Abstract of the article:
From the time of Dr. Hahnemann till date, Homoeopathy has been enveloped into clouds of mysterious obscurities. No! Homoeopathy is an exact and accurate subject. “Homoeopathy has not become popular because of defective books as well as because of defective use of books”—James Tyler Kent in his Lesser Writings. In this article, the author removes the obscurities enveloping homeopathy both by explaining what mind symptoms really are; also, what the useful books are and how to use them
Dr. Hahnemann wrote, “Many of my followers, I am sorry to say, are but half-converts.” (See Materia Medica Pura.) That is true even today.
The most misunderstood topics in homoeopathy are ‘mind symptoms’ (section 213 of the Organon) and ‘uncommon-rare-strange- peculiar-symptoms’ (Section 153.) When Section 213 is read with section 153, we conclude that we should take only those mind symptoms that we have never heard before in any patient. Again, most of the valuable ‘mind’ or ‘uncommon’ symptoms cannot be classified under any head in the repertories and an honest and conscious homeopath has to learn them by rote. (‘Rote’ means mechanical or habitual repetition). Therefore, in many cases (if not all cases), homeopathic software is of no use, however costly it may be and how much praised by the so-called leading homeopaths. The following actual cases cured by the author would give the reader a clear and accurate meaning of ‘mind symptoms’ and ‘uncommon symptoms’ in a matter-of-fact way. Dr. Hahnemann advises that without prescribing on mind symptoms a cure is not possible (Section 213 of the Organon.) ‘Anger’ ‘restlessness’ etc. are ‘common’ symptoms of mind. ‘When Section 213 is read with Section 153, we infer that we have to prescribe on ‘uncommon mind symptoms.’
Case: A renal failure patient under dialysis and waiting for kidney transplant was under our treatment. We could not find his remedy. After the transplant, he was heard saying, “Now I feel as if I am released from prison . . . as if I have taken a rebirth.” This he said because he is now freed from the torturing and exhausting bi-weekly dialysis, taking rest, body becoming weak etc. This mental picture of the patient should at once bring to our mind the following words:
…desire to be released from what seems to be a
Perpetual burden of sorrow…
This symptom is found in the remedy Ignatia on page 698 in the HOMOEOPATHIC THERAPEUTICS by Dr. Samuel Lilienthal under the chapter Melancholia, Ignatia-10M, single dose, was given and his other kidney started functioning normally.
Case: A patient with weeping eczema etc. said, “Doctor, I am not taking the treatment to live long. However, I have an aged daughter to be married off and a son who is looking for a job. Who would come forward to marry my daughter, if I have a weeping eczema? Only because of that, I want to be cured. Before I die, I want to settle things in my family– my daughter getting married and son getting a job. Then I can die peacefully.” Under the homoeopathic remedy Petroleum (Boericke’s Materia Medica), we find the following: Feels that death is near, and must hurry to settle affairs. Now, this sentence fits in approximately with the remarks made by the above eczema patient. Petroleum-10 cured him in one single dose.
Case: A peptic ulcer patient’s condition worsened day by day and allopathic antacids were giving only temporary relief. At the height of his suffering (hunger pain with burning sensation in the food pipe, temporarily relieved by eating) he was heard saying, “I think that my end is approaching; I must call the lawyer to write the will; this hotel of mine should go to my wife; money deposited in the bank is for my son. My widowed sister who has been living with me for several years and helping me should take the house that I bought recently.” This mind picture fits with the remarks made by the patient in the last case. One single dose of Petroleum-10M cured this patient as well. We do not prescribe on names of disease or pathology but on ‘uncommon’ symptoms having no connection with pathology. The above two cases would show the reader that (a) one and the same remedy may be called for in different persons with different diseases; also, (b) different persons suffering from one and the same disease may need different remedies.
Case: A seventy-year old carpenter was under my treatment for a skin complaint. During one of his visits, his 48-year old son accompanied him. The latter was coughing with chest congestion etc. The carpenter told his son; “Why don’t you also take treatment from this doctor? See how much I have improved, whereas the earlier doctors to whom I consulted earlier could not do anything in my case.” To this, the son said: “The new house where I had gone has no raasi.” (‘Raasi’ in Tamil means luck). In other words, the person feels that everything has been going wrong ever since he started living in a particular house. Therefore, that house has no raasi. Alternatively, a person feels that ever since he bought and started using a car, nothing went right. He attributes his sufferings, failures, difficulties etc. to that vehicle. I hope readers understand this. The son continued, “Even the new work place where I am going daily is not raasi (or has no good luck.)” The other word to describe ‘raasi’ would be ‘sentimental’ or ‘luck’. The carpenter’s son was not ready to take treatment from me only because he felt that the house and the workplace were the cause of his respiratory complaints.
