By Charles Wansbrough
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Yet
the reality of the situation is found wanting, when firmly set up against the
ideal of ‘that simillimum’, the mythical state belies the difficulties that
face prescribers worldwide. Nevertheless Classical homoeopathy is now in the
throes of a renaissance with the considerable work that has been done in expanding
and categorising the ever-expanding materia medica. The fundamental assumption
that ‘the simillimum’ will always create a dramatic shift in the entire state
of the patient underpins the entire classical repertoire of homeopathy and helps
to drive it forwards towards more provings that may ultimately validate this
clarity of vision.
Yet
why with such clearly defined goals constrained by the elegance of the classical
model why do so many opinions abound
in the arena of a correct prescription?
The
reasons are many, and I do not intend to enter into a discussion that constantly
evokes such a multitude of opinions that one sometimes fail to distinguish clarity
in the midst of such cacophony.
But
there is no doubt that homeopathy and other alternative models of medicine have
made serious inroads into the biomechanical models of modern medicine, and have
created a crisis of confidence in the dominating paradigm of medical science,
calling into question the predominance of drug orientated therapies. Helped
no doubt, by the alarming increase in resistant bacteria, for example more and
more doctors are resorting to unlicensed drugs to fight the potentially fatal
bacterium Staphylococcus aureus as its ability to resist established antibiotics
increases. Since 1993, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer has made its unlicensed antibiotic
“Synercid”
available free to hospitals for “compassionate use” in treating patients who
fail to respond to approved medicines 1.
But
one of the great failings of classical homeopathy, and a contributing cause
to its failure to maintain dominance very early in the century, was the quality
of experience needed to maintain a dominating efficacy. The successes of penicillin
and antibiotics in general were widespread and quick compared to the time and
energy trying to determine the unique configuration of each individual patient
that was necessary to find the best remedy. This failing has always been one
of the problems facing homeopathy, the best homeopathy arose from those most
experienced in the art and this came from the many years of careful observation.
The efficacy of homeopathy has always lain in the hands of experience, and in
the early years a form of apprenticeship was the most efficacious method of
learning what can be at times a daunting task. There is ultimately no substitute
for experience in this heuristic process, since each prescription made in homeopathy
always falls under the category of a ‘guesstimation’. There are no correct prescriptions
in homeopathy, until the patient has returned with a full evaluation, every
prescription in homeopathy, is a plausible guess. The homeopath is a skilled
interpreter of facts. Yet his interpretation is not controlled by his skill:
rather it is his skill and insights that give him something to interpret, and
the facts he elicits arise from that skill. This embodiment of the skill in
the practitioner rather than in the science is what makes homeopathy such an
interpretative art.2
The initial guess is invariably a product
of the homeopath’s training and his outlook on life. Together they create the
best probable insight that will lead to a correct prescription. But that ‘best
guess’ is always in the grip of a potential certainty, like a ‘virtual prescription’
until the patient returns confirming the accuracy of that prescription?
Each
prescription embodies years of experience, study and insight, and a correct
prescription that resolves a healing crisis is then absorbed into the collective
experience of ‘classical homoeopathy’. This process of slowly accumulating knowledge
over decades, enables less experienced homeopaths to prescribe with better clarity
and the process carries on inexorably with years of ritual and tradition weaving
ceaselessly back and forth, throwing up variations on the theme of ‘what constitutes
classical homeopathy’.
Nevertheless,
the core assumption of ‘the simillimum’ and its dramatic enactment’ is still
‘the heart and soul’ of the homeopathic therapeutic process.
It
was with this understanding, that I proceeded to bury myself into researching
the effects of subtle medicine, a movement that has come into its own
with the work of Benveniste and others. Today there is a dramatic increase in
the application of technology to the human predicament, medical paradigms have
given rise to posthuman enactments. The dramatic increase and interest in machines
have given rise to the disturbing view that ‘thinks of the body as the original
prostheses we all learn to manipulate, so that extending or replacing
the body with other prostheses becomes a continuation of a process that began
before we were born’3.
Such a view may not be far away, as the posthuman view seems to extend the human
condition to
one
of infinite articulation with ‘the intelligent machine’. Such a view is disturbing
but I think inevitable, given the pace of human evolution today, but at the
heart of such an evolving view lies the homeopathic paradigm with its archaic
vitalist rhetoric, seamlessly ignoring the overwhelming dominance of a new millennial
‘super race between man and machine’.
