Dr. Urvi Chauhan

What can I say about Urvi Chauhan that hasn’t been said a million times? And with that I give you, Urvi Chauhan!

Wow! Short and sweet! Thank you, Elaine.

Any time!  Perhaps you can fill in some of the gaps I may have left?

I am Dr. Urvi Chauhan…

Is Urvi short for Irving?

I don’t think so.

I must be thinking of another Urvi Chauhan.

I’m a practicing Homoeopath and a Yoga Consultant.
My journey in Homoeopathy began from B.H.M.S. (Bachelor of Homoeopathic Medicine and Surgery) curriculum, which I acquired from Smt. Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel Homoeopathic Medical College, Irla, Mumbai, India in the year 2000.

Wait a minute! Did you say, Smt. Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel Homeopathic Medical College, Irla, Mumbai, India?

Yes….

Do you know Gandhi?

No, Elaine. Gandhi? Elaine, that’s Mohanbhai, not Mohandas!

Oh. I guess people make that mistake all the time.

Actually, no. So as I was saying….during the course work, it was my delight to gather clinical experience from Dr. Nimish Mehta, the one who not only has been a subtle teacher but also a good friend til date. Though I have always been a writer, or to be more precise, a Poet–my passion!–it has been an ecstatic experience to provide a language to the voices originating deep inside my heart- thus I have a collection of a few poems to my credit. Dr. Nimish was the first person who encouraged me to write my first ever article in the field of Homoeopathy- the one which itself never saw the light of day but the one which gave birth to the interest deep within me to mother many such articles – the latest is a published book, where I was able to pen down Dr. Rajan Sankaran’s ideas: An Insight into Plants Vol-III.

So, you’re the voice behind Insight Into Plants, vol. III!

Well, let me explain. Dr.Sankaran proposed this Idea that different drugs falling under the same botanical family of a Plant kingdom shared a common vital sensation / experience (for example, Stiff, Caught and Cannot move is the Vital experience of all the drugs that belong to Plant family Anacardiaceae) and that if we have a patient with such a vital sensation and if we can find out the miasm of that patient (in the case- receiving process), it is possible to find a remedy for that patient though this approach.

Stemming from this idea, drugs from 21 plant families were studied and demonstrated with respect to the derivation of their vital sensation, miasms and cured cases from Sankaran’s and his colleagues’ practices to confirm the idea. Insight into Plants volumes I and II were the product of all these efforts (these first two volumes were done by my husband, Dr. Dinesh Chauhan).

So, after these 2 volumes, there were cases which were done on the same principle of Vital sensation but the drugs belonged to other plant families not listed under first two Insight volumes. Also, there was a scope to study more families in the light of same idea- hence came up the project of Volume III of Insight into Plants.

My job was to find out the vital sensation for more plant families, find out the miasms of possibly each drug falling under that family, collect cases from over the globe from colleagues who are successfully working on this idea and then finally give this entire effort a good legible flow so that to not only share the research interest fully but also to make them available for all those eager souls who want to add it to his / her practice or teaching.

Good lord! Do you have any idea how much work that is? That’s a whole career right there! And you still find time to write poetry?

Allow me sum it up metaphorically.

If you can, please do.

This Idea of vital sensation proposed by Dr. Rajan Sankaran is like a fertile soil ready to nourish any seeds eager to form into a plant and then grow tall- the book Insight into Plants volume III was one such seed and I was the gardener 🙂
Having said this, there is a scope to having more such plants come up from this soil in the future 🙂

So, this is all in answer to my question about…something. I can’t remember. Some question I asked.

Have you tried Medorrhinum, Elaine? Let me know if you’re interested.

Is it the good Medorrhinum? Because if it is….See me after the show in my dressing room.

Elaine, I said “Medorrhinum”, not Marijuana!

Oh! I guess a lot of people make that mistake.

Actually, no. So, anyway, I was in college…

And again, that would be: Smt. Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel Homeopathic Medical College, Irla, Mumbai, India.

Thank you.

You’re welcome!

So, after graduation…

…you went to a dance, stayed out really late and had too much to drink.

Actually, I obtained a post as Residential Medical Officer in Mumbadevi Homeopathic Hospital, an affiliate to C.M.P. Homoeopathic College, Mumbai, for 6 months, which facilitated my skills in handling various Orthopedic, Rheumatic and ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) pathologies Homeopathically.

