Tag Archives: homeopathy

Can Heilkunst Help for … (Fill in the blank)?

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This week we interrupt our regularly scheduled program for a special announcement.

We often get asked for specific information about the treatment through Heilkunst of X, Y or Z, whether arthritis, diabetes, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue or any of the various conventionally named conditions.

The answer is the same for all of them. These are almost always a name created to describe the obvious, common symptoms or signs in certain patients. For example, arthritis simply means an inflammation of the joints, and colitis means an inflammation of the colon. These names come from mostly Greek and sometimes Latin roots, so they sound more impressive than they are. Lets take another, fibroymyalgia. The term comes from three Latin and  Greek terms meaning pain in the muscle and connective tissue.

Wikipedia: The term “fibromyalgia” derives from new Latin, fibro-, meaning “fibrous tissues”, Greek myo-, “muscle”, and Greek algos-, “pain”; thus the term literally means means “muscle and connective tissue pain”.

Now, the patient already knows he/she has pain. The so-called diagnosis simply now tells the patient that the pain is in the muscles and connective tissue, but does not tell him or her the cause. Indeed, as Wikipedia states, and this is true for most if not all such conditions named by conventional medicine, the cause is unknown and is suspected to be multiple.

Wikipedia: Its exact cause is unknown but is believed to involve psychological, genetic, neurobiological and environmental factors.

Thus, in the face of an unknown, multiple causation, conventional treatment focusses on suppressing the overt symptoms, leaving the cause(s) untouched. Treating for the symptoms themselves is also complex, as they vary from patient to patient, meaning that the ‘diagnosis’ is very general and not specific to an individual patient.

Wikipedia: Fibromyalgia symptoms are not restricted to pain, leading to the use of the alternative term fibromyalgia syndrome for the condition. Other symptoms include debilitating fatigue, sleep disturbance and joint stiffness.  Some patients also report difficulty with swallowing, bowel and bladder abnormalities, numbness and tingling, and cognitive disfunction. Fibromyalgia is frequently comorbid with psychiatric conditions such as depression and anxiety and stress-related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Not all fibromyalgia patients experience all associated symptoms.

While any relief to sufferers from symptomatic treatment is understandably welcome, it is usually partial, temporary and often comes with so-called side-effects (really drug induced disease effects or iatrogenic disease). Any treatment tends to be haphazard and random depending on the training and expertise of the practitioner. The old adage is that if all one has is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Heilkunst is not able to treat everything, as life is too complex for that, but it does have a systematic, comprehensive approach to various conditions people are suffering from, such as fibromyalgia (or any other condition one wishes to name) that involves regimenal factors (diet, nutrition, exercise, lifestyle, etc), underlying disease causes (such as physical or emotional shocks and traumas, as well as inherited disease archetypes called chronic miasms), and also the broader realm of soul-spiritual issues (living one’s true life, not suppressing the true self, and various false beliefs one may have that block the full unfolding and development of one’s being). Any and all of these can be part of the complex of causes in a given case that produce the symptoms labelled fibromyalgia, and these are all examined and addressed in a systematic, comprehensive fashion. No two cases of fibromyalgia (or X, Y, Z condition) are the same. Yet the complex of causes underlying the condition in each case can be individually addressed.

True treatment for any condition involves identifying and then removing the underlying causes, using safe and effective remedies, whether to remove an imbalance in diet or lifestyle, or to remove a disease state, such as unresolved chronic grief or from a vaccination, such as for Rubella, as was a factor in one case of rheumatoid arthritis we treated. Heilkunst can offer that type of treatment.

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

Why Am I Always on the Move but Never Seem to be Satisfied? 

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Tuberculosis – Restlessness

Did you know…

that tuberculosis is also an inherited disease pattern, which we call a chronic miasm?

Just as malaria, which we are familiar with in an acute form, now mostly exists in its chronic, hidden form, the Malarial miasm, so tuberculosis has largely disappeared in its acute form, but still plagues man as a chronic miasm.

