AGATHIS AUSTRALIS

by Kieran Linnane

The use of Bioliminal Photography in our practice of homoeopathy has entailed a ceaseless research into the provings of new remedies as we have found, much to our dismay, that the older polychrest remedies were producing far less clarity than we would have expected. About 6 months ago our attention was drawn to a new proving by Misha Norland and Alistair Gray of the New Zealand conifer Kauri. Whilst we have often found it quite difficult to grasp the essence of some of the newer remedies from their provings, the themes of Kauri seemed to stand out quite clearly and we felt instinctively that this remedy was of profound importance. As Misha Norland writes: "It is possible that Kauri, an ancient remnant from the distant past, will prove to be as important a polychrest as our other famous remedy: Thuja". Since learning about Kauri we have prescribed it in several of our cases and below we present two cases where the remedy has acted beautifully.

Kauri – The Tree

Whilst we refer the reader to Misha Norland and Alistair Gray’s wonderful proving of Kauri in which they give meticulous detail of the history and mythology surrounding this ancient tree (http://www.homeopathyschool.com), I will say a few words here to set the remedy in context and also outline the general themes which the authors have gleaned from the proving (and which we bear out in our two cases).

Kauri or Agathis Australis is one of most ancient trees dating back some 2,000 years or more. It is classified as a conifer and falls into the third main division of the plant kingdom, the Gymnospermae.

The name gymnosperm is derived from two Greek words: gymnos, meaning "naked," and sperma, "a seed."

The name refers to the exposed nature of the seeds, which are produced on the surface of sporophylls or similar structures instead of being enclosed within a fruit as they generally are in the flowering plants. The seed-bearing sporophylls are often spirally arranged in female cones which develop at the same time as smaller male cones which produce pollen grains.

It is found in the same family as the Norfolk Island Pine and the Monkey Puzzle Tree (Araucaria araucana); the latter can be obtained from Helios pharmacy but remains unproved at present.

The Kauri forests have stood for thousands of years and inhabit the far north of New Zealand. The tree from which this remedy was made is the Yakas Kauri, a grandfather tree in Cathedral Grove of the Waipoua forest in Northland. Gray writes: "No two Kauri forests are alike. The trees stand and group in infinite variety. They absolutely dominate the forest. When mature they are the largest, amongst the tallest, and in their towering crowns as well as their huge clean trunks the broadest trees. It has been written that even in their youth they have a clean upward thrust of trunk that distinguishes them as a special race. They really are Lords of the Forest."

Apart from its great age, size and girth (the trees remaining today average 30m high with a columnar trunk up to 3m in diameter), the other striking aspect of Kauri and that which prompted Misha to consider proving it in the first place, is its bark which oozes gum if there are wounds to the tree. Basically Kauri bleeds. It has an unhealing wound. Whilst the Maoris venerated this great lord of the forest and treated it as a sentient male being, giving each individual tree its own name, the Europeans plundered the trees for wood and for gum, which was a highly prized ingredient in the manufacture of paints and varnishes. To quote Misha: "The impulse to prove Kauri was based upon a variety of impressions which included the staggering age, size and splendour of the mature trees and the mythology about the trees which abound in New Zealand. The deciding factor, however, was the signature: this comprises the crime of the wholesale destruction of native New Zealand forests within which the Kauri is the giant, and the signature of the unhealing wound: the resinous gum which oozes (in the case of old wounds, for hundreds, even thousands of years) from damaged branches forming stalactites aloft and corresponding stalagmites upon the tree’s mighty roots and the forest floor below."

Kauri is linked with the Maori creation myth: Tane, who is God of the New Zealand forest, separated his Earth mother Papa and his Sky father Rangi. Living together in the darkness between his parents Tane grew restless and eventually hurled his father into the sky. This myth is of profound significance as part of the signature of Kauri revealing that there is a profound separation of the parents in the remedy and also separation of the children from the father.

