TALK : 9

MIASMS – I Acute, Psora, Typhoid, Malaria

Hello and welcome back !

Today we are going to take up the subject of miasms. You have on the right of your
screen a presentation which you can click on the right and move it to the next
slide*
* Please refer to the Articles section for the Talk 9 - Power Point Presentation.
Introduction

The idea of the miasms started as a theory of Hahnemann on the nature and origin
of chronic diseases. Hahnemann found that diseases recurred or persisted in spite
of seemingly well selected medication, and proposed that an inherent taint exist in
a human being, which predisposes them to a particular set of symptoms and
diseases. He postulated that this taint, that he named ‘miasm’ or ‘polluting
exhalation’, originated from a particular type of infection. He identified the itch
(psora), sycosis (a venereal disease manifesting in figwarts) and syphilis as three
main distinct infections which left such a taint. This concept was primarily an
etiological one. However he also identified a distinct group of symptoms and
manifestations for each of the miasms. He classified remedies according to the
miasms, and postulated that the miasm be treated by a remedy that covers that
miasm.

Miasm - a way to classify disease and remedies

Initially I did not see the practical value of this theory. I felt that if a remedy
covered the totality of the symptoms it automatically addressed the miasm as well.

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I saw the concept of miasm more as a theory of the etiology of chronic diseases, a
theory which had no practical utility. However, when I came to the idea of disease
as a delusion then I could see that delusion itself could be classified into distinct
types based upon the intensity and the pace of the situation perceived. At this point
I saw three distinct types of situations possible: One where the situation is hopeful,
the second - where it is not solvable, and the third – where it is hopeless or
without a solution. At this point I saw that Hahnemann’s idea of miasms, if used in
a way of classifying states of being and remedies, could be of great practical value.
I began studying miasms more from a typological point of view rather than an
etiological one.

You can go to the next slide.

The search for a common pattern in anti-syphilitic remedies

Now we can look for a common pattern in the anti – syphilitic remedies. You can
go to the slide 2,3 and 4.

How can this be done? One way would be to see that the remedies we consider as
anti syphilitic have a common pattern. This is how I studied it. I thought if we
could find a common pattern in well known anti-syphilitic remedies then we could
conclude that this was the pattern of the syphilitic miasm and then we could
classify the patient states and the remedy states and this could become useful in
practice.

Hopeless despair leading to destructiveness: so if we simply look at these four

remedies, very well known anti syphilitic remedies like Aurum metallicum, Hepar
sulph, Alumina, Syphilinum and Mercurius.

We just look at these five remedies, and then we see that there is an underlying
pattern in them & what is that, there is a strong element of destructiveness in the

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physical manifestations.

We all know that these remedies like Mercurius, Syphilinum, Aurum metallicum ,
Hepar sulph, Alumina have also homicidal and suicidal features. From this we
could make a hypothesis that syphilitic remedies have a destructive attitude of the
mind.

If we take this a little bit deeper, then we can see that this destructive attitude is
accompanied by and probably is an expression of despair or a hopeless feeling.

So basically when you look at Syphilitic remedy, you find that there are two
things; there is a feeling of despair and hopelessness. A feeling that there is no way
out, a feeling that it is the end of the world, a feeling that the situation is too
hopeless to handle. And then you see a kind of coping mechanism to this
perception. And that coping mechanism is often destructive. So that's the pattern
that we observe in these 5 well known syphilitic remedies.

For example: we study Aurum metallicum we see it has : “Intense hopeless

depression and disgust of life…talks of commiting suicide.”

In Syphilinum we have;

Hopeless despair of recovery, antisocial, horrid depression.

I am reading this from Phatak's Materia medica which you could refer to, these
remedies like Aurum met, Hepar sulph , Mercurius are also known for destructive
pathologies like ulcerations, degenerations etc.

So, you can see that in the common pattern of the syphilitic remedies, there is a
feeling of despair, a perception of despair, a reaction of destructiveness, and
destructiveness in the pathology in the body.

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Miasm - not only an etiology of disease but a specific pattern of disease.

So we can say that a Miasm for example: a syphilitic miasm does not only describe
that etiology of disease but it is a specific pattern of disease, which encompasses
physical manifestations as well as in the mental attitude. This makes it clinically
very useful because now we have a type and we can restrict our search to the
syphilitic-miasm remedies in patients who show the pattern of that miasm to that
extent that our search becomes specific and easier.

The Search for a common pattern in sycotic remedies.

Now similarly when we examine sycotic remedies, for example we can take 5 well
known anti – sycotic remedies Thuja, Medorrhinum, Causticum, Pulsatilla and
silica.

You can just move your presentation till you come to the slide of the sycotic
remedies.

So what is the pattern that we can observe?

So this is how I did it initially, I just took these well known sycotic remedies and I
asked myself that what is the pattern that we observed? Is there a pattern?

Over reaction, anticipation and caution

And when we study, there is a pattern. There is a pattern of symptoms, there is a

pattern of anxiety and anticipation and there is a pattern of being cautious and
careful. This is what you see in these remedies. We also see that there is a tendency
in these remedies to warts.to growths, keloids, tumors etc. and in the mind we see
that there is a certain need to cover up things. There is a tendency towards
anticipation.

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We do not see in these remedies, the destructive aspect of syphilis but we see a
kind of fixity or caution. From this caution also comes a kind of overreaction
whether it is in the form of egotism or over cautiousness. An over-reaction is an
excessive reaction that comes from all the defences that you build up so that a
weak spot is not exposed. Generally you find that egotism is a cover-up for a
person’s lack of self-confidence, just like over-cautiousness is a cover-up for his
anticipatory anxiety, always thinking - this bad is going to happen, that terrible is
going to happen, this problem is going to occur and then you get very defensive
and over cautious. So this is the pattern that you observe in the remedies that are
commonly known as Anti sycotic remedies.

So now we have another pattern - a sycotic pattern and now we can understand the
sycotic miasm not just from the aetiology point of view that it arises from
suppression of fig warts or something like this but also from another point of view
which is that it is a pattern and it is a type of perception and response.

So in this way, we can understand the Miasm of Hahnemann Psora/ Sycotic/

Syphilitic from a typological point of view.

Now the question arises: are there only three miasms or patterns?

That is the question, I asked myself at that point.

Hahnemann has given us three miasms.

Roger Morrison, my respected colleague and dear friend has written a most
wonderful article on miasm and with his permission I have posted on the forum. In
this article you can see that Boenninghausen specifically states that Hahnemann
did not ever imply that there were no other miasms; only that they had not yet been
identified.

Presence of more patterns than just three

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By studying several thousand cases in my practice I observed that there were more
patterns than the ones, the three already mentioned.

Let us name one of those patterns.

This is a Tubercular pattern, we saw a sycotic pattern, a syphilitic pattern, have a

look at the Tubercular pattern.

Hectic pace – The Tubercular pattern

Homoeopaths in the past had recognized one more pattern, the tubercular pattern.
It represents in a way, the way the tuberculosis as an infection behaves.

The hallmarks are:

A hectic pace

Restlessness

The need for change

Emaciation, wasting

Rapid destruction

This kind of pattern is reflected in remedies that we know now as anti- tubercular
remedies like Tuberculinum, Phosphorus, Drosera and Calcarea phosphorica.

Chaos and control – The Cancer pattern

Lets take another pattern, this is the pattern of chaos and control. You can call it
the Cancer pattern. This is also increasingly recognized.

Remedies like Carcinosin, Argentum nitricum, Arsenicum.

When we observe these well known remedies, you see there is a pattern in them.
The pattern is the concern of control and the feeling of losing control.

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The tremendous need to keep things in control arises from a perception that there is
chaos and everything is in disorder which threatens to destroy.

