By Kieran Linnane
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About seven years
ago my colleague, Charles Wansbrough, and I started to look at crystals as potent
sources for homeopathic remedies. We
scoured the available material on crystals and also I meditated with them, trying
to elucidate their healing properties and understand how they might be used
profitably in homeopathic practice. We
found a morass of written material about how crystals might be used in healing
and a lot of grand claims made for each particular crystal.
We did not doubt that crystals were very powerful in their effects as
they have a long historical usage going way back to biblical times, to the Egyptians
and to Shamanic peoples but the written literature gave such vague indications
for their usage and the language in most books was so “new agey” that we were
at a loss to separate the wheat from the chaff.
We potentised many gem stones and I meditated with both the original
gem and the potentised version. My
modus operandi in trying to comprehend the nature of a particular crystal is
to lie on my bed, with eyes closed, holding a piece of the particular crystal
/ gemstone in my hand. I then allow
the crystal to “speak” to me. Usually
the effect is instantaneous upon my energy body.
It feels as though the energy of crystals goes straight into the chakra
system, either balancing or activating the various centres of the body.
Each crystal has its own very particular flavour and essence: some have
a ponderous and grave flavour and tend to affect primarily the base and sacral
chakras eg Black Tourmaline. Others
affect the upper chakras, notably amethyst, which tends to make me feel
very spacey and sends me beyond the crown chakra out of the body.
Some induce feelings of sadness eg Apache tears, whilst while
meditating with others provoke feelings of great happiness and joy.
We made a tentative initial classification of crystals into three camps:
tranquillisers, stimulators and
balancers.
In spite of the written material, we had no real idea how to prescribe these as potentised remedies for patients. What were the indications for a particular potentised gemstone in relation to the material written about the physical gemstone? We had many questions but few clear answers. For example, would one prescribe potentised Amethyst to a patient who was spacey and out of the body because it seemed to produce that effect if the crystal was held? I started tentatively to give crystal remedies to a few of my patients with some interesting but inconclusive results. I soon gave up as I was too unclear about what I was actually doing at that point. Charles was more adventurous than me at that stage and he started to prescribe crystal remedies in a 10 MM potency together with a particular homeopathic remedy in a more normal potency. Some of his results from that period were astounding. Often patients would report very little action from the homeopathic remedy but enormous response to the potentised gemstone. His favourites appeared to be Lapis Lazuli, Clear quartz and Rose quartz. Conversations with Charles at that point as to why he had prescribed such and such a gemstone were frustrating because consciously he didn’t know. He would prescribe them purely on instinct or intuition but would be unable to give me a rational, coherent answer. I felt deeply dissatisfied. I just didn’t know why or how to prescribe them. At that point I had not learnt how to dowse which would have been one method of using them. So I let go of them.
Over two years ago Charles and I began to work with each other with the bioliminal technology. Again our interest in crystals was rekindled and over the period of a few months I started to meditate with about thirty crystals which I had selected as being probably the most important. In the meantime, the Homeopathic Guild had published some meditative provings of several crystals including Emerald, Moonstone and Rose Quartz, and also Jeremy Sherr had done some orthodox homeopathic provings of Diamond and Jade. The difference this time was that we had a prognostic technology which would help us to prescribe the gemstones. We would only give a particular gemstone or combination thereof if they produced a clear picture of the patient. Our modus operandi was to use them in a particular case if we had given a remedy to someone and they were doing reasonably well but still were producing an unclear base picture and yet where no other homeopathic remedy seemed indicated at that particular point. The potentised gemstones seemed just to move the person forward in some way and keep the case moving until we could find a better homeopathic remedy for them. I was still a bit unsure of what they could do in practice until a particular case presented itself and in which a single crystal remedy was the curative remedy. This has encouraged us to pursue our experimentation with crystal remedies as being sometimes the best source of the simillimum.
I present our case below in some detail. It was only at the fifth appointment did we prescribe the most optimum remedy for our patient. I present the case in full, however, as the presenting picture becomes clearer at each visit.
Case:
D. - Female, DOB 5.3.48
Occupation – Housewife, ex-marketing consultant
Married with 2 children (aged 7 and 12)
D. is a woman in her early fifties, slightly overweight, of South African/Asian origin. She is loquacious and has a highly vivacious personality always ready to find the humour in a situation. Even when talking of her states of depression she would crack jokes and was not totally identified with her particular states.