Yet
at another level, we could equally argue, that we as a community, have always
been at the forefront of the posthuman condition, since we have evolved a language
of nature ‘the materia medica’ that embodies and captures the ‘posthuman’ at
its most qualitative, we have learnt to articulate through ‘the cyberspace of
nature’ a seamless web of enunciated ‘remedies’ that act out a territory of
‘freedom from the will of others’. Prescriptions may act out their potent journeys
of well-being in a myriad of unknowable ways, but at the core of that drama
lies a tacit assumption of health that embodies a freedom that can only be truly
encapsulated in a sense of ‘well-being’.
As
the evolving patterns of human-machine interaction gather speed, as medicine
shifts to the posthuman paradigm, it has been estimated that by the year 2010
‘ the genetic profiles of hereditary diseases will balloon to approximately
2,000 to 5,000, giving us an almost complete understanding of the genetic basis
of these ancient diseases. It is reasonably likely that by the year 2010, when
you reach your eighteenth birthday, Collins says, you will be able to have your
own report card printed out of your individual risks for futures disease based
on the genes you have inherited’.4
Breakthroughs have recently been made in growing neurons, the building blocks
of the brain.
Scientists
have been able to grow them in the laboratory for years. What they haven’t been
able to do is control this growth. This is changing and the implications are
mind-blowing. It is the stuff of dreams, at least as far as neuroscientists
are concerned: a living model of a real brain that they can grow in any laboratory.
With careful nurturing and development, such a model could reveal how the brain
learns, how it remembers and how it communicates. And that’s not all. Give engineers
such models and they could design all kinds of new gadgets-sensors, control
systems, maybe even living computers.5
Even if the homeopathic community can breathe a sigh of relief and give themselves
credit for their form of medicine as an extremely strong argument in the face
of rising antibiotic resistance, medical scientists are in the process of tinkering
with novel drugs that are designer made specific for particular genes that are
essential for the survival of the bacteria.6
In
the midst of such frantic progress, we as a community, still adhere
to the vitalist rhetoric of Samuel Hahnemann, we seemed to have not changed
in our use of vitalist metaphors,
all around us evolution is changing the landscape of ‘ what is to be human’,
yet we refuse to engage in some sort of dialogue with this process. The vitalist
tradition still fabricates metaphors that bear no resemblance to our evolving
society, insists on speaking about the vital force with a certainty that belies
its confusion, even many scientists and neurobiologists accept that the mind
can control physical processes even from a distance7 ,
yet we as a community still seem to be caught up in a past that is restricting
our visions for the next century.
Today
research into the phenomenon of subtle energy is being vigorously pursued by
a number of reputable scientific establishments, yet what seems to most alarm,
the homeopathic community is the encroachment of the posthuman condition on
to their territory of well-being and embodied health. Suddenly with all the
furore surrounding the entrance of Rolland Conte, I heard some homeopaths bewail
the sudden loss of their unique abilities to prescribe effectively, since Conte
threatens to create a technology that may be possible to ‘ expose human secretions
to analysis, and thereby obtain an energetic signature capable of revealing
the correct prescription for a patient. Such a technique would require a means
for identifying the patient’s energetic signature with precision and would imply
the existence of an accurate data-base of remedy signatures obtained from NMR
date exposed to analysis based upon the Contian statistical techniques.’8
Though I do not personally believe this to be true, since it understates the
complexity of the human condition, it also mistakenly assumes the correct prescription
to be some form of objective certainty that denies reality to that shadow of
miraculous intervention ‘the right time’ and ‘the ever powerful placebo’.
Nevertheless
a technology does exist that will play a unique role in this cursory interplay
between the theme of posthumanism with its emphasis on the extensive metaphor
of machine and man and the counter theme which I will call the transhuman emphasising
self-autonomy, freedom and well-being at the heart of most alternative medical
models including homeopathy. Such a theme and counter theme has been played
out throughout history in various different guises, between mechanism and holism,
between the material and the esoteric, between the spiritual and the material,
and again today these themes and counter themes are being reiterated. The difference
lies in the shift of emphasis between self-empowerment derived from the ‘seamless
articulation between machine and man’ and self-empowerment derived from the
‘woven threads of enactment between the human spirit and nature.’
