When George Vithoulkas spoke at the Homeopathy Congress in Berlin in April 1997 (of all places), he proclaimed that the use of remedies such as Berlin Wall damages the reputation of homeopathy and is in no way defensible. When I first heard of this remedy (about a year before George delivered his verdict), I initially felt exactly the same. Fate be thanked that at that time there was no platform at hand on which I could have publicly condemned this remedy. In May 1997 I then attended another homeopathic meeting, which brought together 15 homeopaths from around the world to exchange their best experiences. There an Irish colleague, Declan Hammond, reported on his experiences with the remedy Berlin Wall. I was deeply impressed by his account and as soon as I was back home I ordered the remedy and carried out a proving.
In this and the next article I would like to write about our experiences during the proving and present some case studies. For me the remedy ‘Murus Berlinensis’ became a true polychrest in a very short time.
Remedy picture of Berlin Wall (Declan Hammond)
From the proving experiences and about a dozen clinical cases Declan Hammond developed the following remedy picture (observation period: two years):
- Feelings of abandonment and SEPARATION are common to all patients. An unbearable external pressure that causes either an explosion or implosion in patients; huge despair.
- Suppression (political; by the family; abuse, sexual; religious; bullying) and seeing oneself as a victim; feeling that their creativity is being suppressed.
- Obsessive states (DD Stram, Bell, Hyos).
- Children of ambitious parents who are demanded of and pushed too hard (DD Carc).
- Care professions, prone to burnout and/or mental exhaustion.
- Acute: against overwhelming resistance: hospitals, court proceedings.
- Indescribable darkness/the evil.
- Showing nothing; MASKS; expressionless, unfriendly.
- Suspicious, unpleasant, evasive gaze; cannot look others in the eye.
- “Poor sinner” expression; beaten.
- Frequent crying, the tears flow freely; feels numb and deadened because of it, desperate.
- Deep grief that is not accessible, unspoken, yet hangs in the air.
- Depression, feeling of total darkness, total isolation, loneliness, despair.
- Panic, urge to flee, but cannot. TERROR.
- Feeling as if after a brainwashing, lacking the courage to free themselves, unable to let go of the past (intercurrent remedy to gain access to past traumas).
- Everything will go wrong; despair regarding recovery.
- Pain-insensitive (DD. Op, Stram, Hell).
- Autoaggression (drugs, alcohol, steering the car into an oncoming vehicle or into a wall).
- Impulsiveness – anything can happen (Merc, Prot).
- Aggression towards other people or animals (is fascinated by it). Child who puts a rope around a cat’s neck to see what happens (daughter of A.P.).
- Deceit, fraud.
- Guilt feelings, insoluble.
Physical
- ASTHMA, pressure on the chest, suffocating feeling.
- Headaches, deep, crushing, congestion, almost bursting because of depression and photophobia; feels separated and isolated.
- After strokes, to re-establish missing connections.
- Transient blindness and hearing loss in stress situations.
- Joint stiffness, swelling: “as if something is gripping tight”.
- Dupuytren’s contracture.
- Feeling of emptiness, like a hole in the gut (ulcer).
- Narcolepsy (20 hours a day).
- Sleep disturbances, insomnia.
- When well-chosen remedies fail to open a case.
- As an intercurrent remedy.
Our own proving and experiences with the remedy Berlin Wall:
Armed with the information developed by Declan Hammond we went in search of the secrets of the Berlin Wall. The first question that naturally arises is: “Is there a difference between the remedy picture of the Berlin Wall and a piece of concrete from the wall of one’s own garage?” The emotional answer would be: “Yes, of course”, but rationally one might have justified doubts (just as George Vithoulkas did), because the material composition is the same. There is only one definitive answer and that is an experimental-scientific one: to carry out a proving and evaluate whether there are specific themes, either to Germany or the Berlin Wall. I will begin with a brief summary of the history of the Berlin Wall:
History
On 13 August 1961 a wall was erected virtually overnight across Berlin. It was intended to prevent people in East Berlin from going to West Berlin. For economic and political reasons millions had fled from the communist East to seek their fortune in the capitalist West – Berlin was the “gap” in the Iron Curtain through which one could still get to the other side of the border. The Berlin Wall symbolises division, intense fear, mistrust, the worst excesses of the Cold War (where the Cold War became truly “hot”), KGB versus FBI, intrigue, betrayal and espionage. In total the Berlin Wall caused 588 deaths – escape attempts under or over the wall.
