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In 1790 a German physician, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, (Allopathic doctor M.D.) made a very significant discovery. At that time cinchona bark (fromwhich quinine is derived) was very well known and used for its curative effects on malaria. Eager to discover what gave the bark
its curative power, Hahnemann tested this substance on himself while he was in a healthy state. He saw that it produced within
him symptoms similar to those of malaria: chill, fever, and sweat. This led him to suspect that certain substances can not only produce certain
symptoms and signs in a healthy individual but also cure someone with the same symptoms. This was the beginning of
homeopathy, which is based on the principle of “like cures like.” Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the father of homeopathy After this,
Hahnemann started testing various substances on himself and
some volunteers to ascertain what effects they could produce in healthy people so that he
could use them when he found similar symptoms in sick people. He started meticulously recording the elicited signs and
symptoms of each substance tested on healthy volunteers in a book called the homeopathic materia medica (literally,
medical matter). What Hahnemann also ascertained is that disease is not localized but affects the whole being. Therefore, when a
person is sick, it is not merely a part but the whole of him that is sick. Likewise,a substance affects the whole being, including
the mind. The homeopath thus keeps these factors in mind when treating a patient. During the initial consultation a homeopath
records all symptoms as well as the patient’s state of mind. This is then correlated to symptoms of the various remedies in the
materia medica, and then the single remedy that is the closest match is given to the patient. Hahnemann also recognized the need
to sometimes use certain substances that would be poisonous in their natural natural state, for he foresaw their utility as great
remedies. Recognizing there was no way he could use them in their pristine form, he decided to dilute them. To his surprise he saw
that the more he diluted the substances (with vigorous shaking), the more their medicinal effects increased. This process of serial
dilution of a drug substance is termed “potentization.” The serial dilution was carried to such an extent that hardly any of
the original substance remained in these dilutions, yet their effects were powerful. This led
Hahnemann to conclude that diseases are not material states but dynamic conditions. Thus, healing also happens dynamically.
He postulated that there is a dynamic life force within each of us, and it is at this level that both disease and healing occur.
Disease is the disturbance of this force unique to each individual and manifested as a state of mind and through different physical
symptoms. Sickness can be compared to a sitar (an Indian musical instrument with many strings) that is out of tune. Naturally
there will be discord. However, it is the faulty tuning itself and not the individual notes that need to be addressed. Similarly, homeopathic
treatment is at the same time holistic and individualistic. The inner disturbance needs to be corrected and restored to bring health
and balance to the whole being. A person’s state of being, his perception of and response to the world, is an essential part of his
individuality and as integral to his disease as the pain in his limbs or the ulcer in his stomach.
The inner disurbance of disease causes discord in a human being that can be compared to the discordant music produced
by a sitar that is out of tune. In homeopathy everything that a patient says, however strange, rare, or peculiar, is a symptom. For example,
if you feel hot in a cold room, it is a symptom. In other words, a symptom is an inappropriate response to the existing
situation. It is as if the person is perceiving and reacting to a reality different from what actually exists. In a cold room he responds as
if it were a hot room. Disease is thus an affliction of the whole person, a posture adopted as a survival mechanism to suit a
particular situation that is perceived rather than real. This posture causes us to react to reality in an unsuitable and disproportionate
disproportionate manner due to our false perception of it. Naturally, this in turn produces constant stress in us. For example,
when a man is being chased by a lion, the posture of running fast, being afraid, and so on is appropriate, because his survival
depends upon it. However, if he is in such a state with no lion to justify it, or he adopts such a posture even when chased by a little
dog, or if he is in such a panic that he cannot think (a reaction that is in excess of what is needed in the situation), then this is disease. It is as if he were functioning on
a false perception of reality, a delusion that makes him react in an inappropriate manner. This is the root of his stress. This delusion is
further reflected in a person’s fears, dreams, and hobbies and colors all aspects of his life as if he were wearing tinted glasses at all
times. The patient, a boy of ten years, was referred to me for treatment of a very severe and chronic skin problem. He had boils on
his extremities, which were very painful and itchy. For the previous month he had been unable to sit or stand. He was carried into my consulting room, crying, his boils full of pus.
Describing the itching, the mother said it was so bad that the boy wanted to tear away his skin.
With his hands clenched, he would shriek from the severity of the itching, almost like an insane person. He would say, “Kill me, I
can’t take it, I don’t want to live.” Whenever the itching became too much he would say, “Give me a knife, I want to stab my arms.” In
earlier years the boy had been very dependent on a particular goddess, and he composed and sang songs in her praise.