Such
a technology called ‘Biolumanetics’ was created by Patrick Richards and has
taken him some eighteen years of research to establish some form of protocol
that has enabled him to adequately use this technology in the pursuit of well-being
and health. It is not my intention to discuss this technology in detail, since
it seems to create more questions that answers, and a brief but thorough discussion
can be found on a website, but instead to discuss how I and a colleague have
evolved in using it to find the correct classical prescription.
A
BRIEF DISCUSSION OF BIOLUMANETIC THEORY
The
possible explanation and theory of this technology can be found elsewhere, and
I will only comment on the essential empirical observation that Patrick Richards
made when researching the entire technology.
His
observations led him to conclude that by photographing individuals in the bioliminal
field (a term coined by him to outline his area of research) with a normal Polaroid
camera that
Photographs
of people suffering health challenges were vague and distorted.
Photographic
images of healthy individuals were clear and crisp.
This
clinical interpretation was ceaselessly validated over the eighteen years that
he experimented and researched the technology. But the most novel implications
arose, when he realised that the different materials that the individual held
in his hands like drugs, allergic substances, homeopathic remedies, ayurvedic
remedies, herbal prescription etc changed the nature of the photographs.
But
his greatest insight came, when he realised that the best prescription (whether
from the orthodox or subtle domain of medicine) created clarity in the photograph.
In
other words the individual was able without taking the drug or remedy to assess
its potential effects on his own health. Complete clarity indicated it would
affect the individual in a positive and beneficial way, lack of clarity indicated
that the prescription would act in a deleterious way on his health, or not act
at all.
This
realisation is a rather unique occurrence, in the history of medicine, as P.
Richards had created a diagnostic medical technology that he was able to use
to guide him in selecting the correct prescription. Trained as an engineer,
he was left unable and unqualified to use or practise any current medical system.
So he modified homeopathic remedies by chelating them and subjecting them to
a proprietary method and then proceeded to make up some two hundred remedies
and by combining these remedies in various ways using as a guide the photographic
congruity, he treated a large number of patients successfully.
His
original intention was to investigate the ‘bioliminal phenomenon’ and test how
adequate his clinical observations were about the clarity or lack of clarity
indicating movement towards or away from a state of coherent well-being.
Though
the phenomenon remains hard to explain, there is no doubt that the photographs
represent unique information about that individual under treatment, and can
be used to guide the practitioner in the selection of the optimum prescription.
My
interest was aroused when I came across the technology, since I reasoned that
the selection of a remedy was ultimately based on the principles of resonance,
and if this bioliminal process was actively transmitting information via a photograph
as the best suitable prescription, then these principles should apply to the
homeopathic model in exactly the same manner.
My
purpose was to test whether the principles of homeopathic therapeutics with
the selection of a remedy, based on the symptom picture and materia medica,
could be applied with enough precision to generate clarity from a bioliminal
photograph.
In
other words could I apply the principles of classical homeopathy, or at least
my own specious interpretation of this ideal, and use the bioliminal process
as a diagnostic guideline in selecting the best remedy.
The
answer was a resounding YES!!!
HOMEOPATHIC
PROTOCOL
The
established protocol basically consists of taking a photograph when the individual
first comes for a case taking session. This photograph is called a BASE photograph
and establishes whether the patient needs treatment, since total clarity will
indicate that the patient is coherent and therefore in a state of well-being.
Normally a patient’s BASE photograph will invariably show various states of
incoherence. I will now proceed to follow through a case taken and prescribed
according to classical homeopathic criteria.
Two
individuals invariably take the case, me and my colleague Kieran Linnane, since
I have found the entire process of case taking and instant prescription, too
exhausting for one individual.
A CASE AND PROTOCOL
D.E.
DOB: 10.4.27 Female
Occupation:
Runs a Charity
1st
Appointment 20/5/99
(1)
Inveterate constipation for the past 60 years despite patient’s diet being mainly
that of fruit and vegetables. She
is compelled to take laxatives otherwise the bowels will not move for days.
She says that if she doesn’t have a bowel movement each day she “goes
mad”. There is no urging.
Both parents and two of her brothers suffered from this complaint.
