Monthly Archives: March 2013

Psora – Poverty Consciousness

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Did you know…

that there are certain archetypal disease patterns that we bring with us into the world?

Do you have one or more of these chronic problems: skin issues, low grade depression, a sense of there not being enough in the world, common acne, asthma, headaches, insomnia, allergies, colds, bronchitis, earaches? You likely are carrying around one of these archetypal patterns from birth, indeed the first one, called Psora. If so, treating the symptoms won’t get you much other than possibly some temporary relief, even if using herbs or dietary changes. Even treating for the secondary disease patterns as homeopathy won’t help that much. You need Heilkunst, which is the only approach I know of that can systematically address these inherited, archetypal disease patterns, and thus, get to the bottom of chronic, complex disease conditions.

Last week we talked about the chronic miasms in general. This week we’ll start to take a look at them in more detail. There are eight such archetypal disease patterns and they follow a particular sequence. There are four major ones and four ‘minor’ ones, just as in music we can have a major and a minor key. They follow the seasons roughly, but as each season is generally divided into an early and later part (early Spring and late Spring, etc.), we then really have eight ‘seasons’.

The first miasm to appear is termed, Psora. It was discovered by Dr. Hahnemann and traced back to the earliest recorded times through various skin manifestations, including leprosy. The word was taken from the Hebrew term ‘tsorat’, which had the meaning of a ‘fault’ or ‘error’. The two chief characteristics of Psora are dryness and skin eruptions, usually dry and scaly. The allopathic term ‘psoriasis’ for one of the many skin manifestations has the same etymological root. However, Psora covers a multitude of skin eruptions, as well as many other symptoms.

Although Dr. Hahnemann did not identify the origin of Psora, work by Dr. Batmangelidj on the chronic impact of dehydration suggests that this may have been the source of the emergence of the first chronic miasm. The nature of chronic miasms is that they can then, once acquired, be passed on from generation to generation.

Dr. Hahnemann also called Psora, the ‘mother of all chronic disease’ for two reasons. First, the other chronic miasms emerged from it, and second, because each of the chronic miasms also caused the emergence of secondary chronic diseases in a person. The chronic miasms are primary, fixed nature or tonic diseases, and they then give rise to any number of secondary, variable nature or pathic diseases over time in a given individual.

The symptoms of Psora are too numerous to list here, but it we can give an idea of the essence of the disease as it tends to manifest in people. Psora is mainly a disease of deficiency at all levels – deficiency of knowledge, thought, assimilation of ideas and nutrition. There are a host of conditions identified by the prefix “hypo” (hypotension, hypochondriasis, hypotrophy) associated with psora. It causes little or no structural change, but much disturbance of functions, feelings and sensations. It seems to involve largely the nervous and reticulo-endocrine systems of the organism.

The psoric state of mind feels it does not have enough (of anything, be it money, food, energy, love, warmth, etc.). You may be familiar with it if you know anyone who had to live through the Great Depression or a war. They may hoard food, toilet paper, rubber bands or twist ties, for no apparent reason other than, “You never know when you may need them.” The stereotypical street person illustrates this miasm well, when they are carrying with them every one of their possessions, while wearing virtually all of their clothing, including coats and hats, even in sweltering heat. It is not likely to manifest in such an extreme form in most of us, but the underlying traits will be there.

If there is psora in your family history, it will manifest, according to Dr. Roger Morrison in his Desktop Guide, as: Abscess. Acne. Allergy. Anxiety. Aphthae. Asthma. Boil. Bronchitis. Colds. Connective tissue disease. Depression. Dermatitis. Eczema. Headache. Insomnia. Otitis media. Pharyngitis. Phobic disorders. Psoriasis. Scabies. Sciatica. Skin ulcers. Upper respiratory infection (among other conditions).

Next week is the minor key of Psora, or the Malaria miasm. Stay tuned.

For more information about Heilkunst treatment and studies please visit our website.

What are Inherited Disease Patterns?

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Did you know…

that there are inherited factors that affect our health that go beyond our genes?