Kauri – The Remedy

The first proving of Kauri was effectively produced when Ellie Norrie collected a vial of sap and gum from Yakas in 1992 in order to send this to Misha who was to conduct a full proving. She writes: "As we had agreed, I bored a small hole through the bark of Yakas, but not before sitting in the stillness of the bush and meditating upon the task, asking that the spirit of trees and forests offer this up willingly, so that the homoeopathic remedy could be made. I was overcome with longing and loneliness as I began to collect the sap, so that I had to take care not to accidentally let a tear fall into the vial." This feeling of loneliness and longing is one of the major themes which runs through the proving. There is tremendous forsakenness in the remedy, the sense of the unhealing wound. There was a longing and yearning for a time before the wound, before the betrayal, a time when there was innocence and simplicity.

"The remedy seems to be about the reconnection to the past, especially to what is gone, wasted, destroyed, and the feelings that arise from that, yearning, longing. There was homesickness and longing, lostness and childhood. Furthermore there was a tremendous forsaken feeling. In more than one prover their long lasting feelings of deep rejection and anger were completely cured. One of the provers said of her forsaken feeling that she realised that her life had changed after her parents began doing battle. She was never going to be completely healed until her parents reconciled. So there is a strong forsaken feeling, but the quality of it was a yearning, and loss, and longing." (Gray)

Another issue, which arose in the proving, was around food, self-love and self-hatred. One woman prover had her compulsive eating habits completely removed by the remedy as she fell in love with herself and began to eat only when hungry.

The other theme, which has relevance to our cases, is that of water which came up time and again in the dreams of the provers. There were dreams of walking on water, of being in boats, of swimming pools, of swimming and waterfalls. (After being felled the Kauri trees were transported mainly by water).

The cases were videoed so much of the material is verbatim.
CASE ONE

1st Appointment 16/7/99

Our patient is a 45 year old man, slightly overweight, very cheerful and benign in his nature. He runs a highly successful restaurant business and he co-manages this enterprise with his wife. However, in practice, it is he who acts as the main lynch pin in this organisation and he has to shoulder enormous amounts of responsibility.

His chief physical complaint is eczema on his fingers which tends to come on when he experiences stress in his life. The eczema starts at the base of his left 4th finger where his wedding ring is, spreads to the other fingers and then to his right hand. The skin becomes very dry, itchy and cracked and then weeps a clear liquid the texture of glycerine. When the condition first started, about three years ago, he said that it was most unpleasant, both hands becoming "like claws". So far he has treated the skin with steroid creams and this keeps it under control. Hot water makes it worse and water generally seems to aggravate it. He and his wife own a sailing boat and he notices that his hands are usually worse when they are sailing but he wonders whether spending so much time with his wife on the boat has also something to do with it.

We asked our patient what he felt was the main cause of his stress.

Patient: Well, apart from my wife, I think unachieved ambitions.

Homeopath: Can you be more specific than that.

Patient: Well, for about the last 2 or 3 years I have been extremely broody.

Homeopath: Broody? What are you brooding about?

Patient: I have been wanting to have children.

Homeopath: Ah, broody in that sense. And that is impossible with your wife?

Patient: Absolutely.

Homeopath: That must create a conflict in you.

Patient: It is not a conflict between us. This is the first time I have ever told anybody. For the interest of science I am telling you! Yes, for me that is the problem.

We need to point out here that his wife is aged 65. Our patient first met her when he was 19 and they embarked upon a very passionate affair. They subsequently married. "I just fell madly in love with her and that rapture lasted about 10 years. Really we got on extremely well until 7 or 8 years ago when I suppose it turned into a normal marriage." His wife is aggressive, dominating and used to getting her own way.

Homeopath: How long has this brooding been going on for?

Patient: For about 2 or 3 years I suppose.

Homeopath: Since the eczema started?

Patient: I suppose it might be, yes.

Homeopath: So this is a big conflict for you?

Patient: Yes, it is quite strong. I have been around children for some time now as my wife has several grandchildren and I really enjoy children but it is only in the last three years that not having my own children has been a problem.

Homeopath: How does this affect you? Do you become angry or sad?

Patient: Sadness at times. And also there is a certain amount of aggression. But it is difficult to tell because my wife provokes a certain amount of aggression anyway.

Homeopath: You haven’t told her about your problem?

Patient: No I haven’t, I think it would be too difficult. It would be needlessly worrying for her I would have thought.

Homeopath: So, the only way that it would be possible for you to have children would be to finish the relationship?

