“For Me, Thirst, It Was Terrible” – A Sensation System Case of Anhalonium

This case was taken by Susan Sonz using the Sensation System of case taking and analysis in January, 2010. Several short forms or punctuations might be used throughout the case. This NYSH legend below explains their usage.

Legend:

A = The client

CAPITAL LETTERS= The homeopath’s questions

My comments are in [square parenthesis]

HG = Hand Gesture

SD = Spontaneous Denial

bold Indicates significant statements made by the client

CONF= confluence or repeated idea
THE CASE

Abe is a 70 year old man who grew up in Israel, in a kibbutz. He is complaining of fatigue, although he can play tennis for two hours. He arrives 20 minutes late but makes a grand entrance proclaiming, “The subject has arrived!”. He is very loquacious and brings a repertory graph along with pages of notes which he presents to me. Abe is very friendly and jovial – he chats as he fills out his intake form. He engages me in a conversation about homeopathy, the school, the state of homeopathy in Israel. He has 30 years experience with homeopathy.

Patient’s Chief Complaint:

Chronic lack of energy and initiative, both mentally and physically. Takes an inordinately long time to recover from any exercise or stress; little things seem like insurmountable obstacles.

Has had two heart bypass operations. He saw his cardiologist a month ago and received a “clean bill of health”. A type II diabetic and takes oral meds daily to control it.

WHY ARE YOU HERE?

A: Lack of energy number one, and loss of balance is two. I need to recover for a couple of days. I had two heart bi-passes. There’s a hip replacement. Nine operations already! Maybe if I didn’t have homeopathy it could be worse. I have type II diabetes. I take lots of meds, you can see over there [his chart].

[I advise that he will only change meds with his doctor’s advice]

The days I do exercise the sugar goes down like a miracle. Bi-passes in ’89 and ’99. Occasionally I stumble slightly and occasionally I had cases when I would walk out of a door and I did know where I was, but I had to stop for a few seconds to figure out where the north and the south was – “did I come this way, did I come that way?”

As far as weakness – when I was around 5 or 6, I was the strongest and fastest kid in that group. Two things happened – I broke a leg and was in bed for quite a while and while I recuperated, one of the other kids’ older brother came in and pushed me out of the group. He wanted his brother to be head of the group, so emotionally something happened.

Yeah! I have a very good memory. People think I’m nuts – I remember and tell things from 1 year old and they’re true. From that point on I went down a little bit every year. In first grade I was a very good student. Everything was excellent. Then we got a new teacher and my grade went down from very good, to good, to medium. She left in sixth grade. Suddenly in seventh grade, my scores, the 80’s and 90’s started coming again. In High School I preferred to play ball rather than being in class and I went down fairly low. I would get to be almost the best again, and then I would go down, then I would work and come up again.

So in first grade I couldn’t get up anymore – couldn’t get up and do my chores. Some kind of a weakness.

[up and down, strength and weakness, these opposite ideas begin early in the case.]

The next stage was when we started taking hikes – it was part of our training for the future of Israel to get us prepared. I’d always be lagging behind – with the girls in the back [laughs]. But suddenly, without any explanation, I’d have so much energy and I’d take off and be ahead of everybody – unbelievable energy. Still have it but not to the same degree.

[he is speaking in opposites again]

When I was in the Israeli army – I had a couple of times when suddenly I would be so strong you can’t stop me. Burst of energy.

It was really, really sudden – extreme results. One day I was in the office of the school – we were sent on a patrol in groups of 3 with topographic maps. I was considered a fairly strong fellow – never gave the impression of weakness. Suddenly I said to the others, you go I can’t move. And I was very, very thirsty. I finished all the water from my canteen. I started walking very slowly. I found some grapes and ate them. After a while I recovered.

HOW DID IT FEEL?

You want to do it but you can’t. Your body is holding you back. Weakness.

WEAKNESS?

I don’t know which word to use beyond weakness, you just can’t move. That’s it. I mean, you can move but very slowly. You cannot do what you want to. Let’s say we’re in a contest and running 4 kilometers; the other kids pass by, I’m running but I have to push myself really hard but I’ll make it. It’s not to the point that you’re completely collapsed on the floor – I never did that! But I gotta push myself.

PUSH?

That’s the only word I can use. If I could avoid getting to places, I would not even go. Yet, getting to the tennis court is hard and I have to push myself, but once I get there and play I never get this feeling. It’s come and go, come and go, not like running. Any time it has to do with a ball game, that feeling I don’t have. I’ll be tired but I never have that feeling – no suffering. The first case is suffering. In a ball game no suffering at all, only pleasure. That’s a big difference I can tell you.

SUFFERING?

Is like pain – it’s not pain, I’m giving you an example. Pain is suffering. This is suffering. It’s different. Physically your body suffers. You ask from your body more than what it can give. You’re asking so much FROM YOUR BODY that you suffer. [ HG – reaching and grasping] I’m pushing myself.

SUFFERING?

