The Essence of Being Human

My personal journey into homeopathy began in the crowded corridors of hospitals in Mumbai. While graduating in homeopathic medicine, I interned in the big city’s public and private hospitals, witnessing grief and despair, and often enough death, day after depressing day.

Somewhere down the line, something stirred within me… a question that had crept in ever so silently and had taken root – If modern medicine was meant to heal the sick, why were patients returning with regularity, their complaints multiplying, one ailment disappearing and another one surfacing?

But it was five years before my ‘eureka’ moment – modern medicine was not designed to heal. Modern medical science, either by design or by default, was achieving exactly the opposite of what it claimed to achieve. Surely, there had to be another way?

Call it pure instinct, but something told me that the answer lay in the wisdom of the ages. After all, what modern medicine so dismissively calls ‘alternative therapies’ had been achieving startling results for centuries. Also, I pondered why ancient Indian systems of medicine and others on the sub-continent were so amazingly successful.

Then the penny dropped – if healing though alternative therapies could not only cure sickness but also bring about happiness and even spiritual freedom, then it must reach into the very core of an individual’s being. There are many names for this ‘being’ -uniqueness of personality, energy field, and, of course, the Vital Force.

It’s been twenty years since I harboured these musings; twenty years of learning different approaches to achieving the same end – healing and cure. And although I was exposed to diametrically opposed but equally effective methods, I sensed there was something lacking, like the proverbial salt in the dish.

Over the years, I found my ‘salt’, which now helps me tap into even the most challenging cases. It is what leads me to the very essence of my patients. I learned very quickly that the key to solving a case lies not in the ‘whats’ but in the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’. Behaviour is but an outward expression of many things, both positive and negative. Unfortunately, most of us are ruled more by our negative experiences than the joyful moments we have!

It is our frustrations, disappointments, psychological traumas, conflicts and other key issues that leave an indelible mark. And it is our perception and the visceral experience of these powerful events, that are the turning points in our lives. These are the ‘whys’ (key sensitivities) that lead to the ‘what’ (behaviour).

I realised that reaching the soft and sensitive core of my patients always led me to the right remedy. It is when I understood this core – the patient’s most painful and sensitive issues – that I always arrived at the right remedy. This was, of course, born out through extensive follow-ups with patients who mercifully understood the amazing healing powers of homeopathy. I call these key issues the patient’s ‘Key Sensitivity’.

Thus the practitioner must not ask only what type of behaviour the patient is expressing, but more importantly, what led to this behaviour? What provoked the patient to become, say, flamboyant and exhibitionistic, or nervous and scared, or bitter and sarcastic? What is the patient defending against? What is he compensating for? What is he denying? Answers to these questions invariably point like a compass to the patient’s Key Sensitivity. Critically, his Key Sensitivity will link effect with cause.

(Please see “A Case of Aqua Marina” in this issue of the journal.)

These key and core issues must always be viewed through the prism of the patient’s Miasm. But to arrive at these all-important issues, the practitioner must probe ever deeper, listening to what the patient is NOT saying and reading between the lines, always guided by two key questions – what is the issue that the patient is most sensitive to? And how has he / she coped with it?

After that, the homeopath must find out why the constitution has either turned indifferent (Sycotic Miasm) or gone out of control (Syphilitic Miasm). In other words, once you find out ‘what makes your patient tick’, you hold the key that will open the case!

Divining a patient’s Key Sensitivity is not easy. It means weeding out irrelevant details while picking up relevant clues. The skilled practitioner eventually pieces together the clues to form a thread that sews mind and body, disease and health, patient and remedy.

After determining the patient’s Key Sensitivity, we must observe its expression at all Miasmatic levels, and how and why he progressed from one Miasmatic state to the other. Since all disease reflects a Syphilitic state, we are thus looking for the progression from Psora to Syphilis or Sycosis to Syphilis or, in a classic case, from Psora to Sycosis to Syphilis. You will realise that every single time the patient switches from one Miasm to another, it is the Key Sensitivity that turned the Miasmatic levers.

Of course, there are other beacons I use to guide my assessment and analysis during Case Taking. Among these are Dr Praful Vijayakar’s Chart of Suppression and Dr Rajan Sankaran’s Kingdom Theory, both of them cornerstones of my practice. I have incorporated these into an approach that provides eight possible entry points to any given case. This makes it possible to accurately assess the most challenging cases, for instance, the patients who are unable, for various reasons, to narrate their case history, or patients who don’t seem to provide many clues despite a loquacious disposition.

But as the experienced homeopath will agree, regardless of the approach followed, this marvellous healing art and science requires one critical ingredient besides the right remedy – the ability to savour the essence of being human.