Millennium Mumbai Seminar- Jan 2001
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 2000 Nov / Dec VOL II NO 6.
Report prepared by: Official handout by HRC
Dr Aqeela
Mr Kasivishwanathan
'Calc-s / Vert-alb / Pyro / Merc-i-f / Paris-quod

The Millennium Bombay Seminar, organized by the Homoeopathic Research and Charities (HRC), was held from 9 to 21 January 2001. Its aim was to share new ideas, new paradigms and new approaches for understanding homoeopathic remedies and improve the skills of the Homoeopaths in practice.

It was a major event in the history of homoeopathy where 1200 homoeopaths from all corners of the globe attended. It is a matter of pride for India to host a seminar of international standards.

In the Indian tradition, the inauguration was done by the ceremonial lighting of the lamp and prayers. Then Dr Jugal Kishore, a senior and respected homoeopath addressed the gathering. HRC took this opportunity to invite other senior teachers and eminent homoeopaths on the dais to speak a few words. HRC then launched it's dream project - a world-class International Center of Homoeopathic Learning and Research, to be built in a location close to Mumbai.

The Seminar
Each day, the first half of every session was taken by Dr Rajan Sankaran and the post lunch session by other team members: Dr Sudhir Baldota, Dr Sujit Chatterjee, Dr Sunil Anand, Dr Divya Chhabbra, Dr Jayesh Shah.

Dr Rajan Sankaran: focus was on understanding the remedies belonging to plant kingdom. His earlier books had given his understanding of mineral and animal kingdom remedies with case illustrations. He explains in an article, " Insights into the plant kingdom" in the HRC souvenir, how he approached the issue of understanding the various remedies in the same plant family group.

He writes: "The answer lay in the sensations, in the type of pain, in the sensation of the pains etc. So I searched the repertory using the software program and to my utter joy I found that remedies from a particular family shared at least one common sensation or type of pain. This sensation expresses itself in all the remedies of the family, in different ways. Some like Arnica express the sensation directly as a bruised pain, yet others like Chamomilla express it as a reaction by hurting others. But the main feeling is common."

"The four ways I saw the expression of the feeling was as the sensation itself, as passive reaction, as active reaction, or as compensation. For example if the sensation is to get injured or hurt, the passive reaction is to get dazed, the active reaction is to strike back and the compensation is to become the tough one who can take any hurt. I saw that on closer examination all the remedies of a given family have all these types of expression though one type is better known in each specific remedy....

Seeing the expression of the common sensation in the mental or emotional sphere helped identify the central issue and core symptoms of the plant remedies. . . . I started studying each remedy in a given family to first ascertain whether the common feeling of the family holds and secondly to determine what miasm that remedy lies in. I came to the conclusion that each remedy lies at the cross point of the miasms and the family. Take for instance, Sarsaparilla. This remedy belongs to Liliflorae, one of whose main feelings is the feeling of being excluded or pushed out. I determined that Sarsaparilla lies in the ringworm miasm (described by him in his book - Substance of Homoeopathy) whose main action is 'trying'.

If this theory be true, the main focus of Sarsaparilla patient should be "trying not to be excluded". In two cases where Sarsaparilla showed significant effect I found this to be the main feeling. This feeling is not mentioned in any book so far, but it was totally understandable to me with the new idea."

The above new approach of classifying remedies of plant families according to their sensations and miasms was put forth to cover even less proven remedies and use them in practice: viz Veratrum-album, Cyclamen, Sarsaparilla, Chocolate, Teucrium, Hyoscymus, Paris-quadrifolia etc were discussed as examples of this approach. Plant families like Malvales, Rubiaceae, Liliaceae, Primulaceae, Solanaceae, Ranunculaceae, and remedies from the other sources, animal and mineral kingdoms were also paid equal attention.

An Example of the type of presentation:
Day 1: Dr Rajan Sankaran presented cases of the Liliflorae family.

Case 1: M, 4yrs with purulent oozing eczema since birth. Itching < night. By nature the child was very fastidious, would not wear stained clothes. Attached to Mo, aggressive on being neglected. Shy, does not play/share things with others. Violent anger =abusive, clenches teeth when things not done according to his wish. Bosses and dictates PGM. Wants more and more toy cars, which he arranges very neatly. At school, sits apart so that nobody touches or pushes him. At home dances naked and asks PGM "let us make love". Very curious and sometimes talks like adult. Every time the child came to the clinic, he spoke about food, sweets, fried food, potatoes, and fruits. Cannot tolerate heat. Perspiration scalp³, always wants head covered.

Calc-sulph was selected on the basis of eruptions, craving for sweets, jealousy in children, timid, bashful. After some days the child got high fever, which was relieved by one dose of Pyrogen 1M but there was not much relief in eczema. After 2 months the Mo called up at night saying that the child had collapsed and was not responding. On the visit it was seen that the child was lying cold in the Mo's arms with profuse cold sweat, clinging, asking for very cold water. AF being shouted by GF who told him, Your Mo has gone out, and will never come back". Veratrum- alb was given and he improved within 5 mins. Gradually the eczema got better with Veratrum- alb itself, which was later understood as not the acute phase remedy but the constitutional itself. The child was completely cured in 2-3 yrs.

