A group
analysis evaluation of selected psychoactive
plant remedies in terms of known materia medica
http://ir.dut.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10321/1771/HULL_2016.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Vergleich: Siehe: Stimulantia (JJ Kleber)
[Ruth Heather Hull]
A group analysis evaluation of selected psychoactive plant remedies in
terms of known materia medica
Scholten (1993), Sankaran (2005a) and Mangialavori (2010) developed
different methods which can now be collectively referred to as “group analysis”.
The aim of group analysis is to find symptoms, sensations and
pathological tendencies that are common to all remedies within a group. This
study involved applying Sankaran’s group analysis approach to the psychoactive
plant drug remedies with the rationale of filtering and organizing the mass of
data we now have available on this group. This will enable both students
and professionals of homoeopathy to develop a deeper understanding, and
hence greater utilization, of the psychoactive plant drug remedies.
The following five homoeopathic remedies were chosen for this study on
the grounds that they have all been extensively proved through both
homoeopathic provings and cured clinical
cases and there is a vast amount of literature available on these remedies
in materia medica and repertories:
Anhalonium lewinii (Cactaceae)
Cannabis indica (Hamamalidae)
Coffea cruda (Rubiaceae)
Nux moschata (Magnoliacae)
Opium (Papaveraceae)
A computer repertory search was conducted using to extract all rubrics
containing the selected remedies. All Data have been found with
RadarOpus (Archibel, 2014)
Parameters were set to retain only rubrics that have less than 50
remedies and at least two of the selected psychoactive plant remedies in them.
This was to ensure that only well -defined, characteristic remedies were looked
at. The rubrics were visually analyzed, compared and contrasted to determine
the common sensations within them and mental, general and particular symptoms
were analyzed in terms of Sankaran’s model of Vital Sensation (2005a).
The vital sensation of the psychoactive plant drug remedies was found to
be that of horror, fear or fright. All the remedies belonging to this group
experience the sensation of horror either through their perception of pain or
through dreams, visions, hallucinations or anxiety. This sensation pervades all
these remedies which are constantly trying to escape this sensation by either
increasing or decreasing their activity and sensitivity.
The active reaction to the sensation of horror is to increase activity.
This is expressed through increased sensitivity; mental clarity; sensations of
contraction, fullness, heaviness, heat or moisture; delirium, hallucinations
and instability. The passive reaction to the sensation of horror is to decrease
activity. This is expressed through insensitivity; lack of mental clarity; sensations
of expansion, emptiness, lightness, cold or dryness; sleep, stupor and
unconsciousness.
The compensation, or coping mechanism that psychoactive plant drug
remedies develop, is a transcendence of their condition: they transcend, or
escape, their condition by no longer feeling
or doing anything, by becoming numb and insensitive.
The researcher suggests that although the remedies of the psychoactive
plant drug group can be classified according to different miasms, the
over-riding miasm of this group is the sycotic
miasm with its fundamental sense of having a ‘fixed weakness’ within
themselves.
The researcher also proposes that the psychoactive plant remedies have
an affinity for the central nervous system and for ailments caused by strong
emotions such as joy, anger,
excitement, fear or fright. These remedies tend to produce pathologies
of the central nervous system and sleep including increased reflexes,
involuntary motions, trembling, jerking;
weakness, atrophy, slowness, paralysis; unconsciousness; catalepsy;
Autism Spectrum Disorders; hypersensitivity; insensitivity or absence of
sensitivity; pain; formication; mental
confusion, poor comprehension, nonsensical speech; memory disorders;
delirium, hallucinations, schizophrenia; mood disorders; behavioural disorders;
anxiety; insomnia,
narcolepsy and nightmares.
The researcher found group analysis to be a powerful methodology that,
if employed correctly, can aid homoeopaths to learn and understand remedies in
their ‘totality’.
However, a formal analysis using Sankaran’s approach has not yet been
conducted on the remedies derived from psychoactive plants, known as the plant
drug remedies.
Hence, this was a literature based, qualitative study in which the
following plant drug remedies were analyzed and evaluated in terms of known
materia medica according to Sankaran’s
methodology of group analysis:
Rationale of the Group Analysis Study
Psychoactive plant drugs have been used throughout history and across
many different cultures.
These plants have formed intricate parts of cultural, religious and
mystical rituals as well as played vital roles in the building of economies.
However, some of them are highly addictive and
have destroyed families, relationships and individuals. In South Africa
today drug abuse is a significant problem with the Central Drug Authority
(2013: 44) finding that 65% of respondents
to a 2013 survey reported that they had a substance user/abuser in their
home.
Psychoactive plant drugs are also highly controversial. For example, peyote
is illegal in the U.S. except to people belonging to Native American
traditional religious groups (Turner, 2008);
Cannabis illegal in many countries yet is becoming increasingly
recognized and used for its analgesic effects and therapeutic uses in diseases
such as AIDS and M.S.;
Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world, yet it
is a mind-altering substance that is arguably more physically addictive than
cannabis or peyote;
Nutmeg is available for purchase in most supermarkets yet if taken in
excess it induces psychosis and can be fatal;
Opium is the base of heroin, its opioids are also used medically for
their analgesic and cough suppressant effects.
These same psychoactive plant drugs are widely used in homoeopathy and there
is now an immense amount of data on some of them, but little data on others. In
addition, there is no clear picture
of exactly what these psychoactive plant remedies can treat clinically
or of where their sphere of action lies. Hence, the rationale behind this study
was to filter and organize
the masses of data we now have available on these remedies and bring
meaning, association and context to them. This will help students to improve
their understanding of, and therefore learn, these remedies, and homoeopaths
both locally and internationally to more easily prescribe the remedies.
In this way homoeopathic practice will be enriched through better
understanding, and utilization, of the ‘smaller’, less well-documented,
psychoactive plant remedies.
Sankaran (2005a) and Mangialavori (2010) have published work on the
remedies that have been analyzed in this research. They have taken different
approaches to these remedies.
Sankaran (2005a) analyzed them in terms of their taxonomical plant
families,
Mangialavori (2010) analyzed them in terms of their structure, strategy
and themes as homoeopathic remedies.
This study draws on the work of both these approaches, taking remedies
that belong to the Plant Kingdom only but classifying them as psychoactive
plant remedies because of the effect they have on the mind, regardless of their
taxonomical classification.
Objectives of the Group Analysis Study
The objectives of this study were to apply Sankaran’s methodology of
group analysis to the following psychoactive plant remedies:
Anhalonium lewinii, Cannabis indica, Coffea cruda, Nux moschata and
Opium and in so doing:
Analyze and describe common sensations in the psychoactive plant
remedies according to known materia medica symptomatology.
Analyze and describe reactions to the sensations (be they active,
passive or compensatory).
Analyze and classify individual remedies under Sankaran’s homoeopathic
miasms.
Identify the themes which emerge from the psychoactive plant remedies.
Sources used incl. documented provings, materia
medicas and which is an electronic database consisting of repertories, materia
medica, books and journal articles.
The researcher is in agreement with Mangialavori and has chosen to
analyze a group of remedies which, although they come from different plant
families and are chemically and morphologically different, they all have
psychoactive effects on an individual and are grouped together as plant drugs.
In addition, the remedies analyzed in this research are “popular”
remedies that are regularly prescribed by homoeopaths and hence there exists
extensive literature and cured clinical cases from which the researcher may
draw information.
Mangialavori (2010) developed the “Method of Complexity” which
encompasses understanding remedies and their sources on several levels, through
“fields as diverse as anthropology, folk medicine, physiology, biochemistry,
toxicology, classical homoeopathy and the art of clinical medicine, which ties
them all together and arises from acquaintance with human nature more than book
learning” (Moskowitz, 2010).
Although his work has greatly contributed towards group analysis,
Mangialavori differs from Sankaran and Scholten in that they identify families
taxonomically while he classifies remedies on their
homoeopathic characteristics (Moskowitz, 2010). However, similar to
Sankaran and Scholten, Mangialavori finds that working with themes of families
helps one learn about smaller remedies and rule out remedies that may have
similar symptoms but not similar themes to the simillimum.
Mangialavori has completed ‘group’ work on the Plant Drugs: Solanaceae
family, Cactaceae family, Spiders, Sea Remedies, Snakes and Reptiles, Milks,
Insects, Precious and Base Metals, Silicium and Related, and Magnesium and
Related.
His book Praxis Volume II contains case studies (but not a formal group
analysis) of the following ‘drug’ family remedies:
Anhalonium lewinii, Psilocybe caerulescens, Agaricus muscarius,
Lycoperdon bovista, Convolvulus duartinus and Nabalus serpentaria.
He chose these remedies according to their ‘drug’ action/theme rather
than based on taxonomy and reiterates that “themes which emerge in the study of
the substance tend to mirror themes found in the remedy” (Mangialavori and
Marotta, 2010: xxvi). Hence, he finds that both plant drugs and the remedies
derived from them share the themes of escapism, omnipotence, creativity,
altered sensory perception, hyperactivity/apathy and problems of personality
structure (Mangialavori and Marotta, 2010:21-32).
Homoeopathy and Psychoactive Plant Drug Remedies
Psychoactive remedies are those remedies made from source substances
that affect mood, perception and behavior. These include remedies made from
plants, for example Coffea cruda, as well as remedies derived from synthetic
recreational drugs as Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). According to Traub
(cited in Lewis, 2007), general characteristics associated with psychoactive
remedies include:
Avoidance/numbing of pain;
Escapism;
That which is forbidden or prohibited;
Desire to experience;
Rebellion;
Self-destruction;
Hallucinations;
Distorted perceptions of space and time or sensations of being spaced
out, dreamy, out of this world, disoriented, confused, “high”;
Ecstasy/euphoria;
Meditation;
Isolation;
Addiction and dependence;
Withdrawal: nervous, jittery, depressed, coming down (Traub, cited in
Lewis, 2007).
To date, group analysis work on remedies made from psychoactive
substances have been researched by Sankaran (2005a), Mangialavori (2010) and
Chhiba (2013).
Sankaran (2005c: 4) found that remedies belonging to the Plant Kingdom
share the following features:
They have a basic sensation and its opposite sensation.
There is sensitivity and reactivity.
Speech varied and they use words and phrases such as “I am affected by”,
“I am sensitive to”, “this hurts me”, “this touches me”, “I can’t bear”, and “I
am immediately affected by”.
Nature and disposition is soft, sensitive, emotional and sentimental yet
they can be disorganized, easily influenced, adaptable and at times irritable.
They often take up professions such as nursing or art.
Their key fear is of hurt and pain.
They present their complaints in a ‘haywire’, rounded, wandering,
descriptive manner and do not describe their symptoms clearly.
Complaints often come on rapidly with great variety, many modalities,
much sensitivity and quick reactions.
Causation almost always lies in emotional or physical hurt or shock.
Although Sankaran’s (2005a: 513) group analysis is generally based on
the taxonomical classification of plants, he refers to psychoactive plant
remedies as plant drug remedies and found that despite coming from different
botanical families, these remedies seem to have the following qualities in
common:
Alienation - a sense of being isolated and removed from the rest of the
world, of living in one’s own world.
Upliftment - the feeling that the world is beautiful and the sense of
being uplifted through music, beauty or open spaces.
Benevolence - the need to do something to belong in this world.
Sensitivity - either hypersensitivity or lack of sensitivity.
Activity of the mind - too many thoughts.
Mangialavori (2010) established the following themes of the Homoeopathic
Drug Family:
Flight from reality, avoidance and sense of isolation.
Problems of personality structure.
The sense of omnipotence.
Altered sensory perception in terms of:
Visual and auditory perception;
Hyperesthesia/analgesia;
Sense of time and space;
Coldness.
Hyperactivity/Apathy -
Mangialavori (2010: 30): “In my own experience, a true Drug remedy is
almost always hyperactive, appearing apathetic only in decompensated phases
when all activity and creativity turns inward and withdrawal becomes
pathological”.
Creativity. Chhiba (2013) used Sankaran’s methodology to conduct a group
analysis of the synthetic recreational drug isolate group, including the
remedies
Cocainum hydrochloricum,
Heroinum,
Methylenedioxy-n-methylamphetamine (MDMA),
Methylphenidatum hydrochloricum (MPH) and LSD.
The following common themes emerged from this research:
Anxiety
Difficulty in concentration - with increased mental activity
Suppression of emotions
Fearlessness
Feelings of indifference and apathy
Loquacity
Restlessness
Feelings of tranquility, serenity and calmness
Ecstasy, euphoria, cheerfulness, elation, excitement, joy
Dryness of the throat
Diminished appetite
Nausea
Cramping pain in the stomach
Distension of the stomach
Desire for sweets
Sleeplessness.
As mentioned above, although he has not formally classified them
together, Sankaran found that the ‘plant drug remedies’ do share common themes
and, although no formal group
analysis has yet been conducted on them, Chhiba (2013: 169) suggests
that the synthetic recreational drug isolate group be compared to plant derived
‘drug’ remedies. There is, therefore,
an academic need for a formal group analysis of the psychoactive plant
drugs. In addition to this academic need, there is also a practical need for an
analysis of these drugs.
Psychoactive drugs have a deep history of use and abuse. They have
formed intricate parts of age-old spiritual traditions and medicinal practices
and have been integral to the development
of great economies. Yet they can have severe, even fatal, side-effects
if taken in excess and many of them are highly addictive, illegal drugs.
In modern homoeopathic practice there seems to be a significant need for
remedies that can help with mental/emotional conditions such as anxiety,
depression, hyperactivity,
mood/behavioral disorders and sleep disorders as well as the effects of
injury, trauma, surgery, allopathic medications and drug abuse. Sankaran’s,
Mangialavori’s and Chhiba’s work suggests
that remedies derived from psychoactive plant drugs can assist in this
regard.
This study applied Sankaran’s methodology of group analysis to the
following plant drug remedies:
Anhalonium lewinii produced from Lophophora williamsii = peyote
(Cactaceae)
Cannabis indica produced from Cannabis sativa subsp. Indica = cannabis.
(Hamamalidae)
Coffea cruda produced from Coffea arabica = coffee. (Rubiaceae)
Nux moschata produced from Myristica fragrans = nutmeg (Magnolianae)
Opium produced from Papaver somniferum = opium. (Papaveraceae)
The 5 remedies chosen for this study are not small, seldom-used remedies
but are, instead, used regularly and successfully by many homoeopaths. They
have all been extensively proved through
both homoeopathic provings and cured clinical cases and there is a vast
amount of literature available on these remedies in materia medica and
repertories. They also have many mental and
emotional symptoms and hence a central theme/sensation should be clear
when analyzed as a group. Although they are all from the Plant Kingdom, they
are being grouped according to their similar characteristics (all being
psychoactive plants) and not taxonomically.
Psychoactive Drugs
The use of hallucinogenic substances goes far back into human
prehistory. There have been suggestions that even the idea of the deity might
have arisen as a result of their weird and unearthly effects on the human body
and mind.
Narcotic and other drugs have been reported by many writers in many
cultures, since the very invention of writing” (Schultes 1969, cited in Clarke
and Merlin, 2013: 212).
According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, the word psychoactive means
“affecting the mind” (Allen, 1992: 964) and psychoactive drugs are those drugs
that act on the central nervous system
to alter one’s mood, perception or consciousness.
They are classified as follows:
Depressants - slow down the central nervous
system. Examples: tranquillisers, alcohol, opiates such as heroin or opium and
cannabis in low doses.
Stimulants - excite the nervous system.
Examples: nicotine, amphetamines, cocaine and caffeine.
Hallucinogens - distort how things are
perceived. Examples: LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide), mescaline, 'magic
mushrooms' and cannabis in high doses (N. Territory Government, 2015).
Psychoactive, mood-changing drugs such as opioids, anxiolytics and hypnotics
are medically prescribed for injury, surgery, cancer pain, chronic pain,
anxiety, depression and insomnia and although they offer relief, there is great
potential for their abuse. According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) (2015), “nearly two million Americans, aged 12 or older,
either abused or were dependent on opioids in 2013”.
In addition to prescription drugs, psychoactive drugs are taken
illicitly for other reasons incl. pleasure, pain relief, to alleviate boredom, to
help cope with problems, to give one a sense of belonging or as part of
religious/cultural ceremonies (Northern Territory Government, 2015).
The use of psychoactive drugs is a significant problem in South Africa
today and the abuse of drugs is changing both our culture and the society in
which we live. Researchers have found that “substance abuse is often a primary
underlying contributor to or cause of bio-psycho-social debility; culture and
the acceptance of substance use and abuse are linked to each other; low quality
of life is linked to substance abuse; and changes in the patterns of substance
use and abuse imply a culture change over a long period of time” (National Drug
Master Plan, 2013: 49). In order to help decrease substance abuse in South Africa,
it is not enough to simply reduce the availability of these drugs. Far more
important, is to develop an understanding of why eople use drugs and to look at
who is at risk of abusing drugs.
Homoeopathy and Psychoactive Plant Drug Remedies
Psychoactive remedies are those remedies made from source substances
that affect mood, perception and behavior. These include remedies made from
plants, for example Coffea cruda, as well as remedies derived from synthetic
recreational drugs such as Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). According to Traub
(cited in Lewis, 2007), general characteristics associated with psychoactive
remedies include:
Avoidance/numbing of pain
Escapism
That which is forbidden or prohibited
Desire to experience
Rebellion
Self-destruction
Hallucinations
Distorted perceptions of space and time or sensations of being spaced
out, dreamy, out of this world, disoriented, confused, “high”
Ecstasy/euphoria
Meditation
Isolation
Addiction and dependence
Withdrawal: nervous, jittery, depressed, coming down (Traub, cited in
Lewis, 2007).
To date, group analysis work on remedies made from psychoactive
substances have been researched by Sankaran (2005a), Mangialavori (2010) and
Chhiba (2013). Sankaran (2005c: 4) found that remedies belonging to the Plant
Kingdom share the following features:
They have a basic sensation and its opposite sensation.
There is sensitivity and reactivity.
Their speech is varied and they use words and phrases such as “I am
affected by”, “I am sensitive to”, “this hurts me”, “this touches me”, “I can’t
bear”, and “I am immediately affected by”.
Their nature and disposition is soft, sensitive, emotional and
sentimental yet they can be disorganized, easily influenced, adaptable and at
times irritable. They often take up professions such as nursing or art.
Their key fear is of hurt and pain.
They present their complaints in a ‘haywire’, rounded, wandering,
descriptive manner and do not describe their symptoms clearly.
Complaints of ten come on rapidly with great variety, many modalities,
much sensitivity and quick reactions.
Causation almost always lies in emotional or physical hurt or shock.
Sankaran’s (2005a: 513) group analysis is generally based on the
taxonomical classification of plants, he refers to psychoactive plant remedies as
plant drug remedies and found that despite coming from different botanical
families, these remedies seem to have the following qualities in common:
Alienation - a sense of being isolated and removed from the rest of the
world, of living in one’s own world.
Upliftment - the feeling that the world is beautiful and the sense of
being uplifted through music, beauty or open spaces.
Benevolence - the need to do something to belong in this world.
Sensitivity - either hypersensitivity or lack of sensitivity.
Activity of the mind - too many thoughts.
Mangialavori (2010) established the following themes of the Homoeopathic
Drug Family:
Flight from reality, avoidance and sense of isolation.
Problems of personality structure.
The sense of omnipotence.
Altered sensory perception in terms of: of visual and auditory
perception; of hyperesthesia/analgesia; of sense of time and space; of
coldness.
Hyperactivity/Apathy -
Mangialavori (2010: 30): “In my own experience, a true Drug remedy is
almost always hyperactive, appearing apathetic only in decompensated phases
when all activity and creativity turns inward and withdrawal becomes
pathological”.
Creativity. Chhiba (2013) used Sankaran’s methodology to conduct a group
analysis of the synthetic recreational drug isolate group, incl. the remedies
Cocainum hydrochloricum, Heroinum, -Methylenedioxy-n-methylamphetamine (MDMA),
Methylphenidatum hydrochloricum (MPH) and LSD.
The following common themes emerged from this research:
Anxiety
Difficulty in concentration - with increased mental activity
Suppression of emotions
Fearlessness
Feelings of indifference and apathy
Loquacity
Restlessness
Feelings of tranquility, serenity and calmness
Ecstasy, euphoria, cheerfulness, elation, excitement, joy
Dryness of the throat
Diminished appetite
Nausea
Cramping pain in the stomach
Distension of the stomach
Desire for sweets
Sleeplessness.
As mentioned above, although he has not formally classified them
together, Sankaran found that the ‘plant drug remedies’ do share common themes
and, although no formal group analysis has yet been conducted on them, Chhiba
(2013: 169) suggests that the synthetic recreational drug isolate group be
compared to plant derived ‘drug’ remedies. There is, therefore, an academic
need for a formal group analysis of the psychoactive plant drugs. In addition
to this academic need, there is also a practical need for an analysis of these
drugs.
Psychoactive drugs have a deep history of use and abuse. They have
formed intricate parts of age-old spiritual traditions and medicinal practices
and have been integral to the development of great economies. Yet they can have
severe, even fatal, side-effects if taken in excess and many of them are highly
addictive, illegal drugs.
In modern homoeopathic practice there seems to be a significant need for
remedies that can help with mental/emotional conditions such as anxiety,
depression, hyperactivity, mood/behavioral disorders and sleep disorders as
well as the effects of injury, trauma, surgery, allopathic medications and drug
abuse.
Sankaran’s, Mangialavori’s and Chhiba’s work suggests that remedies
derived from psychoactive plant drugs can assist in this regard.
This study applied Sankaran’s methodology of group analysis to the
following plant drug remedies:
Anhalonium lewinii produced from Lophophora williamsii = peyote.
Cannabis indica produced from Cannabis sativa subsp. indica = cannabis.
Coffea cruda produced from Coffea arabica = coffee.
Nux moschata produced from Myristica fragrans = nutmeg.
Opium produced from Papaver somniferum = opium.
The five remedies chosen for this study are not small, seldom-used remedies but are, instead, used regularly
and successfully by many homoeopaths. They have all been extensively proved
through both homoeopathic provings and cured clinical cases and there is a vast
amount of literature available on these remedies in materia medica and
repertories. They also have many mental and emotional symptoms and hence a
central theme/sensation should be clear when analyzed as a group. Although they
are all from the Plant Kingdom, they are being grouped according to their
similar characteristics (all being psychoactive plants) and not taxonomically.
Psychoactive Plant Remedies
In biology, organisms are arranged into groups based on their relationships
with one another and their evolutionary origin. The traditional Linnaean system
of classification categorizes
living organisms into five kingdoms according to their cellular
organization and method of nutrition.
These kingdoms: Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia.
Organisms belonging to Kingdom Plantae, or the Plant Kingdom, do not
have the ability to move themselves around their environment and they use
photosynthesis to produce new cell matter
out of inorganic material (O’Neil, 2013).
This study investigated homoeopathic remedies that belong to the Plant
Kingdom and specifically affect mood, perception and behavior. These remedies
are called psychoactive plant remedies
and are derived from a diverse range of families within the Plant
Kingdom.
Sample Selection
Previous researchers (Chhiba 2013; Harkhu 2011) conducting group
analysis warn against basing their research sample on remedies that are not
well-proven or well-presented in repertories as this makes it difficult to
identify common sensations. Hence, the sample for this study was selected on
the basis that they are the most well represented psychoactive plant remedies
in the materia medica and repertory; are the most extensively proven; and the
most popularly clinically applied:
Rubric Extraction
A computer repertory search was conducted using to extract all rubrics
containing the selected remedies. Parameters were set to retain only rubrics
with less than 50 remedies and at least two of the selected psychoactive plant
remedies in them. This was to ensure that only well-defined, characteristic
remedies were studied. In order to evaluate their relative significance, the
rubrics were arranged in order from those containing the least remedies to the
most remedies. The rubrics containing the least remedies were considered the
most significant as these tend to contain the characteristic nature of remedies
while rubrics containing many remedies tend to be more ‘broad’ in nature
(Vogel, 2007: 36).
3.4
Data Analysis
3.4.1
Determination of the Common Group Sensations
1: Determination of Sensations
The retained rubrics were visually analyzed, compared and contrasted to
determine the common sensations within them. According to The Concise Oxford
Dictionary, a sensation is “the consciousness of perceiving or seeming to
perceive some state or condition of one’s body or its parts or senses or of
one’s mind or its emotions” (Allen, 1992: 1102).