Kent’s Repertory–MIND: Reproaches others (blaming the house and workplace.): 24 remedies are listed here
Sentimental– 25 remedies
Seven remedies viz., Ars., Calc-p., Chin., Ign., Lach., Lyc., nux-v. and staph are found common to both the lists.
For ‘mind symptoms’ the reference book HOMOEOPATHIC THERAPEUTICS BY Dr. Samuel Lilienthal is the best. I read all the above eight remedies and confirmed Staphisagria because the following lines giver under that remedy in the chapter Melancholia in Lilienthal (page 701).
Inwardly gnawing grief and anger, he looks at everything from the darkest side . . . disinclination to work and think; dread of the future and dread of being constantly pursued . . .sorrowfulness ending in paralysis of the intellect…”
Staphysagria-10M single dose cured the patient.
Case: A woman of forty-two came with a large calculus in her urinary bladder. She said that allopathic doctors advised surgery as the only answer but she declined to undergo it. She continued that she had already undergone two cesarean sections and one appendicectomy; after each one of these surgeries, her general health ran down. Therefore, she could not afford deterioration of health any further with another surgery and she had to safeguard her health for the remaining period of her life. Under the remedy Nux vomica (Lilienthal, Melancholia, page 700) we find the following:
“Afraid he might not have enough to live on . . .”
Nux vomica-1M, one single dose was given in the evening. Not only did her general health improve, but also the size of the calculi came out in pieces. (Patient is still under treatment.)
Case: A chronic renal failure patient came to me. [In most cases, ‘uncommon’ symptoms are told by the patient at the end of the consultation, or, in some cases, after you have made the prescription! In yet a few cases, during the second or subsequent consultations!]
After the consultation was over, one by one, the relatives went out. The patient was still sitting. He said, “Doctor, my sons say that I am sick and so I should not ride my bicycle, go out and do our business. They say they will do everything and ask me to sit at home and take a rest. As for my children, they should only tell me that I am all right and will recover soon. But, instead of encouraging speedy recovery they have branded me as a permanent and incurable patient.”
This patient feels that his sons are letting him down. What one requires from his relatives is not money nor help but moral support. In this case, the patient feels that it is completely missing. This symptom we find in two remedies. They are:
“… a feeling of moral deficiency…” – Kali brom.
“… despondency, sadness, moral depression and relaxation…” – Tarentula hisp.
[See Lilienthal’s, Melancholia page 698 and 702.]Tarentula hispana 10M – single dose cured his kidney complaints.
Case: A woman of fifty-five, school teacher was under my treatment for three months for sinusitis with little relief. She lives thirteen kilometers away and she works in a school, which is near my clinic. Before going to school, she would come to me once a month, take medicine and go to school. Seeing no relief in spite of three visits, I told her that a certain acupressure doctor would come and give just 3-minute treatment once only and for this, she need not pay any fees and I assured total relief. Since the acupressure doctor comes to my clinic on Sundays only, I asked her to come on a Sunday. To this, she replied, “I have to come all the way… from … (her residence.)” During the earlier three visits, she would come to me in the morning before going to her school that is near to my clinic. Sunday is a holiday for school and she feels it an ordeal to come for acupressure treatment all… the… way from her residence thirteen kilometers away. It is hesitation. I told her that she need not pay any fees for the one-time acupressure treatment and one hundred percent cure was assured. Therefore, traveling thirteen kilometers will not be a crime. However, to do this she has hesitation. Before we show the reader how to classify this symptom, let us now see two more cases.
Case: A woman allopathic doctor was learning homeopathy from me every Sunday morning for two hours. She consulted me for her complaints and got total relief of her ailments. Once she said, “Doctor, can you give one-dose treatment for my son? Since birth he has had a perennial cold; now he is five years old and almost every week he has to take drugs.” I told her that she must bring her son at least once and I would cure him completely. Bringing her son once (and I am not going to charge her since she is my student) is not an ordeal or something immoral. To this she replied, “For this I have to… bring him all the way from my home” (which is just ten kilometers away.) She hesitates for this small thing of bringing the boy once only to me and for which the boy is going to get total relief permanently. Only if you actually listen to the patient’s reply in person may you understand this. Let me explain and elaborate on this. Suppose you are asked by your teacher to murder a certain person. What would be your reaction? Immediately you would reply as under:
“Sir, I… have to…” (The sentence would be incomplete. Because you have hesitation in doing this job would prick your conscience.) In the above two cases, for merely traveling ten kilometers they have a lot of hesitation as if I am asking them to do something immoral. In other words, they are over conscious of trivial things. The apt term would be “Conscientious scruples.” This symptom is in the remedy Arsenicum album. [See Lilienthal’s Homoeopathic Therapeutics, page 694.] Let us repeat, that uncommon mind symptom may be in most cases one only, and the computer-software or ‘remedy finders’ are of no use. One single dose of Arsenicum Album-10M completely cured the above sinusitis patient and even acupressure treatment was not given.