D. originally came to us because of an injury to her right knee. She had fallen several times on this knee over the years. The first time was about four years ago; while walking she suddenly fell over and hit her knee. The injury to the knee at that point was exacerbated by the fact that her house was on six floors and she was having to go up and down stairs. At that point the family moved to Singapore and she felt a lot of stress having to prepare for this move. When in Singapore she slipped on a marble floor and again hit the right knee. A few months later the family visited China and in the airport she had both children hanging on to her and she went over again, not being able to put her hands out to protect herself and again the same knee was affected. She says that having returned to England the knee is still “not happy”. D. experiences a burning and aching pain in the knee. She visited a specialist who told her that she had pushed her knee cap off centre and what she was experiencing was a “tracking problem”. She also experienced some pain and swelling in her left knee which she feels is compensating for the right. The physiotherapist who has been treating her says that the knees are fine now as the inflammation has reduced however D. still feels pain in them. She is unable to flex the right knee and is unable to walk down stairs having to do so on her bottom. She has given up any orthodox treatment now because nothing seems to be making any difference.
H: So why do you think you keep falling all the time? Are you very awkward?
D: No – it’s very strange. In Singapore I did a lot of Reiki. They were very interesting because they said it was a feminine issue. I laughed and said “that really helps me! What do you mean?” They said that the reason I kept falling on my right knee meant that there was something out of balance in my psyche. That is what the Reiki people believed and I am beginning to wonder if they might have a point. Why over the last four years have I kept falling on it? And I fell twice after that. I was in Thailand and I was walking and then suddenly I was on the ground. There was no warning. I didn’t fall on anything, my knee just “went”.
H: So what are you feelings about this feminine issue?
D: Oh I don’t know. I feel resentful but then what woman isn’t resentful (laughs). I didn’t want to come back from Singapore. I am now busy with trying to get my son into Westminster school and somehow my husband feels that I am a great coper and I will cope. We are having a stressful time now having come back to London and my husband just expects me to cope. And I think my knee may be collapsing because I don’t want to cope anymore.
The other problem that D. suffers from at the moment is anxiety. She wakes up “in a panic” at 5 am every day.
D: I lie there panicking at 5 o’clock in the morning about all the things I have to do in the day – I have to get my son to school and I haven’t finished unpacking yet and I have to send some money to someone in Thailand. All these things. It can all feel overwhelming. I have a husband who is very bright but he can only handle his own life. Everything else he leaves to me. He expects me to handle all the rest. I remember in Singapore I used to wake up in the morning and throw up. It was only bile. But I don’t know whether that was due to stress or not but I would throw up and throw up. So I went to a doctor and he did all these tests. They all came back fine except for my liver enzymes were a bit high. It was bizarre. And even now if I want to in the morning all I have to do is thinking “I am going to throw up” and I do. They gave me a course of antibiotics and they monitored me and then I stopped throwing up. At the moment the big tension is my son who has got to make it into Westminster senior school. I pick him up and sit with him. I don’t want to be there and he doesn’t want to be there but if he doesn’t get into the senior school then we have given up everything in Singapore for nothing. (The family returned to England for the sake of their son’s schooling). At the moment my son sleeps on the floor next to me at night – the movers smashed my bed so I am sleeping on the floor at present and my son sleeps next to me holding my hand all night because he is feeling so insecure. So that is my tension at the moment.
H: So describe in detail how you run your life.
D: On the edge. As soon as there is a gap in my life I fill it. Right let’s have a dinner party or let’s go off to the country. I have to fill my spaces. At the moment I am happy because there are ten boxes which need to be unpacked. I can’t face doing nothing.
H: What happens to you when there is nothing?
D: I go find something. Sometimes I go and get a lovely old weepy film, get a drink and lie there but I don’t do that very often. I always need to do something. I am driven. I am going to Tunisia in November next year to produce a fantastic fashion show in the amphitheatre. I am either doing stuff or travelling. I love travel. What happened when I was in Singapore was that I stopped working and just became a housewife. I had a maid and a driver and everything but my life was just empty. I hated the women over there with their lunches and their coffee mornings. It wasn’t me and I felt that I was dying - I have to do something. So the way I feel good is by achieving something. I have to have some kind of stimulation. That is why I began travelling. You have got to have stuff coming into your brain. At the moment if I can get my son into Westminster I will be back here with two bottles of champagne.
H: Tell us about your parents.
D: They are South African. My father thought that unless you did medicine or law you were nothing, you weren’t professional. He was horrified when I did international marketing. In a way he still doesn’t understand what I did. You had to achieve – that whole Oriental thing – the expectations run extremely high. My whole family are driven. Both my sisters are dentists and my brother is a doctor. There was a terrible sense of pressure. I stayed in my parents’ house will I was 30 when I married. So I actually went from my parents’ house to my husband’s. And I was thinking this morning that whole ten years from 20 to 30 when I was trying to do what my parents wanted of me were so miserable. Trying to achieve and trying to get parental approval.
H: Tell us about your dreams.
D: I used to have terrible nightmares for years. There was a lot of blood and knives in my dreams. I had these nightmares until I got married, right up to my thirties. In the dreams there was this terrible sense of the unknown and blackness. I grew up in South Africa and when I was ten I saw a man being knived downstairs where we lived. The Africans all carried knives and it was just one of those things. When the riots were happening my father was working as a doctor in the hospital and we were wondering whether he would be able to make it back to Johannesburg. The maid whom I loved turned to me and said: “The first one I am going to kill is you if my brothers get here.” And I have never forgotten this. It was unbelievable. As a child you have everything ripped away. Since then I could never sleep at night alone, not could I sleep without the lights on. When I travelled it was a big problem because how do you sleep alone in a hotel room?