The determination of sensations was accomplished by listing mental,
general and particular symptoms and analyzing them in terms of Sankaran’s model
of Vital Sensation (discussed in
Chapter 2). In order to be considered a common sensation, the sensation
need to be represented by a rubric that was present in at least two of the
selected remedies.
1st Order Analysis
A first order analysis was then carried out. This was a test to
determine the accuracy of the extracted sensations by cross-checking them and
their synonyms in homoeopathic literature.
Sensations were defined using The Concise Oxford Dictionary and their
synonyms and antonyms were determined using a thesaurus. Keywords descriptive
of these sensations and
their synonyms and antonyms were then used in a keyword search using
RadarOpus (Archibel, 2014). This search was restricted to literature pertaining
to the five studied
psychoactive plant remedies only and the following texts:
ALLEN H. C., Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica
CLARKE J. H., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica
KENT J. T., Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica
KENT J. T., New Remedies Clinical Cases Lesser Writing
PHATAK S. R., Materia Medica of Homoeopathic Medicines
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica
2nd Order Analysis
New sensations and their subsequent synonyms and antonyms that emerged
during the first order analysis were subjected to the same process of confirmatory
analysis as described in
This is known as second order analysis and was performed to verify the
first order sensations as well as establish second order sensations.
3rd Order Analysis
The above process was repeated again and a 3rd order analysis
was established in order to confirm second order sensations and establish third
order sensations.
Only one sensation emerged during this third order analysis and the
researcher proposed this sensation to be the underlying sensation pervading the
psychoactive plant drug remedies. In order to support this proposal, a manual
repertory search of this 3rd order sensation was carried out using
Schroyens’ Synthesis (2004) and the presence of psychoactive plant drug
remedies within these
results was analyzed.
Following on from the results of this manual search, a computer
repertory search was employed to extract all rubrics in which the psychoactive
plant drug remedies studied in this research
were the only ones to appear.
This search was carried out because rubrics containing only one remedy
are thought to be highly characteristic of that remedy and the researcher
wanted to establish whether or not the sensation in these‘ highly
characteristic’ rubrics was the same as the common sensation that emerged
during the 3rd order analysis.
Determination of the Reactions to the Common Sensations of the Group
Once a set of common sensations of the group had been identified, the
reactions to these sensations were analyzed in accordance with Sankaran’s
(2006) methodology and categorized as either active, passive or compensatory.
3.4.3
Determination of the Miasmatic Classification of the Remedies
Each of the five chosen psychoactive plant remedies were then
individually studied and classified according to Sankaran’s (2005c) extended
miasmatic model as follows:
Sankaran’s miasmatic key words were identified
and tabulated. See
Appendix B.
For each remedy, a miasmatic keyword search of was performed and the
remedy’s possible miasm determined.
Literature from the homoeopathic materia medica, provings and rubrics
was then searched for these key words.
Each remedy’s miasm was finally determined depending on the predominance
of the keywords of a particular miasm in the literature of the remedy.
Determination of Themes of the Group
A theme is “a subject or topic on which a person speaks, writes or
thinks” (Allen, 1992: 1265) and in group analysis it is the common
characteristic sensation that pervades all the remedies in that group. The
sensations that were identified for the selected remedies were used to
formulate the basic themes of the psychoactive plant remedies. Miasmatic
classification of these remedies was used to support these themes and
results are discussed in Chapter 5.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1
Extraction and Analysis of Common Psychoactive Plant Remedy Rubrics
A computer repertory search was conducted as outlined in Chapter 3.
However, due to the vast quantity of rubrics that were extracted, the process
had to be repeated by extracting each
psychoactive plant remedy individually for each chapter of Schroyens’
Synthesis.
To evaluate their relative significance, the rubrics were then arranged
in 3 tables (Mentals, Generals and Physicals) in order from those containing
the least remedies to the most
remedies. The results are listed in Appendix A.
4.2
Determination of the
Common Group Sensations and First Order Analysis
Sankaran (2005c: 13) describes a sensation as “What you feel. What you
perceive. What you experience. ‘What’ of any phenomenon”.
The retained rubrics were visually analyzed, compared and contrasted to
determine common sensations within them. The researcher noticed that sensations
of these psychoactive plant remedies can
be paired: there is always a basic sensation and its opposite (for
example, activity and inactivity). This pairing of sensations is, according to
Sankaran (2005c), peculiar to the Plant Kingdom only.
The common sensations extracted were:
Activity / Inactivity
Sensitivity / Insensitivity
Confusion / Clarity
Expansion / Contraction
Emptiness / Fullness
Lightness / Heaviness
Heat / Cold
Dryness / Moisture.
In order to confirm the extracted sensations, they were defined and
their synonyms listed. To prevent duplicating a single concept, synonymous
sensations were taken as one.
For example, restlessness and increased efficiency are taken to be one
with the sensation of ‘activity’. A keyword search of them was then carried out
using to search homoeopathic literature and material medica. Note that this
search also searches all the derivatives of the inputted words. For example, if
the word sleep is inputted, then the words sleeping, sleepy and asleep is also
searched.
4.2.1
The 1st order analysis
of the sensation Activity - Inactivity:
SENSATION DEFINITION
Activity Active - Consisting in or marked by
action; energetic; diligent. Able to move about or accomplish practical tasks.
Working, operative.
Originating action; not merely passive or
inert.
Activity - The condition of being active or
moving about. The exertion of energy; vigorous action.
Inactivity Inactive - Not active or not
inclined to act. Passive. Indolent.
Sensation SYNONYMOUS SENSATIONS FOUND IN
RUBRICS
Activity Involuntary motions, restlessness,
cannot sleep, increased efficiency, increased reflexes, convulsive motions,
jerking, trembling, vigor,
agility, crawling, shaking, tingling, surging,
rattling, moaning, heat is active (burning, boiling), electric shock
sensations, pains are
active (tearing, stitching, cracking, boring,
cutting, drawing), ailments from activity (from motion, riding in a boat,
travelling), mind (vivacious,
extravagant, talking in sleep, abundant ideas,
laughing, elated, mania), attempts to escape, hurry, thoughts rush, undertaking
many things, desire
for amusement.
Inactivity Paralysis, atrophy, unconscious,
torpor, faint, weak, softening, incoordination, sleepiness, morphinism, death
apparent, facial expression shows inactivity
(vacant, stupid, desire to close
eyes, intoxicated, sleepy, besotted), confusion and loss of memory shows
weakness/inactivity of mind, depersonalization,
laziness, dullness of mind, slow
speech.
SYNONYMOUS SENSATIONS FOUND IN RUBRICS
The most prominent sensations found related to activity and inactivity
and these sensations pervade many of the other extracted sensations. For
example, expansion, contraction, heat,
pain, sensitivity, clarity and confusion of mind are all active
sensations while sensations such as emptiness, numbness and insensitivity are
inactive.
Physical sensations are active: trembling, jerking, crawling, shaking,
surging, tingling, rattling; heat is experienced as burning, boiling; and pains
are tearing, cracking, cutting.
Mind there is also increased activity: vivacity, extravagance, abundance
of ideas, restlessness and sleeplessness, the undertaking of many things,
hallucinations and visions.
Examples of objective signs of increased activity incl. perspiration,
flushing or red discoloration of the face and a “wild” facial expression.
The opposite of activity and inactivity, or decreased activity, is found
physically in paralysis, weakness, softening, incoordination, sleepiness,
sopor, impotence and unconsciousness
whilst in the mental sphere there is loss of memory, slow speech, dullness
of mind and laziness. Patients requiring the psychoactive plant remedies also
show objective signs of
inactivity: facial expression is dull, stupid or vacant, eyes droop and
there is a look of intoxication. Furthermore, a major modality in these remedies
is that of motion: conditions are either
< o. > by motion.
Psychoactive plants and hallucinogenic substances affect mood,
perception and behaviour by inducing either activity or inactivity.
For example:
Peyote (Anhalonium lewinii) has a hallucinatory
effect and induces a sense of wakefulness and hypersensitivity, increasing the
pulse rate, blood pressure and body temperature;
The extracted rubrics show that the sensation of activity-inactivity is
present in Anhalonium lewinii in the form of increased reflexes, sleeplessness,
crawling sensations, numbness of the skin and the modality of being aggravated
by movement. The literature search via supported this with phrases such as:
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Great disinclination to move.
> lying down.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Eyelids droop; they
scarcely move the lips.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Lazy contentment;
"a land where it is always afternoon."
Cannabis (Cannabis indica) induces a sense of
relaxation and calm; has the common sensation of activity in the form of
increased reflexes; surging sensations; trembling and shaking; pains
that are fore-jerking, pressing, drawing,
cutting, stitching, electric-like shocks; and tingling. On the other hand, it
also has many inactive sensations: numbness, sleepy expression,
sleeplessness, atrophy, intoxicated expression,
weakness, vacant expression, paralysis, unconsciousness, softening and the
modality of being ameliorated by rest.
The literature search demonstrates this with phrases such as:
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - at night, restless sleep, frequent
waking, confused, sometimes anxious dreams
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Rest gives general
relief; great desire to lie down in daytime.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - During sleep:
starting; talking; grinding teeth; nightmare.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Felt so weak that he
could scarcely speak, and soon fell into a deep sleep.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Lazy and indolent throughout the
body.
Coffee (Coffea
cruda) has an excitatory effect, increasing alertness, arousal and basal
metabolism;
Coffea cruda has rubrics of active sensations such as surging; restlessness
and sleeplessness; tingling; pains that are stitching, pressing and tearing;
vigor; trembling; agility and shaking.
It also has inactive sensations: waking impossible; emaciation of
mammae; faintness; sleepiness; dullness; and paralysis. Modalities include
aggravations by movement or excitement. The literature search via included some
of the following phrases:
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Unusual
activity of mind and body.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Great flexibility of
the muscles, and activity of the whole body.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Shuddering with
colic and violent agitation.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Mind ... clear and
is active, he feels strong enough to do anything, feels impelled to push things
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Cheerfulness; lively
temper; mirthful.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - from every motion,
violent pain in groins, fever, bright red face.
Nutmeg - Nux moschata
Activity is found in Nux moschata in terms of: pains that are stitching,
pressing, boring, pressing, electric-shock like, cramping, cutting and jerking;
there is shaking, trembling,
twitching and crawling; involuntary motions; sleeplessness; and falling
sensations and rolling motions of the head. < from motion is present.
However, the sensation of inactivity is far more dominant in this remedy: there
is faintness, emaciation, sleepiness, dullness, atrophy, weakness, paralysis; a
sleepy, besotted or intoxicated expression; relaxation of limbs; difficult
speech; tremulous voice; softening and torpor.
Nutmeg (Nux moschata) is hallucinogenic and in large doses can lead to
seizures;
Examples taken from the literature search are:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Great agitation of
muscular system.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Spasms, hysterics in
inner parts; chronic hysteric fits; convulsive motions.
PHATAK S., Materia Medica of Homoeopathic Medicines - Brain feels loose;
striking the sides, on motion.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - All ailments + by
sleepiness.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Lassitude, esp. in
loins and knees, as after a long journey, with inclination to sleep.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Affections + a
desire to sleep and a tendency to faint away.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Great sleepiness
with all complaints, particularly with pains.
Opium (Papaver somniferum) is one of
the best known narcotics (drowsiness, sleep and stupor).
With the purpose of validating the common
sensations of activity and inactivity, the following words were used as a
keyword search:
Opium is a well-documented homoeopathic remedy
and hence there were many rubrics containing the sensations of activity and
inactivity.
However, what is interesting in this remedy is
that there is a merging of these two opposing sensations.
The following examples taken from demonstrate
this:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Seems sleepy but
cannot sleep.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Urgent inclination to
sleep, with absolute inability to go to sleep.
In the remedy there is much sleeplessness, restlessness, vigor,
increased activity, agility, increased efficiency, increased reflexes,
electric-like shocks, jumping movements, twitching,
trembling, shaking, motions of hither and thither, rattling, motions of
wagging, falling or rolling of head, involuntary motion and convulsions.
Opium is an important pain remedy and used for ‘active’ pains such as
those that are tightening, cramping, pressing, cutting, tearing and jerking.
In his Materia Medica Pura, Hahnemann wrote that “opium eaters are
always lazy and intoxicated” and when used as a psychoactive drug, is a great
narcotic, inducing sleep and stupor. This lack of activity is evident is
sensations of faintness, paralysis, sleepiness, relaxation, weakness, falling
asleep, comatose, softening, torpor, being unable to hold one’s head up,
impossible waking, semi-consciousness, thick/slurred speech, atrophy and
numbness. The facial expression in these rubrics is stupid, besotted, sleepy or
intoxicated. An important modality of Opium is that it is < during and after
sleep.
The following phrases demonstrating this activity/inactivity in Opium
are taken from the literature search :
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - convulsive movement
of muscles of face, corners of mouth, and limbs.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Sleeplessness, with
anxious tossing, restlessness, and delirium.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - much raving, hot skin and
stupefaction, during which he lies in a heap.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Activity of mind.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Cheerfulness, liveliness,
contentment, increased strength.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Constipation from
inactivity of the intestines.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Retention of urine,
as from inactivity of the bladder.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - greatest anxiety and
restlessness; constantly changing position; face hot; pulse slow.
Sensitivity /
Insensitivity
The first order analysis of the sensation
Sensitivity - Insensitivity is shown as follows:
SENSATION DEFINITION
Sensitivity Sensitive
- Very open to or acutely affected by external stimuli or mental impressions;
having sensibility. Easily offended or emotionally hurt. Readily
affected
by or responsive to external action.
Sensitivity The quality or degree of being
sensitive.
Insensitivity Insensitive
- Unfeeling, boorish, crass. Not sensitive to physical stimuli.
Insensibility - Unconsciousness. A lack of
mental feeling or emotion; hardness.
SENSATION SYNONYMOUS
SENSATIONS FOUND IN RUBRICS
Sensitivity Oversensitive
to, ailments from injuries or emotions, acute, ailments aggravated or person
disturbed easily (by temperatures, noise, odors, emotions,
excitement, joy, anger, fright), easily disturbed, irritability, waking
from slight noise, shock, emotional (fears, sadness, weeping, laughing,
hysteria, benevolence).
Insensitivity Indifference,
want of sensitiveness, vanishing of senses.
According to Sankaran (2006), the essence of the Plant Kingdom is that
of sensitivity and sensitivity-insensitivity are essential sensations found
throughout all five psychoactive plant
remedies. These sensations pervade many of the other common sensations,
for example, sensitivity is connected to activity and pain while insensitivity
is connected to inactivity and numbness. The psychoactive plants from which
these remedies are derived are also known for their ability to either increase
or decrease an individual’s sensitivity.
Both peyote (Anhalonium lewinii) and nutmeg (Nux moschata) produce
hypersensitivity while the caffeine in coffee increases alertness, visual
acuity and auditory vigiliance.
The THC in Cannabis indica has an analgesic effect and sufficiently high
doses of it heighten and even distort the senses. Opioids such as morphine are
used medically as analgesics.
This sensation of sensitivity - insensitivity is seen in the extracted
rubrics:
The rubric ‘Mind, Ailments from, joy, sudden’ has only two remedies in
it and both of these are psychoactive plant remedies, Coffea cruda and Opium.
The rubric ‘Hearing, Acute - stepping - every step; at’ also only has
two remedies in it, both of which are psychoactive plant remedies, Coffea cruda
and Nux moschata.
The rubric ‘Hearing, Acute, Voices and talking’ contains four out of the
five studied psychoactive plant remedies (Anhalonium lewinii, Coffea cruda, Nux
moschata and Opium) as well as other psychoactive plant remedies including
Asarum europaeum and Atropa belladonna.
To validate the common sensations of sensitivity and insensitivity, the
following words were used as a keyword search in RadarOpus (Archibel, 2014):
Sensitive, tender, delicate, aware, perceptive, feeling, reactive,
vulnerable, responsive, touchy.
Insensitive, insensible, imperceptive, obtuse,
impassive, unaware, oblivious, drugged.
Anhalonium Lewinii Vermeulen (2000: 106). writes that Anhalonium
lewinii’s most striking effects appear in the auditory nerve for it makes each
note upon the piano a center of melody” and that hearing becomes an “an
exaggerated reverberation of ordinary sounds”.
Anhalonium lewinii has acute hearing and is aggravated by noise.
It also has the sensation of numbness, which is a lack of sensitivity,
in its skin rubrics. In the literature search , sensitivity in this remedy is
seen in the following:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Generalities -
Extreme muscular depression; don't want to stir; whole body feels relaxed.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Characteristics ... shares the
feeling of an electric current of X-ray.
Cannabis indica is extremely sensitive to noise, touch and light and
“all sensations and emotions are exaggerated to the utmost degree” (Vermeulen,
2000: 369). Like Anhalonium lewinii, it is also found in the rubric ‘Skin,
Numbness’ and the sensations of sensitivity - insensitivity were evident in the
literature search.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathcicateria Medica - all
perceptions and conceptions, all sensations and all emotions are exaggerated.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Clairvoyance and
clairaudience; extreme sensitiveness to noise.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Soreness of scalp to
touch.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Sensitiveness of
right eye to light.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Lips feel as if
glued together.
PHATAK S., Materia Medica of Homoeopathic Medicines - Acute stage of
gonorrhoea, - urethra sensitive; walks with legs apart
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Hearing - Extreme
sensitiveness to noise. Hearing very acute.
Coffea Cruda
Recognised by its extreme sensitiveness and all senses are heightened to
the point that it has extremely acute hearing and noise becomes painful.
Coffea cruda’s unusual sensitivity leads to illness and pain and it
develops ailments from emotions such as joy, fright, anger or excitement
(‘Rectum, Diarrhoea - joy; from sudden’);
ailments < emotions as well as noise, touch and cold air; and its
sleep is easily disturbed by even the slightest sound. Moreover, Coffea cruda
is so sensitive, and feels things so acutely, that it cannot tolerate pain and
they become beside themselves with pain and despair.
The search revealed the following:
ALLEN H., Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons - all the senses
more acute, sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Extreme
sensitiveness characterises this remedy.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Generalities ... the
pains are felt intensely, driving to despair, and inclination to weep.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Oversensitiveness.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Great sensitiveness
to touch or contact.
KENT J., Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica - It is most astonishing
sometimes about this great sensitiveness.
KENT J., Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Coffea has a painful
sensitiveness of the skin beyond comprehension.
Nux moschata
Nutmeg a remedy used for extreme sensitivity and Vermeulen (2000: 1144)
writes “One hypersensitive patient to whom I gave a single dose of Nux-m.30,
said it seemed
to put a coat of cotton wool over her”.
Like Coffea cruda, Nux moschata’s whole body is oversensitive; they have
very acute hearing; and very sensitive to emotions, cold and touch. The
following evidence was found.
ALLEN H., Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons - Oversensitive:
to light; of hearing; of smell; to touch.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Materia Medica - Sensitive to slightest
touch in a draught of air.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - The symptoms are
aggravated by touch.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Excessively painful
sensitiveness of whole body; even on lying on a soft couch.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - stupor,
insensibility, and unconquerable desire to sleep
Opium
Opium is extremely sensitive to emotions, with ailments either
developing from, or < joy, fright, anger, grief and excitement (for example,
‘Head, Pain, joy - from excessive’).
Also < noise and, like Coffea cruda, sleep is quickly disturbed by
even the slightest noise (‘Sleep, Light - hears every sound’).
Opium is sensitive to pain (‘Head, pain - tearing asunder’) and can feel
pain so acutely that it can become unconscious with the pain, hence moving into
the sensation of insensitivity.
Evidence from includes:
ALLEN H., Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons - Ailments with
insensibility and partial or complete paralysis; that originate from fright.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - shown in the
insensibility of the nervous system, the depression, drowsy stupor.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Want of
susceptibility to drugs; want of vital reaction.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - fancy, with
faint-heartedness along with over-sensitiveness of the general sensibility
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medic - exalted sensitiveness
and timidity; sensitiveness to fright and other emotions.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Bed feels so hot she
cannot lie on it.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Insensibility to modesty and the
finer feelings
KENT J., Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica - increases
sensitiveness to noise, so that he says he can almost hear the flies walking
PHATAK S., Materia Medica of Homoeopathic Medicines - Deceptive; vision,
taste, touch; perversion of all senses.
Pain - Numbness
The first order analysis of the sensation
Sensation of Pain - Numbness
SENSATION DEFINITION
Pain Pain - The range of unpleasant body
sensations produced by illness or harmful physical contact. Mental suffering or
distress.
Numbness Numb Deprived of feeling or the power
of motion. To make numb. Stupefy, paralyze.
SENSATION SYNONYMOUS SENSATIONS FOUND IN
RUBRICS
Pain - Tearing, stitching, cracking,
boring, cutting, drawing, moaning.
Numbness - Painless, analgesia.
Plant drugs such as Opium, Nux moschata and Cannabis indicus are used
for their analgesic effects, yet incorrect doses or withdrawal from addiction
induces hypersensitivity and pain.
Moreover, these drugs are often used by people seeking escape from pain,
be it physical or psychological/emotional. Pain and numbness are common
sensations found in the
psychoactive plant remedies and, once again, they can be connected to
the sensations of activity - inactivity and sensitivity - insensitivity. Pains
in these remedies are active pains such
as cutting, boring, cramping, tearing, pressing, bursting and stitching
and they are felt with such sensitivity and acuteness that individuals cry out,
cannot sleep or become unconscious
with the pain (moving into the sensations of inactivity and
insensitivity).
In order to validate the common sensations of pain and numbness, the
following words were used as a keyword search:
Pain, discomfort, malaise, distress, stress, hurt, suffering, anguish,
agony, torture, torment, ache, pang, tenderness, grief
Numbness, insensitive, insensible, anaesthesia, analgesia, unfeeling,
impassive, deadened
Anhalonium Lewinii
Results of the keyword search for the common sensations of pain and
numbness include the following examples for the remedy Anhalonium lewinii
(RadarOpus: Archibel, 2014)
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Head: Persistent
ache and tired feeling
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - symptoms such as numbness,
formication and anaesthesia
Cannabis indica
Results of the keyword search for the common sensations of pain and
numbness include the following examples for the remedy Cannabis indica
(RadarOpus: Archibel, 2014)
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Piercing
pain, with great oppression.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Pain across
shoulders and spine; must stoop; cannot walk erect.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Pains in kidneys
when laughing.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Head ...dull, heavy,
throbbing pain, with sensation as from a blow, on back of head and neck.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Constant pain on the top of the
head, as if a stone lay on it.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Pain behind the right ear as if a
blunt point were violently thrust in.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - In the right hypochondrium a painful
hard swelling.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - whole penis pains when walking as if
excoriated and as if scalded.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Left: weariness and
paralysis of legs; numb feeling in foot.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Skin ..pricking over
whole body with numbness, often pleasurable.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Tension in skin of head and
face. Skin clammy, insensible.
Coffea cruda
Results of the keyword search for the common sensations of pain and
numbness include the following examples for the remedy Coffea cruda.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - All kinds of pains
are intolerable; and are accompanied with fear of death.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - sometimes burning,
integument of head very sensitive and painful
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - as if intestines
were being cut; as if body would burst; "tight" pain; sensation of
warmth.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - throbbing toothache;
run about crying and complain of insupportable pain
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Tears, howls, cries,
tossing and discouragement, esp. during the paroxysm of pain.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Laming pain: in
small of back.
KENT J., Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Coffea has a painful
sensitiveness of the skin beyond comprehension.
Nux moschata
Results of the keyword search for the common sensations of pain and
numbness include the following examples for the remedy Nux moschata.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Pains as if bruised,
sprained, wrenched; as if bones smashed.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Coldness and
fainting with pains; esp. headache.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - as if brain struck
against sides of head; temples sensitive to touch, his head felt hot.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Crampy, forcing down
pains in bowels and anus.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Pain in legs from
knees to ankles, as if bone had been smashed, could hardly walk.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Driving - asunder
pain: in occiput.
KENT J., Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica - there is numbness,
tingling, prickling, paralytic weakness; there is threatened paralysis
PHATAK S., Materia Medica of Homoeopathic Medicines - Mouth: Tongue
numb, paralyzed, speech difficult.
Opium
Results of the keyword search for the common sensations of pain and
numbness include the following examples for the remedy Opium.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Violent pain
in rectum, as if pressed asunder.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - sharp pain which
caused vomiting and a desire to sit doubled up and keep warm
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Pressive pains in
the abdomen, as if the intestines would be cut to pieces.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Squeezing pains as
if something were forced through a narrow space; shooting pain...
