Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of Homeopathy
The term “miasm” stems from homeopathic medicine. Although I am not a homeopathic doctor, as a therapist specializing in treating root causes of chronic problems (using psychotherapy and energy work), I have conducted independent research on miasms and discovered some interesting characteristics of their dynamics and anatomy. These discoveries enabled me to create a new psycho-energetic methodology for their dissolving. This article is, therefore, primarily aimed at professional therapists who wish to gain more insight. However, spiritual school adepts and practitioners of contemporary techniques of personal development will also benefit from the information presented here. The text is written in the spirit of research and does not necessarily adhere to any therapeutic system or school. It is exclusively the result of my personal observations, which have been gathered through studying the classical homeopathic theory of miasms and its practical implementation within the context of the human energy field. As a therapist and spiritual seeker, I believe that the knowledge presented here can contribute to the basic aspirations of every therapist, healer, and doctor, which is best defined by the creator of homeopathy, doctor Samuel Hahnemann:
“The highest ideal of therapy is to restore health rapidly, gently, permanently, to remove and destroy the whole disease in the shortest, surest, least harmful way, according to clearly comprehensible principles..“[1]
PART ONE: Samuel Hahnemann, Homeopathic Medicine and the Discovery of Miasms
Few systems of healing went as far in their search for deeper causes of human problems, especially the difficult ones such as chronic diseases, as homeopathic medicine did. While official, academic (allopathic) medicine mainly deals with symptoms, and alternative systems are still attempting to uncover various levels of psycho-energetic causes, homeopathy offers a unique model that tries to explain the root of human health disorders in detail. This model comprises symptoms, dynamic causes, and the very core of the problem. The discovery that homeopathy offers to the world can be dubbed epochal, yet few people know of it, even when it comes to professional therapists.
The benefit of homeopathy was discovered by German medical doctor Samuel Hahnemann (1775 – 1843)[2]. He obtained a degree in chemistry and medicine at the University of Leipzig in 1779 and then started his medical practice alongside scientific research. In 1791 he became a member of the Academy of Science in Mayence due to his research in the area of chemistry. His Pharmaceutical Lexicon became the standard handbook of the time, and the medical community entrusted him with standardizing the German Pharmacopoeia. However, despite his excellent reputation, Hahnemann was not satisfied with the medicine of the time and found that it did more damage than good. As a result, he soon left medical practice and devoted himself to different forms of scientific research, especially in the field of chemistry. He earned his living by translating scientific literature since he spoke five European languages (besides Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic). All this time, Hahnemann actively searched for a kind of medical practice that would restore the health of a patient. He considered the official medical practice dangerous because doctors would experiment on their patients out of ignorance, which very often had fatal consequences. Hahnemann studied all the medical texts he could get a hold of, and one of them inspired him to try an experiment that would result in the discovery of the principle that served as a basis for future homeopathy.
While translating Materia Medica, written by Professor Cullen from London University, Hahnemann found a chapter on the therapeutic benefits of the Peruvian cinchona tree. This plant was successfully used to cure malaria, and Professor Cullen thought cinchona’s bitterness was the cause of its efficacy. Hahnemann was so unhappy with this explanation that he decided to conduct an experiment quite unusual for the time – he took several doses of the bark to test its effects on himself. To his very surprise, he discovered that having ingested the bark two times a day, his body started to show the symptoms of malaria. Hahnemann came to the conclusion that a cure that dissolved certain symptoms in an ill person created those same symptoms in a healthy person. Based on this experiment, Hahnemann established the basic principle of homeopathy – a substance that creates certain symptoms in a healthy person and cures those same symptoms in an ill person. The basic idea of homeopathic medicine – the like cures the like – is rooted in this principle.
Word of Hahnemann’s discovery spread through the medical community, and many doctors joined him in his further research. All of them gathered information by conducting experiments on themselves, and the process went on for six years. During this time, Hahnemann used his knowledge of languages to access the medical literature. He compiled cases of accidental poisonings and their consequences registered by doctors in various countries and from different centuries. Hahnemann and his colleagues discovered a significant similarity in the symptoms of numerous diseases that the medicine of the time considered incurable with the symptoms of poisoning, so he gave his patients those very substances (in small doses), and to his astonishment, the patients were cured. Pursuant to the regularity he had discovered, Hahnemann realized that giving a substance inducing certain symptoms in a healthy person to a patient who already had the symptoms inevitably cured the illness.
After many years of experimenting, Hahnemann finally returned to medical practice, now practicing homeopathy. During the course of an interview with a patient, he would carefully note the patient’s symptoms – physical and mental. Then he would search for a substance (having previously tested it on himself or having found a description of it in medical literature) that induced similar symptoms in a healthy person. Working in this manner, he achieved excellent results – an illness would be cured quickly and thoroughly and very often with a single dose of medicine. The only problem he encountered was the side effects of some substances, but Hahnemann found a way to deal with that very soon. He first tried by giving a patient only a tenth of the usual dose, which still achieved a cure with certain side effects, but to a far lesser degree than earlier. Encouraged, Hahnemann continued diluting the medicines, and the side effects would drop proportionally to the dilution of the solution. Diluting was continued until there was no active substance in the medicinal solution, but such medication was simply not efficient – there was no irritation, but also no cure. Hahnemann then made a new discovery. He again diluted the medicine until the active substance disappeared, but this time he shook every solution firmly, thereby activating the life force that enhanced the energetic strength of the substance. That is, he bio-energized each solution so that the medicine now carried only the waveform, or the energetic inscription, of the original substance and not the actual physical substance itself. These solutions induced all the therapeutic effects of the medicine, except that there was little or no irritation. Furthermore, Hahnemann discovered that the greater and more energized the solution, the stronger the effect it produced.
