TALK : 25 PLANT KINGDOM - 3

Leguminosae, Conifers, Malvales & Scrophulariaceae

Hello and welcome back!

Today we have a guest with us, a dear friend and great Homoeopath from
Vancouver, Laurie Dack. And together with her we will be discussing the Plant
families Leguminosae, Conifers. And if possible also Malvales and
Scrophulariaceae.
These families, these 4 families they share a common sensation which is:
Attached and detached,
Connected and disconnected,
Being together and being separate.
These sensations, these experiences are common to all the four families and
today we will explore the exact experience of each of these families and therefore
also the differences between the sensations in these families. So lets begin with
Family Leguminosae.
Family Leguminosae
The most well-known remedy in this family is Baptisia tinctoria. Some of the other
remedies in our Materia Medica include: Melilotus, Robinia, Chrysarobinum,
Copaiva, Physostigma, Lathyrus, Indigo, Trifolium repens, Mimosa pudica and
others.
When we study the different remedies of this family, we find two sets of
symptoms that show opposite sides of a Sensation or experience. And thats what
common in the Plant families that we get an opposite polarity between one side
of the sensation and the other side and almost the entire case revolves in these
two polarities and thats what really makes it a plant case or a specific plant
family.

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In the case of Leguminosae, the two sides are on the one side is the idea of being
split or broken or scattered or even confused. And on the other side is to be
bound or to be held together.
For example if we study Baptisia tinctoria, we find:
Mind: Cannot confine his mind; a sort of wild and wandering feeling [Allen]
Generalities: Imagines he is in pieces, and scattered about the bed, vainly
attempting to get himself together [Lippe]
Generalities: Falling, apart, as if [Boenninghausen]
Mind: Thinks he is broken or double, and tosses about the bed, trying to get
pieces together [Boericke]
Dreams: Bound, of being bound, with a chain across mouth [Allen]
When we look at Melilotus officinalis we have:
Back: Lumbar region: Broken feeling [Knerr]
In Robinia pseudacacia we have:
Face: The jawbone on left side feels as if disarticulated or broken [Lutze]
In Mimosa pudica we see:
Gen: Binding up or bandaging amel [Complete Repertory]
In Physostigma venenosum we find:
Mind: Delusion: Objects, too numerous in room, [Kent]
- as if there are too many objects in the room
Generalities: Too many things in the room, counting them continually [Lippe]
Generalities: Sensation as of a band around the head [Lippe]
So the main sensation of Leguminosae are:
The feeling as if split apart, as if broken, as if scattered ,as if in pieces
And the opposite is to be:
Bound, held together or tied together
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Incidentally, Leguminosae is the pea family. And the fruit is bound together and
when you open the pod all these peas get released or split up. So there is a kind
of a sense of being composed of many parts, and of being bound together;
separate parts are bound together and they can be easily scattered into their
constituent parts and be all over the place. Its a feeling as if some external factor
can come up and split them up. And the idea is you want all of them together in
one bound thing.
I often in my mind compare this to a coalition government. Its a government that
is composed of different parties; political parties that are just bound together in a
loose fashion and its called a government. It is one unit but actually its just
different units put together and a slight threat from the outside, a slight political
turmoil and this coalition threatens to break up into its constituent parties once
again. Thats the kind of idea that I have of the Leguminosae family.
How is this expressed in the clinical situation in practice? For this I would ask my
friend and colleague Laurie, to narrate us a case from her practice which really
was very impressive for me. So Laurie tell us please:
[LD = Laurie Dack]
LD: Well, this is a case of a woman who came and had just recently received a
diagnosis of malignant rectal tumor. And she said that at a first she only noticed
little blood. She didnt even have any symptoms. She noticed a little blood when
she was passing stools. She didnt think anything about it. But then some weeks
later she started experiencing pain. When she had an urge to have a bowel
movement and the pain continued and increased and became so intense when
she was passing stools that she would cry with the pain.
When I asked her about this pain she described it as a sharp pain that felt like as if
she was coming apart. She said during rectal examination, it was extremely
traumatizing for her. She said I came undone. The whole procedure triggered
many unresolved issues from the past. I came apart in the examining room. So I
asked her to describe coming apart. Its like the area is there together and then
it comes apart and it goes into pieces. Like it is all smooth and even then
something happens and it comes apart and splits apart. It splits me into pieces.
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Its very intense and I am coming apart I lose control and cry because the pain is
so intense.
I asked her to describe more about this splitting apart. She went back to
the rectal examination and said that the pain was so severe, she lost all control
and fell apart completely. The cancer diagnosis has caused many schisms in my
world. She did not want to go the traditional treatment of Surgery and radiation
and this has .. what she says fractured the family. No one knows what to do.
Everyone is all over the place because of her decision not to go traditional
route. Mother, brother, husband are all divided by my decision to not to go for
Surgery. Theres so much stress. I am all over the place responding to everyone
differently trying to keep harmony. The schisms in the family and the pain, I am all
over the place. I am not centered. I am completely disorganized and deregulated,
too much reactivity and disorganization. Things are all disconnected, not
stabilized, all over the place and then a Cancer diagnosis. Now I am trying to keep
things together. Its difficult to concentrate on anything and even with time I am
all over the place. I cant read. Trouble focusing on anything. Trouble sleeping. I
am trying to keep everything. I am trying to keep everything together or else its
going to fall apart.
I ask her about falling apart and she says, Everything is being affected. My
son who was a very energetic boy has recently being causing problems in school.
And the teacher is telling me that I am the one. She started blaming me saying
that I am not being consistent with him and this is contributing to his problems. I
am feeling like if I have Cancer what will happen to him? I feel theres so many
pieces to the puzzle. All these things need to come together. One piece of the
puzzle is that when I was my sons age. I was being sexually abused and having
the rectal examination brought me to vivid flash backs. Thats why I fell apart in
the examining room. They did the rectoscopy and I have memories of sexual
abuse and an experience that same intense pain, the same sharp pain and the
feeling that everything is coming apart. Usually I can control things but not this
time.
She described that as a child experiencing that abuse, she felt no coherent
in self. She was dispersed, not coherent, Not together, no continuity. Shes been
in Psycho therapy for many many years and has become aware of many facets of
her personality. Many different facets, she says that are me. I keep it all together
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most often but there are times when I feel I am disintegrating. All those parts are
spreading apart and splitting apart. I feel the Cancer has to do with the sexual
abuse I suffered as a child and the reintegration of myself. I dont want the
surgery and the radiation. But I dont want to cause all this dilemma and all this
schisms in the family. I need to be together now more than ever. Family and
friends are all over the place with my feelings. That upsets me. Its chaotic,
juggling so many things, trying to keep things together. But I am feeling like I am
coming apart. The Diagnosis makes me feel like I am all in pieces.
I asked her about this. She says I feel like all the molecules are spreading
apart. Spreading apart and moving, no core in space. Like a planet that has been
disrupted and the pieces are separating and floating apart in space farther and
farther apart. No core left. Theres no whole. They are no longer together. Moving
out from pieces sheering in different directions scattering everywhere.
Something was whole and coherent and then it comes apart. Like a bamboo line,
when you pick it, its a complete lobe. Then the wind comes and all the little
pieces scatter. All the pieces spread about. All the seeds flow away from each
other all over the place. When this happens, I become very desperate. How will I
care for my son and work. How will I take care of myself and keep things together.
So so so much effort is needed to keep everything, all these fragments and
molecules back together to consolidate and be a whole. I have to watch and be
very careful to maintain this, keep control. This experience is very uncomfortable,
fear, anxiety. I feel I will completely disperse. The me, will be all in pieces. I spend
most of my time keeping things together.
Then she also spoke about her sexual abuse memories. After her father
died she had a memory here and a memory there, unrelated in random pieces.
Thats how she talked about it. They were like fragments of something but I had
no idea what. Like pieces of a puzzle. These memories came more and more
often. And I became losing pieces of myself, even losing chunks of time. This
affected everything. My digestion became erratic. My sleep became erratic. I was
very careful with food; my bowels were all over the place, out of control. Felt like I
just started to come together and then going to pieces, fragmenting, losing all
control. I need to pull things together.
That was basically the case.