This of course is very close to the idea of the disease cancer itself. It can be said
that the profession is more or less accepting these patterns - psora, sycosis,
syphilis, tubercular and cancer miasms.

Now let us examine another possibility of a Miasm which is a sub acute miasm or
we can call it the “Typhoid” miasm.

The Sub acute miasm- Typhoid

Hahnemann was also aware of what he described as acute miasm. What he called
as the “sub acute miasm” which actually corresponds to typhoid. We will talk
about this a little later on.

The discovery of a few more patterns

On studying further on many many cases, a few more patterns were clearly
distinguishable.

These were the patterns of malaria, typhoid, ringworm and leprosy. A detailed
account of how I researched into each of these and evolved the pattern for each of
them can be found in my books like The Substance of Homoeopathy and The
Sensation in Homoeopathy.

This idea of miasms as a pattern in my view is just a development of the ideas of

Hahnemann. My colleagues and I have found this very valuable in practice. These
ten patterns of the ten miasms is a useful map in which we can trace where the
patient is and find a remedy of the corresponding miasm or pattern.

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Hahnemann’s idea of Miasm, and Mine

Actually Hahnemann’s idea of miasm which is etiological and my idea of miasm

which is clinical are actually looking at the same thing from two different angles. I
believe that they are the same.

I have posted on the forum an article by a colleague Dr. Manish Bhatia, the editor
of H-PATHY who compares these two views of miasms and says more or less that
they are one and the same.

Now we will look further in the explanation of these miasms.

The Ten Miasms

You can just go on with the presentation to the slide that shows you the names of
the 10 miasms, which are:

Acute

Typhoid

Psora

Ringworm

Malaria

Sycosis

Cancer

Tubercular

Leprous

Syphilitic

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Now we will deal individually with each of these miasms.

ACUTE: [PANIC TYPE]

The first one is Acute Miasm or we can call it the “Panic type”. In the book, ' The
other song' I have explained in the miasm without using the terms Sycotic miasm,
Syphilitic Miasm. I call them the fixed type or the destructive type or the panic
type and if you are more comfortable not using the Hahnemann terminology, you
may use as I have used in the other song. It doesn't make any difference
whatsoever...

The Acute or the Panic type:

So what is it. This is very interesting. The situation here.

The situation here is perceived as sudden and acute, and there is a desire to flee
from the situation because one’s life depends on escape.

The word Escape is very confusing because escape occurs in many many situations
which are not acute. I mean you can be in a prison and you want to escape. It's not
an acute Miasm at all. So what is the .. what you mean by escape here. This is
what we have to understand clearly. The escape here is to somehow get out of that
situation, in that very moment. So the main theme of the Acute miasm, I mean if I
have to give an example: It's like you are standing somewhere and huge rock you
see that its just coming from somewhere and it's going to fall and crush.

The perception of that situation is that something is going to happen suddenly

unexpectedly and it poses an immediate threat to your very existence and your
reaction to that is that you have to react to that suddenly, instinctively, reflex. You

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cannot think .. ah ... the rock is .. now coming, what should i do? What is the speed
of this rock? What is the weight of my head? And you don't have anytime to think
of this. You have to get out of there. You have to get out of the situation. That is
what I mean by escape. Escape doesn't mean that you are caught somewhere and
you have to come out of something ... no ... so to .. here in an acute situation.

Escape refers to an instinctive, reflexive action to get over that threat and once you
are completely free again. There is no botheration at all. That is that's the idea over
here or you could be finished by this, you could be finished. So it's like .. this is the
situation here. So what are the keywords, very interesting. just watch it. To
describe the acute miasm, in the Acute miasm the pace is of something sudden that
comes and goes ... whenever it comes you get into a panic into a kind of existence
everything is sudden and it leaves no trace. I repeated this whole sentence again
because I wanted you to observe one thing. I want you to observe that there is
something in this whole description of the acute miasm. Can you tell me what it is.

I will tell you. What is missing is the sensation. What is missing is the experience.
You don't know what is sudden, you don't know what you are exploring suddenly.
Is it stabbing, it is shocking, isn't animal chasing you, you don't know. The only
thing the Acute miasm describes is the pace, is the suddenness, is the intensity is
the type of reaction you show to the sudden / intensity and suddenness. That's
it.(25.51) It describes you the pace, the intensity and the desperation of a given
experience but it does not describe the experience itself of the acute miasm. You
can go for the presentation.

A sudden instinctive action, almost a reflex action. For example, if you are
standing next to a mountain and you see a big rock falling, you have to step aside.

Keywords; acute, sudden, violent, panic, danger, reflex, terror, fright, alarm,

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helpless, instinctive, escape.

So it's just like something that comes suddenly threatens you and you have to
reflex and then it's gone finished or you are finished, one of the two. I am just
talking to you right now and you are listening to me. And then you bhoopppp.. so
when I do that.. the reaction you have this is an acute miasm. Just to give you an
example of it. No harm intended in it. So let's look at the acute remedies, some of
the examples of it:

Aconite/ Belladonna/ Strammonium / Lyssin / Hydrogen and these are some of the
examples just some remedies to give you an idea what the acute miasm is.

In the Acute Miasm the pace is:

Sudden pace: comes and goes

In the acute miasm the pace is of something sudden that comes and goes. When it
comes you get into a kind of panic or a kind of excitement. Everything is sudden
and short lasting, it comes and goes quickly and after it goes it almost leaves no
trace. You are back to your original self.

Now I want to divert a little bit. Given that pace, that intensity and that desperation
it show you ... What is the type of coping mechanism or the type of action that it
will bring forth from you ... instinctive / reflex / sudden. But what action, it is not
telling you. Only the type of experience and the type of action but not what the
experience is. Are you with me? That is a miasm.

A miasm is a description of the intensity/ the pace and the degree of desperation
that is experienced. It is not the experience itself. The experience is the Sensation.

Once you get this the whole idea, the concept of Miasm gets very very simple.

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Because each miasm describes not the experience but each experience describes
the pace, a different intensity, a different degree of desperation and several
remedies can be in one miasm. Each one describing a different experience but of
the same pace, the same intensity, the same degree of desperation as the Miasm is.
That's all it is Do you get me. OK.

Features of the acute miasm often resemble childhood

This kind of pace is observed normally in children. Since children don’t have long
lasting feelings, everything is short and sudden, comes and goes quickly; whether
it is joy, sorrow, fear or excitement. They get excited soon and it passes off quickly
and then it is as if nothing happened. Or they could cry loudly, suddenly and then
they are completely alright. Therefore in people who require remedies from the
acute miasm you do find a kind of childish or naïve quality.

Let me give you some examples of the acute miasm.

Examples of the Acute Miasm

I remember the case of a woman. This lady, if she would have any fear or panic,
she would come running to me. For example she would imagine herself acquiring a
heart disease or cancer. She would say, ‘Doctor, I am scared. Will something
happen to me? And if I just assured her, “No, nothing will happen to you,
everything is fine,” she would be completely calm and go home completely
assured.

So there is that total trust and naivety in her and she seems to be in very
good spirits otherwise, except when she gets a little panicky sometimes. I
prescribed Stramonium for her with which she has one very well over the last
several years.

So this is the quality of such patients, there is a little bit of childishness in nature.

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There is also a delightful quality in them as if they are in the moment. They are not
focused on too distance past or on future. They are not making too many attempts
or attempting to put things in order into chaos or something like that. It’s as if they
live moment to moment, things seem to excite them and it passes away. So there
would be sudden laughter, joy and excitement. For a moment the laughter could be
very very intense and then it’s completely gone.

