Sankaran’s Plant Sensations in Pictures
Authors: Rajan Sankaran & Sandra Petri
Homeopathic Medical Publishers, 2011,
Spiral Bound Paperback, 42 pages
US$ 29.50, ISBN 978-93-80355-81-8
Reviewed by Prem Bharati Ankalgi Devkota
Reprinted with permission from Homoeopathic Links Spring 2012, Vol. 25 Page 63
This first edition of plant sensations in the form of pictures is a very creative presentation by the authors. Petri has freely used her imaginative thinking to create pictures for the sensations of plant families based on Sankaran’s source words, which are presented on the same page. This book can be used as a reference book to refresh as well as gain knowledge about Sankaran’s plant sensations in picture form with their symptoms.
One page represents one family in this book. With each plant family you find a list of remedies belonging to it. For example, the Geraniales plant family is presented with remedies like Ayahuasca, Tribuluster- restrism, Cuajacum, Oxalis acetosa, Coca, and Cocain. Images of marathons, trekking, mountaineering, wandering, etc., provide memorable pictures of this plant family covering these themes. Of each family source, words for its active reaction and passive reaction are given. For example the active reaction of the Geraniales is “euphoric, stimulated” and the passive reaction is expressed through “immobility, weakness, and prostration” (Fig. 1)
Fig. 1 Banisteriopsiscaapi (Ayuhuasca)
In a similar way the book covers 34 plant families. Some are presented with related differential families. With each family there are more than two pictures to help memorise its sensations.
The book is very helpful in that it presents a great number of remedies within a few pages. Sankaran’s three volumes “An Insight into Plants” are presented in a condensed way. I absolutely agree with Dr. Sankaran in the foreword where he states that this book cannot be used as a shortcut but only as a synopsis after having studied the more comprehensive work on Plants and Sensation methods.
This book is spiral bound. It is easy to carry and can be used at your desk for quick reference. It has an attractive cover with the author’s hand drawn pictures. Besides the pages on plant families the book consists of an Introduction, Bibliography, Keywords and Index with 295 remedies.
I would recommend this book to students and practitioners using the sensation method as a synopsis of the plant remedies.
For the next edition, I would recommend including page numbers to make it easier for the reader to track the pages and content from the index.