Based on this discovery, Hahnemann embraced the idea of the dynamic causes of illnesses, which sees the biochemical imbalance as a consequence of the disease and not its cause. Like his predecessors Hippocrates and Paracelsus, and his contemporary Anton Mesmer, Hahnemann thought that illness is caused by a disorder in quality, quantity, and circulation of the life force (“élan vital”) in a man. That is why the information of the original substance would stay registered in a remedy prepared in this way (the life force is also the information carrier). The energetic charge, quality, and character of the life force in a remedy were the key elements that enabled the cure. It seemed that Hahnemann made every doctor’s dream come true – he found a way to bring the patient back to a state of health and established the life force flow with no side effects.
However, even though he had discovered a medicine of a superior level to the allopathic, which enabled him to easily cure acute health problems and achieve significant success with chronic diseases, Hahnemann did face a problem of return cases with chronic patients. Homeopathic treatment would heal a chronic disease temporarily, but as soon as some external influence weakened a patient an illness would return. Certain symptoms would sometimes disappear completely, only to be followed by new ones, very often of a totally different character. Hahnemann realized that chronic illnesses could not be cured permanently by only using the life force or changes in diet and lifestyle. Even the people who were willing to learn from a problem and change their way of life did not manage to completely recover from a chronic health problem. Hahnemann then attempted thorough research, striving to find an answer to the following question – “what is the common denominator behind a chronic disease and all its symptoms” or “What is it that produces such a deep and invisible predisposition for chronic disease?”
Hahnemann had already established two factors responsible for illness – an outer influence (climate, diet, injury, psychological shock, bacterial or virus infection) and an inner predisposition (inclination, susceptibility, or sensitivity). The susceptibility towards illness was a primary factor, while the outer influences were secondary. This was why some people stayed unaffected in the midst of an epidemic, while the immune systems of others (due to inner susceptibility) could not fight the infections. Traditional medicine has the same attitude to disease, except that it reduces all inner predispositions to a genetic factor and current environmental influences. In contrast to homeopathy, allopathic medicine still deals with symptoms excessively and examines health disorders from a microbiological aspect primarily. Apart from basic prevention, it pays hardly any attention to inner predispositions, considering them unchangeable.
The homeopathic system differs from the allopathic in paying the utmost attention to inner predispositions. That is already evident in Materia Medica (a homeopathic textbook) it uses and in the constitutional typology that is superior to any other when it comes to quantity, quality, and depth. There are numerous constitution types in homeopathy, at least forty of them in the standard Materia Medica, and each requires a totally different approach by the homeopathic doctor, while allopathic medicine treats all people as if they share the same constitution. The approach to a patient is also different. During an interview, which can last up to several hours, a homeopathic doctor examines various aspects of a patient’s life, from physical and mental symptoms to his or her psycho-physical constitution, profession, character, habits, family and social lifestyle, and sexuality. Thus, homeopathic medicine, in its early phase, has already made considerable advances in the holistic approach to sickness. Still, at one point, it faced an almost unsolvable problem of chronic diseases. This problem was eventually solved due to Hahnemann’s readiness to go far enough in his study of inner predispositions.
In his search for the source of the chronic diseases, Hahnemann devoted himself to a steady, thorough, and often merciless research of all the symptoms a patient would have, even the seemingly minute or less important ones, and cleansing them layer by layer, using homeopathic remedies. In this way, he discovered that in most chronic diseases, the last physical symptom would always be the same. It was a certain form of a skin reaction or disease – from allergies, inflammations, and rashes to more serious ailments like herpes or psoriasis. Also, no matter what form of skin reaction, it always included an itch. Therefore Hahnemann came to the conclusion that the root of all diseases was an itch producing some kind of skin reaction. Inappropriate treatment of the skin symptoms then created all other symptoms since the disease was suppressed to the internal organs. That’s why Hahnemann believed that allopathic medicine mainly suppresses an ailment inside the body with its “medication” – from the first symptoms that regularly appear on the skin to the internal organs. Therefore the majority of illnesses treated in an allopathic way stay latently present in the organism and resurface sooner or later, sometimes in the same form and sometimes in a completely different form. Even if it does not create new diseases, suppressing the original disorder in the internal organs weakens those organs and leads to premature aging and premature death.
So, even though allopathic medicine makes considerable efforts to alleviate the suffering of patients, all it can offer is the suppression of the disease. Homeopathy, on the other side, is one of the few healing systems that that can cure a disease in an appropriate way – by extracting it out of the organism. Hahnemann also claimed that there is no disease of the local character or one affecting a single organ only. Since he saw all internal organs as interconnected parts of a unique organism, he thought that the original disorder could manifest in various ways, seemingly unrelated, thus creating various diseases that allopathic medicine would consider different from each other. An allopathic doctor would then give three different medications to a person suffering from asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and sinus problems, while a homeopathic doctor would prescribe only one, considering it to be one illness manifesting in three different ways.