In 1990 the wall was torn down and a piece of it found its way from Berlin to England. There it lay in a homeopath’s drawer (Martin Miles) for two long years, but was later taken out again, potentised and proved. Here is an extract (in essence; translator’s note) from Norman Gelb’s book ‘The Berlin Wall’ (Michael Joseph, 1986): “It is more than just a witness to the division of a city. It also tells the story of a politics of power and of the nuclear threat. This politics is played out in Washington, Moscow, London and Paris, but also very much in Germany. Berlin was not without reason the place which Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev called ‘the testicles of the West’: ‘Whenever I want the West to scream, I’ll squeeze here’.” It is the place about which J.F. Kennedy said: “If Khrushchev wants to rub dirt in my face here, then it’s all over”. Here the Cold War began, after the Soviet blockade, when Russian and American tanks faced each other for the first – and hopefully only – time and the eerie game of nuclear armament began. For a brief moment all the eyes of the world were on the Berlin Wall. Erected in an atmosphere of anger and contempt it brought deep fears and hopeless despair. Hawks and doves around the world debated the meaning and consequences of the Wall. The great wall of Berlin is more than just an emotionally inflated geopolitical spectacle. It was made of reinforced concrete and, at 3.5 metres high, was a formidable construction. It wound its way across the German capital, not only dividing it into two distinct units but also enclosing the western part of Berlin in a sort of concrete chokehold. The total length of the Wall was about 160 km – longer than the distance between New York and Philadelphia or London and Calais.
Doctrine of signatures/Idioms
Definition of a wall (Webster’s II New Riverside Dictionary):
1. A vertical structure or divider that encloses or separates something.
2. A continuous protective barrier serving defence.
3. Something that separates, surrounds, or protects like a wall.
4. (Verb) To mark off or enclose.
Wallflower: Someone who stands at the edge and appears inconspicuous, either because they are shy or unpopular.
To go through the wall with one’s head: to try to do something impossible; there is no way out of the frustration.
Blind wall: a wall without doors or windows through which one could go or see.
(Proving)
Themes of the remedy Berlin Wall
The summary of the proving and the cured symptoms is grouped by themes (F = female prover, M = male prover; * = dream).
Germany – themes of the Berlin Wall
*Dreamt of an acquaintance from Germany whom I had never been able to stand – he was always very dominant, nervous, neurotic and precise. In the dream I could see his other, pleasant side. I realised that one can also get used to someone. (F3)
- On 13 August (1997) I felt dreadful all day. In the evening the news reported that the Berlin Wall was erected exactly 27 (36? – PtB) years ago. (F3)
- More interest in German TV channels, even a little ‘homesickness’ for Germany (I was not born there), felt a ‘world-weariness’. Can now better understand Germans in general. (F3)
*I am in an unfamiliar room, I feel foreign there, nobody wants anything to do with me. German is being spoken. The room is a kind of cellar, half sunk into the ground. They cannot really see me, something is wrong with their eyes. I want to touch people constantly, I feel a disgust at myself because of it. (F1)
- With regard to attraction between men and women a working woman notes: “Who doesn’t have longing?” (F1)
Wall – separation (Healing effect: tearing down the wall)
- Suddenly I notice that I perceive men very differently: nicer, softer, friendlier. It was so striking that I could not ignore it. The following even happened to me: A man wanted to show me the way and gently put his hand on my shoulder while explaining it. (Healing symptom F2)
- All the people I met I could clearly split into two groups: one group open to contact outwardly and one group that had no contact outwardly and was stuck in their own world. It seemed only these two extremes existed and nothing in between. (F2)
- Sensation of a wall, an incredible distance between me and the people I love. I cannot reach the people I want to be with. I suffer greatly from it. (F3)
- If I hold the remedy in my hand for a while I feel great sorrow and sadness, so enormous I could drown in it. (Healing symptom F1)
- A suppressed grief (‘walled in’) from 30 years ago (he had never told his wife because he didn’t want to trouble her) surfaced and for the first time he could cry about it together with his wife. Afterwards he was less irritable and more tender towards his wife. (Healing symptom in a 75-year-old patient)
- Don’t come near me. Men only want to use you and destroy you, absolutely no sex. (F5)
- Essentially I have a strong need for love. Please stay with me and don’t leave me, but where the solar plexus is I feel that I don’t want to be touched. (F5)