That’s what I meant when I said you stayed out really late and had too much to drink.  Urvi, I probably should point out that if we don’t start talking about homeopathy soon, our audience is going to start drifting out into the hall!  So tell me, what do you do when you get complicated cases, layered cases, cases with ailments from drugs, poor diet, injuries, pathologies, where seemingly, the so-called constitutional remedy just doesn’t seem to be enough?

Good point Elaine!  OK. So, the question is….

Oh, geez, I’m sorry, we’ve run out of time!  But we have a nice Hpathy Game for you to take home with you which promises hours of fun for the whole family!

Elaine! Wait a minute, your watch is on upsidedown!

Oops!  Not again!

Now, getting back to what I was saying…

Did you say I needed Marijuana?

Medorrhinum!

Right. Right. I imagine that a lot of people get those two mixed up.

Actually, no. So as I was saying…..

1] What is my approach when an acute case comes up and…
2] management of patients in the midst of many exciting and maintaining factors [bad life style, junk food, immune suppressant drugs, etc]?

answer to the first question- 1] what is my approach when an acute case comes up?

A: There are three possibilities which I face in my clinical practice so far as the acute picture of disease is concerned:
a] there are cases, which are already under my treatment and develop some acutes – in such cases when I explore in depth the entire state of the acute picture, I again come down to the same core – the one on which the patient was prescribed previously- this calls for giving a higher potency of the same drug- and patient feels better.

For example, I had a child patient whom I was treating for recurrent upper respiratory tract infections- after the exploration of entire state of the patient, I came down to Cina- and the child was responding well to Cina. Then, once she was out for a pilgrimage tour with her parents and the temperature there was very high; she developed a high fever [103F] and I received a phone call from the parents; I took her acute history on the phone and again her state was calling for Cina. I repeated it in higher potency and she responded wonderfully; within an hour, her fever was down, she was active and the family had a successful pilgrim visit. Also, one more observation, after such acute manegement, the over all improvement in the state of the patient is much faster in comparison to otherwise with the same medicine.

Sometimes, development of such acutes helps to find a perfect simillimum for those patients who are not in good contact with their inner beings [whose level of experiencing life is very superficial] and hence, failed to give a good history in their first consultation. In such instances, development of acutes act like a reflection of sun [core] in a clear water in comparison to the same in muddy water [this happens in cases with superficial level of experience /bad case history].

b] The second possibility is the first consultation itself comes in the form of an acute picture and when you explore the entire acute picture and the picture of the patient’s state otherwise [through their life’s other uncompensated areas like dreams, desires, interests, etc.] you again come down to the same core. So, again, same single simillimum. There was this case of Dr.Dinesh [the case was in a recent issue of the ezine] the patient had come down with Acute Myelitis and Arachnoiditis – and after the entire exploration, he was prescribed Hydrogen. After Hydrogen, not only did his acute problem come under control but also the overall state of the patient improved wonderfully.

c] At times, it happens that the developed acute state behaves differently from the rest of the state of the patient- this we have witnessed in two types of cases: 1] where the power of external exciting cause is much higher so as to cause its own state in a patient who otherwise harbored another state, such as in the case of epidemic disease.

2] where there is pathological disease including tissue damage and structural damage to organs which leads to acutes because of that. For example, I’m reminded of a chronic case with multiple diagnosis- one of which was Diabetes. The patient developed a Dry Gangrene. The surgeon advised above knee amputation which patient refused to undergo and sought instead Homoeopathic treatment. His entire state beautifully called for Veratrum alb- which was prescribed, but his gangrene failed to respond. Then after giving enough trial with Veratrum, his most disturbing pathology [dry gangrene] was studied and that called for Secale cor, and on prescribing that, his gangrene started improving. After that, again Veratrum started helping him in his overall state where the Secale failed.
So, the observation is the structurally damaged lesion secondary to deep seated pathologies some times behaves divergent to the original state of the patient thus calling for its own simillimum. Once that lesion is handled with a remedy it demands, the original simillimum is again demanded by the patient’s state to prevent further progress of the deeper pathologies.

This is what is the observation with different kind of acutes that I have witnessed clinically.

Very comprehensive reply!

