the context in which the Organon was written and applied. The aspects of his writings that looked merely emotional were coming from a man under attack. This trip is just a drop in the infinite bucket of homeopathic activism that is homeopathy itself. It was his love and compassion and the will to take homeopathy to those who needed to be cured the most, subjectively and objectively, that drove his vision.

We do not know yet if more volunteers are going to make these efforts sustainable but it is important to remember that this kind of effort has the capacity to demonstrate under the most trying circumstances, the power of homeopathy to cure, which is the basic assertion of the Organon. THE ORGANON ITSELF IS AN ACT OF ACTIVISM ON BEHALF OF SUFFERING HUMANITY. Hahnemann is a living example of a person who put his livelihood, his prestige, his life and the life of his family at risk in order to do what he thought was right. I am sure that today, he would be in the first line of homeopaths sharing wisdom in places of the world where homeopathy can make a difference.

The Tubeʼs Overture

I do not want to go without sharing the most spectacular clinical experience I had with the use of homeopathy in Sri Lanka. There were many satisfying good responses some also related with my experience as an endocrinologist in work with diabetics. However, one day a middle- aged lady with well-brushed gray hair, nicely dressed considering the circumstances, came to me, accompanied by her son. She was having a clear asthma attack. I examined her and the lungs were showing the early signs of obstruction at the wider bronchi level.

The sounds were therefore like hoarse bass deep notes similar to those coming from the big horns in a symphonic orchestra. It was clear to me that the crisis was just starting and I was starting to worry that if the remedy I was about to choose would not work, then this lady, miles away from any conventional ER, was going to have an obstruction at the finer bronchi: the

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 140 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 141 bronchioles, where the sounds are suppose to be like little flutes wheezing in her back.

After a few questions and responses like: “I do not sleep well, wake up at 2:00 am every night,” dyspepsia with epigastric pain, it was clear to me that Arsenicum 200 C was the remedy to try. While the lady was still moving around the granules in her mouth, I put the stethoscope back to the conventional listening position and to my surprise the hoarse sounds started fading and I could not believe my ears. She cleared the abnormal sounds to a refreshing normal flow of air and to my surprise, the patient started getting better on her way back home. So I am very glad we stopped at the tubeʼs overture and did not get to attend the fluteʼs requiem.

My appreciation to the actual co-authors of this article: Nancy Kelly, Kim Sikorski, Joe Lillard, Sushila Lalsingh, Jean Hoagland, Sheri Nakken, Dr. Leela, Joe de Livera, Eric Udell, Denis Marier, John Millar, our Sri Lankan patients, my family and many, many others.

Rene R. Guarnaluse Arce MD 1983, sp. Endocrinology 1988, Havana, Cuba Dipl. Homeopathy by professors of the Homeopathic Faculty of the Riberao Preto U. in Sao Paolo Brazil, and from the Cuban School of Homeopathy. He has attended many hours of homeopathic seminars and conferences on the American Continent, Europe and India. He is a member of the Liga Medicorum Internationalis.

In Cuba, Dr. Guarnaluse Arce, did the first basic study in Homeopathy (“Morphometric study of the tuberoinfundibular tract in rats treated with Lachesis 200 C”), organized the second homeopathic pharmacy to work in the island and worked on a project towards the first Homeopathic Hospital, and was instrumental in the Cuban project of HWB-NA. He presently lives with his family in New York.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 140 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 141 Homeopathy Without Borders in Sri Lanka

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 142        Understanding Your Type and Finding Love By Liz Lalor

Lycopodium Partnerships Theme of Lycopodium

The following quote comes from the famous homeopath Dr. Rajan Sankaran. It describes so beautifully the underlying dilemma for Lycopodiums that it would be a disservice to the discussion of Lycopodium not to use it. Once we understand this dilemma we will be much more likely to be forgiving of Lycopodiumʼs egotistical, bombastic behavior:

I have been told that several thousands of years ago, Lycopodium clavatum was actually a huge tree and that over the years it reduced to a small fern—the club moss. The main feeling in Lycopodium is that if the person remains small, his survival will be difficult, he will be humiliated, and he will be nowhere. The main theme of Lycopodium therefore, becomes ambition, a desire to grow bigger, a lot of effort which is concentrated fully on becoming bigger, being more powerful, reaching a higher position—the top rung of the ladder. (Sankaran, p. 117)

Lycopodiums are burdened with the legacy of this fight for survival. They carry deep in their psyche a knowing that they are potentially under threat of annihilation. The main concern and theme for Lycopodium in life is acquiring success and power in order to survive. Their main fear in life is the loss of power—the loss or failure of their business, the failure of their marriage, their loss of position in society. Lycopodium is a constitution that is acutely aware of needing to succeed and perform. Lycopodiums do not outwardly acknowledge feeling vulnerable, and when you meet a Lycopodium this is not the personality picture that is presented. The need to be successful and to win favor in society is so paramount, they overcompensate, and present as bragging and arrogant. The anxiety of

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 143 failure is so threatening, they literally bust their gut to prove to themselves and the world that they are not a failure. Their hard work usually pays off; Lycopodiums are good and they know it, and they are also good because they have had to work harder than others to achieve their success. Lycopodiums are under continual stress and strain. Every new situation is a potential threat to their existence, and every new encounter could potentially undermine their authority and position. It is not easy for Lycopodiums to continually struggle with the feeling that one mistake could undermine their very existence. It is possible, then, to understand why they present with overinflated opinions of themselves. If Lycopodiums convince the world that they are good, they also convince themselves.

The Emotional History behind Lycopodium

Why a Lycopodium constitution comes about is an interesting question. The parent of a Nat-mur child will be as critical and conditional with love and approval as the parent of a Lycopodium child. Nat-mur has the same fear of failure and the same fear of being rejected as Lycopodium, but the difference is, if Nat-murs perform and are good, they will receive love. Lycopodiums know they are always on their own in life; even if they succeed they will not get approval or reinforcement from their parents. At the end of the day, Lycopodium children know they have no support, regardless of whether they fail or succeed; they have nobody to rely on but themselves. This creates in Lycopodium a very interesting need. Consequently, the hurt of rejection, and the fear of failure is much deeper in Lycopodium, and Lycopodiums will doubly make sure they are never in the same powerless situation as they were when they were children. Lycopodiums have to be in control, and they do this by winning power, prestige, and position in society.