When the itching started, the boy became angry at the goddess and said, “I have done so much for her and this is what she has done
to me!” Once having said this, he tore up the picture he had of the goddess. He was very sensitive in both mind and skin. He could not
tolerate even a drop of water; he did not like bathing and was thirstless. The itching with its accompanying violence was not
continuous but spasmodic. There was cruel behavior, both toward
himself and toward others. He often said, “I will go mad.” In this case we can see the following symptoms on the mental and
general level: • Violence • Abusive • Striking • Cruelty • Impulse to tear • Desire to cut, mutilate • Impulse to stab himself The main
feelings connected with this state are: • Forsaken (by goddess) • Tormented (by goddess)
Feels he has suffered wrong From these feelings come the violent reactions. He has skin eruptions and reacts as if he were in a
situation where he is tormented and forsaken by the person he is serving and on whom he is dependent (the goddess). From this we can
see that the boy’s fixed perception (delusion) was that he was being tortured and tormented by the goddess to whom he was so devoted.
This reaction was one of violence with the impulse to destroy. (The homeopathic remedy HYDROPHOBINUM—which is made from
the saliva of a rabid dog—has this exact perception and reaction, and this remedy healed the boy.)
Incidentally, an examination of the history of the mother during her pregnancy revealed the following story. This was the mother’s second
pregnancy; her first child had been stillborn. She had a severe toothache throughout the second pregnancy and felt that something
terrible would happen. She prayed all the time, and when the baby was ten days overdue, she became panicky and extremely
tense. She stood before the picture of the same goddess and with her hands clenched, cried: “Why are you doing this to me?” The
feeling is the same: troubled by someone she is dependent on, a sense of injustice, forsaken feeling. I started noticing this phenomenon in
several cases. One of my earliest observations was that if a mother experiences a very intense state during the
pregnancy, the child almost always has the same state. HUMAN REACTION PATTERNS When afflicted by disease a
human being is not comfortable in all situations, and each individual needs a specific set of conditions to feel okay. Due to
these required conditions (compulsions) and fixed feelings (obsessions), which arise in response to the disease, our ability to react to
the situation becomes restricted. This restriction is the measure of our disease.
When such a restriction is present, we are no longer open to what is in front of us. Good health allows us to be in the moment and to
react appropriately and proportionately to the situations we face. If the situation calls for achievement, we achieve. If it demands that
we remain passive, so be it. Neither achievement nor passivity is a condition of good health. Health signifies freedom,
spontaneity, and being in the present, so that the spirit within is free to fulfill the requirements of the situation.
Once I understood that disease is a false perception of reality, I recognized that a perceived situation can be classified in terms
of depth and desperation. I categorized ten such possible types. A situation can be perceived as one of the following: It is
perceived as sudden and acute, and there is a desire to flee from the situation because one’s very life depends on it. It is perceived as
suddenly critical, but if one made an immediate
intense effort he could regain his security.
It is perceived as a situation that can be worrying for him but never hopeless. The feeling here is that life is a steady, ongoing
struggle. It is perceived as a situation that he sometimes tries to overcome and at other
times just accepts. It is perceived as a difficult situation by which he feels trapped and occasionally threatened.
It is perceived as a difficult situation, ensnaring but not life threatening, and so he just accepts it and hides his problem, because
it is a perceived weakness. It is perceived as a situation in which time is short and there is a sense of being hemmed in and therefore a
desire to break free before it is too late. It is perceived as a situation that feels chaotic and out of control, and one has to stretch beyond
one’s capacity to control it or restore order. It is perceived as a sense of obvious disgust with oneself and the situation, in which the person
chooses to preemptively distance himself from society, which makes him feel isolated.
It is perceived as a situation that seems impossible and hopeless, giving rise to a sense of impending destruction.
Let us take the example that your car breaks down while driving on a highway. There are ten typical ways of viewing this demanding
situation, and each individual’s reaction will fall into one of them. The situation calls for panic. I need to escape as soon as possible.
I will abandon my car if necessary in order to get to a safer, less precarious area. The situation is a crisis. I need to make an intense effort to solve it quickly. I will examine the
car forcefully and determinedly, all the while rapidly pushing the buttons of my cell phone to immediately summon a towing company.
The situation presents a problem that is solvable. I will make an optimistic effort to solve it. I will carefully look for the cause of
the breakdown, summon what I know about the workings of cars, and attempt to get the car going. The possibility of my solving the situation is doubtful. I will likely
attempt to solve it, give up, but then try again (alternating state). I will move around the car carefully, looking for the problem, while
thinking, “Gosh, I really don’t know much about cars.” I’ll return to the driver’s seat feeling defeated, then rouse myself to get out
of the car and take another look in case I missed something. This is a situation for which I can do nothing. I will find another
way (of getting home). I will make little or no attempt to examine the car,
because after all, only mechanics know how to fix cars. I will immediately reach for my cell phone to call a towing company.
This situation is harassing or persecuting. I feel unfortunate and am sure that such situations always happen to me. As I circle
the car I am more occupied with such thoughts as, “If I weren’t so poor I could afford a better car,” or “If my husband loved
me more he would see to it that things like this didn’t happen to me,” and so on, than Ioram with taking practical steps to get help
for me and my car. The situation just has to be solved, whatever it takes. I will apply superhuman effort to solve it, as if my life
depended on it. I will pop the hood, get tools from the trunk, and work determinedly, even doing things that I am not strong enough or
knowledgeable enough to undertake, regardless of such surrounding hazards as cars speeding by at close range or the pouring rain.
impossible to get a towing company to come all the way out here and fear that I will be forced to remain here, stranded and at the
mercy of criminals, wild animals, or bad weather. This type of situation is always totally hopeless and always makes me feel
angry and frustrated. I am certain that when a car breaks down this badly it is beyond
repair. The good feelings I had about this car are ruined, because it is now just another unreliable car. I will
feel like taking a hammer to the car, certain that I’ll just have to junk it. ANOTHER CLASSIFICATION—ANIMAL, MINERAL, OR PLANT.
