Rajan Sankaran's book talks about new techniques and software in homeopathy. He tells Shrabasti Mallik why it is important to understand a patient's disease through his life experiences
Is it true that homeopathic treatment aggravates the symptoms before curing them from the rootIJ
This is the common belief in homeopathy. However, in my practice I have hardly seen this happen. One of the reasons why this belief might have come into existence is that sometimes during the healing process, the symptoms travel from more vital to less vital organs. For instance, if a child has asthma and a history of skin eruptions like eczema — which had been treated in the past by using local steroidal applications — in this case, sometimes during the healing process of the asthma, the old eruptions may come up. This is considered to be a very good sign. It shows that the vitality of the body is improving and is able to locate the allergy, now, in less important organs such as skin, rather than in more vital organs such as the lungs. This happens in very few cases and mostly in only those with a history of suppressed eruptions. In the vast majority of patients healing happens without any perceptible aggravation.
Tell us something about your case-analysis software Vital Quest.
Vital Quest is a homeopathic software programme that was created on the basis of the sensation method. The patient’s language and expressions are entered into the software and the software highlights only the words that denote the patient’s experience. For example, if the patient says “Whenever I get angry I get a sharp, shooting pain in my head.” Here the word angry represents his emotion, and sharp and shooting represents the patient’s sensation or experience.
The software picks out all of these experience words and through an analysis algorithm, finds which kingdom or which specific group of remedies are most prominent in the case. This helps the homeopath to come more definitely to the remedy. The software also has a whole database of the various kingdoms and subkingdoms, along with detailed information about the remedies based on the sensation method.
You have been practising homeopathy since 1981. What, in this branch of medicine interests youIJ
There are several things that interest me about homeopathy. Number one and foremost, homeopathy heals the patient as a whole. Homeopathy is able to help people in a deeper way and can help several conditions in which modern medicine has no answer. For example, modern medicine has no long-term solution for a simple case of warts, migraine headaches or such common conditions. The second thing that fascinates me about homeopathy is that it helps the patient’s state of mind along with the physical body. The third fascinating aspect is the process of knowing the patient behind the illness. We as homeopaths have to go with each person into his or her own story and experience. Because each individual is so different and every case is an adventure — a kind of deep exploration.
When I, as a physician, put my entire attention on what is going on within the person, it is almost a meditative and empathetic experience, from which over time, there is an inner wisdom that develops. Another interesting aspect is that homeopathic knowledge embraces all kinds of other fields of knowledge including physics, chemistry, zoology, botany, spirituality, psychology, art, music, literature et al. As a homeopath, we can relate to every field of human activity and we can also see the commonality and oneness of all of these branches.
Finally, being a very young science, it gave me a lot of scope to be apart of its development and to contribute to its evolution.
Classical materia medica tries to identify a unique pattern of symptoms in each remedy, so that the pattern can be recognised and the remedy can be used in future patients. Your materia medica also attempts to categorise the unique characteristics of each remedy but also puts a strong emphasis on finding similarities to other remedies in the same family or group. How important are the symptoms of the entire family (or group) as compared to the unique symptoms of the remedyIJ How is this knowledge used in practiceIJ
The unique symptoms of every remedy and the symptoms of the entire family or group are mutually complimentary and add to each other. By knowing the unique symptoms of the individual remedies of a group, we are able to derive the common group symptoms. These common group symptoms can then be applied to all remedies within the same group (even if they are not recorded symptoms in certain remedies in the group).
This vastly adds to the understanding of individual remedies and provides a framework by which we can understand the remedies at a deeper level. For example, Tarentula hispanica (the Spanish spider) is a medicine commonly used in homeopathy. Many of the symptoms — including industriousness, busyness, restlessness and deceitfulness — are common symptoms of the spider group of remedies. This helps us to understand Tarentula better because we see the energy of Tarentula is that of a spider.
At the same time, these common features of the spider group can help us choose another spider remedy that may have very specific symptoms of the patient, but may not have recorded symptoms of the spider group. For example, if a patient is restless, busy and deceitful, has a very marked craving for oranges or has a cough that makes him bend forward, we can give him another spider remedy called Theridion (the orange spider), even though it may not have the symptoms recorded. However, we can assume it has these same common symptoms of the other spider remedies. This is the simplest way one can understand the utility of studying groups but of course it goes far beyond this.
We not only study the group through symptoms, but we also study the group from the source in nature. Along with this, a whole set of information about the source becomes a part of our knowledge of the remedy and not only of the symptoms. In this way, the homeopathic Materia Medica does not remain as an isolated phenomenon but it is able to include a much wider field of knowledge.
Can you tell us a bit about development of knowledge by homeopathyIJ
In homeopathy, the knowledge of kingdoms, sensation and the levels of experience have developed over the last two decades. We now understand that there are three distinct patterns of human perception and reaction. We know that there are seven levels of experience. We now understand at the core of each person’s individuality lies a pattern of experience, which is both mental and physical. This can be called sensation.
What is interesting is that this knowledge has universal application in terms of understanding people, in terms of knowing yourself or your deep experience or pattern and it is applicable to all fields of human activity. For example, in a profession like advertising, if you want to advertise for a bank company or insurance company, you will need to use an advertisement with emphasis on savings and security — mimicking a mineral-type advertising. If you want to advertise to sell wall paint, then you need to appeal to the sensitivity of the buyer.
Shed some light on important facts brought out by your book Natural Kingdoms Healing with Homeopathy.
In Natural Kingdoms Healing with Homeopathy, we have focused specifically on three case studies. Throughout the book, the homeopathic process and interview is thoroughly explained through the use of these case studies. There are many stages to the interview to be explored in each case including the first entry of the patient, the chief complaint or problems they face, their fears, dreams, lifestyle, hobbies and interests.
By drawing three parallel lines throughout the book, readers will be able to see the clear demonstration of how each individual experiences the same pattern in every aspect of his life. This core experience overshadows all aspects of his whole life and makes him think, feel and suffer in a very specific way.
The book also shows how this core pattern has a parallel remedy in one of the three kingdoms of nature and also how these remedies heal in a very subtle, almost unconscious way.The entire pattern of the patient — mentally, physically and emotionally — heals together simultaneously.