I remember a case of a man with vitiligo. Vitiligo is white spots on the skin,
leucoderma, we call it. He was my patient for the last several years. The interesting
part in this case was that I will just show you. He would just be sitting in the clinic
in front of me with his eyes closed and say nothing. And then all of a sudden he
would say something which would be so abrupt that he would say something and is
as if it would come from nowhere and disappear nowhere

For example: He would say “I had skin problem Doctor, note it'. And then there
would be nothing. It was very very funny to observe this. He could suddenly laugh
or suddenly get excited or be suddenly get very anger with something. And would
say ' and all those people, they should all be shut and then he used to be back again
as if nothing affected him. No deep anger / vengeance. Nothing was long listening.
Everything would come up suddenly and would disappear suddenly. Just based on
this observation and many rubrics of his case, we prescribe him on his kind of
state, we gave him Aconite and he did remarkably well and his vitiligo
disappeared.

To be honest, even with training in Classical Homoeopathy. I would be the last

person of giving him Aconite in such a case of Vitiligo. So what is interesting here
is to see that what we are describing and what we are prescribing is not the nature
of the pathology but the nature of the state.

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So when we talk of the Acute miasm. We are not talking of whether we are treating
an acute pathology or the chronic pathology. What we are asking is - What is the
pace, the intensity and the desperation of the state the person is in and if we keep
our focus on the state of the person then we treat the person with the remedy that
person needs in that state of sensation and miasm. The pathology whatever it is, is
likely to go away. This is what Homoeopathy is all about. As I understand it.

So at this point, I would like to ask my colleague here, Dr Meghana Shah to

describe you a case that we saw in the clinic. A case that she took of a 8 yr old boy,
in August 2009. So Meghna can you describe to our valued colleagues this case
and then we will continue the discussion from there.

Hello, everyone this is a bit of a surprise for you. I'll just briefly summarize this
case of an 8 boy whom I saw last year. He was accompanied by his parents and his
chief complaint.

86] An example of a case of the Acute Miasm: Belladonna

An eight year old boy, first seen on 19 August 2009.

Complaint: Recurrent sinus infection, along with severe headaches. He is using

steroid nasal sprays and taking anti-allergens.and frequently given antibiotics.

History from the parents:

So I spoke with his parents to just tell me about the child and they said that
normally he is a very obedient child, very very serious,very driven, as such no
complaints from school or friends or people around.

He has many fears. He is scared of the dark, of being alone. In a mall, if parents
are out of sight, even for a few moments, he will just scream’ Papa Papa where are

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you?’ He just gets into a panic mode.

The patient himself spoke about his complaints:

D: Describe what is troubling you the most?

P: “I have severe headaches; my head hurts a lot in one spot.

He was unable to elaborate further on the headache.

D: What are your interests and hobbies?

P: I like swimming. It is fun. I like to be in the water for an hour and do different
strokes, diving and jumping. I feel like I am a fish.

D: Tell more about this.

P: I am swimming in water but time to time I need to come up on the surface to

breath.

D. I asked him tell me more…

P : fishes have a very tough life. they have to strive to survive.

D: Tell more about how tough fishes have to strive to survive.

There are sharks and all there in water…

D: Tell more.

P: it would be so scary that the shark can come and kill you and eat you.

I would be very scared!!! I would be in a hurry, or else somebody will eat me. If a
shark is behind me, I will swim faster and faster; I would be in a big hurry (said
with a lot of emphasis).

I cannot waste my time. I have to escape from the shark. I have to think, “How will
I escape?”

D: Tell a bit more about ‘I have to escape and how will I escape’.

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P: I start shivering. I just don’t waste any time, go and run.

He spoke about the same thing when probed further.

D: Any other fears?

P: I am afraid of ants, lizards, snakes, lions, tigers, rhinos, hippos, cockroaches,

eagles, vultures, horses…a horse runs too fast. If I go close to it, it will kick me
very badly. Ants have needles. They climb on us and bite us. The needles are big,
thin and strong. They suck blood like a straw. I don’t want to kill them, but I am
very scared of them.

Then he asked about swine flu which was quite prevalent then. He said,
“Can I die from swine flu?”

D: Tell me about your dreams.

P: I get very bad dreams—fear! ….a boy wants to kill someone. He finds twenty
ways and makes a bullet…he hits someone and then the police comes. They find
the thief.

When given the doodle exercise, he drew three human figures and a television.

P: They are watching television.

D: tell me about this?

P: We should save electricity, or else there will be no fuel.

D: Tell more about saving electricity and no fuel.

P: Then there will be no lights; we will not be able to see anyone. It will be very
dark. I will feel very scared. Life is very tough in a dark place. You cannot see
anything and it is very tough to reach anywhere. Thieves can take advantage
because you can’t see them…they are in black disguise. They are trained for dark
places, for nights. They wear a black dress and merge in the dark.

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Mother’s history during pregnancy:

He was conceived with in-vitro fertilization and I was on progesterone. During the
pregnancy I had a highly increased desire for sex. The pregnancy wasn’t
comfortable for me, and there was a lot of vomiting. Just after delivery I dreamt
that I slept on the baby while feeding, and he couldn’t breathe. I woke up very
scared; woke with a start and felt a sudden tension. I was not able to feed him as
there wasn’t sufficient milk. I had sore nipples, which were very tender and
sensitive to the slightest touch.

My colleague, Dr. Meghna Shah, took this case and suggested the remedy.

Analysis of the Case

The main thing about the chief complaint is that the headache is intense and severe
and “increases very fast”. And what we see very prominently in the case are the
fears.

Fears of a large variety of animals, both big and small

Fear of the dark

Fear of being pursued

Themes of violence, killing, robbers, sudden death

There is predominantly sensitivity, which indicates the Plant Kingdom. Here the
sensitivity is to sudden violence, being pursued, and death.

Rubrics:

Escape, desire to

Head pain <noise

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 Delusion: devoured, being (Stram)

Delusion: pursued

Kill, desire to

Fear, dark of

All these point to the Solanaceae family. The sense of having to escape
immediately a sudden threat is an expression of the Acute miasm. The remedy is
Belladonna, which is also confirmed by the mother’s history during and shortly
after pregnancy:

Sexual desire increased during pregnancy

Lactation absent/poor

Mastitis, delivery, parturition, during or after

Rx: Belladona 1M one dose.

It was repeated seven times till June 2010.

Follow-up summary:

In the following month itself he started to feel better. His headaches improved
significantly. Sinus infection has almost stopped occurring. He still gets tensed
over minor issues, for example if a new driver is posted in his school bus he starts
worrying if he will be pick him up from his stop. But his insecurities of being left
alone have reduced. Earlier when taken to a mall he would always keep an eye on
his parents, and in case he was separated from them would immediately start
screaming “Papa, papa.” But he stopped doing that. After starting on Belladona he
began sleep walking which lasted for about two months and then stopped.

At a recent follow-up he still talked about movies like ‘Ghajini’, ‘Wanted’

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where there is violence, killing; the police take guns, hitting and killing with a
knife. When asked about his fears he replied, “I never had any!”

So meghna just described you a case that she has taken and suggested the remedy.
And she described you a case from the rubrics point of view which led her to the
remedy belladonna. Now we can look at the same case from the point of view of
miasm and the kingdom. what is straight away observed is the fears of the child
like dark alone,killed,pursued etc. the intensity of this fear and the reaction of the
fright and the flight response; this points to the family solanaceae. And the whole
idea of solanaceae remedies like stram, bell, hyos and others is the idea of a fright
and flight response. Of being chased and pursed,of danger. This is solanaceae.
Now having come to that, what is the miasm in the case? How does he perceive, to
what depth, to what pace, to what intensity and to what suddenness does he
perceive this sensation of fright and flight. Here you see some 3-4 very intresting
things.