Lycopodiums will not be comfortable in a vulnerable position. This fear is projected onto their relationships, and is manifested as a kind of aloofness and seeming lack of enthusiasm in expressing love. Lycopodiums will act as if they are romantically uncommitted because they do not want to be put in a position where they lose power over their own feelings. Ironically, Lycopodiums, on top of fearing loss of power, also fear losing the relationship, because that failure will reflect badly on their social standing in the world. Always anticipating failure can potentially create an enormous amount of anxiety; the compromise Lycopodiums make is to have a partner, but to also protect themselves by holding the partner at a comfortable enough distance so as not to threaten their sense of power and position. This delicate balance of power and control means it is more probable that Lycopodiums will have successful relationships with people who they feel they can control. The most successful relationship for Lycopodiums is with a partner who needs them or who looks up to them for support. Their ideal partner is the person who is in rapture of their skills, and truly in awe of Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 144 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 145 their successes. The other compromise or psychological ploy on the part of Lycopodiums is to have their partner, but to also have lots of affairs. This ploy allows Lycopodiums emotional safety and distance.

Because of their inherent self-reliance, Lycopodiums will always hold something back from making commitments. Other people in a partnership with Lycopodium will never quite have a secure sense they are a permanent fixture.Lycopodiums do not necessarily set out to be unfaithful; it is just that they are constantly looking out for “number one.” The theme Sankaran alludes to of once being a “huge tree” and now “reduced” to only a small moss is constantly undermining the security of Lycopodium. If Lycopodiums lose ultimate control, and become dependent on the other person, they will feel like they have lost their power. Lycopodium literally transfer this feeling of loss of power into their physically tendency to suffer impotency. It is at this point that Lycopodiums will often look outside of the relationship and have an affair. The entire exercise is to reinforce their power and control over their feelings, and has nothing to do, in their mind, with not truly being in love with their current partner. The same scenario will also happen if their current partner threatens the status quo. Lycopodiums are always protecting a very sensitive underbelly, and their need to appear strong and potent is paramount. If Lycopodiums are feeling threatened, they will actively create a sense of incompetence in their partner. The partner of Lycopodiums could easily lose confidence; not only doLycopodiums always need to be right, they also appear on the surface to be good at every single thing. It takes some time of living with a Lycopodium to see they are riddled with fears and anxieties. Lycopodiums succeed because they work twice as hard as anyone else to ensure their success, but they also succeed because they have to. Lycopodiums embrace the meaning of the saying, “Life owes you a living but you have to work hard to receive it.” Lycopodiums never forget anyone who has helped them climb up the ladder of success, and they will always repay the debt, but they will never have the same loyalty as Nat- mur because they are essentially concerned with “number one.”

Lycopodiums Can Float on the Surface of Water

Moss is supposedly one of the oldest surviving plants. To survive, it has had to adapt its form from being a large tree to a small moss. Moss climbs and grows on most surfaces. This ability is also true of Lycopodiums, and the theme of Lycopodiums is that they are able to adapt to all that life throws in their path. Lycopodiums possess natural sales abilities; they possess a built-in psychological astuteness that helps them make sure they always come out on top and are always liked by everyone in the process. Lycopodiums are natural born charmers; they know how to socialize and work a room to their advantage. Professionally, Lycopodiums will always put in that extra effort and pull out all stops to look after their clients. They need to secure their business, their financial security, and their worldly Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 144 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 145 image.

The C.C. Baxter character played by Jack Lemmon in the filmThe Apartment, directed by Billy Wilder, is Lycopodium. An accountant for a large insurance agency, C.C. Baxter has a small, insignificant desk situated on the seventeenth floor, and he wants to be located up on the managerial twenty-seventh floor instead. He comes up with an ingenious scheme to loan his apartment out to upper-management executives for their extramarital liaisons, or affairs, with their secretaries. In return he wants to be favorably pushed ahead of others for promotion. C.C. Baxter is ambitious; he wants to get somewhere and he has no particular scruples about how he does it. C.C. Baxter wants and needs to be seen to be “someone.” His neighbors, who are frequently disturbed by the sound of lovemaking coming from his apartment, wrongly assume that he is a womanizer with a different woman every night. The fact that they think he must be some incredible lover is quite pleasing to him even though they scold him for his lack of morals. C.C. Baxter is not a ruthless, power-hungry Nux vomica; rather, he is an amicable and charming Lycopodium, always nonconfrontational and always ready to smooth over situations with jokes and witty comments. His Lycopodium abilities really come to the fore when he returns home to find one of his bossesʼ girlfriends who just tried to kill herself because her boss would not leave his wife. His ability to get his neighbor the doctor and the doctorʼs wife to help save her and get him out of very tight fix personifies the quick-thinking, quick-talking charm of a Lycopodium. C.C. Baxter unfortunately finds himself falling for the same girl, but C.C. Baxter is only interested in one thing, his own office on the top floor, and this is what he achieves.

The plot of the film is characteristic of films of that era: two men falling for the same woman, with the good guy (him) getting the girl. The interesting Lycopodium twist is that C.C. Baxter gives up his aspirations and his vice presidentʼs assistantʼs job, and his office with the three windows on the twenty-seventh floor that he finally achieves. Why? Because the ultimate insult comes when he finally sees that his boss does not truly recognize his dedication to the job, or acknowledge his brilliant statistical economic rationalizations; he just wants him for his apartment. C.C. Baxter was manipulating his way to the top because he truly believed he was a good accountant. C.C. Baxter also realizes that the girl the boss wants to take back to the apartment is also the girl he is in love with, but at the point in the story where he told the boss to keep his job he did not know she loved him rather than his boss. C.C. Baxter walked away from his job because he knew he did not want to be in a vulnerable position with his boss anymore; he did not throw in his job because he was in love with the same girl. Lycopodiums may want to survive1 and be important, but they will not give up their ego to achieve success. Morals are something Lycopodiums will blend to any situation and Lycopodiums will float on any surface to get Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 146 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 147 what they need, but Lycopodiums will not be prepared to suffer denigration. Lycopodiums need to be seen as big and important; C.C. Baxter needed to move to the top floor, but he also needed to make sure that he was not going to be upstaged or belittled at any point in the transaction. C.C. Baxter needed to give up all he had achieved to maintain his own ego and potency. This can be interpreted as either the egoistic strength or egotistic weakness that results in Lycopodium “shooting themelves in the foot”; either way, it is the Lycopodium twist that makes for an interesting constitution.

