Stramonium datura Anhang 3
[Paul Herscu]
Angst vor Tod
oder Verletzung, Verwundbarkeit, Anhänglichkeit
Heftige
Überreaktion
Das
Bedürfnis, sich zu verschließen
Tod und
Leblosigkeit
Verwirrung wegen
seines dualen Zustandes
Bewußtsein
und Unterbewußtsein auf der Wippe
Gemüt:
Das Element
der Angst
Angstreaktionen
Gewalt/Aggression
Flucht
Anhänglichkeit
Stereotypes
Verhalten/Autismus
Depression
Verwundbarkeit
Furcht vor
dem Bösen
Angst +
Infektionen der oberen Atemwege
Furcht vor
Tieren
Übertriebene Wachsamkeit
Angst - bei
Säuglingen/im Dunkeln/Klaustrophobie
Furcht vor
dem Alleinsein
Hydrophobie
Beschwerden
durch Schreck
Gewalttätigkeit
- als Reaktion auf Kränkung/auf das Eindringen anderer in die eigene Welt
Gewalt -
Reaktion auf Angst/als unbewusste Reaktion/Wutanfälle
Freude am
Terror/Hyperaktiv mit schadenfrohem Lachen/Spaßmacher
Beobachtung
der Freude an Gewalt/Gegen sich selbst gerichtete Gewalt
Aufmerksamkeitsstörungen
Ruhelosigkeit/Hyperaktiv
Mangelhafte
Impulsbeherrschung
Unnachgiebiges/Beharrliches
Wiederholungsverhalten
Geistesschwäche/Konzentrationsmangel
Das Element
des Verschließens
Depressionen
Autistische
Züge/vollständiger Autismus
Stereotypien/Beharrendes
Wiederholungsverhalten
Pedanterie
Ängste vor dem Schlaf/Alpträume und
nächtliche Panikanfälle
[Marysia Kratimenos]
Dracula – a portrait of Stramonium
The vampire story is the substance of nightmares,
writes Marysia Kratimenos, and as such is a perfect description of the
homeopathic remedy, Stramonium
Bram Stoker claimed the inspiration for this gothic
horror came to him in a dream. Although many other authors, including Arthur
Conan Doyle, wrote of vampires,
Stoker’s novel is still regarded as the archetypical
description of the human vampire. It has been made into numerous films, some
more accurate to the original text
than others. None, in my opinion, can compete with the
sheer terror experienced while reading the book on a cold autumn evening as
Halloween approaches –
the night when all spirits and demons are said to be
free to roam the earth. The season is perfect for vivid imaginings.
Bram Stoker was born in Ireland. He worked as manager
of the Lyceum theatre in the Strand, London and was in close contact with the
celebrities of the day, incl.
Oscar Wilde and Dr Charcot, a famous neurologist and
proponent of hypnotism. His love of literature and the theatre is evident in
the text. His brother was a famous surgeon,
who assisted Bram with the relevant medical
descriptions. Although Bram Stoker wrote many books, he will always be
remembered for just one novel, namely Dracula, which
was published in 1897.
The novel and the remedy
Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula was a historical
figure, a Wallachian prince, who fought against the Ottoman Empire. He was
renowned for his brutality towards his opponents, although this is somewhat
glossed over by many Romanians who regard him as a national hero. Dracula was
added to his name at a later stage – dracul meaning dark power.
Stoker took his name and created the wonderful prince
of darkness, the personification of Stramonium.
The story is related in the form of extracts taken
from the diaries of the leading characters, a clever device as it allows the
reader to experience the story-line from a series of different perspectives.
It opens with the diary of Jonathan Harker, a solicitor, describing his journey
to Transylvania, Romania and his subsequent stay with the Count.
Even as the book opens we are introduced to the
homeopathic Stramonium state: “an awful nightmare”. Harker finds himself
“paralysed with fear” at the sight of
a “ring of wolves with white teeth and lolling red
tongues… a hundred times more terrible in the grim silence which held them than
ever when they howled.”
Stramonium is a remedy of intense fear which paralyses
the victim. There is a close association with wolves, Dracula’s “children of
the night”. The herb was used by the Berserkers, ancient Nordic warriors, to
induce a state of near madness prior to battle. The men would drape themselves
in wolf coats, a shamanic ritual to embody the power
of the creature.
The remedy Lac caninum (dog’s milk) is related to
Stramonium; both are used for the intense fear and anger that follow abuse. The
inter-relationship between the 2 remedies
is further emphasised by the presence of hairs in the
centre of Dracula’s palms, his canine teeth and his ability to shape-shift into
a dog at will.