Patient: Yes, finish the relationship, find someone else and start again. Find some nice 35 year old.

Homeopath: And you really don’t want to do that either?

Patient: I haven’t got my head around that kind of concept in any way, except to realise that they would be the required steps. I have been depressed on and off for quite a time about this. The other day I found myself looking at one of our co-workers and thinking that maybe an arrangement could be come to!

We then asked the patient about his childhood.

Patient: I basically couldn’t stand my father at all. My mother is a cold person. I fell out with my father and then didn’t see both parents for many years. My dear mother never bothered to get in touch. My wife says that any normal mother would have tried to repair the situation but she went along with it.

Homeopath: So what was it like growing up?

Patient: I don’t really remember much. We moved a lot so I didn’t have many friends. I was a solitary boy. My father is strangely enough like my wife, in that he never stops thinking about his obsessions. He was on top of us all the time. He had a job where he travelled all the time and I used to go with him sometimes and I remember that he would give non-stop lectures about everything. He was completely overbearing. I think until I was a teenager I loved him dearly. He was my father and it was great. I had a stronger relationship with him than I had with my mother. She was never really there much. Then when I became a teenager I just couldn’t take it any more. When I was about 29 we had a mega row about my younger brother who was still at school. My father wanted to retire and travel around Europe, leaving my brother to do his ‘A’ levels on his own. I thought that was appalling. So I took on my younger brother as my responsibility and found him a 6th form college. He then proceeded to spend all the money I gave him on drugs and never went near the school until he was finally expelled. So my father was right after all.

We asked our patient about his fears.

Patient: I don’t have any fears about tangible things. Of particular relevance at the moment is fear of being on my own, lonely.

Homeopath: Have you always felt this?

Patient: Yes, I think this is how my childhood was. We were moving every two years. So I don’t make friends easily at all. I didn’t make friends then. I am an introvert. So moving to a new school was a major up-hill struggle. By the time I managed to make some friends off we would go somewhere else. So I have always felt a bit of an outsider in groups. I go and sit with co-workers in the restaurant and chat to everyone but I never feel in the group like they are. And that is partly the position I am in – because I run the business and they are the fellow workers but, on the other hand, I feel I never really fit into any group.

Homeopath: So there is a sense of isolation in you?

Patient: Yes, totally.

Homeopath: And it has always been there?

Patient: Yes, always, always. I have to scratch my head to think of people with whom I feel totally relaxed and whom I trust to like me as I like them. I used to be painfully shy inside but I have learnt how to cope with it. Before there were times when I couldn’t find anything to say at all in social situations. I mean totally dumb struck. This was as little as 5 or 6 years ago. At the age of 39 that is just pathetic.

Homeopath: And the fear of being alone – is that general, that you don’t like to be physically alone?

Patient: That is a complicated one. Actually I am quite good at being on my own.

Homeopath: So the fear of being alone is really this deeper sense of isolation.

Patient: Yes, it is more to do with never feeling part of anything.

The other problem the patient had was with food. He tends to use food to compensate for his feelings of isolation and aloneness. He would often sneak away to eat chocolate bars behind his wife’s back as she was always trying to get him to go on a diet. Often instead of eating one sandwich for lunch he would eat two and then feel bad in the afternoon from over-indulgence. He was forever trying to control his food intake.

Lastly we asked the patient about the movies he liked to watch. This can often yield interesting answers, as in this case.

Patient: I like sentimental movies with big families and where things turn out great. I tend to have to exert maximum control over myself because I can cry at films like anything.

Homeopath: Give me an example of one of those films.

Patient: Well there was a film called "Sunday in the Country" – those sorts of arty films about a large French family with a big house in the country with lots of children rushing in and out and grandfather on the swing and everyone is nice and having a fantastic time.

Homeopath: So there is a great desire to have a harmonious family around you?

Patient: Yes, you can certainly say that. I also enjoy children’s stories. I have just finished the latest Harry Potter, with the excuse that I am going to give it to one of them some day.

Homeopath: So with these sentimental films, it is less to do with the male-female relationship, more to do with families?

Patient: Yes, those types of films don’t interest me at all.

Dreams: Seldom nice dreams mostly about destruction and death, but recalls very little detail about them.