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Analysis of the case:

From there you can see that the sensation of spreading apart, dispersing, coming
into pieces and then the opposite that of trying to desperately pull things
together and to pull things together required for her a super human effort. So
that I felt the remedy was coming from Leguminosae family and the Cancer
miasm. So the remedy that I gave her was Physostigma; and this was one of those
beautiful results where she had made a very radical decision to not pursue the
traditional treatment and then she went back to her investigation and her check
up 3 or 4 months after she had taken the remedy, the tumor had actually shrunk.
And as we continued the treatment, this tumor shrank and shrank and shrank.
And now she is completely cancer free.
RS: So, Thank you Laurie for that really beautiful case. And one could see how in
every expression of the patient whether it be her past, her sexual abuse, her
dreams, her child, her situation .. in every expression of her life came only the
experience of being split apart, being in pieces, being spread apart and the
opposite bound coming together, pulling together. And thats the beauty of a
Plant case. This case it was very very clear but in not all cases its thats clear. So
we will examine some other cases also as time goes by.
Now to summarize the experience of Leguminosae:
Sensation:
Splitting apart
Coming apart
Scattered
And the opposite:
Bound together
(Scattered can also be called Fragmented)
Passive reaction:
To Feel:
Scattered and confused
Split up
Not together
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Active reaction:
To pull things or Get things together
Compensation:
To feel together or unified
The Keywords of this family are:
Splitting apart, coming apart, scattered, fragmented, divided, cut off, not
together, separate, severed, breaking in parts, separating into parts, falling apart,
disconnected, loose, pieces, disjointed, detached, break up, tear apart, rip apart,
crack, all over the place, spread in many directions, disseminated.
And the opposite:
Together, bandaging, bind, bound, bound together, attach, bond, connect, join,
whole, put together or unite.
Just to give you an idea how is it expressed. And in Lauries case, you could
see how this expression permeated almost in every situation in her life. Its just so
beautiful, an illustration.
Conifers
Lets now examine the Conifers, because also in the conifers you have the split
apart, separated, disunited feeling. Whats the real difference between the two?
We will examine.
The Conifers are a larger classification and they include several families of trees
like the Taxaceae, the Cupressaceae, the Pinaceae and the Taxodiaceae.
The remedies we have of the Conifer group are:
Abies Canadensis, Abies nigra, Agathis australis, Cupressus australis, Juniperus
communis, Juniperus virginiana, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Sabina, Sequoia
gigantean, Sequoia sempervirens, Taxus baccata, Taxus brevifolia, Thuja
occidentalis and Thuja lobbii

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I choose some remedies from here like so one thing we understand that
conifers is not a family, its a group of families. Its a largest classification. This is
important to understand. So we have in some cases we have studied the families,
in some cases we have studied larger groups.
On studying the remedies Abies nigra, Sequoia sempervivens, Taxus baccata, and
Thuja occidentalis through the Complete Repertory, we found the following
significantly related symptoms:
Delusions, imaginations: body, body parts: brittle, is (Sequoia sempervivens,
Thuja).
And this is of course the most well known symptom of Thuja that he is brittle or
fragile or made of glass or thin etc.
Fragile ( is also found in remedy Abies Canadensis)
So this idea of fragility or brittleness is something that runs through this family.
This is well represented in Thuja which is the most popular of all. In the rubrics:
Delusion, body, delicate [Allens Repertory]
Delusion, body, of, thin and delicate, (and the most important symptom here is)
as if the continuity of the body would be dissolved, or made of glass and will
break [Knerr] (single symptom);
I want to emphasize on that symptom that the continuity of the body will be
dissolved as if the body is one continuum and that continuum will be broken and
thats the difference between Conifers and Leguminosae because the
Leguminosae doesnt feel like the continuum. It feels like parts are bound
together loosely. Its not a continuum and this loose binding can be easily broken
and the parts are separated.
But in Conifers the idea is that there is one continuum like a sheet of glass, its not
made up of parts, just one sheet of glass which is a thin fragile delicate sheet of
glass and there is an impact on this and it becomes two pieces of glass. This is
how it feels. So the continuum is broken, that the unity becomes double or triple
or whatever.

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Sensation as if the whole body were very thin and delicate, and could not resist
the least attack, as if the continuity of the body will be dissolved [Clarke]
That any impact on this thin, fragile, very delicate, brittle is going to split apart.
Sensation, as if body were frail and easily broken [Knerr]
So these are the symptoms from Clarke, Knerr, Allens repertory which indicate
the exact experience of Thuja and therefore also of the entire Conifer group.
In Sabina we find:
Aching in the sacrum as if broken, as if the bones would separate [Vermeulen]
Delusions of being fragile like a cracked eggshell [quote given in Vermulen by
Birch and Rockwell]
As if she would emotionally fall apart
So the sensations in this family are:
Brittle
Fragile
Delicate
Broken into pieces
Thin
And the feeling, the opposite is that you need to be hard, rigid and strong so that
there is no break in the continuity. These are the two polarities of the Conifers.
I go to a small case example:
Case example 1
We often get lost at a delusion or emotional level, and we lose track of the core
issue, which frequently comes out along with the chief complaint itself.
So this is a case from the outpatient department of the hospital, the history has
been taken by an intern and is brought to me for prescription.
Its a woman aged 47 years
Chief Complaint:
She has been suffering for the past ten years with a rough, dry, itching eruption
on the legs which causes a blackish discolouration of the skin.
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There is much itching, and it bleeds on scratching. With the frequent itching and
scratching, the eruptions are growing in size.
The diagnosis is Lichen simplex chronicus and she has been applying topical
steroids for some time.
P: The itching is the most bothersome thing. I changed so many doctors but yet it
does not go away. It just remains, I cant do anything about it.
It does not look good. If it goes on like this, if it increases then, I will be disfigured.
Suppose it starts coming on my hands what will I do? So far it is on my legs, my
clothes cover it. But what if it appears on my hands or it appears on my face?
Then everybody will ask, What has happened to your face? Then I will not like it
at all. Then what will I do? How will I stand up in front of people? Everybody will
notice it.
Other people look fine and beautiful. But what about me? Is it some sin that I
have done? And so forth. Why me? Cure me fast.
L: So what do we see in the chief complaint?
In the chief complaint we see two things:
1: anticipation what if, what if it increases? What if something happens? On the
one side. And on the other side, we see the fear of the thing being exposed.
Suppose it comes on a part that is not covered then what? So this is a very
interesting example of use of rubrics also in a way. Use of miasms in a way
because this is the Sycotic miasm. The anticipation, what if?
And the rubric of Thuja is:
Eruptions on covered parts
That means the idea is also Sycotic miasm. You have to cover up things, you
should not come on the part that is uncovered. So this is already you are getting
an idea of what miasm, what rubric, what remedy it could be.
So we ask her questions about her nature and so forth. But it doesnt yield too
much.
I gave her:
Rx: Thuja occidentalis 1M
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And within one months time there is a considerable amelioration in the itching
and the improvement in the discolouration of the skin. She followed up for two
years, during which time there has been continuing improvement to a point
where the symptoms dont even bother her and most of it is gone.
Analysis of the case:
So what I found in Thuja is first of all the Sycotic miasm. The miasm is anticipation,
the miasm is to cover up, not get exposed. And one of the symptoms of Thuja that
I found as opposed to Medorrihium. Medorrihium has everything Sycoticanticipation and covering up, exposure etc. but the main fear of Thuja I found in
at emotional, delusional level is the fear that you will fall from grace; in society.
This is what I found. Like What will people think of me? and you find this
symptom in the rubric like:
Fear of society
Etc. you will find Thuja.
In my understanding this anticipatory fear comes from a sense of the brittleness
of ones social image. And therefore you avoid social contact. This brittleness is
fragility- this image of mine can break anytime is what makes them avoid anything
that would affect that situation. And this is the key sensation of the Conifers
family to which Thuja occidentalis belongs.
Just for your information, some Confirmatory symptoms of Thuja occidentalis
that I found in many many cured cases is one:
- Jerk: during the act of falling asleep Thuja.
So one symptom you can ask is, what happens at a the moment when you fall
asleep and the patient often says I jerk and in this jerk usually theres a sensation
of falling. So
Delusion: Falling from high places
Dreams: Falling from high places
Is very very high in Thuja.
- Eruptions: on covered parts [Knerrs Repertory]
We have already talked about. Another symptom is:
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- Hair on unusual parts.

