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Jose Miguel Mullen, MD, MD (H), MFHom. |
| HOMEOPATHIC
NEWSLETTER |
number three |
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Treatment
Trends in the Elderly |
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Seniority extends between maturity and death.
Development and integration culminate at this stage—fully and
completely in well-balanced and healthy Human beings, often
incompletely in those who are imbalanced and chronically ill.
Things slow down in this stage. The progress of seniority can be
compared with the gradual slowing down of an aircraft as it
approaches landing.
Its pilot can easily control a well-balanced craft as it slows down.
An imbalanced airliner may have flown without any problems at
cruising speeds, perhaps giving only some hint of trouble. When
slowing down, however, if will become impossible to control and will
eventually crash.
The Vital Force loosens its grip on all organs and tissues during
old age. Finally it detaches itself completely. Death ensues at
this point.
In healthy seniors—that is, in those who live in balance and harmony
with themselves and their surroundings—the Vital Force detaches
gracefully and gently from all organs and tissues at approximately
the same time. This is a perfectly normal development that is
accepted by healthy seniors with equanimity.
Their Vital Force's gradual withdrawal brings about a fairly
uniform, slow and progressive devitalization of organs and
structures. This devitalization is usually manifested as gradual
physical limitations that, like everything in health, progresses
evenly. Healthy seniors serenely acknowledge and accept these
limitations as so many indications that death is approaching.
And, for a healthy person who has lived a full life, death is like
feeling very pleasantly tired, turning off the lights, kissing our
dear ones good night and then falling asleep.
Detachment of the Vital Force and devitalization tend to be far from
smooth in seniors unable to live in balance and harmony.
Imbalance may contribute greatly to distress and suffering at this
stage, and death may be untimely and far from serene, as we shall
presently see.
For the benefit of what follows, let me briefly discuss illnesses,
how and why they appear and where do they lead.
In well-balanced, healthy individuals, illnesses happen when, and
for whatever reason, the Vital Force abruptly loosens its grip on
any particular organ or tissue. The devitalized structure screams
for help. The patient interprets the cry as distress and the
Physician as a disease-syndrome. Bacteria and the like often take
advantage of this situation to invade and provoke infections. In
Homeopathy, such a situation is called an acute disease.
Balance disappears at this point. The loss of balance brought about
by the acute disease, if allowed to persist, inevitably progresses
into chronic imbalance.
Like everything else in Nature, chronic imbalance does not remain
static. If not corrected, it inexorably progresses and worsens unto
increasing suffering and untimely death because it relentlessly
compels the Vital Force to loosen its grip brusquely from one organ
after another.
This progressive estrangement is experienced as so many successive
episodes of distress by the chronic patient and interpreted as so
many new disease-syndromes by the Physician. In other words,
progressive imbalance is the primal source of diseases, distress,
suffering and untimely death in chronic patients.
When patients suffer an acute disease, healing occurs when the Vital
Force re-connects with the devitalized organ or tissue.
Devitalization, and the patient's acute disease, disappears as
re-connection succeeds and the Whole patient regains balance and
health. However, if the Vital Force does not re-connect or
re-connects poorly, the sick organs remain devitalized, the
patient's overall imbalance persists and worsens, and the patient
inevitably becomes chronic.
In chronic patients, re-vitalization of ill organs or tissues must
be preceded by a full and successful re-establishment of harmony
between the Vital Force and the Whole patient. Only then will the
Vital Force be able to successfully regain a good grip in ill organs
and tissues.
The main therapeutic trends currently in existence aim either at
bringing Whole disease-bearing patients into balance or else at
controlling diseases.
Homeopathy works by means of bringing the Whole patient into balance
and by re-connecting the Vital Force to devitalized organs or
tissues.
The only therapeutic agent at work in Homeopathy is the patient's
own Vital Force, guided by the adequate Homeopathic remedy.