Analysis:

We were at first perplexed by the case, and though we felt that there were certain elements of Calcarea carbonicum, due to his innate shyness and his wish to hide his inadequacies together with a considerable ability to tolerate enormous pressure in his job and also a rather overbearing wife, nevertheless this remedy does not encapsulate the feelings of isolation, loneliness and broodiness which the patient displayed. We considered Graphites which was clearly indicated by the skin symptoms, and his rather sanguine nature, but this did not quite fit either.

Using the bioliminal technology neither Pulsatilla nor Graphites produced coherence, while Calcarea Carbonicum produced some clarity and would have certainly acted but the question was how deeply? We started to search our materia medica for a remedy that might address this profound sense of isolation and broodiness, which we suspected came from his rather distressing childhood, caught between an overbearing father and a cold mother with very little ability to root himself amongst children of his own age.

Having recently read the article by Alistair Gray in Homeopathic Links 1/99 on Kauri and acquainted ourselves with the proving on Misha Norland’s website, we found in this remedy a tremendous forsakenness and loneliness and the yearning for a time of innocence before the wound. Whilst our patient longs to have his own children this longing also represents a yearning for lost innocence, simplicity and love. He yearns for a harmonious happy family situation, which was something he in fact never really experienced. His father was dominating, his mother cold and he was shifted from school to school, always the outsider. The theme of separation from the father is also here, as our patient rowed with him and then cut himself off for some sixteen years. Also we have issues of food and compulsive eating to assuage the sense of loneliness and forsakenness. Then the theme of water. Whilst we have not included this in the above presentation, the patient’s father and grandfather were both in the navy and, as mentioned, the patient himself owns a boat, which he loves to sail. Lastly we have the remedy’s signature in the physical complaint itself. The skin discharges a glycerine-like substance much like the gum of the Kauri which bleeds from the tree and which represents the unhealing wound in our patient.

The patient was completely coherent holding the Kauri remedy and this gave us the confidence to prescribe the remedy.

Rx: Kauri 200 BD for 3 days

2nd Appointment – 16/9/99

The patient reported that he felt considerably better after the remedy. We asked him in what way he felt better.

Patient: You know I was bumbling on about not feeling loved, need and wanted and part of the human race, well that is all gone.

He was sleeping better and felt generally more relaxed despite an inordinate amount of stress at work. He was very surprised that the eczema did not come out during this period as that would have been the normal pattern. His fingers were completely free of eczema. He didn’t feel as driven to eat chocolate bars although he had been socialising quite a lot and drinking too much.

He said that the feeling of isolation was no longer with him. He went to a party the other week:

Patient: I knew absolutely no one at this party and normally I find that sort of thing a nightmare. I found myself sitting there thinking I am not enjoying this very much. But normally I would be blaming myself for it and the next morning I would be thinking of all the stupid things I had said to people but I didn’t feel any of that. I just felt it was a bit boring and that I didn’t meet anyone interesting. I felt it was more their fault than mine.

Homeopath: And what about that feeling of broodiness?

Patient: Before the remedy every time I thought about it I was almost beginning to burst into tears quietly on my own. Now, I still can feel it but it is not cracking me up to the same extent.

Homeopath: So you have been feeling more relaxed since the remedy?

Patient: I should say so.

Homeopath: It has taken away that element of feeling like an observer, on the outside of things?

Patient: I should say so. Now I am thinking what the hell I was banging on about the last time I was here.

At this point, it might well been advisable to leave what one can say was a profound effect from the remedy, but since our purpose is to interface the findings and clinical observations of the bioliminal technology with the accepted values of Classical homeopathy, we photographed the patient holding Kauri again and the resultant clarity indicated that we could repeat the remedy without any ill consequences. So we prescribed Kauri again, since apart from the considerable amelioration no other clear symptoms had emerged for us to prescribe another remedy. We suspect, though it will take us some further years of clinical observation to confirm this, that if you prescribe an optimum remedy (the simillimum) that state may dissolve either very rapidly or may take many months to clear finally; either way it is up to the clinical experience of the prescriber to decide this point of transformation.