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - pain so severe as to
compel him to lie on floor
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Absence of pain
during attacks.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Paralysis without
pain.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Generalities:
General insensibility of whole nervous system.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Generalities:
Feeling of numbness in the outer parts; of some kind of obstruction of inner
parts
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - The pupils are
dilated and insensible to light, contracted or sluggish.
KENT J., Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica - numbness or lack of
sensibility in the ulcer that ought to be sensitive
KENT J., Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Insensibility in
parts that are in a high grade of inflammation.
PHATAK S., Materia Medica of Homoeopathic Medicines - producing
insensibility of nerves; painlessness, depression; drowsy stupor; torpidity
Confusion - Clarity
The first order analysis of this sensation
SENSATION DEFINITION
Lack of Clarity / Confusion Confuse - Disconcert, perplex,
bewilder, embarrass. Mix up in the mind, mistake. Make indistinct. Mentally
decrepit. Throw into disorder.
Confusion - The act of confusing. An instance
of this; a misunderstanding. The result of confusing; a confused state;
disorder; a disorderly jumble.
Clarity Clear - Lustrous;
shining; free from obscurity. Not dull. Distinct, easily perceived by the
senses. Unambiguous, easily understood. Manifest; not
confused
or doubtful. That discerns or is able to discern readily and accurately.
Confident, convinced, certain. Free from guilt.
Clarity - The state or quality of being clear
(sound or expression).
SENSATION SYNONYMOUS
SENSATIONS FOUND IN RUBRICS
Confusion Delusions,
hallucinations, weakness of memory, forgetful, vanishing of thoughts, does not
recognize well known streets, delirium, answering
incorrectly,
insanity, everything seems strange, confused speech, nonsensical speech, as if
in a dream, everything seems unreal, mind runs about.
Clarity Acute, alert, easy
comprehension, mental power increased, vivid, lucid
The sensations of clarity and lack of clarity/confusion are evident in
the studied psychoactive plant remedies as well as in the effects of the plant
drugs themselves: Anh., Cann-i., Nux-m. and Opium all induce ‘highs’, delusions
and hallucinations; long-term side effects of cannabis, nutmeg and opium
include problems with memory and cognition; and coffee increases mental clarity
and alertness.
A lack of clarity pervades these plant remedies as delusions,
hallucinations, weakness or loss of memory, vanishing of thoughts, delirium,
insanity, confused or nonsensical speech and the experience of everything being
in a dream or unreal. On the other hand, clarity is evident in alertness,
acuteness, easy comprehension and increased mental power.
The following rubrics contain only three remedies, all of which are
psychoactive plant remedies (two included in this study):
Mind: DELUSIONS - familiar things seem strange - ludicrous, are (Cann-i.
Nux-m. Hyos.).
Mind: SPEECH - unintelligible speech with vertigo (Nux-m. Op. Bell.).
Four out of the five psychoactive plant remedies are found in the
following rubrics taken from the Mind chapter:
COMPREHENSION - easy
CONFUSION of identity, sense of duality
To confirm the common sensations of confusion and clarity, the following
words were used as a keyword search:
Confusion, uncertain, doubt, bewilderment, shock, disorder, chaos,
turmoil, unintelligible, puzzlement, daze.
Clarity, clear, intelligible, certain, understand, recognize, express,
lucid, transparent, accurate, coherent.
4.2.4.1
Anhalonium Lewinii
In terms or rubrics, both Anhalonium lewinii and Cannabis indica are
full of delusions pervaded by the sensation of confusion: believes hearing
music, has two wills, is merging with his/her environment, is transparent, has
wonderful visions, is out of the body, is double, errors or confusion of personal
identity, time is exaggerated, everything is strange or unreal. They also have
a sense of confusion as to time and space and a weak memory.
On the other hand, they both have the rubrics of easy comprehension and
increased mental power. In addition to these rubrics, the following examples
taken from the literature search validate the sensations of confusion - clarity
in Anhalonium lewinii:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Senses, disordered.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Visions, disorders
of; coloured.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - time sense
disordered; fantastic visions.
4.2.4.2
Cannabis Indica
The following examples taken from the literature search validate the
sensations of confusion-clarity in Cannabis indica:
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Anaesthesia; while
standing is not conscious of touching ground.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - time sense
disordered.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Mind: Very absent minded.
Every few minutes he would lose himself, and then wake up
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Confusion and dullness of the head.
4.2.4.3
Coffea cruda has rubrics pertaining to easy
comprehension, wittiness, mental agility, alertness, abundance of ideas, making
many plans and clarity of mind as well as clarity of
chill and perspiration. However, it also has rubrics of dullness on
reading, vanishing of senses, weakness of memory, lost control of thoughts,
instability of thoughts, confusion of
not knowing where he/she is and confusion of chill. Examples taken from
the literature search via include:
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Mind: Memory active,
easy comprehension; increased power to think.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Eyes lively and red,
with unusually clear sight; can read small writing more distinctly.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Memory becomes very acute.
4.2.4.4
Nux moschata
Confusion predominates in Nux moschata. There is weakness of memory,
lost control of thoughts, confusion of walking, instability or vanishing of
thoughts, confusion of not
knowing where he/she is, dullness while reading or with sleepiness, vanishing
of senses, confusion of his/her identity, confusion as to time and space and
the making of mistakes in
time or space.
Nux moschata also has many delusions pertaining to confusion: such as
delusions of being out of the body or of being double; and sensations that
everything is strange or ludicrous.
Clarity is not found in Nux moschata and it is the only analyzed
psychoactive plant remedy that is not found in the rubric ‘Mind: Comprehension
- easy’.
The sensation of confusion was validated by the literature search :
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Mind: stands in a dazed
condition.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - does not recognize
well-known streets.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Mind: as from absence
of mind; vanishing of thoughts in reading.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - forgetfulness;
absence of mind; gradual vanishing of thoughts when reading
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Mind: remains
standing in one place, absent-minded; appears quite changed to his companions.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica: Mind as from complete
absence of mind, does not know where he is nor what to answer.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Mind: Senselessness,
intoxicated condition, with absence of mind.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Sensorium...
lightness and emptiness of head; reeling when walking in open air; swimming in
head.
ALLEN H., Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons - Absence of
mind; cannot think; great indifference to everything.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - One man had complete
loss of memory of his past life, and did not recover it for a week.
KENT J., Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica - appears to be dazed;
there is a complete loss of memory; she is automatic in her actions.
4.2.4.5
Opium contains rubrics that demonstrate
clarity or a lack of clarity. It has absurd and ludicrous delusions, insanity,
irrationality, delirium, confused memory, inability to answer,
instability or vanishing of thoughts, answering incorrectly and speech
that is delirious, confused or unintelligible.
Opium also says he/she is well when very sick, does not recognize
his/her relatives and finds familiar things strange or ludicrous. On the other
hand, clarity in eloquence, wittiness, abundance of ideas, mental agility, the
making of many plans, easy comprehension and clarity of mind, chill and
perspiration. Examples from the literature search include:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Head bewildered, as
after intoxication.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - thought and writing
difficult.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - uncommonly accurate judgment.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - weakness of the understanding.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - a stupid expression.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - cannot recognize people.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Confusion in head,
with sensation of heat in eyes, and necessity to shut them.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Head: Great
confusion, dullness and heaviness of head making thought and writing difficult.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - he is sleepy, dazed, stupefied, sad,
and his memory fails him.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - dullness, sadness,
weak memory; after mental shocks or injuries.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Sleepless night with restlessness
and talking nonsense.
This lack of clarity/confusion is also seen in Opium’s insensibility to
his/her own condition.
For example, his/her mouth is dry but he/she has no thirst or his/her
mind is tranquil despite his/her sufferings:
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - dryness of the fauces without
thirst, and liveliness of the ideas and memory.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Tranquillity of
mind, with agreeable reveries, and forgetfulness of sufferings.
4.2.5
Expansion -
Contraction
The first order analysis of the sensation
Expansion - Contraction
is
Sensation of Expansion - Contraction
SENSATION DEFINITION
Expansion Expand - Increase in size or bulk or
importance. Give a fuller description or account.
Become more genial or effusive; discard one’s
reserve.
Expansion - The act or an instance of
expanding; the state of being expanded.
Contraction
Contract - Make or become smaller.
Contraction - The act of contracting.
Shrinking, diminution.
SENSATION SYNONYMOUS SENSATIONS FOUND IN
RUBRICS
Expansion Distension, enlargement, swelling,
spaced-out.
Contraction Constriction/convulsion/convulsive
motions/stiffness/spasmodic/tightening/obstructed/drawing
up/cramping/stricture/paroxysmal, > loosening
clothing, pinched face.
Psychoactive drugs induce a sense of expansion, of emptiness and
lightness in the ‘high’ they give and antithetical sensations to this often
occur when they ‘come down from the high’ and return to a normal state. These sensations
are evident in rubrics extracted from all five drugs. For example, there are
sensations of expansion, distension, enlargement, swelling, being ‘spaced-out’,
emptiness and lightness. The following rubrics validate this sensation of
expansion and enlargement. Note that other psychoactive plant drugs were also
found in these rubrics.
Mind: DELUSIONS - parts of body seem too large: Anh. Cann-i. Nux-m. Op.
Bapt. Bell. Hyos.
Mind: DELUSIONS - parts of body enlarged: Anh. Cann-i. Nux-m. Op. Bapt. Bell.
Hyos. Stram.
Mind: DELUSIONS - space expanded: Cann-i. Nux-m.
Mind: DELUSIONS - is three persons: Cann-i. Nux-m. Bapt. Anac.
Mind: DELUSIONS - everything looks: Cann-i. Op. Atrop. Hyos.
Mind: DELUSIONS - is swollen: Cann-i. Op. Bapt.
Mind: DELUSIONS - objects are: enlarged: Cann-i. Anh. Atrop.
Note: this rubric contains only 4 remedies: 3 being psychoactive plants
or their derivatives and the 4th Agar. = a psychoactive fungus
Opposite sensations were also found in the rubrics: contraction,
constriction, convulsion, convulsive motions, stiffness, spasmodic motions,
tightening, being obstructed, drawing up,
cramping, strictures, paroxysms, heaviness, oppression, sensations of
having a ball or lump or being impeded, stopped, obstructed or bursting. Objective
symptoms reiterating this
sensation are that certain conditions are better for loosening clothing
and some rubrics describe a ‘pinched’ facial expression.
In order to validate the common sensations of expansion and contraction,
the following words were used as a keyword search in RadarOpus (Archibel,
2014):
Expand, enlarge, increase, distend, dilate, inflate, swell.
Contract, lessen, deflate, decrease, shrink, shorten, condense,
compress, stenosis, constrict, atrophy, cramp.
4.2.5.1
Anhalonium Lewinii
The following example, found , demonstrates the common sensations of
expansion and contraction:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia
Medica - Eye: Pupils dilated.
4.2.5.2
Cannabis indica
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
expansion and contraction:
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Sensation of
extreme tension in abdominal vessels - feel distended to bursting.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Mind ... gradually
swelling, his body becoming larger and larger.
KENT J., Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica - The limbs and parts
seem enlarged.
KENT J., Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Flatulence, distending
abdomen, > eructations.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Male sexual organs:
Penis relaxed and shrunken.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Stupefying compressive pain on the
left side of the chin.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Cramp-like pain in the teeth on the
left side of the lower jaw.
4.2.5.3
Coffea cruda
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
expansion and contraction:
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Sight and eyes:
Pupils dilated.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Distended abdomen, extreme
emaciation; in summer complaint. Incarcerated hernia.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Upper limbs:
Cramp-like contractions of the fingers.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Voice and larynx:
Spasmodic constriction of larynx.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Sensations
Constriction: of chest; of larynx.
4.2.5.4
Nux moschata
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
expansion and contraction:
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Feeling of
expansion, with sleepiness.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Enormously
distended.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Pupils dilated, eyes
staring, face pale, respiration laboured.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Puffiness,
swellings, dropsy of outer parts.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Sensation of
swelling of cheek; sensation of lump in abdomen
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Head:convulsively
drawn from one side to the other, distorts his face.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Face: Compression of
jaws.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Sight and eyes:
pupils dilated and immovable or contracted, with sensation of fullness in eyes.
4.2.5.5
Opium
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
expansion and contraction:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Head ... shut,
pupils dilated and insensible, foam at mouth, convulsive movements of limbs.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Eye: Swelling of
lower lids.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Abdomen hard, and
distended, as in tympanites.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica Generalities:
Dropsical swelling of whole body.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Constriction of
anus.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Eye: Pupils
contracted.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Face: Cramps in jaw.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Tension and
constriction of chest.
4.2.6
Emptiness- Fullness
The first order analysis of the sensation Emptiness - Fullness is shown.
Sensation of Emptiness - Fullness
SENSATION DEFINITION
Emptiness Empty - Containing nothing. Without substance or purpose.
Devoid, lacking.
Fullness Full - Holding all its limits will. Abundant, copious,
satisfying, sufficient. Complete, perfect, reaching the specified or usual or
utmost limit.
Fullness - Being full.
SENSATION SYNONYMOUS SENSATIONS FOUND IN RUBRICS
Emptiness No synonymous sensations were found in the original
rubrics, only emptiness was found.
Fullness
Ball, lump, stopped, bursting, obstruction, impeded.
The sensations of emptiness and fullness are found in the psychoactive
plant remedies, for example:
The rubric ‘Extremities: Emptiness; sensation of - upper limbs’,
contains 2 remedies and both of them are psychoactive plant remedies:
Op. and Coff.
In the rubric ‘Abdomen: Ball, sensation of a - liver - in’, 2 of the 4
remedies are psychoactive plant remedies: Nux-m. Op.
3 of the 5 psychoactive plant remedies studied here are found in the
rubric ‘Vertigo: Walking - gliding in the air; with sensation “As if feet did
not touch the Ground”.
In the mental plane, these remedies also experience emptiness and fullness.
For example, there is: Absence of sexual enjoyment in Cann-i. and
Nux-m.; Vanishing of thoughts in Cann-i. and Nux-m.;
Abundance of ideas at night in Coffea cruda and Opium.
In order to validate the common sensations of emptiness and fullness, the
following words were used as a keyword search.
Empty, vacant, absent, void, featureless, unoccupied, hollow.
Full, complete, saturated, integrated, whole, comprehensive, plump,
resonant.
4.2.6.1
Anhalonium Lewinii
The following example, found demonstrates the common sensations of
emptiness and fullness:
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica -
Characteristics ... Complete absence of will.
4.2.6.2
Cannabis indica
The following examples, found, demonstrate the common sensations of
emptiness and fullness:
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Mind... brain. Very
absent-minded. Every few minutes he would lose himself.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Fullness and throbbing in both
ears.
KENT J., Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica - His mind is full of
unfinished ideas, and phantoms.
4.2.6.3
Coffea cruda
The following examples, demonstrate the common sensations of emptiness
and fullness:
ALLEN H., Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons - Full of ideas;
quick to act, no sleep on this account.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Heart, pulse
...Pulse full and frequent.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Mind ... ideas, as
from absence of mind; vanishing of thoughts
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Head: Emptiness and
faint feeling at 17.30 h.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Male sexual
organs...Absence of erections, even while indulging in voluptuous thoughts.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Sensorium...
lightness and emptiness of head; reeling when walking in open air; swimming in
head.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Head feels full,
expanded; as if it would burst.
4.2.6.4
Opium
The following examples demonstrate the common sensations of emptiness
and fullness:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - inertia, torpor,
absence of sensation, absence of reaction.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Respiratory
organs:Violent, dry, hollow cough, < after repose.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Time...morning:
distressing feeling of emptiness in stomach.
Light, weightless, floating, buoyed, rarefied.
Heavy, gravity, weight, ponderous, cumbersome, dense, oppression,
burden.
4.2.7.1
Anhalonium Lewinii
Although the literature search did not substantiate the sensations of
lightness - heaviness in Anhalonium lewinii, the initial rubric extraction did
and this remedy experiences heaviness
in the face and tongue.
4.2.7.2
Cannabis Indica
The following examples, found, demonstrate the common sensations of
lightness and heaviness:
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Sensations: Feeling of
lightness or buoyancy; as if he was raised from ground and could fly away.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Mind ... vertigo as if
floating off.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Head: Heavy pressure
on the brain, forcing him to stoop.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Chest...oppression
of chest, with deep, labored breathing.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - After a meal her feet are very
heavy.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Head feels heavy, loses
consciousness and falls.
4.2.7.3
Coffea cruda
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
lightness and heaviness:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Abdomen: Anxiety and
oppression in the region of the epigastrium.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Abdomen: clothes are
oppressive.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Respiration:
Oppression of chest; short inspiration; chest heaves visibly.
4.2.7.4
Nux moschata
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
lightness and heaviness:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Limbs as if floating
in the air.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Vertigo ... nausea. With
lightness and emptiness of head; weak, limbs numb, feels as if floating in.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - obliged to move her
head with her hands, "it being too large and heavy for her body."
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Upper face: Eyes
dull, heavy looking; distressed look.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Hypochondria...
Diaphragmitis; oppression of chest, like a pressive load, dry cough, loss of
breath
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Nerves: Unconscious,
rigid; slow, heavy breathing; writhing in clonic spasm; opisthotonos.
4.2.7.5
Opium
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
lightness and heaviness:
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - as if he flew or floated in the air
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Mind ... delusion body is
lighter than air.
Sees masks. Amorous ecstasy.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Vertigo... with sensation as
if flying or hovering in air.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Sleep: Falls
into a heavy stupid sleep.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Abdomen: Weight in
abdomen, as of a load.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - The head is heavy, and as if
intoxicated (for 12 hours).
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - days very heavy head, the occiput
like lead, so that the head always fell back.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - As of a weight in abdomen (as
from a stone in umbilical region).
4.2.8
Heat - Cold
SENSATION DEFINITION
Heat Heat - sensation or perception of being hot.
Cold Cold - of or at a low or relatively low temperature, not
heated, feeling cold.
SENSATION SYNONYMOUS SENSATIONS FOUND IN RUBRICS
Heat Burning, boiling.
Cold Coldness.
The sensation of heat is an active sensation that is also connected to
those of expansion and lightness: when a substance is heated its particles
become more active, tend to rise, and
the substance expands. Likewise, the sensation of cold is connected to
those of contraction and heaviness or density. Heat and cold are found in all
five psychoactive plant remedies
both as sensations and modalities. For example, the extracted rubrics
demonstrate that:
Nux moschata and Opium experience heat in the head: ‘
Head, heat - vapor, “As from warmth”’
Cold weather < toothache: Coff. Nux-m.
A burning pain on the tongue “As if from pepper”: Cann-i- Op.
In order to validate the common sensations of heat and cold, following
words were used as a keyword search.
Heat, warm, hot, temperature, passion, intensity, excitement, agitation,
anger, fury.
Cold, cool, fresh, chilly, numb, unfriendly, frigid, indifferent,
unfeeling.
4.2.8.1
Anhalonium lewinii
The literature search did not substantiate the sensations of heat and
cold in Anhalonium lewinii; however, the initial rubric extraction did:
‘Mouth, Coldness - tongue’.
4.2.8.2
Cannabis indica
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
heat and cold:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica: Neck and back: warmth
in spine extending to head.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Agreeable warmth in the brain.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - a furious
passion over it; during the rigor, some warmth in the back and feet.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - The whole body is cold, but the face
grows always warmer and warmer.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Sensation of warmth
in stomach.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Modalities:
>: fresh air/cold water/rest.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Urine loaded with
slimy mucus after exposure to damp and cold.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - At the anus a sensation as if
something cold dropped out on the skin.
4.2.8.3
Coffea cruda
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
heat and cold:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Heat of the face,
with redness of the cheeks.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Fever...Internal
chilliness, with external heat of the face and body.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Fever...Dry heat in
the evening after going to bed, with chilliness in the back.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - .toothache, entirely
> by holding cold water in mouth, returning as this becomes warm.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Trembling of hands,
with heat in palms and coldness of backs of hands.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - The body is colder
than usual though no chills are experienced
4.2.8.4
Nux moschata
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
heat and cold:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - There is a cough
occurring only when warm in bed, or < then
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Heat; < hot
summer (summer complaint of children)
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Headache from inward
heat, with burning.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Heat in face with
slight redness of cheeks.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Stomach: Sensation
of heat, and of burning pain in stomach.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - The symptoms <
cold air.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Heat and pressure on
top of head; pain over right eye, with sleepiness.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Hands feel cold as
if frozen, with tingling under nails, on entering warm room.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Hot weather <
loose feeling of brain
4.2.8.5
Opium
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
heat and cold:
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Heat in
chest; burning about heart.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Bed feels so
hot cannot lie on it.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Heat
extending over body.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Modalities:
< heat, during and after sleep.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Very hot, sweltering
perspiration.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Heat in heart.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Mind...fright with
fear; is followed by heat in the head and convulsions.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - a burning heat in the face and
feeling of heat especially in the eyes, without thirst.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - sheets so hot that
she has to change to a cooler place every little while.
4.2.9
Dryness - Moisture
The first order analysis of the sensation Dryness - Moisture is shown in
Table 8.
SENSATION DEFINITION
Dryness Dry - Free from moisture. Not wet.
Moisture Moisture - Water or other liquid diffused in a small
quantity as vapor, or within a solid, or condensed on a surface.
SENSATION SYNONYMOUS SENSATIONS FOUND IN RUBRICS
Dryness None
Moisture Thirst, perspiration.
Clarke wrote that “an opium eater’s face glistens with fine
perspiration” and increased perspiration and hypersalivation are regularly
experienced when taking peyote buttons,
smoking cannabis can often induce sweating, the diuretic effect of
caffeine tends to increase one’s thirst, and side-effects of nutmeg consumption
or opium use are also dehydration
and a dry mouth.
In order to validate the common sensations of dryness and moisture, the
following words were used as a keyword search.
Dry, thirst, wither, shrivel, wilt, waterless, dull, uninteresting,
boring, unexciting, unimaginative, unemotional, indifferent.
Moist, damp, wet, vapor, humid, perspire.
4.2.9.1
Anhalonium lewinii
Neither the repertory nor literature extractions showed evidence of the
sensation of dryness - moisture being present in Anhalonium lewinii. However,
it is mentioned in Vermeulen’s
Prisma where he refers to Anhalonium lewinii’s “perspiration of hands”
and “strong salivation” (2004: 96).
4.2.9.2
Cannabis indica
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
dryness and moisture:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Mind: unquenchable
thirst.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Throat...the throat
is parched + intense thirst for cold water.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Dry feeling and heat in the nose.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Dry, very violent cough.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Dryness of mouth,
without thirst.
PHATAK S., Materia Medica of Homoeopathic Medicines - drops of cold
water were falling; on head;from the anus, from the heart.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Respiratory:
Humid asthma.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Urine loaded with
slimy mucus after exposure to damp and cold.
4.2.9.3
Coffea cruda
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
dryness and moisture:
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Dry heat,
with red cheeks.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - delirium, with dry
heat; toothache agg; excessive dryness of mouth wakens him.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Frequent:profuse
micturition; short, dry cough.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - thirst, after heat
and during sweat
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Fever: Cold, clammy
perspiration over body, but chiefly in palms of hands.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Fever: Perspiration
of affected parts.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Inner head...
intolerable, head feels small and as if filled with a fluid; as if it would
burst or fly to pieces.
4.2.9.4
Nux moschata
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
dryness and moisture:
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Modalities:
> warmth, dry weather.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - tongue so dry it
adheres to the roof of the mouth.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Eyes: dry; too dry
to close the lids.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Throat dry without
thirst.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Sensation of dryness
in inner parts; buzzing, humming, or "funny feeling" in body; dry....
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - After drinking:pain
in abdomen; dry cough.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - < Damp, wet
weather; cold weather; getting wet; before a shower; washing.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Sensitiveness of
skin, especially to cold, damp air.
4.2.9.5
Opium
The following examples, found , demonstrate the common sensations of
dryness and moisture:
ALLEN H., Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons - Marasmus;
child with wrinkled skin, looks like a little dried up old man.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica -Mouth: Dryness of
mouth, with violent thirst.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Appetite: Burning
thirst, esp. beer
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Respiratory organs:
Violent, dry, hollow cough, < after repose.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Fever...perspiration
of upper part of body, with dry heat of lower part.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Feeling of dryness of the anterior
part of the tongue, without thirst.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - increased thirst, tongue almost
clean, with dark red border and dry cracked lips.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Stoppage of nose;
dry coryza.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Internal dryness. Complaints
appear with sweat.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - (of stool) little, hard, dry,
black balls.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica -Very hot, sweltering
perspiration.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - < perspiring.