What about an itch as the background of all chronic diseases? Well, this statement sounds rather simple or even banal, but Hahnemann was not naive, and he knew very well what he was talking about. An itch as a psychosomatic reaction is certainly not the final answer to the question of what causes chronic diseases, and Hahnemann was more than clear that it is simply the primary physical symptom and not the primary dynamic cause. Working with numerous patients, he gradually connected skin diseases to internal, dynamic disorders. Seventeen years after publishing his Organon of Medicine and starting his homeopathic practice, he thought that he finally reached the key to the enigma burdening mankind since its dawn: the common denominator of all acute and chronic diseases is something he called a miasm. Hahnemann was not the first one to use the term “miasm,” but he certainly was the one to contribute the most to its understanding. This term comes from the Greek word miasma, meaning a shadow, stigma, impurity, or weakness. Hahnemann believed that all human diseases, psychological and physical, were caused by three basic miasms – psora, syphilis, and sycosis. He later discovered the existence of the fourth miasm, which he called pseudo psora, but even nowadays, most classical homeopaths stick to the three miasms system.
Hahnemann took the term and idea of miasms from Hippocrates. For Hippocrates, all diseases are caused by predispositions inherent in the inner constitution and the susceptibility of that constitution to a whole range of causes that obstruct the free flow of the life force (pneuma, elan vital) in a man. In Hahnemann’s time, at the end of the 18th century, it was still believed that infections were the consequences of contagious airborne epidemics. He thus considered air as the carrier of an infectious agent, but he did not think that the pathogenic substance was of a gaseous character, as was a general opinion at that time. In his articles on miasms[3], homeopath David Little says that Hahnemann was the first to notice that syphilis was a disease caused by a blood infection, even though it was very often camouflaged by symptoms of other diseases. His special remedy, Mercurius Solubis Hahnemanni, became a standard cure for syphilis throughout Europe at the time. A few decades earlier, a Dutch naturalist, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, invented the microscope and discovered the existence of bacteria or, as he first called it, animalcule. This information urged Hahnemann to adopt the idea of microorganisms as the root of infectious diseases. He supported the animaculists’ ideas of the time, while also stressing the importance of susceptibility evident in the constitution of the carrier. Thus the word miasm for Hahnemann means the effects of microorganisms on the vital force of a person, together with the symptoms that are passed on to the next generation. Such chronic miasms can produce degenerative diseases and auto-immune diseases and weaken the organisms with immune system disorders. Hahnemann presented his theory on miasms in 1828 in a paper called Chronic Diseases – Their Peculiar Nature and Homeopathic Healing[4], long before the medical community accepted the idea of bacteria. David Little considers Hahnemann the founder of the modern concept of infection, and his sophisticated theory of contagion is more advanced than the allopathic one since the official medicine still does not understand the effects of the miasmic processes or their inherited constitutional syndromes.
PART TWO: The Psycho-Energetic Analysis of Miasms
Viruses and bacteria are certainly the material instruments of infection, but Hahnemann strived to understand the deeper nature of the infection, its energetic dimension, and the causes that generate the disease. Apart from their direct connection to microorganisms, for Hahnemann, the miasms are invisible infective entities of energetic origin that penetrate the organism and affect the life force in such a way that it produces the symptoms of a specific disease. One of the more significant contemporary researchers, Dr. Richard Gerber, holds the same opinion. In his book Vibrational Medicine[5], he speaks of miasms as “…energetic tendencies which predispose an individual toward manifesting particular illnesses. Most miasms are either inherited or acquired during the course of an individual’s lifetime.”[6] Furthermore, “although, for example, miasms may be acquired as a result of an infectious agent, the infection itself is not the miasm. Even though a disease-causing organism may be eradicated by antibiotic therapy, subtle traces of the infectious agent may persist at an unseen level. These disease-associated energy traces are incorporated into the individual’s biomagnetic field and higher subtle bodies. The miasms reside there until their latent toxic potential is released into the molecular/cellular level of the body, where disruptive changes or illness may manifest. Miasms weaken the natural body defenses in particular areas, creating a tendency toward manifesting different types of illness at a later time.”[7] Gerber says that miasms “…create energetic/psychological influences which predispose the individual to various types of illnesses. Because they can be transmitted from generation to generation, miasms represent an energetic pathway by which events of a parent can be transmitted to their offspring. Miasms provide an interesting interpretation of the statement – the sins of the father are inherited by the son.”[8]
Hahnemann noticed that miasms were passed on from one generation to another if they weren’t treated or treated fully. A miasm carrier can have diseases typical of a certain miasm; however, a miasm is not an illness because of its latent character. We could say that a miasm is a kind of energetic infection inherent in a family, either in a latent or an active way. Even if a miasm carrier lives in a disciplined way and avoids potential diseases typical for that particular miasm, if he or she does not dissolve it, the miasm will manifest itself in the next generation. Sometimes miasms skip a generation and manifest in the next one; it is, therefore, possible to inherit them from grandparents. According to my observations, miasms are passed on to the descendants during the prenatal period – from conception to birth and mainly by automatism. They replicate in the energetic body of the fetus as energetic infections. That’s why it is impossible to avoid the latent presence of a miasm in case one of the parents is the carrier. It depends on our lifestyle whether or not the miasm will manifest as an illness, a psychological disorder, or simply a sort of invisible obstruction to the realization of our goals. Regardless, it is necessary to dissolve a miasm if we want to free ourselves and our descendants of its influence.