His headaches are very intense, but they come suddenly and they go suddenly.

Also the way reacts, suppose he sees an ant,he will jump and shout as if there is a
great danger. So his reaction is very acute,intense, sudden and also going suddenly.
He feels like a fish who is swimming and he suddenly sees a shark behind him “
ohh my god!!! What should I do!!! Get out of here, escape!!!!!!” its an instinctive
reaction. So you see here that she experiences the sensation of solanaceae that is
pursued,danger, escape in a very sudden, acute, instinctive pace. And that’s how
we come to belladonna from the kingdom and through the miasms. What is
intresting is that many people confuse the solanaceae family sensation itself with
the acute miasm.they believe they are both very close. The solanaceae also feels

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the danger and escape and the acute miasm is also danger and escape. This is not
so at all. Solanaceea is an experience, a sensation. And the acute miasm is a
pace.you can experience the same solanceae sensation in many manydifferent
miasm. For eg.in tabaccum, you experience the solanacea sensation in the cancer
miasm.so you feel the same panic, the same persued, the same escape but you need
to feel that you cannot react instinctively. That you need to control it. You need to
be in control in the time of danger, in the time of being pursued, in the time of
threat. For eg if you see the remedy capsicum which is also from the family
solanaceae family, you experience this sensation of pursued,danger, of theat not in
an acute way that comes and goes and finish. But it keep coming in an intermittent
way that it is coming again and again and harassing you. And then you see that
you feel harassed by threat, you feel harassed by pursued. And there you have a
remedy capsicum. And we have seen such beautiful cases of all these remedies of
different miasms of the solanaceae family. So at some point we have to
differentiate what is sensation and what is the miasm. And the difference is this;
sensation is what you experience and the miasm is purely the pace, and the
intensity and the degree of desperation to which you experience any given
sensation. Now lets take another miasm which is psora.

PSORA: [ POSSIBLE TYPE]

In Psora,the situation is perceived as that it can be worrying for him but never
hopeless. The feeling here is that if you make a struggle, if you make an effort,
then you can have the confidence to overcome the problems or the difficulties and
come out with hope and positivity. That is the feeling of psora. So we would call it

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the possible types, anything is possible, solvable.

Keywords: struggle, effort, confidence, difficult, hope, anxiety till you get there

Main remedies : lycopodium, sulphur,calc carb,cuprum met.etc.

Struggle, effort, hope

The problem is solvable and with effort he has the capability to resolve it. The
situation is not life threatening, not desperate and also it is not beyond his capacity
to solve it.

Sulphur is an example of a psoric remedy in the Third Row

Sulphur is one of the main examples of psora. Coming from the right side of the
third row of the periodic table, sulphur makes an effort to establish his identity, and
he is quite hopeful of doing it. He does it by thinking differently from others, by
dressing differently from others, by developing some skills to create something
which will be different from others, thereby making him a different individual.

Here you see the hopefulness and optimism of a teenager who wears torn
ripped denim with his hair disheveled, and has his own ideas about religion,
philosophy and God which is usually contrary to his parents. He knows that the
music he listens to is much better than the others.

The rubric, “Delusion: rags are riches” is very evocative of this idea.

Many remedies in the Fourth Row are psoric.

I found that many remedies of the 4th row especially towards the middle of the 4th
row are psoric. For example; Cuprum, Ferrum and Niccolum. These are substances

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that are found in the human system. They are minerals needed by us and they serve
certain functions in the healthy human body.

The 4th row has to do with task, defence and security etc. Being in the
middle of the row, the perception of these remedies is that they are reasonably
successful or that it is well within their capacity to provide themselves a task, a job
and security. They have a feeling of self sufficiency in their career and that the task
is within their reach or capability.

I have spoken to you of the proving of Niccolum in the 3rd talk. I had
mentioned a dream where the police officer gave me the ropes to arrest an errant
cab driver and I felt in this dream that I had the capability and the self sufficiency
to fulfil this task.this is a very psoric feeling.

The Fifth and Sixth rows are not psoric.

In the 5th and the 6th row are not psoric. Here the problem is not perceived to be an
everyday simple problem but one that needs much greater capability to deal with.
In the 5th row that capacity is to solve a new problem and in the 6 th row it is to take
up high responsibility. Since they need greater capacity, remedies of 5 th and 6th row
no longer fall in psoric miasm even if they be in the centre of that row.

Not too many remedies belong to the psoric miasm.

I sometimes do wonder at the fact that there are not too many remedies that I could
list under the psoric miasm. I found that many remedies previously considered
being psoric actually fell in ringworm, typhoid or malarial miasms, which are
around psora. I would like to give you an example of a case for the psoric miasm.

MIASM - Part 1 Talk 9 22

D: Doctor, P: Patient, L: Lecturer- Dr. Rajan Sankaran

87] An example of a case of the Psoric Miasm

A man aged fifty-two years

Occupation: Contractor of pipes

Chief Complaint: Pain in the cervical region of the back for the past one-and-a-
half months with tingling on the left side of the face for the last ten days.

D: Please tell us more about this.

P: I feel uneasy about this problem. I feel anxiety that I might get paralysis. The
tingling started on the ear and then on the face. It is like a vibration, as if a
machine is on. I don’t want to do an MRI. This is such a small illness. Why
should I be put into a huge machine? You give me a medicine Doctor and I will
get alright. There is also a heavy feeling on the face and shoulder, as if someone
is pressing on my shoulder.

D: Please tell us about your nature.

P: I like playing sports, reading, helping others. I like to be happy. I have a good
relationship with my employees. I feel happy when I am able to make someone
happy. I don’t like robbery, bad behaviour and lies.

D: What sports do you play?

P: In college we used do athletics like the shot putt, and throwing the hammer,
discus or javelin. We used to play team games like volleyball. I like that it is a
team game. I love the smashing part of the game. Being the ‘smasher’ is a

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 prestigious position in the team. When the ball comes over to your side, your
partner bumps it up and you jump high and smash the ball into the next court. My
defence is weak. No one can be good at smashing as well as defense. A smasher
should be able to have a good jump, with speed, accuracy and courage.

I get angry when the referee takes a wrong decision. I feel very happy when
I win a game. But I control it or else people will think I am being proud. So I just
show my hand. The opponent lowers his head in embarrassment. When I lose,
then I feel ashamed of myself.

Every player is important in a team game. Each one has his own skill.
Everyone has to get along together, only then you will be able to play a team
game and win.

I like the discus throw too. It is a game of skill. You have to throw it with a
jerk, with your whole power. You have to judge the range and correct timing.
Then you give it your power and you should not foul a rule. It is the same with
short putt and hammer throw.

D: What is common among these three games?

P: Power and the mental attitude. Both must be there. I watch someone else doing
it. Then I understand how it is done and once I feel I can win over this person, it
happens. Once I have the confidence to do it, I will do. Once I imagine that I
win, I do.

L: So what is interesting here, as the patient narrates his story, the interesting thing
is to see two things:

What is his experience and what is the miasm? And you see his experience falls
along the line of his ability/ his power / his smashing / his attack - his defence.

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 His sticking to the rules. He is being a part of the team. So the whole story there
is a story of Structure, is a story of ability. It's a story of how much capacity he
has, how much power and strength he has and not much of comparison as to his
strength versus somebody's strength, his victory versus somebody's defeat etc
etc.

So here we see that this man we ask him: what is common among these games.
He likes to play, he talks about his own ability, power, and mental attitude. He
talks of confidence, his ability of smashing, his defence etc etc.

How to judge, this ability to judge the range and timing.; his ability to give
power into his smash. So when we look at the case to see what is the
experience, his experience is in the dimension of this own ability. And that's
what puts us into the Mineral kingdom.