In my interview with Dr. Luc last month, he started by saying,

“I will begin by observing that the present homeopathic world seems to be focused on ‘finding the simillimum.‘”

I think the Gangrene case above is exactly the kind of situation he was referring to. We all should know that when a person has been given a life-threatening diagnosis or a disease diagnosis, this, by definition, is the top layer in the case and will most likely NOT respond to the constitutional remedy; that is why we have remedies like Secale.

I’ve read cases where people have looked for the constitutional remedy in Pneumonia, Prostate Cancer and Coma from Snake Bite! It shows that even the best homeopaths in the world are confused! They hear that they are supposed to be finding the Simillimum–presumably the remedy that covers everything!  But they also know that there are remedies known for their affinity for certain diseases, organs, conditions–like Nat-mur. for Shingles, for example. How to reconcile the two? I have heard people say, “I have Shingles, but I’m not a Nat-mur person; so, I don’t see myself taking Nat-mur.”

As Dr. Luc pointed out in his interview last month, this stems from our not being familiar with Hahnemann’s Organon. Aphorisms 151-155 are all about how the symptoms of a remedy have to be matched to the totality of the characteristic symptoms of a person’s DISEASE, not to the patient as a person. It’s like when I asked Dr. Luc, “When can you use ‘Loves Animals’ as a symptom in the case?” He said, when it’s obsessive, when it’s ONLY animals, when you don’t like PEOPLE… This makes sense, doesn’t it? There’s nothing pathological about people loving animals!

When people come to see us, chances are it’s because they do, in fact, have some sort of disease. When is it appropriate to be looking for a person’s “essence”? When is it the right time? Definitely not when the diagnosis is Gangrene.

In the early stages of a disorder, when a person has only functional problems and there is no pathological tissue change or damage and his problems haven’t come from without, like an injury or an epidemic disease or a botched surgery, AND, when there is no Clear Remedy Picture before you: a clear Rhus tox case, a clear Arsenicum case, a clear Belladonna case with its heat, congestion, throbbing and redness; THEN you can look for the “essence” or constitutional remedy and give that.  At least, that’s what I do.

Urvi, in the interest of time maybe we should move along to case management?

Yes! Case Management, management of patients in the midst of many exciting and maintaining factors, such as bad life style, junk food, drugs, etc.

With multi-faceted diseases, thanks to the presence of multiple factors – a byproduct of today’s life style, there is definitely a need for much more of a comprehensive package to restore as well as prevent and maintain the health.
This is exactly where my combination approach of Homoeopathy with Yoga comes in to the picture.
I believe that “Homoeopathy restores Health and Yoga helps to maintain it”.
Yoga and Homoeopathy, hand in hand, provide a Holistic solution to a diseased individual in a much more comprehensive manner by enhancing the effect of each other.

Homoeopathic medication helps to create inner balance in the disturbed vital energy thus leading to an appropriate perception of life, balanced emotions and a healthy physical state. The approach of Yoga on another end aims at correcting the life style by cultivating a rational positive and spiritual attitude towards all life situations and towards one’s own Mind-Body complex. Experiences achieved in Yogic techniques helps in establishing healthy routines, right habits [including Food habits], a change in values & priorities, a change in motivations, and a change in attitudes. Once the internal harmony called homoeostasis is established with right thinking, right attitudes and right living, maintenance of health comes as a by-product of an enriched way of living. Yoga is a very wide and comprehensive system embracing all walks of human life.

Many times I have observed that it gets difficult to follow these Yogic guidelines if a patient’s imbalanced state of emotion is over- powering and his faulty perceptions of life and physical discomforts [disease] are too much disturbing, It becomes difficult to sit in meditation when the mind is restless, this is where the role of Homoeopathy comes in.

Thus, both holistic systems complement each other, not only in restoring health faster but also maintaining so.

Let’s move on to case-taking. I know that those who practice the Sankaran method have a very special way of “case-receiving”; can you describe?

In the Case Receiving process, the ultimate aim is to understand the core, the vital-disturbed energy pattern of the patient. But that should not be a deliberate gesture from a physician’s side at least to start with. [This is what happened with me initially- my initial cases demonstrate this.] This spoils the beauty of the dynamics of the entire Case Receiving Process.