If we consider miasms as energy forms, then they certainly must be located somewhere inside the human energy field (aura or energy body). The human energy field is nowadays quite well explored and described. The system I use is that of Barbara Brennan[9] and her predecessors. Since I did not find the information on their position in the aura in the literature I had at my disposal, I conducted my own research. After several months I came to the conclusion that miasms were placed in the seventh layer of the aura, known as the ketheric body, or the transparent eggshell of light, approximately one meter away from the physical body. The seventh layer of the aura comprises, among other things, the blueprints of the lessons we choose to learn in a lifetime. That’s why I consider miasms as important life lessons typical of the human way of existence and its purpose. It seems that our soul chooses them prior to incarnation while planning a future life and choosing a family to incarnate in, all in accordance with our very own individual life tasks. Due to the basic structure of the human energy field with its seven layers and seven chakras, we can also say that there are seven basic miasms. They can be experienced in the seventh layer of the aura and in the zone of a specific chakra, exactly as the Greek word miasma describes them as shadows, stains, or stigmas. In case it is in its latent form, a miasm does not reach the lower layers of the energy body. If it is active, then it turns from a blur in the seventh layer into a thick dark mass reaching all the way to the first layer of the aura, creating energetic impurities in the even layers and breaking down the precise structure of the odd bodies.
The seventh layer of aura – miasms are placed on the outer edges of the eggshell.
Every miasm can create a whole range of seemingly different health problems, together with psychological and spiritual problems. Initially, Hahnemann’s opinion was that there were only three miasms. As I connected them to the chakra system, I discovered that there are seven basic (chronic) miasms and a whole range of acute ones. In contrast to the traumatic experience and its consequences (astral entities and toxic bonds), a miasm as an energetic form does not have its center on the physical body. It looks like an energetic belt or a ring in the seventh layer of the aura, approximately a meter around the person and in the area of the chakra it is related to. Therefore it is not reliable to diagnose a miasm on the basis of physical symptoms only, but according to its overall characteristics, one needs to know.
The first one, and for Hahnemann, the deepest miasm (connected to skin disease and the itch), is psora. Hahnemann named it after the Hebrew word tsorat, meaning a lack, stigma, or a scar, but also after psoriasis, which is one of the typical diseases caused by this miasm. Hahnemann considered psora to be the most ancient, universal, and most destructive miasm that has tormented mankind for thousands of years. Psora becomes a mother disease of hundreds of various acute and chronic diseases, basically all but the venereal diseases. Hahnemann considered all people psoric because he was of the opinion that this miasm results from the so-called “expulsion from paradise.” The spiritual fall and the original loss of freedom followed by guilt, inhibition, sin, shame, and inability to realize our creative potential is a situation mankind suffers from the very beginning. Hahnemann claimed that the long-term presence of these feelings in the energetic body produced the corresponding diseases of the physical body that are then passed on from generation to generation.
It was difficult for Hahnemann to prove the hereditary character of skin diseases since some of the severest skin diseases (leprosy for example) were already eradicated. When it came to syphilis, the situation was different – this disease was considered incurable, and it was easy to track the transmission of its effects from generation to generation. Hahnemann made a distinction between venereal and non-venereal diseases. He thought the venereal diseases were a relatively newer phenomenon and that the syphilitic and the sychotic miasms, respectively, occur in persons whose organisms had already been weakened by psora. Syphilitic and sycotic miasms occur as a reaction to the expulsion from paradise and the primal loss of spiritual innocence, as an attempt to compensate for the original heavenly state. They are created as the consequences of violence (syphilitic) and excessive hedonism (sycotic), the outcome of which are venereal infections such as syphilis and gonorrhea.
The first three miasms Hahnemann managed to detect are placed (according to my observations) in the following areas – psora in the area of the plexus chakra (the third one), sycosis in the area of the sacral chakra (the second) and syphilis in the area of the throat chakra (the fifth). Hahnemann discovered the miasms typical of the blocked state of the humanity of his time. The situation nowadays has not changed much; however, other chakras can also carry miasmic forms. I have already mentioned that in the later phase of his research, Hahnemann encountered one more miasm he called the pseudo-psora. Today it is called a tuberculosis miasm, and it is located in the area of the heart chakra (the fourth). Most of the classical homeopaths raised on Hahnemann’s research accept the theory of the four miasms, but if we connect them to chakras, then it is possible to find three more miasms. So now we have a paralysis miasm (my term) in the area of the sixth chakra (third eye) and a cancer miasm in the area of the first or root chakra. Finally, in the area of the crown chakra (the seventh) is “the mother of all miasms,” a nihilistic miasm (my term) that some authors call Yama[10], according to the Hindu god of death. Hahnemann considered psora the original miasm and syphilis and sycotic the consequences of psora, but nowadays, we can consider Yama to be the deepest miasm. The reason for this is evident in the nature of these two miasms. Behind psora, there is a sense of separation, of being rejected by God. If we dissolve psora, we become able to connect to the world around us and the people we care about without losing our freedom. A psora-free person has mastered all forms of alienation – the alienation from oneself, from others, from life, and finally from God. These people are able to establish harmonious relationships and be independent, unburdened with guilt or constant hunger for external forms of fulfillment. However, Yama is the one that brings awareness of our original nature, placing us in the center of our world and guiding us to assume complete responsibility for our own lives. This makes Yama the peak of the human evolution of consciousness, freeing humans from being attached to limited or temporary forms of existence.