The Vital Force first brings to Whole patient into balance and then
re-connects itself with sick organs or tissues. Adequately
revitalized organs become hale. The patient's distress and his or
her disease-syndrome/s vanish. Then the Vital Force harmonizes the
now healthy organ/s or tissue/s with the totality of the patient and
with the patient's circumstance.
Homeopathy has virtually no complications, toxicity, side effects
and no allergy-inducing capacities. It has no teratogenic effects
either, meaning that is not harmful in any way to embryos or
fetuses. It is also very inexpensive
Homeopathy has two shortcomings, though.
The first is that the Vital Force has a timing of its own that
varies from patient to patient. This makes it impossible to predict
the moment when the effect of a Homeopathic remedy will become
evident. Some patients will become free of symptoms in an instant
while others may take weeks and even months to regain balance.
The second shortcoming is that Homeopathic treatments have little
usefulness for patients bearing diseases such as malignant tumors,
insulin dependent diabetes mellitus and a few others.
Let me now briefly discuss treatments designed to control diseases.
This therapeutic approach may or may not have complications and
toxicity, as well as side- and teratogenic effects and
allergy-inducing capacities.
Anthroposophy and Anti-aging Medicine are examples of
disease-fighting treatments with virtually no side effects and
toxicity.
On the other hand drugs, Surgery, radiations, etc.—that is, the
forms of treatment favored by Allopathy—are laden with
complications, toxicity, side and teratogenic effects as well as
allergy-inducing capacity.
Treatments aimed at controlling diseases have no effect whatsoever
on the progressive imbalance that afflicts chronic patients.
These therapeutic approaches thus pose an insoluble paradox: they
can successfully combat diseases while the patients' constantly
worsening imbalance creates new ones.
Treatments aimed at controlling diseases, and possessing toxicity
and side and teratogenic effects, do have two important plus sides,
however.
Their therapeutic effects tend to be both swift and predictable,
characteristics that make them irreplaceable in many situations,
particularly in those that are life threatening. They can also be
very useful in disease-bearing patients who are beyond the scope of
the usefulness proffered by Homeopathy.
As in the example of a well-balanced aircraft approaching the runway
described above, all that it usually needs to be done in healthy
seniors are slight adjustments.
Meaning that diseases that may appear are usually easy to control.
Chronically ill seniors, on the other hand, pose an extremely
delicate problem.
Chronicity usually becomes manifest late in life, during the years
when the grip of the Vital Force naturally starts to slacken—or, to
go back to the example above, when the speed of the aircraft starts
to diminish as it approaches the landing strip.
Instead of letting go gradually and evenly, as it happens in
well-balanced individuals, the Vital Force haphazardly snaps loose
from one organ after another in chronic patients, after years and
years of the relentless pull exerted by chronic imbalance. All kinds
of diseases appear and multiply due to this persistent and erratic
process of devitalization. This process tends to become exaggerated
by the toxicities and side effects of the Allopathic treatments used
to control their diseases.
Instead of serenely accepting the gradual approach of death, as it
happens in healthy seniors, chronic elderly patients live transfixed
by suffering and awash with fear because their bodies have suddenly
become unpredictable time bombs that produce one severe pathology
after another.
Only more and more frequent Allopathic treatments can somehow keep
death at bay in chronic patients. Although each new prescription,
surgical procedure or course of radiations is as incapable of
correcting their progressive imbalance as it is of preventing the
appearance of new ailments—all while intensifying the patient's
distress with their load of complications, toxicity and side
effects.
Complications, toxicity and side effects of Allopathic treatments
bring about Iatrogenia (from the Greek Iatros, that
means Physician and gennan, which means to generate).
Iatrogenesis is defined by the 28th Edition of Dorlan's Medical
Dictionary as "the creation of additional problems or complications
resulting from treatment by a Physician or Surgeon".
Iatrogenia is currently the third leading cause of death in America,
after deaths from heart disease and cancer (Starfield B. Is US
health really the best in the world? JAMA 284 (4) 483-485, July 26,
2000).
Aside from all of the above, Allopathy is currently very expensive,
with costs spiraling out of control.