Like hair coming out from the ear pinna or hair coming out from the middle
phalanx of the fingers and from the other parts.
Another symptom of Thuja is:
The backache which they experience especially when they get up from a sitting
position, they cannot become straight. So it takes time to get up and ..Ahh!!
Then you get erect. So very typical symptom.
Another is:
Corrugated nails [Kents Repertory] look like as if asbestos sheet.
You know there are many corrugations there.
The other symptom is of course the very well known symptom :
Warts
Found especially in the

External throat, in the nape of the neck, in the armpits,

They are fleshy, pedunculated warts; that are typical of Thuja.

So these are some of the confirmatory symptoms and of course for me the most
confirmatory symptom of thuja is as always the feeling of fragility of the body as if
the entire being is so delicate that it has to be handled like glass. So the patient
often expresses the symptom, Doctor, please make sure that you dont give me a
strong medicine because my body cant take it. May be its good for everybody
else, no problem But I cannot take it. This kind of feeling
Or the patient says I cannot take a cold. If I go in a cold wind or I have to be very
very careful because I cannot stand this. I cannot stand that more or less saying I
am delicate. I am fragile, I am brittle. I have to be cautious. I have to be avoiding, I
have to be careful etc. This kind of a feeling.
A little ice cream I take immediately. So careful, so brittle is the feeling. So this
feeling comes out in many aspects and to speak a little more about this fragile,
brittle feeling or the break of continuity or the opposite which is the need to be
strong and hard in order to protect against this fragile, brittle sensation inside.
These two sides of the Conifers are beautifully illustrated again by Laurie who will
share some cases with us.
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[LD- Laurie Dack, RS- Rajan Sankaran]

LD: OK. So this is a case I am going to share with you of a woman whose 36 yrs.
She came about 5 years ago, complaining of infertility. Problems with infertility
and the first thing she says is that when she points towards her abdomen, she
said, the first thing is all my problems are around this area.. my belly. She said. It
has a life of its own. Shes been suffering of hormonal problems for a long time,
trying to get pregnant for years. Shes been pregnant 4 times with hormonal
treatment and has miscarried all 4 times. She says I am not strong enough to carry
a pregnancy to full term. It is so disheartening. Shes had a history of ovarian cysts
and severe menstrual pains. Tension and stress live in my belly she said. Severe
periods with intense pains, heav bleeding, upset stomach, burning pain in her
stomach during menstruation.
Also with her period she has Migraine headaches, terrible headaches. She says, I
have to be extremely careful watching everything I eat ,so the pain doesnt get
out of control. Even if I eat a little bit too much, the headache gets worst and I
start vomiting. Its terrible pain like being pulled apart (hg). She says, I am so
precarious (hg) around my period.
The headache pain is like pressing in the temples and it feels like they are pulling
it apart (hg), like my eyes will come out coming out (hg). So I have to be very
very careful with my diet, so rigorous.
You can see how you are already getting a picture of the sensation. Of course we
got it very clearly but how she is reacting to the sensation which is trying to do
everything just so that the things dont get out of control.
Her Back pain feels during the period like her back is breaking, she is doubling
over in pain. I feel disconnected (hg) from here down (indicating lower half).
Its an extremely heavy flow like everything pouring out, thick blood and large
clots. It feels like torture. Its so painful. Everything pouring out. The pains feel like
breaking apart (hg). Everything flowing out of me, pouring out of me theres
nothing left and empty afterwards.

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She goes on to tell that the Miscarriages were terrible. Ovarian cysts would grow
and break open due to the hormonal treatment that she needed to use. It also
increased the ovarian cyst, the way it started growing. So as she became pregnant
with the support of this hormonal treatment, the ovarian cyst would just grow
and burst open.
So painful. She said One of the miscarriages of the worst came at 17 weeks. It
was so painful giving birth, Back breaking labour. I bled for weeks, it was
devastating. Being pregnant has been a dream for me and it was heart breaking to
lose that pregnancy. Everything feels so precarious she says. Afraid of doing
anything, so precarious , any wrong move might dislodge the fetus. Break the
implantation. If the implantation is not strong enough that can lead to
miscarriages is what I am told. So I am so so careful so the connection, the
implantation - doesnt break.
We can see this aspect of this feeling like of things are breaking and breaking
apart, coming through in the different areas of her local symptoms. The last
pregnancy she was very hopeful. She did everything perfectly she said. I was
moving around so carefully being very cautious and protective. So shocked
when the ultrasound showed the foetus was not alive devastated. I felt Empty,
Wrung out, Like nothing left (hg), an empty pit inside, Empty - despair
She goes on to say that she has done years of yoga and meditation practice very
diligent at least 2 hours of yoga a day. Its her core, strength and flexibility she has
been working for all these years. So that she can be strong enough to carry a
pregnancy.
That strong you heard originally, she talked about it. She says, I am very strong
and flexible. But during my period everything falls apart. I become stiff, inflexible,
scared. Any sudden moment I feel goes through me, cracks. Generally I am a yoga
teacher. I do all this yoga but during my period I wouldnt even let to touch my
feet, my toes. I feel I snap out. Like a matchstick. All the flexibility and all strength
is gone. I have to be so careful like a china doll so precarious (hg). I become
hard and thin like a statue.
I ask her about this word she used in several circumstances about Precarious.