Here is a survey of the basic characteristics of the seven primary miasms according to the sequence of their discovery. Even though today there is mention of many different miasms – vaccination, food, antibiotic, petrochemical, radiation, or heavy metal miasms – knowing the seven primary miasms is more than enough to solve the majority of chronic health problems.
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PSORA MIASM
– a slave miasm – creates the feeling of being captured, no way out
– produces an itch – psychological and physical
– eternal yearning for something – food, people, relationships
– the mass is concentrated in the plexus area and creates problems related to the functioning of the plexus chakra
Physical Disorders
– skin problems – rashes, psoriasis, vitiligo, allergies, dry skin, itching
– too dry or too oily skin
– sweating overly
– fatigue, shortness of breath, lethargy
– heart problems, high blood pressure
– bronchitis, asthma
– allergies
– headaches, tinnitus (buzzing in the ears)
– colitis
– diabetes
Psychological Disorders
– chronic fatigue syndrome, slowness, inertia
– withdrawal, introversion
– living in a self-imposed prison
– a lot of duties the person “must” fulfill
– anger because of slavery
– nostalgia for the past
– constant worry about money, regardless of the situation
– stubbornness, fear of criticism
– fear of risk, of seizing an opportunity
– lack of freedom, inhibition, slavery
– constant complaining, playing the victim role
– inhibition, nervousness
– insisting on independence
– hypersensitivity
– tension rooted in guilt
– consuming alcohol, a tendency towards heavy drugs such as heroin
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SYPHILIS MIASM
– the most destructive of all, directly connected to all forms of violence
– creates a tendency to get hurt in any kind of accident (traffic etc.), i.e. tendency for bodily injuries and deformations
– concentrated in the throat chakra area, creates energetic weakness of the throat chakra, together with all the physical and psychological disorders such a weakness brings
Physical Disorders
– constant fatigue, muscle pain
– tightness in the throat, laryngitis
– rapid weight loss or weight gain
– osteoporosis and arthritis
– problems with blood – hemophilia, AIDS, hepatitis
– problems with teeth at an early age
– heart throbbing, nervousness, restlessness, impatience
– ulcers, various tumors, bodily deformations
– vertigo, eye problems
Psychological Disorders
– the person has two basic faces – the first one is enthusiastic, ambitious, full of projects, lively; the other one is melancholic, sad, insecure, irritable, afraid for one’s health
– obsessive behavior; can be fixed on something or somebody and stalk us
– excessive jealousy, full of doubt, paranoia
– megalomaniac, lying, stealing
– domination, need for power, mob behavior
– obsession with money, status, clothes, physical appearance
– obsessive workout, big muscles
– criticism and self-criticism
– fear of going mad
– morbidity
– violent in confrontation, fear of losing control
– sees an enemy in everyone
– alcoholism, a drug of choice is cocaine
– schizophrenia
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SYCOTIC MIASM
– a venereal miasm, an inclination to promiscuity and venereal infections
– the mass is concentrated in the area of the second chakra
– it creates an energetic weakness in the second chakra area, together with all the other physical, psychological, and spiritual disorders typical for the second chakra
Physical Disorders
– all kinds of venereal infections
– inclination towards wet tissue infections – nose, ear, throat, eyes, stomach
– painful joints, rheumatoid arthritis
– inflammation – all “itis” illnesses
– asthma, hay fever, colds, headaches
– small warts on the skin (that is where the term sycosis comes from)
– inclination towards spontaneous miscarriages
Psychological Disorders
– lacking a real touch with reality, everything is unreal, as if it were a dream
– a hidden or open inclination to promiscuity, sexual excesses
– flirting, falling in love, excitement
– excessive hedonism, partying, going out
– strongly manipulative, although hidden (subtle)
– mysterious, secretive, leads a double life
– fear of the dark, panic that somebody is standing behind the person
– manic depression – two days of euphoria followed by two days of depression coupled with total exhaustion
– irritability, easily provoked
– resists everything new, a fixed stubbornness
– anger, rebellion, atheism
– skepticism, fixed in one reality
– forgetfulness, suffers from boredom, impatience
– numb, stoned, oblivious
– alcohol addiction (special affection for red wine), soft drugs addiction (especially marijuana), smoking
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TUBERCULOSIS MIASM
– a desire for change, vicissitude
– a need to travel, roam, a nomadic spirit
– the mass is concentrated in the heart chakra area and creates problems related to the functioning of the heart chakra
Physical Disorders
– a feeling of exhaustion, general weakness
– difficulty getting up in the morning, cannot fall asleep in the evenings
– anemia
– heart and blood vessel diseases
– pulmonary illnesses, bronchitis, respiratory organs
– spondylosis, scoliosis
Psychological Disorders
– constant dissatisfaction, restlessness
– quickly bored
– whimsicality, no state lasts long
– rebelliousness, they fall out of every norm set up by the society
– mental stiffness, having firm opinions about everything, full of prejudice
– anger, irritability, fits of rage, swearing, cursing, destructiveness
– a feeling of not belonging to anyone or anything
– unwillingness to work
– becomes ill when there’s no change
– likes to be in stormy weather
– impractical creativity
– phobias from animals (dogs, cats)
– sadness, depression, disappointments in love, difficulty in recovering from them
– smoking, alcoholism