The Emotional Challenge for Lycopodium in Relationships

Lycopodiums take all these sensitivities into their relationships; consequently, they will not tolerate being contradicted or upstaged by their partner. They will always want be the best and be seen to be the best at every task and interaction. It could be hard for a lot of constitutions to be able to live with a Lycopodium, and vice versa, Lycopodiums will not be compatible with a constitutional type who questions their opinions. Lycopodiums are only ever empathic to othersʼ feelings in a work situation or in a social situation because ultimately it will be to their advantage. In a personal relationship Lycopodiums will not necessarily have the same warmth or tireless empathy for their partnerʼs feelings. Lycopodiums will view the relationship as “workable” as long as they do not feel they are stretched too far emotionally. Lycopodiums will become reserved and detached if they feel the relationship is too unstable or taxing. Lycopodiums are experts at avoiding feeling vulnerable or out of control; they never overextend themselves physically or emotionally, and they always make sure they have enough strength left for themselves. They have the ability to temper their emotions and personality so that at all times they will be viewed as socially acceptable and pleasant. Lycopodiums have the reputation of being dictatorial tyrants in relationships because they never want to hear that their opinion could be wrong. They will never even consider arguing about an issue; they are right and there is no doubt about it. Lycopodium will love and respect their partner but they will also be emotionally comfortable viewing their partner as “the weaker sex.” Lycopodiums essentially need to view themselves as the stronger one in the relationship; even when they view their partner favorably, they will always view themselves more favorably. This is why Lycopodiums come across as arrogant and bombastic.

Lycopodiums will be attracted to constitutions they can both dominate and boastfully impress, and who canʼt outdo them in social charm or worldly success. Most important, the partners of Lycopodiums must not stand out too much; they must be delicate and tasteful. They must also be moderate and temperate, especially in spending tastes so as to not threaten physical security. Lycopodium is a constitution with one face for society and another at home. Lycopodiums will always survive the rockiest of Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 146 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 147 relationships. Even if they decide they have married the wrong person, they will figure out how to work the relationship to their advantage. And if they get divorced, which is one of Lycopodiumsʼ biggest fears, Lycopodiums will continue to thrive in their new role as “single and unattached,” at least for a week, and then Lycopodium the eternal charmer will have a new partner. All new relationships will create a level of anxiety for Lycopodium because a new situation represents uncharted waters, but Lycopodium will quickly work out how to float on the surface of the new relationship.

As you would expect, when Lycopodiums fall, they fall harder than anyone else. Any threat to their health—especially, as one male Lycopodium patient put it recently, “to his works”—or to their career will be devastating to their sense of personal power. Loss of potency, loss of social success, and fear of disease can throw Lycopodiums into a very deeply depressed state. Lycopodiums carry the pain of being big and then becoming small as a theme of personal failure. If I only knew the homeopathic persona of a bombastic, healthy Lycopodium, I would not recognize an unhealthy Lycopodium and I would prescribe the wrong remedy in the consultation. Lycopodiums shrivel up and become as small as moss when they perceive they have failed in the world. They withdraw and get depressed and can develop such extreme fears they canʼt leave the house or even be alone at night. Lycopodiums will believe they are about to die; ironically, even at this point they are still Lycopodium, because they will never call the doctor for help.2 I have a Lycopodium patient who constantly tells me how sick he was, or that he was so depressed he couldnʼt get out of the chair, but he will only tell me this when he is back in command and in a position of power and health.3 Only the partner of Lycopodiums will see their weakness. A sick Lycopodium will always have a very strong need to be looked after and mothered,4 because this level of intense anxiety about health and failure will take an exhausting toll. The fear of failure,5 and the stress of potential illness, ages6 Lycopodiums and they become very tired. Failure in relationships can cause the same degree of distress. This is why Lycopodiums will often take a long time to commit emotionally, and even if they have been in a relationship or marriage for twenty years, they will still remain separate. The theme of survival by remaining separate mirrors the chemical nature of the substance that Lycopodium is derived from. This emotional distance is evident in the relationship between the man and the woman in the film Nowhere in Africa.

Nowhere in Africa is set in Kenya at the time of the Second World War. It is the story of a man and woman from wealthy Jewish families who perceive the impending danger and manage to escape Germany to Kenya. Both portrayals of the woman Jettel and the husband Walter, played by actors Juliane Kohler and Merab Ninidze, are Lycopodium. Jettel is used to being indulged in luxury and comfort. Walter is used to recognition and social importance. The individual struggles that both characters go through Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 148 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 149 are the issues of Lycopodium.

Both struggle to emotionally connect to the other. Their emotional distance is compounded by their individual losses—their lost identity, their lost social position and wealth. On top of that, the isolation of Kenya also conspires to pull them apart. The portrayals of both Lycopodiums are the fractured, unhealthy version where the ego strength of Lycopodium is struggling. Even though they have both lost so much, it is still possible in the film to see the arrogance of theLycopodium nature and imagine the ego power that each Lycopodium could feel if they were once again in a powerful position in society. This is reflected in the way Jettel hangs onto, and needs, her expensive crockery to show herself to be a person of wealth and importance. When she is fleeing Germany, she spends the survival money on a ball gown. In the luggage she wastes space and packs the family crockery rather than the survival necessities that Walter had told her to pack. She makes these choices based on her need for standards and status. Walter is equally unable to cope or adapt to the requirements of a meager farm managerʼs position in Kenya. Walter also emotionally needs to have his title of manager, and when he loses that he is totally shattered. Walterʼs decision to join the English army in Kenya is based on the need to redefine himself as a person with position and status. Neither character is able, even when feeling isolated from Germany and their family, to emotionally give to or rely on each other.