Patient
is obsessed about putting on weight. Always
on different diets. Recently has
been on another crash diet. She
has been plump all her life and she and her family are obsessed about dieting.
She
exercises frequently, doing at least one and half hours a day and is very active.
(2)
She suffers from sleeplessness. Her
sleep is always light. She has always slept badly, probably does not need more
than four hours sleep. Some two years ago when she became even more restlessness
than usual, was sleeping no more than two
(3)
She says that she moves about constantly during the day. Feels an inner intense
restlessness although is less restless than used to be. She says that her energy
is very restless both day and night. At her age she still suffers bouts of intense
restlessness.
(4)She
has suffered from an irritating right
arthritic hip for the past five years, that tends to give her pain at odd intervals,
and sometimes reduces her mobility.
She
says ‘she is angry about almost everything when it is not carried out efficiently
and immediately’.
She
runs an art charity which includes a restaurant, and is often angry about the
incompetence of her managers and is always having to sack members of her staff,
to realise greater efficiency. She needs instant gratification or feedback from
people and projects.
She
is passionate and doesn’t edit herself in her expressions.
‘At
16 I was a nightmare’. ‘I was the
eldest of 5 siblings and 7 cousins and I was the boss’.
I had very strong parents. I
used to have terrible rows with my father although 2 minutes later it was all
OK. Have tremendous rows with one
of my sons. ‘I am used to being the boss and I am very up front.” Normally dominates
a situation by the sheer energy that drives her and tends to exhaust all those
around her.
The
patient lost her youngest son in a car accident when he was 18 and is left with
a fear from this that something bad may happen.
Otherwise she says that she feels fearless.
Has no fear of death but would not like to be dependent on others.
Would prefer to die rather than be dependent.
She
says that she would like to be more relaxed because it is exhausting for others
to live with her. It would be better
if she were a bit more peaceful although would hate to be like a cabbage.
She
says she likes people but doesn’t feel that sociable.
She likes to know what is going on with her artists.
She is shy in social situations - finds small talk lethal and can be
very matter of fact and abrupt at times.
Not good at parties. Nevertheless needs constant feedback on what is
going on in her organisation.
She
loves travelling, and is off abroad somewhere every 6 weeks. She has a very
low threshold of boredom and finds that once she has succeeded in creating an
organisation, she starts to become restless again and starts to look around
for another project to engage her. She admits in her words
‘she needs to be constantly stimulated’, otherwise she gets bored and
more restless. She is fine so long
as she is busy or engaged in a project, and admits that she has an obsessional
nature. She will take up a project or subject with an overriding concentration
and single mindedness that can be compared to a ‘narrow mental tunnel’. She
suffers from a characteristic of ignoring the foibles or weaknesses of others
and can be extremely critical of others, so much so that she will actually become
obsessed about them until they are removed from her sphere of influence.
She
is not sympathetic and becomes aggressive about the inability of others to extract
themselves from situations of their own making; she is quite prepared to help
economically others but feels intense irritation at the weakness of others around
her.
When
she was asked if she sometimes felt contemptuous, her answer was ‘ she can feel
terribly contemptuous of those who show any weakness’.
Her
drive towards efficiency can make her fastidious and obsessive about the way
things should be done.
She
enjoys music and dancing and is interested in directing the art foundation towards
more interest in music.
She
is not introspective at all and has no religious inclinations.
Past
Medical History
Temperature
ANALYSIS
At
the beginning of every case taking, a bioliminal photograph is taken of the
patient, to establish as a BASE picture, and to elucidate whether it is coherent
or incoherent.
This
BASE photo was incoherent. Then an analysis of the case was carried out, with
the patient present.
Recent
experience with the technology, has forced
me to differentiate intuitively between the different kingdoms based
on work done in the past by R. Sankaran, M. Mangliavori, J, Scholten and C.
Rosenthal. This method of differentiating the kingdoms and then comparing and
contrasting different remedies from the same family, is an on ongoing exercise
and marks the incredible renaissance of the homeopathic therapeutic approach,
due mainly to the overwhelming size of the materia medica.
My
colleague, Kieran Linnane, and me then discussed the case, and concluded that
the patient very likely belonged to the animal kingdom as her intense restlessness
and obsessive passions were I felt characteristic of the animal kingdom. Such
analysis tends to centre around an intuitive grasp of the situation, since we
do not have the luxury of removing ourselves from the situation and analysing
the case.