If the case Receiving process is done in a manner where the patient is allowed to travel and enjoy the entire ride along with the physician – that in itself becomes not only a diagnostic procedure [to diagnose the core /Vital disturbance] but also a therapeutic one where in the patient becomes temporarily aware of his/her own disturbed energy pattern, and the associated delusions and unbalanced emotions which were paralyzing the patient, thus not allowing him to experience, perceive, and feel life as it is. This awareness in itself starts the healing from that day, even before the administration of the simillimum. It also helps as a confirmatory sign as in the physician has struck the correct cord and not entered the wrong path.

For this to happen, the case receiving process is divided into three compartments:

1] Initial part: Passive Case Receiving Process: here the physician is completely passive allowing the patient to talk whatever he /she wants to talk and reveal about his/her life. If the patient stops talking /does not find what to talk about, the questions posed here are again open-ended, general ones which just allow the patient to wander freely. For instance – “Tell me more about what you are saying,” or “Describe what you spoke in detail,” “Tell me more.”
This helps…

…to determine the issues of the patient’s life that bother him the most

… to determine which issue is coming up repeatedly from completely disconnected areas of the patient’s life. This gives the certainty that this is the issue which is “THE” issue of the case – so now, we know that if we probe this deeper, we will reach the ultimate inquiry [the CORE] easily.

…the patient to develop a rapport with the physician where he feels he is being heard and understood at his own pace. This may be crucial in the latter part of the case where the active Case Receiving begins and the homeopath needs to delve deeper.

…to minimize chances of errors in interpretation later in the case.

…in understanding the level of Experience of the patient.

…to inform the practitioner which case taking technique [Focusing/word association/denial/projection etc.] will be needed later in the case to explore the core.
This initial passive part of the case I compare with a Swim-Ride with a Dolphin probably for the first time. If one wants to experience the joy and beauty of such a swim, one has to be flexible and ready enough to understand the mood and persona of the Dolphin so as to go with its pace and movement. If the person starts instructing /pulling the Dolphin, it becomes that person’s ride where the Dolphin is accompanying him instead of vice versa and the entire beauty of ride vanishes [this is what happens in the deliberate Case Receiving Process].

2] Latter part – Active Case Receiving Process: This begins when the physician discovers the most palpable, vulnerable part of the case [Issue of the case / entry point of case] which when probed, will take us straight-away to the Core. Here the questionnaire again becomes more directed- where we aim to know the feeling, perception, experience and the associated reactions of the patient.

At this point, the patient starts talking about experiences which are the product of their Disturbed Vital Pattern- thus not making sense to our rational mind. In a way, we enter the world of Non-sense – a world which is Non-sensible to our rational mind but very much making sense if viewed in the context of the energy pattern playing its chord deep inside the patient’s being [what we call a disturbed Vital Energy Pattern].

3] The Final part: Flexible Process

Here, once the patient starts talking about the world of Non-sense, we again become passive so as to allow the patient to talk freely and completely and vividly about his /her experience of the source-“The Core”. We get active if he comes back to the conscious talk of his/her life. So, here, every step taken by the patient decides the next move of a physician [to be active or passive].

One thing is crucial to understand, that to explain the entire Case Receiving process theoretically I have divided it into three compartments [meaning this is how more or less each case happens if I view my cases after the Case Receiving has been completed]. Practically, in a case, all these are a simultaneous process. If a physician will sit with a rigid mind-set of following the above mentioned steps in their exact order, the entire beauty of this system will be lost. One thing to keep in mind is that Ride with the Dolphin. Don’t be rigid. Each case defines and demands its own style to reach to the core. Hence, in True sense, the Case Receiving Process is an Art.

In light of what you just said, it might be good to move on to the actual case you kindly submitted to us this month (“There Was Nothing I Could Do!”). Perhaps our readers should go to this case now and read it so as to better appreciate the discussion that follows.

Here was the first thing that surprised me about the case. When the patient said, “It’s like two rats fighting each other in my abdomen,” I just KNEW you were going to prescribe Rat’s Blood, but you seemed unimpressed by that remark. What made you so sure that this possible reference to “source”, or the Core of the case, was irrelevant?

Let me respond to this in a way that will not only answer your question for this patient in particular but also to many other cases where we get images in general. What you are asking is when there is a particular image a patient gives in a case, why can’t that be the source? Right?

When I get any image in a case, I doubt myself before labeling that Image as a source in order to decrease the chances of going wrong later – the possibilities in such cases are either:

1] the Image is the Source
or
2] the Image is not the Source

Now, how to know which it is?