Lycopodiums do not emotionally turn to and rely on another in a crisis. Lycopodiums are used to surviving alone. Jettel and Walter reflect the crisis of Lycopodium when faced with failure and loss. The obsession they both have with societal position nearly causes the destruction of both of them. Both characters have the desire to survive and the drive to calculate what it is going to take to achieve that, and it is only their desire to survive that bonds them together. At one point in the film Jettel sleeps with an army officer to secure release for her and Walter. The only way that Walter deals with his jealousy is to analyze it on the basis of survival even though it eats away at his Lycopodium potency. Their daughter Regina, a Natrum mur, plays the role of an emotional bridge that bonds them together. Both of them relate to each other through her and she becomes the emotional link that eventually heals their crises of loss of status and ego.

Both Jettel and Walter know their marriage was conveniently based on family and position, and societal advancement. The decision to return to Germany at the end of the war also reveals their need for status. The need to be important again in society far outweighs any potential difficulties of returning to be with a race of people who have actively sought their destruction as Jews, and the destruction of their families. Walter returns to Germany to take up the position of a court judge. Jettel knows she needs to return to have position and wealth again. Position is viewed as Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 148 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 149 an integral part of life for Lycopodiums. This is also, of course, important in relationship choices. Lycopodiums will choose partnerships that lead to advancement in society.

The above scenario of a Lycopodium need for advancement is also played out by the character of Mrs. Latour, played by actor Isabelle Huppert in the filmUne Affaire de Femmes (A Story of Women). The film is based on the true story of Marie Louise Giraud, an abortionist who was guillotined for her crimes against France at the end of the Second World War. The film is set in German-occupied France. When her friend, a Jewess, is arrested, she is shocked into the stark reality of war. This experience has a profound effect on her and suddenly she realizes that she might not survive. Her husband is in a labor camp; she is the sole provider for herself and her children, and they are hungry. The first abortion she performs is done as a favor for her neighbor, but she quickly sees an economic opportunity and starts to perform more abortions. She is calculative in being able to see and take advantage of all sorts of opportunities, and this is the picture of Lycopodium when forced into survival mode. Mrs. Latour not only wants a way out of her poverty and lack of education; she also dreams of being a famous singer, and it is this dream that fuels her astuteness. She even takes her abortion fee from the sister-in-law of a woman who died as a result of her botched home abortion; she relationalizes that, if she did not take the money, it would be foolish and sentimental, and would possibly equate to admitting guilt. This is the calculative process of Lycopodium survival. C.C. Baxter was in a healthy Lycopodium state; he had much more of his ego intact and was able to walk away from his job. Mrs. Latour does not have his strength to be able to face her poverty, nor has she had his educational opportunities; consequently, she is not able emotionally to cope with any potential threat to her potency. The picture of Lycopodium is also visible in the way she treats her husband when he returns home from the labor camp. Mrs. Latour is charming to everyone else, including her lover, but she is not prepared to allow her husband any control over her. Ironically, it is her husband who has the final control, as he is the person who informs the police of her illegal abortions.

Even at the end, when facing the guillotine, she cannot see the logic behind the outrage7 for her crimes; for her it was always about what she needed to do to survive. I am not making a judgment on abortion or on her actions. What interests me in this portrayal of Lycopodium is the ability Lycopodiums have to cut off from their feelings to deal with survival. The fear of poverty and loss of position can throw Lycopodium into a very deeply depressed state and it is in this shut-down state that Lycopodiums can then shut off their feelings. Lycopodiums carry the pain of being big and then becoming small as a theme into all of their personal failures, in life and in relationships.

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 150 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 151 Lycopodium and Pulsatilla

The Theme of Pulsatilla

I have often read in the herbal Materia medica of the delicacy of the Pulsatilla flower, but seeing it in the flesh is completely enchanting. I was recently lucky enough to see a Pulsatilla plant in the botanical gardens in Padua, Italy. The flower possessed a softness I had not seen in Australia and I am not sure whether it was the romantic Italian surroundings or the fact that the environment was less severe and punishing than the harshness of the Australian sun, but the delicacy of the flowers overwhelmed me. It was fantastic to see the collection of herbs in these gardens because they were planted more than 300 years ago and the gardens are still used by the University of Herbalism next to the gardens. The common herb name for the Pulsatilla plant is wind flower. The flower sits precariously at the end of an amazingly thin and delicate stem, and bobs to and fro with the wind, all the time constantly moving and changing position with the wind. The homeopathic constitution Pulsatilla possesses all the qualities of the flower.

The Emotional Fragility and Needs of Pulsatilla

Whether female or male, gay or straight, the persona of Pulsatilla is soft and malleable. It is as if their inner psyche knows they need to be able to flow with the wind if they are going to protect their delicate flower. Pulsatillas are fragile and they feel very comfortable with this inner knowing of weakness.While Lycopodiums and Siliceas struggle with feeling insecure, Pulsatillas know they need to be looked after and the only dilemma for Pulsatillas is whether they are getting the love and affection they need. Pulsatillas will always endeavor to make sure they receive what they need in terms of assurance and security because if they feel alone or abandoned they truly despair. Pulsatillas delicately flirt, with the same quality of the flower allowing the wind to move it.Pulsatillas are extremely attractive and endearing in this process; they do not take without giving in return, but their desire for assurance and consolation is so strong they are constantly seeking attention. The exchange for Pulsatillas comes in their sweetness and nurturing. Pulsatillas are genuinely happy when they are devoted to their loved ones. Pulsatillas will fuss over and concern themselves with the care of their family or partner. This is true for either sex. A Pulsatilla man, gay or straight, will also have the same endearing softness and willingness to placate his partner as a Pulsatilla woman.