The above cases would illustrate the meaning and interpretation of mind symptoms of a patient. In some cases, the repertory or software is not useful and you have to learn by rote these uncommon mind symptoms. The above three cases are quoted here to illustrate that if the practitioner can memorise the symptoms of various remedies given in the chapter MELANCHOLIA in Lilienthal he would be able to select the remedy in more than fifty percent of cases that too at the very first attempt.
Said Charles Gatchell in a review of HOMOEOPATHIC THERAPEUTICS, “… it is an extraordinarily useful book and those who add it to their library will never feel regret…”
In a review, Samuel A. Jones said about Lilienthal’s as under: “For the fresh graduate this book will be invaluable… to the older one who says he has no use of this book, we have nothing to say. He is a good one to avoid when well, and to dread when ill.”
Dr. Samuel Lilienthal, M. D.
The authors who have correctly and elaborately written mind symptoms are (1) Dr. Lilienthal, (2) Calvin B. Knerr’s Repertory. (3) The 10-volume Hering’s Guiding Symptoms [Only the useful portions from the 10 volumes have been taken out by the author of this article and compiled with the title Wilkinson’s Mat. Medica.] and (4) William Boericke (Mat. Medica)
Moreover, Lilienthal tops the list. If you can understand correctly and thoroughly the lines under all remedies in the chapter Melancholia in Lilienthal, you will get more than 70% success in your practice. Lilienthal is ten times worth its weight in gold. Wilkinson’s too is good at mind symptoms. How to master mind symptoms with Hering? After having selected a remedy and having seen that it has cured the patient with one single dose of that remedy, read that remedy in the Chapter ‘Mind’. If you do it two or three times for a remedy, the fourth time when that remedy-type patient comes in, you can straightaway prescribe that. For example, I would never miss Lycopodium and Nux vomica patients, most of whom throw the following symptoms:
Lycopodium: (Wilkinson’s) – Talks with an air of command. Manner stiff and pretentious.
Nux vomica…particular, careful, zealous… fiery temperament. (Boericke’s Mat. Med.) – Desire to talk about one’s conditions with anxious reflections about it. (Wilkinson’s)
(The patient comes in, sits and turns his face to one side, stares at the roof and tells his complaints in the past-present chronological order. He continues to stare up the ceiling continuously until he finishes the history of his complaints till date.) Sometimes, you have to read the entire symptoms under Mind in all the remedies to select a remedy for a patient. (For this, I use Lilienthal, Boericke’s Materia Medica and Wilkinson’s). However, once you find the remedy, subsequent cases requiring that remedy becomes easy. I am not reporting here cases with their follow-up but my attempt is to tell the reader how and what exactly homoeopathic practice is. As one cannot learn swimming without getting into water or driving a car without sitting on the wheels, so also without actual cases on hand one cannot learn homoeopathy. To that extent only, I am quoting actual cases seen in my clinic. I am a freelance medical journalist and so I took the following two cases as a challenge for homoeopathy.
Case: A patient with a chronic headache, after trying various doctors, ultimately came to me. After finishing the history of his seven years’ pain in head, he ended up saying: “Doctor, if you or anyone can cure me of this terrible headache, I won’t mind even giving away half of my property (worth three million) to that doctor.” Doctors of all other systems would simply ignore this statement of the patient. If a patient is ready to pay 1.5 million… I thought about this. I took this as a challenge to homoeopathy. I asked him to first pay me ten thousand rupees and give me two weeks’ time with a promise that if I do not cure him in one single dose (or a few doses) I would return double the amount paid by him. He agreed to this and paid ten thousand rupees. I took a copy of Boericke’s Materia Medica, went to a professor of English, and requested him to render me a help; that he has to read the lines given only under the chapter ‘Mind’ in all the remedies in Boericke’s Mat. Med. and underline if any relevant line is found equivalent to the statement of a person who says that he would pay half of his wealth if his headache were cured. I paid him five thousand rupees (which the professor said is more than sufficient for the work.)—It may take a few days, spending two or three hours daily to go through the lines given under the chapter ‘Mind’ in Boericke’s 688-page materia medica.