To sum up:
Allopathy can kill bacteria and the like and patch up the damage
caused by diseases as they appear. Most of its treatments are
fraught with side effects and toxicity that bring about diseases of
their own and not infrequently also death. Treatments tend to be
complicated and expensive. Suffering increases as chronicity worsens
and diseases become more prolonged and progressively more severe. On
the other hand, the extraordinary usefulness of Allopathy in several
instances cannot be denied. It can often mean the difference between
life and death.
Homeopathy corrects patients' imbalance. It has virtually no
toxicity or side effects. It is also inexpensive. When adequately
treated and followed up with Homeopathy, elderly patients become
balanced. Whatever disease may appear in well-balanced individuals
tends to be acute and thus usually milder, easier to deal with and
less expensive to treat than chronic ones. In turn, these diseases
will not become chronic because Homeopathy will likely prevent the
appearance of chronicity before it appears. On the other hand, the
beneficial effects of a successful Homeopathic treatment may take an
unpredictable amount of time to become evident. Its usefulness can
be very limited in diseases such as acute appendicitis, malignant
solid tumors, insulin dependent diabetes mellitus and a few others.
Often, Homeopathy proves to be very effective in areas where
Allopathy doesn't work and vice versa.
In other words, Homeopathy and Allopathy complement each other very
nicely—or rather, should complement each other very nicely
because, for all intents and purposes, such complementation is non
existent.
Homeopathy is not considered a Medical specialty in America despite
of its impeccable 200-year-old record of uninterrupted successes all
over the world.
Consequently, Medicare does not consider Homeopathy as a Medical
specialty, either. Seniors must pay from their own pockets if they
choose to be treated homeopathically. This in itself is a deterrent
for the great majority of our elders, who live in reduced budgets.
In Hospitals and similar Health Centers the situation is even worse.
Here Homeopathy is totally verbotten, so hospitalized
patients will only receive Allopathic treatments.
The bottom line is that, for all intents and purposes, the practice
of Homeopathy is restricted to the office of Homeopathic Physicians.
A large number of seniors and all Hospital patients are excluded,
even though many of them would greatly benefit from this form of
diagnosis and treatment.
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If
the heart gives way all of a sudden... |
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Say that you wake up one cold winter morning and find the driveway
covered with snow. Say that you're over 40 and not particularly
athletic and also overweight. And you have to go to work. So you
pick up your shovel, go out and start working as fast as you can.
All of a sudden you experience something in your chest. It can be
anything, all the way from minimal pressure or palpitations to
severe pain that courses down your left arm all the way down to your
hand.
The first thing to do is to stop, go indoors and rest. So
leave the shovel, go back home, lie down, and call your doctor or
911 immediately.
You may well be having a heart attack. And
if that is what it is then the only place for you to be is a
Hospital’s Coronary Unit (CU). Everything will proceed as smooth as
silk after the ambulance arrives. Experienced personnel will
determine what's ailing you. If it is a heart attack they will start
treatment immediately and then take you to the Hospital. After a
stopover in the Emergency Room, you will be rushed to the CU where,
in most instances, the problem will be rapidly diagnosed and brought
under control.
But what will you do until the ambulance arrives? Seconds can become
centuries while waiting. Snow in the streets may delay the arrival
of the ambulance. Meantime, pain and anxiety may become extremely
severe and exhaust you.
Homeopathic remedies can be of extraordinary help while you wait for
the ambulance to arrive.
Following are several remedies that can be useful while awaiting the
ambulance. A good potency for our purposes here can be a 30 CH. The
remedy should be taken every few minutes until pain and anxiety
subside or until the ambulance arrives. Like every Homeopathic
remedy, those listed below have no side effects and no toxicity, and
will not in any way interfere with the Allopathic treatments you may
be receiving later on. My advice would be to put approximately a
half teaspoon (clean plastic spoon, please, not a metal one) of
pellets in a glass (made of glass, not of paper or metal),
fill the glass with tap water, stir it with the same clean plastic
spoon for one minute or two. Take a sip of that water every 3
minutes or so. Make sure that you keep each sip in your mouth for
some time, gently swirling it around before swallowing. Also ask
your wife or husband to drop part of the water in the glass on one
of your thighs or any other skin surface free of disease, and to rub
it vigorously until it disappears.