Rx: Kauri 200c BD for 3 days

3rd Appointment- 17/10/99

Four weeks later the patient was still feeling relaxed and the skin was clear of eczema. He was no longer talking about any feeling of isolation and he wasn’t feeling as trapped in his marriage with regard to the issue of children. His eczema was totally clear, and with pressure at work being excessive, he would have expected at least a whole finger cracked and oozing with fluid. In general he feels far more relaxed with everything, and his dreams seem far more pleasant and is even beginning to remember a few.

His only problem lies with the issue of food and he is worried about his weight as he is a few stone overweight.

"I want to stop obsessing about food and eating so much. It may be due to a lack of will power. At seven, I was incredibly thin, ill quite often from asthmatic attacks, until 10 years of age, when I started to put on weight. My job as an accountant meant more eating and since then I have been on diets ever since."

He has always been shy and had trouble creating profound relationships because his parents moved around a lot when he was young. He was always self-conscious and aware of what others thought; his mother was according to him rather unemotional, felt very little and was rather frosty and cold as an individual. She had very low self-esteem and was totally dominated by his father. She was dry and rather un-nurturing as a mother and he felt far more warmth from his father.

Our suspicions were that another state was being projected to be treated now, or a layer may have been removed after the Kauri prescription. This was strikingly observed when the patient was tested with the bioliminal technology and his image was totally incoherent holding the remedy Kauri.

We turned to Jan Scholten’s methodology, having realised that the patient had large elements of a Calcarea signature, plus the fact that in the original interview Calcarea Carbonicum was a close similar to his state. Nevertheless, when we photographed him again holding Calcarea Carbonicum, he failed to attain coherence, so the obvious aspect that we felt had been ignored was the lack of nurture or mothering which was at the root of his forsaken state, which had been profoundly addressed by the Kauri. So we tried Calcarea Muriaticum. The theme according to Scholten’s ‘group analysis’is: the fear that others will see that they need a lot of care and attention. The first part of this theme corresponds with that of calc: 'What will others think of me'. But in calc-m this fear is mainly focused on care and attention. They are afraid to ask too much attention, to appear too needy and to be criticised for that’.

‘It is a theme that can easily be passed on from mother to child. The mother is very uncertain about how to care for the child. The child does not get enough and starts to 'nag'. It wants more nurturing and attention. On the one hand the mother would like to give this, but on the other hand she is afraid to spoil the child. And 'What will the neighbours and others say?'. She gets angry with the child and sends it away: 'Don't nag so much!' And so the child becomes very unsure about his feelings and his need for love and nurturing.’

Our analysis was correct as Calcarea Muriaticum produced a completely clear image when the patient was photographed.

Rx Calcarea Muriaticum 200c BD for 3 days

4th Appointment-16/12/99

"The effects of the remedy were frankly amazing for a period of ten days on my diet. When presented with food I usually have to exercise moderation and restraint, but the remedy seemed to affect my innate wishes and I was actually eating much smaller portions than normal. After some ten days the apparent effects wore off and I reverted back to my usual dietary habits."

"Nevertheless, my eczema on my wedding finger is so clear that I have been able to put back my wedding ring".

"My shyness and feeling of awkwardness around people and at parties has virtually gone, and at the moment as manager of the restaurant I have to attend a lot of parties and whereas six months ago I would have shot myself now I am affable and relaxed".

"The issue I was brooding about at the initial consultation has now vanished and frankly I feel a completely different person to six months ago".

We repeated Calcarea Muriaticum 1M three doses and discharged the patient at this point since most of the original psychosomatic symptomatology had now disappeared and we felt that the patient had returned to a state of flow with a much greater degree of freedom than had hitherto been present.