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Its like walking on any icy road, she said. You try to be strong and hold
everything together so I dont go smashing down. Have to keep complete control
of your every move. Its scary, vulnerable. Tense up, stiffened up so you dont fall.
Like a China doll, its perfect but breakable. If it falls it is in thousand pieces. No
protection if shatters. So delicate because it isnt solid - hard on the outside
but fragile because it is hollow inside. If it falls it cracks. There is nothing to
protect it.
She goes in this moment in the case at this time where she kind of dreamt and
saw, she says I used to call my little sister a china doll.
We talked about how this can be quiet a special point in the case where they go
down a level in a way, down into themselves. And then she tells a story very sad
story of how her parents both her parents all four of them herself, her younger
sister, her parents were on a driving holiday and suddenly there was a head on
collision and both of her parents died instantly leaving her and her little sister. At
that point they didnt know what to do, so they didnt have a large extended
family and they were sent to a convent school.
And I became the protective big sister because China was so weak and delicate
and shocked by all of this. And I was the older sister, so I took the role of being
strong and protective. She said, china looked as if you could blow her away. She
had to become strong for her. One place she drew her strength from was Mother
Mary and the Chapel at the convent. As the family had broken apart, she drew
her strength from images of Mother Mary. That helped her to be strong.
Around the time of puberty, a priest came and she became attracted to him. She
said she fell in love. She was developing physically, and feeling things that were
new to her sexuality, love, attraction, menstruation. She wanted suddenly her
feelings changed and suddenly she wanted her sister to go away and leave her
alone. So that she could spend time with this priest. She found her sister a
weakness and vulnerability irritating. Because she wanted to be with the priest.
But one day she found that the priest and her sister were together in a kind of an
inappropriate way and this broke our patience. She said it broke the image of
herself. It broke her strength, she felt that she had broken her promise to take

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care of her sister and to protect her. She said things had just fallen apart. Felt her
heart cracked, empty, everything she believed in was empty.
RS: So Laurie it is very interesting here how one can get lost in the story. This is
such an interesting story of her childhood with the death of her parents, the
priest, the sister. Its almost like a drama going on there, isnt it? And how easy is
it for us to get lost in that story and to create our own theories of what she felt
whether she felt betrayed, that she felt responsible that she felt whatever and
create remedies out of that story. This is quite easy for us to do. But how
important it is to keep your attention on the experience which permeates the
entire case, not only the story but what is it that goes through the story into the
rest of the case that commonality which is breaking apart, splitting, being strong
and the opposite - being vulnerable, being fragile, being brittle to keep our
attention on those experiences.
LD: Yes
RS: While the story and the narration is going on. That I think is the real art and
skill of this method.
LD: Yes and really when that happens and you look at this case, then you see that
the story actually whats coming through in the story is really just confirming what
she experienced in her local symptom.
RS: While this is really true but I think its difficult in a way when such a unique
story is being narrated to not get lost in it, into the emotions and the feelings. And
you know you can easily say this is feeling betrayed or feeling jealous or envious
or its an Animal kingdom or its a Mineral kingdom because of her sense of
responsibility or Natrum muraticum or whatever. Anything can come here.
LD: Yes
RS: You can say she is very dependent. She felt very betrayed or she is
responsible. She felt let down or she is guilty and whatever.
LD: Yes

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RS: But to kind of keep the human specific part away, and to keep focusing on
those non -human specific words and experiences that keep underlying the story.
That is the real art I find.
LD: And thats the real joy I find.
Then she takes the pinnacle of it and she says what she does she really was in the
midst of it. She took her favorite picture of her Mother Mary. Her strength of
course and she threw it on the ground .. breaking it into pieces .. broken
promises. She broken the family .. broken her faith broken, her image of herself
broken, Everything broken and she feeling completely empty. Her response to this
situation is interesting. Her response to the situation with her sister as she says
was I became hardened. I became vigilant, I became a lot oriented watching my
sisters every move. I became rigid, and inflexible, unbending. After this where
she took great joy from music in the Chapel, it brought her great joy at that
moment. At this point, she could no longer stand listening to that noise, the music
it would rattle her. She said she could feel in her bones, it felt like the bones
would break. She just couldnt tolerate it.
Dreams of falling from heights, high places.
And one of the interesting things we could talk about or ask about are the
interests and hobbies sometimes. And in her case interesting hobby was that she
loved climbing. And what happens when she climbs? She feels connected. Every
muscle and movement coming together like a whole (hg) strong together,
connected.
So when I took a look at this case I saw this sensation of the Conifer family. The
feeling of being very fragile, hollow, weak, vulnerable as in her sister and the
other side of being strong, hard, unbending to protect that inner fragility. And as I
said before this kind of needing to keep control, needing to do everything
absolutely perfectly, needing to really work at keeping everything in control. So I
decided it was the Cancer miasm and the conifer family and she was given Sabina.
Rubrics:
I have some rubrics:

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RS: Its always interesting Laurie when the rubrics are confirmatory and I find this
very important and especially in well proven remedies that the characteristics of
the patient usually are covered by the rubrics of that remedy .
LD: Ya. So of course we know the
Tendency to abortion, miscarriage Sabina
Painful menstruation
Backpain , broken as if
And this was an interesting one:
Headpain, pressing
And the word is in the repertory sunder. And when I look at that in the
dictionary the sunder means to come apart.
Dreams of falling
And an interesting rubric
Music aggravates

Or

Fear of music

And
Religious affections.
And the follow up for this patient: its one of those nice easy follow ups that
makes everybody feel good is that she has a baby now. A baby boy and is
pregnant with her 2nd child. So good response!
RS: And how is she as a person?
LD: She is much strong. Much, much stronger and this whole issue of feeling like
she had to be strong and had to keep things together because of this inner
vulnerability has completely gone down and so she is much more at ease and
peace.

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RS: So we can summarize the experience of the Conifers as follows:

Vital Sensation
Fragile
Broken
Brittle
Connected or disconnected
And as Laurie pointed out the sensation inside is emptiness as if there is a hollow
empty thing inside thats what makes the whole thing fragile and brittle. Because
if it was full then it wont be so brittle.
Then to be:
Cut off
Fragmented
Passive reaction
Fearful
Feeling Weak
Brittle and feeling fragile
Active reaction
To become Rigid and Hard
- So this rigidity what you saw in the case is also a symptom in Thuja and
manifests in many aspects like the fixed ideas, and the rigidity and the fanaticism
of religion etc. To be very rigid in his opinion, unbending, fixed, not flexible.
Compensation
Strength
And
To be Strong and protective
Keywords
Breakable, brittle, delicate, flimsy, fragile, frail, weak, vulnerable, unprotected,
unguarded, fragment, cracked, shattered, fall to pieces.

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Like Leguminosae; but we saw the difference like in Leguminosae, many discrete
parts- bound together, split apart and in Thuja one unit becomes two in Conifers.
Vacant, blank, fright, horror, rigid, hard, unyielding, inflexible, protective armour,
safeguard, shield. These words can also be used.
I remember one very nice case of Thuja. I have shown before in video and
reported in the book. But it bears a little repetition but people who dont know. It
was a man with Prostate cancer with metastasis and he had come with urinary
block. He couldnt pass. Retention of urine because of the tumour and they
wanted to operate even though they said operation is not called for with so much
metastasis but still what can we do? And he was brought in that state and he was
an old man. He was about like 70 75 years old and I asked him Whats the
problem? and he didnt mention much about the urine. He said Its a problem
with the stool. He said The stool is hard and his rectum is soft and when the hard
stool passes, his rectum then he splits apart, it tears apart. And that was his
sensation you know. He showed this with his hand.
And then I asked him to describe himself and the funny part was he said,
Doctor, I never smile. I said Why not? He said, No I havent smiled 25 yrs now.
I said, Why not? He said, After the age of 50 you shouldnt smile. I said, Why
not? He said, Then if you smile after the age of 50 then people in your family
take you amidst. They say the old man is smiling, something is not OK. I said,
Then what happens if the old man smiles? He said, If the old man smiles and
people dont feel OK the whole family can split apart. I mean I know its non sense
but thats exactly what the whole idea is, isnt it? So the same gesture with his
rectum splitting apart and the unit. He said that my family is a unit. We have
come up together. Its a whole unit here and I dont want anything. I want to
avoid this unit to split. So if I shouldnt have to smile, I will not smile. I will do
nothing. I will have no conflict, no argument at all because I am afraid this will
split up.
And on this thing I gave him Thuja in the LM potency I think and within 4-5
days he got his urination again and I followed him for about 5 years, his urine was
normal and PSA went down which was quite high back to normal again. And I
mean it was quite a remarkable follow up. So this is the idea of Conifers.