P : In the entrance examination for police training they have the long jump, the
high jump, the short putt and the mile race. One person cannot be good at all,
because in one of them you need to be heavily built, and for the others you need
to be athletic. But I was able to do all four. It is a very rare thing to be able to do
all four.

L: So he is always looking at his own ability ‘ Can I , Can I not’ “ is it possible

not possible’ and you see there on one side we have the dimension of ability,
his power, his defence, his smashing, his part of the team, his obeying the rules
etc. which is all the 4th row of the periodic table. On the other side, you see he is
positive, he is capable, he is hopeful and doesn’t see the problem as something
that is unsolvable. It can be done and you see all that time his confidence and

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 positively in one hand and his ability and his structure on the other. And they
are always interlinked together. so he is confident about his ability. He is
hopeful about his power etc and so you see here the combination of the
kingdom and the miasm. The kingdom is the mineral kingdom and the 4th row
and the miasm is the psoric miasm, the confidence, the hopeful and the positive
person.

P : I was very good at studies as well. In high school, my best subjects were
science and agriculture. I didn’t have time for the experiments, however. I
decided to do a degree in commerce after that. Someone challenged me, saying
I would not be able to do it. I accepted the challenge. I like a challenge, and
when I do it, I can show them that I am better than others. I have a lot of
confidence in my ability.

L: So here when he talks of ‘ I am better than others’, you will say this is like an
animal kingdom. But actually his emphasis is always on ‘ Can I do it, can I not do
it’. ‘Do I have the confidence, do I have the ability’, ‘ Can I accept the challenge.
Is it within me’. So this is the question.

So I ask him. ….

D: Can you say more about ‘power’?

P: Power is both physical and mental. Physical power is like - don’t think you are
ill and you will never be ill. And mentally...I feel I have to help someone in
need in any way I can. And there is also spiritual power. Since I have money, I
must donate and give in charity.

L: So power in his idea is physical strength and stamina. Power in his idea is his
ability is to help someone and help someone also financially. So financial
power, financial ability, physical power and ability and to help other people not

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 only to be independent but also to do things for others. So this is the whole
theme of what he has.

D: Can you tell us about any stressful situation in your life?

P: We had a business in the village. In 1977 our business was closed down. The
money was divided among the heirs and my uncle’s son took away the money.
We were financially low. I left my studies and came to Mumbai. I got a job and
saved three-fourths of my salary till I had enough to start a business. I spend
days in hunger then. Now everything is fine. I don’t have any problem. But
when there is no work or payments don’t come through I become anxious
thinking, “I hope that stage doesn’t come again.” I wonder if my client will pay
me or not. This thought comes momentarily. Also I sometimes feel anxious,
thinking, “What if my children ask me for anything and I am not able to give
them?” suppose they ask me give me this thing and I am not able to give them, I
would feel very bad about it. One supplier was going to send me some goods
but then he sent them to someone else. Some people don’t have a standard of
respect! Now it is a challenge. I will buy better quality, cheaper material and
establish my business here. I will get better from this. The defeat only makes
me stronger. I will have the strength,stamina, endurance. I will go the same
route and win over him. I must also overcome my own weaknesses.

Many friends of mine have cheated me. It was my fault. I trust everyone
easily and become a fool. Once there was an income tax raid in my house (by
income tax inspectors). I felt very tense for a few hours. Then I relaxed and told
them, “Take away everything. I have become stronger. Even if I lose everything
and go down to zero I will start again. I have confidence in myself and self-respect.

MIASM - Part 1 Talk 9 27

I believe in working hard, not in destiny”.

L: So the idea is, I will make an effort, I will succeed, it is all hopeful. This is the
whole idea of the psoric miasm and the dimension in which he has, the experience
which he has it is his own ability, his strength, his endurance, his power, his
physical and mental stamina. This is the 4th row of the periodic table.

D: What dreams do you get?

P: I am standing somewhere and an elephant is coming to kill me. I try to run but I
am not able to run. I go and hide. Then I am running. Then I am flying high up
in the air, with wings on my back. It is not able to touch me.

L: So even here you see the success in the end of the dream.

D: What is the experience in this dream?

P: That I was about to be caught but I escaped. Sometimes a ghost is following me

and then I start flying and I sit on a tree. Sometimes I am not able to fly very
high. I get scared. I reach a certain height and then I fall down. I go and sit on
the walls of a house. In this dream too I feel happy that I was about to be caught
by the ghost but I escaped it. I was saved.

In another dream a train has come and I am running in front of it. Then I
hold a handle on the train and it starts to speed up at a very fast speed. I feel I
will miss the train and I know that I am dreaming. I feel hopeless in this dream.

In another dream I am about to give an examination. I have not studied

anything for it. I am very scared. I become quiet and feel very hopeless.

L: So the fear of failure is also a strong feeling in the psora miasm. The anxiety
and the feeling that I could fail is also there but ultimately the feeling is ‘yes I
will overcome. I will come out, I will be successful and be hopeful’.

MIASM - Part 1 Talk 9 28

Analysis of the Case

So when we look at the miasm in this case, we can see is an underlying optimism
and positivity. He considers his chief complaint a small one that will get easily
better with medicine. He is hopeful about his health and recovery, his work and the
challenges there. He is hopeful of facing any test of power or deep endurance. In
the dreams you can see anxiety about not being able to be successful in his effort,
but there also you find that he has some solution for it and is ultimately successful.
So this is the psoric miasm.

But where is the hopefulness manifested? We can see it in the mineral

kingdom. It is seen in his capability to meet challenges, endurance, to do his job.
Such capability is a mineral theme and falls in the Fourth row.

There are many themes of the Fourth Row we can see here. Firstly, he has the fear
of paralysis. Means the fear of losing his capability. The dream of having to go for
an exam when he had not prepared for it is an expression of a sense that, “I do not
have the capability to do what I am doing.”

There is significant energy in his special interest in games especially of

strength and power. It is about ability, speed, strength, precision and endurance.
These are the qualities of the Fourth Row. We also see money of financially going
down, financially helping others, of security, his financial security which is also of
the 4th Row.

So here you see challenge and many themes of ferrum,

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Proving yourself in the face of a challenge is the core theme of Ferrum.

Against all odds

No doubt about my own capability

The need to prove myself

Often Ferrum patients use the gesture of a fist pushing forward as they talk about
their will power such a strong will. ‘I believe I am not ill so I will not fall ill, such
a strong will’, This determination to plough on, to fight on, to resist oncoming
pressure or challenge and to move forward in spite of it.

General Confirmatory symptoms of Ferrum

Positiveness

Weakness, though looking strong

Face: flushes from pain or exertion

So I gave him,

Rx: Ferrum met 200

The pain immediately reduced. Within a month the pain reduced by 60% of its
original intensity. It continued improving over the subsequent months. The remedy
was repeated only nine months later, when there was a mild recurrence of the pain.
He responded with prompt and significant amelioration. Almost a year later he
came back with the complaints of an acute respiratory tract infection, which
cleared up immediately with a repeat of the remedy. He continues to be better,
more than two years later.

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We will take now one more miasm, typhoid miasm.

TYPHOID: [ CRISIS TYPE]

The situation in Typhoid miasm is perceived as suddenly critical, but if one made
an intense immediate short term effort then you could regain your good position.
There is a sense of impatience which urges one to demand for relief. With the
feeling you need to do yourself. It’s not instinctive like in the acute miasm. But
you need to make a very very strong, intense, short term effort to overcome that
crisis, emergency period.

Keywords: Crisis, emergency, sinking, collapse, intense short effort, critical

period, reaching a position of comfort, homesickness.