Until recently, everything was either controlled by your genes or simply unexplainable. However, despite millions spent on mapping the human genome, it turns out that not only do we differ much from the common fruit fly when it comes to the number and types of genes, but most of the genes are not linked to anything in particular, and are known as ‘junk DNA’. Biology has begun to understand that genes are only receptors for something, like a radio receiver, namely, signals from the environment. These signals are not only physical, such as sunlight, air, water, food, but also thoughts and feelings. In many ways, we are and become what we eat, feel and think. Biology has also come around to accepting the idea prevalent at the start of the debate about evolution some two centuries ago, that we can inherit certain characteristics and influences that are not strictly connected to genes. In a real sense, we are more than what is contained ‘between our hat and our boots’.

In Heilkunst, the idea of inherited disease patterns was discovered by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann between 1812 – 1816, around the same time that the idea of inherited characteristics was proposed by Lamarck and others. Hahnemann spent over 12 years searching for the answer to a problem: despite the clear successes with homeopathy in removing diseases, he discovered that some patients continued to get worse overall. He felt that he was missing something. From diligent observation of his patients, he then discovered that there were certain fixed patterns that could be traced to birth, and also to various disease patterns their parents and even grandparents had exhibited. These were a peculiar kind of primary, constant nature (tonic) diseases.They also had an original infectious nature, once contracted could be passed on to one’s offspring, such as syphillis and gonorrhoea (which Hahnemann named sycosis). So, he termed them chronic miasms in contradistinction to the acute miasms (i.e. infectious diseases) such as scarlet fever, cholera, measles, etc. The passing of chronic miasms from one generation to another does not rely on a physical contact. This, we may consider, belongs to the “unexplainable” part that science hasn’t been able to understand. We may think that during evolution mankind as a whole has inherited some disease patterns from previous generations in a similar sense that we build our thinking and understanding of the world from the generations before us. Each generation or epoch leaves a legacy for the future generations. So, too, disease may be passed on, both in terms of natural diseases (e.g. tuberculosis, lyme disease) and spiritual diseases (e.g. false beliefs).

Miasms, chronic or acute, are primary, constant nature (tonic) diseases. Due to the fixed/constant nature of these diseases, there is a specific remedial agent or medicine for each one of them, which made them relatively easy to treat. However, the interaction between a given chronic miasm and the constitution of an individual produces various secondary disease patterns. These were more difficult to treat, as they varied according to each case. But fortunately, treating for the parent or chronic miasms seemed to remove many of the secondary diseases as well.

With his discovery of the chronic miasms, Hahnemann gave us the ability to treat for deep-seated, chronic, complex disease conditions that had roots in weaknesses that had little to do with the shocks and traumas of this life, but were there already at conception. The more of these inherited chronic disease patterns we had, the more likely that various shocks and traumas would destabilize us. Thus, as important as it is to remove the cumulative shocks and traumas, it is also critical in many cases to go past the point of conception and reach back into the various disease patterns we brought with us.

In our experience, many cases could not be helped without this monumental discovery of Dr. Hahnemann. We encountered many cases where people have tried many other approaches and have had little or no improvement. In the case of children on the autistic spectrum, they are labelled ‘non-responders’. I remember the first time I came across such a case. The doctors and even the natural health community had consistently thrown up their hands. Could Heilkunst do anything, the mother asked? I didn’t know for certain, but knowing that Heilkunst can treat diseases that no one else seems to see or know how to treat, I felt confident it could help at least to some degree. And it did! Since then we have been treating difficult, complex, chronic cases of all types – ones that others have given up on. I still recall one case where a woman did not respond to classical homeopathic treatment and was then told she was ‘incurable’. In tears she came to ask if this was indeed true. I told her that yes, by the tenets of classical homeopathy, this was indeed true, but fortunately, by the laws and principles of the complete medical system that Dr. Hahnemann gave us, Heilkunst, it was not. Her problems were resolved by treating for the shocks and traumas in her life and the inherited miasms.