Cactus grandiflorus.- Feeling of constriction around
the heart, as if by an iron hand. Pain shoots down the left arm into
the hand. There may be cold sweats.
Latrodectus mactans.- Crushing heart pain with contraction of
the chest muscles. Pain is radiated to shoulders and back. In arms,
forearms and fingers, pain is accompanied by numbness. The skin is
as cold as marble.
Arnica montana.- When the pain has a bruised-like quality.
Naja tripudians.- Feeling of weight on the heart. Pain
extends to the nape of the neck and left shoulder and arm. There is
anxiety and fear of death. Patients often complaint of pain in
forehead and temples. Useful in heart attacks with few symptoms and
also in cardiac problems of children.
At times, an acute heart problem may become evident in the lungs,
with little or no heart symptoms. Here the following remedies may be
useful,
Aspidosperma quebracho.- For the earliest evidence of
disease. Patients may have a history of cardiac problems to start
with. The need for this remedy is usually manifested as a severe
asthma attack that awakens the patient at night. It is called
cardiac asthma. There is a great deal of anxiety, shortness of
breath and lots of wheezes, like in any attack of bronchial asthma.
Antimonium tartaricum.- Here the lungs become flooded until
the patient literally drowns unto death. The disease-syndrome is
called acute pulmonary edema. The clinical picture is easily
recognizable because of the characteristic rattling respiratory
sounds as the patient exhales. The rattling can be heard across the
room, and is remarkably similar to the noise made by a child when
blowing into a drink through a straw. The patient becomes extremely
weak. After a brief period of anxiety the patient becomes
increasingly drowsy. There is gasping for air. The tongue is heavily
coated. There is also cold sweat, particularly in the face.
Ammonium carbonicum.- Whenever a patient has a heart attack,
survives it, and then develops acute pulmonary edema that does
not respond to Antimonium tartaricum.
(Bibliographic information obtained in part
from the Materia Medicæ of Drs. Kent, Boericke and Vijnosky; and
from the Repertories of Drs. Kent, Boericke and Murata).
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Do
Homeopathic Remedies Have a Profile? |
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Crazy as it sounds yes, they do.
Each Human Being does indeed have a profile.
The profile of each Human Being is unique and thus different from
that of any other Human Being that existed, currently exists or will
ever exist. This is easy to understand.
But a Homeopathic remedy having a profile?…
Let me start at the beginning. That is, how Homeopathic remedies are
prepared and then tested to verify what they are useful for.
Substances of the most diverse origin can become Homeopathic by
means of being triturated and/or succussed (that is, diluted and
shaken).
Those triturated and/or succussed substances are then tested in
experiments that are called Provings.
Provings are conducted in healthy and well-balanced Human
volunteers. In Homeopathy we don't experiment with animals or ill
people, as Allopathic Medicine does.
The purpose of a Proving is to provoke imbalance in those healthy
Human volunteers. This is achieved by means of administering the
triturated and/or succused substance daily and by mouth until the
healthy volunteers become imbalanced and experience changes that are
the consequences of that imbalance. The form and manner of this
imbalance, and the symptoms it produces, varies from one
Homeopathically prepared substance to another. No two Homeopathic
preparations produce the same form of imbalance in volunteers, or
the same changes. The study is discontinued when changes or symptoms
become apparent. Alterations brought about by the substance under
study disappear very rapidly as soon as its administration is
discontinued.
These changes, that are called symptoms, whether they are
normal or pathological, tend to be plentiful. Volunteers may
experience all the way from a desire for fruit to fear of the dark
to a crushing chest pain like those described in "If
the heart gives way all of a sudden…" elsewhere in this same
newsletter.