H: So you can’t sleep alone without the lights on?
D: That’s right. I can’t sleep alone period. Even a kitten is better than nothing. I have to have some kind of life force around me. I suppose this started since the time of the maid and has dogged me ever since. I mean the children laugh when my husband has to travel away from home, one of them has to sleep with me – which is pathetic. But you see it is still there, it is very deep. I also have this picture that I am going to wake up and there is going to be somebody standing over the bed. That is my other terrible fear. That a killer will be standing at the foot of the bed.
H: Do you have any other fears?
D: Well I have a fear of snakes, I hate them. And also I can’t look at the sea at night. I cannot look at black water. I keep thinking there is something which is going to come out from the deep. I can’t walk on a beach at night – once the water goes dark I freak. I have to get off the beach. Where do I get that from? It is a terrible fear of the unknown – it is the darkness.
H: Do you go into black depressions?
D: No but I did get very depressed before we went to Singapore. I was 51 and I thought maybe it is my hormones. I went to the doctor and he was useless. He gave me Prozac. I went home and took my Prozac and after I sat looking at my bookshelves for about four hours – I kept thinking liquid gold light – I just sat there I was so happy looking at these bookshelves. So I stopped the Prozac because I didn’t think I would achieve anything on it.
H:
But when you are doing nothing, does the fear of the unknown come
up?
D:
I suppose so. I haven’t
ever thought about it like that. I
mean I can’t just sit on my sofa now if I go home and do nothing.
There is always so much to do.
When we left here to go to Singapore,
I was very resentful because the so and so left on the 1st
January and left me to renovate the house, do all the drains, get the whole
thing carpeted, new kitchen, new curtains, new everything so we could have tenants.
And he left me all this stuff.
He had collected every letter anyone had ever sent him
- there was this huge filing cabinet.
And I had two traumatised children – really traumatised, they didn’t
want to go. And when I arrived
in Singapore I kept cancelling the flight because I couldn’t clear this house,
and when I arrived there he said I am really sorry but I am going back to England
for six weeks so I just got into bed, put a pillow over my head and he said
what are you doing and I said I am having a nervous breakdown.
He said I am very disappointed, I expect more of you.
I said piss off, I am having a breakdown.
And I did, I stayed in bed for three days.
I was so horrified. My parents
are the same. They all expect me
to do it. I am always the one who
gives the birthday things, I am the one that does it.
My husband said to me you know you are a serious disappointment to me!
H: So, that is your role, you basically
take everything on.
D: Well, my mother said you were always mother’s little helper. But not anymore.
H:
So you feel quite motherly?
D: My father used to laugh at my lame ducks. I can’t bear to see a person in pain, or a person in trouble – I always offer help. But eventually you learn, which I hope you do by the age of 51. Eventually you do feel, as I do, put upon. I do less now put it that way.
H: How do you feel when someone crosses you?
D: Oh, I get mad. I hate that. Robert says that if anyone crosses you D., you put “the curse of D.” on them and they never survive.
H:
How can they cross you, in what sense?
D: Petty things but things I think that are not fair. There is this stupid woman who is very jealous because I have a big house- she’d say stuff like “I can’t invite you to my dinner party because there is no space but can I use your freezer and can I come and cook the food at your house?” Please! What I have learnt is that life is too short so if someone upsets me and doesn’t play by my rules then the red cross. I have a great great girlfriend. I left the house with another friend’s furniture there and she and her husband took the furniture saying I had left it therefore it was theirs. So I have spent the last couple of weeks phoning saying it is not yours. I am so angry. You don’t play by those rules. So she has got the red cross. But you have to do that otherwise you end up by carrying a lot of baggage. So I am very sensitive and I have my own rules and if people break them now I am not so ready to please people. Before I used to want to please the world. I wanted to make my mother happy, my father, I wanted to make my husband happy and in the end the only person who wasn’t happy was me. So that is part of growing up for me too. But it has taken me a long time.
D. says that she feels pretty psychic. She has always felt that she is protected by something. She told us a story about being aware of spirits in her house in Singapore on one occasion.
Generally D. feels affected by either hot or cold weather. In the winter her fingernails will turn blue and her hands will become white and numb. If the weather is too hot she will experience prickly heat and once in Singapore she suffered from eczema on the feet.
She desires tasty, savoury foods – salt, curries, fish, chicken. Not so much desire for sweet foods.
Appetite reduced the past year.