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CANCER MIASM
– martyrdom
– poverty, depriving oneself
– the mass is concentrated in the first chakra area and creates all sorts of problems typical to the dysfunction of the first chakra
Physical Disorders
– all types of cancer
– chronic fatigue syndrome
– overweight
– cysts and tumors
– chronic cough
– mononucleosis
– swollen lymph glands
– digestion disorders
– craving sweets
Psychological Disorders
– poverty complex
– inferiority complex
– excessive feeling of duty
– too sensitive to criticism
– shame, humiliation
– ungrounded, impractical
– worries for others instead of for oneself
– excessive seriousness
– considers oneself a victim of circumstances, subject to injustice
– hypochondriac
– sudden attacks of workaholics; the need for fierce, intensive activity followed by fatigue with migraine or flu
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF PARALYTIC MIASM
– stiffness and tension
– mental dullness
– the mass is located in the third eye area and creates all the problems related to the dysfunction of this chakra
Physical Disorders
– tension in the muscles, stiffness
– Parkinson’s disease
– Alzheimer’s disease
– cerebral paralysis
– polio
– epilepsy
– sciatic pain, lower back pain
– upper back and shoulder pain
– ear infection
– eye problems
– problems with sinuses, coughing
Psychological Disorders
– not being present, concentration problems
– forgetful, absent-minded
– laziness, immobility
– learning disabilities
– clumsiness, prone to injury
– intolerant, irritable
– daydreamer, spaced out
– impractical optimism and enthusiasm, followed by depression, pessimism, hopelessness
– likes coffee, sometimes hallucinogenic drugs
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF NIHILISTIC MIASM (YAMA)
– mother of all miasms
– general misbalance, inability to realize a life task
– located in the crown chakra area and creates all the problems related to the dysfunction of this chakra
Physical Disorders
– the inability of self-realization, which results in escaping into illnesses of any kind
– obstruction to recovery from chronic illnesses produced by other miasms
Psychological Disorders
– not knowing one’s own nature
– inner resistance
– escaping reality
– constantly creating problems and obstructions, fooling around
– fear of change that equals fear of death
– not accepting life
– nihilistic philosophy
– resistance to assuming responsibility for one’s own life
– resistance to the discipline necessary to realize one’s own goals
– life perceived as suffering followed by death
– subtle pessimism, deep hopelessness
– fear of life and fear of death
PART THREE: Dissolving Miasms
The system of dissolving miasms that I use can be combined with homeopathic treatment, even though the homeopathic treatment is usually not necessary unless the person is physically ill. Still, without a physical ailment, the person is not even aware of the miasmic form – only those individuals who have made considerable progress along the path of personal development, and are, therefore, skilled in self-observation, recognize it relatively easily. That is why I recommend a parallel homeopathic treatment (if necessary allopathic, too) when the miasm has generated physical problems, which can contribute to curing all the remaining energetic and physical consequences of the miasm. However, due to its dynamic nature, it is also possible to dissolve a miasm using non-homeopathic means. If a certain phenomenon is energetic by nature, then it is possible to dissolve it with energetic means. And, since every energetic phenomenon is simultaneously a psychological one, it is necessary to apply some form of psychotherapy if we wish to dissolve it optimally. In addition, if the homeopathic treatment (as Hahnemann defined it) aims to return the patient to a state of health in the shortest and most reliable way, then all procedures that accelerate and complement the dissolution of miasms are welcome.
Miasms were originally dissolved by correcting the vital force with homeopathic remedies, but in the last six aphorisms of the sixth edition of the Organon, Hahnemann stressed the importance of homeopathic psychology, spiritual healing, and complementary systems such as (amongst others) “magnetism” and “mesmerism,” the popular forms of bio-energetic therapy at the time. Constantine Hering, one of the most famous of Hahnemann’s disciples, claims that Hahnemann considered those systems inseparable from homeopathy and stated that a doctor is not a doctor if he does not know them. Hahnemann’s son Frederick, considered by many as one of the greatest healers of all times[11], dealt actively with homeopathic psychology and mesmerism, as did many other significant homeopaths.
Nowadays, many authors of homeopathic handbooks stress the importance of simultaneous work to become aware of the inner dynamics that accompany the dissolution of miasms using homeopathic remedies. In his book Vibrational Medicine, Richard Gerber presents the opinion that homeopathic medicine, as a dynamic remedy, induces changes within the energy body, and then those changes manifest also in the physical body. Energetic information spreads through the physical body through bodily fluids – blood circulation and cellular fluids. In time, and with the patient’s cooperation, this information returns the body to the original, healthy state. However, optimal results are achieved if consciousness (the brain and nervous system) is also involved in the healing process. Healing can be achieved much faster when it is simultaneously based both on correcting the life force and becoming aware of the causes of the problems, of the influence they have, and on their meaning, the lesson hidden behind it. So, when it comes to becoming aware of inner dynamics, the question is, “How can it be achieved in an appropriate way?” or “Which form of psychotherapy is complete?”.