The changes produced by each Proving, and that are the consequence
of the imbalance produced by the daily administration of each
substance Homeopathically prepared, constitute the profile of
that substance, that is, the profile of that new Homeopathic
remedy.
The reason why we only use healthy Human Beings in Provings become
clear at this point. Ill people have symptoms that correspond to the
disease that afflicts them. And, as Dr. Hahnemann once remarked, it
would take a "master observer" to be able to discern the symptoms
caused by the ill volunteer's disease from those produced by the
remedy being tested. And what we want to find out in a Proving is
the changes produced exclusively by the Homeopathic remedy.
By the same token, we can't use animals because there is no way
those poor creatures can let us know how they feel nor what changes
they may be experienced as the consequence of their daily ingesting
of the substance under study.
Provings are the most reliable source of information regarding
remedies.
Homeopathy has two other sources, though. These sources are acute
intoxications with material doses of the substance used to prepare
the remedy and clinical observations.
For instance, the acute intoxication with white arsenic provokes
horrible burning inside the patient, great anxiety, vomiting,
diarrhea and a host of other symptoms. So when a patient who comes to us
with those symptoms, usually as the consequence of eating something
spoiled, he or she will receive Arsenicum album, that is the
Homeopathic preparation of white arsenic.
It has been seen with some frequency, in patients who respond to the
remedy Pulsatilla nigricans, that they tend to be blonde
women who cry easily and who readily accept consolation, among other
characteristics. Consequently, when a Doctor sees a blonde woman who
weeps easily accepts consolation etc., that Doctor will consider
Pulsatilla as a potentially useful remedy for his or her
patient.
Provings, then, acute intoxications and clinical observations are
the materials used to build up the profile of each Homeopathic
remedy.
There are two ways one can learn about the profile of a remedy
already tested in a Proving.
One is to study it in a book, another is to make a Proving and
experiencing the changes in oneself.
From a Homeopathic standpoint there are only two kinds of patients:
acute and chronic.
In acute patients it is the disease that is ailing them what brings
about imbalance. Here it is generally useful to administer the
remedy whose profile resembles that of the disease to re-establish
the patient's imbalance and consequently his or her full health.
Chronic patients are out of balance to start with. Their overall
imbalance is what produces the symptoms of whatever disease may be
afflicting them. Consequently, the Whole patient's imbalance has to
be treated first, because that patient's disease will usually vanish
once the overall imbalance is corrected—after all, here the disease
afflicting the patient is only the consequence of his or her overall
imbalance.
So for the Doctor, most of the Homeopathic visit consists in
examining the patient and listening to what he or she says and every once in a while asking
pertinent questions while attempting to match the patient's
symptoms—that is, the emerging patient's profile—with the profile
of the 3,000 + Homeopathic remedies studied so far.
The first thing the Doctor must discern is if the patient is acute
or chronic.
If the patient is acute, the Doctor will attempt to find the remedy,
among the 3,000 + that have been studied, with a profile that
correspond only to the pathology that afflicts the acute
patient.
If the patient is chronic, the Doctor will attempt to find the
remedy, among the 3,000 + that have been studied, with a profile
that corresponds to the totality of the chronic patient, that
is, to the Whole patient +the disease the patient is bearing + the
patient's circumstance.
Once the Doctor finds the remedy with a profile that corresponds to
that of the acute disease or of that of a chronic patient the Doctor
dispenses that remedy and the Homeopathic treatment begins.
So not only Homeopathic remedies have a profile, but that profile is
indispensable to find the correct remedy to treat a patient with.
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| Profiles of Homeopathic
remedies: Lycopodium Clavatum |
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Lycopodium is Homeopathically prepared with the spores of the club
moss.
It irresistibly brings to my mind the image of the hermit crab,
ponderously ambling about on the bottom of the sea. This crustacean
has a hard shell all over except around its abdomen. Aware of this
liability, the crab securely hides its soft abdomen inside a vacant
snail’s shell.
In a similar fashion, Lycopodiums feel weak, insecure, inadequate
and in need of protection. This vulnerability makes them have a very
poor image of themselves—a rather preposterous situation, since many
are quite nice and capable. But try go convince them!