If you suffer from the usual ‘colds and flus of the season’, often making the Christmas holiday period and the weeks after more miserable than joyful, you are suffering from the underlying impact of the Tuberculosis miasm. Other lung problems, such as bronchitis, pneumonia, and various coughs, are also largely linked to the presence of this chronic disease pattern in your life, or that of family members. Tuberculosis (miasm) can manifest physically in any part of the body, although the key organ affected is the lungs. This relates to the fact that the issue of Tuberculosis is a lack of grounding and incarnation and lungs are the organ related to the earth element. They feel better at high altitude, but they are then caught in a conflict as their heart feels worse in the mountains. Tubercular children are active, restless, and destructive in a deliberate and selective way.

Tuberculosis has a characteristic state of mind – one of restlessness. Tubercular patients only seem to feel well if they are planning travel or change, preparing for travel or change or actually undergoing a change in routine.  Once settled, they seldom stay content for long, seeking again another destination to travel to (racking up the frequent flyer miles), another place to live, another job to do, a new hobby to follow. These are people seemingly on the move, but not with any deeper purpose than the move itself. For them it is more ‘change for change’s sake’. They can be constantly rearranging furniture, redecorating, renovating.

A darker side of Tuberculosis is a sudden impulse to break or destroy something. They can present as an ‘angel with a devil’s grin’ on occasion, usually more apparent in children, but discernible still, if more subtle and disguised in adults.

If you suffer from lung problems, constant or persistent ‘colds and flus’, particularly in winter, and feel restless, never really satisfied, suffering from ‘the grass is greener on the other side of the fence’ syndrome, then you would likely benefit from treatment for the chronic miasm we call Tuberculosis. Relief is as close as a Heilkunst practitioner near you (and now, with the internet and Skype, relief is just a nano-second away!).

Stay tuned. Next we will look at a little-know, but important and difficult miasm that often upsets Valentine’s Day.

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

Malaria – Victimization

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Did you know….

that we have certain archetypal disease patterns that we bring into this world with us, and that lie at the root of many of our health problems? You did if you have been reading these blogs regularly. Our last blog spoke about the first of these chronic inherited disease archetypes, Psora. The theme of Psora is that of a poverty consciousness.

If you have been reading these blogs, you would also know that the chronic miasms have a certain order to them in the way in which they developed, and also how they are treated in most cases. After Psora, the first of the chronic miasms, we find Malaria.

Malaria used to be endemic around the world, including in Europe and North America, as an acute disease, but is now confined to only a few, mostly tropical places. In most of the world, acute malaria is gone, but has become a chronic,  largely unknown disease, producing and hiding behind many acute conditions that are given fancy names, from Greek or Latin, based on the main symptoms. These conventional ‘names’ aren’t very helpful as they don’t tell us or the person seeking to treat them what the cause is, so treatment amounts to suppressing the symptoms. But the underlying cause remains, and the disease(s) continue, just now deeper inside you and getting stronger as you get weaker. It’s ‘healthcare by proxy’ or ‘healthcare by hook or by crook’ – if you can’t get rid of the cause, then get rid of the evidence and pretend you fixed the problem.

Malaria produces many conditions involving the digestive system, in particular the liver. And the liver is the basis for our energy, our ability to digest food, but also life in general. With a weak liver, we also tend to feel generally weak, unable to handle the demands of the world, and psychologically, we start to feel like we are victims and the world with its many demands is oppressive and unfair.

