THE HOMOEOPATH
Spring 2001-No 81

Tomas Paschero's article on Unicism and Pluralism reprinted in this issue is a timely warning against poly-pharmacy. Pluralists tend to divide the organism into different levels that react differently to different remedies; thus pluralists usually prescribe more than one remedy for the sick patient. He says that the diseased organ is not the disease.

Toxins and tissue damage are only a by-product of the real disease and cannot guide the Homoeopath to the similimum. The law of cure is fulfilled only by acting on the core of the disease process exhibited by characteristic symptoms of the patient's complete history. The apparent disease is not a cause but an effect of the real disease that has constituted the patient's characteristic personality, habits and ailments. The patient's underlying diathesis or morbid pre-disposition is not discovered by observing merely the symptoms, but by observing the integral functioning of a whole person in their adaptation to life.

Report on seminar with Vega Rozenberg: described as the "world's foremost homoeopathic iconoclast" because he challenges and asks questions which some people will find embarrassing and offensive. He has developed "boxes": groups of remedies organized around a central theme. Some of the groups are cancer, rectal, power, suppression, radioactive. The boxes will have basic themes such as

"Pushover box": those who sacrifice themselves to make others around them comfortable; doormats (Aethusa, Staph, Chocolate, Puls, Lachesis). These are like a new set of rubrics. According to him one has to discover the dark spirit in the patient and before that one has to be clear about one’s own demons so that they do not confuse with those of the patient. One may have to ask questions to tickle this demon, as he calls it. A live case illustration: a four-year-old boy born with clubfeet now with metal braces from his feet to the knees. Obviously the attention turns to the mother and she was asked "what would you not want anyone to know about?" After a little reluctance the main points emerged as burden, restriction, being dumped and while mentioning the last point she frequently covered the crown of her head. This is interpreted as a need to block out light from a higher level. The overall result of blocking light, pressing down and heaviness and weight is dwarfishness. Barium blocks light and Baryta-mur is chosen as the remedy. In that remedy there is a delusion of walking on his knees - a reality in the boy's case.

Another case: a male in his fifties suffered from arthritis as a result of accident. Father of 3 children, is always separated from them because he was in merchant navy, safari driver in Africa, and worked for UNICEF in different places. Never in serious relationship except with the present partner. In reply to the question: "Is there anything you don't want us to know about you" he replied that he had homo-sexual urges and had one such experience. Asked about his worst fear he felt that humanity was going to end in 50 years and it made him very sad. He loved to travel and wanted to follow the sun. He used to climb up the mast of the boat to look down and survey the space. He had restless feet. Rubrics: restless feet, love of own sex. Themes in this case were; high up, low down, travel the world, follows the sun, vast spaces and end of the world. Hydrogen was the remedy. Vega told the participants to be bold, objective and detached and rout out the demon. It can be uncomfortable without being painful- only a mild aggravation followed by long lasting amelioration.

The second part of the essay on Advanced case taking and analysis by Ernest Roberts deals with miasmatic block, use of nosodes and how to prescribe in complex cases where there are multiple layers is published.

Report on a case of Thiosinaminum which was used effectively curing a genital scar left from a labial piercing, which the patient wanted to get rid of. A detailed report on the Bombay Millennium Seminar of Rajan Sankaran group, book reviews form the rest of the issue.

THE HOMOEOPATH
Winter 2002

1. It is very heartening to note that several Indian Homoeopaths are getting international recognition for their contributions and for advancement of Homoeopathy. The recent issues of this UK journal have been focusing on some such prominent Indian Homoeopaths like Rajan Sankaran, Sehgals, and Farokh Master. Divya Chhabra’s photo adorns this issue’s cover. Apart from a detailed report on her seminar held in Belgium and her approach to case taking and finding the similimum in cases by Penny Edwards, there is also a detailed interview with her on many aspects. Her approach is " listen, use few words, do not ask questions and do not think of the remedy. Put on the glasses the patient wears in order to see their world." We need to get into the patient’s deepest inner state and one should have a firm knowledge of the remedies and continuous update of our understanding of the remedies through reading of provings and analysis of cases cured. Dr Divya’s approach is to divide the case into two parts: what are the expressions of the case and what is the feeling of the case. Patients may have several expressions but what is important is to understand the state of feeling underlying such expressions or the delusion. One must recognize that which does not make sense, that which is peculiar to the patient. In her practice she has found that each patient uses certain words again and again and these words are also conveyed in a way you have not heard before. Also significant is any spontaneously denied feeling such as " I am not afraid of cats." Her approach is if the patient says that her partner is insulting, take the rubric "insulting" as well as " insulted" as these are all polarities of the same issue around which the patient runs his life and his life situation. After the patient has said everything Dr Chhabra asks questions of the most open kind relating to the words frequently used by the patient during case taking. She also uses the technique of "free association" to get into the inner feelings masked by the expressions. The patient is asked to speak whatever comes to his mind spontaneously till asked to stop. "Be spontaneous, irrational, talk about things that will never happen in your life". She often used the word "black" and in her experience that word had opened about 30-40% of her cases.
   