Reaction pattern indicates nature and degree of the perceived situation. The panic type, crisis type, posswible type, persicuted
type, doubtfull type, fixed type; chaotic type, isolated type, impossible type.
Just as each of us is stuck in our view of the depth and desperation of the situation in front of us, we are also stuck in how we essentially see the situation, or the type of situation we
perceive. The type of situation we repeatedly perceive and thus create for ourselves can be a competition, a need for structure, the loss of
something within us, or a sensitivity reaction. For example, let us take a situation wherein a young woman is disappointed in love because her boyfriend has left her for another woman. This
situation can be viewed by three women in three entirely different ways. The woman who was left for another could view the situation
as one of competition in which she compares herself to the other woman and thinks, “In what way is she better than I?” The situation
could provoke a desire for revenge, feelings of jealousy, or the urge to one-up the other person. She could feel victimized.
Another woman in the same situation experiences the incident as a loss. She had viewed her boyfriend as a support that she
could trust and depend on, someone on whom she could lean; and suddenly she finds herself at a loss, empty and alone, and
wonders how she is going to support herself. Another woman could see the situation as a shock, something that just came out of the blue, completely unexpected. She is very
sensitive, hurt, and reacts to this shock with a kind of numbness. In the above examples you can see three different ways of experiencing
the same situation; namely, by viewing it as a competition, fearing that it brings a threat to or loss of structure, or having a sensitive
reaction. These disparate responses bring to mind the three kingdoms in nature—animal, mineral, and plant.
The animal way of viewing a situation is as competition, a struggle for survival.
The mineral way is to feel a need for, or fear losing part of, one’s structure.
And the plant way is to be sensitive and reactive to the external stimulus.
Thus we can have people who are animal type, mineral type, or plant type. Each one of us is stuck in a particular type, and we view
every life situation according to our type. Correspondingly, homeopathic remedies are mainly derived from animals, minerals, and
plants. A single remedy, dictated by the symptoms, is drawn from a particular animal, mineral, or plant. If the symptoms of
a patient indicate a particular remedy, the homeopath applies it, no matter the kingdom to which it belongs. However, research
indicates that people who need remedies from each of these kingdoms differ fundamentally in the way they perceive and
react to reality. Here are the main issues of the three kingdoms: To define it more sharply I examined the subdivisions within each kingdom,
plant sensitivity and reactivity.
Animal kingdom comparison, competition, struggle for survival.
Mineral kingdom The formation or loss of structure.
which opened up a whole new way of looking at homeopathy. For example, within the animal kingdom one could identify what is a
snake type, a spider type, or a bird type. Then I started looking at remedies not merely for a collection of symptoms but as
embodying the spirit of something in nature, and therefore a part of a system. I realized that the symptoms of a particular remedy that
are in the homeopathic materia medica are not just accidents or random effects but represent the source itself.
To cite an example: A cuttlefish (Sepia spp.) in its natural environment defends itself from a predator by secreting a dark inky fluid, then
hiding behind it to escape by swimming backward. When sepia (the remedy from the cuttlefish) was tested on a healthy person, he
had a dream in which he was escaping by running backward. The subject probably knew nothing of what he was taking, and yet
it seems as if the animal expressed itself through his dream.
The homeopathic materia medica is the human expression of the source.