In answer, I try to determine:

a] what is the central issue coming up in the case?
b] what kingdom is the central issue pointing to?
c] while describing the Image, what level was the patient at-[emotion level /delusion level /sensation level]?
d] in what context was the Image being used? Meaning, what is the patient trying to convey through the Image?
e] how much weight /energy does the Image hold, did it come up quite Intensely and / or repetitively with any body/hand gestures[expression of energy pattern in a patient] or it was just a passing remark?

These are the points that help confirm the Image as Source.

For, instance, this patient of mine did speak of Rat [an Image] -but, her central issue was her sensitivity towards Injury;
plus, her central issue in the rest of the case did not call for the issues of Animal kingdom in general and Rat in particular.

When the girl was describing the entire episode of stomach pain with Jaundice, her entire focus was the type of pain (as if beaten, punched, hit), which was described quite animately [gesture of her hands] and though she gave an image of two rats fighting, she never put any weight on that image. Also, no where else in the case, could we find any issues suggestive of rat. If Rat would have been her remedy, it definitely would have shown up in at least a few other uncompensated ares of her life. Hence, the Animal kingdom as well as Rat never entered my mind.

We need to understand this very clearly that when we are in the process of exploring the patient and his / her disturbed state, there is a possibility that the patient gives various images to describe what he/she wants to convey at different levels of experiences. At delusion level also he can give you many images and also at the sensation level.
Quite often in such cases we make the mistake of taking this image as a source.

It is also quite possible in many cases [specifically requiring an animal remedy] that the patient while describing his feeling takes us straight to one image and describes extensively about that image, since we know he belongs to the animal kingdom and on top of it he himself is talking about one particular animal, we do make a mistake to take that as a source. [See, there is a possibility that he still needs that animal only, but it has to lead to the central core of the case which we get every where in the case.]

The above mentioned points [a to e] helps to differentiate in such cases.

Paradoxically, the remark, “There was nothing I could do!” (referring to her teacher’s severe punishments) seemed VERY important to you.

It became important because this is how she coped-up everywhere -be it with her teacher / her friends /her mother /siblings / her physical problems [For instance, with her fever, she opted to be silent and continue with her work rather then speaking up, etc.].
This was the repeated pattern that came up as her coping along with her central feeling of being sensitive to Injury.

In truth, isn’t it a fact that there is rarely ANYTHING a 14 year-old girl can do when adults/teachers decide to become abusive?

I have my doubt. I have many distinct cases where a child [age 14 or younger] perceives, feels and reacts quite distinctly to punishments [I will restrain myself from using the word “Abuse” because patient never felt that way- it will be my interpretation]. For instance, one of the boys, again of the same age, if punished would become suicidal. Another girl patient of mine felt frustrated and “stuck” in a similar situation at school and developed recurrent malarial fevers.

What we need to understand is that each individual has their own pattern of feeling, perception, sensation, reaction and ways of coping in a situation depending upon their central disturbance. This particular fact demands our attention because this is where lies the most fundamental law of Individualization.

Our role here is to examine in such scenario of punishment [factual situation described by the patient]

what is the patient’s perception and experience of this factual situation?

what is the reaction to this perception?

how does the patient cope with this?

and finally

does this pattern of perception + experience + reactions + coping-up repeat itself in the different uncompensated areas of the case?

This not only helps us to individualize the patient from the other children facing similar factual situations but also helps us understand the core of the patient and thus the simillimum for the same.

What troubles me is, the rubrics The Complete Repertory has Senecio in, don’t match the characteristic symptoms in the case. Of course, I understand that this is a rare remedy and not a lot is known about it.

I also wish it was a well proved remedy to cover all the characteristic symptoms 🙂

One thing we need to understand is that–

we may not get all the symptoms described under one particular remedy in a case [for example a patient needing Medorrhinum will not have all the symptoms mentioned under Medorrhinum in the Repertory–Good news for you, Elaine!]