Same thing, I don’t know in your life if you ever really know what thirst is, I know thirst, many, many times in my life (CONF). Some kids could take it better, but for me thirst, it was terrible. Like when I was in the army in the tank core – get up 5 am, non-stop, never 2 minutes to rest. 1 o’clock in the morning you finally get to rest. Then you get woken up and have to go on guard. Twice I fell asleep walking. I could fall asleep standing in the bus. You’re so tired that it just happens.

TIRED?

You fall asleep even if you don’t want to. It’s suffering (CONF). In America I never had that.

SUFFERING?

When we were kids, someone was the king at the time. For some reason I got replaced and they went down on me. Let’s say a ball game was going on – I’d be the last one to be included. It was suffering. Until I was 15 and we started to go to a school outside the Kibutz. Then immediately I got relief and more relief when I was 16 and moved out of the area. I started to breathe. In the army I was really breathing, although I had problems with my commander.

RELIEF?

I met other kids who didn’t know anything about me – I was in suffering until I was 14-15 years old.

HOW DID THAT FEEL?

Like a sadness.

SADNESS?

When you don’t feel good and up. You feel squashed in (HG squashing two hands together). Not like a complete thing and that’s it – the whole Kibutz thinking at the time, I suffered but other kids told me the same thing; they really suffered.

SQUASHED?

Yeah, its like oppressed, they are pressing you (CONF), it’s physical. Like being in jail.

SQUASHED? CAN YOU SHOW ME THAT WITH YOUR HANDS AGAIN?

Ha ha, ok. (HG again), it’s depressing, them taking you and making you smaller (CONF), there’s nothing you can do about it.

What is it?? you have no place to go. It makes you want to rebel.

TELL ME AGAIN, WHAT IS THAT FEELING OF SQUASHED?

They make you smaller than what you are. They diminish you in size, it’s terrible. Makes you want to hurt somebody.

SMALL?

You think you are so big and they make you smaller. You fight it, don’t let them do it.

TELL ME WHAT YOU FEEL ON YOUR RECOVERY DAYS?

Lack of energy, weakness. Tired.

PRETEND THOSE WORDS DON’T EXIST, SHOW ME HOW IT FEELS.

You lose the will to even bother, even the computer, you don’t bother. It’s actual physical, my legs are weak, they can’t carry me. I am ok from the waist up but my legs are weak. It’s all about standing. They cannot carry the weight.

TRY AGAIN. CLOSE YOUR EYES AND THINK OF THE LAST TIME YOU FELT THAT WAY.

Like they will buckle under me.

SUFFERING?

We are brought up to push ourselves….

BUT WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE? MAKE ME UNDERSTAND.

Something negative is happening, I am pushing myself, but you gotta do it so you do it. Running, swimming, walking, biking, those make me suffer- the beauty of playing ball or riding a horse is missing. It makes me feel… excuse me, shitty.

HOW DOES THAT FEEL?

You’re talking about physical things? Playing ball, it’s creation, it’s always up, good (HG arms outstretched overhead). The other is always squashed down (HG). Or listening to music is always up, but that’s not hard work.

So I’m talking about two cases where it is physically hard; one is Ummmmm (HG, arms outstretched), and the other is always down, Pewwwwew, squashed (HG hands down towards ground).

[Here he is beautifully illustrating the cactus family sensation of contraction and expansion as described in Sankaran’s Schema.]

SQUASHED?

You get pressed in, you become smaller, you are made smaller. The opposite energy that is inside you against that, is not fun.

DO YOU HAVE ANY DREAMS?

The one dream I remember was when I five years old, we took a ride to another kibbutz, and then I went to sleep and I woke up in the night with a serious fear, an image of something; fire or light or something. Like a red light – very, very extreme – so powerful. Mixed with dark – like when you see a, like the bad word for magician, a sorcerer- a bad one. Red and blue – two different lights. Something very, very evil, I couldn’t even put a word for it. Blue, then came red. I was the most scared in this dream ever, and when I woke up I was still afraid. Very bad – terrible. That was the most afraid I have ever been in my life. It was like an evil spirit and there was terrible fear, extreme, without any cause or reason.

OTHER FEARS?

Nothing – since I came to America, nothing. But now I’ll tell you something, one time I was visiting with my girlfriend and another couple and they were smoking grass and they gave me some to try, but there was something in it; they laced it with something. I went very high, all the way to the top – I saw the top, I saw God. Then it turned against me. We had a sort of discussion – he asked me to do something and I said I’m not going to do it. Suddenly I was very afraid. That was the worst fear of my life – it lasted two years. I finally reasoned it out. But occasionally, it comes back for a short time and then I get rid of it. Sometimes in the night if I am asleep and my nostrils close, I’ll wake up and feel I’m choking and then that fear comes back a little bit.

I get fearful almost for lack of oxygen. It’s a similar fear but much less. I can’t control it. And that was going back 40 years – for two years it was so strong.