Analysis:
We weren’t clear on the remedy which was required. On the one hand we felt we had to deal with the present injury of the knee whilst, on the other hand, it was clear that the patient’s propensity to fall on the right knee was in deed a reflection of an imbalance within her psyche. There was also the present state of overwhelm and feelings of inability to cope, coupled with a degree of over-responsibility coming from D.’s childhood where enormous pressures were exerted upon her to achieve. Furthermore, D. experienced fears which appeared to stem from a particular traumatic incident in her childhood where her own maid had turned against her and made an extremely threatening remark. At the first session we mistakenly perceived that D. needed a snake remedy – this was based upon a rather superficial reading of the case – e.g. loquacity, psychism, vivacity. We looked at various snake remedies and felt that Crotallus horridus presented the closest picture, with its resemblance to Phosphorus. (See Vermeulen’s Synoptic Materia Medica 2 for picture of Crotallus). The photograph which the remedy elicited was of high photon emission and nearly clear. We tested other snake remedies but to no avail. We decided in the end to give the patient Crotallus, although not feeling very confident of our prescription. We also decided to prescribe some Potassium / Lithium pads for the patient to wear attached to her knees. These pads are an invention of Patrick Richards who created the Biolumanetic technology. He has produced a number of different pads which help chronic pain and inflammation – the pads are essentially vibratory and aid to heal the aura at the site of an injury. (For further information on the pads please refer to Patrick’s website: www. Biolumanetics.net).
RX:
CROTALUS HORRIDUS LM1 7 drops a day
Plus
Lithium/Potassium pads on both knees
2nd
Appointment – 1/12/99
After the remedy D. started to have very violent dreams. She dreamt that one of her uncles was trying to make sure that another uncle committed suicide by forcing him to hang himself. She had this dream every night for about two weeks. Then the dreams changed to anxiety dreams. She had one dream where twenty people had been invited for dinner and she hadn’t started to cook. Also dreams of being chased. There was also a recurrence of some dreams which she used to have when she was living in South Africa – the dreams were unpleasant and included a lot of blood and knives. The last time she had had these dreams was in Singapore about three years ago when she was feeling under tremendous pressure.
The knee had felt better for about 2 weeks and then some pain had returned recently after she had started to experience stress about her life.
Analysis:
The remedy had had a partial effect in that the patient had felt better whilst on it but then had relapsed as soon as she stopped taking it. It had also provoked the return of some old dreams (of blood and knives). Still this feeling of overwhelm was the predominant state which needed treatment. We decided at this point to test the patient with Calcarea carbonicum, based upon her state of over-responsibility and worry. We have often found that Calcarea carbonicum is often the curative remedy in cases of middle aged women – overweight, psychic and loquacious – when we had previously perceived that it was a snake remedy they required. The remedy elicited an almost clear photograph with high photon emission. We also felt it might be a good remedy for our patient’s injured knee as Calc. carb. is notable for its use in the repair of old injuries.
3rd Appointment – 16/3/00
D:
I am not sure whether I believed all this but after the last remedy
I went to a health farm and I really got grit and focussed. It was only after stopping taking the remedy - which was about
a month ago - that I started to unravel a bit.
But I actually got the stage where I got really focussed on me and what
I wanted to do. After I took the
remedy I said right I am going to this health farm.
I said that’s it, I am going and really with my life style, I had to
leave my son …
H:
Would you have done that before do you think?
D: I don’t think so. I got on the train and I said goodbye everybody and I went. So I got to the health farm and it was awful. I starved. I was so hungry. Finally I had to look at me and see what D. wanted to do during the day and D. is not used to that. So I stayed for four days and then I asked my husband whether I could stay for another three and my daughter said oh for god’s sake stay for 2 weeks. . But it was a very hard time but I haven’t actually had time for myself in a very long time. In the morning you are given 2 pieces of orange and then I had my treatments which was massage and stuff, and then it was lunch which were these awful salads. Then I would ask myself what do I want to do. And I thought I should be walking but I thought no I don’t want to walk, I just wanted to get on this bed which had an electric blanket and watch TV which I haven’t watched in years. I watched everything. I watched Neighbours, I watched Coronation Street, all the Ground Force programmes. It was fantastic. It was a very strange feeling for me to actually have only me. I don’t know whether it was the remedy or what but when I came out I followed the same regime and I lost a lot of weight. I lost 12kgs. But it is now unravelling. My son is so cute. He said today I think it is about time you went back to the health farm. I feel you are unravelling mother.
H:
What form is the unravelling taking?
D:
I don’t particularly want to diet.
I am taking more wine than I should.
I am going out of control. That
is why I phoned you and said you have to see me.
It is so weird. From being
completely in control – everyday weighing myself, ticking off what I have done
– I haven’t been able to do that for about two weeks.
It is a weird feeling because I don’t know where it is coming from because
when I took the remedy I felt so in control.
People were asking me how are you doing it?
I said I don’t know but this is what I want to do. I thought, right I will do this until June and then on the
39th day I just didn’t want to do it any more.
That was about two weeks ago. I
just ran out of steam. By the time
I stopped the remedy I fell to bits.