The remedies from various sources heal humans who have similar states within them. These states, which we call disease, must also
be, like the remedies, from one of the three kingdoms. Exploring this led me to the next level of perception—which is sensation—in
which I saw that a human being’s deepest issue is a very specific state that is not even human! It is something nonhuman. What is
abnormal is to be human and yet have a part within that is a plant, animal, or mineral and be confined within that perception. It then
became my mission to identify ways of discovering the particular state that dominates each person. Consequently I
refined my case-taking to reach this level of sensation. For example, a particular patient is asked, in relation to some situation he faces,
“So how does that feel?” He replies, “It feels like a captive in a cell.” At that point I ask that one question—in this case, “What is the
experience of being a captive?”—that requires going deeper, one more step closer to the sensation. To many readers this question may
perhaps sound weird or ridiculous. You must think that it really does not require rocket science to figure out how a captive feels in a
cell, but it is amazing to hear how each experience is different from another. For example, for one it could be an experience of,
“I am stuck and I can’t move.” This is a sensation expressing sensitivity, so he would require a plant remedy. For another the
experience may be like being under some other powerful being, as in being victimized by someone. This is a victim-aggressor issue
that would require an animal remedy. And for yet others it could be a sense of incapacity: “I lack a sense of capability of getting out on my own.” What he is saying is
that he lacks the structure that is needed. This person would require a mineral remedy. I began to see how deeper examination of a delusion reveals an inner sensation that is not
human specific. Consequently, my case-taking proceeded in this way: Patients normally began with the “name” or diagnosis
of their problem. Then they furnished more details as “facts” of their symptoms, such as what seemed to aggravate or ameliorate their complaint, what kind of pain they
experienced locally, and so on. Then they described how their illness made them “feel.” They spoke of emotions such as anger,
irritation, and so on. At this point I focused the questions by asking, “How does that feel?” Each one described his own
“delusion,” and an experience in this delusion is the person’s “sensation.” And when describing this sensation the person’s
use of his hands indicated when he had arrived at the level of “energy.” As I focused
focused on the movement of hands in this
process, a different language emerged from within, the voice of something in nature; the whole other song (from a nonhuman
kingdom) unfolded itself beautifully. In this process of identifying a person’s other song, once the whole phenomenon is understood,
the important thing is to identify the source (remedy). The shift began for me in the case-taking process when people expressed this
inner other song. Sometimes we heard songs that we hadn’t heard before, so we
started prescribing more and more new
remedies. Healing happened at a deeper level than I had seen earlier. What is significant for patients, apart from just receiving a
remedy, is that as they express themselves during the interview process it brings them in touch with a core aspect of themselves.
Improved self-perception and self-awareness make them realize that their body, mind, physical symptoms, emotions, and dreams are
all connected at this deep core level. This awareness is not intellectual but experiential. Often they remark, “Oh yes! This is the same
experience I had in another situation.” A man of about forty years of age came to my colleague, Dr. Chatterjee, for treatment of
diabetes and weakness. He described his weakness as a lack of stamina, which he especially felt when he played his favorite
sport of badminton. On being asked to describe the game, he said it is a game that involves very high speed and stamina to stay
ahead of your opponent, and after you tire him out you need to make one final shot where he least expects it, and then the
opponent “is finished by this smash.” He demonstrated this by raising his right hand above his head and then bringing it down
with force and speed. On being asked about himself, he said he liked speed in general and liked to drive his motorcycle very fast,
wending his way very quickly through traffic so that he is ahead of all the rest. His favorite entertainment was to watch the animal
channel on television, and he was most fascinated by wild cats, especially the cheetah. He described the cheetah as an
animal of great speed and stamina, and one that brought down its prey by the final smash of its paw after a long chase. He
demonstrated the action of the cheetah by using exactly the same gesture of bringing down his palm very quickly and forcefully
that he had used to describe the game of badminton. At that point he realized the same pattern in these two instances. It was
intriguing to see how closely this patient’s energy pattern not only reflected the source in nature but also colored his way of being,
playing, and choice of recreation and how his disease (diabetes, weakness) is an expression of the opposite of this sensation.
Having this type of awareness before even taking the remedy helps people to experience a sense of freedom. It is almost as if sitting
across from them you can hear the click in their consciousness. This “aha” phenomenon of their observing and seeing all aspects of
their life as one, seeing the common thread through everything, is a potent healing agent. Some have said this was one of the deepest
experiences they had ever had. I concluded from this that our problems and conflicts, emotions and
complexes, dreams and delusions are all only expressions of a deeper inner state or turmoil existing at a level of sensory experience that
has non-human-specific qualities in it drawn from other sources. Every self-expression contains the words and gestures that indicate
the sensory experience behind it. If we identify and focus on that, then the other world, the other song, opens up and we see
something we know, the presence of which we had only sensed, now standing completely revealed..
It then becomes a delusion that rules an individual life. Whatever the situation it will always be viewed in a certain light and
reacted to from this false perception of reality. Each one of us has our own delusion that influences our life, the way we work,
and our interpersonal relationships. Emotional states, fear, hatred, and even joy are based very much on this delusion.
It also gets represented in our dreams, nightmares, and fantasies.
For example, a young man describes his state as being unhappy at his work place. This is his feeling. When we inquire further and ask
him to describe this unhappiness in depth, he describes his experience at work as being similar to that of being captured and tortured.
When asked to describe the words captured and tortured the images that come to his mind are those of enslaved Africans taken to
America, concentration camps during the Second World War, and the way conquerors of any era treat their captives.
These images of people who have been captured and tortured are from different eras and thus have been a part of human
experience (and therefore consciousness) throughout human history. Once we realize this we understand that this experience is not limited to the individual but is truly
universal. Although the individual describes a deep inner level that is personal and private, the turmoil he describes is common
to all and can be traced in all human
consciousness. So even while reaching a plane that is intensely personal and individual, we find that plane to be common
to all humanity. Delusion, therefore, is not limited by time and place. It repeatedly manifests itself in different eras through
different people in human history. It has existed in various forms since the beginning of human civilization. Expressions may vary,
but the same pattern is manifest. Our delusions cross the barriers of time, place, language, nationality, and culture.