There are no snail shells around, so Lycopodiums are forced to use
other materials to protect themselves. Such a protection, with which
the immediately identify, makes them feel powerful. This
meretricious feeling of strength allows them to deny what they
perceive as their constant vulnerability and need of protection.
The conflict caused by this need of protection, and its constant denial, is at the very core of
Lycopodium’s profile.
Another thing very close to the core of Lycopodiums is
traditionalism. Traditionalism gives them a buttress on which to
lean when they feel lost.
Traditionalism, then, is of paramount importance for people as
insecure as they are.
Identification with the shield will make these patients ignore the
weaknesses and insecurities they perceive in their real selves.
Together with their real selves, these flaws will remain carefully
concealed—and largely ignored—deep inside, in some remote crevice of
their minds.
But that poor self-image will scream from its hiding place and hurt,
and refuse be ignored, no matter how many layers thick the shield
may be. Here is where Lycopodium's obsessive and uncontrollable fear
of failure spews from.
In turn, this poor self-image leads them to distrust themselves.
This distrust is inevitably projected onto others, lest they
acknowledge weakness in themselves.
Such a distrust of those around them, plus their chronic fear of
failure, will lead Lycopodiums to try to dominate others, and to
become very paranoid in regards to what others may think of them.
From here also stems Lycopodium's difficulty to delegate
responsibility.
In his or her constant effort to create a good impression,
Lycopodium will appear well behaved and suave, will say the
appropriate things at the right time, smile on cue and dress
impeccably. All with an aloofness that flies in the face of their
apparent interest in others and in the subject being discussed.
They will have very little patience with contradiction and
criticisms, facts that make them quite dangerous when in a position
of power.
And power will they seek, with the same avidity you and I seek
oxygen when we breathe.
The achievement of power affords Lycopodiums the perfect tool to
control others. Also, power is very useful to compensate for the
disdain they feel towards themselves—a disdain from where all
inadequacies originate. Finally, Lycopodium uses power to build and
repair his or her precious shield.
The shield can be built by Lycopodium's Vital Force only, guided by
his or her intelligence. Actually, this is where Lycopodiums find
the raw material to build the shield in childhood and, in some
instances, also in old age. Problem is, the quantity of Vital Force
necessary to build and maintain a shield is very large and increases
with age. To put up with the increasing demand, the Vital Force
finds itself forced to give less of itself to organs and tissues in
its daily maintenance job and consequently have more available for
the shield—sort of undressing Paul to dress Peter. The organs and
structures so devitalized scream for help and bring about distress
to the patient.
So Lycopodiums learns early in life—because they are
smart lads—that they have to obtain the raw materials for their
shields from sources other than their Vital Force if they want to
remain healthy. That is how they find out that outside power is the
ideal raw stuff for shield-building purposes.
This need for power makes Lycopodiums extraordinarily competitive
though, of course, they won't show it. You can not be pleasant if
you display competitiveness. And if you are not pleasant you stick
out like a sore thumb. Not a valid choice for Lycopodiums, who
prefer to remain concealed.
Needless to say, competitiveness is exercised along the trodden path
to the top. Lycopodium is no rebel. It will not open new paths. Too
high a risk of failing. There may be some angry talk of
rebelliousness now and then but, if you listen carefully, you will
discern that anger is directed at obstacles present in the path, not
at the path itself.
In their quest, Lycopodiums will soon learn that power is rampant in
corporations, the larger the better; and also in Medicine, teaching,
the military and politics, so they will flock there as if attracted
by a magnet. Politics poses a problem for Lycopodium, though, with
his or her instinctive aversion to the limelight. Typically,
Lycopodium will get the willies—even diarrhea and cold sweats—before
addressing the public. However, once in the podium, the delivery
will be impeccable. As a politician, Lycopodium may have to deliver
a fiery revolutionary speech at one time or another. Of course, he
or she doesn't mean it. Lycopodium is too traditionalist for that.