My
own approach has been to carve up each kingdom into different families and then
try and gain information that is characteristic of each family, though difficult
certain work has already been done regarding the snakes and the spiders.
Our
feeling about the individual was that her narrative of extreme restlessness,
together with her obsessive characteristics, her need for constant stimulation
plus the innate driven quality of her personality clearly pointed to the spider
family.
We
took the following rubrics, which we thought covered the case and repertorised
with the patient present.
The
following rubrics were taken
1.Mind:
Censorious, critical
2.Mind:
Fastidious
3.Mind:
Dictatorial
4.Mind:
Busy
5.Mind:
Hurry, Haste
6.Mind:
Restlessness, drives him from place to place
7.Extremities:
Restlessness: Leg; night: bed in
Using Macrepertory Program Complete Repertory version 4.5 the following remedies came up in order
| Rubrics | Total |
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| Ars | 6 | 11 |
| Sulph | 5 | 10 |
| Tarent | 5 | 10 |
| Nux Vom | 6 | 9 |
| Lach | 5 | 9 |
| Bell | 5 | 8 |
| Lyc | 5 | 8 |
| Merc | 5 | 8 |
| Verat | 5 | 8 |
| Cupr | 6 | 7 |
| Plat | 5 | 7 |
| Sep | 5 | 7 |
| Dulc | 4 | 7 |
| Puls | 4 | 7 |
| Androc | 5 | 6 |
BASE
PHOTO establishes an incoherent state that can be treated. The next stage after
having taken the case and repertorised is to test whether the remedies, which
have been thought of, are the best prescription for this patient.
This
is where the diagnostic advantages of this whole technology have profound implications
for the practise and research of the homeopathic model.
By
holding different remedies and then taking a photograph in the bioliminal field,
that photographic image which becomes the clearest will always indicate the
best possible prescription for that individual.
So after consultation with my colleague we decided that the best spider remedy was to be Tarantula Hispanica 200c.
We
photographed the patient holding this remedy, and then took a photograph. If
this represents for the patient the best possible probability of coherence then
the photograph will shift into coherence and clarity. We were satisfied that
the picture was better than the base and is corresponded well to our own feelings
about the remedy. We did take a couple more pictures of the patient, holding
Mygale Lasiodora200c and Tarantuala Cubensis200c , both pictures were worse
and more incoherent than the original base picture.
On the basis of the clarity of the picture and the fact that much of her homeopathic narrative fitted the Tarantula Hispanica picture, though we had not obtained complete clarity we felt it to be a good prescription.
Rx: Tarentula Hispanica 200 BD for 3 days
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 1st
Visit Tarentula Hispanica 200 |
2ND
APPOINTMENT 24/6/99
The
patient reported that whilst taking the tablets the constipation improved but
once she stopped them the constipation returned.
She felt a bit more relaxed and more positive. The remedy was close but
her base photograph had not improved much in clarity and our experience using
the technology invariably points to an improvement in clarity of the base photo
at the second visit if the remedy was the best prescription. On this feedback
plus the patient’s own partial improvement, we asked her a few questions and
thinking that the remedy must be close to Tarantula Hispanica, we elicited a
few
Analysis
The
remedy had only partially worked as patient had relapsed after stopping the
tablets. We felt that the remedy
she required was probably close to Tarentula and probably a member of
the Arachnids. None of the other
spider remedies seemed to fit so we looked at the picture of Scorpion (Androctonus)
in Vermeulen’s Synoptic Materia
Medica 2 and found the following:
“The
Scorpion patient is able to concentrate on one subject only with extreme single-mindedness
‘like a mental tunnel vision’ and there is extreme efficiency in work with no
hesitation. There is also great
cunning and ‘the ability to know what others are thinking before they think
it’. Paranoia with suspicion and
desire to outwit others, also a feeling of great confidence and energy, like
a magnetic state - charismatic.” (Sherr)
Control.
Wants to control others
Indifference
to pleasure, suffering, surroundings, welfare of others, opinion of others
Aversion
to company
Sensitiveness
to and/or amelioration by sea, storms (Zala)
 2nd Visit Base Picture |
 2nd Visit Holding Tarantula Hispanica |
 2nd
Visit Androctonus 200c |
 2nd
Visit Androc LM1 Sharpest image |
The
patient reported that the remedy had worked “brilliantly”.