In 1790 a German physician, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, (Allopathic doctor M.D.) made a very significant discovery. At that time cinchona bark (fromwhich quinine is derived) was very well known and used for its curative effects on malaria. Eager to discover what gave the bark
its curative power, Hahnemann tested this substance on himself while he was in a healthy state. He saw that it produced within
him symptoms similar to those of malaria: chill, fever, and sweat. This led him to suspect that certain substances can not only produce certain
symptoms and signs in a healthy individual but also cure someone with the same symptoms. This was the beginning of
homeopathy, which is based on the principle of “like cures like.” Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the father of homeopathy After this,
Hahnemann started testing various substances on himself and
some volunteers to ascertain what effects they could produce in healthy people so that he
could use them when he found similar symptoms in sick people. He started meticulously recording the elicited signs and
symptoms of each substance tested on healthy volunteers in a book called the homeopathic materia medica (literally,
medical matter). What Hahnemann also ascertained is that disease is not localized but affects the whole being. Therefore, when a
person is sick, it is not merely a part but the whole of him that is sick. Likewise,a substance affects the whole being, including
the mind. The homeopath thus keeps these factors in mind when treating a patient. During the initial consultation a homeopath
records all symptoms as well as the patient’s state of mind. This is then correlated to symptoms of the various remedies in the
materia medica, and then the single remedy that is the closest match is given to the patient. Hahnemann also recognized the need
to sometimes use certain substances that would be poisonous in their natural natural state, for he foresaw their utility as great
remedies. Recognizing there was no way he could use them in their pristine form, he decided to dilute them. To his surprise he saw
that the more he diluted the substances (with vigorous shaking), the more their medicinal effects increased. This process of serial
dilution of a drug substance is termed “potentization.” The serial dilution was carried to such an extent that hardly any of
the original substance remained in these dilutions, yet their effects were powerful. This led
Hahnemann to conclude that diseases are not material states but dynamic conditions. Thus, healing also happens dynamically.
He postulated that there is a dynamic life force within each of us, and it is at this level that both disease and healing occur.
Disease is the disturbance of this force unique to each individual and manifested as a state of mind and through different physical
symptoms. Sickness can be compared to a sitar (an Indian musical instrument with many strings) that is out of tune. Naturally
there will be discord. However, it is the faulty tuning itself and not the individual notes that need to be addressed. Similarly, homeopathic
treatment is at the same time holistic and individualistic. The inner disturbance needs to be corrected and restored to bring health
and balance to the whole being. A person’s state of being, his perception of and response to the world, is an essential part of his
individuality and as integral to his disease as the pain in his limbs or the ulcer in his stomach.
The inner disurbance of disease causes discord in a human being that can be compared to the discordant music produced
by a sitar that is out of tune. In homeopathy everything that a patient says, however strange, rare, or peculiar, is a symptom. For example,
if you feel hot in a cold room, it is a symptom. In other words, a symptom is an inappropriate response to the existing
situation. It is as if the person is perceiving and reacting to a reality different from what actually exists. In a cold room he responds as
if it were a hot room. Disease is thus an affliction of the whole person, a posture adopted as a survival mechanism to suit a
particular situation that is perceived rather than real. This posture causes us to react to reality in an unsuitable and disproportionate
disproportionate manner due to our false perception of it. Naturally, this in turn produces constant stress in us. For example,
when a man is being chased by a lion, the posture of running fast, being afraid, and so on is appropriate, because his survival
depends upon it. However, if he is in such a state with no lion to justify it, or he adopts such a posture even when chased by a little
dog, or if he is in such a panic that he cannot think (a reaction that is in excess of what is needed in the situation), then this is disease. It is as if he were functioning on
a false perception of reality, a delusion that makes him react in an inappropriate manner. This is the root of his stress. This delusion is
further reflected in a person’s fears, dreams, and hobbies and colors all aspects of his life as if he were wearing tinted glasses at all
times. The patient, a boy of ten years, was referred to me for treatment of a very severe and chronic skin problem. He had boils on
his extremities, which were very painful and itchy. For the previous month he had been unable to sit or stand. He was carried into my consulting room, crying, his boils full of pus.
Describing the itching, the mother said it was so bad that the boy wanted to tear away his skin.
With his hands clenched, he would shriek from the severity of the itching, almost like an insane person. He would say, “Kill me, I
can’t take it, I don’t want to live.” Whenever the itching became too much he would say, “Give me a knife, I want to stab my arms.” In
earlier years the boy had been very dependent on a particular goddess, and he composed and sang songs in her praise.