I would like to go back to how I was at the health farm – talk about
grit and determination.
H:
How has your energy been?
D:
Energy has been fine. When
I first went on your remedy my dreams were terrible.
Now they are ok. It was
so strange – I just got on and did it.
H:
It didn’t require will power?
D: No, it didn’t. I had such a clear determination about it. But then I unravelled.
H:
And although you say you have unravelled,
your energy is still staying quite good?
D:
Yes, my energy is good. But I haven’t got the motivation or focus at the moment.
But at least I haven’t made my life too complicated by inviting lots
of people…
H:
So on the whole your boundaries are much tighter?
D:
Yes. I now have the boundaries
but I now need to work with myself with those boundaries.
I’ve just got to get myself in there.
H:
Has your son got into Westminster?
D:
No, he takes the exam in June.
But even with him I have said to him you have a very simple choice.
If you don’t want to work, don’t work.
I can’t do any more. I can’t
carry him any more.
I tell you the health farm was really hard – not only because
of the lack of food – but because I had to actually sit and be with myself.
For the first week I thought the people were awful and didn’t spend much
time with them but the next week
I met some really nice people but normally I feel the need to be with people
but I didn’t really care. So by three quarters of the way through I would just pick up
my soup and fruit in the evening and take it up to my room
and it is amazing how long you can make one orange last!
I wish I could have stayed but then that is not real life.
I was so excited about exploring myself, Neighbours, Ground Force!!
I felt like a new person when I came out.
H:
You haven’t dropped back into your more depressed state?
D:
No, not at all. But I want to now get on with things. I have got to lose the weight, get my son through.
I have given myself until June or July and then maybe I will start thinking
about working again. But I am not ready yet.
H:
Has your knee been ok?
D: Yes. Knee has been fine.
Analysis:
The remedy had had a very positive effect. The patient’s focus had returned and the depression had dissipated.
The knees were no longer giving any problem.
We were a little concerned that once the patient had stopped taking the
remedy that she had began to “unravel” again but in view of no other remedy
presenting itself to us we decided to continue the remedy in a slightly higher
potency.
Unfortunately the remedy didn’t hold. D. reported that although it appeared to help for a while, she had reverted to feelings of being trapped and being incapable of “doing anything”. When asked what was trapping her, she replied: “Life. Every day I wake up, get the child to school, get him back, do the shopping and I have these piles of paperwork to do and it sounds silly but I have just paid out £2,000 for repairs on the car and I need to get it back from the insurance company and all I have to do is fill out a form and I can’t do it. It is just the most bizarre thing. And then there is my medical insurance. All I have to do is write them a letter and I can’t do that. Then my husband came back with sixteen boxes of stuff from his brother’s attic. And rather than get on with what I need to do I started to unpack the boxes. I can’t seem to prioritise. I will sit there and I will read a paper or a book. Travel books or romantic fiction. Just escapism. I wake up in the morning and I think I can’t face that room. I can’t face my life. And the other thing which is happening to me is that I am losing things. I had a beautiful necklace which is gone and I had a coat which I bought in Milan with a fur collar and that has now disappeared – obviously I went to someone’s house and left it. Plus I have lost my tax papers which are very important. At the moment, it feels as if the lights have turned green and I can’t move. I feel wedged. I am not sure what I am wedged in but I am wedged. I have never felt like this before. I am feeling really overwhelmed again. Also I really resent people coming in on my time. This girlfriend came yesterday from Singapore and she asked to come over. She arrived at 3pm and stayed drinking wine till 11pm. I kept thinking of my paperwork all the time she was there. It has now become an obsession – I just want to go upstairs to do my paperwork. And yet I don’t do it! I need something which will move this block again. This is what I need desperately. It is this feeling of being completely overwhelmed and this losing of stuff is really upsetting.”
Analysis:
Clearly the Calc carb was not a similar enough remedy. There had been no essential shift in the patient’s state of feeling completely overwhelmed by her life and the tasks which she had to perform. For want of any other remedy coming up for us we decided to prescribe an Australian bush flower essence in the 200th potency – we sometimes prescribe the bush flowers but in homeopathic potencies.
Rx: Old Man
Banksia 200 bd for 3 days
5th Appointment – 27/6/00
The remedy helped for about a week but then “melted” away again. The patient reported a feeling of being “hunted” by what she was supposed to be doing. She was feeling completely intolerant of friends who were taking too much of her time. In the past it wouldn’t have been a problem because she could cope with everything. Now she was started to experience a deep resentment of friends who overstayed their welcome and feeling quite anti-social. The feeling of panic at 5 in the morning had returned. D. complained of feeling “submerged under water”. She was feeling flat, rather dead. Again this sense of being completely overwhelmed by life.