Delirium and
Instability.
These words were then defined using a dictionary and their synonyms
listed with the use of a thesaurus. A keyword search using these words was
carried out using
the results of which are discussed below.
It is important to note here that sensations do not appear to be paired
as the above sensations were (i.e. there is only one basic sensation found, not
it’s opposite as well).
They are, however, connected to the original sensations of activity -
inactivity, sensitivity - insensitivity and confusion - clarity.
It appears that these three are the most common sensations that have
emerged so far in this analysis.
4.3.1
Formication
The second order analysis of formication is shown in Table 9.
Sensation Formication
SENSATION DEFINITION
Formication “As if insects or snakes are
crawling over the skin”; a common side-effect of extensive use of cocaine or
amphetamines
(Princeton University, 2006).
SENSATION SYNONYMOUS SENSATIONS FOUND IN
LITERATURE
Formication Stinging, smarting, buzzing, crawling,
as if he had bees in a great hollow in his head, as if something alive in
abdomen
Formication is “As if insects or snakes are
crawling over the skin” a common side-effect of drug use.
It is a very active sensation that demonstrates
an individual’s sensitivity and hence reinforces the sensations of activity-
inactivity and sensitivity - insensitivity.
Coff. and Op. have the delusion that they see insects while Anh. and Op.
have delusions of snakes. Formication is evident in many of the psychoactive
plant drugs and their derivatives:
Skin: Formication: Anh. Bell. Cann-i. DCann-s. Caps. Coca, Cocainum, Op.
Morph. Stram. (and Agar. a psychoactive fungus).
In order to validate the sensation of formication, the following words
were used as a keyword search in RadarOpus (Archibel, 2014):
Formication, alive, insect, bee, sting, smart, buzz, crawl.
4.3.1.1
Anhalonium Lewinii
The following example, found , demonstrates the sensation of
formication:
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica -
Characteristics... numbness, formication and anaesthesia, esp. of tongue and
limbs.
4.3.1.2
Cannabis indica
The following examples, found , demonstrate the sensation of
formication:
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Formication, itching, and smarting as
from salt, in the face.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - something alive was in it
4.3.1.3
Coffea cruda
The following examples, found , demonstrate the sensation of
formication:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia
Medica - Ear: Hardness of hearing, with buzzing in the ears.
4.3.1.4
Nux moschata
The following examples, found , demonstrate the sensation of
formication:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Ear: Buzzing in
ears; “As if stopped”
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Stomach: Crawling
from pit of stomach to throat.
4.3.1.5
Opium
The following examples, found , demonstrate the sensation of
formication:
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Disagreeable formication in the
hands and feet, which changed into a frightful, intolerance...
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - frequent cutaneous eruptions and
smarting itching on the skin.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Head: Felt as if he
had bees in a great hollow in his head.
4.3.2
Delirium
SENSATION DEFINITION
AND SYNONYMS
Delirium Delirium - An acutely disordered
state of mind involving incoherent speech, hallucinations, and frenzied
excitement, occurring
in metabolic disorders, intoxication, fever
etc. Great excitement, ecstasy.
Synonyms - mental disorder, fantasy, lack of meaning, illness, fantasy,
imagination, carphologia, queer, fantasia, fancies, drunk, dream, imbecile,
visions, images, hallucination.
SENSATION SYNONYMOUS
SENSATIONS FOUND IN LITERATURE
Delirium Carphologia,
queer feeling, fantasia, lively fancies, hypochondriac, imagination,
drunkenness, imbecility, dreamy, full of dreams, visions,
images,
hallucinations
An effect of taking psychoactive drugs is that they induce delirium and
this is evident in the remedies made from these drugs.
For example, hallucinations, intoxication, imbecility,
dreams, visions, carphologia, fantasia and lively fancies are found in
these remedies.
The sensation of delirium reinforces the sensations of activity -
inactivity, sensitivity - insensitivity and confusion - clarity.
The following rubrics have only two remedies in them, both of which are
psychoactive plant remedies:
Mind: DELUSIONS - of dragons, Cann-i. Op.
Mind: DELUSIONS - people want to execute him: Nux-m. Op.
Mind: DELUSIONS - sees faces, like masks: Anh. Op. (Coff. also has
delirious delusions).
Mind: DELUSIONS - has visions of magnificent: grandeur
Four out of the five analyzed remedies are found in the rubrics:
Mind: DELUSIONS - beautiful:
Mind: DELIRIUM - maniacal:
Although it is a very large rubric, ‘Mind: Delirium’, contains all the
psychoactive plant remedies studied in this thesis as well as many others.
Some of these remedies are graded as a three (incl. Bell. Cann-i. Hyos.
Op. Stram.).
In order to validate the common sensation of delirium, the following
words were used as a keyword search in RadarOpus (Archibel, 2014):
Delirium, fantasia, drunk, queer, imagination, hallucination,
carphologia, fancies, imbecile, dream, visions, images
4.3.2.1
Anhalonium Lewinii
The following examples, found , demonstrate the sensation of delirium:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - coloured visions of
most over-powering brilliancy, associated with moving shapes ...
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Delirium.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Hallucinations.
4.3.2.2
Cannabis indica
The following examples, found , demonstrate the sensation of delirium:
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - wakes at night out of slumber with
horrible dreams, and cannot remember where he is.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - every night confused dreams, which
are, however, remembered after awaking.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Mind... trembling;
hallucinations; tendency to become furious; nausea; unquenchable thirst.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica ... unusual excitement with
loquacity
4.3.2.3
Coffea cruda
The following examples, found , demonstrate the sensation of delirium:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Mind: Sentimental
ecstasy; excited imagination.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - sleeplessness from
excitement of the imagination, flow of ideas, and fantastic visions.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Dry, at night, and delirium.
With thirst. Hot flushes to face, hot cheeks and delirium.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Sentimental ecstasy;
excited imagination; increased power to think.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Sleeplessness from
excitement of the imagination, flow of ideas, and fantastic visions.
4.3.2.4
Nux moschata
The following examples, found , demonstrate the sensation of delirium:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - As if drunk.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Mind: Hallucination,
that she has two heads.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Vertigo, as from
drunkenness, with delirium and mumbling, giddiness or insensibility.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - As if drunk and
sleepy; drunken feeling in head; drunken appearance.
4.3.2.5
Opium
The following examples, found , demonstrate the sensation of delirium:
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - occupied with a number of visions
and fancies in sleep.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - unwelcome visions and full of
fantasies.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - dreams and visions of dragons,
skeletons, and horrible ghosts
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Great excitement
almost amounting to frenzy; most furious delirium
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica-Burning heat in body,
with great redness of face, anxiety, delirium, and agitation.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Sleeplessness, with
anxious tossing, restlessness, and delirium.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Deep sleep;
pleasant, fantastic, or frightful dreams; delirium like delirium tremens
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Drunkenness with
stupor as from smoke on the brain; eyes burning, hot and dry.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - delirium; great
excitement of mind, with constant talking and motion of head
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Delirium: muttering;
violent, with red face, glistening eyes and great physical activity.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Sleeplessness, full
of unwelcome fancies and imaginations
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - open eyes,
contracted or sluggish pupils, carphologia and touching surrounding objects.
4.3.3
Instability
The second order analysis of instability is shown in Table 11.
Table 9: Sensation Instability
SENSATION DEFINITION AND SYNONYMS
Instability A lack of stability; unpredictability in behaviour.
Stable - firmly fixed or established; not
easily adjusted, destroyed, or altered; firm, resolute; not wavering or fickle.
Synonyms - constancy, permanence, steadiness, balance,
unchangeable, obstinate, resolute, predictable, reliable, unchanging, uniform,
fixed,
changeable, inconsistent, inconstant,
irregular, instable, imbalance, unsteady, transience, wavering, irresolute,
moody, unpredictable,
unaccountable, unexpected, ever-changing,
volatile, mercurial, fickle, whimsical, capricious
SENSATION SYNONYMOUS SENSATIONS FOUND IN LITERATURE
Instability Inquietude, anxiety, nervous,
nervousness, vexed and angry over trifles, tolerance, intolerance, contentment,
indifference, weeping mood,
fury, joy, pleasurable surprise, deathly anxiety, excessive anguish,
indescribable uneasiness, cheerfulness, liveliness, contentment, hilarity,
happy thoughts, full of fun and mischief then perhaps moaning and crying,
laughs immoderately nonsensical and irrational behavior, exaltation, hysterics,
hysteria, hysterical, furious passion, angry and uncontrollable, angry
savageness, tearful sorrow.
Instability a common sensation that pervades the psychoactive plant
remedies and that can be connected to the sensations of activity - inactivity,
sensitivity - insensitivity and confusion - clarity. Even the sensation of heat
discussed earlier correlates to the hysteria, passion and fury experienced by
these remedies. This sensation of instability is seen in the inconstancy and
unpredictability of their behavior and their oscillating moods. The following
rubrics have only five remedies in them, two of which are psychoactive plant
remedies:
Mind: IRRITABILITY #
joy: Coff. Op.. The other three remedies in this rubric are also plant remedies
(Acon. Croc-s. Cycl.).
Mind: AILMENTS FROM surprises - pleasant: Coff.
Op.
Although instability seems most common in the mental/emotional sphere,
it is also evident in physical symptoms: there is much restlessness in the
remedies; pains are wandering or fleeting; and sensations are felt suddenly,
instantaneously and unexpectedly. Examples from the literature search via are:
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Head: Shocks
through brain: Cann-i.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Ear: Otalgia, with
shooting pains: Nux-m.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - emotions, fear,
grief, fright, which acted like a blow, stunning whole nervous system: Op.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Instantaneous pain as if the auricle
were drawn out of the head: Cann-i.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia
Medica - Vertigo on rising, with stunning pain in back part of head, and he
falls: Cann-i.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia
Medica: Pain in lumbar muscles as from a blow of the fist: Nux-m.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia
Medica: Eyes: ... dilated, sensitive to light; at night complains of sudden
loss of vision: Op.
In order to validate the common sensation of instability, the following
words were used as a keyword search in RadarOpus (Archibel, 2014):
Inquietude, anxiety, nervous, nervousness,
vexed, angry, trifles, intolerant, indifference, fury, unstable, instability,
unpredictability, irresolute, wavering, fickle, unsteady,
imbalance, changeable, unreliable, changing,
moody, whimsical, mercurial, capricious, cheerful, content, lively, hilarity,
laugh, joy, hysteria, passion, savage
4.3.3.1
Anhalonium Lewinii
The following examples, found , demonstrate the sensation of
instability:
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - kaleidoscopic changes.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Mind: Distrust and resentment.
Lazy contentment. Difficult enunciation.
4.3.3.2
Cannabis indica
The following examples, found , demonstrate the sensation of
instability:
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Hesitation and unsteadiness of the
mind
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Wavering and uncertain humour.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Very vexed and angry about trifles.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Exaltation of
spirits, with great gayety and disposition to laugh at the merest trifle.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Full of fun and
mischief, and laughs immoderately.
KENT J., Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Pulse, slow or rapid
and irregular; fluttering; a nervous pulse.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Disposition in the forenoon
dejected, in the afternoon cheerful.
4.3.3.3
Coffea cruda
The following examples, found , demonstrate the sensation of
instability:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Mind:
Over-sensitiveness; weeping mood.
ALLEN H., Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons - Laughs
immoderately at every trifling word spoken to him.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Mind: Excessive
weeping and lamentations over trifles.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Mind ...throw themselves about
crying violently. Fear of fresh air and of least noise.
ALLEN H., Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons - weeping from
delight; laughing # weeping.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - spasms brought on by
excessive laughing and playing, in weakly, excitable children.
4.3.3.4
Nux moschata
The following examples, found , demonstrate the sensation of
instability:
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - especially in
nervous subjects, hysterical and pregnant women; unpleasant men
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - hysterical and
nervous, turned deathly pale or faint on slightest excitement.
ALLEN H., Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons - one moment
laughing, the next crying
4.3.3.5
Opium
The following examples, found , demonstrate the sensation of
instability:
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - reputation for fickleness
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Unsteadiness; he cannot walk without
staggering.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - they became angry and
uncontrollable, after which they again become sad
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - Ailments from
excessive joy, fright, anger or shame.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Alternating state of careless
sullenness and cheerfulness.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - increasing
hilarity and happy thoughts pass into nonsensical and irrational behavior.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica -
riotous hilarity with buffoonery and subsequent angry savageness or tears
4.4
Third Order Analysis
The Second Order sensations of formication, delirium and instability, as
well as their antonyms and synonyms, were used in a keyword search, to verify
their legitimacy.
During this process only one new sensation clearly emerged. This
sensation was that of horror
4.4.1
Horror
The 3rd order analysis of horror:
SENSATION DEFINITION AND SYNONYMS
Horror Horror - a painful feeling of
loathing and fear, a terrified and revolted shuddering
Horrible - causing or likely to cause horror,
hideous, shocking, unpleasant
Synonyms - unpleasant, frightening, hateful,
distressing, terrifying
SENSATION SYNONYMOUS SENSATIONS FOUND IN
LITERATURE
Horror Horrible, diabolic, horripilation,
horrible dreams, dreams of misfortunes happening to others, vivid dreams of a
horrible character, dreams of
a terrifying nature, dreams of being pursued,
frightful dreams, uneasy dreams, the saddest dreams, anxious dreams, unwelcome
visions, dreams and visions
of dragons, skeletons and horrible ghosts,
horrible pictures of fancy, dead bodies, danger, perils, suicidal, horrible
anxiety
In order to validate the common sensation of horror, the following words
were used as a keyword search:
All the analyzed psychoactive plant remedies have dreams, delusions or
hallucinations that are terrifying, horrifying or greatly distressing and words
such as “diabolic”, “horripilation”,
“terrifying”, “frightful”, “uneasy”, “saddest” and “horrible” are
repeated in the literature of these remedies. On a physical level, the
intensity and depth of their pains can be utterly
horrifying, driving patients to despair while their heightened
sensitivity makes even sounds or the slightest touch unbearably distressing.
The researcher proposes that the sensation of horror is the underlying
feeling that pervades the psychoactive plant drug remedies. With this proposal
in mind, the researcher did a manual repertory search of the sensation of
horror using Schroyens’ Synthesis (2004). The following was noted:
‘Mind, Horror’ refers one to the rubric
‘Mind, Anxiety: Fear, with’ - contains many plant drug remedies
including Acon. Anac. Coff. Hyos. Nux-m. Op.
‘Mind, Delusions, Visions, horrible incl. the
plant drug remedies Bell. Camph. Hell. Ign. Op. Stram.
‘Mind, Delusions, Visions, monsters of’includes
the plant drug remedies Anh. Bell. Camph. Cann-i. Cic-v. Cimic. Stram.
‘Mind, Frightened easily
‘Mind, Ailments from fright includes the plant
drug remedies Acon. Bell. Camph. Cann-i. Cham. Cic-v. Cimic. Coff. Hyos. Nux-m.
Op. Stram.
‘Mind, Fright, previous fright, because of; has
6 remedies, 4 are plants: Acon. Bell. Op. Verat.
‘Mind, Anxiety, Fright, remains, anxiety if the
fear of the fright: only one remedy Op.
Interestingly, there is only one remedy that loves horror movies and it
too is a plant drug: Stram.
In addition, the researcher performed a computer repertory search using:
extractingl rubrics in which each analyzed remedy was the only remedy. A rubric
containing only one remedy suggests that the rubric is highly characteristic of
the remedy and each of the psychoactive plant drug remedies were found to be
the only remedies in rubrics whose underlying sensation was that of horror.
Hence, the researcher found that the sensation of horror is highly
characteristic of each analyzed psychoactive plant drug remedy. These rubrics
are listed below under each remedy.
4.4.1.1
Anhalonium Lewinii
The sensation of horror in demonstrated through it being the only remedy
in the following rubrics which were found.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica- Mind, Delusions,
scheming faces.
VERMEULEN F., Concordant Materia Medica - Mind,
Delusions, visions of monsters and various gruesome forms.
4.4.1.2
Cannabis indica
The following rubrics contain only the remedy Cannabis indica and are,
therefore, highly characteristic of this remedy:
MIND - DELUSIONS - sees dead persons at midnight on waking
MIND - DELUSIONS - about to die; one was - dissected; and soon will be
MIND - DELUSIONS - “As if flying from a rock into a dark abyss on going
to bed”
MIND - DELUSIONS - shadows; of demoniac hell at midnight on waking
MIND - DELUSIONS - muffled man starts from the wall when walking in the
streets;
MIND - DELUSIONS - will be murdered - persons are bribed to murder him
MIND - DELUSIONS - room falling to pieces
MIND - DELUSIONS - he saw a huge tankard, chased with dragons
MIND - DELUSIONS - disasters by water
MIND - DELUSIONS - vomitus is a bunch of worms
MIND - ESCAPE, attempts to run away to find a female in estrus
MIND - FEAR of coal scuttle
MIND - FEAR of using voice
DREAMS - NIGHTMARES periodical at night on going to sleep
A literature search revealed the following pertaining to Cannabis
indica:
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic
Materia Medica - Eyes: Spectral illusions without terror.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic
Materia Medica - Sleep: Dreams of dead bodies; prophetic.
PHATAK S., Materia Medica of Homoeopathic
Medicines- sometimes the hallucinations may be of agonizing terror and pain;
horror of darkness.
4.4.1.3
Coffea cruda
The sensation of horror is found in Coffea cruda’s experience of pain.
It is the only remedy in the rubric:
Female Genitalia/Sex, afterpains with of death
The literature search
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica -All kinds of pains
are intolerable; and are accompanied with fear of death.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Disturbed by dreams
of a terrifying nature, like those met with in alcoholism.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - horripilation,
anxiety and violent tossing of limbs, during paroxysm.
ALLEN H., Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons - Pains are felt
intensely; seem almost insupportable, driving patient to despair.
4.4.1.4
Nux moschata is the only remedy in the following
rubrics:
MIND - DELUSIONS - brain is cracking;
MIND - DELUSIONS - head would fall off
MIND - FEAR of death in afternoon - 17.30 h
The sensation of horror is evident in the following results of the
literature search:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Dreams :of falling
from high places; of being pursued.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Stomach: Deathly
nausea if her head were raised from pillow.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Face hippocratic;
singular; silly, and occasionally would give a diabolic grin.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Heart and pulse ...
trembling, fluttering of heart, as from fright, fear, or sadness.
4.4.1.5
Opium
The sensation of horror is prominent in Opium and is found in many
rubrics in which Opium is the sole remedy:
MIND - ANGUISH - in shock from injury
MIND - ANXIETY - anxiety if the fear of the fright remains
MIND - ANXIETY in pregnancy, fear of abortion in latter part;
MIND - DEATH - contempt of
MIND - DELIRIUM - sees devils
MIND - DELIRIUM sees spectres
MIND - DELUSIONS surrounded by devils in bed.
MIND - DELUSIONS is to be executed as a criminal
MIND - DELUSIONS sees devils about his bed
MIND - DELUSIONS everyone around him is a murderer
MIND - DELUSIONS sees scorpions
MIND - DELUSIONS “As if somebody threatened to stab him”
MIND - DELUSIONS - has done wron and is about to be punished
MIND - FEAR at night from intestinal spasms
MIND - amenorrhea from fear
MIND - FEAR of extravagance
MIND - FEAR of sleeplessness
MIND - sudden FEAR followed by diabetes mellitus
MIND - FEAR - retention of urine from fear
MIND - MOROSE by dreams
DREAMS - CIVIL WAR
DREAMS - horrible GRIMACES
GENERALS - DEATH APPARENT in children
GENERALS - DEATH APPARENT - hanged, strangled persons; of
This sensation was also evident in the literature search:
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Diseases
that originate from fright.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - sleeping dreams and visions of
dragons, skeletons, and horrible ghosts.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - the saddest dreams.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - waking and sleeping dreams and
visions of dragons, skeletons, and horrible ghosts.
BOERICKE W., Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica - Horrible
labor-like pains in uterus, with urging to stool.
HAHNEMANN S., Materia Medica Pura - Horrible pressing - asunder pain in
the rectum.
HERING C., Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica - speechless; eyes
half open; mild delirium or loud talking, fury, singing, desire to escape.
4.5
Summary of Data Analysis
4.5.1
Common Sensations
The common sensations that were identified during the extraction
process:
Note that as the analyzes progressed, the sensations moved more into the
sphere of the Mind, into delusions and dreams.
4:
Common Sensations of the Psychoactive Plant Remedies
FIRST ORDER ANALYSIS
SECOND ORDER ANALYSIS
THIRD ORDER ANALYSIS
Activity - Inactivity
Sensitivity -
Insensitivity
Confusion - Clarity
Expansion - Contraction
Emptiness - Fullness
Lightness - Heaviness
Heat - Cold
Dryness - Moisture
Formication
Delirium
Instability
Horror
The purpose of this research was to identify a vital sensation that runs
through all the psychoactive plant remedies. The vital sensation underlies
everything a person does, thinks
and feels and communicates itself through patterns of symptoms, these
symptoms being merely expressions of what lies beneath. The vital sensation
that runs through these remedies
is that of Activity - Inactivity and the other sensations identified in
this research embody this vital sensation.
Proposed Sensations and Reactions of the Psychoactive Plant Remedies
SENSATION
PASSIVE REACTION
ACTIVE REACTION
COMPENSATION
ORIGINAL SENSATIONS AND FIRST ORDER ANALYSIS
Activity - Inactivity
Sleep, unconsciousness
Paralysis, weakness
Weakness or loss of mind
Mental confusion
Alertness
Increased physical ability
Abundant ideas
Mental clarity
Escape
Sensitivity - Insensitivity
Numbness (inactivity due to insensitivity OR due to excessive pain)
Pain (pain is active and increases activity to the degree that people
become beside themselves with pain)
Escape in order to not feel emotions or pain.
Confusion - Clarity
Similar to activity - inactivity: weakness or loss of mind, mental
confusion
Similar to activity - inactivity: abundant ideas, mental clarity
Escape
People escape their own emotions by either becoming confused and
forgetful or by ‘losing themselves’ in ideas and the sphere of the mind.
These three sensations are similar:
Expansion - Contraction
Emptiness - Fullness
Lightness - Heaviness
A person contracts into themselves and shuts off the world (constrict,
tighten, obstruct, cramp, stop, impede, oppress, heavy).
A person ‘opens up’ to something greater than themselves. They ‘merge’
with the universe. They become ‘high’.
Escape
They escape the physical world in which they should be living by either
shutting it off or merging with the universe.
Heat - Cold
Dry - Moisture
These are very physical symptoms which cannot be classified according to
Sankaran’s model.
However, on a metaphysical level, heat is connected to activity and
emotions whilst cold is connected to inactivity, lack of emotions and lack of
feeling. Dryness is an inactive sensation which can be connected on the
emotional plane to indifference and lack of imagination or on the physical
plane a lack of secretions (inactivity). Moisture, on the other hand, is
associated with increased physiological secretions and physical activity, for
example, perspiration and salivation.
SECOND ORDER ANALYSIS
Formication
Delirium
Instability
The sensations extracted in the second order analysis are closely
connected to the three primary sensations of activity, sensitivity and confusion.
THIRD ORDER ANALYSIS
Horror
The essential compensation of the psychoactive plant remedies seems to
be that of escape: they are trying to escape something through either
increasing their activity, their productivity and their mental clarity or through
completely numbing themselves to what is going on around them and separating
themselves from who they really are.
The sensation of horror that emerged in the final analysis seems to be
the underlying feeling that pervades all these remedies and it is this horror
that they are constantly trying to escape.
4.5.2
Themes of the Psychoactive Plant Remedies
The following themes have emerged from the analysis of the psychoactive
plant remedies:
1. A marked increase in physical activity seen through restlessness,
involuntary motions, increased reflexes, trembling, jerking OR a complete lack
of physical activity or a marked decrease in it seen through paralysis,
atrophy, unconsciousness, torpor, faintness, weakness, slowness.
2. Sleep disturbances, insomnia and the inability to sleep peacefully OR
sleepiness, sopor, torpor and the inability to keep awake.
3. Pains that are active (tearing, stitching, cracking, boring, cutting,
drawing).