Dracula is dressed all in black – a colour favoured by
those who require the remedy. He has a dread of mirrors and shining things,
again a trait of the Stramonium state.
The sight of Harker’s crucifix infuriates him and he
is repelled by it. The herb stramonium was demonised by the Catholic Church,
who feared the wise women herbalists,
accusing them of witchcraft and burning them.
Henceforth stramonium was known as the devil’s apple. Dracula uses the
pseudonym Count De Ville in London.
Dracula forces Harker to stay in his castle, although
the “nocturnal existence” makes him fear for his sanity. There are beautiful
descriptions of the intensity of his terror…
“I start at my own shadow, and am full of all sorts of
horrible imaginings.” In the Stramonium state of intense fear, the imagination
runs wild. Fear of ghosts, vampires, the dark, graveyards, the dead and dogs,
especially black ones, predominate and the fears are worse at night. The
nightmares of the Stramonium state are horrific and the person wakes screaming
with terror, eyes wide and glistening, the pulse racing and the skin flushed.
Although Dracula warns him to sleep only in a
particular room, Harker takes “pleasure in disobeying”. Stramonium can be used
for certain types of hyperactivity (oppositional defiant behaviour).
Traditionally Native Americans used the herb to “control unruly children”.
Harker falls asleep and three female vampires appear;
voluptuous creatures who would seduce him. The vampires remind us of the three
witches in Macbeth, again emphasising the dark side of the remedy and its
association with witchcraft. Harker is enthralled, aroused by them, but just as
he is finding the strength of character not to betray his love,
Mina, in virtuous Victorian fashion, Dracula storms
in, claiming Harker as his own. “Never did I imagine such wrath and fury, even
to the demons of the pit” is a glorious description of the intensity of
Stramonium’s anger. Those requiring homeopathic Stramonium may exhibit the fear
one moment, and the intense fury the next.
Although Stramonium is a plant remedy, it is as sexually
charged as many of the animal remedies. The herb was reputed to be an
aphrodisiac. Indian prostitutes used it in higher doses to subdue their
clients, inducing dreams that were indistinguishable from reality. It was used
as “a tool of brothel keepers, wicked seducers of girls, depraved courtesans
and shameless lechers” because of its ability to
induce submission and amnesia – possibly the first date-rape drug. It is thus
used homeopathically for severe trauma, often of
a sexual nature.
The book Dracula is indeed a Freudian fantasy. The
attempted seduction of Harker by the vamps, Dracula’s erotic biting of the
women and the intermingling of his blood with theirs: this all alludes to the
darker side of Stramonium, a remedy used extensively by professional homeopaths
for cases of childhood sexual abuse and rape.
Nightmares and sleepwalking are often tell-tale signs
of trauma and Stramonium deals efficiently with them, as well as the
shell-shocked traumatic state, which Harker enters into following his escape
from Castle Dracula. When Van Helsing reads his diaries and tells Harker that
he believes him, Harker states that “You have cured me already”, emphasising
the need for the victim to be believed.
Harker is so confused by the experiences in
Transylvania that he is unable to differentiate between imagination and
reality: “I do not know what to trust, even the evidence of
my own senses.” Little wonder Freud was misled by
victims of abuse to produce the theories of the Oedipus and Elektra complexes;
it was easier than accepting the unacceptable. If only he had had some
homeopathic Stramonium to hand!
Stramonium induces a “psychomimetic” state; users are
unable to differentiate between reality and the effects of the drug. Unlike
other hallucinogens, which only induce visual hallucinations, every sensation is
affected. It is like a living nightmare, and the effects may last days. Some
users experience flashbacks, hence its use for “bad trips” and flashbacks in
homeopathy.
Lucy, one of Dracula’s victims, is subject to
sleepwalking and horrific nightmares. She is a perfect victim for the evil
vampire, “of too supersensitive a nature to go through life without trouble”,
in other words a typical Phosphorus. Her tubercular nature is evident in her
pallor and weakness, even prior to the attacks. She is morally corrupted by
him:
“the sweetness changed to adamantine, heartless
cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness”, again a sign of sexual interference
at a tender age.
In death she regains her beauty, but her vampire
status soon manifests as she begins to prey on young children. Victim has
become abuser, the “curse of immortality: they cannot die, but go on age after
age adding new victims and multiplying the evils of the world”. The stramonium
seed pod echoes this theme of immortality: seeds stored for 39 years still had
a germination rate of over 90%.
Mina’s reaction to Dracula’s attack is somewhat
different, she declares herself “unclean”. She is a marked woman - the burn of
the Holy Host is on her forehead, an analogy to
the mark of Cain. This reaction to trauma is common in
the Lac caninum state. The victims are riddled with shame and guilt that they
should have somehow prevented the attack on their honour. She did not resist
further attacks, saying she “did not want to hinder him. I suppose it is part
of the terrible curse, that such is when his touch is on his victim.”