Woo-hoo!

plus–

we may not have all the symptoms of the case mentioned under a remedy in the repertory which still is the simillimum.
It has been our experience that a remedy holds the essence of the family it belongs to [for example Senecio holds characteristics of Compositae family, which is sensitivity to Blunt Injury, Insults, Burns, etc] . There are chances that the rubric depicting those characteristics may be absent in that particular remedy [due to various reasons like being not well-proved, etc.] but if even 2 or more remedies [well proved] of that particular family intensely cover those symptoms- that is sufficient. [For the further description of the same, I suggest you refer to the “Compositae” chapter in the book, “An Insight Into Plants volume I”.]

If the core of the patient [Feeling + Perception + Experience + Reactions to all + Coping-up] matches with that of a remedy, it is more than sufficient.
Having said this, it does not mean that repertorisation is not needed- it is a must but we can do it with much wider horizons.

Urvi, let me see if I understand what you just said as it’s a little confusing. You seem to be saying that whatever goes for Arnica (compositae) goes for Senecio, because they’re in the same family? I apologize for over-simplifying.

I definitely didn’t mean to imply that what goes for Arnica also goes for Senecio.
What I meant was that the remedies that fall under a particular Plant Family hold a particular essence which is true for all of them.
For example, the Plant family Compositae’s essence is true for Arnica, Senecio, Cina, Chamomilla, Bellis perennis, and so on.
Similarly, Anacardiaceae’s essence [Caught, Stiff, Tight, Stuck, etc.] is true for Anacardium, Rhus tox, Rhus venenata, etc, that fall under this family.
This essence for plant families [so far, its done for 28 plant families] is derived after careful research and study over the remedies [you will find these derivations with explanation at length in three volumes of An Insight into Plants].
While studying a particular plant family in order to derive its essence, those drugs which were not proved well, had very few symptoms to contribute to the derivation of essence for that family. But it was understood that even if well proved remedies or at least two of them from that plant family had characteristic symptoms that helped to indicate the essence of that family- we had the job done. Hence the statement-“when 2 or more than 2 other drugs [well proved] of that particular family intensely covers that symptom- that is sufficient.”

Further, what helps differentiate amongst remedies falling under one particular plant family is the depth and pace with which the essence of the family is perceived / experienced and hence coped-up [Miasm].

For instance, Arnica experiences the sensitivity towards blunt Injury with panic, like a shock, with acuteness – this depth of perceiving a sensation is that of an Acute miasm- Hence Arnica falls at the cross point of Compositae sensation and Acute miasm- which helps differentiate it from the rest, whereas Senecio experiences the same sensitivity towards blunt injuries as a fixed weakness within, difficult to repair, nothing can be done against this sensitivity but it’s still not fatal -so, accept it -live with it. Hence, the experience of my patient-“There was nothing I could do!” -so Senecio falls at the cross point of Compositae and sycotic miasm.
Similarly, Bellis per. lies at the cross point of Compositae and cancer, Cina at Compositae and malaria, and so on and so forth.

This essence we can also call common group symptoms reflecting the core, which is true for all those falling under that particular group. We have common group symptoms / essence for kingdoms as well; for instance, the essence of Plant Kingdom is sensitivity and reactivity towards a particular phenomenon/sensation experienced deep with in.
The common group symptoms / essence of Animal Kingdom is Issue of Survival, victim and aggressor, competition, one v/s other, predator v/s prey, stronger v/s weaker, etc.
The common group symptoms / essence of Mineral Kingdom is Issue of Structure-either lack of /need of maintaining / fear of destruction / process of destruction of a structure, and so on and so forth with each kingdom.

Likewise, we have been successful in finding the essence of various groups forming the taxonomical tree [order,class, families] falling under a kingdom [plant/animal] as well as minerals.

Finding such essence proves to be of great help to–

• arrive at a shorter group of remedies in a relatively faster pace and
• differentiate amongst groups of remedies that come close to each other,

To give you an example, in my patient- her Core was Sensitivity towards Blunt Injuries, fall, punch, hit, beaten, burnt, etc where she could not do anything, hence opted to accept it.

So, the sensitivity towards one particular sensation/experience spoke of Plant kingdom [hence ruling all the remedies out from other kingdoms].
The nature of experience/vital sensation [Blunt Injuries, fall, punch, hit, beaten, burnt,etc] spoke of one particular Plant Family compositae [so that ruled out all the other remedies that didn’t fall under compositae].
Accepting this sensitivity and failing to do anything against this sensitivity spoke of Sycotic miasm.

Hence she received Senecio [Plant + Compositae + sycotic].