4. Ailments caused or aggravated by motion.
5. Oversensitivity with pains that are felt intensely and acutely
causing agony, torture, anguish and suffering OR numbness, insensitivity and a
lack of pain where there should be pain.
6. Ailments caused by emotions, be they positive or negative emotions.
For example, ailments caused by excess excitement or joy.
7. Ailments caused by, or conditions aggravated by, over-sensitivity of
the sense organs.
For example, pain caused by noise or pain aggravated by touch.
8. Mental confusion expressed as forgetfulness, nonsensical speech, poor
comprehension, the feeling that everything is strange or unreal.
9. Mental alertness, clarity and increased mental power.
10. Sensations of expanding, growing, enlarging, swelling, of merging
with something greater, of emptiness, of lightness - of being ‘high’.
11. Constrictive, contractive, compressive, spasmodic, cramping,
obstructing, heavy sensations.
12. Sensations of warmth or cold pervading a part of the body or the
entire body.
13. Conditions being < o, > heat or cold.
14. Sensations of dryness or moisture in body parts or an increase or
decrease in normal perspiration and salivation.
15. Formication.
16. Delirium - hallucinations, visions, fancies, many dreams or a sense
of intoxication.
17. Instability and unpredictability of behavior and moods.
18. A deep sense of horror, an almost painful feeling of loathing and
fear revealing itself through terrifying dreams, visions, hallucinations,
delusions or anxiety OR a lack of
horror or fear where there should be.
CHAPTER 5
ANALYSIS OF THE PSYCHOACTIVE PLANT REMEDIES
The aim of this study was to identify themes belonging specifically to
the psychoactive plant remedies with the rationale being that these themes
should be applicable to any patient
requiring a psychoactive plant remedy. The objectives of the study were
to:
Analyze and describe common sensations in the psychoactive plant
remedies according to known materia medica symptomatology.
Analyze and describe reactions to the sensations (be they active,
passive or compensatory).
Analyze and classify individual remedies under Sankaran’s (2006)
homoeopathic miasms.
Identify the themes which emerge from the psychoactive plant remedies.
The researcher feels these objectives have been reached and discusses
them below.
5.1
The Psychoactive Plant Drug Group
5.1.1
Common Sensations and Reactions of the Psychoactive Plant Drug Group
All the psychoactive plant remedies analyzed in this research revealed
the following sensations. It is observed that these sensations are similar to
those produced when a person
takes a psychoactive drug.
a. Increased or decreased activity,
or complete absence of activity The most common sensation pervading all the
other sensations found in psychoactive plant remedies is that of activity
- either in-/decreased activity. Psychoactive drugs act directly on the
central nervous system as stimulants, depressants or hallucinogens and so
either stimulate or decrease activity. Patients requiring
a remedy from the psychoactive plant drug group will always show an
increase or decrease in activity, be it physical, mental, emotional or purely
physiological.
For example, patients requiring Coffea cruda would be excitable, have
nervous palpitations, trembling hands and be unable to sleep at night due to a rush
of ideas (Boger, 2011:89) while patients
who suffer from an overpowering drowsiness, who faint frequently and
have a weak pulse may require Nux moschata (Boger, 2011: 198).
A patient who is in a coma or paralysed may require Opium (Boger, 2011:
205).
In order to find the similimum, homoeopaths need to develop an overall
impression of their patient. If this overall impression is that of a
significant increase or decrease in activity, then the homoeopath should
consider remedies belonging to the psychoactive plant drug group.
The sensation of increased activity is an active reaction and is evident
in involuntary movements, tremors, heightened reflexes, increased sensitivity,
increased mental clarity,
sensations of expansion or contraction, increased heat, increased
perspiration or salivation, formication, delirium, hallucinations and mood
swings. On the other hand, decreased activity
is a passive reaction and is evident in sleepiness and sopor, paralysis,
decreased or absence of sensitivity, mental slowness and apathy, sensations of
heaviness, decreased body warmth and decreased physiological secretions
resulting in dryness. This increased or decreased activity is a form of
escapism, or compensation, for the psychoactive plant remedies - they lose
themselves in increased physical activity and ‘keeping busy’ or they
escape into sleep or a loss of consciousness.
b. Increased or decreased
sensitivity, or complete absence of sensitivity
The psychoactive plant remedies have increased or decreased activity because
of their extreme sensitivity. Sensitivity is a primary sensation in all
remedies derived from the Plant
Kingdom and is evident throughout the psychoactive plant remedies.
Sensitivity to pain, be it physical, emotional or mental, either
stimulates or depresses activity in these remedies. The active reaction to
sensitivity is pain and individuals requiring the psychoactive plant remedies
experience pain to such a degree that it becomes horrifying to them. For
example,
Coffea cruda experiences despair, weeping, lamenting and tossing about
from pain (Vermeulen, 2004: 511). On the other hand, they can react passively
to their sensitivity by becoming
numb and insensitive to what should be painful. For example, Opium is
indifferent to joy and suffering and also to pain where there should be pain.
The psychoactive plant remedies
compensate for their extreme sensitivity by escaping and not feeling
anything. Burrough’s (as cited in Vermeulen, 2004: 1020) description of
morphine encapsulates this escapism:
“Morphine alters the whole cycle of expansion and contraction, release
and tension. The sexual function is deactivated, peristalsis inhibited, the
pupils cease to react in response to light
and darkness. The organism neither contracts from pain nor expands to
normal sources of pleasure”.
c. Increased mental ability and
clarity of mind, or decreased clarity and a tendency towards mental confusion
The sensation of activity - inactivity is also evident in the mental
state of the psychoactive plant drug remedies.
Psychoactive drugs act on the central nervous system to alter one’s
mood, perception or consciousness, all remedies in this group experience a
notable change in their mental state.
When taking a case, a homoeopath needs to be aware of the general impression
the patient gives them - if the homoeopath finds himself wondering if perhaps
the patient has been “taking drugs” or “drinking too much coffee” then the
homoeopath should consider remedies belonging to the psychoactive plant drug
family.
These remedies present with either marked clarity of mind, abundant
ideas, creativity and lucidity, or the opposite -weakness or loss of mind and
mental confusion.
For example, Coffea cruda has mental agility, clarity and an abundance
of ideas to such an extent that they cannot sleep at night because of all the
ideas rushing through their mind;
Anhalonium lewinii and Cannabis indica often appear confused, losing
their sense of proportion, time and space (Boger, 2011: 61);
Nux moschata is forgetful, suffers from vanishing thoughts and gets lost
in streets that they know well; and Opium can appear as dreamy, dull and
stupid.
The researcher proposes that this increase or decrease in mental acuity
is a compensation or form of escapism-these patients escape their own emotions
and pain by either becoming
mentally confused and forgetful or by ‘losing themselves’ in ideas,
creativity and the sphere of the mind.
d. Sensations of expansion,
emptiness, lightness or their opposites: contraction, fullness, heaviness
The psychoactive plant remedies experience sensations that are
constricting, tightening, obstructing, cramping, stopping, impeding, oppressing
or heavy and these sensations enable
individuals to contract into themselves, shut off the world and hence
escape it. On the other hand, they can experience sensations opposite to these.
For example, expansion, emptiness,
lightness - sensations that enable an individual to ‘open up’ and merge
with something greater than oneself, to escape reality.
The researcher proposes that the essence behind these sensations is that
of trying to escape something and Mangialavori (2010: 23) wrote: “The theme of
avoidance, characterised by
isolation and a flight from reality, is fundamental to Drug remedies....
I wish to emphasise this feature because it helps to differentiate Drugs
from similar (non-Drug) remedies which do not have this theme as a central
component”.
This sensation of expansion and contraction is clearly seen in the
physical symptoms of the psychoactive plant drug remedies.
For example, they all experience either a dilation or contraction of
their pupils; Cannabis indica, Coffea cruda, Nux moschata and Opium suffer with
distended abdomens; and Nux
moschata and Opium also suffer from fluid retention and swelling. On the
mental plane, Anhalonium lewinii, Cannabis indica, Nux moschata and Opium have
delusions that parts of their body are enlarged and Cannabis indica has the
unique sensation that their vertex is opening and shutting.
Patients requiring these remedies will also describe their sensations
and pains in terms of how they feel things are constricting, tightening or
expanding inside them.
e. Sensations of heat or cold, or
modalities (< o. >) from heat or cold
The psychoactive plant remedies experience sensations of either heat or
cold or modalities from heat or cold.
Coffea cruda, for example, has the unusual symptom of toothache being
ameliorated when cold water or ice is held in the mouth. Once this water warms
up, the toothache returns. Nux moschata is so sensitive to cold weather that
she becomes “dazed and sleepy” when walking in it (Kent, 2013: 803);
while Opium, on the other hand, can’t bear warmth, kicks off the covers,
wants a cool room and can often be recognized by his/her dark-red perspiring
face and very hot skin (Nash, 2013: 287).
f. Sensations of dryness or moisture,
or modalities (< o. >) from dryness or moisture
Psychoactive drugs affect the central nervous system having a marked
effect on diuresis, hidrosis and salivation. Similarly, the psychoactive plant
drug remedies experience
sensations of either dryness (for example: thirst, dry mouth, dry cough,
lack of secretions) or moisture, especially increased perspiration.
For example, Opium is indicated where there is noticeable perspiration;
Nux moschata’s mouth can becomes so dry that the tongue sticks to the roof yet
there is absolutely no desire to
drink; and Cannabis indica suffers from urinary disorders when urine is
passed “drop by drop” (Boger, 2011: 61).
g. Formication, delirium, hallucinations
or mental and emotional instability and mood swings
Formication, delirium, hallucinations and mental or emotional
instability are experienced by individuals who use psychoactive plant drugs and
these sensations are common to remedies
made from these drugs. They are especially evident in the mind symptoms
of a person requiring these remedies and in their delusions, fears and dreams.
Although these
psychoactive plant remedies may experience delightful or fantastical
hallucinations such as Anhalonium lewinii’s wonderful visions, remarkably
beautiful and varied kaleidoscopic
changes” Boericke, 2005: For example, Kent (2013: 812) wrote of how an
Opium prover saw “frightful images, black forms, visions of devils, fire,
ghosts, someone carrying her off,
murder”.
Patients requiring psychoactive plant drug remedies can also be
irritable, uncontrollable, often sad and so sensitive that even positive
emotions (such as joy) can make them ill. This is especially seen in Coffea
cruda, who develops “sleeplessness, nervous excitement, neuralgia, twitching of
muscles, toothache, face-ache, red face and hot head” after a joyful or
pleasant surprise (Kent, 2013: 456).
The sensations of formication, delirium, hallucinations and instability are
all closely connected to the sensations of activity, sensitivity and confusion.
h. A deep sense of horror, fear or
fright “People are disturbed not by a thing, but by their perception of a
thing.”
Epictetus
The psychoactive plant remedies appear to be
trying to escape something through either increasing their activity, their
productivity and their mental clarity or through completely
numbing themselves to what is going on around them and separating
themselves from who they really are. Mangialavori (2010: 23) claims that the
tendency to escape points to an
individual’s underlying vulnerability and is a characteristic defense
mechanism, a defensive strategy that “does not disappear, but rather evolves
through various compensations”.
The researcher proposes that these remedies, and individuals who use
these drugs, are trying to escape a deep horror within themselves.
This horror can stem from a physical, mental or emotional trauma or it
can develop because of an individual’s sensitivity. A person needing the remedy
Coffea cruda, for example,
will be more sensitive to pain than most people and will experience pain
as something utterly terrifying and horrifying.
A person requiring the remedy Opium, on the other hand, may have
survived such a horrifying or near-death experience that they can no longer
feel pain.
All the psychoactive plant remedies experience the sensation of horror
either through their perception of their pain or through their dreams, visions,
hallucinations or anxiety.
Opium is the only remedy in the rubric
“MIND - ANXIETY - fright remains; anxiety if
the fear of the fright”, yet this rubric is representative of the core issue of
the psychoactive plant drugs as a whole. Each of these drugs experiences
something so frightening (be it physical, mental or emotional), and something
that they are so acutely sensitive to that they develop a deep sense of horror
that pervades their entire being.
According to Boericke (2005), Anhalonium lewinii has visions of monsters
and various gruesome forms; Cannabis indica can suffer from depression and a
constant fear of becoming insane; Coffea cruda has great nervous agitation,
restlessness and is driven to such despair by physical pain that he can be seen
to toss about in anguish;
Nux moschata is bewildered, confused, laughs and then cries; and Opium
becomes ill after a frightening event.
This thread of horror reveals itself not only through their dreams and
delusions, but also through their increased sensitivity or lack of sensitivity
to physical pain.
Coffea cruda cannot bear any pain and has what Kent (2013: 456)
describes as “a painful sensitiveness of the skin beyond comprehension”
Opium lacks all sensitivity whatsoever. Nash (2013: 289) writes that
Opium renders the organism “incapable of sensing pain” and Kent’s (2013: 811)
following description of a patient demonstrates how Opium escapes their
condition through simply not feeling: “Often there is a state of peace. Wants
to be let alone. She tells you she is not sick; and yet she has a temperature of
105° - 106°, is covered with a scorching hot sweat, has a rapid pulse; is
delirious. You ask her how she is and she says she is perfectly well and happy;
no pains or aches; wants nothing and has no symptoms... .The face looks
besotted, bloated, purple; the eyes are glassy and the pupils contracted”.
Opium’s insensitivity brings to mind the concept of being ‘frozen with fear’
and the researcher proposes that the three responses to stress (Fight, Flight
or Fright) are seen in the psychoactive plant drug remedies.
The alarm stage, or Fight or Flight response, of Hans Selye’s General
Adaptation Syndrome (Tortora and Derrickson, 2009: 676) is clearly seen in the
psychoactive plant drug remedies.
For example, in all these remedies can be found rubrics pertaining to
constriction or dilatation of pupils, increased or decreased salivation,
increased or decreased pulse or respiratory rate, increased or decreased
digestive activity, and relaxed or contracted rectum. These remedies also
demonstrate the third response that is common to this syndrome: Fright. When
faced with stress people react either by going into a Fight or Flight response
where sympathetic activity is increased, preparing them to either stay and
‘fight’ their stressors or to ‘flee’ from, or escape their stressors. The third
response, particularly clear in Opium, is that of ‘freezing’ and going into a
‘fright’ response in which the body cannot react to the stressor:
5.1.2
Proposed Vital Sensation of the Psychoactive Plant Drug Group
VITAL SENSATION
Horror, Fear, Fright
ACTIVE REACTION PASSIVE REACTION
Activity Inactivity
Sensitivity Insensitivity
Mental clarity Lack
of mental clarity
Contraction Expansion
Fullness Emptiness
Heaviness Lightness
Heat Cold
Moisture Dryness
Delirium Sleep
Hallucinations Stupor
Instability Unconsciousness
COMPENSATION
Transcendence
5.1.3
Compensation of the Psychoactive Plant Drug Group - Transcendence
MIND:
DELUSIONS - out of the body - Anh. Cann-i. Nux-v. Op.
DELUSIONS - beautiful visions - Anh. Cann-i. Coff. Op.
DELUSIONS - without form in vast space - Cann-i.
WELL - when very sick, says he is well: Coff. Op.
MERGING OF SELF, with one’s environment - Anh. Cann-i.
FEARLESS - Anh. Cann-i. Op.
DREAM; as if in a - escapes in a world of dreams - Anh.
LAUGHING - at every word said - Cann-i.
INDIFFERENCE - to external things - Cann-i. Op.
DELUSIONS - separated from the world, he is separated - Anh.
It is not surprising, therefore, that a common thread amongst the clinical
cases of people who have been cured by the psychoactive plant remedies is that
they tend to use, or have at least tried, psychoactive drugs as a form of
escape or are on chronic anxiolytic, antidepressant or analgesic medication.
Hence, it is important for a homoeopath to keep in mind this group of remedies
when working with a person who is on chronic pain medication, anxiolytics,
anti-depressants or who uses/abuses recreational drugs.
Bearing in mind these remedies’ Fight, Flight or Fright response to
stress and their underlying sensation of horror, the researcher proposes that
they could be used in treating
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). According to the National
Institute of Mental Health (online, 2016), PTSD develops in individuals who
have witnessed or survived a shocking or
frightening event and continue to experience problems or feel stressed
or frightened when they are no longer in danger - similar to Opium’s
“complaints from fear when the fear remains,
or the idea of the fear remains, or the cause of it comes before the
eyes” (Kent, 2013:812). In order to be diagnosed with PTSD, a person needs to
re-experience their trauma through flashbacks, bad dreams or frightening
thoughts; demonstrate avoidance mechanisms such as staying away from certain
places, not being able to remember events, losing interest in what were once
enjoyable activities, or becoming emotionally ‘numb’; demonstrate abnormal
reactivity through being easily startled, having difficulty sleeping or having
angry outbursts; and have cognitive and mood changes such as negative thoughts
or anxiety disorders.
Children with PTSD may develop secondary involuntary urination or become
mute. All of these symptoms are seen in the psychoactive plant drug remedies
who suffer from frightening hallucinations, nightmares, poor memory, emotional
and physical oversensitivity or insensitivity, insomnia and mood disorders. -
Cann-i. Nux-m. Op. are also indicated for involuntary urination and mutism.
With its history of oppression and segregation though Apartheid and its
current climate of crime, South Africa is now often referred to as a
‘traumatised nation’ and, according to the South African Depression and Anxiety
Group (2016), it is estimated that approximately 400 women are raped a day and
70% of people living in Soweto suffer from PTSD. Substance abuse disorder (SUD)
is also linked to PTSD and according to Schäfer and Najavits (2007, online),
“among people with lifetime PTSD, lifetime SUD is estimated at 21 - 43%,
compared with 8 - 25% in those without PTSD”.
5.1.4
Miasmatic Classification of the Psychoactive Plant Drug Group Sankaran
(2005c) describes the vital sensation as “what the patient feels” whilst the
“intensity, pace and depth of this sensation, how it is coped with” is the miasm.
Sankaran has already classified the plant remedies studied in this thesis into
miasms as follows:
Anhalonium lewinii - Cancer (a combination of the sycotic and syphilitic
miasms)
Cannabis indica - Sycotic miasm
Coffea cruda - Tubercular (a combination of the sycotic and syphilitic
miasms)
Nux moschata - Typhoid miasm
Opium - Cancer (a combination of the sycotic and syphilitic miasms)
Fraser (2002: 55) suggests that the drug remedies are important to
consider when treating the AIDS Miasm because “the themes of isolation and
disconnection, and particularly of
disconnecting from the pain of modern existence, are found throughout
the drug remedies, as are feelings around the need for spiritual meaning”.
The researcher concurs with this, but proposes that the overriding miasm
of the psychoactive plant drug group is, in fact, the sycotic miasm.
Fundamental to this miasm is an individual’s sense of having a ‘fixed
weakness’, of having something essentially weak within oneself that needs to be
kept hidden. ‘Neurosis’, ‘guilt’ and ‘avoidance’ are some of Sankaran’s (2005c:
1227) keywords used to describe this miasm and these feelings are seen in the
psychoactive plant drugs who have a deep sense of horror and constant need to
escape. For example:
MIND: - DELUSIONS - he is a criminal, he is tó be
executed - Op.
HIDING - himself in old people -Op.
Psychoactive plant drug remedies hide their inner weakness by increasing
their activity and productivity or they avoid facing their weaknesses by
becoming numb, detached, sleepy, laughing or ‘merging with something bigger
than themselves’.
They are neurotic remedies, filled with formication, delirium and mood
swings yet their dreams, delusions and fears also demonstrate a deep inner
sense of weakness and vulnerability.
For example,
Op. and Nux-m. have delusions of people wanting to execute them,
Anh. sees scheming faces,
Cann-i. has the delusion that he/she is soon to be dissected and will
die
Coff. fears he/she will die from pain.
In order to confirm Sankaran’s classification of the studied
psychoactive plant drug remedies, a keyword search was carried out using and
various materia medica were also searched manually.
5.1.4.1
Anhalonium Lewenii.
Inherent to the cancerinic miasm is the feeling that one has a fixed
weakness within, that “everything is going out of control and I can do nothing”
and that “everything around him is chaotic and he is too small to gain control
over the chaos” (Sankaran, 2005c: 10). This is evident in Anh. who has
delusions of surrounding objects being enlarged and that he/she is transparent
and losing control:
Mind: DELUSIONS - objects are enlarged
DELUSIONS - he is transparent
Mind: SELF-CONTROL - loss of selfcontrol
Yet, despite this fixed weakness, cancerinic individuals are always
striving for perfection and stretching themselves beyond what they are capable
of. Anh. has increased physical abilities and increased reflexes which
demonstrate how they are attempting to go beyond their own natural capacity and
Sankaran’s (2005a: 143) following description of Anhalonium lewinii’s core
sensation highlights its cancerinic nature: “In Anhalonium lewinii, everything
is getting narrow and shrinking, and I have to expand or I will disappear”.
5.1.4.2
Cannabis indica
The sycotic miasm is similar to the cancerinic miasm in that there is
that essential feeling of being weak, of having something wrong deep within
him/herself. However, in the sycotic
miasm, there is acceptance of this weakness and the sycotic individual
accepts and lives with his/her weakness, simply covering it up and hiding it.
The cancerinic individual, on the other
hand, continually tries to be more than he/she is, to control things and
be superhuman.
Cannabis indica is a sycotic remedy, not only because it is one of the
most important remedies used to treat gonorrhea, but also because there is
acceptance of one’s weakness and
the subsequent hiding of it. Has the delusions that he/she has no weight
and is transparent
DELUSIONS - has no weight
DELUSIONS - he is transparent which demonstrate an awareness of a fixed
weakness, yet he/she is eloquent, witty, has pleasant fancies and extravagant
speech - all mechanisms that cover up
his/her essential weakness. He/She also has delusions of the presence of
another being, as if he/she is being watched in his/her attempts to hide
his/her weakness and this other presence is often
dark and demonic, suggesting a sense of guilt:
DELUSIONS of dragons
DELUSIONS - devil is present
DELUSIONS - absurd, ludicrous figures are present
DELUSIONS - visions of monsters
5.1.4.3
Coffea cruda
Sankaran describes the attitude of the tubercular miasm as “Time is
short; too much to be done in too little time” and there are few words than can
better describe the remedy
Coffea cruda (or the reason why people so fervently consume coffee).
Coffea cruda is full of rubrics pertaining to hyperactivity and
sleeplessness, often due to excited emotions or to having too many thoughts and
fancies rushing through one’s mind. It is also a remedy that oscillates between
irritability and joy and core features of the tubercular miasm are its
“desperate desire for change” and hectic activity (Sankaran, 2005c: 10).
Sankaran (2005a: 506) also writes that Coffea cruda is given for lung
conditions (Tb.)
Another feature of the tubercular miasm seen in Coffea cruda is the
sensation of feeling compressed and suffocated, of intense oppression and this
is evident in the literature on this remedy:
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Abdomen: Anxiety and
oppression in the region of the epigastrium.
CLARKE J., Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica - Abdomen: The clothes
are oppressive.
The researcher proposes that Coffea cruda also contains elements of the
typhoid miasm which combines the instinctive, sympathetic ‘fright -or-
flight’response of the acute miasm
with the ongoing struggle of psora.
The following rubrics in which Coffea cruda is the only remedy
demonstrate this response:
GENERALS - ACTIVITY increased - vascular
GENERALS - ACTIVITY of organs increased
SLEEP - SLEEPLESS after surprising news
GENERALS - TWITCHING from excessive joy
GENERALS - WEAKNESS from a pleasant surprise
MIND - AILMENTS FROM sudden excitement
VISION - ACUTE reading of small print easier
RECTUM - DIARRHEA from domestic cares
MIND - DELUSIONS whirling in head thinking;
MIND -MEMORY active - evening until midnight
The following miasmatic keywords (Sankaran, 2005c: 7) pertaining to the
typhoid miasm are also evident in
Coffea cruda: crisis, intense, intense short effort, subacute,
emergency, intense struggle, critical period, impatience, demanding.
5.1.4.4
Nux moschata belongs to the typhoid miasm whose
reactionary mode is that of an intense struggle against what is seen as a
critical, threatening, but short lived situation
(Sankaran, 2006: 57).
Develops ailments from loss of position and the following rubrics
demonstrate the intensity of their struggle:
Mind: fears death
Mind: DELUSIONS - people want to execute him
Mind: Hurry - everybody must hurry
Mind: Distances are
Exaggerated
In the typhoid miasm, those individuals who do fail in all their efforts
collapse and give up, becoming depleted, weak and prostrate. This is also seen
in Nux moschata
which has many rubrics pertaining to weakness of memory or
forgetfulness, collapse and sleepiness.