Main remedies of the Typhoid miasm:

Let us look at some of the main remedies of typhoid miasm – Nux vomica, Rhus
tox, Bryonia ,phosphoric acid and Carbo vegetabilis, and also Sulphuric acid,
Chamomilla. Let us try to understand what is the pace and depth in the states of
these remedies of the typhoid miasm.

Lets take rhus tox ..

Rhus toxicodendron

Rhus tox is a remedy for sprains and strains, when you lift something heavy or you
reach far and you suddenly get a catch and you are immobilized.

So you see the pace here; it occurs suddenly just like an acute miasm but
here when you realize, you don’t react instinctively or in a reflex action but you try
all your efforts to release yourself from that catch by doing some intense activity.

For example you get a cramp in the foot when you are sitting or lying. You get up
and try to relieve yourself and get out of that cramp. or apply hot application and

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but you can’t rest, it’s so intense. Once you are back to normalcy; there is no
residue, you are free again.

So what you see here in rhus tox is two things:

One Is sensation caught, stiff, cannot move but you also see that the pace of that
experience is also that it has come suddenly and intensely and you need to make
very intense short term efforts to get released again.

So you see on the one hand the sensation of Rhus tox and on the other hand, the
pace of Rhus tox. That pace describes the miasm, which is Typhoid miasm. So
what I am also trying to tell you is how you aare able to see the sensation in
miasm, in the same instant that they are not two separate things. The sensation
describes the experience and the miasm describes the pace of the experience. It’s
always together and you can see it together. You can try it to see two different
things but they are not two different things. They are the same things.

Take for example: the remedy Bryonia.

Bryonia alba

One of the ‘ailments from’ is sudden financial loss. In such a situation you need to
act in a very intense manner to recover from that loss; during that critical period,
all you can think of are what are the ways in which you can recover that money
quickly and come back to a position of comfort.

So you have the rubrics like:

Delirium: talks of business

Talks of nothing but business

Desire to go home

Rest, desire for

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So the idea of the typhoid miasm is the desire to come back to a position of rest or
comfort. But that is only possible through intense efforts which are needed to be
able to recover from critical situations.

I remember a case of a business man who had a medical qualification. He came for
treatment of intense attacks of angio-neuritic oedema and allergic reactions which
which actually threaten to choke him to death, for which each time he got the
attack, he would need hospitalization as an emergency measure so that he could
breathe properly. That was the kind of critical situations and he had to go through
that bad patch and then he would come out of it and again this intense critical
period would happen.

What is interesting about him? I asked him why, after qualifying as a doctor,
he was doing business, why not do medical practice. He said he felt the need to
make a lot of money very quickly and he felt that he would make money with
business in a short period of time. All the time, he thought of, talked of and did
nothing but business.

It is a very very interesting story for me. It’s an anecdote which I would like to
share. I asked him why do you want to make so much money. He said because
money is the most important thing in the world. People respect you only for the
money and I said I tried to challenge him and said listen, ‘suppose on street, there
was mother Theresa walking and the next street the most top industrialist man was
walking. In which street would you see the people and who would be more
respected?’

So I mean I had thought I had got him there and he said Mother Theresa. I said

MIASM - Part 1 Talk 9 33

right, why? And he said because she has the money and that really blew me
because he explained to me that if Mother Theresa didn’t have all the money and
all the institutions, nobody would have bothered to go and see her. And I had to
really admit defeat.

This man he went to Agra and came back from a trip to Agra, is where the most
famous monument in India, perhaps the wonder of the world is situated. The Taj
mahal. And he went there and came back and I said ‘how was the Taj Mahal and
he said ‘I didn’t go to see it?’ ‘I only went to do business’. I said ‘Why didn’t you
see the Taj Mahal?’ He said ‘It was not for sale. So I was really not interested in it.
So I have only to do my business.’ So he was acting as if he had to put very very
intense effort and he could think of nothing but to make that kind of money and
then only he would be comfortable. And I gave him Bryonia. And after Bryonia
not only his angio-neurotic oedema was gone but also his complete obsession with
business, diluted significantly and for the first time, he could go for a movie or
play a card game with his wife and with his child, both of whom he had not spoken
or even not socialized for several months or may be years.

So that’s the kind of pace of the Typhoid miasm very intense/ hectic activity but
the feeling is this is all in order to recover the position of crisis in which position I
find myself and once I recover, I can find my rest and relaxation and that’s why
Bryonia has the desire to go home and the desire for rest. Along with the delirium
of business, and the talks and themes of business. These two things are very
intense in Typhoid miasm.

If you look at …..

Chamomilla

Chamomilla; has the same rapid pace. He is demanding. When there is pain he

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wants relief from it immediately. Obviously, impatience is the characteristic of this
miasm.

But the impatience of chamomilla is not a continued impatience as can be

seen in the tubercular miasm. In tubercular miasm, you see intense hectic activity
but it is continuous, non stop. In Chamomilla the impatience is satisfied. Once the
demand is fulfilled and then he can be restful again, whereas in the tubercular
miasm there is a constant and intense restlessness that finds no comfort ever. And
therefore the tubercular person wants change all the time and is always restless and
active.

Rubrics of Chamomilla:

Carried, desire to be

Carrying immediately satisfies

There is also like in acute miasm certain childishness and impatience like a child,
demanding and demanding but once you give it its satisfied. And that kind of a
childishness is also found in the Typhoid miasm.

Take another example of:

Sulphuric acid

Sulphuric acid has got great hurry, excessive impatience, and the feeling that he
needs to make an intense and quick effort to do his job and to fulfil his task and
once the task is done he can find rest. It is usually better after work, i.e., in
afternoon or evening and the maximum hurry is found in the morning seen as the
crisis period.

The acids in general have this alternation of intense activity followed by weakness
or dullness. Therefore many of the acids like Phosphoric acid, Sulphuric acid,

MIASM - Part 1 Talk 9 35

Muriatic acid are good remedies for the disease “typhoid”, and also fall in the
typhoid miasm.

Difference between the acute and typhoid miasm:

In the acute miasm there is no space or no time for action. There is only a reflex
action, a knee jerk reaction. In typhoid miasm, however, you have some time to
make an effort and resolve the crisis. However this response needs to be very quick
and is often not planned or thought of.

88] An example of a case of the Typhoid Miasm

The outpatient department of the Homoeopathic hospital

Date: 26th June 2006

A man aged forty-eight years.

Occupation: Bookie at the horse races

Appearance: Tall. Warts below the left eye

Chief complaint: sleeplessness - Insomnia for the past five or six years. He wakes
up from sleep suddenly, he feels a “jerk from the heart”. The noise of a doorbell or
the phone ringing wakes him with this jerk. After losses in gambling he is unable
to sleep. He has high blood pressure and is taking antihypertensive medication and
a drug to lower his blood cholesterol.

D: Tell me more about your problem.

P: I feel a sense of fear with disturbed sleep. I get palpitations. I cannot sleep
properly and am disturbed by noise, light and even the opening of a door. And if
my sleep is disturbed it affects me very badly.

My mind goes on moving, even though my eyes are closed. My thoughts

MIASM - Part 1 Talk 9 36

 revolve around gambling. If it goes into “minus” (losses), then the thoughts
increase and I get more palpitations. I keep thinking, “What will happen
tomorrow?” I keep thinking about the races.

I feel lonely and go from one place to another. I have no interest in watching
television. I like to go outdoors. But then when I come back in the sleep,
problem recurs. I am not able to pass the time. It is very boring.

When I get these palpitations, my heart rate goes up to 102-105 per minute. I
check it on a machine. I check my blood pressure as well. I got my heart
checked by getting an ECG and 2-D Echocardiogram done, but nothing showed
up. Once I got such severe palpitations in the night and I went to the doctor right
then. But everything was normal.

D: Tell more about the palpitations.