The characteristic time for Malaria to manifest in most people is in the late Fall, from late October to early December, following the season of Psora (early Fall). The state of mind of Psora, of not having enough, coincides with the waning days of summer, the approach of the colder weather, shorter days, less sunshine, and the dying of nature’s vegetative cover of the earth. Malaria then follows, with the colder, damper and stormier days of late Fall, where we feel like nature is against us, the reprieve of ‘Indian Summer’ now gone and the harshness of winter soon to come upon us. Of course, these chronic miasms are not dependent upon the weather, and can manifest regardless of geography. To an experienced practitioner, the manifestations of each of the chronic miasms can be seen in the various symptoms that can flare up at certain times of the year. Every November, I used to get depressed by the damp, cold weather, get periodic fevers and feel very cold, seeking out warmth and feeling generally like the world was not a welcoming place. These symptoms were very familiar to me, as I had contracted malaria, the acute disease miasm in my youth when working and travelling in Asia and the Pacific. I had treated for the acute malaria, but the deeper, underlying chronic malarial miasm was still there. However, once I learned about it and treated for it, my seasonal malarial symptoms also ended.

Treating for Malaria, as for Psora, and all the other chronic miasms we’ll talk about can make a large difference in your overall health, and prevent other problems from emerging later in life. Even if the chronic miasms are not affecting you seemingly now, they are latent, and waiting to be activated by some event, and once activated can cause significant health issues. Next time we’ll talk about the chronic miasm following on Malaria, Tuberculosis, behind all the colds and flus we tend to suffer from in winter. Stay tuned.

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

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.

Removing Traumas and Shocks as Disease-causing Agent

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Did you know…

that most people are suffering from a multitude of diseases, and the conditions that these diseases create seem to be complex and difficult to treat? Difficult, that is, if there is not a clear idea as to what is a disease and what is simply the expression of a disease (condition).

The conventional system emphasizes ‘diagnosis’. True diagnosis should point to the true cause of a disease. But what the medical “authority” is really doing in most cases is giving a name to an obvious and often arbitrary complex of symptoms. In this kind of labelling of an arbitrarily selected mix of symptoms, the cause of this so-called ‘disease’ is either unknown (termed ‘idiopathic’) or is multiple. If a person has painful inflammation of the joints, this main symptom is given a name, such as arthritis, which is simply a Greek term that means ‘inflammation of the joints’. The Greek term sounds more impressive, however. It used to be called ‘gout’, but that is now generally reserved specifically for inflammation of the foot joints. Well now, many things are claimed to cause gout. But since the ‘diagnosis’ says the condition is due to inflammation, the conventional ‘solution’ is to kill the symptom, the messenger, namely the inflammation. This seems simpler to the materialistic mind-set which looks at things rather mechanically. And it fits the tendency to see all symptoms as linked to some drug that can remove them – a drug for every ailment. In those cases where a person has a multiple of conditions, each symptom is treated/suppressed by a given drug, ignoring the underlying cause which generally can’t be ‘seen’ with the allopathic approach.

We have seen endless cases where children with a skin eruption are treated with drugs to suppress this, then later, they develop lung problems, which is really the original cause(s) manifesting deeper in the body. In the conventional system the lung problems are instead considered as a new ‘disease’ and a new drug is prescribed. And this can continue until kidney problems arise, which are then treated with further drugs, without considering the disease-causing effects of the drugs themselves (such as kidney damaging), the iatrogenic diseases. In a case we mentioned in a previous blog, the initial symptoms (high blood pressure) were suppressed without treating the underlying cause, and the drug caused ‘side-effects’, which required a second drug, and this continued until eventually the patient was on 14 different medications.

In the Heilkunst system it is relatively easy to identify true causes, even in complex cases. With the true causes identified, a scientific method can then be applied to systematically treat the complex diseases in the proper order. Our body is more than the flesh and blood material body and we know that by the fact that a memory of a horror in the distant past can still bring up shivers inside us, or the prospect of seeing someone who abused us long ago in childhood could be terrifying and create a bed-bound sickness. The body memory is long and traumatic, events in our life do leave negative imprints on our body–contractions, fear, rigidities, etc. In various degrees these events all contribute to our suffering today. Each shock and trauma needs to be treated appropriately to lift us free from the past. These traumatic experiences are part of the underlying causes of the disease conditions. By treating a timeline of various shocks and traumas, we have helped many people with complex conditions such as high blood pressure, Type II diabetes, autism, among many others. We treat the timeline events in the reverse order to their occurrence as the general law of healing tells us that our innate healing capacity seeks to address the most recent trauma first. The treatment of diseases due to traumatic events that occur since birth has a bio-logic.

