My life has become colourless, I feel cut off: a case of Umbilical Cord (umbilical cord)

By Alize Timmermann

The somewhat plump patient comes from Croatia and asked me for support after her mastectomy. She is so weakened that she can no longer work. By profession she is a movement therapist, but she now reacts to her environment so sensitively that she finds contact with the outside world hard to bear and increasingly withdraws. She is very receptive to the thoughts and feelings of others and perceives her environment on different levels. This altered perception began following her mastectomy and the subsequent chemotherapy. Everything gets "under her skin"; she expresses the feeling of having no resistance. It makes her tired and exhausted. “It is as if I no longer have a protective shell, I feel naked.” The patient suffers from recurrent infections.

She believes she must suppress her feelings because they have become so overwhelming.

“Since my breast was removed I have become grey and masculine, because I cannot allow the feelings that other people show me.”

“I am very dissatisfied with myself. I am no longer a proper mother; I don't even know what it means to be a proper mother. I have forgotten how to listen to myself. I long to be a proper woman. I simply do not get better. I feel vulnerable like a newborn child. I feel as if someone has driven a knife into my belly, as if I have been cut off from life. My maternal feelings are gone, like they have been severed. I feel no connection to my son and my daughter, neither physically nor emotionally. Our relationship has been cut off. I am no use as a mother. I am a miscarriage, my life energy has been cut off. My connection to Mother Earth has also been severed. I don't at all know how to remain true to myself. My whole body feels as if it has been betrayed.”

“I have back pain that I didn't have before and no strength in my legs; I can no longer walk properly, I only shuffle about. My whole flow of energy has been interrupted. I have made myself invisible: people cannot see me any more and I cannot manage to make myself visible. When I am visible to others, everything rushes in on me, it penetrates me and I must withdraw again so that I become invisible once more. Mentally I have no strength either. I must live in complete isolation. I don't know how to love myself and I have to struggle to feel my own vital force.”

“My mother was never there for me; she cut the emotional umbilical cord to me when I was still very small. For many years I tried in vain to form a bond with her. I always hoped and waited that it would happen one day, but it didn't. She was always very stiff towards me; she never wanted to build a relationship with me.”

Complaints:

Allergies, sneezing, reacts allergically to everything

Tingling and stabbing sensations in the face

“Everything feels heavy, every step is a struggle.”

Sensation of heaviness in the lower abdomen and stomach; strong craving for potatoes, sugar and carbohydrates in general

Recurrent flu-like symptoms; slightly elevated temperature with limb pain and a feeling of heaviness in the limbs

Themes of the homeopathic remedy ‘Umbilical Cord’

• Connection, letting go, giving birth, severing connections

• Dimensions

• Transformation

Connection

The remedy proving paints a vivid picture of a special kind of relationship: a connection to Mother Earth, to family, to life, to different beliefs and situations. It is a very different form of relationship than the one a person has with themselves. The connection to Mother Earth is an archetypal relationship: it is a connection to the earth on which one lives and to life itself. Every person was once part of the great Earth Mother, every person is reborn, was born and is now present. In our Western culture this relationship is reflected in many expressions; we speak of an “earthly existence”, or that something “falls on fertile ground”. The connection to one's own family is shaped by one's parents and grandparents. If this bond is strong, one can, through one's ancestors, make contact with other dimensions.

Letting go

This concerns letting go of other people and of life itself, being free in order to be able to die. The interplay between connection and letting go is also expressed in the desire for freedom. To be free from others, to detach from the group, to escape any influence and to assert oneself.

This letting go is expressed in a sudden rupture, an unmediated cut in relationships or at the workplace; in some cases personal convictions can also change very suddenly. The sudden aspect of the remedy was expressed by the provers as a sensation of "cutting through" – a short, but complete and overall irreversible cut. Pains occur intensely but are localised. However, the events do not necessarily occur unexpectedly; they can be foreseen. The sensation strongly resembles the cutting of the umbilical cord after birth; it happens suddenly and cannot be undone: the unity with the mother is severed.

Dimensions

In the proving we can recognise the relation to other dimensions, to spiritual media and to the ancestors. Time is perceived as distorted, which may manifest in some patients as depression or overexcitability. It can also lead to psychotic perceptions, for example in the form of a distorted sense of reality. These proving symptoms give us a clue to the possible indication of the remedy in psychotic experiences that express themselves in the feeling of having “landed on Earth”. The close contact to other dimensions is also shown in heightened sensory perception, such as a sensitive sense of smell and out-of-body experiences. Sleep in this context can also be regarded as a form of extrasensory experience.