Agathis Australis Case Two

1st Appointment 18/9/99
This patient is a 19 year old slim girl who is the girlfriend of one of our patients - a 23 year old man prone to sudden bursts of rage and feelings of depression and low self-esteem. She came to see us after seeing a marked improvement in her boyfriend following homoeopathic treatment.
Her main problem was her feelings of insecurity with regard to her father. He left when the patient was 6 years old. She has the feeling that he doesn’t care about her. “He will do anything for my brother though.” She feels very rejected by him at times. Her boyfriend sometimes replicates this behaviour. “He will often prefer to be with his mates rather than me although he has changed recently.” She feels neglected at times by both boyfriend and father. When asked if she had any particular kinds of dreams she responded:
Patient: The only dreams that I can think of are about my boyfriend. He doesn’t want to be with me and that he is going off with someone else. I have spoken to my boyfriend about it and I think part of it is what my Dad has done. My boyfriend says no it isn’t, it is just me. But I never used to be like that. When I was a little girl, my Dad and me got on so well. But he has changed.
Homeopath: So your parents weren’t getting on?
Patient: Dad went off with someone else. It was Christmas Day.
Homeopath: So you remember it very clearly.
Patient: I still remember the rowing on Christmas Day. My mum had packed her bags and said that she was going to her mum’s for a few days. We had to pack some stuff and go down to Nan’s. I remember when we came back my Dad had cleared out his whole wardrobe and had gone.
Homeopath: So when your Dad walked out can you remember how you reacted?
Patient: I became very clingy to my mum. My sister went through it on her own but she had problems at school after that and Mum had a lot of difficulties with her. My brother was older and more sensible.
The patient has a fear of spiders and of water. She fears swimming pools and the sea and is scared of drowning to such an extent that she won’t even go on boats. She is very scared of getting out of her depth in the swimming pool.
The patient’s other problem is that she can’t put weight on and is very self-conscious about her thinness. “I feel people are staring at me because I am too thin.” Yet she eats a lot. She tends to eat a lot of potatoes, baked and chipped. She doesn’t eat breakfast because she doesn’t feel like it after getting up but may have a chocolate bar on the way to work. She dislikes tea and coffee and drinks 1 litre of lemonade a day.
Her temperature is quite warm but she prefers to be in doors rather than out of doors. She is not particularly affected by stuffy rooms. She likes warm weather and dislikes the damp.
Temperamentally our patient is placid rather than fiery. “It takes me a long time to get angry if I am hurt. I am not as fiery as my sister.”
“I listen to everyone’s problems but no-one listens much to me. I have a lot of friends. I like to be with others and dislike being on my own. My mum went away for 2 weeks and I didn’t like it. I wanted her back once she had left. I had to keep going out of the house as I didn’t like being alone.”
She finds it difficult to say no to her friends. Even if she doesn’t want to do something she will say yes.

Analysis:
There was a sense of profound forsakenness in our patient with regard to both her father and boyfriend. A girl who felt immense neglect. As she pointed out, all of this could be traced back to the divorce of her parents and the subsequent wound she experienced. Again we have this theme of a ruptured relationship with the father. She longs for the closeness she felt with her father prior to the age of 6 when he left the family. Also the theme of water, only here it is experienced negatively, with the patient displaying a great fear of swimming pools and the sea. Furthermore, we see a problem regarding food and body-image – a dislike of the self because she perceives herself as too thin.
We considered the following remedies: Pulsatilla (forsakenness), Magnesium Carbonicum (the break-up of the parents’ marriage and the theme of the father) and Thuja (delusion, thin, body is) and tested them out photographically. Magnesium Carbonicum provided us with the clearest photograph but we were dissatisfied. We had already prescribed Kauri in our first case, had begun to understand somewhat the essence of this remedy and saw some parallels with that case. When we photographed our patient holding Kauri the picture was crystal clear and this gave us the confidence to go ahead and prescribe it.

Rx: Kauri 200 BD for 3 days

2nd Appointment – 16/10/99
Our patient reported feeling fine and happy after the remedy although the morning of the appointment she had another dream that her boyfriend went off with someone else.
She was actually able to say no to a friend of hers who asked her to go a party. Our patient didn’t have the money and chose not to go. This was a first. “I wouldn’t have done that before.”
“I am also standing up to my boyfriend. He said you’re not how you used to be.”
“I have given stuff straight back.”
She said that the relationship was much better between them and that they hadn’t had a major row for a long while. She also reported that she didn’t mind being alone so much without her boyfriend and that she was able to allow him more independence.
She hadn’t seen her father for a while so it was difficult to ascertain how much had changed in that particular relationship.

Our patient’s base photograph was totally clear so we decided to wait.

Follow up: the patient remained fine after this and we lost contact