When the itching started, the boy became angry at the goddess and said, “I have done so much for her and this is what she has done
to me!” Once having said this, he tore up the picture he had of the goddess. He was very sensitive in both mind and skin. He could not
tolerate even a drop of water; he did not like bathing and was thirstless. The itching with its accompanying violence was not
continuous but spasmodic. There was cruel behavior, both toward
himself and toward others. He often said, “I will go mad.” In this case we can see the following symptoms on the mental and
general level: • Violence • Abusive • Striking • Cruelty • Impulse to tear • Desire to cut, mutilate • Impulse to stab himself The main
feelings connected with this state are: • Forsaken (by goddess) • Tormented (by goddess)
Feels he has suffered wrong From these feelings come the violent reactions. He has skin eruptions and reacts as if he were in a
situation where he is tormented and forsaken by the person he is serving and on whom he is dependent (the goddess). From this we can
see that the boy’s fixed perception (delusion) was that he was being tortured and tormented by the goddess to whom he was so devoted.
This reaction was one of violence with the impulse to destroy. (The homeopathic remedy HYDROPHOBINUM—which is made from
the saliva of a rabid dog—has this exact perception and reaction, and this remedy healed the boy.)
Incidentally, an examination of the history of the mother during her pregnancy revealed the following story. This was the mother’s second
pregnancy; her first child had been stillborn. She had a severe toothache throughout the second pregnancy and felt that something
terrible would happen. She prayed all the time, and when the baby was ten days overdue, she became panicky and extremely
tense. She stood before the picture of the same goddess and with her hands clenched, cried: “Why are you doing this to me?” The
feeling is the same: troubled by someone she is dependent on, a sense of injustice, forsaken feeling. I started noticing this phenomenon in
several cases. One of my earliest observations was that if a mother experiences a very intense state during the
pregnancy, the child almost always has the same state. HUMAN REACTION PATTERNS When afflicted by disease a
human being is not comfortable in all situations, and each individual needs a specific set of conditions to feel okay. Due to
these required conditions (compulsions) and fixed feelings (obsessions), which arise in response to the disease, our ability to react to
the situation becomes restricted. This restriction is the measure of our disease.
When such a restriction is present, we are no longer open to what is in front of us. Good health allows us to be in the moment and to
react appropriately and proportionately to the situations we face. If the situation calls for achievement, we achieve. If it demands that
we remain passive, so be it. Neither achievement nor passivity is a condition of good health. Health signifies freedom,
spontaneity, and being in the present, so that the spirit within is free to fulfill the requirements of the situation.
Once I understood that disease is a false perception of reality, I recognized that a perceived situation can be classified in terms
of depth and desperation. I categorized ten such possible types. A situation can be perceived as one of the following: It is
perceived as sudden and acute, and there is a desire to flee from the situation because one’s very life depends on it. It is perceived as
suddenly critical, but if one made an immediate
intense effort he could regain his security.
It is perceived as a situation that can be worrying for him but never hopeless. The feeling here is that life is a steady, ongoing
struggle. It is perceived as a situation that he sometimes tries to overcome and at other
times just accepts. It is perceived as a difficult situation by which he feels trapped and occasionally threatened.
It is perceived as a difficult situation, ensnaring but not life threatening, and so he just accepts it and hides his problem, because
it is a perceived weakness. It is perceived as a situation in which time is short and there is a sense of being hemmed in and therefore a
desire to break free before it is too late. It is perceived as a situation that feels chaotic and out of control, and one has to stretch beyond
one’s capacity to control it or restore order. It is perceived as a sense of obvious disgust with oneself and the situation, in which the person
chooses to preemptively distance himself from society, which makes him feel isolated.
It is perceived as a situation that seems impossible and hopeless, giving rise to a sense of impending destruction.
Let us take the example that your car breaks down while driving on a highway. There are ten typical ways of viewing this demanding
situation, and each individual’s reaction will fall into one of them. The situation calls for panic. I need to escape as soon as possible.
I will abandon my car if necessary in order to get to a safer, less precarious area. The situation is a crisis. I need to make an intense effort to solve it quickly. I will examine the
car forcefully and determinedly, all the while rapidly pushing the buttons of my cell phone to immediately summon a towing company.
The situation presents a problem that is solvable. I will make an optimistic effort to solve it. I will carefully look for the cause of
the breakdown, summon what I know about the workings of cars, and attempt to get the car going. The possibility of my solving the situation is doubtful. I will likely
attempt to solve it, give up, but then try again (alternating state). I will move around the car carefully, looking for the problem, while
thinking, “Gosh, I really don’t know much about cars.” I’ll return to the driver’s seat feeling defeated, then rouse myself to get out
of the car and take another look in case I missed something. This is a situation for which I can do nothing. I will find another
way (of getting home). I will make little or no attempt to examine the car,
because after all, only mechanics know how to fix cars. I will immediately reach for my cell phone to call a towing company.
This situation is harassing or persecuting. I feel unfortunate and am sure that such situations always happen to me. As I circle
the car I am more occupied with such thoughts as, “If I weren’t so poor I could afford a better car,” or “If my husband loved
me more he would see to it that things like this didn’t happen to me,” and so on, than Ioram with taking practical steps to get help
for me and my car. The situation just has to be solved, whatever it takes. I will apply superhuman effort to solve it, as if my life
depended on it. I will pop the hood, get tools from the trunk, and work determinedly, even doing things that I am not strong enough or
knowledgeable enough to undertake, regardless of such surrounding hazards as cars speeding by at close range or the pouring rain.
impossible to get a towing company to come all the way out here and fear that I will be forced to remain here, stranded and at the
mercy of criminals, wild animals, or bad weather. This type of situation is always totally hopeless and always makes me feel
angry and frustrated. I am certain that when a car breaks down this badly it is beyond
repair. The good feelings I had about this car are ruined, because it is now just another unreliable car. I will
feel like taking a hammer to the car, certain that I’ll just have to junk it. ANOTHER CLASSIFICATION—ANIMAL, MINERAL, OR PLANT.