Different homeopaths use different systems of psychotherapy. Philip M. Bailey, M.D., the author of Homeopathic Psychology[12], speaks of the importance of parallel work on the patient’s efforts to face the emotions underlying the problem. He considers the so-called “primal therapy” to be the deepest system of therapy he knows. Bailey is critical of contemporary forms of psychotherapy and says that “… many …people would benefit from the kind of psychotherapy which can help them to contact, re-experience and then let go of suppressed emotions. Unfortunately, very few psychotherapists work sufficiently deeply to allow this to fully take place. Most psychotherapy is talking therapy, and whilst this helps to some extent, it tends to keep the patient in his head rather than his emotions… I have found that primal therapy is the deepest form of psychotherapy available… Other relatively deep psychotherapy techniques include breathwork, Hakomi, Reichian therapy, Gestalt, and Psychodrama.”[13]
Dutch homeopath Harry van der Zee, author of Miasms in Labour[14], also mentions some new psychotherapy systems that can be of great help during a homeopathic treatment of miasms (primarily the Holotropic Breathwork therapy of Czech psychiatrist Stanislav Grof). He uses Jung’s psychology as a means for interpretation of psychological aspects of miasms and links the origin of miasms directly to prenatal traumas and birth trauma. In his book, Harry van der Zee lists many contemporary authors who contributed to the research of prenatal experience, amongst others, Freud, Otto Rank, Arthur Janov, Leonard Orr, and Stanislav Grof. Those authors are all creators of therapy systems that aim to free a person from suppressed negative emotions and accompanying physical and mental blockages in order to restore the original healthy state. These are certainly valuable goals that were not easy to reach prior to the discoveries made by those authors. However, according to my observations, releasing the suppressed emotions and dissolving mental blockages is only the first phase of dissolving the miasms.
If we wish to dissolve a miasm “rapidly, in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable and most harmless way, on easily comprehensible principles,” then there are several theoretical preconditions that we need to know and technical interventions we need to perform. All the technical interventions I will talk about here come from my examinations of the human energy field and the development of a psycho-energetic methodology of dissolving different limiting influences integrated into the Transformation of Karmic Patterns system. So, technically speaking, a miasm is not a traumatic experience, nor is it an astral entity created as the consequence of trauma, even though it may seem so according to some characteristics. A miasm is not a relationship bond, even though it strongly affects human relations. A traumatic experience is a good trigger for the manifestation of a miasm, but a miasm is a form far more complex than trauma. Therefore we cannot completely dissolve it using the means typical for dissolving a traumatic experience and its consequences. A miasm regularly behaves as a subtle and well-camouflaged conscious being located within the energy body, which tries to completely control one’s life – the perception, behavior, relations, and goals. A miasm is a kind of archetypal, collective thoughtform or astral entity. It was probably created at the moment planet Earth entered a cycle of misbalance (“expulsion from heaven”), and it manifests as a very strong taboo inherited from family members. This is why it is not always easy to detect it – such a process demands high-level therapeutic skills, as well as the patient’s openness and honesty to him or herself.
The next crucial moment is the fact that every miasm presents the person with a whole range of benefits. Seemingly destructive, a miasm is a means of fulfillment to us. Moreover, it mainly serves as a means of connecting to one’s family. In this way, a miasm is a family bond – it connects us with our “family soul” or the family as a whole. These are significant gains, and this is why there needs to be a very strong reason to dissolve a miasm – without good grounds and motivation, the dissolution of a miasm can destabilize a person to quite an extent. Herein lies the reason why it is necessary to transform a miasm into a new, more natural form of fulfillment, but here we come to another important aspect of the miasm dissolving process. This kind of transformation is not possible without retrieving a lost identity. Every miasmic form, at the moment of its creation, brings about a rejection of one or more essential aspects of our true identity. In order to become a part of our family, we accept a miasm as a precondition for acceptance within a family. In its attempts to connect emotionally, mentally, and spiritually with one’s own family, the child absorbs all impulses coming from the family matrix, primarily from the parents and then from others. Without objection, a child refutes the parts of its personality that could cause conflict with the parents because such a conflict might jeopardize the child’s survival. As the child completely depends on the parents, he or she is ready for all kinds of compromises to secure biological survival and then to fulfill his/her emotional needs – to be accepted and loved by the parents. This is why a return of the lost identity – a highly valuable procedure that is an essential part of my Transformation of Karmic Patterns system – presents the key moment during the dissolution of a miasm. Without integration or “wholing,” there is no valuable, quick, and permanent “healing.”
The process of miasm dissolution usually begins with a diagnosis or with establishing which miasm is in question-based on the sum of the symptoms. The next step is facing the miasm by establishing its position in the energy body. Even though a miasm creates numerous psychosomatic symptoms that could lead to the conclusion it is positioned in the lower layers of the energy body or on the physical body, it cannot be centered in such a way. A miasm‘s “head” is in the seventh layer of the aura, and it can be experienced as a mass circling around the physical body at a distance of one meter, sometimes looking like a ring-shaped form that surrounds a person. While facing the masses, we recognize all types of influences and dissolve them one by one. Very often, we may be surprised by the contents coming from the miasmic form (even when it comes to advanced practitioners of spiritual techniques). Nevertheless, we dissolve all negative emotions, beliefs, standpoints, interdictions, and orders and transform the toxic connections with family members from whom we inherited them. The parts of the personality that were lost, rejected, or forgotten at the moment a miasm replicated in our energy body can then be returned.