What about etiology? I see so many possible etiologies in the case–the mosquitos, fright (the whole “camp” was apparently run by Nazis!)…

This will again be OUR interpretation- “Nazis”–quite an intense situation [no doubt about that] but it would have made meaning in this case only if it came in patient’s perception of her situation, not otherwise.

The food and water were bad; there was a lot of vomiting–food poisoning? Bad water? What do you do with this etiological information, do you use any of it?

I have already answered this; also, I will be alert and await a few more cases where the essence /core of the case again cried for Senecio to look for presence of such etiology- if they are coming up strongly, well, we will have a few clinically verified symptoms to add in the poorly proved drug Senecio.

You know it also opens up the scope of further proving of many such rare as well as proved drugs. In fact it is the demand of today – the way the advancement is happening in the field of Homoeopathy. We need to understand the pure language of that substance which missed in the proving conducted maybe ten years back.

With this outlook, Dinesh and I have started conducting provings since last year. Last year, we did one proving in Japan [Dinesh goes to Japan for his ongoing seminar series since past 3 years] and at present we are proving one more universal energy simultaneously at three centers [India, Denmark and Australia]. You will be surprised to know that many of the provers revealed the the exact language as well as the complete pattern of those substances administered to them.

Probably, after some time, [with the help of such provings] you will find repertories full of such symptoms depicting the essence and pattern of substances which we are lacking.

I wish we could have had more information about the girl’s cough (what did it sound like? Dry or rattling? Like seals barking? Painful? Does she hold her chest? Does she bend forward, etc?) and the asthma attacks (was there an aggravation time? Was there an amelioration modality? A concomitant?)

Exactly. But what if we do not have it? [as what happened in this case – in this case it was inquired, but there were no further descriptions].

Oh! OK, I wasn’t aware of that.

I felt at a disadvantage because it appeared to have been essential to know that the remark, “There was nothing I could do”, was a statement that reavealed the miasm.

Did you think it was at all peculiar that she worked with a high fever and vomiting constantly and didn’t tell anyone? I find that absolutely mind-boggling! What does that mean? Maybe this is more indicative of the miasm.

Absolutely. A patient with a miasm like sycotic / cancer /malaria may all present this way. Then what helps differentiate is the way it has been perceived and narrated in the context of its depth, pace, intensity and the context of their talk.
Her “not telling anybody with such a high fever”, as well as the coping-up of the rest of the case, did not touch the depth, pace and intensity of the cancer miasm – where the perception is “need of self-control”. In the perception of the Cancer miasm, the situation is quite intense, demanding a super human effort to withstand it-an overwhelming task which they try to accomplish without losing their self-control, whereas with this patient, it was like- “I cannot speak up, let me just accept it.” This was the depth with which she narrated, hence the Sycotic miasm.

She didn’t try to help herself? She didn’t say, “You have to send me home! I’m sick! I’m calling my mother!” Or was it possibly, “I don’t want to be noticed. I don’t want to call attention to myself, I don’t want people looking at me, I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I don’t want people fussing over me.” Maybe you can explain why this is sycotic. I think of Medorrhinum (funny that people keep bringing up Medorrhinum!), right at the center of the sycotic miasm, these children are very demonstrative. They can be cruel, harsh, insulting, wild, aggressive, fighting, hitting (I was never like this!)…. You get the impression that if they needed to go home they’d let you know. When I hear of a sick child working with a high fever, sick as a dog, and not complaining, I think of Staphysagria, which is the cancer miasm. Did you think of Staphysagria in this case at all?

No. the reason is the same as why I did not think of Rat for the case.
The Core of Staphysagria which belongs to the plant family Ranunculaceae is quite different than that of Senecio which belongs to Compositae.

In this patient, “working with high fever” was perceived as fear of punishment which further led to her sensitivity towards Blunt Trauma [Composiate family] and she opted to accept the situation as she felt she can not do any thing about it [Sycotic miasm].
If she would have perceived the situation of “High fever and not reacting” as that of Staphysagria sensitivity [Ranunculaceae + cancer] that might have led to the thought of Staphysagria.

I’m having trouble understanding what you just said in terms of why you didn’t consider Staphysagria (child doesn’t want to be a burden to others and is afraid of reprisals, so, doesn’t complain despite being very sick). I’m not clear on why we wouldn’t consider Staphysagria. She must have been very humiliated too, with all the hitting, etc.