5.1.4.5
Opium
Belongs to the cancerinic miasm in which one feels inherently weak, yet
is always trying to retain control. Quinn (2008: online) writes that “the
disposition underlying the
cancer miasm is that of having lost the ability to be oneself.
Everything cancer is generated from this feeling of ‘lostness’ whether
it has occurred emotionally or as a consequence of being poisoned bodily”. This
loss of the self and inherent sense of weakness is seen in Opium
Mind: DELUSIONS - has no weight
Mind: SELF-CONTROL lost
Mind: DELUSIONS - is out of the body
Opium develops ailments from fright, grief,
reproaches and shame - from situations in which he/she feels small and weak. Yet,
unlike many cancerinic remedies which attempt to control
the world around them through being fastidious perfectionists,
Opium’s “reaction almost invariably is flight (rather than fight)
leading to withdrawal into an inner world” (Vermeulen, 2004: 1019).
Jenni’s (as cited in Vermeulen, 2004: 1021) description of Opium
encapsulates the essence of the cancerinic miasm, or mode of reaction: “An
Opium state is the well known state of coma
or of ‘having almost died’. Body and soul are almost separated from each
other, life is hanging by a thin thread. If such a person comes back into life,
everything seems to him as if
in a dream. The connection between body and soul remains loose as during
sleep. Feelings are numb and dominated by fear. The body feels as if it doesn’t
belong to him”.
Proposed Themes of the Psychoactive Plant Drug Group
|
SENSATION |
MENTALS |
GENERALS |
PHYSICALS |
|
|
Activity |
Vivacity,
extravagance, abundance
of ideas, undertaking of many things, hallucinations, visions, delirium, formication |
Ailments
are aggravated or
ameliorated by motion.
Restlessness,
sleeplessness. |
Trembling,
jerking, crawling, shaking, surging,
tingling, rattling. Heat is
burning or boiling. Pain is
tearing, cracking, cutting |
|
|
Inactivity |
Loss of
memory, slow speech, dullness of mind, laziness. |
Sleepiness,
sopor, sluggishness, incoordination,
unconsciousness. |
Dull
facial expression, ptosis,
paralysis, atrophy, weakness,
softening,
impotence, constipation.
|
|
|
Sensitivity/
Pain (with Horror) |
Ailments
from emotions. Oversensitivity/easily
roused,
disturbed or angered. Irritability.
Wakes
from slight noise. Beside
oneself with pain/intolerant of pain. |
Hypersensitivity
- Sensitive
to/easily < light/temperatures/noise/odours/emotions;. |
Hearing
acute Sensitivity
of parts to touch. |
|
|
Insensitivity
/ Numbness (due to Horror) |
Indifference,
want of sensitiveness when it should be experienced. |
Hyposensitivity
- Lack of senses (to odours, tastes,
physical sensations). Unconscious
with pain. |
Analgesia,
anaesthesia - pain is
not experienced when it should be |
|
|
Mental
confusion |
Delusions,
hallucinations,
weakness/loss
of memory,
vanishing
of thoughts,
delirium, insanity,
confused or nonsensical
speech, sensation
as if in a dream,
confusion of identity,
disordered sense
of time. |
n/a |
Seen as
dull or bewildered facial expression. |
|
|
Mental
clarity |
Alertness,
acuteness, easy
comprehension, increased
mental power, increased
creativity, eloquence,
wittiness, abundance
of ideas, making
of many plans. |
n/a |
n/a |
|
|
Expansion,
emptiness, lightness |
Sensation
of being high or spaced out, of having no weight flying/floating. Delusions
of increased
space or time, of expanding or being double |
Sensations
of bursting, swelling, distending |
Mydriasis Enlargement
of body Swelling
of parts, oedema/dropsy. Distended
abdomen. |
|
|
Contraction,
fullness, heaviness |
Delusions
of being small. |
Convulsions,
convulsive motions Sensations
of tightness, obstruction, contraction, constriction,
drawing up, cramping, heaviness, oppression. |
Miosis,
Stiffness of parts Spasmodic
motions, paroxysms Strictures,
cramps “As is
having a ball or lump (in abdomen, chest or throat). |
|
|
Heat |
Anger,
volatility of emotions,
intensity of emotions, passion, excitement, |
<<
or >> from warmth. Sensations
of burning, warmth, boiling |
Fever Parts
being hot to touch. Redness
of face or flushing of skin. |
|
|
Cold |
Lack of
emotions, ‘cold-heartedness’, indifference. |
<<
or >> from cold, Sensations of cold or iciness. |
Chills. Parts
being cold to touch. Impotence. |
|
|
Dry |
Unimaginative,
unemotional,
indifferent. |
<<
or >> from dry weather Sensations
of dryness. Thirst Suppressed
menses |
Dry
mouth Dry
cough Dry
skin Constipation |
|
|
Moisture |
n/a |
<<
or >> from getting wet or from damp, wet weather. Sensation
of drops of cold water falling or of being filled with fluid. |
Perspiration Excess
mucous Profuse
micturition Diarrhoea
(from fear |
|
|
Formication |
Delusions
of having something
alive within. |
Sensations
of crawling, buzzing, stinging, smarting. |
Skin
eruptions that smart and itch. Tinnitus/buzzing
in ears. |
|
|
Delirium |
Delusions,
visions, carphologia,
queer inexplicable
feelings, fantasia,
lively fancies, hypochondria,
increased imagination,
drunkenness,
imbecility, dreaminess,
hallucinations. |
Person
behaves as if intoxicated |
Person
looks as if intoxicated |
|
|
Instability |
Rapid mood
changes, inquietude,
irrational or uncontrollable behaviour. |
Rapid
mood changes, inquietude, irrational or uncontrollable behaviour. Suddenness
of symptoms or pain (pains are instantaneous, shocking, shooting, stunning). Pains
are wandering or fleeting. Restlessness. |
Vertigo Lack of
balance. |
|
|
Horror |
Terrifying
visions, hallucinations
or nightmares. Fear of
dying from pain. Great
despair, distress, inability to bear one’s situation. Suicidal. |
Pains
are intolerable. Screaming
from pain. |
Violent
restlessness and tossing about when in
pain. |
|
5.1.6
Sphere of Action and Pathological Tendencies of the Psychoactive Plant
Drug Group
As discussed in Chapter 2, psychoactive plant drugs act on the central nervous
system altering mood, perception and consciousness.
The researcher proposes that remedies made from these drugs also have an
affinity for the central nervous system and can therefore be used to treat
disorders of the central nervous system.
The researcher bases this proposal on the fact that the extractions
carried out in Chapter 4 resulted in sensations pertaining to the functioning
of the nervous system (for example, increased and decreased activity, increased
and decreased sensitivity, mental confusion and clarity etcetera)
Thus, the sphere of action of the psychoactive plant drug remedies is
the central nervous system and they can be used for the following pathological
tendencies:
Disorders of the central nervous system: - increased reflexes, involuntary
motions, trembling, jerking;
- Weakness, atrophy, slowness, paralysis;
- Unconsciousness;
- Catalepsy;
- Autism Spectrum Disorders;
- Hypersensitivity;
- Insensitivity or absence of sensitivity;
- Pain;
- Formication;
- Mental confusion, poor comprehension, nonsensical speech;
- Memory disorders;
- Delirium, hallucinations, schizophrenia;
- Mood disorders;
- Behavioral disorders;
- Anxiety.
Disorders of sleep:
- Insomnia;
- Narcolepsy;
- Nightmares.
Ailments caused by strong emotions (including joy, excitement, anger,
fear and fright).
5.2
Comparison of the Psychoactive Plant Drug Group to General Drug Remedy
Themes
Prior to this research, drug remedies had been explored by Sankaran
(2005a), Mangialavori (2010) and Chhiba (2013). Sankaran (2005a) has also
differentiated between the Plant,
Animal and Mineral kingdoms. However, no formal group analysis of the
psychoactive drug remedies derived from the plant kingdom had been conducted
and it has, therefore, been
difficult for homoeopaths to recognise when a patient requires a
psychoactive plant drug remedy specifically.
This study confirms that most of Mangialavori’s (2010) general drug
themes are present in the psychoactive plant drug remedies including: a flight
from reality, avoidance, sense of
isolation; problems of personality structure; altered sensory
perception; hyperactivity/apathy; and creativity. It also confirms Sankaran’s
(2005a) common plant drug themes of alienation,
sensitivity and activity of mind as well as his general Plant
sensations, especially of heightened sensitivity. However, there are a number
of significant differences between
remedies derived from psychoactive plants and the synthetic recreational
drug isolate group researched by Chhiba (2013). The researcher proposes that
the following factors are
necessary to differentiate between psychoactive plant drug remedies and
other drug remedies:
Ailments from hurt or shock
- Sankaran (2005c: 4) noted that particular to the Plant Kingdom is
their fear of hurt and pain and that causation of ailments almost always lies
in emotional or physical hurt or shock.
This is evident in psychoactive plant drug remedies specifically and not
other drug remedies. According to Chhiba (2013: 163), “the synthetic
recreational drug isolate group does not have a main theme of intense
suffering, pain and agony”.
The underlying sensation of horror - Sankaran (2005a: 513) suggests that
the plant drug remedies share the sensation of upliftment and Chhiba recognised
this in the synthetic recreational drug isolate group as feelings of joy,
euphoria, excitement and contentment (Chhiba, 2013: 152). Although the
researcher noted qualities of joy and euphoria in the analyzed
psychoactive plant drug remedies, there was simultaneously the common
sensation of horror.
Upliftment is essentially the feeling that the world is beautiful and
Sankaran (2005a: 513) suggests that plant drug remedies are uplifted through
music, beauty or open spaces.
Of the remedies included in this study, Anh. is often considered to be
full of ‘uplifting’ or ‘beautiful’ delusions whilst the other studied remedies
are well-known for their confusion and pain. Yet on closer analysis, Anhalonium
lewinii is, like the other remedies studied is a fearful and ‘dark’ remedy,
filled with pain and confusion.
Anh.’s colourful visions and hallucinations are not necessarily
uplifting and can, in fact, be confusing or unpleasant for the individual.
Anhalonium lewinii is the only remedy to appear in the rubrics
‘ MIND - EXECUTION lost as
the result of overpowering visual sensations’,
MIND - THINKING unable for abstract thinking/unable for conceptual
thinking about environment
These rubrics (which can be considered highly characteristic of Anhalonium
lewinii, it is the only remedy in the rubrics) indicate that the colourful and
rhythmical hallucinations that
Anhalonium lewinii is well known for actually lead to confusion and the
inability to think as opposed to a sense of upliftment. above their condition
and become omnipotent.
The following rubrics demonstrate this sense of omnipotence:
MIND, DELUSIONS - is all powerful (Cann-i.)
MIND, DELUSIONS - is Mary Virgin (Cann-i.)
MIND, DELUSIONS - he possesses infinite knowledge (Cann-i.
MIND, DELUSIONS - is an emperor (Cann-i.)
MIND, DELUSIONS - being divine (Cann-i)
MIND, DELUSIONS - is Christ (Cann-i.)
MIND - DELUSIONS of immortality (anh.)
MIND - DELUSIONS - body covers the whole earth (Cann-i.)
Sensation of heat - Mangialavori (2010) suggests that the sensation of
cold is common to drug remedies. Research revealed the psychoactive plant drug
remedies can experience either cold or heat.
Patients requiring remedies derived from psychoactive plant drugs
experience localised sensations of warmth (for example, (Cann-i.) experiences
an agreeable warmth in the brain) or sensations of both heat and cold
simultaneously (for example, Coffea cruda has trembling of hands with heat in
palms and coldness of backs of hands (Hering in RadarOpus). These remedies are
also ameliorated or aggravated by heat or cold (for example, in Nux moschata,
hands feel cold as if frozen with tingling under nails on entering warm room
(Hering in RadarOpus).
Sensation of moisture - Chhiba (2013) noted dryness as a sensation of
the synthetic recreational drug isolate group. This is present in the
psychoactive plant drug remedies, yet so is its opposing sensation - moisture.
Moisture is especially evident in increased perspiration (for example, Opium
has a very hot, sweltering perspiration [Clarke in RadarOpus]) or sensitivity
to, or aggravations from, damp weather or getting wet (for example, Nux
moschata is aggravated by damp, wet weather and getting wet [Clarke in
RadarOpus]).
Opposing sensations - Sankaran (2005c: 4) found that remedies belonging
to the Plant Kingdom share the feature of experiencing a basic sensation and
its opposite sensation. This is unique to the psychoactive plant drug remedies
who are able to experience two opposing sensations simultaneously. For example:
Heat and cold - Cann-i. the whole body is cold, but the face grows
always warmer and warmer (Hahnemann in RadarOpus).
Sleep and wakefulness - Opium has the urgent inclination to sleep with
an absolute inability to go to sleep (Clarke in RadarOpus).
Hyperaesthesia and analgesia - Opium experiences a numbness or lack
of sensibility in the ulcer that ought
to be sensitive (Kent in RadarOpus).
Dryness and moisture - Coffea cruda has a dry cough but profuse
micturition (Hering in RadarOpus);
Nux moschata develops a dry cough after drinking (Hering in RadarOpus);
and Opium has perspiration of upper part of body with dry heat of lower part
(Clarke in RadarOpus) and internal dryness but complaints appear with sweat
(Vermeulen in RadarOpus).
Positive and negative emotions - Cann-i.’s disposition in the forenoon
is dejected, yet in the afternoon is cheerful (Hahnemann in RadarOpus);
Coffea cruda alternates laughing and weeping (Allen in RadarOpus);
Nux moschata is one moment laughing, the next crying (Allen in RadarOpus);
and both Coffea cruda and Opium become ill from joy.
5.2.1
Comparison of the Psychoactive Plant Drug Group to the Synthetic
Recreational Drug Isolate Group Remedies
Psychoactive plant drugs differ from synthetic recreational drug isolates
in many ways.
Psychoactive plant drugs have formed an intricate part of cultural and
religious practices for thousands of years, helping to connect people not only
to one another but also to
something ‘greater than themselves’, to an inner spirituality or to an
external (transcendent) god. They are often used to engender a sense of
togetherness or belonging and taken as part of spiritual or cultural rituals.
Even coffee, at first glance nothing more than a stimulant, has been used for
centuries to bring people together and as Fuller (cited in Vermeulen and
Johnston, 2011c: 629) said:
“The popularity of coffeehouses reveals a continuing connection between
coffee and spirituality - and more particularly, a spirituality that flourishes
outside our official
religious institutions. Corner coffee shops, sixties-ish coffeehouses,
and even the neighbourhood “kaffeeklatsch” provide a forum of spirited - and
spiritual - human exchange”.
Synthetic recreational drugs, on the other hand, are mainly used for recreation,
for ‘fun’, to get ‘stoned’, and their use lacks the deeper spiritual connection
that plant drugs offer.
Instead, they engender a sense of isolation and disconnection. Even the
apparent ‘connection’ that synthetic drugs can give is often what Fraser (2002:
76) terms “inappropriate bonding”, where “the lack of boundaries can also
result in connections, and so in relationships, that are not suitable and can
be harmful”. During the production of synthetic drugs, the active component is
isolated and synthesised while when psychoactive plant drugs are used in their
wholeness and totality they have hundreds of different active ingredients that
buffer one another and work together synergistically as a whole. According to
university researchers in Arizona (cited in Mangialavori and Marotta 2010: 18),
peyote contains a wide
spectrum antibiotic component which can inhibit at least 18 strains of
penicillin - resistant Staphylococcus aureus and “many constituents contribute
to the peyote experience which is
different from the experience of mescaline alone”. Synthetic
recreational drugs embody what their name implies, disconnection, dissociation
and isolation, while psychoactive plant drugs
hold a deeper spiritual connectivity.
Not only do the drugs themselves differ, but so do the remedies derived
from these two different groups of drugs. According to Chhiba (2013), the
common sensations of the
synthetic recreational drug isolates are:
Anxiety;
Restlessness;
Fear;
Excitement;
Dryness;
Indifference;
Isolation.
Although these sensations are also present in the psychoactive plant
drug group, the core issues of each of these groups differ. Intrinsic to the
psychoactive plant drug group is a deep
sensitivity and pervading feeling of horror. It is this extraordinary
sensitivity that causes either an increase or decrease in activity.
It is this extreme sensitivity that makes them so reactive, or, if they
can bear their pain no more, unreactive and detached.
Hence the remedy Opium insensitive to pain, but only because he/she has
already born so much pain that he/she has now become numb to it (Sankaran,
2005b).
On the other hand, the synthetic recreational drug isolates seem to lack
emotional sensitivity and appear indifferent. Although their physical senses
may be heightened (senses of taste,
hearing, vision, touch), they lack emotional awareness and reactivity
and are generally more detached than the psychoactive plant drug remedies.
According to Chhiba (2013),
indifference, isolation, disconnection and separation are all themes in
the synthetic recreational drug isolates. Although these themes may appear in
the psychoactive plant
remedies they are in fact reactions, or compensations, for too much
sensitivity and too much feeling.
5.3
The Application of Group Analysis to the Psychoactive Plant Remedies
As the analysis of this group of remedies progressed, the researcher
found herself repeatedly asking the same questions which she feels are
necessary in determining the validity of the
group analysis method as a whole. If group analysis is to be considered
a reliable method of decision-making and clinical reasoning then it needs to be
applied systematically and
logically. If a homoeopath applies group analysis to a case and
concludes that the patient in front of them needs a psychoactive plant remedy
then they should to be able to clearly
demonstrate how they came up with the remedy by answering the following
questions:
1. Why does the patient require a remedy sourced from ‘drugs’
specifically?
2. Why does the patient require a remedy sourced from the ‘Plant
Kingdom’ specifically?
3. Why does the patient require a ‘psychoactive plant drug remedy’
specifically? To test the application of group analysis, the researcher
systematically applied the above questions to published cured cases of the five
psychoactive plant remedies analyzed in this research study.
Below are the case studies followed by their
analyses in terms of the above questions. above their condition and become
omnipotent.
The following rubrics demonstrate this sense of omnipotence:
MIND, DELUSIONS - is all powerful (Cann-i.)
MIND, DELUSIONS - she is Mary Virgin (Cann-i.)
MIND, DELUSIONS - he possesses infinite knowledge (Cann-i.)
MIND, DELUSIONS - is an emperor (Cann-i.)
MIND, DELUSIONS - being divine (Cann-i.)
MIND, DELUSIONS - himself to be Christ (Cann-i.)
MIND - DELUSIONS - of immortality (Anh.)
MIND - DELUSIONS - body covers whole earth (Cann-i.)
Sensation of heat - Mangialavori (2010) suggests that the sensation of
cold is common to drug remedies. This research revealed that the psychoactive
plant drug remedies can experience either cold or heat. Patients requiring
remedies derived from psychoactive plant drugs experience localised sensations
of warmth
(for example, Cann-i. experiences an agreeable warmth in the brain) or
sensations of both heat and cold simultaneously, for example, Coff. has
trembling of hands with heat in palms and coldness of backs of hands (Hering in
Radar Opus).
These remedies are also > or < by heat or cold (for example, in
Nux moschata, hands feel cold as if frozen with tingling under nails on
entering warm room (Hering in RadarOpus).
Sensation of moisture - Chhiba (2013) noted dryness as a sensation of
the synthetic recreational drug isolate group.
This is present in the psychoactive plant drug remedies, yet so is its
opposing sensation - moisture. Moisture is especially evident in increased
perspiration
(for example, Opium has a very hot, sweltering perspiration [Clarke in
RadarOpus]) or sensitivity to, or aggravations from, damp weather or getting
wet (for example, Nux moschata
is aggravated by damp, wet weather and getting wet [Clarke in
RadarOpus]).
Opposing sensations - Sankaran (2005c: 4) found that remedies belonging
to the Plant Kingdom share the feature of experiencing a basic sensation and
its opposite sensation. This is unique to the psychoactive plant drug remedies
who are able to experience two opposing sensations simultaneously.
For example:
Heat and cold - in Cannabis indica the whole body is cold, but the face
grows always warmer and warmer (Hahnemann in RadarOpus).
Sleep and wakefulness - Opium has the urgent inclination to sleep with
an absolute inability to go to sleep (Clarke in RadarOpus).
Hyperaesthesia and analgesia - Opium experiences a numbness or lack of
sensibility in the ulcer that ought to be sensitive (Kent in RadarOpus).
Dryness and moisture - Coffea cruda has a dry cough but profuse
micturition (Hering in RadarOpus);
Nux moschata develops a dry cough after drinking (Hering in RadarOpus);
and
Opium has perspiration of upper part of body with dry heat of lower part
(Clarke in RadarOpus) and internal dryness but complaints appear with sweat
(Vermeulen in RadarOpus).
Positive and negative emotions - Cannabis indica’s disposition in the
forenoon is dejected, yet in the afternoon is cheerful (Hahnemann in
RadarOpus);
Coffea cruda alternates laughing and weeping (Allen in RadarOpus);
Nux moschata is one moment laughing, the next crying (Allen in
RadarOpus); and both Coffea cruda and Opium become ill from joy.
5.2.1
Comparison of the Psychoactive Plant Drug Group to the Synthetic
Recreational Drug Isolate Group Remedies
Psychoactive plant drugs differ from synthetic recreational drug isolates
in many ways. Psychoactive plant drugs have formed an intricate part of
cultural and religious practices for
thousands of years, helping to connect people not only to one another
but also to something ‘greater than themselves’, to an inner spirituality or to
an external (transcendent) god.
They are often used to engender a sense of togetherness or belonging and
taken as part of spiritual or cultural rituals. Even coffee, at first glance
nothing more than a stimulant, has been used
for centuries to bring people together and as Fuller (cited in Vermeulen
and Johnston, 2011c: 629) said: “The popularity of coffeehouses reveals a
continuing connection between coffee
and spirituality - and more particularly, a spirituality that flourishes
outside our official religious institutions.
Corner coffee shops, sixtiesish coffeehouses, and even the neighbourhood
“kaffeeklatsch” provide a forum of spirited - and spiritual-human exchange”.
Synthetic recreational drugs, on the other hand, are mainly used for recreation,
for ‘fun’, to get ‘stoned’, and their use lacks the deeper spiritual connection
that plant drugs offer.
Instead, they engender a sense of isolation and disconnection. Even the
apparent ‘connection’ that synthetic drugs can give is often what Fraser (2002:
76) terms “inappropriate bonding”, where “the lack of boundaries can also
result in connections, and so in relationships, that are not suitable and can
be harmful”. During the production of synthetic drugs, the active component is
isolated and synthesised while when psychoactive plant drugs are used in their
wholeness and totality they have hundreds of different active ingredients that
buffer one another and work together synergistically as a whole.
According to university researchers in Arizona (cited in Mangialavori
and Marotta 2010: 18), peyote contains a wide spectrum antibiotic components
which can inhibit at least 18 strains of penicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus and “many constituents contribute to the peyote experience which is different
from the experience of mescaline alone”. Synthetic recreational drugs embody
what their name implies, disconnection, dissociation and isolation, while
psychoactive plant drugs hold a deeper spiritual connectivity.
Not only do the drugs themselves differ, but so do the remedies derived
from these two different groups of drugs. According to Chhiba (2013), the
common sensations of the synthetic recreational drug isolates are:
Anxiety;
Restlessness
Fear;
Excitement
Dryness
Indifference
Isolation.
Although these sensations are also present in the psychoactive plant
drug group, the core issues of each of these groups differ. Intrinsic to the
psychoactive plant drug group is a deep sensitivity and pervading feeling of
horror. It is this extraordinary sensitivity that causes either an increase or
decrease in activity.
It is this extreme sensitivity that makes them so reactive, or, if they
can bear their pain no more, unreactive and detached. Hence the remedy Opium is
insensitive to pain, but only because he/she has already born so much pain that
he/she has now become numb to it (Sankaran, 2005b).
On the other hand, the synthetic recreational drug isolates seem to lack
emotional sensitivity and appear indifferent. Although their physical senses
may be heightened (senses of taste, hearing, vision, touch), they lack
emotional awareness and reactivity and are generally more detached than the
psychoactive plant drug remedies. According to Chhiba (2013), indifference,
isolation, disconnection and separation are all themes in the synthetic
recreational drug isolates. Although these themes may appear in the
psychoactive plant remedies they are in fact reactions, or compensations, for
too much sensitivity and too much feeling.