To another professor of English, I gave a copy of Wilkinson’s Mat. Medica and paying him the remaining five thousand rupees, requested him to do the job of reading the lines given only under the chapter ‘Mind’ in all the remedies (and this too would take a few days, working for three hours daily) and to tell me if he finds anything equivalent to the above said statement of the headache patient. The first professor (using Boericke’s) could not find anything apt. However, the second professor underlined and pointed out the following lines in the remedy Stillingia (under ‘Mind’ in Wilkinson’s).
“Deplorably downhearted; suffering extreme torture from bone pains.”
Stillingia 1000, one single dose cured the patient and he paid me another ten thousand rupees After this case, I cured two more patients with Stillingia both of whom said the above words (ready to give his entire wealth to the doctor who cures him). Diligence and knowledge of English language, both to the core, are required to practice homoeopathy. The above two cases would illustrate to the reader how rich, exact and accurate (and complete) our existing materia medicas are. Thus, and therefore, what is needed is exact mastery of the use of five reference books viz., Lilienthal, William Boericke, J.T. Kent, Wilkinson’s and Knerr (and more importantly Yingling, for medical emergencies at the time of labor or abortion.).
Case: Here is another case of headache. This 55-year old male patient remarked: “Doctor, all these years I have been having these pains; my sufferings are such that no amount of compensation would be equal to it. Even if you make me the President of all the nations in the world, that would not be sufficient compensation.” I told him the same condition that I put to the patient in the earlier case. After taking ten thousand rupees I went to the two English professors, one with Boericke and the other with Wilkinson’s Mat. Medica. In this case the professor is going through Boericke’s Mat. Medica could help me. He pointed to the following found under the remedy Selenium. “Extreme sadness. Abject despair, uncompromising melancholy.” Selenium 10M, one dose cured the patient and he paid me ten thousand rupees. On a later occasion, the above said professors asked me what I did with their help and I showed them how I practice homoeopathy. Soon both of them started learning and practicing homoeopathy. The Homoeopathic system of medicine is exact and accurate. Precision and versatility are its culture.
For some cases, Knerr’s Repertory too is excellent to work out cases with mind symptoms. The following case would illustrate the myth and reality of ‘mind symptoms.’
Case: The other day I was sitting by the side of a senior homoeopath in his clinic. A patient entered and asked, “Do you have medicine for diabetes?”
Doctor: Yes, tell me your symptoms.
Patient: (Stretching his hand towards the doctor). “See my pulse; give me medicine.”
The tone of the patient was in a commanding note similar to a king, who, when anything is required would order, “Bring the head of the thief in two hours.”]
The doctor turned towards me and said, “See doctor, these patients don’t show symptoms. How can I prescribe?” That doctor always thinks of ‘sensation’ ‘location’ ‘modality’ ‘concomitant.’
I took Calvin B. Knerr’s Repertory to him and showed the following: MIND, Answers, imperiously: Lycopodium.
Further, I showed him the following from Wilkinson’s Mat. Medica under the remedy Lycopodium: “Talks with an air of command . . . manner stiff and pretentious.”
Lycopodium 10M, one single dose, cured diabetes. Let us reiterate the following: Homoeopathy is a system where the patient himself (by way of some words or actions or as a reaction to his disease or treatment or attitude towards the doctor) indicates the remedy to us. Homoeopathy is practical and practical only and there is no place for any theory,
Imagination, etc. Among pharmacologically oriented systems of therapeutics, homoeopathy will ever remain supreme to cure patients with the least number of medicines/doses. For example, we have cured lakhs of chikungunya patients completely and permanently with one single dose of the homoeo medicine Boletus Laricis otherwise called Polyporus officianale-200.
Why is Polyporus off almost exclusively for chikungunya disease?
With crippling joint pains, many chikungunya victims were virtually crawling to go to the toilet etc. Their faces were gloomy.
Knerr’s Repertory—Mind—Gloomy, ague, in: Bol-la (Polyporus off).
Final note: Homoeopathy practice is not what is taught in the 180 and odd govt. recognized homoeo colleges in India, or for that matter anywhere in the world. Discussing remedies for eczema or infertility would be farce and would only result in utter failure.