She has a bowel movement every day without needing to use laxatives.
She now feels that she has no problem with her bowels.
Her sleep has improved and she feels much more relaxed and has less need
for constant stimulation. Doesn’t
feel as bored. The remedy has acted
as a ‘simillimum’ should act, if after 60 years of daily intake of laxatives,
she has been able to completely stop their use, then we can conclude that the
remedy is acting deeply and very profoundly.
What is equally interesting from a homeopathic point of view is that we photographed her holding Androctonus LM1 and found that it fractured indicating that the potency needed to be increased and so we photographed with LM2 to find that the photo was the clearest we had so far obtained, over the period of treatment.
 3rd Visit Base |
 3rd Visit Androc LM1 |
 3rd Visit Androc LM2 |
The
patient reported that she still had no taken laxatives and was feeling very
well. Feeling more relaxed and was cooking
for her husband which was highly unusual. She noticed that people did not irritate
her so much.
The
patient was given the next LM potency since this is what I would have expected
clinically to occur, and the photography
validated this observation.
R:
Androctonus LM3 7 drops a day
After
some three weeks of taking LM3 she had misplaced the bottle, but had decided
that she was very well, she had no constipation anymore and went regularly to
the toilet, something she had not done for the past fifty years. She had no
pains from her hip joint, and had been sleeping very well till 2 weeks ago when
she had to deal with a crisis.
Her
grandson was apparently not well and since she was mostly responsible for him,
since his parents lived abroad, she felt guilty that she could not do any more
to resolve the situation. The state of the patient was one of excessive emotion,
very restless and was sleeping very little, she seemed in an extraordinary state
of tension, verging on hysteria, but the notable features were an obsessive
state of terrible tension, which she seemed unable to resolve or relax about.
My own clinical expectations would have been to prescribe another dose of Androctonus
in high potency, as it is obvious that her so called ‘constitutional state’
falls well within the narrative of a deep Androctonus state that was obviously
a profound and effective survival strategy from her teenage years. Yet when
we photographed her with Androctonus, she was very incoherent and fuzzy in the
bioliminal field. Both me and my colleague Kieran Linnane were at first surprised,
though working with the technology has taught us over a period of one year,
that individuals can shift into different states quite easily. Classical homeopathy
maintains the concept of a ‘constitutional state’ a mythical point of stability
that seems to be reached by individuals
when in a state of ‘good health’. Some authorities have contended that
acutes states can be treated by constitutional remedies, I recall Eugenio Candegabe
commenting on this point in one of his seminars, other authorities contend the
opposite. My own clinical observations validate both ideas, one case of
Calcarea Calcinata which cured a patient’s arthritis of some fifteen
years standing, proceeded after this rapid response to catch a heavy influenzal
state which she seemed to drag on for some months, until she returned and though
the picture seemed to correspond closely to a Gelsemium state, and we tried
a number of influenzal type remedies using the photographic technology, the
only remedy this patient responded to immediatly was a dose of her ‘constitutional
remedy’ one dose of 200c Calcarea Calcinata. What surprised us with the Androctonus
patient was how poorly she would have fared with a dose of that remedy, and
at that point we decide analyse the state of patient in more depth. We assumed
that her state was an even more overwrought state than her usual Androctonus
state and managed to find that Tarentula 200c created clarity in the patient.
We
gave Tarentula 10M twice a day to be taken once a week for two weeks
The
effects of Tarentula were virtually instantaneous, the patient felt much more
relaxed after the remedy, and she felt she was able to deal with a lot of stress
recently. At this point it was decided that treatment was finished and she was
told to ring me if this tense state
came about again. From my point of view, the original complaints had all been
resolved and there was no need to continue treatment. It is interesting to note
clinically whether Tarentula is an acute state of a healthy Androctonus, since
they are certainly both very close in their actions.
It
is of interest to note that Arsenicum had been prescribed before for this patient,
and had helped a little, Tarantula did help in 200c potency for a period of
10 days, and may have continued to act in low potency for many months, but I
suspect that we needed the simillimum to fully engage the vitality of this patient.