Transformation

The theme of transformation becomes clear through the following aspects: insight, overview, self-assertion. The homeopathic remedy might possibly be suitable to accompany deep transformational processes.

The umbilical cord contains numerous stem cells. Stem cells can stimulate the regeneration of new cells and are therefore used to treat Parkinson's disease and diseases of the blood vessels and heart. The homeopathically potentised remedy can support the treatment of serious illnesses such as cancer, Parkinson's etc. and stimulate the regeneration of new, viable cells on this level.

The remedy was potentised up to C5 trituration. Each level of potentisation stands for a specific theme, certain symptoms and experiences. In summary, the themes of the individual trituration levels can be summarised as follows:

C1-trituration: The physical dimension. Here the organism is the focus, the physical, biological dimension. The vital force, the essential energy of the substance, is expressed on the physical level. The main theme of the C1 level is: Freedom and influence.

C2-trituration: The emotional dimension. This level is perceived as a very "cold" level. During the proving the provers showed many conflicting feelings. The main theme here is: Resistance and connection/letting go.

C3-trituration: The mental dimension. This level penetrates the purely physical dimension and establishes contact with the unity. It is the level of religious experiences. On this level one weighs up and passes judgement; one compares with others. Thinking is polarised. The dominant theme is: Dimensions and transformation.

C4-trituration: The central level. It represents spiritual life beyond physical and emotional perception. Here one finds inspiration, freedom of decision and synchronicity, detached from the disturbing influence of the intellect. The prevailing theme revolves around Peace and synchronicity.

C5-trituration: The level of transcendence. It represents the individual unconscious, the archetype, dreams and the shadow; it is the driving force of our subconscious in our relationship to our own life force and the original source. The main theme of this level is: Connection to Mother Earth.

Case analysis:

The prescription was based on the clearly expressed feeling of being cut off, of isolation. This isolation was expressed on several levels: the feeling of unity, of "being one" no longer existed, the umbilical cord – the vital connection to the mother – is cut. In this patient's case we have:

• Breast, the breast is cut off

• Mother, separated from her own mother

• Children, separated from her own children

• Mother Earth, separated from Mother Earth

• Body, being cut off from one's own body

• Creativity, being cut off from one's own creativity

Follow-up: The patient reacted surprisingly well to the remedy. I administered different potencies to address the different levels of experience. At the start I gave her a 1300/5 to stimulate the birth level. This was followed by a 220/5, which addresses the mental, mental level and allows us to see why we find ourselves in a particular situation. I then prescribed a 40/5 to enable an emotional processing of her feelings. By combining different levels of potentisation I can connect the different aspects of a person, i.e. their different levels of experience. The person begins to feel whole again, thus experiencing complete healing.

Two months later: The patient reacted to the first prescription with a severe sore throat with cutting pains, inflamed eyes, sinusitis and diarrhoea. During the elimination process she felt very ill; she had cutting pains. She had a dream in which she was teaching as a teacher and felt "visible" while doing so. She dreamed a lot about children. She began to do pottery, experimented a lot with different shapes and was thus able to reconnect with Mother Earth. She literally felt her passion and longings return. She experienced this positively; she felt powerful and full of vitality – her life force literally flowed back into her. Her bodily sense also improved noticeably; she could feel herself again. The patient became more sociable, was able to come out of herself more and felt less alone, more in tune with nature.

She said: “I am taking part in life again.” The flu-like symptoms disappeared very quickly by themselves.

The anger that had built up in the patient also decreased significantly. She felt more grounded, which helped her to let go of her own anger. She expressed the feeling that her anger had much to do with not being able to be in touch with her own feelings, not being able to express them. The colour returned to her life after it had felt grey and colourless for a long time.

The treatment was rounded off with a dose of Lac humanum. Lac humanum is a good follow-up remedy for Umbilical Cord and in many cases complements its effect.

Summary

The remedies Lac humanum, Umbilical Cord and Amniotic Fluid are often indicated in immune system disorders, such as allergies and recurrent and stubborn cases of flu-like infections. Cutting pains are a characteristic feature of Umbilical Cord.

Category: Case study

Keywords: Connection, letting go, breaking off relationships, cutting pains, exhaustion

Remedy: Umbilical Cord