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I am going to ask Laurie to take us one step more into conifers and illustrate
another case which is not so direct, not so obvious but how to pick up this even
from subtle things and how to bring it down to the understanding of the
experience. Lets hear one more case from Laurie.
LD: Ok ready. This is a case of a woman who comes because complaining that
shes struggling from Sleeplessness. She says:
Its harder and harder for me to sleep. I am struggling with sleeplessness. I am
using far too much sleeping medication. Then I get up and I am not able to think. I
cant fall asleep. I am alert. irritated agitated. I cant let down into sleep. I get
irritated by noise Restless. I get unplugged from day. I dont feel sleepy. I feel
aware, alert, unsettled. Why is it so difficult for me to sleep? Its so hard. Its a
simple thing to lie down and go to sleep. But its hard for me to drift off, difficult
to drop off sleep I am irritated.
I get angry at myself, I hate it. I dont like talking about it. I lose patience. I
try and try different things but its too hard to fall asleep. Frustrated, depressed. I
guess feel empty and frustrated. I cant disconnect from the day. I cant pull (hg)
the plug and disconnect. Instead Im alert vigilant, like on guard duty, cant
disconnect.
She tries various approaches dietary changes, exercises, medication, tapes
things but still finds herself just using these sleeping medication and having
trouble with falling asleep.
She further describes the experience of sleeplessness as agitated, angry. When I
wake up at night I have so many feelings. One thing that happens is that I get
really hungry and I get up and I eat and I eat and I eat. Its like a bottomless pit, I
cant fill. She says, wine can help me relax - but I am drinking too much, I am
eating too much, I am taking too much medication. And this makes hard for me to
work. Hard to be around people. In fact I hate being with people I feel antisocial.
Everyone at work can feel my mood and they are staying away from me. I am
hard to be around.

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21

You see this word hard is being used in many contexts. So its something we
have to understand that. I am on guard when they come to talk to me. My
defences are up. I dont want to argue, just live alone. I dont blame them for
hating me. I hate me. I have to hold myself so I dont say anything too hard. I am
angry hard, inflexible, dont interfere with me. No tolerance for stupid people. I
am hard, angry, stubborn. I cut people off, disconnect. No connection with them
at all.
Her job, she tells me is writing Research papers for the forestry industry. And she
says in this job what is it she does is she connects different ideas into a viable
thesis . So she needs to be able think clearly. But she finds it hard when she isnt
sleeping. I cant stop eating trying to fill myself. Like an empty whole that never
gets filled. No connection to anything, feeling of separation from everybody, like
stay away . Like theres a thick wall around me; and I am alone and disconnected
She says:
No one comes to stay with her anymore because I cant sleep when anyone is in
the apartment. The energy affects me. Once an old friend came to stay and he
was happily sleeping - oblivious to everything. And I was completely awake and I
felt so angry at this guy. He could sleep and why could not I quite oblivious and I
just couldnt sleep. I felt like killing him. I wanted to take his head and smash it
into pieces while listening to him sleep. She says it is horrible to have these
thoughts.
She says no one comes to visit anymore. Because of this her Immune system
suffers. She becomes more susceptible to things, colds and flus. She tries to keep
herself strong but she is not strong. She is losing those reserves. I dont have any
energy to be interactive. And I need to keep strong and together. My reserves are
going down. I feel empty like an empty cavity.
And I ask about this and then she tells me that her husband died 4 years ago after
a long struggle with a rare blood disease. He had been sick for most of their life
together, their married life together. And it was a hard process. He almost made
his system fall apart. He was on Chemotherapy and immuno-suppressive drugs.
He would succumb to everything he was exposed to. He had no defences, no

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immune system, no protection. We had to become hyper vigilant about germs,

bugs, viruses. Because he would suffer so intensely.
So we tried and tried and tried different things, it was heart breaking, really very
hard. I would sleep with one eye open listening for any indication that he needed
me. In the last years he had a very severe skin reaction and his skin became so
thin that it would just peel off. Terrible skin eruptions. His skin is falling off. He
was raw and so susceptible to infections. So any kind of a crack or a break in the
skin we had to attend to. I didnt sleep she said. I was on watch. I had to be strong
for him.
RS: So Laurie at this point could you tell our participants how do you see the
significance of her description of her husbands problem as regard to her own
case.
LD: Ya I feel that there are times in cases when the patient starts to come to a
point where there isnt anyone else. So anybody else that they are describing is a
perception and a part of themselves. So I feel like her description about her
husband being vulnerable, being so susceptible, being so delicate was actually an
expression of her own self. And that her need to be strong and hard and vigilant
and protective was also an expression of the other side of herself. So that
tendency of the Plant is to have two sides, I feel like she in this case was
expressing it in terms of her husband became a vehicle for her to express that
side of herself.
RS: So its so interesting how we have to watch not only what the patient said
about himself or herself or really we have to watch what they say about anybody
or anything ..
LD: About everything at a certain point when they are in that delusion state .
I had to be strong for him she says. Our lives became very quiet and separate
from others, disconnect from other people because he was so vulnerable, we had
to make sure that he wasnt being exposed to any germs or bugs. He was
vulnerable to everything. No protection. He became very thin like a stick, so
delicate. We shared such an intimacy during this time. Such a depth of
connectedness even when he slept for 18 to 20 hours a day. I realized I became
Talk 25 Plant Kingdom - 3

23

strong and tough for him. Like a sentinel guarding over him. He was vulnerable.
Like see through. Like tissue paper. Flimsy. I needed to protect him to be tough.
And now that he has gone, the aloneness is unbearable. I Feel completely alone
and empty; Separate from everyone; Separate from everything apart.
RS: Laurie I want to ask you I believe this is one of the cases you presented at the
recent seminar in Mumbai, right?
LD: Yes
RS: And I believe that or I think this is a case where when you asked the
participants what Kingdom it was. I think a good number of people, majority came
to the Mineral kingdom.
LD: Yes
RS: Am I right? So can you tell us please why did they come to Mineral kingdom
and how can we differentiate..
LD: Yes
RS: The two kingdoms?
LD: Yes. I was kind of surprised that a lot of them had come to the mineral
kingdom because we had just done that Sabina case where these two sides was
quite well expressed. But in this case it seems to be less clear and I think what I
understood was when they heard a word or when you hear the word hard,
inflexible, strong I think we sometimes immediately go to the Mineral kingdom.
They are like a guard. All those ideas in the 4th row of role and duty and we made
those assumptions that she was doing this out of duty and then we go to the
Mineral kingdom. But if we really listen to her we realize that what she is saying is
this hardness comes to protect and inner vulnerability and every part of the case
there is that movement between those two polarities of hard, strength and that
inner vulnerability, hollow empty feeling.
So I think the only way not to make mistakes is really to keep on listening to the
patient really carefully. Hear what shes saying. So this remedy, this case I went to
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24