*My brother and sister live with me in a house and we get on very well (in reality this is not so). (Healing symptom/wish F3)
*I stand on a long, lonely road that runs straight ahead and divides the landscape. (F2)
- During the proving I often had the feeling that my inner world is enough, it suffices me to live, I need nothing else. I do not have to belong to the outer world. What is deep inside me need not be expressed in the world outside. (F2)
- I suddenly understand very clearly why I have to smoke. In a shop a woman pushed in front and I became really angry. I could not say anything (fortunately I felt the anger only internally, it bore no relation to the incident). I immediately needed a cigarette to get my feelings back under control. Smoking is a protection, it holds back my feelings. If I stopped smoking I would feel my emotions very intensely and I don’t think I could cope. (F2)
Lack of wall/structure/separation – (Healing effect: drawing clear boundaries)
- As soon as I touch the remedy I feel better, I can clearly separate my energy from that of others/from the outside. (Healing symptom F%)
- I refuse to enter into a man-woman relationship unless it is a ‘pure, unblemished’ relationship. (F5)
*Together with my father I am on a barren, flat and empty meadow; there are as many water-filled ditches as there are meadows. The water in the ditches is as high as the meadow, it is an unpleasant landscape. There is no horizon. My father says he does not believe in God or that he thinks he no longer believes in God (he is very religious). (M6)
- After touching the remedy I could not find my way home; I got lost and could not go to work the next day because I felt the war thing was coming up again. (Patient)
- On the way to a restaurant (well known) I got lost in the red-light district. I wandered around, then saw a telephone number for a shop window to let to prostitutes. I felt the urge to note down the number because it was the only thing I had left. (F1)
*There is a large sand heap in front of my house, so big that it reaches up to my window. Anyone can walk right past my window. I therefore feel very insecure (old, familiar anxieties). Yesterday old complaints returned: headaches, a runny nose, felt stressed, burning spots on my head. This morning everything had disappeared again. (M8)
Mother
*An ideal mother; she comes to my bed and comforts me without pitying me; she promised that we would study together the next day (she never did when I was little). (Healing symptom F1)
*I walk with my mother by Lake Geneva (we holidayed there when I was small) and I was astonished because it felt so good between us. Then I see a plane crash into the lake, there is an explosion. 16 people are seriously injured and eventually die. (F1)
*I am in my parents’ bedroom and my mother wants to make contact with me. I agree and at first everything is fine, but then she comes very close and finally on top of me: “Listen, you must listen to me”. (She wants to convince me of something). I want more distance and space and send her downstairs. I tell her I will come later. She goes away and it feels good. Then I go downstairs too. My mother stands in the kitchen in a corner. We hug and I notice how my mother is filled again, fulfilled, her proportions are right again. She is more back in her body and no longer just a flat strip. Then she becomes too inflated and I notice how she clings to me. I feel myself becoming smaller and do not want this. I want to free myself from her again and, horrified, find that we are joined at the abdomen. I am not panicked and stand very still and observe how it feels. Then I take a step back and am free. (Healing symptom F1)
*In my first sleep I wake and clearly hear my daughter call: “Mummy”, as if calling for help. It turned out I had only imagined it. (Patient)
*My mother and I lie on the beach, she lies close to me. I think I should allow it. But then she touches me between the legs, very gently and softly, she moves upward then back again and so on. I do not like it at all but say nothing. My mother is not sexually aroused or anything. (F1)
*I am again on the beach with my mother, the tide comes in and my mother floats out to sea but is washed back to the shore by the waves. I think “What must I do now”? (F1)
*Vision: a mother of flesh and blood, three-dimensional, not just a flat strip. (F1)
Comment: The mother appears to be a major theme of this remedy, in particular separation from the mother. Setting boundaries, delineating what belongs to you and what belongs to me. Almost always the theme “mother” is resolved only towards the end of the process. In our experience Thuja is the fundamental remedy for this theme (confusion about one’s own identity – losing oneself), but Berlin Wall and the nosodes are sometimes indispensable complementary remedies.
Male-female identity/separation
- Look to be obsessed with themes concerning male and female identity, such as male aspects (compensatory) in women.