It does remain an interesting observation to note that many of those Arsenicum
patients which are active and frenetic may actually need a dose of Androctonus.
The technology helped me to revise my opinion of the correct remedy, but in
retrospect one clear difference between this Androctonus patient and a Tarantula
patient was that the former demonstrated a disarming honesty about her likes
and dislikes while I suspect a Tarantula patient may have been more deceptive
and devious in how they came across or engaged in a conversation.
This
protocol using the bioliminal photography as a diagnostic guide in selecting
the correct remedy, within the classical paradigm of the single remedy prescription
has been empirically validated so far for all patients that have so far been
treated. A number of profound implications arise from the observations made
with this diagnostic technology.
Ironically
as a diagnostic technology it has forced me to face a crisis of intense proportions
since it can be compared to suddenly meeting the ‘greatest living masters of
homeopathy’ and being challenged to expand not only the rather scant knowledge
of the materia medica but also to realise that one has to fine tune one’s own
skills to a very fine degree of clarity. The technology aids in the correct
selection of a remedy but will only go completely congruent if the information
processed from the remedy by the individual is regarded as the best similar
(simillimum), i.e. it computes through the medium of the photography the best
probability that can be anticipated to work in the best interests of the patient.
This process is normally carried out through an hour to a two-hour case taking
session, in which the patient and homeopath engage in a narrative of discovery
and mutual trust, until the homeopath feels or intuits sufficient data to allow
him to prescribe effectively and with clarity. The purpose of such an engagement
is to elicit from the patient ‘ an epic tale’ of their own struggles and tribulations
as depicted through their own eyes and then decode this perspective into the
language of materia medica.
What
the technology has demonstrated beyond any doubt, is that much of this materia
medica can be correctly used to extract a correct prescription, and I have found
a direct correlation between patients and materia medica, yet it also demonstrates
just how generous nature can be in aligning itself to the changing dynamics
of the human condition. I have been forced to re-examine my own skills and realise
just how little I know, and how dauntless the task that faces us as practitioners.
Nevertheless it is a staggering achievement and a gift to realise that the future
millennium holds ‘technologies of Gnostic depth’ that will allow the human spirit
to examine and align itself to the language of nature.
This
technology has been created as a bridge to breach the posthuman condition, to
re-examine our frantic search for endless articulations with machines, and listen
intensely to the concealed melodies that nature so elegantly contours in the
provings of a remedy.
Sadly
few of these machines can be created, due to the technical difficulties involved
in bringing such subtle depths into the light of day, and so they will act as
beacons of research fulfilling their roles as scientific anomalies created to
question the values and ethics of our post-industrial society. Subtle medicine
not only acts to liberate the human predicament towards a sense of well-being
and self-autonomy but a true healing crisis also calls into question the social
mores of a society hell-bent on domination subtly modifying the scientific method
into a posthuman vision of gene-centred excesses.
Our
society has shifted from a dialogue with nature, to a monologue with ourselves,
where nature plays second fiddle to our own exuberant excesses vocalised with
and through machines. Subtle medicine and its potential technologies hope to
readdress this monoculture of machine and human and realign the human predicament
with nature.
The
Polish paediatrician Janusz Korczak wrote in his biography which included his
last journey with his 200 children from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka said
‘ The doctor has to ask himself ‘what is your mission, your personal contribution
to creation?’9
Any effective contribution must involve a drive towards harmony, a core assumption
of all subtle medicine, and any technology that enables this movement will play
an important role in the coming millennium.
Such
a role can be assigned to the bioliminal technology, for it highlights a number
of core assumptions about ourselves.
1.
The photography clearly demonstrates a process of interaction with subtle
medicine that cannot be explained by any present theories and adds another dimension
to the entire predicament of ‘what it is to be human’.
2.
The qualitative dimensions of an individual that are being addressed
through the photography are outside the awareness of most individuals, yet empirically
some corrective process ensuing coherence and stability has obviously been engaged.
3.
The word bioliminal was coined by Patrick to carve out an area of research
and investigate the activity of this field. The word bio comes from biological
and liminal meaning threshold so the term connotes some process going on beyond
the normal parameters of the biological organism.
4.
The bioliminal process that is engaged with, when searching for coherence
is obviously an interface that computes the best probabilities in maintaining
coherence and health. It will give information in terms of coherence or dissonance
relative to any therapeutic intervention that involves the individual’s medical
status. Nevertheless within the homeopathic process, it is of inestimable value
in finding the best prescription for an individual.