the Repertory because I didnt know what to give this patient. I did was aware of
what I felt was a Conifer family that as we said the movement between the hard,
strong side and that inner vulnerability but I didnt know which remedy to give. So
I went to the repertory, I took some symptoms and one of the symptoms that I
took was this:
Appetite increased
Because she said it was like this pit, she had to be fill, fill, fill, fill. I took the idea of
dreams of fighting. Like I will condense the case here but in the full case she
talked a lot about this arguing and that she had become very argumentative .
Delusions, she is despised
Sleeplessness
Reproaches himself
Dreams of quarrels and fight
Dreams of eating a lot
The remedy that I came to was Psuedostuga menzesii which is the Douglass fur
tree. Its the remedy in the Ringworm miasm of the conifer family.
Shes done very well from this remedy. This whole sleeplessness issue has
resolved beautifully. She rests easily and I must say that this part of her where
was this unresolved loss with her husband has much come down and she is able
to make a carry on relationship. Her friends have interaction. She is doing very
very well. So was a great case of Douglass fur.
RS: And also what is interesting is that I believe that you were not very sure about
the miasm in the case. And therefore what you did was, you took the rubrics of
the peculiar symptoms and see which of the Conifers come through in those
rubrics.
LD: Right
RS: And then you came to the remedy. I think this is also a viable alternative if you
are not very clear about the miasm.

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25

LD: Exactly, thats what I did. I went to the Repertory, I looked at those symptoms,
characteristic symptoms or those outstanding symptoms that I felt expressed
were characteristic of her and came to this remedy.
RS: And sometimes you may even come to a remedy which is not mentioned in
Schema. That the outside of the remedies we already know. And still you can
prescribe it as long as it in in the family and it has some characteristic symptoms.
So thank you Laurie and that was really beautiful illustrations of not only the
family sensation; but beautiful illustrations of your case taking technique which
was commented upon by a lot of participants of the last weeks seminar as being
so .. not interfering with the patient, not leading them anywhere and just
watching and just encouraging them to go on with their own experience and this
is really very very valuable lesson to learn.
We will carry on from there with:
Family Malvales:
Malvales is also a group, its not a family. Its a group of the following families:
Malvaceae, Sterculiaceae and Tiliaceae
The remedies that we have in this family:
Now you will ask me this question:
Why did I take a group and studied together rather than individual families?
And the answer is pretty simple. That these individual families have very few
remedies known in Homoeopathy. Just 1-2 or something like this. So it was not
possible to study them individually as families and ultimately we will not even
have enough remedies for all the miasms. So I had to take a little bigger group
which included more families. So that I could have a substantial number of
remedies to compare, to come to a sensation and to differentiate into miasms.
The remedies from this group of Malvales are:
Abroma augusta, Abelmoschus, Cacao, Chocolate, Gossypium herbaceum, Kola
nut, Tilia cordata and Tilia europaea.
When we study rubrics that have these remedies prominently, we find the
following symptoms:
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26

Now this is very basic work. You know if you have to do this work in order that
your fundamentals are strong and you are not relying upon my theory of family or
some body elses theory about a family; you know it, you have read it and you
have the assurance that it is correct. The rubrics are as follows:
Delusion, imaginations, alone, world, in the
Delusion, imaginations, animals, of, insects, sees
Delusion, imaginations, separated, world, from the, that he is
Dreams: childbirth, of
Dreams: death, of, friend, death of a
Dreams: pregnant, of being
Estranged: family, from his
Desires to, talk to someone
These are some of the specific rubrics from the family.
In Abroma augusta we find:
Feeling as if legs would be separated from body [Vermeulen] (single symptom).
In Chocolate you find the following symptoms in the Complete Repertory:
Delusion, imaginations: separated, world, from the, that he is
Escape, attempts to, family and children, from her
Estranged, family, from her
Estranged, society, from
So you see the separation is very strong here. There are so many rubrics
indicating separation.
Dreams: child birth, of
Also a kind of separation
Detached
And the opposite you find in Tilia europea:
Love sick; all his thoughts centered upon an ideal woman; in this reverie he was
possessed by a sweet melancholy, which it was impossible to describe; every
earthly sense seemed far away [Allens Encyclopedia]
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Just listen to the description:

Love sick; his thoughts, all his thoughts centered upon an ideal woman;
In Cacao we find:
Love, disappointed [Clarkes Repertory]
Forsaken feeling [Massimo]
We can see the prominent thread running through is of separation or of being
together, of warmth, of love, of affection.
We see being together, and the opposite of it, is being separated; to be
estranged, somebody dying; to be separated from the world, so you have dreams
of child birth etc.
So we see as the main theme of this family:
Attachment and Detachment
Joined and separated
Together and separated
The core sensation of Malvales is to be attached, joined, being together, the
feeling is as if one entity. You are so joined as if you are one entity. Its like there
is a train and a compartment, a bogie is attached to the train, it becomes a part of
the train. It is as if one entity. One is becoming part of the other. Like a child it
becomes the part of the mother; the foetus becomes the part of the mother. That
kind of attachment is the idea of Malvales. . How is this expressed in a case? For
this we will take a case example.
Case example:
In 1989 a person in his late twenties first came for treatment. He was an
Engineering student. Over the years I had treated him with very limited success
for recurrent problems and he would go away for a long time and he wouldnt
come back and then he would come back I would give him another remedy and
this was going on. Till we discovered the Sensation Method and this gave him his
most suitable cure.

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So in those times before the Sensation method was found we had to rely upon
emotional and physical symptoms and Repertorisation. And many different
remedies based on these symptoms were given with no effect. In the year 2000 I
did his case again and I asked him to describe his complaints. And he said:
Excerpts from case notes through the years:
[L- Lecturer Dr. Rajan]
Chief complaints
1. He gets sneezing, and he gets wheezing. He gets asthma. His lungs feel
choked. It all increases in the morning and decreases when the sun goes down.
And when he laughs he starts getting cough.
I asked him to describe himself and the patient said:
P: I am confused and very depressed. When will this problem get cured? Is it my
bad luck or fate? I dont know. I feel a lot of frustration and anger.
I shout at times and get irritated very fast, my blood boils in my brain, I feel wild. I
shout. My right leg is shaky; my whole body gets shaken up, my eyes become
reddish. I cant control the anger I move out of the scene. The smallest things
irritate me.
D: What sensation you get in the body when you are angry?
P: As if my brain will explode. My blood becomes hot.
L: Now in normal circumstances we could have taken all these rubrics:
Trembling from anger
Or
Heat from anger
Or whatever. You know feeling a bursting in the head etc.
D: What dreams do you get?
P: mostly related to work and I am always anxious about finishing work in a
certain time frame; I am very uneasy.
L: So the patient tells a lot about his emotional level about his Psycho somatic
level but what is really his experience? He says:

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P: My father expired in 1991. I was still studying. And then I felt very guilty that I
didnt take him to the right doctor. I felt emotional. And when I get emotional, my
brain gets hot and I start crying.
Once in childhood, my mother told me, This breathing problem will always
remain with you. This was a great shock to hear.
I was very afraid of my father. He would sometimes scold and hit me. I am very
attached to my mother.
I have few friends. I dont mingle much. I like greenery. I like going to the hill
stations etc.
D: What dreams did you have in childhood?
P: I used to be very afraid of the dark, I couldnt sleep alone. I am afraid that
someone will come and rob me. Even if the curtain shakes, I feel a robber has
entered. I startle and if something suddenly moves in the dark, it frightens me.
L: So you see so much scattered information. Theres information about his anger,
about his dreams, about his father, about his mother, now about this fears and
you just dont know where to go. These are the cases that are very difficult and
confusing unless you find that central thread and then everything just falls into
place.
D: Tell me about one situation that caused you the most fear?
L: So what we do in these cases when everything is scattered is just you take one
thing and just go razor sharp into the depth of one thing. Thats exactly what I do
when I get confused. Instead of jumping from one to the other, you just take one
thing and just go deeper and deeper into it. Cut through the very core of one
thing and then we find the core of the whole case. So I asked him:
D: Tell me one situation that caused you the most fear?
P: I dont know swimming. Once I went in the village lake. There was mud in the
water, it was like quicksand, the tide started pulling me in. I couldnt come out.
My Mother rescued me. I was almost finished.
Once he said, I hate animals. A dog bit me once and I had to take injections.
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L: So this was his case in 2000 and then in 2002 nothing has happened. The
remedies havent worked. He talked of he is feeling very angry and very wild.
1st April 2003: By this time the Sensation Method has become clear and I asked
him ..
D: Describe the exact experience during the asthma?
P: I experience severe anxiety.
D: and how is this anxiety?
P: It feels like an explosion (hg) its like an explosion. .
L: Now this is exactly what happens in a given case. He says explosion but he
makes a specific hand gesture. Its like an explosion when I am anxious or. So I
say:
D: Forget the anxiety, forget the explosion. Just this .. like this, only this, this
much.
L: This is very strange.
D: Focus on that gesture.
P: Its a feeling of separation (hg). This is a bond (hg) and this is separation (hg).
L: The explosion disappeared and the separation came in. and then spontaneously
he said
P: I am very attached to my mother. I feel a lot of fear of separation. I cannot live
without her.
L: You see this time, he is in his late 20s, 28 -29 .. He says: cannot leave without
my mother
P: I have severe anxiety for my mother. How can I suddenly leave her? I feel
choked, I feel I will die. There is so much anxiety.
L: So when we go from the words explosion to the actual experience, you find
that it is actually separation, splitting apart, not having the bond to get
disconnected and this is his main fear in his life - to be separated from his mother.

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Analysis of the case:

So the Main sensation:
Breaking apart and separation.
The main feeling is to be so attached that he cannot bear to be idea of
separation and the way he experiences it is sudden. Its all going to happen
suddenly. So therefore I took to the Malvales group and to the acute miasm in it,
which is Chocolate. Now when we read the proving of Chocolate. Jeremy Sheer
has done this proving and there came interestingly:
- Many images of hedgehog. Interestingly, hedgehog is the only mammal that
has a very peculiar behavior towards their offspring. This hedgehog nourishes,
feed and nurtures their offspring and then all of a sudden the hedgehog
mother turns her back and deserts the offspring.
- There is a sudden separation between the mother and the offspring. So what
we find in chocolate, in the provings and in the cases
- It is the feeling of a child who is separated very suddenly from the mother,
while the need for the mother is still very very strong. As a result of these
separation the person feels forsaken, isolated and estranged. Being separated
from the mother makes her feel as if she is separated from the world.
Now the interesting question that you can ask and I anticipate is that if separation
from mother is the main theme, why cant this be a Mineral remedy? Because you
have separation as a theme in the 2nd row of the periodic table. There is one and
then there is separation from the fetus and the child gets separated from the
mother. Also this separation can be there in the 3rd row with Natrum, Magnesium
and the whole idea of relationship. So why is this not a Mineral case and whats
the difference between a Malvales separation and a Mineral remedy separation?
The main difference is that if it is a Mineral case, you must find all the other
themes of that of a Mineral and of that specific row. May be row 2 or Row 3. so if
it is Row 2, then he must speak about being in a womb, being in a cocoon, being
safe, being protected, being surrounded, being in a very harmonious homogenous
kind of atmosphere and then the idea of having to come out, push through and
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32

being separate and then take a breath. This whole process must be a part of the
case.
The 2nd thing about the Mineral is that he must talk exactly in terms of
dependence. Like I depend on the other person, I need the other person because
my own structure is incomplete. Whether that Structure is the Structure of
protection or the Structure of choice or the Structure of care and nourishment
doesnt matter. So what must come through is that I in myself am inadequate and
therefore need support from outside.
Whereas what you see in this patient and what you see in plant remedies
its not the idea of the structure being incomplete and therefore having the entire
constellation of words of the kingdom or that specific row but the idea in these
Plant cases is that a specific situation will occur to which they are sensitive and in
this case he is extremely sensitive to the situation of separation between him and
the mother or between him and whatever he is attached to. This is a very subtle
difference. But you understand if you go into this idea of what will happen if your
mother separates from you, what will happen to you if your separated from her.
This idea is not coming to him because he is not a Mineral remedy. He is not going
to say how will I manage, how will I stand on my feet? Whos going to care for
me? Nothing here comes just I get anxious with this idea of separation. Just
anxious with this and nothing beyond that. Thats what really differentiates a
Plant and a Mineral remedy and thats what I would really like you to understand.
Where is the emphasis?
Is the emphasis in the completeness or the incompleteness of his own structure
and therefore the dependence on the other or is the emphasis on a specific
situation happening, an incident happening, an effect happening and how he is
going to react and adapt to this effort be it with anxiety or panic or clinging or
whatever it may be.
After giving her warmth and affection initially, the mother shows the child a
thorny side by suddenly turning her back towards the child like a hedgehog. The
child feels completely forsaken. He feels like a gypsy who has to search for food
every time that she is hungry.

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Rubrics of Chocolate:

Delusion, she is a hedgehog.

Desire to forage for food.
Delusion, small.
Delusion, separated, world, from.
Delusion: estranged, family, from.
Fear, injured of being.

I gave this patient:

Remedy: Chocolate 200 one dose.
After that I didnt see him again which can be a good sign, which can be a
bad sign. But luckily his sister and mother continued to see me and still they do
see me and they would report that he is fine, he has no problems. Many years
later he dropped in to collect medicines for his sister and I didnt let go of the
opportunity and I called him in, I put him on the video and asked him to tell me
whats happening. What I found that he had quite dramatically improved both
physically and mentally and hardly had an attack of wheezing after that. A
problem that he has had continually suffered from since he was a child.
So to experience or summarize the experience of Malvales:
Vital sensation
Attached and detached.
Joined and separated.
Together and separated.
But important to remember the feeling of this attached is as if you are now one
entity, not two things but one thing and then the separation.
Passive reaction
Estranged
Indifferent everything to

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Active reaction
Communicative
Affectionate
Dream of falling in love
Getting attached to something
Desire for company etc.
I wont read the entire set of words of Malvales. You can them out in the book or
in Vital quest doesnt matter.
Now we talk a little bit about family Scrophulariaceae.
Family Scrophulariaceae
This is the family of Digitalis. And the known remedies are Chelone glabra,
Digitalis purpurea, Epiphegus virginiana, Euphrasia officinalis, Gratiola officinalis,
Leptandra virginica, Linaria vulgaris, Mimulus guttatus, Scrophularia nodosa,
Verbascum thapsiforme, Veronica officinalis. I might have left out a few.
But the most well-known remedies of this family or the well proved remedies are:
Gratiola officinalis, Euphrasia officinalis, Digitalis purpurea.
Now if we try to understand what are the common symptoms in these remedies
we find:
Pain, tearing
and also
Adhesion, sensation of
For example in the abdomen. There are these two things: Adhesion and tearing.
One of the symptoms I would like to point out is from Digitalis which is I think
quite evocative of the Sensation:
Heart: Stopped, sensation as if, rapid, then several, violent pulsations, as if heart
had torn itself loose and was swaying to and fro by a thin thread [Knerr] (single
symptom);
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And this kind of a feeling like