Pulsatillas have the same theme as the flower, and they are constantly changing emotional and mental positions. Their changeability is reflected in their continual need for reassurance and acknowledgment; any perceived change to their importance and they become emotional. If they feel deprived at all, they are very likely to be irritable one moment and burst into tears the Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 150 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 151 next. Pulsatillas are not willing to let go of anything they need and if one thing is not right they can be very fussy, petulant, and critical. The negative moods of Pulsatillas are usually very rare; because they have such an endearing nature, they are usually able to get what they need.

If they do not feel they are getting all the attention they need, Pulsatillas will become very insecure. A secure state of mind for Pulsatillas is completely dependent on being noticed and loved by their partner. A literary character that might help in definingPulsatilla is the portrayal of David Copperfieldʼs first “child-wife” Dora in the novelDavid Copperfield by Charles Dickens. David Copperfield, a Nat-mur, quite often became exasperated with his wife and although he was totally in love with her endearing nature, the Nat-mur qualities he looked for in a wife were practical. Dora lacked any practical skills like being able to cook or run the household. Dora was adoringly in love with him and in awe of his skills as a writer; she would often sit for hours just to watch him write. This sort of adoration would have been highly valued and sought after by Lycopodium but the Nat-mur Copperfield tired of her frivolity and emotionalism. Pulsatilla is susceptible to being overexcited and will be likely to burst into tears,8 not just from any small slight but also from feeling joy.9 Dora was forever bursting into tears and being irritatingly frivolous. The character of Copperfield was far more compatible with his second marriage, to Agnes, his lifelong loyal friend and companion and also another Nat-mur. A constitution compatible with Pulsatillas will love their childlike, sweet, adoring nature and their fragility.

Pulsatillas are healthy and happy in a secure relationship; if they do not have this in their life they will always replace it with a religion or group that gives them a strong sense of direction. The character Michael in the North American production of the television program Queer As Folk is Pulsatilla. Michael emotionally needs to be the most important person to his partner. When his first partner left to be with his son, Michael knew he would not be able to sustain the devotion he previously had, and although he followed, he returned to be with his family and friends. Pulsatillas live for their partner but they also need their partner to look after them and be devoted solely to them. When they do not have the support of their partner or family, Pulsatillas become very unsure of themselves. Pulsatillas need to be looked after10and they suffer from the feeling that they are all alone. Pulsatilla crave to be carried along in this world by a close group of loved ones, just as the Pulsatilla flower needs the wind to move it. IfPulsatillas feel their partnerʼs attention waning, they will get upset. Because Pulsatillas are more than likely to cry for attention it cannot be assumed that Pulsatillas are weak. Pulsatillas are very strong and determined to always secure a relationship in their lives and this is what they crave. Pulsatillas will always feel more secure in a partnership.11

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 152 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 153 The Challenge for Pulsatilla in Relationships

The character Judy Roth, played by actor Mia Farrow, in the Woody Allen filmHusbands and Wives is Pulsatilla. The filmHusbands and Wives is very similar to the French filmUne Liaison Pornographique, which I use in the Nat-mur and Sepia discussion, in that the documentary-like style of the film allows the viewer into the private thoughts and motivations behind each characterʼs actions. Judy Roth is married to Gabe Roth, played by actor Woody Allen. Judy, who has a child from a previous marriage, would like to have a child with Gabe, who is her second husband, but Gabe is resistant to the idea. (The reasons for his resistance I discuss in the chapter on Nat- mur and Arsenicum.) The important dynamic to discuss is the resistance is interpreted by Judy as a rejection of her importance to him because Judy is Pulsatilla. Judy immediately sinks into typical Pulsatilla insecurities over whether he really loves her and whether he is still attracted to her or whether he concentrates on his writing and his students more than on her. The documentary-style interviews allow us to see the motivations behind each characterʼs hurts and pains. The most important aspect of determining your constitution is to identify the theme behind your core emotional traumas and motivations. No one individual constitution is more together or less insecure that the other; each constitution will simply be affected by different fears, different insecurities, and different hurts.

The crisis for Judy is precipitated by their close friends separating. Judy takes the disintegration of the close group of the two couples very badly. She consequently projects her insecurities onto her relationship with her husband Gabe. The loss of support makes her more vulnerable to her husbandʼs rejection; she then questions the integrity of her husbandʼs cynicism about children. The new man at work, Michael, played by actor Liam Neeson, immediately becomes a real possibility as a source of support and attention she is not getting from her husband. Michael reveals in one interview that when he first met Judy, he was sure she was flirting with him even though she was married. This is the nature of the flower that moves and gently flirts with the wind.Pulsatillas will change the direction of their affection as much as they change their mind, especially if they are feeling like they have not been noticed enough. Pulsatillas will not devote themselves to their partner unless they have a guarantee their partner is totally devoted to them. Judy knows she is able to show her poems to Michael but cannot show them to her husband. Emotionally she sees this as the first sign she has started to withdraw from the marriage. Judy concludes that, if Gabe is so cynical and critical, he will eventually criticize her, as well as her poems. Judy decides their marriage is over and she transfers her love and need to Michael. Pulsatillas crave support from a strong person equally as much as they need to be supported and surrounded by a strong network of loving and supportive family and friends. The documentary style of the film is great in that we are also privy to Judyʼs previous husbandsʼ Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 152 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 153 opinions about how needy they have found her. The last interview of Judy and Michael is very revealing; he immediately jumps in to support her and make her feel totally secure at all times, and this is exactly what she needs. Not all constitutions are going to be able to be malleable to the tears and needs of Pulsatillas, and an Arsenicum Gabe was definitely one constitution who was not able to be manipulated by Pulsatilla.