Who would have thought that a discovery some two centuries ago, the chronic miasms, would be confirmed by the most recent scientific understandings in biology (epigenetics). Heilkunst has built in an effective way of treating for inherited disease patterns. In our next blogs we will look at each of the chronic miasms in more detail. Stay tuned.

For more information about Heilkunst treatment and studies please visit our website.

Treating Birthing Shocks and Traumas

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Did you know…

that we don’t necessarily come into this world in a completely healthy way? In fact, nowadays, the birthing process is often anything but natural or healthy, involving as it does a variety of interventions from drugs and surgical procedures (cesarians and other) for the moms to  various pokings and proddings of the newborns. We are so accustomed to do what we are told, especially when we are in the hospital or in a crisis condition, which birthing seems to have been turned into, that we accept these interventions without questioning or relating the later illness or problems back to these procedures.

Our health is shaped by every experience around us. There is a lot that can happen from conception to birth that can affect our health. The very conditions of conception itself can create a certain stress. If there was fear or grief, or even anger and guilt in the parents, the mother in particular, this can possibly affect the baby. I know of one case in particular where a child was conceived in profound grief in both parents because of the death of the first-born only a few months before from a tropical infection. This induced a state of mind in the child throughout its life involving unresolved grief. A lot of the grief we carry around as adults might have been there from the very beginning. That is why in Heilkunst we look at all significant life events systematically from now back to birth and conception.

I had one case in particular where the child, about 3 years old, was always crying.  Despite various attempts, nothing seemed to work. In further questioning the mother it was revealed that the child only cried when around the mother, but not with the father or anyone else. I noted that there likely had been some kind of emotional trauma early on at the time of conception or during pregnancy. Initially the mother could not identify one, but three days later called, and confessed that for the first week after she knew she was pregnant, she had not wanted the child, and briefly considered an abortion. We then treated the child for the shock of rejection and abandonment, and the crying stopped.

In another similar case, a baby of 18 months seemed not to respond to the mother’s voice, but was fine with the father. Knowing that ultrasounds can affect the hearing capacity of the fetus, and finding out that the mother had had several ultrasounds, we treated for this shock, and the baby now responded to the mother’s voice.

There are similar shocks that can occur from drugs taken by the mother during pregnancy, as well as from amniocentesis, and other interventions. The child is part of the mother’s energetic system while in the womb, and even for some time after, though increasingly less so as the child grows up.

Birth these days is often involved with various drugs, such as Pitocin to induce labour, lengthy labour, the use of forceps, spinal blocks, not to mention the often stressful conditions of a hospital, the too early cutting of the umbilical cord, the separation of mother and child, vaccinations such as Hepatitis B at birth, antibiotics in the eyes, the PKU test, C-sections, etc. While these may be necessary at times, they still constitute a potential shock to the mother and child. These interventions are often not taken into account when later the child or mom experiences problems such as breastfeeding difficulty, jaundice or various other problems of infancy, such as digestive issues, colic, constant crying, congestion, failure to thrive, ear-aches. We consider all these shocks and traumas in the timeline of life events that we treat for. When they are treated for early on, ideally right after, then the child can often avoid many of these problems.

Right from the early days, a child can already be carrying quite a burden of diseases induced by the various shocks and traumas mentioned, both emotional and physical. Heilkunst provides a way to recognize these shocks as contributing to or directly causing health issues, and to effectively and safely remove them. Homotonic and homeopathic medicines are non-toxic and safe for the mother and child throughout the pregnancy, labour and birth. There are also excellent remedies that can be given to help with labour and delivery, to avoid interventions that represent a potential shock to the child (and mother), and to help making the experience more pleasant and natural. Heilkunst is child-safe, child-friendly and supportive of healthy families. With Heilkunst, you can get your children off on the right foot in life, healthier and happier. Next week we’ll look at some issues that affect health that pre-date conception, what we call the chronic miasms or inherited disease patterns. Stay tuned.

For more information about Heilkunst treatment and studies please visit our website.