Going into politics, and having to pose as a revolutionary sometimes,
is a measure of how far Lycopodium will go to achieve any measure of
power.
Another important advantage of large corporations, the military and
the like is that they have so many workers that one can remain
anonymous while stealthily climbing the pyramid, and thus seek more
and more power, in a way that may not be evident to others.
Anonymity also protects Lycopodiums from committing themselves,
something they hate to do—in fact, one characteristically has to
twist Lycopodium's arm to obtain a reluctant "perhaps".
Rarely will one find a Lycopodium as an independent worker: there is
too much exposure here, too many chances that one may have to commit
oneself—and too few possibilities of achieving any power.
Lycopodiums will feel guilty when they err, but not because of the
damage they may have caused but because of their own stupidity in
having made the mistake. All the more if they have been caught in
the act. There is a large element of self-directed fury in this
ersatz guilt; a fury that will never leave them, in the same fashion
that the memory of that mistake will remain engraved within. Years
or decades afterwards, when reminiscing that mistake, they will lash
themselves with the same measure of fury they experienced when the
did it.
The same quality of unforgiveness and fury they will direct—silently
and secretively, of course—at anybody who may have hurt their pride.
And they may also want to take revenge. Stalin's famous phrase
"revenge is a dish that tastes better when it's cold" comes to mind
here.
In another interesting twist, Lycopodiums will weep uncontrollably
when thanked.
The dam that keeps emotions in check simply bursts when another
person finds something so good in Lycopodiums as to thank them.
Lycopodium's hunger for recognition is insatiable.
Perhaps their famous desire for sweets stems from this necessity of
being recognized. Recognition, though sweet, is not experienced
frequently. Sweets, on the other hand, are always there for the
taking.
Characteristically, Lycopodiums need others, but only as props for
their flagging self-esteem, and as steps on their way up to the top.
If someone gets stepped upon or crushed in the process, well, that's
tough. There is no call for love here. Closeness and friendship pose
the hazard of opening up and committing oneself, an absolute no-no.
And, besides, human relationships are based on respect; something
that is either absent or very poorly developed in Lycopodiums'
makeup.
This total disregard about the needs of others will make Lycopodiums
dictatorial with those below them in the organization's pecking
order and all the way from servile to groveling with those above.
The only thing that counts is the pursuit of power, no matter what
has to be done to get there. Only power gives sense and meaning to
Lycopodiums' lives. So Lycopodiums are not usually above intriguing,
patiently weaving their webs and even stabbing someone in the back
when necessary to clear up the way to the top.
Lycopodium will suffer a slump at the end of the working day. This
slump may last from 4 to 6 or 8 PM. Evenings and nights are quiet
times. Noise and bustle and the possibility to intrigue, the control
of others and the daily climbing must be left behind.
Stillness invites to return to oneself, always an unpleasant trip
for Lycopodium. So Lycopodium will attempt to lighten up this ugly
time of the day through stimulating him or herself with sweet things
(remember Lycopodium's sweet tooth), alcohol, drugs and/or sex.
Social and home life are OK for Lycopodiums—up to a point. They need
company, as long and nobody gets too close and peeks beyond their
shield into what they perceive is their inner misery.
Sex is very satisfactory as long as it is performed with somebody
catalogued as "inferior".
Things get sticky when Lycopodium finds an equal. All the more if he
or she wants a committed sexual relationship, and to create a home
with that equal. Here posturing and competitiveness will inevitably
come to the fore. And also the need to dictate and to dominate.
For the male things are not that bad. In a paternalistic society
such as ours he is aware of the fact that he has the upper hand. He
may have an episode of impotence or something of the kind when
feeling particularly inferior, but things usually don't get much
worse than that.
The female Lycopodium fares far worse. If there is anything that
revolts Lycopodium is to feel and inferior and to have to obey.