The Needs of Lycopodium in Relationships

Lycopodiums will revel in the demands of Pulsatillas. As with Siliceas, Lycopodiums will see this as the perfect description of a suitable partner. Lycopodiums like to take control and make all the decisions, and this will be a partner who will make them feel all-powerful. Lycopodiums will feel very potent with this degree of dependence. Pulsatillas are “feminine” and tenderhearted, and Lycopodiums will feel their prowess and performance boosted with Pulsatilla. Pulsatillas will not argue with Lycopodiums; they will be happy to be dependent and in awe of their partner. Pulsatillas are easily upset and Lycopodiums will be emotionally comfortable with this because they also do not like to be confronted or challenged. For Judy, the Arsenicum Gabe was always bringing doom and fatalistic gloom into their relationship and she needed emotionally to see her relationship through rose-colored lenses. The more cynical and pessimistic Gabe was, the more Judy doubted his devotion to her. This is a dilemma for Pulsatillas that will not present itself in a relationship with Lycopodium, because Lycopodiums will not challenge Pulsatillas. Pulsatillas need to receive approval and constant reassurance of love, and this will appeal to Lycopodiumsʼ need to see themselves as wonderful and needed. The returns for Lycopodiums will be numerous. Lycopodiums love to be indulged and fussed over, and their ego will be in heaven with Pulsatilla because they know Pulsatilla will genuinely be happy to love and adore them. Lycopodiums will be able to feel very important and potent in a relationship with Pulsatillas.

Lycopodium and Pulsatilla Together in the Film Hannah and Her Sisters

@tx2:The relationship between Hannah and Elliot in Woody Allenʼs filmHannah and Her Sisters is a typical picture of an unfaithful Lycopodium with a loving and endearing Pulsatilla wife. Hannah, played by actor Mia Farrow, is a sweet Pulsatilla who is always trying to please her husband and family. The Michael Caine character of Elliot falls in love with Lee, Hannahʼs sister. Lee is vulnerable and Elliot the Lycopodium egoist cannot resist the temptation to be needed. Lee is seen as fresh and new, and young and beautiful, and subconsciously a boost to his ego and self-importance. Elliot is at a mid-life crossroad and his marriage with Hannah has been “so stable for four years” he is facing “boredom.” Lycopodiumsʼ infidelities have always to do on some level with the need to be seen as important and Elliot even explains it to Lee in those terms. He Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 154 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 155 doesnʼt think that Hannah really needs him; even more telling, he also says Hannah spends too much time devoted to the children and he doesnʼt get a look from her. For any constitution in a relationship with Pulsatillas this can be a real danger as Pulsatillas can often fall totally in love with their children and totally ignore their partner. Hannah does not find out about the affair before it ends, so she is spared any hurt or possible jealousy, which for Pulsatilla can be very painful. Elliot will never make the decision to tell her he was unfaithful12 because he sees Hannah as being too good and wonderful to ever hurt. The reality is Elliot does not want his Lycopodium security with Hannah shaken or threatened. Lee eventually realizes Elliot will never leave Hannah and she allows herself to fall in love with someone else. Elliot of course falls back in love with the wonderful Hannah.

If Lycopodiums do not pay due attention to their Pulsatilla partner, it will not go quite so smoothly for Lycopodium, and even the smoothest of Lycopodiums will be exasperated with the neediness of Pulsatilla. Even though they love and live to acquiesce to their partner, Pulsatillas will not tolerate being ignored. For Pulsatillas, security in life is based on the knowledge they are loved and adored. The fatal mistake made by Gabe Roth in Husbands and Wives was to reveal he was still in love with the woman from his last relationship, even though she turned out to be crazy. The relationship for Judy ended when Gabe revealed the reason he was attracted to Judy was that she physically reminded him of his previous true love in life and he only chose her because she was a saner version. It was at this point she acted upon her attraction to Michael. If their love and attention is not returned, Pulsatillas are apt to make themselves sick to get the sympathy they feel they deserve. Sickness is how Pulsatillas will express all emotional tension through their body. The most important aspect to remember about Pulsatillas is at times in their life when they feel unsure you will always see the effects of stress very quickly, and if Pulsatillas are not given permission to express their tension emotionally they will suffer physically. A person in a relationship with Pulsatilla who thinks that Pulsatilla is being “a little girl,” or, in the case of a man, “too sensitive,” or, in the case of a child, “a little baby,” will cause Pulsatillas to suppress their fears and worries. Pulsatillas need to cry to release, and they need to release their emotions to be healthy. The logical, analytical Arsenicum nature of the Woody Allen character Gabe Roth in Husbands and Wives was eventually going to be incompatible with the emotional sensitivities of Judy; from the onset of the film it was obvious he found her emotionalism tiresome and irritating.

Ironically, for all their petulant behavior and perceived jealousy, Pulsatillas will ultimately forgo themselves to their partner if it looks like they risk losing the partnership. Jealousy will upset and hurt Pulsatillas, but abandonment will destroy them far more than their partnerʼs unfaithfulness. Lycopodiums will also acquiesce; however, Lycopodiums acquiesce out Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 154 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 155 of not wanting to lose any financial and emotional security they have established.

If Pulsatillas are not in a relationship with a strong and dominant partner, they can become fixed in a very similar way toSilicea . The unique understanding constitutional homeopathy is able to offer in terms of understanding each individual person is very poignant in the acceptance of the health and motivations of Pulsatilla. Pulsatillas are genuinely happy when devoted to their partner or children or parents. Pulsatillas are healthy when they hand over responsibility to someone else. If they feel the decision-making processes are up to them they often get very fixed, rigid ideas, or rely on religious beliefs to give them the sense of security they need. They also at these times are more likely to get sick and hang onto illness as a form of eliciting sympathy from others. Pulsatillas need strong direction and they will be more likely to be happy and healthy in a relationship with a constitution like Lycopodium.

Although Pulsatillas are devoted to their partner, Pulsatillas are not “down to earth” and practical in the same way Calcarea carbs are. Lycopodiums will have to allow for a housekeeper when budgeting the household finances becausePulsatillas generally will not stoop to the mundane cleaning of the bathroom. Pulsatillas are “princesses” or “princes,” and Lycopodiums will love them even more for this quality.

Endnotes

1 Lycopodiums will always assess situations on the basis of survival. If it is a life-or-death situation, Lycopodiums will do what it takes to survive, but they also will make sure that they will never be in that situation again. If it is not crucial to survival they will maintain their position and walk away.