I took an emotional trip back, back, back, more than 5,000 years ago – I pushed myself back, back, back to that point in time. I saw the garden of Eden, saw the angel, and then finally I saw God, which was just light, so unbelievable so bright, like it doesn’t exist. From the light- BOOM- it all became grey and afterwards I wanted to jump down out the window from the 5th floor. My girlfriend took me home and gave me some kind of relaxing pill. But the fear came back many, many times. Afraid of… I can’t tell you, I guess it’s God, I refused God. He wanted me to go out and preach, and in the Bible all the preachers who go out to preach get stoned, and I didn’t want to get stoned, so I said no. And who can say no to God? Everything became gray and you go like this – spiraling – into the universe; no land or sea; no tomorrow or today or yesterday; no mother or father; just flying off. My background in the kibbutz helped me to hang on somehow.

You’re going up into the universe. A human being is grounded. There’s nothing out there – no ground, no earth, nothing; you’re floating in space – all the way out. There’s nothing – It’s like all the things we’re brought up to believe don’t exist – everything you exist for doesn’t exist. You’re moving, everything is moving – like somebody took you in a rocket and threw you out in space.

Its all gone. There’s only you. Are you able to withstand that situation or not? Are you enough of – are you enough of a nucleus to be able to survive? You’re moving but not controlling it – you are in space, like the stars, the galaxy. No God there to help you. You have to help yourself, you are all alone. You just argued with God and now you’re all alone in space and you have to deal with it. Not easy! But somehow I reasoned it out, thank God [he laughs].

God was beautiful – it was the most beautiful moment in my life and also the worst moment in my life. When I saw God at first, there were no words for it. Fantastic – it is a light that does not exist. It’s unbelievable.

IT was all very scary- the fear lasted two years. I had to take aconite.

WHAT DID THE FEAR FEEL LIKE?

You mean physically? Movement helps me and brings down the fear. Fear, it’s something beyond your control. That thing – some outside force.

OUTSIDE FORCE?

It’s squashing you (HG) uhhyuhhhh – pressed, squashed. I’d say it compresses you – makes you smaller (CONF). As soon as you even think about moving it goes away. Then its a relief, you feel nice (HG arms expanding across his chest) – you open up; go back to your own size. Expansion to be normal – not beyond.

The opposite of expansion is contraction, and now you expand back to normal. Feels good, but not super good, just by comparison to where you were. Just a second before you were terrible and now whooooo, you get a nice breath of air. Yup. So, I can’t say much more.

ANALYSIS

Abe was a very interesting man to interview. At first I thought it would be a difficult case because he liked to talk and would go off into many stories, and stories are often not helpful. But it turned out that he was able to speak wonderfully from the experience of his source. He clearly expressed the plant kingdom with his sensitivities to everything; ideas, words, dreams, thirst, air, other kids, etc. He spoke in opposites throughout the case which we know is common for the plant kingdom. His extreme reaction to thirst was particularly interesting considering Anhalonium is a cactus.

He went on to beautifully describe the sensations of the cactus family with his unhappy feelings of contraction, being made smaller, feeling compressed and oppressed, as opposed to his good feelings of expansion and becoming bigger (normal sized). It is interesting that when a cactus is deprived of water and gets “thirsty”, it shrinks, is made smaller, and when it then receives water it expands and becomes normal size; exactly the way Abe described it!

Abe’s visitation with God and the resulting experience of existing, but not existing, all alone in the universe, led me specifically to Anhalonium. His visions of bright light and colorful lights are also symptoms of Ahnalonium.

These are a few of the many rubrics that are relevant:

Delusions, imaginations: body, body parts: immaterial, is.

Delusions, imaginations: beautiful, wonderful.

Delusions, imaginations: bright objects, from

Delusions, imaginations: colorful.

Interestingly, Abe also spoke a few times about losing his breath or regaining his breath. Anhalonium is an asthma remedy, and although Abe did not suffer from asthma, it is interesting that he had this fear and occasional symptom.

For these reasons, I prescribed Anhalonium 200c.

FOLLOW UP MAY 2010

My whole life has become more smooth, more rounded. Nicer, softer, rounder. Definitely I still have to do things I don’t want to do, but there’s not so much pressure. I still get it done.

BEFORE?

More pressure. I have to do this, I have to do that, I SHOULD do this and that. And all the problems that come with that.

I bought a new bicycle and going up 6^th Ave and felt like I was going up on a cloud, and the color yellow was involved. Beautiful, light, positive. But I have clarity, I wish I had that all the time. Now I’m functional all the time.

This is the most profound remedy experience I ever had. After that, I had roundness and softness, I feel less anxious. Every time I take it I feel good.

I’m a different human being altogether. But if you can help the fatigue some more it will be a second miracle!

CONCLUSION

I continue to hear from Abe through emails and phone conversations and he continues to do well. The remedy works for his acute situations as well as for his general well being. The one problem I have is that he has occasionally used homeopathic remedies like Arnica or Influenzinum, even though I have instructed him not to. His years of experience with homeopathy tempt him to self prescribe. In spite of that little problem, Abe is playing more tennis than ever and riding his bike. He does not complain of fatigue any longer.