Multi-Miasmatic Expression:

Almost every one of us has a multimiasmatic expression of disease. This is because besides the miasms we may have acquired during our lifetime, we have also an inherited miasmatic load that progresses further with every suppressive treatment taken during ones lifetime. Vijaykar details the various physical and mental facets of individual miasmatic expression. That has already been covered in earlier articles on miasms, especially the last one in the previous (May ’05) issue. His are valuable insights interpreted from his own experience, so one should go through his book. I have mainly focussed on the clinical relevance of these concepts for case management.

Every individual inherits his natural traits and characteristics from his parents.These are in his genes. But not all these genes are expressed in the normal characteristics of the individual. Some genes remain dormant, while some are dominant. The dominant genes are activated to produce and synthesize substances that express the dominant characteristics. From the homeopathic standpoint too, the individual inherits miasmatic traits (genetically based) from his parents. He may have inherited a multimiasmatic expression, but only the dominant miasm expresses itself, with the others lying latent (Hahemann used the term “latent psora”!), having the ability to be activated in the right set of circumstances. This miasmatic load is also modified by miasmatic influences acquired during a person’s lifetime.

Vijaykar explains the process of growth, development and aging as an expression of miasmatic evolution. The essential concept is as follows:
The First Phase from Birth to about 20 years of age normally present with complaints related to the Psoric miasm – Skin problems, frequent colds, diarrheas, various repeated infections that last a short while that helps develop the immune system. These diseases are dealt with through “physiological defense” systems. The mental state is one of learning, growing, working to gain knowledge, satisfying ones basic needs of survival.

The Second Phase from about 20 years to 50 years of age normally present with Sycotic complaints like backache, Rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, tumors, fibroids, hypertension and diabetes. The defenses have become accumulative or “constructive”. The mental state is expressed in the need to prosper, to accumulate wealth and power, and to achieve. There is weight gain in general signifying this move towards sycotic expression.

The Third Phase is after 50 years till death. This phase is characterized by catabolism, and a process of destruction that is normal to aging. But it also characterizes a Syphilitic expression. Depending on the miasmatic load, the destructive process sets in either at an earlier age in this phase or only very close to death. A long life and uncomplicated old age is a sign of strong Psoric miasmatic inheritance, which is the secret to a long life of good vitality.
Of course, the miasmatic shift can occur at any time, and it is the miasmatic background that has been inherited along with the amount of stress in the environment that the individual is exposed to that determines this.

Miasms in Hering’s Law of Cure

Earlier we talked about Miasmatic evolution and Hering’s Law of Cure from the embryological perspective. Vijaykar adds one more corollary to Hering’s Law in order to bring in the miasmatic perspective:

The 5 directions of cure are:
1. From organs of more importance to organs of less importance
2. From Above Downwards
3. From Inside to Outside
4. From Center to Periphery
5. In the Chronological reverse order of disease development.
An additional Corollary is:
6. From a more destructive miasm or destructive process towards one that is less destructive. I.e. Either from Syphilis to Psora or Syphilis to Sycosis, or Sycosis to Psora.

A Clinical Example is the case of a man suffering form Leukemia. While he was being treated with a remedy, his WBC count reduces, which may have been a welcome sign, but along with this, his hemoglobin level also began to fall. Leukemia has a Sycotic taint. The fall in WBC is a good miasmatic sign, but the fall in Hemoglobin alongside is an indication of destruction of bone marrow cells that also produce RBC’s. This would be a Syphilitic change towards a destructive defense instead of the sycotic defense of leukemia. This was a wrong direction of cure.

The case was revised and the correct antisycotic similimum was found. After the second prescription, The haemoglobin increased. But the number of leucocytes (WBC’s) increased as well. From the Miasmatic point of view, this was a good movement as the destructive Syphilitic change has reverted back to a sycotic defense. Subsequently there followed a decrease in the total WBC’s while the hemoglobin continued to improve. A subsequent differential WBC count revealed that there was a definite reduction in the number of lymphocytes (chronic inflammatory cells) with a corresponding increase in the Neutrophil count (Acute inflammatory cells). Lab results over the past year did not show any such change in the differential WBC count. The sign of increased neutrophils, as against lymphocytes is a Psoric expression.

This was a miasmatic indication of the correct direction of cure. Besides other signs of Hering’s law that were observed, here was the miasmatic interpretation exhibiting a change from a Syphilitic “Destructive defense” to a Sycotic “Constructive Defense” onwards to a Psoric “Physiological Defense”. The remedy was a miasmatic similimum and was certain to completely cure this patient.

Multimiasmatic Remedies

The multimiasmatic expression exists not only in an individual but also in the remedy proving. As mentioned in my previous article, it would have been interesting if Hahnemann has sought to record proving symptoms giving importance to the miasmatic expression and sequence of symptoms development. But he did not, and so we have the added difficulty today of trying to understand our remedies (especially the polycrest ones) from the multimiasmatic perspective. This is a concept that the ICR symposium have worked on as well in order to understand the different miasmatic expressions in polycrest remedies. The importance of understanding remedies from the miasmatic standpoint is that it helps us perceive a commonly used remedy in an uncommon expression based on the predominant miasmatic expression. The predominant miasm is one of the reasons why we see different and uncommon facets of remedies in different individuals. One does not write these off as “Polarities” simplistically. They have a good reason to show one polarity – and often the explanation is fond when we look deeper into the miasmatic expression of the symptom picture as whole, the physical symptoms being most clearly indicative of the stage of pathological progression.
In the previous article (Part II), the multimiasmatic expression of Baryta Carb was explained from a description given in the ICR Volumes.