Reaction pattern indicates nature and degree of the perceived situation. The panic type, crisis type, posswible type, persicuted
type, doubtfull type, fixed type; chaotic type, isolated type, impossible type.
Just as each of us is stuck in our view of the depth and desperation of the situation in front of us, we are also stuck in how we essentially see the situation, or the type of situation we
perceive. The type of situation we repeatedly perceive and thus create for ourselves can be a competition, a need for structure, the loss of
something within us, or a sensitivity reaction. For example, let us take a situation wherein a young woman is disappointed in love because her boyfriend has left her for another woman. This
situation can be viewed by three women in three entirely different ways. The woman who was left for another could view the situation
as one of competition in which she compares herself to the other woman and thinks, “In what way is she better than I?” The situation
could provoke a desire for revenge, feelings of jealousy, or the urge to one-up the other person. She could feel victimized.
Another woman in the same situation experiences the incident as a loss. She had viewed her boyfriend as a support that she
could trust and depend on, someone on whom she could lean; and suddenly she finds herself at a loss, empty and alone, and
wonders how she is going to support herself. Another woman could see the situation as a shock, something that just came out of the blue, completely unexpected. She is very
sensitive, hurt, and reacts to this shock with a kind of numbness. In the above examples you can see three different ways of experiencing
the same situation; namely, by viewing it as a competition, fearing that it brings a threat to or loss of structure, or having a sensitive
reaction. These disparate responses bring to mind the three kingdoms in nature—animal, mineral, and plant.
The animal way of viewing a situation is as competition, a struggle for survival.
The mineral way is to feel a need for, or fear losing part of, one’s structure.
And the plant way is to be sensitive and reactive to the external stimulus.
Thus we can have people who are animal type, mineral type, or plant type. Each one of us is stuck in a particular type, and we view
every life situation according to our type. Correspondingly, homeopathic remedies are mainly derived from animals, minerals, and
plants. A single remedy, dictated by the symptoms, is drawn from a particular animal, mineral, or plant. If the symptoms of
a patient indicate a particular remedy, the homeopath applies it, no matter the kingdom to which it belongs. However, research
indicates that people who need remedies from each of these kingdoms differ fundamentally in the way they perceive and
react to reality. Here are the main issues of the three kingdoms: To define it more sharply I examined the subdivisions within each kingdom,
plant sensitivity and reactivity.
Animal kingdom comparison, competition, struggle for survival.
Mineral kingdom The formation or loss of structure.
which opened up a whole new way of looking at homeopathy. For example, within the animal kingdom one could identify what is a
snake type, a spider type, or a bird type. Then I started looking at remedies not merely for a collection of symptoms but as
embodying the spirit of something in nature, and therefore a part of a system. I realized that the symptoms of a particular remedy that
are in the homeopathic materia medica are not just accidents or random effects but represent the source itself.
To cite an example: A cuttlefish (Sepia spp.) in its natural environment defends itself from a predator by secreting a dark inky fluid, then
hiding behind it to escape by swimming backward. When sepia (the remedy from the cuttlefish) was tested on a healthy person, he
had a dream in which he was escaping by running backward. The subject probably knew nothing of what he was taking, and yet
it seems as if the animal expressed itself through his dream.
The homeopathic materia medica is the human expression of the source.