Analysis:
We were hitting a similar impasse to our patient’s! The fact that Calcarea carbonicum had been the remedy which had produced the most change appeared to indicate that a mineral remedy was the most likely choice. It was at this point that the thought of Quartz came into my mind. At that time I had been meditating with various crystals trying to understand their different natures. I really had no idea why I thought of Quartz – it was a pure stab in the dark. We tested the patient holding a piece of Quartz crystal and lo and behold it elicited the clearest photograph so far – pretty much crystal clear! Out of desperation we made the decision to prescribe Quartz crystal potencised in a ray machine to the 10 MM potency. This was given as a water remedy and the patient asked to take 7 drops morning and evening for 3 days.
One week after Quartz 10MM – The patient phoned to report that the remedy had been “miraculous”. “I am feeling how I used to feel. I had a dream of a man who was taking a medication and I knew that he was taking his ‘happy pills.’” D.’s energy has shot up and she is feeling much more focused.
11/8/00 – Phone call. Patient reported feeling much more detached about everything. Not as driven. She was having strange dreams about people having their heads cut off but she was not feeling disturbed in the dreams. There was a feeling of detachment. Also a dream of her daughter being dead in the attic and the body is rotting and feeling the need to move the body but feeling utterly detached.
6th Appointment – 18/10/00
D: The remedy was unbelievable.
I took the first dose just after our session and I was thinking yeah,
yeah, what can a few drops do. I
drove to Sainsburys and I literally started to hallucinate. I thought if I didn’t actually hold on to the bread racks they
were going to collapse. I was cursing
both of you, may I add. Everything
was falling off the shelves. Everything
was wavy. I stood there with my
back to the shelves to try and centre myself.
It was quite distressing. I
never thought the remedy would be that strong.
It was just bizarre. It
was just like LSD which I took when I was much younger.
It was like I was under water and everything was undulating.
But then after that I started
to feel really good. I really did.
I got to grips with everything and then went to Greece.
It was only in the last week that I started to wake up at 4am and wonder
what life was about and what was the point to anything.
But this feeling has shifted. It
is like there was suddenly a hole in the ozone but then the hole sort of closed
and I am fine again. You know I
have a four poster bed and I call it my “cave”.
And my cave has been my life saver.
No-one is allowed to get in my cave and interfere with me.
And now it is like my house is my cave too and people are not going to
intrude. My boundaries are better.
I don’t want to be put upon any more.
Today I was really happy to come here and somebody wanted to see me this
afternoon but I said no. I am cancelling
things now. My husband says that
I shouldn’t do this, that it is rude but it is starting a way of really healing
myself. I am still at the point
where I make appointments and then I think why did I do that? So I ring up and cancel them.
Also I have been losing weight even though I am not dieting.
I think I am drinking less wine because I am no longer depressed.
H: What about
the fears that you used to experience – the fear of being alone and the fear
of the dark? Have these shifted
at all?
D: Yes. I was alone in the house the other night but I coped.
Usually I would have had to go and stay with my mother because I couldn’t
bear to spend the night alone. But
it wasn’t as terrifying. When I
was alone at the health farm I coped by watching TV but that night I actually
managed to stay alone, so the remedy must have given me some strength.
Occasionally I have been having dreams of being hunted but that has settled
down again. I can even sleep with the lights off now.
I can sleep in the dark. Used
to have to have the TV on and all the lights.
Also I used to have to sleep with my face looking at the door in case
of anyone intruding. I used to
have a fear of a figure standing at the foot of the bed.
This has all reduced. Now
I can sleep in a position where I am not looking at the door.
I am feeling really chuffed that I could sleep alone.
H: Any dreams?
D: I had no
dreams for a long while until the last few weeks when I started to dream of
ships. For instance my children
are running off a ship and they are having their clothes pulled off them in
strips. Or it is me going on a
cruise. It is weird but every night
it has been ships.
The other change in D’s life was that she had been offered
a “fantastic job” doing PR for a very dynamic woman who had started a charity
helping disadvantaged children. D.
felt very enthusiastic about involving herself in such a worth while venture.
Analysis:
The patient’s base photograph was clear confirming to us
that she was in a coherent state and didn’t require any more treatment at this
point. The remedy had clearly acted:
D’s feelings of overwhelm and depression had vanished and she was able to get
on with her life. The remedy had
also gone deeper as her fears were also lessened.
She was now not afraid of the dark and this had been a major fear since
her childhood. Also she was able
to remain alone without too much terror and she was no longer frightened of
seeing the figure standing at the foot of her bed.
Her initial dreams indicated a level of detachment had grown in her.
Furthermore, her boundaries have started to become much tighter – she
is prioritising her time and not allowing others to intrude upon her time and
energy. She is only giving energy
to others when she wishes to and hence is not being drained by the demands of
others. The other point is
that during the week prior to this appointment she had felt that she was relapsing
for a few days with a return of her symptom of waking in the early hours of
the morning but this quickly passed. We felt this to be positive sign as her system was now capable
of rebalancing itself rapidly without the need for a repetition of the remedy.