Head: loose, brain were [Roberts]
Extremities: As if muscle would be torn loose from bones [Ward]
Are found in this family. But the idea as if the heart is connected to the body only
by a thin thread that image is what stays in my mind of Schrophulariceae where
the connection, the bond between two separate entities is so thin that it can
break any time.
So in Conifers, we found that one thing is going to break in Leguminoseae one
loose connection is going to break and scatter. In Malvales, the attachment
where one becomes a part of the other thats going to break open and in
Scophulariaceae, the bond between two separate entities is so thin that bond can
snap at any moment. This is the basic difference between these four families.
So the main sensations of Schrophulariceae is:
Adhesion
Joining
Binding
Bond
Tenacious
The main sensation is connection and disconnection, bonds that are easily
attachable and detachable. Bonds and connections that are not so strong. You
feel that you want to hold on very tight because that connection can break, then
fear, fright and delusion they start.
However, as in a Mineral kingdom, here there is no feeling of dependence. The
emphasis is again not on dependence but on the fragility of the bond, that any
situation can cause that bond or attachment to break open. The feeling at an
emotional level is not that I am incomplete or that I need somebody but the
feeling is as if there is independence that both are independent entities but that
bond is very important to them. Because when that connection breaks, when that
bond breaks, one experiences the separateness, the disconnectedness, etc.

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So I am going to narrate a case of Family Scrophulariaceae:

Case example
The clinic
Feb 2001
A male aged forty-two years
Occupation: Businessman, who deals with packaging and shipping.
Chief complaint:
1. Hypercholesterolemia- high triglycerides since 2-3 years
2. Gout
He says:
He made a blood test and advised a diet. And then he had gout etc. And his
thoughts he said are largely work oriented, and he has done a lot of spiritual
reading in the past 7 or 8 years.
He says, if a relationship doesnt work out or if he feels someone has taken
advantage of me, I just cut off the relationship. I just cut it off.
He talks a lot. He is an intellectual when he talks a lot about how things in society
affect him a lot. And he talks about religion. As a child he was an introvert. And he
wanted to become a priest and live alone. And he wants to start a project which
has a spa, architecture landscape, a spiritual retreat etc. because he likes to go to
such a quiet place and kind of commune with nature. He says I like to go there
and by myself. Just listen to the music hear the birds and insects and this
stimulates me. Its so different than being in a city. You feel so peaceful.
L: So he talks a lot about these spiritual thoughts and he says, I want to reach a
state of detachment.
So you find there are some patients who are very intellectually oriented and many
times you can get lost in their intellectual discussions and interest and hobbies
and religious themes etc. You got to get down to the bottom of it. What is it that
is his sensitive point? What is it that makes him most effective; and the thing that
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he is really sensitive to is a feeling of disconnection. This sensation he had in the

childhood with his family and also each time one of his employee kind of leaves
him and goes away then this becomes a very very sensitive issue with him. He has
a good relation and a great relation with his wife but he feels the need to go away
from time to time and be detached or disconnected.
So if you want to understand what is this attachment and disconnection of the
Scrophulariaceae you have to imagine that there is a cable or a wire that connects
two separate entities altogether. But they are connected by a wire.
For example: I can have that projection system connected by wire to the camera
for example.
There is a camera can exist separately the projection system can exist separately
and they do. But there is a connection between. They have a bond and the idea of
the Scrophulariceae is a disconnection, a detachment of this bond that exists
between two separate entities.
In this case, miasm that I found was Ringworm because he is always trying to
achieve this but sometimes he succeeds but sometimes he cannot. So I gave him
the remedy Veronica officinalis.
And Vermeulens Synoptic Materia Medica says:
A peculiar characteristic of the Veronica is that "the corolla is so lightly attached
that the least jarring causes it to drop, and the plant at the slightest handling loses
its bright blossom". And therefore the names given to it are: 'Speedwell,'
'Farewell' and 'Goodbye'.
So he got:
Rx: Veronica officinalis 200, one dose
And with this remedy it made a huge difference to his problem and to himself as a
person that he doesnt get anxious anymore with the idea of this kind of
separation or disconnection.

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So finally before we end a Differentiation between the Conifers, Malvales,

Scrophulariaceae and Leguminosae:
Conifers:
In Conifers the feeling is of dissociation, and not of separation from one thing.
This arises from a deeper feeling of being fragile, brittle, delicate, and glasslike
along with an inner emptiness. The dissociation is not from some thing. The
feeling is I am brittle; I will break and I will be dissociated with myself. I am one
and I will become two. This is like an egg shell, which is empty and fragile and
brittle and once broken it loses its continuity and crumbles to pieces.
Malvales:
The Attachment is when two entities come together where one becomes a part of
the other. Like a mothers womb and there is a baby a part of the mother. The
attachment and separation from such a situation is the sensitivity of Malvales.
Scrophulariaceae:
There is a bond between two separate entities that are joined or adhering to
eachother. This bond is not strong, it can be broken. One wants to hold on tightly
to prevent this break. But the breaking of the bond gives rise to a sense of
separateness and disconnectedness that we find in this family. So adhering and
tearing loose are the key words of Scrophulariaceae:
Leguminoseae:
The sensation is that the self is made up of various parts bound together and
there is the feeling that these parts could separate and fall to pieces. Many
discrete things have come together; they are now bound by one skin, like peas in
a pod. The self is a string of separate pieces and could simply fall apart and scatter
all over the place.
So to summarize the differentiation:
Conifers: One becomes two, the continuity is broken.
Malvales: Attached and then detached
Scrophulariaceae: The Bonds are not strong, they are loose and can split
anytime.
Leguminosae: Different and discrete things are held together, and then are
scattered.
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So basically this is the difference between the families and we try to illustrate
them through cases so that you could hear the actual voices of the Patient who
are experiencing it. You could hear the voices of the provers how they have
narrated it and this is what you need to hear so that this experience is not bookish
knowledge for you, not words for you but a real LIVE experience and it is this
experience that we want to convey to you through these talks and through these
cases.
We hope that this helps you that you will go back to the books like Insights into
Plants and read further about it. You read more cases, more description that will
make it even more alive and real for you. So that you can recognize it in your
practice. Before we go I want to ask Laurie to give her final words to all of you.
Laurie has been also a very much part of Wednesdays, has been instrumental in
setting this whole thing together with me and also I want to make a very happy
announcement that Laurie now has already began writing the book based on
Wednesdays and she has finished the first chapter and is working on the 2nd. And
that each lecture will be a chapter so beautifully organized with the lecture, with
the notes with the questions with the references, with the cases, with the history
and all beautifully laid out so that it has the potential to become almost the
textbook of the method in Homoeopathy. So Laurie, your final words and your
message to our participants.
LD: Just a quick line of words. Thanks! It was a great evening and to all of you for
making all this happen. Ya, Thank you, Thank you.

Oh! Thanks Laurie and thanks to all of you and Good bye,
Auf weidersehen, Gracias and see you again soon.

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