5.3
The Application of Group Analysis to the Psychoactive Plant Remedies
As the analysis of this group of remedies progressed, the researcher
found herself repeatedly asking the same questions which she feels are
necessary in determining the validity of the
group analysis method as a whole. If group analysis is to be considered
a reliable method of decision-making and clinical reasoning then it needs to be
applied systematically and logically.
If a homoeopath applies group analysis to a case and concludes that the
patient in front of them needs a psychoactive plant remedy then they should to
be able to clearly demonstrate how they
came up with the remedy by answering the following questions:
1. Why does the patient require a remedy sourced from ‘drugs’
specifically?
2. Why does the patient require a remedy sourced from the ‘Plant
Kingdom’ specifically?
3. Why does the patient require a ‘psychoactive plant drug remedy’
specifically?
To test the application of group analysis, the researcher systematically
applied the above questions to published cured cases of the five psychoactive
plant remedies analyzed in this
Research study. Below are the case studies followed by their analyses in
terms of the above questions.
5.3.1
Anhalonium Lewinii
Why does the patient require a remedy sourced from ‘drugs’ specifically?
Rodolfo is a creative, sensitive being who feels isolated and alone in
the world. This is seen in his being an exceptionally creative musician who
plays “metaphysical” music “masterfully
and sensitively” yet also chooses to play almost exclusively solo an
instrument that is usually played in a group. Since his youth he has had
“extreme difficulty in relating to people - to almost everyone” and also has
altered sensory perceptions: “I see things that other people cannot see”; “it
seems like my whole life has lasted less than five minutes”; “when I step
outside my mind, objects lose their shape and everything enters an immaterial
dimension.”
Drug remedies are often indicated in patients who lose their sense of
identity, experience depersonalization and a merging with something greater
than themselves. Rodolfo says, I feel as though people look straight through
me, that there’s no boundary between myself and the space around me, no boundary
between anything” and “I used to feel distant from this world, but now I know
that not even the world has existence any more. Everything is everything; it’s
a form without form, a world within a speck of dust”. This disoriented
‘spaciness’ and merging with the world around one resembles a drug-induced
‘high’ and his flight from reality and sense of isolation are key indicators
for drug remedies (Mangialavori, 2010: 23).
His story also “bears an astonishing resemblance to a psychedelic
experience”.
All of these symptoms point towards his requiring a remedy sourced from
a ‘drug’.
Why does the patient require a remedy sourced from the ‘Plant Kingdom’
specifically? Rodolfo presents his case to the homoeopath in sensitive,
descriptive language that focuses on how he feels. For example, he says “I’m
too sad”, “music disturbs me”, “I saw in your eyes that you have music in your
head too”. He is emotional and sentimental and presents differently to a
mineral remedy who has a more organised, structured, systematic presentation or
an animal who is more animated, communicative and attention-seeking. Rodolfo’s
condition also stems from the death of his parents - ailments from hurt and
shock often generating the need for plant remedies.
Why does the patient require a ‘psychoactive plant drug remedy’
specifically? Psychoactive plant remedies are used to treat pathologies of the
central nervous system, sleep and those developing from strong emotions.
Rodolfo has come for homoeopathic treatment for depression and although he has
few physical symptoms he has many mental/emotional ones and the root of his
depression seems to lie in his grief.
The following themes and sensations common to the psychoactive plant
remedies are seen in Rodolfo’s case:
Horror:
-- The basic sensation pervading Rodolfo’s case is the same feeling that
underlies the psychoactive plant remedies - that of horror: At the age of four
years, Rodolfo was trapped in a crashed vehicle next to his dead father for
several hours and as an adult he loses his mother when she dies suddenly from a
stroke.
-- This feeling of horror is evident in his phrases such as “I’m scared
of people” and “I suffer”; and Mangialavori refers to Rodolfo’s “deep looks”
and “plea for help”.
-- After taking the remedy Anhalonium Lewinii, this sense of horror is
brought to the surface. Rodolfo says: “I had a clear sensation that one part of
me was making myself stay awake, making me look directly into the face of the
night, the silence, the gloom, the solitude. Others sleep peacefully while I, a
kind of fugitive, hide in sleep, anticipating the anguish of the day after” and
he wakes from a stressful dream thinking, “Oh my God, what the hell is going on
in my head?”
Emptiness, expansion and lightness :
-- He feels his “head is completely empty”; that people’s eyes and words
“run straight through me”; that “we too can disappear and merge with the
universe”; and that can become immaterial.
Delirium:
-- Rodolfo’s sense of unity and merging with the universe is similar to
that of a drug-induced ‘high’, emphasizing the visions and hallucinations
common to both the themes of delirium and confusion found in psychoactive plant
remedies.
Confusion:
-- Rodolfo has a fixed, “almost lost” look and
feels “I can’t even talk anymore; the words stay in my mouth. I don’t know
where they are anymore” and “I can’t think anymore”.
-- In addition, time seems to stand still for
him and he feels “my whole life has lasted less than five minutes”.
-- Inactivity:
-- Rodolfo’s physical symptomatology expresses a lack of activity. He
‘slumps’ his head on his hands; declares that when his mother died “I died with
her, but my body lives on”; and mentions that despite feeling very cold at
night, he does not even get up to fetch a blanket” (note here the sensation of
cold which is found in the psychoactive plant remedies).
-- After taking Anhalonium lewinii, Rodolfo develops acute insomnia and
then “falls into a deep sleep which lasts for two whole days”.
-- He also notices that his “whole physical self perhaps is reacting”
and that he develops a strong urge to use the bathroom which, prior to the
remedy, he almost never felt before.
Sensitivity:
-- The theme of sensitivity is also seen in his
developing depression after his mother’s death (ailments from emotions) and his
extreme sensitivity to music.
Why does the patient require the specific
psychoactive plant remedy prescribed?
Prominent rubrics taken from Rodolfo’s case are:
Mind, DELUSIONS - objects are enlarged
Mind, DELUSIONS - is transparent
Mind, DELUSIONS - has wonderful visions
Mind, MERGING OF SELF with one's environment
Mind, CONFUSION - as to space and of time;
Mind, DEPERSONALIZATION
Mind, FANCIES - absorbed in
Mind, DELUSIONS - was dead
Mind, DELUSIONS - out of the body
Sleep, SLEEPLESSNESS from fancies (= fantasies, phantasies, illusions)
Anhalonium lewinii is found in all these rubrics. Being a psychoactive
plant remedy, Anhalonium lewinii acts primarily on the central nervous system,
causes sleep disorders and
can be used in conditions arising from shock or hurt as discussed above.
However, what makes it unique is its keynote as described by Vermeulen (2000:
106): “The keynote of this
remedy is schizophrenia between the conscious and unconscious life of
the patient. There is a retreat from objective reality into an inner life so
rich and so varied that the outer world has
lost is meaning ....
Outstanding is the increased involvement in the inner life to the
exclusion of the outer”.
This is clearly seen in Rodolfo: “I don’t know where I will end.
I feel that I can become immaterial.
I feel that people’s looks and thoughts run through me as if I were made
of glass, as though I could vanish bit by bit.
Then I feel that we are all brothers - that even walls and tables and
chairs are made of the same substance as us.
They are the same atoms as we are, just in a different state of material
organization. ”Although all psychoactive plant remedies experience altered or
distorted perception, Anh.’s has specifically a loss of sense of time.
Vermeulen (2004: 94) describes an Anh. child who “misses a lot of her day. It’s
like she is dreaming. It’s like she has some idea and is so into it that she
misses what’s going on around her”. Rodolfo says: “But time never passes. I
look at my watch, and sometimes it seems like my whole life has lasted less
than five minutes.”
The Case of Rodolfo (Mangialavori and Marotta, 2010: 32)
Rodolfo is a thirty-two year old professional musician. He plays the
drums, but is very talented in other forms of percussion as well.
He is dressed in an eccentric and unkempt way. There is a fixed,
sometimes almost lost, look on his face. He seems very downcast, resting his
elbows on my desk and slumping his head on them. He often looks me in the face
without saying a word and then looks away. He does this when he is talking too.
A psychiatrist who has been treating Rodolfo for a serious depression
following the death of his mother referred this patient to me.
Rodolfo accompanied by his older sister who comes with him. He sits down
in front of me and looks at me without saying anything. After a while, I ask
what is troubling him.
My head is completely empty; whatever I do is useless.
I’m scared of people. I feel like they’re laughing at me when they look
at me.
I feel like their eyes and their words run straight through me. I feel
like they mock me because I can’t do anything anymore.
I can’t even talk anymore; the words stay in my mouth.
I don’t know where they are anymore. I can’t think anymore. I can’t live
anymore.
I’m too sad. I can’t even play anymore.
Music disturbs me now; it’s just become noise.
Rodolfo falls silent and continues to stare at me lifelessly.
I ask him what he thinks might have happened to him.
Everything has changed ever since my mother left.
When she died, I died with her, but my body lives on.
I can’t go where she is, and I can only stay here with my solitude.
But time never passes.
I look at my watch, and sometimes it seems like my whole life has lasted
less than five minutes.
I can only stay on my own, in the dark, so that she feels close to me.
Rodolfo is overcome by emotion, and he shakes his head to indicate that
he doesn’t want to talk any more.
His sister intervenes, telling me that Rodolfo was always very close to
his mother, especially because their father died while they were both still
very young.
Their father died in a car crash.
Rodolfo was next to him in the passenger seat, and he stayed trapped in
the vehicle for several hours next to his dead father before the emergency
services arrived.
All this happened when Rodolfo was about four years old.
Ever since, he has had considerable difficulties at school. But he
showed a very strong love of music, becoming a sought after percussionist.
He started composing music at the age of thirteen, and recently recorded
an album.
He calls his style of music “metaphysical.”
The tracks from his CD, which I listened to, were all recorded with just
a synthesiser and various percussion instruments.
Rodolfo plays masterfully and sensitively and the word ‘metaphysical’
really does seem an appropriate description.
His sister tells me that his problems at school stemmed from his extreme
difficulty in relating to people -to almost everyone- including his mother.
His relatives find it very interesting that the instrument he chose is
usually played in a group.
Yet ever since he was a boy, Rodolfo has almost exclusively played solo.
Only recently, in order to earn enough money to make a record, he played the
timpani in an orchestra, even though he had never received formal training.
He always lived with his mother until her sudden death from a stroke.
Apart from the normal childhood illnesses, there is nothing of note in
his health history.
While his sister talks, Rodolfo stares at me impassively.
Six Weeks Later:
When we meet, Rodolfo seems much more open. He tells me:
I know that you can understand me. I saw in your eyes that you have
music in your head too.
If you like, I can teach you to make it come out.
I have to admit that I feel puzzled and touched by this declaration,
which is largely true.
I try to recover my composure, thank him, and remind him that we are
meeting for another reason. He replies: I know that you can understand me.
That’s all I meant.
I can’t tell my sister what I really feel, because she would think I’m
crazy.
But I see things that other people cannot see.
Can you tell me about this, please?
When I step outside my mind, objects lose their shape and everything
enters an immaterial dimension.
Objects and words just vanish.
We too can disappear and merge with the universe.
When I feel like this, I don’t know where I will end.
I feel that I can become immaterial. I feel that people’s looks and
thoughts run through me as if I were made of glass, as though I could vanish
bit by bit.
Then I feel that we are all brothers - that even walls and tables and
chairs are made of the same substance as us.
They are the same atoms as we are, just in a different state of material
organization.
And that’s why I’m not sad any more.
I know where my mother is now.
She’s here; she’s everywhere. She is all around and our mind is only an
illusion of our senses, which are limited to seeing only what we can see of the
world.
But it’s not all there is.
Even this rug has its life and its death, even a house - a mountain too.
All transforms, even time, according to our thoughts.
Now I feel more at peace.
I used to feel distant from this world, but now I know that not even the
world has existence any more.
Everything is everything; it’s a form without form, a world within a
speck of dust.
Thank you for helping me to discover all this.
Now I’ve started to play again, and I’m rediscovering my life.
I just need your help because I haven’t slept for months.
At first, I couldn’t sleep because of the grief, and now I can’t sleep
because my thoughts have come back again.
I can’t stop them and get some rest.
I go to bed and my mind goes on imagining.
The darkness helps me to create music.
But if I keep the light on, then I can’t sleep.
I am so struck by the clarity and lucidity of Rodolfo’s comments that I
feel a bit disoriented myself.
I try to find out if he has ever read esoteric books or taken part in
group meditations or used drugs.
But it seems that Rodolfo has never had anything to do with any of
these.
His sister later confirms this to me.
Can you tell me more about the feeling of being transparent?
I’m really not sure that I feel like glass because glass is rigid, a
solid structure.
I don’t even feel like the invisible man.
I feel as though people look straight through me, that there’s no
boundary between myself and the space around me, no boundary between anything.
It’s only our mind creating a space for us to live in.
Considering the rubric ‘Delusions, transparent, everything is’, and the
way in which the patient’s story bears an astonishing resemblance to a
psychedelic experience,
I look at the remedy Anh.
The materia medica and, above all, the toxicology of the remedy are very
helpful in arriving at the prescription of this remedy.
I prescribe a single dose of Anhalonium lewinii 200C.
Case Analysis
Why does the patient require a remedy sourced from ‘drugs’ specifically?
Rodolfo is a creative, sensitive being who feels isolated and alone in
the world. This is seen in his being an exceptionally creative musician who
plays “metaphysical” music “masterfully
and sensitively” yet also chooses to play almost exclusively solo an
instrument that is usually played in a group. Since his youth he has had
“extreme difficulty in relating to people - to almost everyone” and also has
altered sensory perceptions: “I see things that other people cannot see”; “it seems
like my whole life has lasted less than five minutes”; “when I step outside my
mind, objects lose their shape and everything enters an immaterial dimension.”
Drug remedies are often indicated in patients who lose their sense of
identity, experience depersonalization and a merging with something greater
than themselves. Rodolfo says,
I feel as though people look straight through me, that there’s no
boundary between myself and the space around me, no boundary between anything”
and “I used to feel distant from this
Appendix B: Sankaran’s
Miasms and their Keywords Source: Sankaran, 2005: 7
Appendix C: Rubric Extraction
During the repertorization process,
if a rubric
contains only one
remedy then that
rubric is considered to be
characteristic of the remedy. In order
to develop a characteristic picture of
each psychoactive remedy analyzed in this
study, the researcher
performed a computer repertory search.to
extract all rubrics
in which the analyzed remedy was the only remedy to
appear. The data collected from this
search is given below and the
researcher believes it
clearly verifies the
proposed common sensations
of the psychoactive plant drug
group.
Anhalonium lewinii
Activity - Inactivity
FACE - Pain - pressing (in skin of temples)/pulsating
FACE - PARALYSIS of muscles < chewing
MOUTH - PARALYSIS of palate “As
if hard”
GENERALS - ACTIVITY - outer activity ceases
Sensitivity
- Insensitivity
HEAD - PAIN < noise clock beating
EYE - PAIN ext. optic chiasma
EYE - PAIN - chiasma
EYE - PAIN in lower lids “As from sand”
EYE - PAIN - in papillae/sclera
VISION - COLORS before the eyes (blue increased/green increased)
VISION - COLORS before the eyes - everything is as if one color
VISION - COLORS before the eyes (red decreased/yellow decreased)
VISION - CONTRAST increased
VISION - STEREOSCOPIC, hyperacute
FACE - PAIN in skin of temples
GENERALS - NUMBNESS in single parts -
Peripheral
GENERALS - PAIN from subcutaneous injections
(intractable)
GENERALS - PAIN - Internally ext. to skin
Confusion - Clarity
MIND - CONFUSION of mind of situations
MIND - DELUSIONS - eternity merged with present
MIND - DELUSIONS - hearing tone is split
MIND - DELUSIONS - about deformed objects
MIND - DELUSIONS of immortality
MIND - DELUSIONS - had to wait
MIND - EXECUTION lost as the result of overpowering visual sensations
MIND - MISTAKES; making in time - present merged with eternity
MIND - THINKING - images become like abstract concepts
MIND - THINKING - unable for abstract thinking
MIND - THINKING - conceptual - inability - about environment
MIND - THOUGHTS - persistent
thoughts separated from will
MIND - WILL - loss of will power - with increased insight,
self-awareness;
VISION - IMAGES too long retained - lasting all day
VISION - IMAGES too long retained - lasting an hour
EXTREMITIES - POSITION sense lost
VISION - RUN together BLURRED Expansion- Contraction, Emptiness -
Fullness, Lightness- Heaviness
VISION - PROPORTION; out of
VISION - objects increase and
decrease in SIZE
FACE - HEAVY feeling - Muscles < chewing
MOUTH - HEAVINESS - Tongue - Anterior part
Heat - Cold
EYE - PAIN - Chiasma burning
EYE - PAIN in papillae burning
EYE - PAIN in sclera burning
EAR - PAIN - Conchae in anterior part - pressing pain
Dry - Moisture
EYE - DRYNESS (Chiasma/papillae/sklera)
FACE - DRYNESS - Sinus; maxillary
Formication, Delirium, Instability
MIND - DELUSIONS sounds are like color
MIND - DELUSIONS has visions colorful
MIND - DELUSIONS - small objects appear in motion
MIND - DREAM; as if in a - escapes in a world of dreams
MIND - MUSIC - drums produce euphoria
VISION - ILLUSIONS - colorful - pulsating to the rhythm of music; halo
of color
HEARING - ILLUSIONS melody surrounded by a halo of light; each note upon
the piano becomes a center of
VISION - OBJECTS - colorless objects appear colored
VISION - THREAD before - bright
VISION - WINDSHIELD wipers; sensation of
MOUTH - CRAWLING in tongue - Anterior part
MOUTH - TASTE from looking at green color
SKIN - FORMICATION mucous membranes
GENERALS - TOUCH - illusions of seen as color
Horror
MIND - DELUSIONS - sees faces - scheming
Cannabis indica
Activity - Inactivity
MIND - DELUSIONS - he is a bottle
of soda water running to and fro
MIND - DELUSIONS - careering from life to life
MIND - DELUSIONS - symbols
of life; all
past events revolve
rapidly on wheels as
MIND - DELUSIONS - he is a locomotive
MIND - DELUSIONS - carried down a psychical maelstrom
MIND - DELUSIONS - felt he is a marble statue
MIND - DELUSIONS - saw darting up and down; he was a huge
MIND - DELUSIONS - sun is reeling
MIND - DELUSIONS - leading a
vegetable existence
MIND - EXCITEMENT before headache
MIND - UNCONSCIOUSNESS from candlelight
MIND - UNCONSCIOUSNESS - listening to piano
HEAD - PAIN - bursting pain - “As if top of head were being lifted”
HEAD - PAIN - on back of head and neck “As from a blow”
HEAD - PAIN in forehead r. jerking
HEAD - PAIN in occiput in forenoon < shaking the head
HEAD - SHOCKS on regaining consciousness
HEAD - SHOCKS on waking
MALE GENITALIA/SEX - ERECTIONS < walking
CHEST - PAIN ext. through chest - stitching pain
CHEST - PAIN in heart > deep inspiration (stitching pain)
CHEST - PAIN behind sternum < swallowing
EXTREMITIES - ITCHING in feet > scratching
BACK - PAIN in lumbar region after coition - aching
EXTREMITIES - PAIN in balls of toes l. - stitching pain
EXTREMITIES - PAIN joints of toes - shooting pain
EXTREMITIES - THRILLING sensation - in knees/upper limbs/in paralyzed
parts
EXTREMITIES - WEAKNESS in bend of elbows
SLEEP - DOZING in afternoon # waking
SLEEP - DREAMING during daytime sleep - periodically
SLEEP - SLEEPLESS - during menses < in menorrhagia/caused by uterine
colic
SLEEP - WAKING - frequent in afternoon
GENERALS - LOCOMOTOR ATAXIA + weakness of muscles
GENERALS - TREMBLING - Externally motion of hands and feet <
sensitivity
MIND - DELUSIONS - wind
sighing in chimney
sounded like the
hum of a vast
wheel and reverberated like a peal of thunder of a grand organ;
MIND - HEEDLESS of all around
BACK - PAIN - talking impossible
BACK - PAIN - in dorsal region - must walk bent/in spine compelling to
stoop
Confusion - Clarity
MIND - CLAIRVOYANCE at midnight
MIND - CONFUSION of mind ecstatic
MIND - DELUSIONS - making an eloquent argument
MIND - DELUSIONS - was in eternity
MIND - DELUSIONS - mistook friend for a Chinese mandarin
MIND - DELUSIONS - to be shouting/singing
MIND - DELUSIONS - doubts own existence
MIND - DELUSIONS - own voice sounds strange and seems to reverberate
like thunder
MIND - GESTURES, makes - repeating the same actions - box walking
MIND - IDEAS abundant after urination
MIND - IRRATIONAL # rationalism
MIND - LAUGHING at every word said
MIND - LOQUACITY before/during headache
MIND - MEMORY lost in aphasia
MIND - RUNS against people when walking
HEAD - BALANCING - pendulum - like expansion
Contraction, Emptiness - Fullness, Lightness - Heaviness
MIND - DELUSIONS body is enlarged r.
MIND - DELUSIONS - eyelashes are enlarged
MIND - DELUSIONS - everything exaggerated
MIND - DELUSIONS - existence without form in vast space
MIND - DELUSIONS - passersby are expanding
MIND - DELUSIONS - eyelashes prolonged/fingernails seem as large as
plates during drowsiness
MIND - DELUSIONS of gigantic flowers
MIND - DELUSIONS illusions of a gigantic hall
MIND - DELUSIONS being a hippopotamus
MIND - DELUSIONS - was raised up and could fly
MIND - DELUSIONS - being double controls the other; one self
MIND - DELUSIONS - sensations present themselves in a double form
MIND - DELUSIONS - has two existences
MIND - DELUSIONS - was carried
into space and
compelled to describe orbit a
vast while lying;
MIND - DELUSIONS - he transformed into a cylinder or a sphere
MIND - DELUSIONS - spinal column is a barometer
MIND - DELUSIONS - surrounded
by houses a
hundred stories high;
sees a colossal square
MIND - DELUSIONS - he is gradually swelling
MIND - FEAR - during sensation of floating of single limbs
HEAD - CONSTRICTION from candlelight
HEAD - HEAVINESS in occiput during chill
HEAD - SHOCKS through occiput - dull,
heavy, throbbing pain
through with a sensation like a heavy blow on back of head and neck;
FACE - CONTRACTION of skin
STOMACH - HEAVINESS < eating
ABDOMEN - FLATULENCE in morning < rising
URETHRA - HARD - body; as if round
CHEST - OPPRESSION - breathing deep and labored/spasmodic
EXTREMITIES - LIGHTNESS, sensation of - in single limbs
Heat - Cold
MIND - DEATH - sensation of
during chill
MIND - DELUSIONS - has a furious, radiating heat from epigastrium
FACE - COLDNESS after dinner
MALE GENITALIA/SEX - COITION - enjoyment with burning
EXTREMITIES - COLDNESS in hands after dinner
Dry - Moisture
MIND - DELUSIONS - fluid resisting passage;
surrounded by ethereal
Formication, Delirium, Instability
MIND - DELIRIUM - talks of foreign
countries
MIND - DELIRIUM TREMENS with delusions of elephants
MIND - DELUSIONS - a silent army passed him in the street while walking
MIND - DELUSIONS - hears ringing of sweet numberless toned bells
MIND - DELUSIONS - body covers the whole earth
MIND - DELUSIONS - house seems
movable
MIND - DELUSIONS - he is in a cathedral on hearing music of a choir
MIND - DELUSIONS - clothes will fly away and become wandering stars on
undressing
MIND - DELUSIONS - is clad in rags
MIND - DELUSIONS - strange clouds settle
upon patients or
dance about the sun
MIND - DELUSIONS - companions are half men, half plants
MIND - DELUSIONS - people leaving him are cowards
MIND - DELUSIONS - being a cylinder
MIND - DELUSIONS - dancing satyrs and nodding mandarins
MIND - DELUSIONS - sensations present themselves in a double form
MIND - DELUSIONS - is an emperor
MIND - DELUSIONS - doubts own existence
MIND - DELUSIONS - has two
existences
MIND - DELUSIONS - sees faces of distinguished people
MIND - DELUSIONS - sees ridiculous faces
MIND - DELUSIONS - ugly faces
seem pleasing
MIND - DELUSIONS - part of head fitted into each corner of the room
MIND - DELUSIONS - head seems an inverted oscillating pendulum
MIND - DELUSIONS - hearing noise of colors
MIND - DELUSIONS - seeing ichthyosaur
MIND - DELUSIONS - was an inkstand
MIND - DELUSIONS - leg is tin case filled with stair rods
MIND - DELUSIONS - hears shout of vehicles
MIND - DELUSIONS - was a pump log
MIND - DELUSIONS - vision of dancing satyrs
MIND - DELUSIONS - shower of soot fell on him
MIND - DELUSIONS - to be singing
MIND - DELUSIONS - soldiers march
silently past
MIND - DELUSIONS - everyone he meets has a secret sorrow
MIND - DELUSIONS - saw stars in his plate
MIND - DELUSIONS - they had come to want
MIND - DELUSIONS - of blue
water/nectar water is delicious - drinking
MIND - DELUSIONS - whimsical
MIND - ECCENTRICITY - before epilepsy
EAR - NOISES in - periodical singing
Horror
MIND - DELUSIONS - sees dead persons at midnight on waking
MIND - DELUSIONS - was about to die and soon will be dissected
MIND - DELUSIONS - “As if flying from a rock into a dark abyss on going
to bed”
MIND - DELUSIONS - shadows; of demoniac hell at midnight on waking
MIND - DELUSIONS - muffled
man starts from the
wall when walking in the streets
MIND - DELUSIONS - persons are bribed
to murder him;
MIND - DELUSIONS - room falling to pieces
MIND - DELUSIONS - he saw a huge tankard, chased with dragons
MIND - DELUSIONS - disasters by water
MIND - DELUSIONS - vomitus is a bunch of worms
MIND - ESCAPE, attempts to - run away, to find a female in estrus
MIND - FEAR of coal scuttle
MIND - FEAR of using voice
DREAMS - NIGHTMARES - periodical
at night on going to sleep
FACE - PERSPIRATION - shivering
MALE GENITALIA/SEX - SEXUAL DESIRE - increased without pollution
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - METRORRHAGIA with voluptuous itching
MALE AND FEMALE
GENITALIA/SEX - SEXUAL desire -
increased during fever
EXTREMITIES - BENDING - < lower limbs forwards
EXTREMITIES - CRAMPS - in lower limbs bending foot forward/when lifting
legs
EXTREMITIES - PAIN sore in joints < bending
EXTREMITIES - PAIN in upper limbs ext. fingers from face
EXTREMITIES - TREMBLING in hands - holding the hand still
SLEEP - DOZING after midnight - after 3 h.
