poison hemlock

The patient, a 27-year-old woman, comes for consultation because of digestive complaints.

Peter (P): What is your problem?

Ms K: “Since childhood I have had a bloated stomach, abdominal pain and constipation, but for the last two years my digestive system has really been my weak point.

I have stabbing pains in my stomach, and it hurts when I have a bowel movement; I can feel where the stool is. For several years I have stopped drinking coffee, because when I drink coffee I get problems. I like wine, but it also gives me discomfort. Everything gets worse with stress. In March 2007 I ended up in the emergency department because of terrible abdominal pain. I had eaten lasagne and within five minutes I had emptied my bowels on the toilet. The pains were dreadful, especially in the upper abdomen, it felt as if I had many little knives under the skin, and because of the pain I had difficulty breathing, so I began to hyperventilate. In the days before this episode I had often had problems after dinner, cramps and stabbing in the stomach and abdomen and watery diarrhoea. On the way to hospital the abdominal pains eased, but the stomach pain remained. Blood and urine were normal. Ultrasound and endoscopy of the stomach and abdomen were performed, but nothing unusual was found and I was sent home with a prescription.

Now I drink 2 litres of fluid a day, I eat as much fibre as possible and I cook with fewer spices. I no longer drink alcohol. The cramps in the abdomen have reduced, but my stomach still regularly bloats, despite taking Pantazol twice daily, and I still have to belch a lot. My stomach is still very painful, it is a gnawing pain, a feeling of being smashed. Also, when I pass stool I have lower abdominal pain, as if it creates a vacuum.

Since 2004 I have also had problems with stomach acid. I have been taking ranitidine for a long period. I have acid belching and burning from the stomach up to the throat.
My energy is blocked, everything is wrong, I am constantly tired. It feels like cramps, and the tiredness knocks me out altogether.”

P: Can you tell me more about what happened at the hospital at the end of March?

Ms K: “Standing and sitting felt uncomfortable, and on the way to hospital I had the feeling that my stomach was wobbling back and forth. I felt every bump in the road as a painful jolt, I could have screamed from the pain. I felt trapped in the pain. I had stabbing pains all over the stomach and abdomen. I could no longer breathe deeply, could not lift and lower my chest. My skin began to tingle all over, my forearms, my face – a desperate feeling; it was like a crackling through my skin. Now I again feel little knives in my stomach, with every movement it is as if a knife is being thrust into my belly.”

P: Can you describe that sensation more closely?

Ms K: “It is a feeling as if points were stuck inside me that go deeper as soon as I move. It is a feeling as if I had to move, but I cannot because of the pain.”

P: (I ask you further about the spots and the pain, but she gives no further information).
You say that stress might play a role. Did anything happen at the end of March that could have had something to do with it?

Ms K: “No, I can’t remember anything.”

P: (I ask her again about the “vacuum” feeling, it feels like a punch). You say the complaints “attack” you?

Ms K.: “Yes, it is like a driving lesson. You think you have everything under control and then the instructor suddenly hits the brakes. You think: ‘What on earth is going on now?’ It mostly comes when you absolutely don’t expect it.”

P: Do you mean: “My energy is completely blocked”?

Ms K: “My immune system, my energy level, is not what it was. I am constantly tired and feel smashed. I do not have enough defence, both physically and emotionally. My body simply does not work properly, it is not balanced and I don’t feel stable. I can no longer rely on my body. I’ve been through some very turbulent years, highs and lows. A new job – in the previous job I had a burnout. I have no reserves left, I used up more energy than I had. Last year I got divorced (she had been married but separated from her partner, a woman, last year). I have a new girlfriend, but not yet a new home. I have no firm ground under my feet.”

P: No firm ground under your feet?

Ms K: “Wobbly, my body feels like a felled tree. I feel powerless.”

P: Can you describe this feeling of a “felled tree” more closely?

Ms K: “It is like being used to leaning on someone, but they are not there and you fall flat on your face.”

P: Someone you could lean on is no longer there and you fall on your face. How do you experience that? Can you describe it more closely?

Ms K: “There are no filters anymore. I am energetically influenced by everything and everyone around me. Every stimulus comes in, a nasty remark and I shout ‘Ouch!’ The light is brighter, I have to blink my eyes. It is as if I were not there, as if things passed through me. I am more a ghost than a person. From one rude remark by anyone I feel annihilated, I cannot just brush it off.”

P: It penetrates you, you can’t brush it off...?”