The remedies from various sources heal humans who have similar states within them. These states, which we call disease, must also
be, like the remedies, from one of the three kingdoms. Exploring this led me to the next level of perception—which is sensation—in
which I saw that a human being’s deepest issue is a very specific state that is not even human! It is something nonhuman. What is
abnormal is to be human and yet have a part within that is a plant, animal, or mineral and be confined within that perception. It then
became my mission to identify ways of discovering the particular state that dominates each person. Consequently I
refined my case-taking to reach this level of sensation. For example, a particular patient is asked, in relation to some situation he faces,
“So how does that feel?” He replies, “It feels like a captive in a cell.” At that point I ask that one question—in this case, “What is the
experience of being a captive?”—that requires going deeper, one more step closer to the sensation. To many readers this question may
perhaps sound weird or ridiculous. You must think that it really does not require rocket science to figure out how a captive feels in a
cell, but it is amazing to hear how each experience is different from another. For example, for one it could be an experience of,
“I am stuck and I can’t move.” This is a sensation expressing sensitivity, so he would require a plant remedy. For another the
experience may be like being under some other powerful being, as in being victimized by someone. This is a victim-aggressor issue
that would require an animal remedy. And for yet others it could be a sense of incapacity: “I lack a sense of capability of getting out on my own.” What he is saying is
that he lacks the structure that is needed. This person would require a mineral remedy. I began to see how deeper examination of a delusion reveals an inner sensation that is not
human specific. Consequently, my case-taking proceeded in this way: Patients normally began with the “name” or diagnosis
of their problem. Then they furnished more details as “facts” of their symptoms, such as what seemed to aggravate or ameliorate their complaint, what kind of pain they
experienced locally, and so on. Then they described how their illness made them “feel.” They spoke of emotions such as anger,
irritation, and so on. At this point I focused the questions by asking, “How does that feel?” Each one described his own
“delusion,” and an experience in this delusion is the person’s “sensation.” And when describing this sensation the person’s
use of his hands indicated when he had arrived at the level of “energy.” As I focused
focused on the movement of hands in this
process, a different language emerged from within, the voice of something in nature; the whole other song (from a nonhuman
kingdom) unfolded itself beautifully. In this process of identifying a person’s other song, once the whole phenomenon is understood,
the important thing is to identify the source (remedy). The shift began for me in the case-taking process when people expressed this
inner other song. Sometimes we heard songs that we hadn’t heard before, so we
started prescribing more and more new
remedies. Healing happened at a deeper level than I had seen earlier. What is significant for patients, apart from just receiving a
remedy, is that as they express themselves during the interview process it brings them in touch with a core aspect of themselves.
Improved self-perception and self-awareness make them realize that their body, mind, physical symptoms, emotions, and dreams are
all connected at this deep core level. This awareness is not intellectual but experiential. Often they remark, “Oh yes! This is the same
experience I had in another situation.” A man of about forty years of age came to my colleague, Dr. Chatterjee, for treatment of
diabetes and weakness. He described his weakness as a lack of stamina, which he especially felt when he played his favorite
sport of badminton. On being asked to describe the game, he said it is a game that involves very high speed and stamina to stay
ahead of your opponent, and after you tire him out you need to make one final shot where he least expects it, and then the
opponent “is finished by this smash.” He demonstrated this by raising his right hand above his head and then bringing it down
with force and speed. On being asked about himself, he said he liked speed in general and liked to drive his motorcycle very fast,
wending his way very quickly through traffic so that he is ahead of all the rest. His favorite entertainment was to watch the animal
channel on television, and he was most fascinated by wild cats, especially the cheetah. He described the cheetah as an
animal of great speed and stamina, and one that brought down its prey by the final smash of its paw after a long chase. He
demonstrated the action of the cheetah by using exactly the same gesture of bringing down his palm very quickly and forcefully
that he had used to describe the game of badminton. At that point he realized the same pattern in these two instances. It was
intriguing to see how closely this patient’s energy pattern not only reflected the source in nature but also colored his way of being,
playing, and choice of recreation and how his disease (diabetes, weakness) is an expression of the opposite of this sensation.
Having this type of awareness before even taking the remedy helps people to experience a sense of freedom. It is almost as if sitting
across from them you can hear the click in their consciousness. This “aha” phenomenon of their observing and seeing all aspects of
their life as one, seeing the common thread through everything, is a potent healing agent. Some have said this was one of the deepest
experiences they had ever had. I concluded from this that our problems and conflicts, emotions and
complexes, dreams and delusions are all only expressions of a deeper inner state or turmoil existing at a level of sensory experience that
has non-human-specific qualities in it drawn from other sources. Every self-expression contains the words and gestures that indicate
the sensory experience behind it. If we identify and focus on that, then the other world, the other song, opens up and we see
something we know, the presence of which we had only sensed, now standing completely revealed..
It then becomes a delusion that rules an individual life. Whatever the situation it will always be viewed in a certain light and
reacted to from this false perception of reality. Each one of us has our own delusion that influences our life, the way we work,
and our interpersonal relationships. Emotional states, fear, hatred, and even joy are based very much on this delusion.
It also gets represented in our dreams, nightmares, and fantasies.
For example, a young man describes his state as being unhappy at his work place. This is his feeling. When we inquire further and ask
him to describe this unhappiness in depth, he describes his experience at work as being similar to that of being captured and tortured.
When asked to describe the words captured and tortured the images that come to his mind are those of enslaved Africans taken to
America, concentration camps during the Second World War, and the way conquerors of any era treat their captives.
These images of people who have been captured and tortured are from different eras and thus have been a part of human
experience (and therefore consciousness) throughout human history. Once we realize this we understand that this experience is not limited to the individual but is truly
universal. Although the individual describes a deep inner level that is personal and private, the turmoil he describes is common
to all and can be traced in all human
consciousness. So even while reaching a plane that is intensely personal and individual, we find that plane to be common
to all humanity. Delusion, therefore, is not limited by time and place. It repeatedly manifests itself in different eras through
different people in human history. It has existed in various forms since the beginning of human civilization. Expressions may vary,
but the same pattern is manifest. Our delusions cross the barriers of time, place, language, nationality, and culture.