Here is the remedy Opium miasmatically analyzed by Dr. Vijaykar.
A Psoric Opium would have:
Physically
1. Epilepsy
2. Hyperacidity
3. Itching of the skin.
Mentally
1. He will be quick and witty
2. He will have easy comprehension
3. He will be easily frightened
4. He would have a good intellect and active memory

The Sycotic Opium would have:
Physically
1. Constipation
2. Ptosis of the eyelids
3. Dropsical condition of the body
Mentally
1. He would be slow and torporous
2. He would be a liar, deceitful and sly.
3. He would be full of ideas with gigantic plans
4. His senses would be blunted with a weakness of memory

The Syphilitic Opium would have:
Physically
1. Painlessness of Complaints.
2. Trembling and Twitching of muscles.
3. Paralytic conditions of bowels, bladder, etc.
4. Comatose and unconsciousness.
Mentally
1. He would appear contented by apathetic.
2. He would be imbecile.
3. He would be ecstatic, eccentric with exalted fancies.
He would be shrieking, screaming and shouting.

Here is an example of how one observes the miasmatic expression of the case and correlates it with the miasmatic expression of a multimiasmatic remedy to cure a serious disease.

A lady came for treatment with Cancer of the Cervix. She was dark, long faced, sharp featured with a slightly distorted bridge of her nose. She was friendly and loquacious. She was an Assistant Editor of a leading Hindi Language magazine. She said she resigned from this post, as her worth had not been recognized. They had not made her the Editor in spite of working hard for the magazine for over 8 years.

At home she led a restricted life because her husband was very strict. He was dictatorial, abrupt and aloof. She had to live her life independent of him because she had virtually no moral or financial support from him. Her son too did not care for her much.

In these circumstances, she was angry with all “males”. She said that she was a good poet whose poems were very well appreciated. She specialized on two themes – they were either for small children or for women/girls.
When she was asked to recite some poems, she recited one she had written for young girls. The gist of the poem was advising girls not to be confined to the kitchen, but to come out of their cage and see the wide world around them. (So far so good!). then she went on to advise these girls to mercilessly kill the people who have caged them. Cut them to pieces and feed them to the insects and rats which are hungry! All this with the intention of advocating liberty!

When asked to recite a poem she had written for children, her eyes sparkled. She stated that she wrote unique poems for children. She started to recite a poem that she titled “Headless”. The poem described a boy of 5 years whose head was cut off. It ended with other boys teasing this headless boy telling him how beautiful they looked. But when they looked over a bridge into the water, the reflection they saw shocked them. All their heads had been cut off and placed on the body of the headless boy they were teasing!

One can imagine the perversion and distortion of her imagination! A poem for children should be pleasant, about beauty and full of joy, but here she wrote on themes that would frighten them to death! It was clear why her “unique” poems never gained popularity as also the reason why she never felt appreciated. This is also the reason why she was not promoted to chief editor and possibly why her husband remained aloof from her.

This is a syphilitic expression of the remedy, which remains at the level of the mind with a physical symptom expression. (Note that there is no obvious expression in social action that one would expect of a typically and predominantly syphilitic remedy like Merc.) One need not look into Rubrics of dreams and delusions. What is characteristic of her is her Egotism of being a ‘Unique’ person. The correct rubric in the repertory for her distorted imagination is:
“MIND; STRANGE; crank; opinions and acts, in (SI-962): calc., sulph., verat“.
Her general symptoms were: Very thirsty with heat of the palms and soles. The remedy was SULPHUR with syphilitic expression of the remedy. Sulphur cured her cervical and uterine dysplasia completely much to the amazement of the gynecologist.

Conclusion

This attempt of presenting Dr. Vijaykar’s concepts on miasms hopes to highlight parts of his insight that are brilliant and very useful for case management. I have left out concepts included in his books that were not very relevant clinically or need further elaboration or modification by him in the future.

We all could do with deeper insight into managing our chronic patients miasmatically! As I said earlier, a little bit of indepth study and learning is a must for any homeopath wanting to achieve successful cures clinically, making use of all the tools at our disposal. It adds to the sense of fulfillment in our mission to heal the sick. Do write in with your comments and suggestions.

Dr. Leela D’Souza

http://www.homeopathy2health.com/

Bibliography:

1. The Chronic Diseases, Samuel Hahnemann (Theoretical Part)
2. Organon of Medicine, Samuel Hahnemann
3. The Genius of Homeopathy, Stuart Close, MD
4. Dhawle’s ICR Symposiums (Volume C), Mumbai
5. Theory of Suppression, Predictive Homeopathy Part I, Praful Vijaykar, LCEH
6. The End of Myasumtion of Miasms, Predictive Homeopathy Part III, Praful Vijaykar, LCEH
7. An Insight into Plants, Rajan Sankaran, LCEH