Three Perspectives on Studying the Miasms

Chat began at 21:00 EDT

 

Moderator: Welcome to this evening's on-line Chat! This is the first time we have tried doing this Chat with a panel of 3 Guest Speakers. We hope there will be a lot of good information for all of you. Welcome, Ann Jerome, PhD, RSHom(NA), CCD, Director of the Academy of Classical Homeopathy. Catherine LeBlond, RN, and Polly Millet, MSN, ARNP, are students at the Academy who have been studying miasms every semester! We are open for your questions.

 

The ACH grew from The Florida Academy of Classical Homeopathy, which trained practitioners from 2001 to 2009. For more information about the Academy and its training programs in Philadelphia and central Florida, visit www.academyofclassicalhomeopathy.com.

 

Ann: Thanks for the welcome! Maybe we could start out with a little background from each of the three of us, so that everyone knows what resources we can offer.

I can start: I'm a practitioner and teacher, and have been studying the chronic miasms for over ten years and intend to continue studying them forever! Miasmatic analysis is my most dependable tool in constitutional prescribing.

 

Polly: Hi all, I am a 4th year student at the Florida Academy of Classical Homeopathy. We are about to graduate in 2 months time! I am an advanced registered nurse practitioner, and teach health sciences for the school. Studying the miasms has opened up a whole new way of looking at clients!

 

Catherine: I started in homeopathy with our Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs. I started attending a homeopathic study group to learn more about what saved one of our dogs. A few years later, I started in the program at FACH. Ann introduced us to miasms in the 2nd weekend of the program. I am now close to finishing the 2nd year of the program. I think reading Henny's book on Miasms helped me a great deal. [Henny Heudens-Mast, “The Foundation of the Chronic Miasms in the Practice of Homeopathy”, Lutea Press 2005 ISBN 0-9773057-1-6]

 

BMD: I am running a study group. What do you find is the easiest and clearest way to describe Miasms for beginners? I am just confusing them I think.

 

Ann: BMD, in regard to your question, I empathize! I like to start out by describing the chronic miasms as susceptibility - each miasm predisposes the person to a certain kind of dynamic in illness.

 

Vibell: I am a practitioner of Classical Homeopathy since 1998. I study the miasms every case. It is the thread through the case that Hahnemann talks about.

 

Ann: Vibell, I like your definition, too - the thread through the case.

 

Polly: I have now read Henny's book "The Foundation of the Chronic Miasms in the Practice of Homeopathy" 5 times that I know of, and consult it with every case.

Catherine: Learning the features of each miasm and how to apply it to an individual is helpful for me right now. As I study the remedies, I try to weigh in on the miasm and the symptom so that I can learn what miasms are in the remedy.

 

BMD: I have also read Henny's book. It has helped me too but I find it hard to relate it to acute prescribing for them and end up just confusing myself and them.

KL: Isn't miasmatic analysis also good (in the long run) for acute prescribing?

Ann: Good questions about acute prescribing. Many of us tend to overlook the fact that there are acute miasms as well as chronic ones, which we tend to overlook. It can be helpful to know that the acute miasms when an illness comes from one of them (Hahnemann describes the acute miasms as being the basis of illnesses that are the same each time they occur, such as measles and mumps).

The thing about acute prescribing, though, is that you have to be sure it's really an acute. A lot of "acutes" are actually acute flare-ups of a chronic state.

 

KL: Even knowing how each miasmatic type reacts to bee stings or too much gardening can help us select the best remedy.

 

Ann: That's really true - for example, with bee stings, an Apis reaction (swelling, heat, redness, agitation) reflects Apis' basis in sycosis. A Ledum reaction has more of syphilis and psora in it.

 

Polly: The susceptibility is to certain kinds of illness states. Often they can be recognized in acute cases as well, especially if, as Ann says, they are acute "flare ups.”

 

Ann: One of my teachers, Anne Schadde, used to say that she wished she could be an emergency room homeopath, not so that she could give first aid and acute remedies but because in crisis, people often reveal their true chronic state (including the chronic miasms) most clearly.

 

Jean: Can you give an example of "illnesses that are the same each time they occur"? One doesn't get mumps repeatedly. Or do you mean symptoms rather than illness?

 

Ann: Thanks, Jean; good clarification. Hahnemann meant illnesses that are the same each time they recur in a population, not in an individual. For example, each time the measles (before vaccination) went through a town, it was still the measles. By contrast, colds and even the flu are often different each year.

 

Ann: Catherine, I'd love to hear you say more about how the miasms help you in your study of materia medica.

 

Catherine: As for studying the materia medica -- knowing the miasms and how they express themselves can also be seen in the symptoms of each remedy. I am still new at it all, but figuring out which miasms are in each remedy is part of the challenge.