Let’s consider a case of an autistic child. He or she could likely receive some or all of the following shocks:

– ultrasound(s)

– amniocentesis

– forceps, Pitocin, C-section

– vaccinations (upwards of 30 or more)

– antibiotics

– tylenol or other fever-suppressing drugs

– surgeries and various drugs following from that

– emotional traumas related to separation/divorce

– bullying and other forms of abuse

– blood draws and other invasive testing

– dental surgery

For more information on this Rudi addresses the topic at an Autism One conference in Toronto 2009.

Treating the symptoms of an autistic child is not only just temporary, but it can be suppressive, making things worse, and add additional drug diseases onto the existing ones. With the Heilkunst system, we treat the shocks and remove these initial layer of causes, which generally brings out sustaining health benefits and improvements. We then work at identifying deeper issues, such as inherited disease patterns and karmic and spiritual reasons for each individual, which will be discussed further in the future bogs. Stay tuned!

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

Why do symptoms come back?

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Did you know…

that we mistake getting rid of symptoms for removing the cause?

There’s a human tendency to think that the symptoms we suffer are the disorder or disease and if we can only get rid of the symptoms, we’ve gotten rid of the problem. No pain, no problem. There’s nothing more vexing and stressful than the suffering of someone close to us. That was essentially the reason why blood-letting was so popular for so long – it drained so much life energy from a person that they stopped complaining – the body didn’t have enough energy to produce symptoms.

Symptoms are not the disease or disorder, but our body’s attempt to get rid of the problem. Symptoms are the message that we have a problem, “Houston, we have a problem.” At first, the message is given quietly, but if we ignore it, the body ramps up the volume, and if we keep ignoring the message and don’t correct the cause the symptoms are pointing to, it starts shouting at us.

Symptoms are really part of life’s game of ‘truth or consequences’: if we don’t follow natural law (and spiritual law) and live right we will suffer the consequences. So, symptoms are really good and faithful friends, telling us what we don’t really want, but need to hear. We don’t like to be told to stop overindulging in sweets or chocolate cake, or to start exercising regularly, or even to get out of a job we dislike and is stressing us. We know we need to do these things, but we often prefer staying with the familiar and comfortable to the unknown and often uncomfortable. We don’t generally like to change unless we are forced to. Symptoms effectively force us to consider changing the way we live, because that way is making us sick.

But our first tendency is to find something that will make the unpleasant, even painful symptoms go away, never mind the cause. It’s a ‘shoot the messenger’ response. The conventional system of medicine is essentially built around getting rid of symptoms, and it does this by forcefully suppressing them. We can see this in all the ‘anti’ drugs:

– antibiotics to suppress microbial life, whether good or bad, which are just the carriers for disease and are produced as part of the healing reaction; the microbial life are not the disease itself.

– anti-inflammatories that suppress the physiologically healthy fever the body produces in the effort to destroy disease germs, and repair tissue damage, and restore balance,

– anti-convulsants that suppress the discharge of energy built up in various organs,

– anti-hypertensive drugs artificially control high blood pressure which is the effect of a number of causes, etc.

We may like the temporary relief we get, but the disorder or disease is still there. We may choose to believe that the pain is ’caused’ by inflammation and take the anti-inflammatory, but we ignore what is causing the inflammation. We may choose to believe that our depression is ’caused’ by a lack of a certain hormone or neuro-chemical, but we ignore what it is that then causes the hormone or chemical to go out of balance. The symptoms are reduced and we go on with our life, until the symptoms come back. At first we just take more of what made the symptoms go away the first time, and sometimes it works, but eventually it stops working or it requires stronger dosage and longer usage, which produce side-effects that are often worse than the initial problem they were meant to ‘solve’ (a case of ‘sweeping it under the rug’).