This is exactly the point I am putting weight on again and again- there are many such possibilities with all the hitting; humiliation is one such possibility, another is Injury, another is somebody trying to cause harm deliberately, etc.-it will differ depending upon different patients.

For this patient, humiliation was not what she perceived / felt, so, it was out. So staphysagria was out.

What she felt and perceived with the incidence of hitting was her sensitivity towards that again leading to the sensitivity towards Blunt Injury that we get in the rest of the case. [Compositae family] .

Your question also raises one more question as in one particular image makes a physician think of Rat for that person, another episode makes the physician think of Staphysagria, how to avoid having such confusions in the case and be more assured of the simillimum?

The answer to this is, if we

– focus upon what the patient is focusing on in the case,

– focus on what it is that he keeps in center of the case [what the patient feels is important and the most bothersome to him] and not what we feel is important for the case [so as to avoid interpretations and prejudice]

– try to understand those issues with respect to their exact pattern of feeling, perception, sensation, experience along with associated reactions and coping-up [the vital disturbance ]

– explore more than two or more uncompensated areas of that patient’s life in order to confirm the explored vital disturbance

– get any Images [example rat] – understand it with respect to the above mentioned points [a to e]

– find out the source [similimum] which has the exact core / energy pattern as described by the patient

the chances of confusion at least in understanding the core of the patient will be minimal.

I also see that information for solving the acute asthma case was taken from an old acute (the fever) and the constitution as well, and I wonder if you’re suggesting that this is what we should do when a person presents with an acute? It’s not something I would tend to do; when I look back at all the flus I’ve had in my life–one was Arsenicum, one was Belladonna, one was Pyrogen–I wonder what the value would have been if I began by taking the case of the last flu I had when trying to solve the present one. Yes, it all seems to have worked out for the best in your asthma case…

I Understand your dilemma Elaine. But if I try answering this, it will prove to be theoretical.
Also, not this one case, all of my cases are done on this principle and so far the results are as positive as the present case of Asthma.

I’m wondering how to extrapolate this information and put it to use for myself in the future.

Try and Try till you cry 🙂

Wait, I’m writing that down….

Jokes apart, this works on the fundamental conviction upon the principle I just mentioned that not all the acutes are the cry of different state in a patient- that there are possibilities that its an opportunity to understand the otherwise subdued state which is crying aloud in the form of an acute. If this is the vision, I am sure an answer will soon happen to your question.

How often do you get cases where the remedy is Senecio (or a similar rare remedy)?

The possibility of getting any drug is equal. With the idea of looking at the drug in the broader horizon, reaching to the very core of the substance [so much so that we actually can gather the source language of the substance and not just the characteristic physical generals / mental generals of that particular substance] the possibility of prescribing even a rare drug has increased because apart from the materia medica and repertory as a source of reference, now we see a wider reference – possibilities [ sources giving information about natural habitat, natural quality, properties, etc of a source or a Substance ].

This is a very interesting quote I collected from somewhere-

“As he practiced, he learned new things and developed new ideas about case understanding and Receiving.
Each new case showed him how much there was still to learn and the more he learned, the more he began to appreciate how infinite knowledge truly is.”

I think this is the most fascinating and vibrant reality of Homoeopathic science where every patient who sits next to you is different and as unique as ever; a package that comes with vibrant scope to come across more and more unique experiences of life with each case.

This stirs the chord of my Heart. My poetic Heart again is excited-

A few words to describe the Essence of the Vital Energy Disturbance approach –

“If the CORE [of the disturbed vital energy of patient]
Matched the CORE [of a remedy it calls for]
Leave the rest of your hassles, out of the DOOR.”

Don’t stop now, tell me more!

“With the approach of Homoeopathy combined with Yoga- as Unique as a Human Being
Monotony and Boredom vanishes from the life of a Physician’s Being
Life blooms and the Living brightens
A “Dis” [Disease] becomes an Ease Being”

I like the way you rhymed Being with Being!

Elaine, am I answering well?

Say “Namaste”, Urvi.

Namaste!

__________________________________________________

Dr. Urvi Chauhan

SWASTHYA HOMOEOPATHIC CLINIC
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Station Road, Santacruz(W), Mumbai 400 054.
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