The Remedy – Clear Quartz
Quartz is Silicium oxide.
It has, of course, the same chemical components as our homeopathic remedy
Silica. Other coloured versions
of quartz include rose quartz, citrine, amethyst and smokey quartz. One wonders what would have happened if our patient had been
given a dose of high potency Silica. Would
it have had a similar effect? We
suspect not. Crystals appear to
have a different action to ordinary remedies which we believe to have something
to do with their crystalline matrix. Looking
at the case the remedy Silica did not really come to mind at all.
The patient looked more like a Calcarea than a refined Silica.
Also if one is crystal sensitive, the energies one experiences holding
pieces of say rose quartz, clear quartz and amethyst are entirely different
despite their chemical similarity. The
other question is what is the difference between the actual substance itself,
the piece of quartz, and the potencised version?
Do these have different actions and effects on the body? These are questions that Charles and I have been trying to
examine and elucidate.
When you examine the books on crystals and gems, many of
the effects of the crystals listed are rather generalised and vague and are
difficult to apply in general practice.
Clear quartz is noted for its ability to amplify both body energy and
thoughts. Traditionally it is said
to harmonise and align human energies – thoughts, consciousness, emotions –
with the energies of the universe. It
is said to have a purifying and cleansing effect on the physical, emotional
and spiritual bodies. It clears
and activates the different centres of the body.
Placing a piece of quartz on the third eye during meditation enables
one to focus more clearly, whilst placing it on the heart chakra helps to clear
any emotional disturbances. Apparently,
quartz balances the yin and yang qualities of the individual.
This is all very well but, when potencised, does Quartz have
a clear symptom picture which can
help us prescribe it as a homeopathic remedy?
Naturally, we can only elucidate this picture from a proving and / or
cases where it has been successful. In view of this, I decided to conduct my
own mini-proving of both the original substance and the potencised quartz.
My modus operandi was to meditate with a piece of clear quartz and b.
take a few doses of Quartz 10MM.
Meditating with Clear Quartz
The first time I meditated with clear quartz was in June 2000. The following is my experience
Energy started
in the hara and then spread out centrifugally and then went to toes and top.
Cleansing, clearing, stimulating slightly but over all a sense of balancing
of energies and all chakras. Third
eye activated. Clarity, balance,
cleansing. Can be used with all
other gem stones as it is a neutral stone which will amplify the other gemstones.
Calming and balancing. Stimulating
at the beginning as it balances the energies and finally very peaceful and calming. Can use this to meditate with as is a very neutral force.
Just acts to amplify consciousness and balance all the chrakas.
I dreamt that I was sitting in a café and opposite me to the right two men were sitting at another table. One of the men was being very threatening to the other. I knew that they were members of the Mafia. The man with his back to me started to torture and then began to kill the other man (I think with a knife but I am unsure). I left the café at this point and then found myself in a large dark house, very gloomy and shadowy. I was with a young girl and we were walking through rooms to leave the house. She was telling me that she knew a lot of secrets about the Mafia boss. She was slightly hysterical and said that at one time she would have told on this man but that now she was not so sure. As we were passing through a particular room there was the Mafia boss sitting on a sofa reading a newspaper just near the door. The girl didn’t see him but I did. We left the room. At that point the Mafia boss lowers his newspaper and you see his face. It was just like a scene in a movie. You knew that he was eventually intending to have the girl killed because she knows too much. I return to the café and the two men have now gone. My things are still on the chair and I notice my purse is on one of the chairs.
The
feeling in the dream is one of terror and menace although I am feeling detached
from it all. The house is very
shadowy and gloomy. I am just observing
and detached from the violence which is going on around me.
The
third time I meditated with Quartz was the following night.
I again fell into a deep sleep and had the following dream:
I
dreamt that a young man is attracted to me.
However, I feel unable to respond to his advances – I feel in some way
suspicious and wary of him. In
the next scene, however, he reveals himself as a young woman and immediately
I am able to talk with him and feel comfortable with him.
Quartz 10MM
I then decided to take two doses of Quartz 10MM and record the effects. We decided to take a base photograph and then take a photo with me holding Quartz 10MM. My base photo was clear whilst the photo with Quartz was completely fuzzy and incoherent. I knew from this that the substance would probably initially have a strong rather “negative” effect on me.
After
the 2nd dose the following night I again felt sleepy and tranquillized
and rather “down”. Felt a great
sense of detachment from everything around me.
That night I dreamt I was having an unsuccessful sexual encounter with
a male character from the soap opera Eastenders.