SLEEP - POSITION reverse
SLEEP - SLEEPINESS - as before an apoplexy
SLEEP - SLEEPLESSNESS after surprising news/from uneasiness not from discomfort
GENERALS - ACTIVITY - increased - vascular/of organs
GENERALS - CATALEPSY < joy
GENERALS - CONVULSIONS in children from playing or laughing excessively
GENERALS - LAUGHING <
GENERALS - MOTIONLESS; holding part <
GENERALS - TWITCHING from excessive joy
GENERALS - WEAKNESS from a pleasant surprise
Sensitivity - Insensitivity
MIND - AILMENTS FROM - sudden excitement
MIND - ANGUISH with colic
MIND - ANGUISH from pain in teeth
MIND - ANXIETY after wine
MIND - BESIDE ONESELF during menses
MIND - DELUSIONS - is away from home in delirium tremens
MIND - DESPAIR during delivery
MIND - FEAR # exhilaration
MIND - FEAR of doctors/surgeon
MIND - FEAR - of falling on going to sleep
MIND - FEAR - from pleasant surprises
MIND - IMPRESSIONABLE to pleasure
MIND - MOANING - with complaints of teeth
MIND - WEEPING during delivery
HEAD - CONGESTION after a pleasant surprise
VISION - ACUTE - reading of small print easier
VISION - DIM < during cough
HEARING - ACUTE painful to noise
FACE - PAIN (neuralgic) <
excitement
FACE - PAIN from excessive joy
MOUTH - TASTE - acute of tobacco
MOUTH - TASTE strong too tobacco
MIND - SENSITIVE - with profuse lochia/in measles
MIND - SHRIEKING - with complaints of urinary organs
MIND - IMPULSE; morbid to pinch
TEETH - PAIN from excessive joy
RECTUM - DIARRHEA from domestic cares
MALE GENITALIA/SEX - SENSITIVENESS - a little suffering is unbearable
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - INFLAMMATION - Uterus from excessive joy
CHEST - ANGINA pectoris < abuse of coffee
Confusion - Clarity
MIND - DELUSIONS - whirling in head when thinking
MIND - MEMORY - active evening until midnight
MIND - MEMORY - weakness of memory for past facts in old people, in
MIND - RUNS about - unsteady
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - PAIN - labor pains ceasing with loquacity
Contraction, Emptiness - Fullness, Lightness - Heaviness
MIND - INCONSOLABLE > in open air
MIND - DISCOURAGED - > in open air
MIND - THOUGHTS rush > open air
HEAD - PAIN - < in open air as from a nail
VISION - ACUTE in open air
HEAD - LIGHTNESS; sensation of in external head
HEAD - PAIN in sides of occiput rheumatic, drawing
EXTREMITIES - PAIN tearing in thighs > pressure
Heat - Cold
EYE - IRRITATION of lids > in cold air
TEETH - PAIN > cold water neuralgic
ABDOMEN - HEAT # coldness
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - MENSES
copious with coldness of body
CHEST - PALPITATION of heart - < heat of sun
BACK - COLDNESS + warmth in the
middle of the
back and across the lower abdomen
BACK - SHIVERING during fever
EXTREMITIES - COLDNESS in feet in afternoon - 16 h > in open air
EXTREMITIES - COLDNESS of fingers ext. nape of neck
CHILL - CREEPING rising from sitting
FEVER - DRY heat - in evening in bed, with chilliness in back
FEVER - SHUDDERING with the heat constant, with one cheek hot and red
FEVER - SUCCESSION of stages - heat + thirst - then perspiration
SKIN - COLDNESS during labor
GENERALS - FOOD and DRINKS: >: holding ice
in mouth;
Dry - Moisture
CHEST - PALPITATION of heart - after an attack of
EXTREMITIES - PERSPIRATION in hand writing
Formication, Delirium, Instability
HEAD - NOISES in head - buzzing in occiput
Horror
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - PAIN after pains with
fear of death
Nux moschata
Activity - Inactivity
MIND - UNCONSCIOUSNESS afternoon - 14 h
MIND - UNCONSCIOUSNESS - on sight of blood
MIND - UNCONSCIOUSNESS - standing, while having dress fitted
VERTIGO - SWAYING to left in evening
HEAD - CRACKLING sensation in “As if from chains”
HEAD - MOTIONS of head - convulsive - so talking and swallowing are
impossible
HEAD - MOTIONS of head - rolling sitting
HEAD - PAIN > walking with head erect
HEAD - PAIN in occiput - > sitting pressing pain/> pressing pain
HEAD - PAIN drawing in vertex ext. eye
HEAD - PULSATING in spots
HEAD - WAVING sensation < motion
EAR - PAIN - pressing/cutting < motion of lower jaw
FACE - PARALYSIS - Jaws - sensation as if
TEETH - COMPLAINTS of teeth + lower jaw “As if paralyzed”
STOMACH - ERUCTATIONS; TYPE OF - water
brash - < riding in a
carriage
ABDOMEN - PAIN stitching r. ext. l.
ABDOMEN - PAIN - cutting in umbilicus in evening/> sleep
ABDOMEN - Cramping in region of umbilicus in evening < in bed
ABDOMEN - PAIN in region of umbilicus
- twisting pain downward
ABDOMEN - PAIN drawing in umbilicus ext. legs
ABDOMEN - PAIN - pressing ext. pit of stomach
ABDOMEN - WEAKNESS, sense of paralytic weakness in intestines
MALE GENITALIA/SEX - PAIN - Penis spasmodic
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - ABORTION from false labor pains
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - MENSES copious with sleepiness
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - MENSES scanty from weakness
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - MENSES suppressed from weakness
CHEST - CONGESTION of heart < walking rapidly
CHEST - HEART failure + faintness
CHEST - PAIN pressing at night
< falling asleep
CHEST - PAIN < after sleep
CHEST - PAIN tearing in diaphragm (in region < inspiration
BACK - PAIN aching after riding in a carriage
BACK - PAIN in lumbar region < rest in evening
BACK - RIDING IN A CARRIAGE < coccyx (sacrum)
BACK - WEAKNESS in cervical region head drops forward on chest
BACK - WEAKNESS in lumbar region ext. upward
BACK - PAIN in lumbar region in evening < rest
EXTREMITIES - rush of blood to l. leg
EXTREMITIES - CRAMPS in calves (< lying/before sleep)
EXTREMITIES - NUMBNESS in lower limbs < ascending stairs
EXTREMITIES - PAIN in back of feet < stepping
EXTREMITIES - PAIN in soles of feet (boring in morning/pressing “As if
walking on a hard pea”)
EXTREMITIES - PAIN drawing in fingers ext. shoulder
EXTREMITIES - PAIN in knees < ascending stairs “As if sprained”
EXTREMITIES - PAIN in calves “As from a blow”
EXTREMITIES - PAIN in 1st toe < after lying down (boring)
EXTREMITIES - PAIN in upper limbs, drawing, jerking, grasping pain
EXTREMITIES - TREMBLING hands
< after rising
EXTREMITIES - TWITCHING in forearms during chill
EXTREMITIES - “As if vibrating” in toes
SLEEP - sleeps after fainting with palpitation
SLEEP - SLEEPINESS between chill
SLEEP - SLEEPINESS by diet errors
SLEEP - SLEEPINESS < slightest
exertion
SLEEP - SLEEPINESS < walking in cold air
SLEEP - SLEEPLESSNESS < during pregnancy with sleepiness
PERSPIRATION in FORENOON < during sleep
GENERALS - CONVULSIONS when forcibly
aroused from a trance
GENERALS - CONVULSIONS in children with diarrhea
GENERALS - FAINTNESS in afternoon - 17.30 h
GENERALS - FAINTNESS followed by sleep
GENERALS - sensation of TORPOR during vertigo
Sensitivity - Insensitivity
HEAD - PAIN < after overeating just a little bit
HEAD - PAIN in vertex < sore lying
on painful side
HEAD - SHAKING sensation after eating
FACE - SENSITIVE under chin
STOMACH - INDIGESTION < after overeating just a little bit
STOMACH - LIGHT FOOD <
STOOL - COMPLAINTS of stool + weakness
BLADDER - URINATION - hysterical dysuria
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - MENSES painful riding in the wind
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - MENSES scanty < fright
CHEST - PALPITATION of heart “As from sadness”
Confusion - Clarity
MIND - ABSENTMINDED does not know where he is or what to answer on
waking
MIND - ANXIETY walking in cold air
MIND - ARGUING for facility
MIND - CONFUSION of mind during pregnancy
MIND - MEMORY lost about his past life
MIND - weakness of memory - transient, but
perfect consciousness of what he himself said or did
MIND - ORGANIC MENTAL SYNDROME
MIND - SHRIEKING like a locomotive
MIND - STUPEFACTION - remains fixed in one spot
MIND - STUPOR during menses
MIND - THOUGHTS control lost in afternoon - 14 h
MIND - THOUGHTS - persistent - humorous
MIND - THOUGHTS rush - annoying
MIND - THOUGHTS vanishing before
menses
MOUTH - SPEECH defective
SLEEP - SLEEPINESS with overestimation of time and distance
Expansion - Contraction, Emptiness - Fullness, Lightness - Heaviness
MIND - DELIRIUM with violent vertigo
HEAD - EMPTY, hollow sensation in afternoon
HEAD - “As if EXPANDED” with sleepiness
HEAD - PAIN - instead of menses bursting pain
VISION - DISTANT, objects seem - < darkness
VISION - NEARER, objects seem - to each other
STOMACH - DISTENSION after contradiction
STOMACH - “As if full after contradiction” (< during pregnancy)
STOMACH - HEAVINESS < ascending stairs
STOMACH - PAIN pressing “As from pain flatulence” obstructed
ABDOMEN - “As if hard ball in liver”/”As if a stone in liver”
ABDOMEN - COMPLAINTS of abdomen # swollen feet
ABDOMEN - “As if full” in daytime
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - Uterus “As if rising up”
RESPIRATION - IMPEDED, obstructed from pressure of clothes
CHEST - OPPRESSION at night falling asleep
CHEST - OPPRESSION ext. heart ext. throat
BACK - PAIN in lumbar region <
after menses “As if a piece of wood
were pressing from within out”
BACK - PAIN in sacral region “As if a piece of wood stretches across”
EXTREMITIES - FULLNESS of hands in evening
EXTREMITIES - HEAVINESS of knees
< during rest
GENERALS - “As if hard BALL internally”
Heat - Cold
HEAD - PAIN sore > warmth
HEAD - PAIN in temples < in cold wet weather
HEAD - SHAKING sensation < cold
HEAD - SHAKING sensation > heat (except heat
of bed)
FACE - Pale > warm room
TEETH - COLD wet air
TEETH - PAIN after chill
THROAT - PAIN burning in esophagus in afternoon
ABDOMEN - in umbilicus > sleep
RECTUM - DIARRHEA > external moist heat
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - MENSES - painful (< exposure to cold/living in
damp house
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - MENSES - scanty from a cold
COUGH - in warm BED in evening
COUGH - standing < COLD water
EXPECTORATION - EVENING < becoming warm
CHEST - CONSTRICTION < cold bathing
CHEST - PAIN - burning < after sleep
CHEST - PALPITATION of heart > warm drinks
BACK - WEATHER < cold wet
CHILL in EVENING from external cold
CHILL - CHILLINESS of frequent attacks with intermediate sleep
CHILL in SLEEP # attacks of coldness
SKIN - COLDNESS during pregnancy
SKIN - SENSITIVENESS to cold wet air
Dry - Moisture
EYE - CLOSING difficult from dryness of eyes
EYE - OPENING the lids difficult from dryness of eyes
NOSE - DRYNESS inside + cough
FACE - Pale < going into damp air
MOUTH - DRY - > entering the house/during sleep/thirstless, desires
to hold water in mouth to moisten it and then spits it out;
MOUTH - DRY - “As if tongue would fall into powder”
NECK - AIR < wet air
STOOL - WATERY - bright yellow
TRACHEA - VOICE < stormy weather
RESPIRATION - ARRESTED < in water
RESPIRATION - DIFFICULT < in water
COUGH - DRY with sudden loss of breath
COUGH < (GETTING) WET feet
CHEST - PERSPIRATION fetid between mammae
BACK - COLDNESS in lumbar region before stool
BACK - PAIN drawing in cervical region from wet cold air
BACK - PAIN in dorsal region beween scapulae from wet cold weather
BACK - TENSION in cervical region from cold, damp air
Formication, Delirium, Instability
MIND - ANGER during pregnancy
MIND - DELUSIONS - double being his
real conscious self seemed to be watching his
other self playing
MIND - DREAM; as if in a - after dinner
MIND - FOOLISH behavior in open air
MIND - GESTURES, makes - ridiculous or foolish in open air (standing on
the street)
MIND - HYPOCHONDRIASIS (in
forenoon/during fever)
MIND - HYSTERIA - after scanty menses
MIND - INSANITY with vertigo
MIND - LAUGHING hysterical during menses
MIND - MIRTH during chill
MIND - MOOD - changeable during heat
MIND - TALKING to himself loudly
EAR - FOREIGN BODY in; sensation of a - rough body
EAR - FOREIGN BODY in; sensation of a - in Eustachian tube
FACE - EXPRESSION diabolic grin
STOMACH - CRAWLING - ext. to throat; from pit of stomach
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - ABORTION -
tendency to abortion in chilly, hysterical women,
disposed to faint;
RESPIRATION - ANXIOUS during headache
SLEEP - SLEEPINESS during hysteria
SLEEP - SLEEPINESS with inclination to laughter
Horror
MIND - DELUSIONS - brain is cracking
MIND - DELUSIONS - head would fall off
MIND - FEAR of death in afternoon - 17.30 h.
Opium
Activity - Inactivity
MIND - ACTIVITY - desires activity during perspiration
MIND - COMA with respiratory acidosis
MIND - COMA with glassy eyes
MIND - COMA - preceded by stupor
MIND - DELIRIUM TREMENS in old emaciated persons
MIND - DELIRIUM TREMENS from small quantity of alcoholic stimulants
MIND - DELIRIUM TREMENS - with snoring spoor
MIND - UNCONSCIOUSNESS with Cheyne - Stokes respiration;
MIND - UNCONSCIOUSNESS - suppression of menses from fright
MIND - VIOLENT before sleep
HEAD - “As if ASLEEP after a debauch”
HEAD - PAIN pinching in forehead ext. root of nose
HEAD - PAIN in forehead in frontal eminence; frontal > rubbing
HEAD - PRICKLING after a debauch
HEAD - WAVING sensation in forehead “As if heavy body swaying back and
forth”
EYE - OPEN lids - half open
convulsive
EYE - PAIN pressing > motion
of eyes
EYE - WEAK in evening after going to bed
VISION - DIM in forenoon < reading
MOUTH - TWITCHING in THROAT - CRAMP in Esophagus < swallowing
THROAT - PAIN twisting
STOMACH - PULSATION > rising/walking
ABDOMEN - PAIN cramping very violent
ABDOMEN - PARALYSIS of intestines from anesthesia/after operation on
abdomen
BLADDER - ATONY of - after laparotomy
BLADDER - PARALYSIS after laparotomy
BLADDER - URINATION - feeble stream < after sleep
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - MENSES painful > bending double
RESPIRATION - SNORING while unconscious
RESPIRATION - SLOW during convulsions
BACK - CONVULSIONS tetanic in nape of neck
BACK - WEAKNESS of muscles in cervical region
EXTREMITIES - MOTION involuntary of toes
EXTREMITIES - PAIN aching < walking
EXTREMITIES - PAIN in lower limbs after rest (stitching)
EXTREMITIES - “As if STRENGTH” in lower/upper limbs
EXTREMITIES - TINGLING in lower limbs after kneeling/after rest
EXTREMITIES - TREMBLING after cigar
EXTREMITIES - TREMBLING in upper limbs during paroxysms
EXTREMITIES - TWITCHING during convulsions
EXTREMITIES - TWITCHING on waking
EXTREMITIES - TWITCHING in calves - convulsive
SLEEP - DEEP in old people
SLEEP - SLEEPINESS after injuries of the head
SLEEP - SLEEPINESS overpowering when concentrating
CHILL - SHAKING with deep sleep and snoring
GENERALS - ANESTHESIA [= insensibility] shivering during
GENERALS - APOPLEXY + slow and full pulse
GENERALS - CONVULSIONS during delivery from ceasing of labor pains
convulsions
GENERALS - PARALYSIS - Internally mucoviscidosis
Sensitivity - Insensitivity
MIND - FRIGHTENED easily on closing the eyes
MIND - GRIEF over insults
MIND - INDIFFERENCE to fine feeling
MIND - INDIGNATION; from general discomfort
EYE - PUPILS insensible to light during fever
HEARING - ACUTE - sleepless from distant sounds
STOMACH - RETCHING < emotions
RECTUM - CONSTIPATION after fright
RECTUM - INVOLUNTARY stool from grief
BLADDER - RETENTION of urine in newborns after passion of the nursing
womean
BLADDER - RETENTION of urine in after fright of
the mother;
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - ABORTION from fright in last months
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - DELIVERY - premature during (complaints) from
fear or fright
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - MENSES appear from a shock
FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - PAIN
unbearable in uterus < during menses
EXTREMITIES - TWITCHING of hands after fright
SLEEP - FALLING ASLEEP during pain
SLEEP - SLEEPINESS after fright
GENERALS - SHOCK followed by diabetes mellitus
Confusion - Clarity
MIND - DELUSIONS - smoke on brain (makes him drunk)
MIND - DELUSIONS being double - and he is not sure which will
conquer the other;
there were another
self
DELUSIONS - she is talking with herself
MIND - ECCENTRICITY at night
MIND - FORGETFUL - connection of consecutive thoughts
MIND - HEEDLESS in mental derangement
MIND - HIDING himself in old people
MIND - MEDITATING at night
MIND - MEMORY active during fever
MIND - PLANS making gigantic
plans
MIND - SINGING monotonous
MIND - SPEECH delirious with wide open eyes
MIND - SPEECH incoherent after dozing
MIND - SPEECH - terse (= to the point)
MIND - STUPOR with hearing
MND - STUPOR menses suppressed from fright
MIND - THOUGHTS - thoughtful all night
EYE - BRILLIANT during perspiration
EYE - STARING during fever
Expansion - Contraction, Emptiness - Fullness, Lightness - Heaviness
HEAD - LIGHTNESS; sensation of - during vertigo
NOSE - CORYZA < after walking in open air
STOMACH - ERUCTATIONS empty in afternoon while stomach is empty;
ABDOMEN - OBSTRUCTION - intestines “As if obstructed”
RECTUM - DRAGGING, heaviness, weight in evening during loose stool
URETHRA - “As if obstructed”
URETHRA - STRICTURE - in drunkards/before urination
RESPIRATION - IMPEDED, obstructed from nightmares
CHEST - COMPRESSION of diaphragm
BACK - SWELLING of veins in cervical region
EXTREMITIES - CONTRACTION of muscles and tendons involuntary
EXTREMITIES - HEAVINESS of lower limbs in evening - 18 h
EXTREMITIES - STIFFNESS during shivering
GENERALS - APOPLEXY + contracted pupils
GENERALS - in general TENSION during fever
Heat - Cold
MIND - DELIRIUM after catching cold
MIND - DELUSIONS in bed “As if bed is hot”
FACE - hot
MIND - RESTLESSNESS from heat of bed
MIND - WEEPING after taking cold
EYE - PAIN burning in after going to bed
FACE - PAIN burning in joints of jaws
RECTUM - PAIN before midnight < after stool
EXTREMITIES - COLDNESS in legs flushed face
SLEEP - COMATOSE from sunstroke
SLEEP - FALLING ASLEEP during heat in old people
FEVER - BURNING heat and red face
GENERALS - HEAT r. side
Dry - Moisture
EYE - DRYNESS - evening on going
to bed
COUGH - RACKING > drinking water
FEVER - SUCCESSION of stages - heat + clammy perspiration
PERSPIRATION - COLD after cigar
PERSPIRATION - HOT except lower limbs
PERSPIRATION - WARM with
somnolence
Formication, Delirium, Instability
MIND - ANGER # playing antics
MIND - ANGER - senses the hands of those around him
MIND - playing antics # sadness
MIND - DELIRIUM - blames himself for his folly
MIND - DELUSIONS is away from home in threatening abortion
MIND - DELUSIONS - living three hours distant from his house
MIND - DELUSIONS after short sleep
MIND - DELUSIONS impelled by
an invisible agent; he
is sliding along the ground
MIND - DELUSIONS has visions in coma vigil
MIND - DELUSIONS has delightful visions; filled his brain all night
MIND - DESPAIR in masturbation
MIND - DISCOURAGED and morose
MIND - EXHILARATION # with cares
MIND - EXHILARATION # grief
MIND - EXHILARATION during perspiration
MIND - GESTURES whimsical
MIND - MANIA indecent
MIND - MIRTH # anger
EAR - NOISES in humming < talking
Horror
MIND - ANGUISH in shock from injury
MIND - ANXIETY if the fear of the fright remains
MIND - ANXIETY - fear of abortion latter part in pregnancy
MIND - DEATH - contempt of
MIND - DELIRIUM - sees
devils/spectres
MIND - DELUSIONS in bed is surrounded by devils/scorpions
MIND - DELUSIONS is a criminal to be executed
MIND - DELUSIONS - sees devils
about his bed
MIND - DELUSIONS everyone around him is a murderer to be executed
MIND - DELUSIONS “As if somebody threatened to stab him”
MIND - DELUSIONS - has done wrong, and is about to be punished
MIND - FEAR at night from intestinal spasms
MIND - FEAR - amenorrhea from fear
MIND - FEAR of extravagance
MIND - FEAR of sleeplessness
MIND - FEAR sudden followed by diabetes mellitus
MIND - FEAR - retention of urine from fear
MIND - MOROSE by dreams
DREAMS - CIVIL WAR
DREAMS - GRIMACES, horrible
GENERALS - DEATH APARENT in children
GENERALS - DEATH APARENT of hanged, strangled persons
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