P: I can’t do anything. I don’t have any tension about money. But I have been
suffering from palpitations for almost twenty five years. When the palpitations
occur it feels like there is a bandage around my chest. I feel very afraid that I
may turn insane and be taken to an asylum or be given psychiatric medication.

D: Tell us about your nature.

P: It is good. I am a silent person. My wife speaks more than I do. There is no fight
in the house. We are good with friends. I like to make friends. I tried many jobs
in my life. First in Nigeria I worked as a storekeeper, and then I came to
Mumbai. I got a job as a salesman in a watch company. After fifteen years I took
up gambling. I first got an attack of palpitation twenty-five years ago while
working with a machine with dust and other particles. I began hawking. And
then again about five or six years ago, when I began bookmaking I started
getting palpitations.

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 Everyday I think, before the betting begins, “What will I earn today?” If it
doesn’t work out well, I will have to pay out. I prefer this occupation to my
other jobs, but my wife doesn’t. She keeps telling me to stop it and I don’t like
it. She doesn’t know too much about the horse races and betting that I do.

I feel better when I am at the race course. There are friends and time passes
pleasantly. I feel better. Home feels like a jail. There is no interest in anything
there. At the race course a continuous feeling of “win or lose” goes on. The
thoughts keep going on.

I am afraid that I may have to go to a Psychiatric doctor. And if I do, and if I

take antidepressants which have side effects, I may develop a kidney problem.
That will cause blood poisoning and I may die. Why should I die at this age? I
feel frightened about it.

D: Tell us more about your fears.

P: If I go out of Mumbai, I think, “What if I get some problem, what will happen if
my health gets disturbed?” So I feel a lot of fear about going out of the city. I
avoid leaving the city. I also worry about the family. When I take my son
swimming, I feel fearful when he is in the water. “Something should not
happen.” So I stand there till he comes out.

D: What do you see in your dreams?

P: Again I see horse racing and betting. I feel as if I have betted on a horse. I am
seeing the horse running. I may lose. Then I wake up.

Physical Generals

Thermal State: Chilly. Cant stand cold

Reactions: Light disturbs sleep. So does noise, even the noise of the fan.

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Craves: Sweet (++),

Analysis of the Case

Taking into account the following rubrics:

Mind: Gambling, passion for gambling

Chest: Jerks, in the heart

Chest: Palpitations

Chilliness: lower limbs: legs

When we get these rubrics, we get Nux vomica.

The sensation-based symptoms of “jerks” and “shocks” are well-known features of

Family Loganiaceae. In this particular case the pace of the disease is typhoid-like,
where the desperation is intense in a critical way. He is living from one crisis to
another.

He enters a situation that matches his inner depth of his desperation. It’s all
about how much one will win or lose in a day. This is an acute short-term anxiety
with panic and intense activity till a place of comfort is reached. Get in – get out.
Take a chance and risk it! A critical period.

A horse race is like a critical period. You make a rapid intense effort and
you either make it or lose it. The typhoid miasm is a lot like running a horse race.
The interesting thing is that Nux vomica, with its ‘restless desire for activity and
business’, is one of the few remedies listed under ‘Passion for gambling.’

People with the typhoid miasm see themselves in a critical situation.

Suppose somebody has lost a lot of money in the stock market. What does he go
through? He feels he has to recover it rapidly. He is anxious about it. He thinks
about it all the time with urgency. So he thinks and dreams of business. Business

MIASM - Part 1 Talk 9 39

represents that activity.

And when you are doing something to recover your position of comfort, it is
like wanting to go home.

Suppose your ship is sinking. You need to get out really fast and gain the
shore. At that time there is no thought. There is only hurry and high activity is
concerned with getting to safety.

In human life, this intensity of desperation often finds expression in the

experience of sudden financial loss and the need to do business to recover that loss.
In Nux vomica, sometimes someone else has taken your business, and you have to
recover that. You have to compete with the person who took it away. You have to
see the rubric here:

“Delusion: Someone gets into his bed and there is no more room”

So Nux vomica is ambitious and competitive, but the interesting thing is

there is none of the ‘bigger-stronger’ ‘victim-aggressor’ feeling that would occur in
animal remedies. The feeling here/ core sensation is that of shock. It is as if I
suddenly you realize somebody is ahead of me and I must do all I can to reach
there, to beat you. We are in a race and I need to be ahead.

It’s not a comparison of strength between you and somebody else. It’s not
even a question of survival of you and the other person. But a feeling that suddenly
you are shocked into realizing that you have lost your business or your position
and you need to recover it in a great deal of hurry with a great sense of urgency by
‘ Hook or by Crook’. By any means possible.

This is the underlying cause of the jealousy felt by remedies like Nux
vomica. Hyoscyamus too feels jealous, but it is more like the jealousy one has of a
competitor one may lose one’s sexual partner or your safety or security. You are

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damn scared or frightened. There is a lot of fear involved. One resorts to intense
loquacity and shamelessness and violence to try to regain the partner.

So Nux vomica and Hyoscyamus may sometimes have some features like
animal remedy. But when you go deeper, you realise the central core experience of
Nux vomica is shock / jerk. The central core experience of Hyoscyamus is fear /
fright like Solanaceae, other remedies of Solanaceae and it is not a comparison of
strength or the struggle for survival like in Animal remedies.

Off course, this difference can be quite subtle at times and you really need to
explore deep in order to see it.

Prominent symptoms of Nux vomica

Ailments from financial loss (Gelsemium has ailments from bad news)

Desire for activity

Activity, restless

Ambition

Dreams of business of the day

Hurry, impatience

And you can see this activity, this restlessness, this ambition, this business
and this hurry and this impatience are very characteristic also of the Typhoid
miasm.

Rx: Nux vomica 1M

Within a month he experienced a marked reduction in the “jerks from sleep”. They
were 50% better. The palpitations too began to reduce in frequency. Two months
later there were no more palpitations. The chief complaints did not ever recur
significantly again. His seep was fine,jerks were gone, his palpitations were gone,

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his sleep was better. Over the following year the remedy was repeated only twice
for minor complaints such as mild pain in the chest and acute fever and cough. He
followed up very occasionally for over two years, showing continuing
improvement.

So this case describes to us the pace / the intensity of the typhoid miasm.

Now we deal with one more miasm which is the Malarial miasm.

MALARIA: [ HARASSED TYPE]

The situation is perceived as one in which the person is stuck and intermittently
attacked.

Keywords: Hindered, stuck, dependent, obstructed, intermittent, periodic, from

time to time attacked, harassed, tortured, persecuted, unfortunate, theorizing.

Feeling of being stuck and periodically harassed

In malarial miasm, the main issue is about being harassed. The feeling is that you
are stuck in a position from which you cannot get out and there you are constantly
being harassed, intermittently troubled and irritated, or intermittently something
acute or sudden comes up that causes panic. This is often seen as harassment. You
are living with a situation and intermittently something sudden keeps coming up.
So in their life they see the situation as if they are stuck and they are harassed and
there is no way to get out of it. For example a person who is stuck under an irate or
fiery boss.

Situation of an earthquake prone area

Imagine, for example, that you are living in an earthquake-prone area. You have no
resources to come out of there, so you are stuck in that situation where you are

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living, you can’t move, and from time to time you have an acute flare-up
happening.

Malarial remedies: Remedies with the typical malarial pace are Spigelia, China,
Colocynth, Natrum Muriaticum, Cina, Lac defloratum.

Let us understand little bit about natrum mur just to understand about the malarial
miasm.

Love disappointment in Natrum muriaticum

In Natrum muriaticum, the feeling is that she feels that she is stuck in a position of
dependency on someone and she can’t move away from the relationship but from
time to time this person is going to acutely disappoint her. To betray the trust and
she lives in this position of dependency and harassed by the recurrent betrayal of
this person. So it’s a life of grief, a life of being unfortunate.