   
2. In the case of children, she talks with the parent first and talks to the child as much as possible and also ascertains the state of the mother during pregnancy. In cases where the patients are in hospital it is important to know more precisely what happened prior to the crisis. A child was admitted into the hospital as he was having chills and fever every night. Based on the statement of the mother that before the chills and fever came on the boy went and held on to his brother .Thinking that the child was clinging one homoeopath prescribed Stramonium, which did not have any effect. But when Dr Chhabra asked the mother for more details of what happened before the attack, she said that the child was saying that the wall and cupboard against were about to fall on his brother and hence he was holding his brother. Carbo-veg has the rubric " delusion, walls falling, before epilepsy" and it cured him.
   
   
3. Mirza Saleem Baig writes that anthrax poisoning can be cured homeopathically by Anthracinum, Arsenicum-alb, Crotalus-horridus , Echinacea and Pyrogenium. Stating that very few patients will come for treatment in a full-blown state of mental derangement or delusions, Mary Aspinwall says that it is important we become sensitized to the subtle information the patients provide during consultation including gestures; she has presented 14 brief cases where the expressions used by the patients led to repertorial rubrics of delusion and for finding the remedy. One patient said "I have to divide myself" I have to split myself" led to prescription of Anacardium. Some general articles and book reviews form the rest of the issue.

THE HOMOEOPATH
July'2002 No 86

1.Bill Rumble has discussed a new remedy Bracken which cured a patient of her chronic fatigue and inexplicable dark moods. It is a sort of bush, which travels in waves through woodland and open country leaving behind acid soil, on which other plants cannot survive. Its spores are carcigenic and contain cyanide which causes death by choking. The plant cloaks the sun and hence other plants are starved of sun and light and surrounding areas are dark. The patient in question had a long-term terror of darkness. She also said that her father was blown up in the war and his face was so blackened that it had a serious impact on her psyche. Initially she improved on Stramonium; later when her father died she complained of abdominal pain and in gallbladder and she developed tumour and a secondary tumour in her liver for which she had hysterectomy and chemotherapy. The prognosis was poor and she was depressed. She said that she had obviously taken on herself her father’s illness and it enveloped her as a cloak. Taking the cue from it the doctor prescribed Bracken 12c four doses daily and in one month she felt better but her chemotherapy sessions caused a setback and she rallied with doses of this remedy. Later interspersed with Ars-alb for burning after chemotherapy sessions, as symptoms developed. The case was followed up closely for over 9 years when all the tests indicated normalcy. It is a case based on doctrine of signatures and its similarity to the feelings of the patient.

2. Homoeopaths often pride themselves that Homoeopathic remedies rarely cause serious aggravation; there have, however, been cases where a higher potency has caused serious aggravation. Joseph Zaarfaty discusses one of his cases where wrong repetition in a sensitive patient caused serious aggravation. This patient was being treated for abdominal pain along with migraine. During pregnancy the boy’s mother saw a TB patient spitting blood which upset her much; her husband a senior officer in Vietnam Govt was murdered by the communists; later the child was born with chord around its neck and it took some time before he started crying; he had also fits. The doctor analysed the rubrics and had to choose between Opium and Morphinum; latter remedy was prescribed. The boy was improving steadily but the doctor in the next follow up decided instead of waiting, to repeat the medicine and administered Morphinum LM1 four drops. The boy shortly thereafter developed serious itching and had a terrible headache; his original complaint of abdominal pain was also stronger and accompanied by spasms; for 45 minutes he suffered and then was better but when he returned to his home he developed the same symptoms and also chest pains; he was removed to the hospital emergency room. Fortunately the investigations showed that his lungs and heart were normal and the symptoms were allergic reactions to the dose. No medicine was given and the boy improved. The doctor thereafter examined his own past cases and found that 2% of his patents in the past had strong aggravation to remedies but were not as worse as this patient. In another case a dose of Ars-alb LM1 had awful burning in stomach even though the dose as double diluted before taking. Such cases also prove that even LM potencies can cause aggravations. The doctor adds that "I never had serious aggravations when using high potencies above 200C."
(Ed: The experience may be otherwise in case of others-discuss).

3.Report on a seminar by Maggie Whittle on using Homoeopathy in cases of homelessness and drug addiction. Heroin and alcohol addiction will lead to severe weight loss with loss of appetite. Homelessness will lead to isolation, exclusion and social inadequacy resulting in low self-esteem. The root causes are sexual abuse in childhood, neglect in family nor listened to, leading to feelings of inadequacy, powerlessness, chronic guilty feeling that there is something seriously wrong with him. Compensated by obsessive or compulsive behaviour and anger; trauma is locked inside.

Tips for such cases: Ars-alb 1M repeated nightly if the fear experienced is very strong, reduces the anxiety levels

Nux-vom and Sulphur assists in the early stages of withdrawal from drugs; Morphinum and Sulphur useful particularly in heroin withdrawal.

Avena-sativa can reduce the cravings for drugs and alcohol, while Quercus will develop a distaste for alcohol; Gelsemium useful in the third phase of withdrawal.

Opium, Aconite and Stramonium useful in tackling the ill effects of released traumas.

4. A meeting with Eileen Nauman, a native American homoeopath, who connects metaphysics with homeopathy in her practice and uses flower essences, book reviews and a comparative study of Plumbum and Plutonium-nitricum with mythological connection of the two to Saturn, form the rest of the issue.

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