Last Monday I wrote about miasmatic theory, and then each day discussed a different miasm- Psora, Sycosis, Syphilitic, Tubercular, Cancer and then the last two days some of the other Miasms that have been proposed. Today we are looking at Miasms in a slightly different light, and examining the work of the first of two Homeopaths who have taken miasmatic theory in two different directions. Come back tomorrow to conclude the series looking at Louis Klein’s work.
Miasms and the Sensation method
Rajan Sankaran is an Indian Homeopath who has developed a method for finding the remedy by delving deep into how a person is feeling and what the underlying sensation is. He divides the miasms into ten, so there is a continuum of reactions and patterns and how they change, moving from a younger age and health, through closer to death. This is a move from classifying the disease as that of a miasm- so ulcers means syphilitic miasm because of their destructive nature- instead looking at the experience of disease and the way the individual is coping with it and with life in general.
By identifying the miasm, and the kingdom- plant, mineral or animal- it gives a small number of remedies to differentiate. With the plant kingdom you are crossing the sensation of each plant family with the miasm, or the state they are in, and then checking the table for which plants in that family are in that miasmatic state. It can bring up remedies that are small and unfamiliar, but give excellent results.
I should add a proviso to this- one of the strengths of homeopathy is the totality of the symptoms: that every symptom is important and we look at the person as a whole, considering mental, emotional, and physical symptoms. Using this system of Homeopathy can be incredibly effective, or an utter waste of time if it is not applied well and does not take into account the totality of symptoms. If your analysis leads you to one plant family and a particular miasm, but the totality of symptoms does not fit, then you need to reassess.
Acute is about a acute situation with sudden and intense danger. The only reaction they have is shock and panic. Like a newborn baby, everything is immediate and has the same instinctive response. One of the remedies of the acute miasm is Belladonna- one many parents know well, where a child will throw a high fever with a sudden onset. In the acute miasm complaints are sudden and severe, but then resolve easily as well. Situations that fit the Acute miasm include an earthquake, panic attacks and trauma, threatened miscarriage and anxiety in labour.
Typhoid is also sudden and intense, but if they manage it during the critical period they will come out okay. This is a move into childhood: with stages of development things are hard for a short period followed by times of ease. Typhoid itself is a disease with a fairly rapid disease progression, and three distinct stages, each lasting a week. So diseases of the typhoid miasm include pneumonia, or headaches or muscle aches with continued fevers.
Psora is still the need to struggle to succeed, and an inadequate ability to face stress. Sankaran likens this to a teenager learning to drive. If you want to know more about Psora then check out the post from last Tuesday which is much more comprehensive.
Ringworm is alternating between struggle with anxiety about success and periods of despair and giving up. Sankaran compares it to the game snakes and ladders where you can advance or slip backwards, and diseases like Herpes. Tinea and Acne can also fall into the Ringworm miasm.
Malaria, like the disease, is periods of acute attack in between underlying chronic feelings of being stuck or deficient. The comparison here is with an employee of an irate boss- always somewhat on edge, and at times subject to their temper. Conditions that may fit in the malaria miasm include migraines, worms, colic and colitis.
Sycosis is a feeling of fixed, irredeemable weakness in themselves. To cope with it they try and hide it from others, covering up with egotism, compulsive acts and very secretive. Their game is Poker, needing to bluff in order to win at life.
Cancer is weakness within and a need to live up to high expectations. They push themselves to the limit, there is a need for control and they are never satisfied. They feel tasks are beyond their limits and they are stretched. This is a prolonged struggle without end, survival depends on it and failing will mean death and destruction. The world feels chaotic.
Tubercular is a sense of suffocation, oppression and a desire for change. Hectic activity to break free. They have the attitude that time is short and there is too much to be done, and not enough time.
Leprous is intense oppression, intense hopelessness, isolation and intense desire for change. This is a miasm for people who feel like they are outcastes, for gangrene and paralysis.
Syphilis is faced with a situation beyond salvage, with complete hopelessness and despair. In desperate effort tries to change it and this leads to destruction.
This is not a method I have used often, and I am not an expert, but it certainly helps differentiate between remedies by looking at their state, how they react to situations and themes around severity, recurrence and acute/chronic pictures.
This also compares disease progression- there is a difference between a slow growing tumour (Sycotic) and a fast moving cancer (Acute or Typhoid), and Sankaran’s method classifies them into different miasms.
Another benefit (although it takes us further from Hahnemann’s miasmatic theory) is the ability to recognise the Miasm even when there has not been that disease in the family history. To be in a ringworm state there is not necessarily a history of ringworm, more that the way ringworm progresses with the acute manifestation of the disease and then periods of latency when everything is fine.
It also reduces the remedies to a single miasm, instead of having remedies that encompass several miasms. For example Belladonna is an Acute miasm remedh – which we can see with the sudden onset and very intense symptoms. China, unsurprisingly is a Malaria miasm remedy, and Bryonia and Nux Vomica remedies of the Typhoid miasm.
If you would like to know more about Sankaran’s miasms, then please check out his book Schema for a summary or some of his other writings.
Please come back tomorrow for the final post looking at Louis Klein’s work and the 18 miasms he has classified.