Feeling inferior brings her attention too close to her poor
self-esteem. And in this paternalistic society (where we still talk,
although with less emphasis and frequency, of Mr. and Mrs. John
Smith, and when marrying she promises "to love and obey") many
Lycopodium females resent being women. This means abnormal menstrual
periods, poor pregnancies, deliveries and lactations and, in
general, poor sex. Being so aloof they also tend to be distant
mothers to their children and then become furious and lash
themselves because of that.
Not the ingredients for a happy and fulfilling sexual and love life.
At home, love and sexual desire, and their need to dominate others
crashes head on with their aloofness and their abhorrence of having
someone else close by.
Most Lycopodiums solve this conundrum by means of spending most of
the time at home as far as possible from their dear ones, but with
the latter within earshot.
Again here, the right ingredients for a dysfunctional home life.
Lycopodium is rich in Pathology. Dr. Hahnemann, the first to study
Lycopodium, found over 1,000 symptoms for this remedy, many
pathological. There is virtually no system or organ that is exempt
from pathology of some kind or other. And it makes sense.
Let us recall that diseases, and therefore pathological symptoms,
are the consequence of the Vital Force weakening its grip on diverse
organs or tissues. The demands Lycopodium puts on his or her Vital
Force to build and/or repair the shield are so enormous that the
Vital Force finds itself forced to weaken its grip on one organ
after another in order to have enough of itself available for the
shield's needs.
Unless, of course Lycopodium finds an available source of outside
power. Here pathological changes will be less frequent and evident
because the patient will have more Vital Force available for
purposes of day-to-day maintenance.
And so Lycopodium unfolds its unhappy life. An anxious and secretive
life in which all sense and meaning are outside, in the achievement
of power. A life where oneself and one's own inner values and dear
ones count for little and often less than that.
A life that remains healthy as long as there is enough power around
to maintain and enlarge the shield that gives
sense and meaning to his or her life. A pleasant situation that
rapidly deteriorates and becomes unhealthy as soon as the external
source of power starts to dry up.
At the sunset of life we usually find three kinds of Lycopodiums.
In the first, and largely due to the love of a very patient spouse
and loving children and grandchildren, Lycopodium realizes that what
he or she has produced with his or her loins is infinitely more
valuable than power and whatever he or she may have achieved with
mind or hands. And that the hitherto indispensable shield is for the
birds.
Here love redeems Lycopodium by means of allowing him or her to
recognize his or her intrinsic grandeur, to accept him or herself
fully and to start to grow and to develop as a full Human Being.
Those of the second kind have failed to achieve a position of power,
and there is no love around to redeem them.
Too much aloofness, too much greed and ill temper, too much
necessity to control and to have the last word and perhaps also too
many divorces have scared away dear ones long ago.
These Lycopodiums course through what remains of their lonely lives
in the company of monumental bitterness and resentment, a moth-eaten
shield, awareness of their failure and a now fully justified
miserable self-esteem.
They tend to fall sick easily, with one disease after another. They
rarely live long into their old age. Many start destroying
themselves with alcohol and the like, and not a few consider suicide
as the best way of ending up all this mess.
The third group correspond to those Lycopodiums who have actually
reached the top and who serenely advance through their latter years,
firmly attached to a good source of external power that continuously
enlarges and repairs their shields. These people tend to live
sedately and happily until they die.
Unless, that is, they are blindsided by some terrible occurrence
like a crime, the loss of a very close one, the appearance of a
disease they have secretly dreaded for years or something of the
kind. That is, something that suddenly tears their shield asunder
and forces them to face themselves as everything comes tumbling
down. For the first time in their lives. Then those in appearance
majestic Lycopodiums pathetically fall apart and rapidly decay onto
death.
I believe Lycopodium is one of the most prevalent remedies in our
culture.
Just look at the Happy Hour in any bar, from 4 to 6 PM, the worst
time of Lycopodium's slump. Or else contemplate the desert table of
the executive dining room of any large corporation, laden with
sweets of every kind and description.
It is one of the remedies I dispense most frequently in my practice,
at any rate.
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Edited by Jose Miguel Mullen, MD, MD
(H), MFHom.,
Homeopathic Physician. |
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