The goal of Heilkunst’s therapeutic approach is to find the true cause underlying the symptoms, not just to make the symptoms go away. A state of health is not about the superficial outer appearances but the living functions underneath. Identifying the true cause requires a thorough understanding of the nature of disorder and disease. In most cases, knowing the traumatic event, shock or accident that triggered the problem will lead to the cause. We can then prescribe the right remedy to remove the cause. Different types of causes need to be addressed according to their lawfulness.

On the one hand, some causes can be in the nature of life style and dietary considerations. If arthritic symptoms that are suppressed by drugs continue to persist, and the symptoms are due to chronic dehydration, as in one case we had, then the remedy is adequate water intake and cutting back on diuretic drinks like coffee and soda. If schizophrenia is due to a lack of a mineral or vitamin, then supplying that mineral or vitamin will resolve the problem, where anti-psychotic drugs only aggravate the problem (leaching vitamins and minerals out of the system).

On the other hand, if the cause is a disease or complex of diseases, then even the naturopathic approach of nutrition and supplements will only palliate (give temporary relief), but not remove the cause itself. Take the case of a woman who was quite sick and received good advice on nutrition and lifestyle changes, which helped initially. However, the symptoms returned, and this time, even worse than before. The previous treatment program was re-applied, but this time it no longer helped. The problem was that the previous treatment removed the various disorders in the sustentive power, but not the disease involving the generative power. In order to remove the disease(s) cause we had to identify the various diseases and treated them systematically. Once this was done, the symptoms disappeared – and were not to come back.

Next time we’ll look at how to identify the disease(s) a person has and how to treat them properly, and in the proper order.

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

The True Meaning of Symptoms

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Did you know…

that the symptoms you suffer are not the disorder or disease itself, but your body’s attempt to fix the problem?

We know at one level that the symptoms are just that–indications of a disorder or disease, not the disease itself. Yet, we generally tend to think in terms of ‘no symptoms, no disease’. We think this in two ways: first, so long as we don’t have any symptoms, we think we are healthy; second, if we have symptoms and they then go away, we generally think the disease is gone, too.

Most treatments, whether conventional or alternative, are aimed at the symptoms. This is really just a case of ‘shooting the messenger’. Symptoms result from a disease, but they are not the disease. Symptoms are really our friend, telling us what we need, but we don’t want to hear. Without symptoms to tell us that we have a problem, we wouldn’t know and wouldn’t try to do anything about it.

Heilkunst distinguishes between the initial action and counteraction phases of the disease process. These two phases relate to the two sides of our life force – the generative power and the sustentive power. The initial action involves the engendering of the disease in the generative power of our life force. It is virtually imperceptible to us. As a sovereign entity, our body naturally initiates a battle against any  intrusion. This is the counteraction phase. The counteraction of the sustentive side of our life force produces symptoms, which point to  the struggle against the disease. So, the actual engenderment of the disease (initial action) and the counteraction of our healing (sustentive) power make up the two phases of the disease process.

The disease process is part of the natural law of action-reaction: the action of the disease agent produces a reaction on the part of our immune system. How soon and in what form the counteraction will take place depends on the nature of the disease, the individual makeup and the condition of the immune system. Usually the stronger the immune system, the more immediate the counteraction. Sometimes the immune system is able to overcome the disease with few if any perceptible symptoms. That is when someone might feel a little ‘off’ with ‘cold’ symptoms, while another person will have more pronounced displays of symptoms. It is, thus, important to have a healthy regimen to keep the sustentive power properly charged and able to resist incursions by disease agents. Relatively speaking, a disease of an infectious nature usually sets off the symptoms much sooner than a disease of a more chronic nature even though these might also have acute flare-ups. Some individual’s tend to express their battle against disease through fevers while others seem to always have a headache. (We will look at this in another post.)