*With regard to attraction between men and women a working woman notes: “Who doesn’t have longing?” (F1)
- The stiffness in my shoulders (“coat-hanger sensation”) has lessened, and I no longer have the need to move demonstratively or speak loudly when under stress. I previously thought I had taken this on from my father as a survival strategy, but that it did not really belong to me (he was always very loud and dominant, showing an impressive presence). As if my male aspect had to defend itself so as not to become a zombie and disappear as my mother did. (Healing symptom F1)
*In an exclusive Japanese restaurant one of my patients sits at a table (she is a very masculine lesbian). With her arms she makes some abrupt, angular movements. “That is the masculine Japanese” she says, “but there is also a feminine variant where I would like to go and have dinner with her once”. And she makes elegant, flowing and very feminine arm movements and shows her bare shoulder. I am very relaxed. (F1)
Sexual perversions
*A man drops his trousers in public and wants anal intercourse with a woman who seemed unable to refuse him. (M4)
*Someone (a man) urinates on my body and is sexually aroused by it. (F1)
- Feel sexually aroused, legs widely spread, as if drunk, utterly uninhibited. (F5)
War – violence – cruelty
*A stretcher team and a police unit are working together. It is Monday morning and the bodies must be taken away. Many mutilated bodies lie at the roadside. Out of sheer malice a policeman drives over the corpses and the bodies burst open. I can see the open chests where the aortas protrude like walking sticks pointing downwards. It gives me the opportunity to join in and pursue my hobby – anatomy – but unfortunately I have another appointment already. (M6)
*I walk with my mother by Lake Geneva (we holidayed there when I was small) and I was astonished because it felt so good between us. Then I see a plane crash into the lake, there is an explosion. 16 people are seriously injured and eventually die. (F1)
Eyes/seeing/soul versus blindness/filter
- Last night I had the feeling of being blind, I opened the curtain a little and found that I wasn’t. (F1)
*I am in an unfamiliar room, I feel foreign there, nobody wants anything to do with me. German is being spoken. The room is a kind of cellar, half sunk into the ground. They cannot really see me, something is wrong with their eyes. I want to touch people constantly, I feel a disgust at myself because of it. (F1)
*I am in a tent with my parents (as in holidays) and suddenly I experience a situation I had already experienced as a child. I see that I am nine years old and I have a kind of filter in front of my eyes, similar to a contact lens or a film over my eyes. I believe I no longer need it now, but I did then. Now I can view the whole situation objectively from the outside. The family structure, the hierarchy between my father and my mother and me as a defenceless child. (F1).
*My boyfriend lies on the bed and looks me in the eyes, I stand at the head of the bed and lean over him. I can look through his eyes into his past, his childhood. I can peer into the innermost part of his soul. We had never had such eye contact before. (The day before I had already felt much empathy for his problems and his past). (F1)
*Vision: two astronauts and a UFO with highly modern equipment, especially regarding eye technology (laser/photography). (F1)
- Together with my daughter I made five masks. One mask has glasses, another has five eyes. (F2)
*I must find a particular person’s glasses otherwise he cannot see. I search for them in a drawer. (F2)
*We take off in the middle of the night in a small plane. We fly into the night. During the flight I soothe a man (a patient of my husband) who is chiefly afraid of what he cannot see. I know every movement and vibration of the aeroplane well because I have flown in the day before, so I can explain everything that happens to the man. I love it when the plane lifts through the clouds into the air. I love flying. The plane does not offer much protection, it is only a metal box without insulation and for a moment I can even hear a slight draught from outside. Then we have flown through the night and arrived in the morning. I am surprised how quickly morning comes. I look out of the window and can see the night as a dark blot behind us. This is the most beautiful and impressive image that remains from the dream. The most beautiful feeling was recognising every movement again, to be able to follow the vibration blindly, which relaxed me greatly. (Healing symptom F2)
- In a book I read by chance something that deeply moved me: “To be able to see it is not enough to keep the eyes open, one must trust the eyes and what they see. Nothing makes us more blind than the firm belief in what we already know, even when our eyes tell us something else. Every knowledge within the reach of humanity is paired with selective blindness”. (F2)
Comment: A wall takes away our sight, especially a blind wall. One cannot see what is on the other side. The wall protects us from what is on the other side, protects us from seeing what would be too painful; one might not survive it. A wall also casts a shadow over everything that lies behind it. It brings darkness (night, unconsciousness), prevents (traumatic) things from coming to light (consciousness).
Berlin Wall gives us the emotional strength to bear and survive that sight, it gives us eyes to see.