5.
It is no doubt a marvellous diagnostic technology but its greatest contribution
has been the way it has forced me to increase my own skills as a homeopath.
In some respects it has acted as ‘a master teacher’ forcing me to question and
search endless methodologies and has forced me into expanding and classifying
our materia medica in a more accessible manner. There is no doubt that in engaging
daily with such a ‘master’ my own skills as a homeopath have increased exponentially,
but it has also forced me to search for new materia medica. The task is daunting
but I think that its value will lie in the research that can be done evaluating
the remedial relationships and subtly of different remedy pictures. Homeopathy
is in the throes of a renaissance and this technology can be an important resource
in evaluating and defining the therapeutic dimensions of recently proved remedies.
6.
One of the most profound implications of the bioliminal technology is
the fact that it is solution orientated. It dramatically changes the interaction
between the patient and the practitioner. In most, if not all therapeutic interactions,
the practitioner is engaged in a dominant role and is sought out for his skill
and knowledge. The bioliminal process completely reverses this therapeutic enactment,
for the photography and the pursuit of clarity places the patient in the dominating
role, for he knows that if the practitioner is completely honest then any therapeutic
improvement will only occur if the remedy chosen causes a dramatic shift towards
coherence in the photograph. The photographs represents a dialogue between patient
and his ‘bioliminal self’ (innate self etc), information about the patient is
placed at the disposal of the practitioner whose sole purpose is to elicit enough
skill within himself to enable the process of healing to take place. The practitioner’s
role within the context of a homeopathic model should be that of a mediator
that arbitrates between his skilful
knowledge of materia medica and the ‘narrative of the patient’. The context
of the bioliminal technology ensures that these boundaries of mediation are
met, for the photography ensures a medium of clarity and mutual trust. At the
heart of any medical model, lies a fundamental ethical attitude governing any
practitioner whatever model he uses, that can be called ‘The Law of the Primacy
of the Patient’. R.C.Bolletino writes ‘ according to this law, the practitioner
is to regard and meet the patient with unconditional, unremitting concern and
respect as a unique total person who has intrinsic worth and the ability to
structure his or her own life. As Kant put it, persons are to be treated
as ends-in-themselves. This moral
law is not peculiar to the treatment of health and disease. Mind-body medicine
is just one area of human interaction in which the Law of Primacy applies. In
this area, the patient, as a person is inviolate. The patient is sacred. The
practitioner needs to have faith in the patient in the sense that Paul Tillich
defined faith- as primary concern.1 0’
These ethical considerations regarding the inviolate nature of the patient-practitioner
can be met through the use of the bioliminal technology.
7.
The bioliminal technology is tailored to each individual patient and
his own unique makeup. The process individuates each individual and empowers
the patient in his search to solve his
health problems. Ironically I have found it more difficult to use the bioliminal
process with multiple mixtures of remedies, since I suspect that different remedies
from different kingdoms most probably resonates in different octaves of subtle
music, making it more difficult to find satisfactory solutions when combining
many remedies. But this research is still in the process of investigation.
1
Superbugs are beating at the gates New Scientist 17 July 1999
2
Thought, action, and intuition in practise –oriented disciplines by Bob Harbort
from Intuition, The Inside Story edited by R.Davis-Flyod & P.Sven Arvidson
Routledge 1997
3
How we became Posthuman by N.Katherine Hayles University of Chicago Press 1999
4
Visions Michio Kaku Oxford University Press 1998
5
They could hold the key to thoughts and memories or become the building blocks
of living computers. Adam Rogers finds
6
Nature Biotechnology vol 16, p
851 1998
7
Margins of Reality R.G. Jahn and B.J. Dunne Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1987
8
Conte and Context Elwyn Rees SOH No73 Spring 1999
9
Remedies are beings we ought to befriend by Hans Ziller Austria in Homeopathic
Links Volume 10, Summer 1997
10
In defense of reason: a meta-response to loving openness Ruth Cohn Bolletino
Advances Vol15 No.1 Winter 1999
1st
Visit Base Photograph
1st
Visit Tarentula Cubensis 200c
1st
Visit Mygale Lasiodora 200c