Dissolving a miasmic form and returning the lost identity brings our energy body back into the original, healthy state. On the one hand, such a healthy state seems pretty usual and simple because we become who we used to be, or better, who we have always been, just in a significantly deeper and more stable way. On the other hand, the return to the state of health brings back our lost charisma and enables us to transform ourselves and our own lives in the way we want. A non-miasmic person is also on the right path to freeing herself from the inner weaknesses that have burdened humankind for a long time. Such weaknesses are usually defined as problematic inner structures existing in a latent form in every human being, which only surface when the person happens to be in a position of power. Excessive materialism, promiscuous sex, superiority or inferiority complexes, addictions, emotional coldness, spiritual ignorance, or mental dullness (human stupidity) are the basic weaknesses of this kind. Miasms are definitely one of the key obstructions on the human path to wholeness and spiritual self-awareness, but even more towards self-realization, to the actualization of our primary potential, which was lost in trying to adjust to the unfavorable conditions of life on this planet since the time it entered the cycle of imbalance.
Dissolving miasms is an advanced form of healing and personal development work. Before confronting miasms, I advise my clients to go through at least twenty hours of individual work, together with the readiness to independently apply some of the techniques of personal development. Prior to creating the foundations for dissolving a miasm, it is necessary to clean up family relations, basic traumatic experiences, and their consequences. This type of cleansing usually presents the first phase of my work, and for the majority of people, these interventions are more than enough. Once the basic cleansing is completed, it is possible to move on to dissolving the miasms if the person feels ready for it. The moment of readiness usually comes when the miasm has already manifested itself in the person’s life, that is, when the strength of the basic symptom becomes unbearable for her (illness, emotional problem, unrealized goals), and the power of her motivation is strong enough for a huge and thorough change that dissolution of a miasm brings. It is exactly because of the unwillingness to go through a thorough change that needs to follow the dissolution of a miasm that many people are not ready for such work. Therefore no matter what motivates them and in what “rank” they fall, persons interested in dissolving miasms have to be able to see it as a practical life lesson, as a means of personal development they can learn from. If someone is not willing to learn from a problem, it is hardly probable that the miasm will be dissolved in an optimal way and in an optimal time frame. A lesson learned must be evident in practice, in one’s lifestyle. Even though it is primarily about the change in consciousness, the whole transformation has to be reflected in behavior and lifestyle. Such a change must be based on the willingness to assume a greater amount of responsibility for oneself and one’s life and the adoption of a certain form of discipline the person avoided earlier.
When dissolving a miasm, it is good to stick to the order established by Hahnemann – to work first on the sycotic, then the syphilitic, and then the psoric. Even if treating other miasms, one should first do these three and then continue with the others. However, dissolving all seven miasms is usually not possible in a planned manner by willingly inducing miasms to manifest. Every miasm carries a huge lesson, and one needs to be ready for it. It is thus necessary to maintain the balance between the will and surrender and work on miasms within the context of unrealized life goals. If it turns out that the realization of a certain goal is blocked by a miasm and the person is ready for such work, then the dissolving of the miasm presents a natural intervention. Seen in the context of karmic cleansing, dissolving miasms very often presents the crown of karmic release and creates the healthiest possible foundation for creative self-realization. It also frees one’s descendants from unpleasant and heavy lessons and creates far more space for their creative realization. It returns us to the original form of existence, sometimes called heavenly, where just existing brings great pleasure and fulfillment.
©Tomislav Budak, September 2004
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[1] Samuel Hahnemann: Organon of Medicine, B. JAIN PUBLISHERS, New Delhi, 6th edition, aphorism 2.
[2] All information regarding Hahnemann’s biography is taken from George Vithoulkas’s book Homeopathy – Medicine of the New Man, ARCO PUBLISHING, INC., New York 1979, and from Thomas Lindsey Bradford’s book, The Life and Letters of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, www.homeoint.org/books4/bradford
[3] David Little: Miasms in Classical Homeopathy, http://www.simillimum.com/education/little-library/constitution-temperaments-and-miasms/mch/article.php
[4] Samuel Hahnemann: Die Chroniche Krankenheiten – Ihre eigenthumliche Natur und homeopatische Heiligung, Leipzig & Dresden, 1835.
[5] Richard Gerber, M.D. Vibrational Medicine, BEAR & COMPANY PUBLISHING, New Mexico, 1988, chapter seven, paragraph four – The Problem of Miasms: Our Energetic Tendencies towards Illness, p. 259
[6] ibid., p. 260
[7] ibid., p. 260
[8] ibid., p. 261
[9] Barbara Ann Brennan: Light emerging – The Journey of Personal Healing, BANTAM BOOKS, 1993.
[10] See www.bodyved.com
[11] http://www.simillimum.com/education/little-library/the-works-of-great-homoeopaths/fhlw/article.php
[12] Philip M. Bailey, M.D.: Homeopathic Psychology – Personality Profiles of the Major Constitutional Remedies, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California, 1995.
[13] ibid., p. 222
[14] Harry van der Zee: Miasms in Labour, Stichting Alonnissos, Utrecht 2000.