She is even able to find compassion for her abuser,
but fears sleep lest he return. Those needing Lac caninum for traumatic events
often see the face of their abuser just as they start to fall asleep.
As Dracula has forced Mina to drink his blood, she is
able, in hypnotic trance, to merge her spirit with his and lead the heroes to
him. Stramonium can induce such a deep trance that it is also known in Haiti as
the Zombie’s Cucumber,
and so can be used for severe cases of post-traumatic stress disorder where the
victim is almost left catatonic.
Stramonium belongs to the botanical family Solanaceae,
the nightshade family. It is found world-wide, although it is believed it
originated in the area around the Caspian Sea.
It is reputed that gypsies spread the seeds. Dracula
is helped throughout the book by Szygany, Eastern European gypsies.
Some of the Solanaceae are beneficial to man, like potato,
tomato, aubergine, and capsicum
pepper. Others are deadly poisons (Belladonna, Stramonium and Hyoscyamos). Their toxicity is
related to the presence of atropine and related compounds which have a
powerful effect on the nervous system, blocking the actions of the
neurotransmitters (chemicals which allow for nerve transmission).
The effect of stramonium is that one becomes “as blind
as a bat, mad as a hatter, red as a beet, hot as a hare, dry as a bone, the bowel
and bladder lose their tone, and the heart runs alone” - all signs of an adrenaline
rush that may occur with terror or violent anger.
Despite this, stramonium has medicinal uses. The
refined chemicals are still used today in orthodox medicine to dilate pupils
for eye examinations and operations, to prevent vomiting following opiate
painkillers and chemotherapy, to stimulate the heart, and to treat sarin and
nerve gas poisoning. In the past it was also used for asthma.
The concentration of the chemicals varies considerably
– the plants are more potent in the night, hence Dracula’s nocturnal existence,
and in cloudy, dark autumnal weather, again perfect vampire conditions. The
white trumpet shaped flowers open in the twilight, hence the nickname Moonflower.
The term lunatic is derived from the belief that insanity was associated with
the moon.
Stramonium toxicity is well documented, and it has
been used by the injudicious as a recreational drug. In ancient times it was
honoured as a powerful shamanic plant; the Oracle of Delphi was reputed to gain
her prophetic powers from a concoction of the herb.
The drug was used by certain Native North American
tribes in shamanic rituals, marking the passage into adulthood. The chosen men
were kept apart from the tribe and given stramonium regularly, until all traces
of immaturity and memories of boyhood were eradicated. The stramonium drove
them to the brink of insanity in order to free their souls.
This is clearly demonstrated by the character of
Renfield, the “homicidal maniac”, who becomes Dracula’s servant. He is clearly
psychotic, with paroxysms of rage and violence, totally delusional and yet
an educated articulate man in his sane moments.
Stramonium can be used in mania and psychosis, obviously by professional
medical homeopaths and in conjunction with conventional medical treatment.
There is often an alternation between profound delusional behaviour and total
normality in those requiring the remedy.
Stramonium can induce inappropriate behaviour, often
comical. The film “Dracula: Dead and Loving it” is a delicious spoof of Dracula
and surprisingly accurate to the spirit of the text, though obviously artistic
liberties were taken to enhance the humour. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”
takes the sexual undercurrents alluded to in the book to a whole new dimension
of hilarity.
The chemicals are powerful hallucinogens and as such
stramonium was a powerful ingredient in flying ointments. Dracula is able to
fly by shape-shifting into a bat; Stoker cleverly blends fantasy with reality.
Vampire bats exist, predominately in S. America, and spread rabies - the theme
of hydrophobia is strong in the Solanaceae family.
Stramonium plants act as a “toxin sponge, leaching
heavy metal elements from polluted soils”. Heavy metals, such as arsenic and
mercury, were used in medicine to cure syphilis. The disease was endemic
in Victorian society, despite their puritanical morals
and led to madness with intense cruelty, typified by Dracula, both the
fictional character and the historical, again a theme witnessed in those
requiring homeopathic Stramonium. It is a deligthtful irony that Goths, who
typify the appearance of Stramonium, with their black clothes and flamboyant
silver crucifixes, have such a love of heavy metal music.
Stramonium is an immensely powerful homeopathic
remedy, perfectly personified in Dracula. The match is so close one wonders if
Stoker’s nightmare was in fact induced by a cup of stramonium tea.
He would not have been the first, or indeed the last,
to use hallucinogens in the pursuit of art!