2 Arsenicums also fear death but they will be the first to call a doctor; in fact, if they could have a doctor “in residence” they would be very happy.

3 It is not unusual in my clinical experience for Lycopodium patients to spend the entire consultation telling you they donʼt need you. In the second consultation they tell you they are feeling better, but they were already feeling good in the first place, which confirms they did not need to come!

4 Lycopodiums will demand more attention and mothering when they are sick than any of the children in a family.

5 Lycopodiums have the ability to survive the most horrendous of situations. I realized after writing this chapter on Lycopodium that in Claude Lauzmannʼs film Shoah, the majority of the survivors of the concentration camps he interviewed appeared to me to be Lycopodiums. Lycopodiums Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 156 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 157 have the ability to assess how to survive in a concentration camp—who to bribe, what job to secure, and so on—to make sure they come out on top and survive. The other constitution that would also have an advantage in the survival stakes would of course be Nux vomica. It is blatantly obvious from survivorʼs stories that survival depended on luck, “mazel.” The other thing that was needed was skillful assessment of what it was going to take to survive. Lycopodiums do not emotionally react; rather, they intellectually assess. By saying this I am not saying that Lycopodiums do not feel—they do, but they will not be overcome or crippled by their emotions. Only people who are not overcome by the depth of their emotional responses could have an advantage in the death camps. Natrum murs, for example, would be so overcome by empathy they would take on the suffering around them. To discuss this concept in depth is obviously not the aim of this book, but it is a revelation that I wanted to share to help in the understanding of Lycopodium. In one interview in Shoah, a survivor talks about the last traumatic moments he spent with his wife and children. His job was to cut their hair before they went to the gas chambers. In the film the survivor reveals the painful thinking processes he went through at the time. If he were to reveal their fate the guards would know what he had done, and his own life would also be lost. Natrum murs or Carcinosins would be so empathic they would surrender their own lives. The Lycopodium state of mind is to continue to cut their hair and to ultimately survive. It is not that he did not care or feel intensely his pain or their potential anguish—he did, but the main issue for him was to survive. This interpretation of this story and my assessment of the constitution being Lycopodium are not based on fact, but entirely on my interpretation. I have no knowledge that in real life this particular man is Lycopodium. The thinking process of this particular man could quite possibly be different to how I have interpreted it. In stark contrast to this film, the portrayal of the personality of the Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman in the filmThe Pianist, directed by Roman Polanski, is not the nature of Lycopodium. Szpilman survived because he was, first, lucky, but most important, he was helped because he was famous among Poles. The Lycopodium mind would all the time be calculating every move and every advantage point. Lycopodium would be driven to join the Jewish Police, not sitting down like he did, and deciding he didnʼt like the principles of such a move. At every point he survived because he was assimilated enough into Polish society and he had friends to help him. He was pushed off the transport by the Jewish Police because he was a genius. The German soldier at the end of the film helped him to survive because he was talented; he would not have been helped if he had been an ordinary Jew who was unassimilated into Polish society. I have used this film to point out the stark difference between the two stories of survival. This analysis is entirely my interpretation of how the actor portrayed the character and I do not base my interpretation on the real-life person Wladyslaw Szpilman.

It is important to explain that from a homeopathic point of view it is Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 156 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 157 possible, through trauma, to move into the emotional phase of a constitution and not actually be that personality picture or constitution. This is of course the most probable explanation of the type of survival trauma that Holocaust victims would have had to endure. This would also explain the high proportion of Lycopodiums in the filmShoah . The majority of survivors of the Holocaust also continue to play out the theme of Lycopodium long after their lives in the camps. The psyche of survival is also being passed on to the following generations in the form of the need to accumulate more and more wealth and power so they will never as a race be so vulnerable to annihilation again. This is the psyche of Lycopodiumsʼ need for survival.

6 Lycopodiums suffer loss of hair and graying before others. The stress of potential failure also has a direct effect on their gut, where they hold their anxiety. They suffer from heartburn, bloating, and digestion problems. Sleep is often difficult because they have so much to control and churn over, it is hard to let go enough to sleep. If they do get to sleep, they often wake worrying about the day or the past or future. They hang on and retain their urine so much during the day from anxiety; then they wake all night to go to the toilet. By four in the afternoon the exhaustion of competing in the world takes over and they are obsessed with the need for “sugar hits” to get through the rest of the day. All their worry overworks their liver. The homeopathic remedy is often one of the first remedies I consider using with chronic fatigue sufferers, precisely because the mental and emotional fatigue also matches the picture of Lycopodium.

7 The French state guillotined her more for the deaths of the unborn French citizens who were needed to rebuild France after the war, than for the death of the woman.

8 A female Pulsatilla is particularly vulnerable to hormonal changes and is likely to be more weepy and critical at these times than usual.

9 Pulsatillas are also very likely not to sleep if they are overexcited. Pulsatillas have such a sympathetic, responsive nature they are easily influenced by emotion, regardless of whether the emotion is happiness or sadness.

10 It has been noted that the first timePulsatilla suffers from serious health problems coincides with the onset of puberty. This has often been interpreted as a physical ailment; however, I interpret this as a difficult time emotionally. Puberty is the first time as a child you are required to move away from the security of family and it is assumed at this time you should become independent. Pulsatillas would find puberty very stressful emotionally because they are happy being dependent. It is not surprising that all the Pulsatilla teenagers I have seen in clinical practice start relationships very early because they need the attention of a lover. Pulsatilla Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 158 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 159 children who do not have the full attention of their mother or father will also get sick a lot. Pulsatilla children involved in divorce will also suffer because they feel abandoned emotionally.

11 Pulsatillas will be far stronger in all business ventures if they are in a business partnership and not on their own. It is important to understand that this does not relate to their having a weak personality or being incompetent. Pulsatillas need emotionally to be with others; this is true for business relationships as well as love relationships.