Speed – steep
*I have to climb a steeply rising street. Shortly before I reach the top a couple with a dog come towards me. As soon as the dog sees me it rips free and jumps on me because it wants to play. I fall and almost slide back down the hill. I have to keep the dog off me, but at the same time I play with it and laugh about it. With my right hand I hold on to a paving stone. The man of the couple is amused because the dog normally does not do this and even photographs us. Then the dog and I get up again; I see that the man’s hair turns red (like my own). (F1)
*We go down a very steep slope, almost vertical, on a kind of skateboard with wheels and a steering wheel. I am at the helm and my mother sits behind me clinging to me. I have to drive down the slope very carefully, concentrate and I manage it. I think it is good that I sit in front, then I at least have the overview and my mother will not panic. (Healing symptom F1)
*Everything happens at high speed. (F1)
*I skate on an endless ice surface that leads into the sea. I tell myself that it is best I do not go any further now because otherwise I will fall into the water. I succeed. (F1)
*I walk hand in hand with my husband through a wood (in reality we have many problems). (Healing symptom ? Case 6)
*K. drives in a car and I sit next to him. He drives on the right-hand side across a bridge and crashes the right front wheel into the bridge railing. The car drives up the railing by itself and falls down on the other side. I feel nothing, but know that it will be our end. The car and we are completely flattened, as if by a steamroller. It all happened so quickly (as if I could not wake up in time before the accident). (F1)
*I want something to eat and see the sign of a restaurant. I go down in a lift. It descends at a terribly high speed and I have to hold on to thick black cables (like a ski lift). I constantly have to make sure I grab the next cable in time. In the end I land on a wide, flat plain that stretches endlessly ahead of me. I have a very bad feeling and ask a very fat American who stands on the other side where it leads. He says the road goes on for thousands of kilometres and that they do it on purpose because you have to pay for every kilometre. I didn’t want to do that but he said that you cannot turn back. “I’ll help you, they won’t catch me. Just hide behind my back.” We go back and the cashier looks at us suspiciously but lets me pass.
Cold (war); ice – mistrust
*It is winter and very cold, it has snowed. I am on my way to my friend R. (who in reality is very hard to reach). I cannot find the way, pass my mother and she tells me the route I must take. She tells me to call in on the way back and eat a bowl of hot soup because it is so cold. When I reach R. we walk in the dunes. In the dream he has something threatening about him. I say I am tired and lie down. R. lies beside me and touches me. I say I want to go. He puts his hand on my chest. I feel crushed and have difficulty breathing. I want to get up but in the lower back I am paralysed or stuck somehow. I say I want to go to my mother because I know her so well. R.’s hand is not loving, it is an iron hand like a robot’s, that is why I am so worn out. (F3)
Perfectionism – “There must be order”
- I want to tidy and clean the whole house. The chaos scares me, everything must be neat and very precise. It is like an order to myself. (F3)
*I am in a plane and complain about the toilet which in my opinion is dirty; I did not want to use it in that state. (F3)
Comment: Perfectionism can be seen as something (extremely) structure-bringing (walls) to keep the fear of chaos in check.
Exclusive/expensive/money/heavy/solid
*In a large villa on a hill I look after children together with a friend. She goes shopping and I take care of the children and the house. When she returns and climbs the thick, heavy stone steps behind the house I am on shopping duty. One must above all not forget to lock the front door with an old, rusty key. I walk along the street and pass many shops with beautiful dresses. I want to buy something for 3000 guilders but have only 250 guilders with me. (F1)
Other symptoms
- Fear that sexual energy will increase too much. (F2)
*The word ‘SYMBOL’ repeated itself. (F2)
- Great frustration when something goes wrong. Frustration seems to be a characteristic of this remedy. I cannot cope with it, but I also feel that I must endure my frustration. I must confront it and do something about it. (F2)
- Another important theme of the remedy Berlin Wall is the feeling of ‘always having to win’. (F1)
Comment: One could consider ‘winning’ as the other side (= overcoming the wall) of frustration.
- Cries because of events that happened in childhood. Door slamming accompanied by a feeling of helplessness and anger (similar to Staphisagria). (F2)
- Teary, cries about one tear an hour, yet improves. (F2)
- Desire to work at night (quieter, more in contact with myself). (F2)
- I become hard when I realise that the other person (my husband) shows no feeling. After long waiting and losing hope I become as hard as concrete, relentless. (F2)
- Feel a deep contact with myself, afraid that I might become dependent on the remedy. (Healing symptom F2)
- During the proving I felt strongly attracted to pale yellow clothing. (F2)
- I often caught myself smiling (especially in the first days of the proving). (F2)
- In the first contact with the remedy I feel it go to the side of my bronchitis. It lingers there a little and then suddenly penetrates deep into me. It touches a deep wound. (F2)
Physical
- Frequent urge to urinate; must hurry or will wet. (F3)
- Skin irritation on right little toe, at the nail bed. (F3)
- Night sweating. (F3)
- A twitching muscle at the left elbow, my right arm twitches at night in sleep. (F1)
- Pain in the left eye, movement < less. (F1)
- (Imagined) scent of vanilla. (M4)
- Acute sense of smell. (F2)
- Craving for pepper salami.