 

BMD: Ann, the emergency room thing is a great take on acute prescribing and chronic miasms. I think it is a good way to start. Thank you.

 

Ann: You're welcome! I'm really delighted to hear that miasms are being discussed in a study group – it means you're going deep into homeopathic philosophy. The book that was mentioned earlier is very accessible and your group might like it.

 

BMD: I am not sure we are really ready to discuss them but they are very interested and keen to hear all sorts of things about homeopathy so I try to give a taste of everything.

 

KL: BMD, I've been teaching study groups for 20 years. Most of us need to hear Similia Simillibus Curentur and every other 'piece' of homeopathy many times and in many different ways before it sinks in. Keep on trying with your group: you'll reach members one at a time!

 

BMD: I understand and agree completely. Actually none of the group is prescribing anything chronically/miasmatically and only rarely acutely. They are just doing reading and asking questions and I wanted to be able to answer the miasm question well.

 

Ann: It really is important to study miasms in depth; it's one of those topics where "a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing"! I’m being partly facetious and don’t mean that entirely literally, but knowing just a little about miasms isn't enough to appreciate what they really mean, and certainly not enough to know how to apply the knowledge in practice.

 

Polly: With each case, one can identify symptoms that fit each miasm. Most people are "mixtures" of miasmatic susceptibility, and may have each of the miasms present to different degrees. The symptoms in the material medica of each remedy are also distributed among the miasms. In other words, each remedy contains symptoms from more than one miasm, and therefore addresses more than one miasm. The right remedy will have the same miasmatic pattern as the client's symptoms.

 

Vibell: Can you explain your interpretation of miasmatic pattern?

 

KL: The way we are, the way we react to every event in life is our symptom-picture. The pattern of this can belong to one or all of the miasms, although one is usually predominant at any one time. When you know your remedies, and have learned their symptom-picture, you try to make the best 'match' possible. The first 3 aphorisms of Hahnemann's Organon take about 3 minutes to read, and a lifetime to put into practice.

 

Vibell: I was looking for an example that may show me I am interpreting the miasms the same as everyone else. For example: Psora is the "itch" and that is on a physical level, it is "lacking" on a mental level, etc.

 

KL: The 'itch' is also on the mental and emotional levels... Just as each remedy has a complete 'symptom-picture', each miasm covers a totality of symptoms.

 

Vibell: I don't know what you mean, can you give me an example?

 

Ann: Vibell, I'd say your snapshot of psora is a great start - but there is so much to each miasm that it's really hard to boil it down to a few words.

 

Polly: The origins of the miasms were attributed to certain diseases by Hahnemann. They are actually much more, and richer to perceive. He said Psora was associated with the itch, an irritating state to be in, a difficult one to cope with. We can see mental and emotional symptoms that are on the same "plane" in people with predominant Psora.

 

Ann: Good answer, Polly - the illness that gives the miasm its particular symptoms also gives it a dynamic pattern. For example, any miasm can have rashes on the skin; it's the dynamic of the rash – how it looks, how it feels, where it comes from, how it responds to various conditions, etc. -  that tells us the miasm.

 

Jean: So my friend with eczema would have to have a remedy that was psoric?

 

Ann: Maybe, but only if it’s a psoric eczema. Psoric eczema is superficial, dry, and may have a sour smell. Syphilitic eczema may crack and bleed. Tubercular eczema moves around to different parts of the body.

 

Polly: With psora, the predominant skin symptom is itchiness. With syphilis, the person may have to scratch until they bleed. And if sycosis predominates, the skin might be red, swollen and hot.

 

Vibell: How the person expresses their irritation tells what remedy within the miasm. Right? 

 

Ann: Actually, what tells what remedy within the miasm is the particular set of symptoms. In a way, the pattern or dynamic of the total picture tells the miasm, and the particular symptoms tell the remedy. For example, a person with sycosis tends to feel better from activity. That is true, for example, of both Apis and Sepia, which are both heavily sycotic remedies.

Someone who needs Apis would be a sycotic person who tends to have sudden inflammations. Someone who needs Sepia would be a sycotic person who has Sepia symptoms, such as perhaps a bearing-down feeling during menstrual pain.

 

To draw on Polly’s characterization of the miasmatic basis of skin symptoms: if we saw a rash that was red, swollen, and hot, we'd know it needed a sycotic remedy. That would get us “into the ballpark” of a remedy choice, and then we’d have to choose which particular sycotic remedy was the best fit. We would determine which one according to the particular symptoms - generals are often useful in this.

 

Polly: Yes, all that about “better from heat”, as psora usually is, etc.

 

KL: Why are nosodes used more as 'intercurrent' remedies than remedies in their own right?