The diseases also depict the same pace and depth

So since this whole pace and depth of the malarial miasm, even the illnesses are
found in the same pattern. The common complaints of the patient with malarial
miasm are illnesses that keep coming in an acute exacerbation intermittently .

For example - asthmatic attacks, neuralgic attacks, colic, migraines, renal calculi
etc often make us think of the malarial miasm. The remedies like colocynth,
spigelia, china, rananuculous bulb are also great remedies for neuralgias and
migraines.

Not “persecuted” but “harassed”

Earlier I had used the word ‘persecuted’ for malaria miasm, mainly because of the

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rubric, ‘Mind; Delusion, persecuted’ which is given in China. The other symptom
of China is ‘Mind: Delusion unfortunate’ and it is often a feeling of these people,
that they are so unfortunate to be stuck in a situation like this.

However my colleague, Dr. Mahesh Gandhi, pointed out that the word
‘persecuted’ would be a little too strong for the malarial miasm. He mentioned that
the dictionary meaning of the word ‘persecuted’ is to be singled out, pursued,
tortured, and punished etc. which fits more our idea of the leprosy miasm.

So I agree that the word ‘persecuted’ is more apt for the leprosy miasm.

The people with the leprosy miasm are those who feel isolated and given severe
treatment. It is like the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. Here the situation is
not intermittent but rather desperate and nearly syphilitic.

Therefore I have shifted the word ‘persecuted’ towards the leprosy miasm and
rather used the relatively milder, more appropriate word ‘harassed’ for the malarial
miasm.

89] A case example of the Malarial Miasm

The clinic

29th November 2007

A man in his forties

Chief complaint: Irritable bowel syndrome. There is pain in the abdomen and a
sense of weakness in his lower abdomen as well as the whole body.

“I always feel in the lower abdomen as if it is contracted inside. When I sleep it is

stretched upwards. There is a volatile activity in the bowels. My tongue feels as if
it is stretched inside or outside all the time when I am awake. My face muscles and

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cheeks feel stretched with thoughts. My thoughts make my problems worse.

As and when I start to do mental work, my stomach muscles are stretched and the
brain stops work and I become disinterested. Later I stop working. I am never
peaceful and relaxed, enthusiastic or free from this stretching from head to toe. I
feel that blood is flowing in the opposite direction in my body. The tongue, throat,
stomach and abdomen are stretching all the time. Most of the time when I speak
with someone or think anything simultaneously the process is going on. I never
feel strong or fit because of weakness in the centre of the body, mainly in the
stomach. At night I become very tired. I cannot bear tight pants. There is also pain
in the back and shoulders. While standing I bend forward. There is not enough
strength to stand erect.

I get continuous thoughts, and I feel easily exhausted.

Because of this problem my routine life is disturbed. I don’t have normal

sentiments with wife. I have a problem with sexuality...I feel the sexual organs are
contracted and I don’t have any sensation. There is decreased desire. I have started
psychiatric treatment.

I don’t feel the flavour of food. There is a sense of gas obstructed in

abdomen. I need to pass it. It is an unending process.

When asked about his nature:

I am disciplined, shy and sincere about reaching on time. I am very particular

about my things. If the cupboard key was touched, I would come to know. My
grandfather fell sick and my father put the responsibility of looking after him on
me. My grandfather abused me; he treated me like a slave. I had no power to refuse
because my father had put me on duty. I had to follow it.

I lived like a servant; not shaving, wearing torn clothes and not fulfilling any

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desires, not even enjoying holidays. I felt as if crushed (hg), like poor children who
are doing child labor, not given proper food or clothes, locked in a dark room,
suffocated and oppressed. All attention to study was put to one side.

Our family was well-to-do. Yet my mother was treated like a laborer by my
father. Nobody would think about her. She had depression, was suicidal. She took
psychiatric treatment. My father got bedridden. He was a very selfish person. I also
lost a cousin with whom I was very intimate. He met with an accident. My other
cousins suppressed me. My mother would feed them before us, even though we
were hungry. I felt much neglected. At one time my father tried to get me married
to my sister-in-law’s younger sister. I was fourteen years old and I was ambitious. I
wanted to further my studies and become a doctor. When my father tried to force
me, I felt suicidal. Now I have no ambition, no desire to do anything. Why should I
be restricted? I am unable to enjoy life.

I don’t like dogs. I once got bitten and had to take three injections.

Why can’t I be strong?

I introduced the dish antenna in my city. For a long time I felt I should do it,
but my brother stopped me. I was married once before and then got divorced. I am
sexually weak. I tortured my first wife; I physically abused her.

Physical Generals

Thermal state: Chilly

Craving: Sweet, onions, warm food and drinks, tea

Analysis of the Case

Very interesting! You feel all the time he is talking about victim – aggressor and
you say this is a sure animal remedy. But try to examine what is exactly is his

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experience to be in this situation. The main thing is the thoughts. He keeps on
getting thoughts and thoughts and thoughts and thoughts. And what are these
thoughts like… continuous thoughts .

Not able to enjoy life

No ‘sensation’

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What he is saying here is “I don’t have the sensation, I don’t have the flavour.”
Stimulation is the main problem, as in the Piperaceae remedies.

Generally, in Family Rubiaceae, there are very strong cravings for tasty
food, for spices, fruits, juices and sweets. One of the main symptoms of China in
fevers is a craving for stimulants. There is a desire for tangy things. It is as if the
mouth craves for something stimulating.

He has many ambitions and wants to do many things. Many ideas, but always
feels, “Somebody restricts me, obstructs me, does not let me be.” So there is a lot
of stimulation mentally, but he feels restricted. He is not able to enjoy the
stimulation.

There is the sense of harassment and obstruction...you are stuck in a position

like a slave, and you feel helpless. This is the malaria miasm.

So what you see as the victim aggressor is actually the Malarial miasm. The feeling
is the pace and the intensity for it.

He has a physical sensation of stretching, pulling and contracting. If we look

into the symptoms of China, we find “Drawing in abdomen” is very well marked.
What does it mean? Simply because we don’t know it, does it mean that it is not
important? When the patient says one thing, we could often get stuck on to that and
land up on a completely different planet. That is where the sensation method has
been distorted and misused.

The sensation cannot be separated from the whole. It is important to

understand in this case is that the drawing is a sensation, but not the main
sensation. What is the main sensation is the stimulation, the lack of it and desire for
it, the many ideas and fancies, and opposite is the dullness and disinterest, which is

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the opposite of stimulation.

There is no comparison ‘I am weak. He is strong – powerful’. ‘I will die, he will

survive’, ‘He kills I kill.’ no this feeling is not there. The feeling is ‘I am
obstructed / harassed because I cannot have any stimulation whether in terms of
ideas or in terms of ambition or in terms of sexuality etc. And so these I am in such
an unfortunate situation that I have to live like this and then I become bored / dull /
disinterested which is like opposite of stimulation’. So I gave him …

Rx: China 1M and then later LM 8

He began to feel better very rapidly and improved in his digestive as well as
sexual and emotional spheres. He showed continuing improvement over the
following year and continued to do very well on this remedy.

CONCLUSION:

So in this talk we have seen the basic concept of miasm and its utility as a way of
classification of states and remedies. We have discussed in short four of these
miasms, namely Acute, Psora, Typhoid and Malaria, and seen some of their
expressions and clinical cases. In the further talks we will continue to discuss other
miasms.

In the meantime, please go over … summary of next talk and notes on miasms, the
reference work etc.

So till we meet again Au revoir, Auf wiedersehen, Sayonara, Bye Bye.

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