Disease itself is invisible and silent. It comes like a thief in the night. It steals our health and we don’t know it until later when we discover something missing, things out of place or signs of forced entry. Symptoms point out that a disease is trying to get in or has somehow gotten in. Some symptoms are loud and noisy–when the pain feels like we are banging our head against a wall, or we want to, this is something we can’t ignore! Let’s take the classic case of infectious diseases. When our children contract a disease, like chickenpox, nothing is noticed for about 7-10 days. They have the disease, but we don’t know it yet. This is the initial action of the disease process. Then our healing or sustentive power rallies its forces (the immune system) and tries to get rid of the disease. This struggle is the counteraction and it is the struggle that produces symptoms, such as fevers and discharges.

We tend to consider the symptoms as being the disease itself, and thus, the enemy. Fevers, discharges, and rashes are generally considered bad and to be suppressed. Most treatments seek to provide medicines that work against the symptoms. We are given either synthetic or natural medicines to suppress fever (aspirin or white willow bark) or to suppress discharges (decongestants for mucous). However, these treatments are ‘symptomatic’; they do not address the underlying cause or the disease itself.

In Heilkunst, we can take the symptoms into account, but the treatment is aimed at the disease itself, not the symptoms. When the cause is removed, the symptoms also go away. Take the case of a woman who had been suffering from migraines several times a week for almost 30 years. She had changed her diet, taken various natural and over the counter drug treatments and finally ended up on prescription drugs. These blunted the symptoms somewhat, but did nothing to actually get rid of the migraines. These migraines had a number of underlying causes or diseases, and after treating for them systematically with Heilkunst her migraines finally ceased.

Heilkunst provides causal treatment. It does not ‘shoot the messenger’ (the symptoms), but seeks rather to get at the underlying cause. Symptoms are often unpleasant, but they are our friends in terms of letting us know there is a problem, and giving us clues as to the source of the problem. Suppressing the symptoms does not mean the cause is gone. The battle temporarily fades into the background but it will continue on or it will choose another outlet (a different set of symptoms from another part of the body), as the enemy (disease) is still in place. Removing the cause (the disease), however, does effectively get rid of the symptoms as well.

So, don’t be misled by symptomatic treatment – use the approach that actually gets rid of the underlying cause(s) of the symptoms – Heilkunst – and does it safely.

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

Love

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Did you know…

that life is about relationships, and that there are natural and spiritual laws that govern them and determine whether they are healthy for us or not?

We’re going to take a different tack this week. I am often asked a question by patients, and it is one that we all ask ourselves at some point: “How does one determine when they are in a relationship with someone if it is really love or not?” And then there is usually some explanation that follows from this: “I am struggling with this since I am in a relationship and sometimes doubting if it is the right relationship for me or not, even though in many ways s/he has all the attributes I want in a partner. I find myself often not feeling happy, or as happy as I want to be. I am unsure if this is my own doing or if it means things are not meant to be. I am looking for any helpful insights as to how I can determine if I should stay in a particular relationship or not.”

What has this to do with Heilkunst? The answer is that life is about relationships at all levels of our being, with people, places, and things. The nature of all of our relationships can contribute to our health or undermine it. Ultimately to be healthy is to be in healthy relationships with the world around us and the world within.

The first ‘dating manual’ we could say was written over 200 years ago by a German doctor, Samuel Friedrich Hahnemann. Dr. Hahnemann had left the conventional medicine of his day in despair, realizing that it was both blind and destructive of health. It was blind because it was based essentially on guesswork, dressed up as authority, regarding the proper relationship of medicines and disease. The conventional medicine of his day (continued to this day) was not grounded in any real understanding of natural laws regarding the removal of cause (cure), but only based on intellectual speculations, governed by the suppression of symptoms, pretending that the suppression of symptoms was more or less the same as removing the cause. Dr. Hahnemann termed it allopathic, that is, based on no law of disease whatsoever. Not much has changed in 200 years. Today, conventional medicine prescribes drugs based on statistics from the fabled double-blind randomized clinical trials, of which the authorities require that only 2 out of 10 trials can show that the drug being tested is at least better than placebo. In most of these cases, the drug is only marginally better than placebo, not taking into account all the ‘side-effects’ of the drug.