Case 2: F, 15yrs, consulted for chronic, paroxysmal, violent, loud, persistent cough since many months. AF inhaling fumes in the chemistry lab. She was an only child and hence much pampered. Very loud and demanding. Patient described herself as revengeful. Dreams of fighting alone with the robbers in the house and of being the general in a war, where all her soldiers die and she wins the war single-handedly. Likes adventure and action movies. Very attached to Mo, wants her home when pt comes back from school. Cannot tolerate hunger. Perspiration stains yellow.

Salivation++ at night. Parents described her as a very adjusting, non-demanding person. She loves peace and does not express her choice. Mer-i-f was prescribed on the basis of cough, hunger and hot pt. Once again this was a failure case. On reconsideration, the full characteristics came up: very talkative, says, "If I want something, I must have it by hook or by crook". Very particular about being in the good books of everybody. All dreams pertain to success, cannot accept defeat even in dreams "I am the hero of my dreams". Must earn money by any means. Felt that her life is restricted due to cough, cannot do this or that. Hates attention due to cough. Wants to be noticed for hard work. Paris-quadrifolia (one bud standing over 4 leaflets) was prescribed which cured.

About Paris-Quadrifolia: foolish, talks a great deal. Changes subject. Speaking about one. Silly conduct. Disposition to treat others with disdain. Bad language, loquacity, self-esteemed.prattling, talks3. Malicious, disposition to slander. Censorious, mocking, sarcasm. Reproaches others.
Both Veratrum-alb and Paris belong to family Liliaflorea:

The Theme of this Family is: isolation, food craving, delusion of god, egotism, religious, attention seeking, forced out/isolated feeling

Characteristics of Plant Kingdom: Word commonly used "I am, I do" etc.
Speech: all sorts of things that affect them./varied.
Handwriting: rounded, disorganized.
Nature: soft, sensitive.
Fear: hurt/pain
Dream/interest: nature, greenery, plants, art, music or varied depending on the day's occurrences.
Key word: sensitivity. Each family has its own peculiar sensitivity.

Miasms:
Acute: sudden, great danger, acute intense threat, panic, shocked, stupefied, immobile, age-infancy game-peek a boo, thrown up in air and caught. Attitude-helpless, run for life. Eg -Acon, Bell, Stram, Verat, Arnica, Lithium-carb.
Sub-acute (typhoid): quick effort or sunk, bed sinking, losing position of comfort, critical period, sudden loss, business failure, dangerous, risky, do or die, impatient, demanding. Age-childhood, game-hide and seek, attitude-if you somehow come out of the crisis, all is fine. If you cannot, then you are sunk.

Liliflorae Family:

Dr Jayesh Shah covered Lac-dolphinum, Kali- cyantum and Kali- iodatum.
Dr Sujit Chatterjee covered Strontium- nitricum, and Germanium.
Dr Sunil Anand covered Ammon- mur, and Plumbum.
Dr Divya Chhhabra covered Merc- iod and Stram.
Dr Sudhir Baldota covered Belladonna, Chamomilla, and Codeine.
And Dr Mahesh Gandhi covered Calc-nit.
Dr Kasad gave a speech at the end of the week summing up the seminar.

Symposium on Acute Diseases: Day 6
In the morning, Dr Praful Barvalia, Dr.Parinaz Humranwala, Dr.Praful Vijaykar and Dr.Jayesh Shah shared their cases, highlighting their different approaches to practice. In the second half of the day a discussion moderated by Dr Sankaran was held on acute cases with the above doctors were on the panel. Several issues like acute totalities, constitutional prescriptions in acute cases, dose repetition, changing of remedies, use of intercurrents and use of anti-miasmatics were discussed. It brought out the diverse approaches that one could opt for, depending on the presenting totality at that time.

7 - Day Workshop For Foreign Delegates:
The workshop with the 175 overseas delegates following the main seminar was interactive, with scope for discussions. During the sessions, several short cases were discussed by the doctors. The highlight was a live case conducted in the green room of the auditorium and projected live to the delegates.

The remedies discussed were: Theridion, Coca-cola, Staphisagria, Actea-spicata, Merc-sol, Aurum-met, Cina, Lac-can, Berberis-vulgaris.
Interspersed with these intensive sessions were post-lunch moments of relaxation everyday. Participants presented their national talents in music and dance, Instrumental and vocal. Songs, harmonica, violin, bhajans, guitar-duo by an Israeli and a song by a German, were some of the highlights- all joined in irrespective of caste and status.
At the end Delegates were given certificates stating their participation in the seminar/workshop.

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