- Cough at night with green sputum. (F2)
- Stiffness and aches all over the body on waking in the morning. (F2)
- Dizziness. (F2)
- Pain in the lower back radiating into the abdomen and hips. Pain like labour pains, in waves, burning; worse sitting, better lying, worse at beginning of movement, improved by continued movement. (F2)
- Burning, shooting pains on the skin at the left hip. (F2)
- Tightening sensation at the throat before falling asleep. (F2)
- The back feels as if broken, as if one had slept on too soft a mattress, on waking. (F2)
- Cramps in the womb at night (like at the start of menstruation). (F2)
- Headache over the right eye during menstruation, pressure amel. (F2)
- Headache over and behind the right eye when running, (M7)
- Headache worse from cold, better from a warm bath. I must lie down because of the pain and fall asleep. (F2)
- Terrible itching at the front of the elbow. (M8)
- Pain in old scar tissue, touching the surrounding skin < <. (F9)
- Heavy periods (the blood runs down the legs) and headaches, triggered by BW 30, immediately relieved by BW LM1. (F2)
Summary of the remedy picture Berlin Wall
In the next article we will present seven case studies to illustrate for which complaints the remedy can be profitably used. Berlin Wall has proved useful as an intercurrent remedy (comparable to Nat. mur.) in cases where traumatic experiences of the past (buried behind walls) have been suppressed and the indicated remedy cannot or does not adequately help. We observed that two different personality types respond well to Berlin Wall:
- ‘Closed’ people, buttoned-up, reserved, impenetrable; sometimes with barbed wire around them (“don’t come near me”). It must be distinguished from Natrum muriaticum, other muriatics, Sepia, Aurum, Calcium and the milk remedies.
- ‘Boundaryless’ people, who cannot set limits. Anyone and anything can penetrate them, they are defenseless. They have no structure and are therefore confused and panicky.
People of group 2 have erected their wall internally as protection against unresolved traumatic experiences from the past that smoulder in the subconscious and try to rise into consciousness. Many of these patients had previously responded well to Thuja, Phos, Stram, the nosodes, Hydrogenium or the hallucinogens (Anh, Cann-i). After taking Berlin Wall they can set clearer boundaries and can ‘see’ more clearly what really happened (the theme “eyes”). Type 1 can be regarded as a kind of compensation or survival mechanism for type 2. When healthy boundaries are missing, it is only logical that one erects an impenetrable wall (nothing gets in and nothing goes out).
The deepest delusion of Berlin Wall is very probably the inability to separate oneself from the Other (to erect a natural wall). A Berlin Wall person lets others enter too quickly (no boundary) and then views (and judges) themselves from the perspective of the other. The appropriate rubric in the repertory is ‘Mind – Fear – being noticed; one would notice one’s state’. Interestingly many stones are listed here: Calcarea, Lapis-c-b, Lapis-mar-c, Berlin Wall therefore fits very well (see case study 1). Germany in this rubric is represented by the element Germanium.
Discussion
After we presented the proving results on a boat trip, the previously harmonious and understanding atmosphere within the group changed and became distinctly less friendly (a proving symptom of Berlin Wall?). A member of the group felt a marked aversion to the remedy and argued that we could just as well prove a piece of rope or a piece of prison wall. A participant admitted that she became very angry when she learned that her husband had been given Berlin Wall because it was not a ‘real remedy’. On the other hand there were participants who believed the remedy was the (man-made) manifestation of an inner split/insulation (a survival mechanism) experienced by many women in western civilised society and that the remedy could therefore be a potentially very deep-acting medicine. The discussion became very ‘emotional’ and I (as a member of one ‘party’) had the feeling of not being heard, as if I were talking to a wall and could hear nothing more. When I myself hear nothing any more, the other side also gains the impression of not being heard and of speaking against a wall. Fortunately we were later able to dance those walls away in the evening. I must admit that I too was initially sceptical about the remedy Berlin Wall. My personal ‘Berlin Wall’ was torn down when I trusted my own eyes and gave my trust to the homeopathic remedy ‘Berlin Wall’.
Kees Dam
-------------------------------------------------------