Dr. Hahnemann proposed an entirely different approach–to use natural law to match the medicine with the disease. The natural laws of health, known since the Egyptians and Greeks, were based on a more universal law of resonance. Resonance derives from the natural and proper relationship between things, “association as it ought to be”. In the case of matching the right medicine to the right disease, Dr. Hahnemann set down a whole system of medicine, called Heilkunst, through his major works, the Organon of Heilkunst, The Lesser Writings, Chronic Diseases and other writings. Dr. Hahnemann recognized and understood that health depended on the proper relationship or resonance between individuals. He stated that a person’s health would more readily endure ten years hard labour in servitude than one year in a loveless marriage.

In an ideal world, true love governs our actions, at all levels. Love derives from a natural affinity for those people and things that are beneficial and healthy for our development according to our purpose on earth. We don’t live in an ideal world, but one created specifically for us so that we can exercise the freedom of choice given us. The power to make choices, our capacity to reason, creates a veil between us and our inner wisdom, setting up a conflict we experience between what we think and what we feel. We are all too often of ‘two minds’ – the brain-mind and the ‘gut brain’ or gut feeling. Science has shown that we actually have two ‘brains’. This split in our perception of the world creates doubt, but it also creates in that space something called the ego. The ego acts out of fear and often in contrary to what we truly want–which is to act out of love. The ego is defensive, suspicious, doubtful and never at peace. Before the maturation of the true self, our relationships to the world are built according to our temporary guardian, the ego. These relationships are often based on fear instead of love. The ego-directed and fear-based relationships stifle our life in all aspects, which can eventuate in physical illness.

Heilkunst works on removing the barriers and blockages that prevent the emergence of the true self. The true self takes over from the ego when we are truly healthy. We can then take our rightful place within ourselves. The true self operates out of love and we are guided by love to experience those things that are resonant. Love is the quality at all levels of our being to connect with and to know intuitively within our heart that which is right for each of us, with no questions or doubt. Resonant relationships are derived from love. They are health-giving and nurture our development. They make us fulfilled as human beings.

Now, resonance doesn’t mean that we always feel it as positive. Resonance consists of a dynamic, living polarity between that which is consonant (which we feel as positive) and dissonant (which we feel as negative). The polarity of light and dark, expansion and contraction, of gravity and levity is the very basis of creation. Without the one we cannot know the other. The growth of our being and consciousness is due to a living polarity with all things we are resonant with. All love involves a creative tension and it is this tension that allows for growth and evolution of self.

When we feel negative about a relationship, how do we then know if it is simply derived from the ego or the dissonant side of resonance? The healthier we become, the more we are able to know, not intellectually, but in a deeper sense, what is resonant to us, and therefore, what is true love. True love is based on a resonance between our true self and the true self of another. Only out of true love comes true happiness; not the subjective happiness from outer things, but the deep, inner sense of peace and fulfillment that comes from being what we truly are, not what the authorities of this world – whether parents, acquaintances, bosses, rulers, leaders – want us to be. No one knows what is good for us except our true self and we cannot know what is ‘right’ for another. We may not like many things, and may feel things as unpleasant, but if we are truly doing what is resonant, then we are in pursuit of happiness, the becoming of who we are.

Heilkunst takes us through a journey of learning to act more and more according to the law of love and resonance and to abolish the false law of like and attraction. In the movie Smoke(1995) an older man tells a young man about a decision he made based on his true inner desire and love, which went against his family and culture. He was effectively disowned and banished. The young man asks him if he had it all to do over again, would he make the same choice. The older man looks steadily at the younger man and answers, “What choice?” And that is the answer to all those patients who asked about when they would know if it was the right relationship. When the true self acts, there is no questioning, no doubting.

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