For a few days I felt more “down”. I felt tired, dull in the head, distant, slow, not quite with everything. My energy felt lower and more sluggish. Then this feeling started to dissipate and energy started to return. I noticed that I started to feel clearer and more focused about my work. Also felt relaxed and more detached in the clinic. Normally I would return from a day’s work at the clinic and would feel really tired but I noticed that I had an abundance of energy and could work on my computer after seeing patients during the day. Normally I would want to just lie on the sofa and watch TV. The words: clarity and focus came up for me as describing how I felt. But at the same time as a greater clarity I was also more clumsy. I dropped a camera on the floor at the clinic and the following day dropped a vial of sac lac. I kept bumping into things. I also found it incredibly difficult to remember patients’ names and I lost an earring. It felt as if two states in me were happening concurrently: a feeling of focus, motivation and clarity with my work and yet a sense of clumsiness and loss of memory. When talking with a friend on the phone, I would start to tell her something but the thoughts would vanish.
Possible
qualities of Quartz deduced from dreams:
The first dream of the Mafia and the murder had a very threatening and violent atmosphere. This mirrored the patient’s own dreams of violence, knives and murder. But what was also present was my sense of detachment from the whole scene which was also the predominant feature in D’s dreams after taking the Quartz – she dreamt of men having their heads cut off and also of her daughter lying dead and rotting in the attic but in both dreams she felt detached and unaffected by the horror of these scenes. The other thing which occurs to me is that my own dream was in fact a “negative animus” dream. When figures like the police and the Mafia appear in dreams in classic Jungian terms this is the “animus” making its appearance. Then we have the following dream regarding the young man who reveals himself as a young woman; this would in my view indicate the appearance of the “anima”. So both dreams concern themselves with the male and female qualities – animus and anima. As the Reiki practitioners suggested to D., one might argue that she is imbalanced in her male and female energies. She reveals a classic animus-dominated type of personality - a woman driven to achieve beyond her own limitations, ignoring the signs of her body and her feminine nature. She had a complete inability to stop and do nothing, to be receptive to the needs of her soul. Stopping meant a kind of death to her as she feared the annihilating presence of the “blackness”. It was almost as if something within her psyche was begging her to stop and listen – coming in the form of falling on her right leg and also then in becoming incapable of functioning. As the case progresses, the ‘stuckness’ and feeling of being overwhelmed is more and more prevalent. At the time our own feeling about this was that something within our patient’s psyche was desperately trying to correct or rebalance the energy – forcing her to somehow stop and just be. However, she experienced this as a total catastrophe. We were relieved that after the Quartz that she had started to put down boundaries and develop some awareness of her own needs and desires. Significantly, she had created a “cave” – a safe retreat – for herself out of her four poster bed and this image of the cave was now being extended to include the whole house. If she had merely been able to function better after the remedy, with no other changes, this would not in my book have represented a totally good sign. Some other change needed to occur which appears to be more an honouring of the feminine in her, not just the male part which wants to achieve and be effective in the world. My sense is that both female and male sides of the patient have started to rebalance and re-harmonise with each other and that this is one of the essential features of Quartz.
I
then spoke to a friend of mine – a physicist who is very sensitive to crystals
and who takes potentised Quartz on a regular basis.
He had the following to say about his experiences with the remedy:
“ It is a very powerful remedy with a strong signature. When I take it I have the feeling that my whole system is being re-aligned and that it becomes more coherent. I tend to take it when my energies feel fragmented and after taking it I feel realigned and rejuvenated. On taking it I get a buzzing sensation all over my body and it appears to have an effect which can only come from a mineral – no organic substance can produce this in me – which is that my whole body and system feel as if they are made of glass. The best time to take it is when I feel fragmented. At other times it does not have such a good effect on me. It is very important that the particular quartz crystal you use is “cleared” with a magnet otherwise it can absorb and retain negative energies – thoughts or emotions - either of oneself or of another who has been in the vicinity of the crystal. Quartz is a great amplifier and is neutral therefore it can be combined with other potentised crystals to enhance the qualities and properties of those crystals.”
Salient
features of the case:
· Lack of physical co-ordination (clumsiness?) – keeps falling on right knee.
· Lack of motivation / focus – inability to prioritise work leading to procrastination
· Overwhelmed by duties and responsibilities
· Depression/anxiety/feeling of panic – waking at 5 am
· Sensation of block/stuckness/submerged under water
· Inability to say “no” to family and others – to put herself first
· Fears of dark, being alone, imaginary figure
· Psychism – awareness of spirits/ghosts / being protected
· Dreams of violence, knives, blood, murder, being chased
· Theme of water? Feeling submerged under water. Fear of dark water.
Symptoms which have been affected by the Quartz:
· Improvement in physical co-ordination – hasn’t fallen since the remedy – (would have to wait a little longer to see whether this improvement was a permanent feature
· Increased clarity, focus, ability to prioritise, greater detachment
· Feelings of being overwhelmed have gone
· Sensation of block has disappeared
· Greater ability to put up boundaries between herself and others and to put her own needs first.
· Fear of dark and fear of being alone both reduced
· Dreams of violence reduced.
· Sensation of everything being watery immediately after taking the remedy. Dreams of ships and cruises.
Differential diagnosis: Silica.