 

Ann: Good question. It may be because of a misconception about nosodes, that they are the only "miasmatic" remedies – i.e. they're the only remedies that address miasms - accompanied by a misconception about miasmatic prescribing, which is that one "treats the person" with a "constitutional remedy" and then "treats the miasm" with a nosode.

 

Polly: Nosodes are remedies like all others, and have a miasmatic distribution of symptoms like other remedies do. The nosodes for each miasm do have predominant symptoms for that miasm, but they also have generals and modalities of their own.

 

Ann: Good points, Polly- also we should mention that there are other remedies that may have more concentrated symptoms of a particular miasm than the nosodes do. For example, the remedy Mercurius is at least as heavily syphilitic as the syphilitic nosode, Syphilinum.

 

KL: Hahnemann said Psora was the last miasm... does one live with latent Psora until death, or can that be cured while one is still alive?

 

Ann: Welllll... Complicated question. We consider psora to be the "last" but also the “first” and most fundamental miasm - it's the one that makes us susceptible to all the others.

 

Catherine: Psora could also be considered the 1st miasm. Living with latent Psora, and that is it, would be great.

Ann: Absolutely true! People may also say psora is the “last” miasms because ideally it’s the last one that we address in long-term homeopathic care. Psora tends to be the least destructive miasm and therefore in most cases, in treatment we want to quell the other miasms first. One can live a long time with psora as it tends not to produce immediately life-threatening problems the way sycosis and syphilis miasms, for example, can. Having said this, though, we also have to recognize that the course of treatment is as individual as very person is, so each person’s long-term care has to be tailored to them. Also we should note that since every remedy touches the miasms, all of the miasms improve simultaneously over time with good homeopathic care.

 

Vibell: Back to Ann's posting about misconception about when to prescribe the nosode. I give it when indicated by the picture before me.

 

Ann: Vibell, that's the best answer! We should always prescribe on the largest and deepest totality we can see at the time.

 

Catherine has brought up an important point too: miasms can be latent or active. Homeopathic treatment can render an active miasm latent, which means that it's not producing symptoms.

 

Polly: Active psora can be aggravating - and is involved in many chronic illnesses that are bothersome to live with! Latent Psora is as good as it gets.

KL: How can one tell if one has gone 'latent' vs 'suppressed'?

 

Catherine: If something is suppressed, the body is going to throw out deeper symptoms. So what had been a skin rash might later show up as strep throat or asthma.

 

Polly: If the symptom is latent, the client will continue to feel better overall

 

Vibell: Polly, correct me if I am wrong, the correct homeopathic remedy helps the person strengthen their constitution, right? They may have to do some nutritional work to get there but isn't that the idea? If the person's constitution is strong (they are not stressed out, tired, dehydrated etc) then the miasm is less likely to flare up.

 

Polly: Yes, I would say a remedy that raises the level of health of an individual also leads to better resistance to stressors that may have been a problem before the remedy. However, we all can be susceptible if the stressor is very strong (for us, at least) or is repeated relentlessly over time.

Vibell: I have been very happy with this book, Miasmatic Diagnosis Practical tips with clinical comparisons by Dr Subrata Kumar Banerjea.

 

TeddyEddy: Dr. Luc's book "Hahnemann Revisited" is a great book that covers miasms extremely well.

 

Ann: Yes, Dr. Banerjea's is a very dependable book. It takes a different approach than Henny's so they make a good pair. Dr. Luc de Schepper is another very sound source on miasms. When you read multiple authors, as with anything in homeopathy, you need to be prepared to juggle different interpretations, but that's what keeps it interesting!

 

BMD: Do you find that most patients with strong symptom-pictures of addiction fall into the syphilitic miasm?

 

Polly: Addiction is hard to put only in one box, BMD. Many are primarily syphilitic, others, sycotic, or a mixture, as I understand it.

 

Ann: As we try to identify the miasm behind an addiction, it depends on the reason for the addiction. A psoric person can be addicted out of habit, or out of a sense of not being strong enough without the addictive substance. A sycotic person can be addicted especially to stimulating substances because they like the "rush." In each case, the addiction – like everything else in the person – is fueled by, and takes on the dynamic of, their miasmatic composition.

 

Nbinc: if you give a sycotic remedy to a psoric person what would you expect to be the result?

 

Ann: If you give a remedy from the wrong miasm, it would likely be the same result as giving any wrong remedy: in most cases, nothing would happen. It's a great question, nbinc, because it shows that we need to address the person in their totality, including their miasms.

 

Moderator: Thank you, all 3 Guest Speakers. It's been fascinating to see many facets for each question.

 

Ann: Thank you, everyone, for all the great questions!

 

Chat ended at 22:05 EDT