12 Hahnemann, in his writings on the proving of Lycopodium, suggests a dose of Pulsatilla to calm the feverish physical states of Lycopodium. Emotionally the same can be also said: Not only do Pulsatillas have the ability to calm Lycopodiums, they also have the ability to stimulate Lycopodiums. WHP SimillimumAd 12/02.FINAL 11/6/02 12:57 PM Page 1

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Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 158 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 159    ARIZONA CONNECTICUT Lila Flagler Howard Fine 6737 East Camino Principal #C 4 Cross Highway Tucson, AZ, 85715 Westport, CT, 6880 520-721-8821 203-221-0216 [email protected] [email protected] www.drflagler.com Pearlyn Goodman-Herrick Samuel Flagler 1465 Post Road East 6737 E. Camino Principal #C Westport, CT, 6880 Tucson, AZ, 85715 203-256-9091 520-721-8821 [email protected] [email protected] www.drflagler.com HAWAII Jeff Baker Stephen Messer 184 Kapuahi Street 2140 East Broadway Road Makawao, HI, 96768 Tempe, AZ, 85282 808-572-2229 480 858 9100 [email protected] [email protected] Michael Traub CALIFORNIA 75-5759 Kaukini Hwy #202 Harry Swope Kailua-Kona, HI, 96740 PO Box 12180 808-329-2114 La Crescenta, CA, 91224-0880 [email protected] 818-541-9172 [email protected] IDAHO Brent Mathieu COLORADO 1412 West Washington Street Jennifer Smith Boise, ID, 83702 360South Monroe Suite 390 208-338-5590 Denver,CO80209 [email protected] 303-321-2461 [email protected] MAINE Liam McClintock, Jody K. Shevins Rising Tide Natural Medicine 5353 Manhattan Circle 26 School Street Suite 102 Yarmouth, ME 04069 Boulder, CO 80303 phone (207) 865-1222 (303) 494-3713 e-mail [email protected] web site www.mainehomeopath.com

Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 160 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 161 MASSACHUSETTS Durr Elmore Amy Rothenberg PO Box 990 356 Middle Street Mulino, OR, 97042 Amherst MA, 1002 503-829-3060 860-763-1225 CT [email protected] [email protected] Steven Sandberg-Lewis NEBRASKA 1433 SE Tolman ST Randall Bradley Portland, OR, 97202 7447 Farnam Street 503-255-7355x1515 Omaha, NE, 68114 [email protected] 402-391-6714 [email protected] PENNSYLVANIA Gregory Pais NEW HAMPSHIRE 926 Washington Blvd. Kristy Fassler Williamsport, PA, 17701-3668 500 Market Street 570-320-0747 #1F,Portsmouth, NH, 3801 [email protected] 603-427-6800 [email protected] TEXAS Dr.RomySanders ND, FHANP Pamela Herring 1209 Parkway 46 South Main Street Austin,TX78703-4132 Concord, NH, 3301 512-494-0516 603-228-0407 [email protected] [email protected] WASHINGTON NEW MEXICO Michael Baker Catherine Stauber 2661 Bel-Red Road #208 2002 Hot Springs Blvd Bellevue, WA, 98008-2200 Las Vegas, NM, 87701 425-881-8929 505-454-9525 [email protected] [email protected] www.childhomeopathy.com

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Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 164 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 165   The editor invites the submission of articles, essays, case reports and correspondence. The purpose of Simillimum is to provide high quality educational and clinical information to practitioners. Case reports and articles will be printed which strive to illuminate some aspect of classical homeopathic practice (defined here as a study of the totality of symptoms, the use of a single remedy, prescribed according to the Law of Similars) whether in the areas of materia medica, posology, case management, miasms, etc. The main point is that each article should provide a valuable homeopathic learning experience, so discussion must be thorough enough to achieve this goal. Cases will be evaluated on individual merit by a peer review committee of qualified practitioners. The following guidelines are suggested to assist the author in the development of presentation and content.

Case Format A “well taken case” includes a description of the patient, occupation, etc., relevant family medical history, previous types of treatment (allopathic or homeopathic), details of the chief complaints including modalities and causations, mental and general symptoms and all other symptoms of the case, so that a clear picture of the totality can be gained.

Case analysis Case analysis, evaluation of symptoms and repertorization should be included. Please explain your reasoning behind the remedy selection and potency choice. Insights into difficulties or problems you encountered, mistakes you made, or things you might have done differently may be particularly valuable. Cases using newly proven remedies should include relevant proving data for the benefit of the reader. Cases using remedies without provings or insubstantial provings should provide a discussion of the substance, references to other sources of information on its homeopathic use and the basis for its selection in this case.

Follow-up Appropriate follow-up should include the practitionerʼs assessment, repertorization and explanation regarding repetition or change of remedy. Chronic cases should be followed for at least one year. Acute cases although obviously shorter, should be written out in a similar manner.

Consent and Confidentiality Please include a written release from the patient (or the parent of a minor patient) and change identifying information as necessary. Contact us if you need a sample release form. Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 164 Spring/Summer 2005 Volume XVIII / SIMILLIMUM 165 Style Write your case out in narrative form, using quotation marks to indicate direct quotes. Remedy names should be italicized and spelled out completely, with potency number and scale specified, for example,Aurum sulphuratum 200C. Use appropriate references and acknowledgments when necessary for books, periodicals, teachers and computer programs. A summary of the focus of the case or article is helpful, whether as an introduction or a conclusion. Essays or articles critically evaluating ideas or methods of practice must be civil and well referenced as to the basis of the opinion offered. Articles may be edited for minor points of grammar, spelling, or usage. In this regard the editor recommends that the writer uses a word program with a spelling and grammatical check, which would much reduce the editing workload. Suggestions for significant revisions will be forwarded to the author for rewriting. We welcome your questions or concerns about shaping your experiences and thoughts into readable form. If you have something relevant to share, we will work with you. Send us a few lines of biographical information, and if possible a photograph of yourself, ideally a black and white head shot such as a passport photo. Submissions via email attachments, or on disk, in Word rich text format are preferred but not required. We are striving to print original material and request that you advise us of any prior or simultaneous submission to other journals. Thank you for your interest in submitting an article for Simillimum!

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