Ms K: “It literally feels as if something is shot into my stomach; a blunt object, a dull thud, a blow to the face. I shut myself off, I don’t know a solution. It is hopeless with these blows. Every remark from my girlfriend feels like a sharp knife, ouch!”

P: Describe this feeling to me even more precisely!

Ms K: “It rumbles in me, I seal myself off instead of doing anything. A bullet enters me and scar tissue forms around it. It is like the impact of a bullet in my belly, as if someone were striking my stomach with boxing gloves! A blow! It feels like being in the boxing ring and taking hits. I would receive fewer blows if I could dodge them, but I don’t see the people who hit me. I only know that I am being struck, and I cannot respond properly. It is as if people passed through me into the boxing ring. They pass through me and over me, there are no boundaries, they enter my private space. A sharp knife is stuck in me and radiates into my body and warmth penetrates me...

Last year I always did my best to connect my body and mind; before I was a complete head person. I did not engage with my body, and I could not feel it well. I could distance myself well; if it got emotionally difficult I was ‘away’. I used to walk in the woods for hours without knowing where I was. Previously I often used alcohol as an escape.”

P: Can you explain this “detachment” more closely?

Ms K: “In the past people tried to penetrate to me, but I had a kind of film over my eyes. Twice I walked into the woods to hear the rhythm and sound of my footsteps. I love the trees and the darkness. It is like gliding away, as if there are fewer stimuli, as if the world can no longer reach me. No light and no sound. I hear nothing, I feel nothing. It rains and I don’t even notice.”

P: What kind of world is it that no longer reaches you? Can you describe it?

Ms K: “When the world grabs me I see everything, hear everything, I see colours, different shades of green, all the details of life. That can be very beautiful and not at all negative.”

P: Can you describe as precisely as possible what you experience when the world no longer reaches you and there is nothing to hear, nothing to feel? What do you feel?

Ms K: “I feel safe, nothing negative can reach me, I have no more pain.” (She suddenly shows a lot of energy, gestures, her body speaks!)
I was almost divorced. I felt trapped, she was always in my space, she claimed my space. I had to withdraw. I could not move: “Get out of my way! I felt even smaller, could not defend myself, had no air anymore, my living space has been taken and there is no room left for me. I am suffocating, tied up, under water, I scream but no one hears me!” (At this moment she gets abdominal pain).
“There is no space, my breath does not reach down to my stomach. I have no reserves left, and something explodes inside me, ouch! I have no buffer zone left, everything can now come right at me, they sit on my pain, if someone shoves me I fall down. I am unsteady on my feet. The customs officers (buffer) should be in between!”

P: The customs officers should be in between? What do you mean by that?

Ms K: “I need a buffer (1), a protective layer. Then I could fall without breaking anything. I could no longer be knocked out in the boxing ring.”

P: Tell me about your dreams?

Ms K: “As a child I often had dreams in which I was consumed by fire. I ran away but the fire kept pulling me back. The feeling on waking was ‘pushed into the corner, no escape possible, completely alone.’ Another dream was that I was not able to walk through water, and I was swept away by the current.”

P: Do you suffer from any anxieties?

Ms K: “Crowds, like at a pop concert where everyone jostles each other, scare me. I feel every elbow, the space becomes smaller and smaller; I then tend to force my way through the crowd violently.
I am afraid of clowns. I associate them with ‘ridicule’, ‘suspicion’ and ‘putting on a clown’, in the sense of trying to appear better than one is; there must be something behind it, something bad is going to happen. But clowns are also vulnerable people and they are not really threatening. I used to like to ‘play the clown’ and put on a facade of invulnerability.”

Ms K studied Dutch and Business Communication. She teaches at a polytechnic. She has had a turbulent year: a divorce, a new girlfriend, a new job because she lost the old one. She was involved in local politics. At the moment she has no house and lives with her partner. She still has the feeling of having no firm ground under her feet, and she spent two weeks at home in bed with a high fever. She was a complete head person.

A pivotal event in her life was her parents’ divorce: she has had no contact with her father for 25 years. The only person who might have given her recognition was her mother, but she never really received recognition from her. She is jealous of the bond between her sister and her mother; she always feels left out, short-changed. As a result of this lack of recognition she felt unable to be herself. She had to fight to be herself, to be strong enough. She says she is sensitive and open. She cannot bear it when “the pattern is not right”, meaning when things do not go as she wants.

History:
She has been to a gastroenterologist for her digestive problems and has had various tests. She has taken laxatives and used high-fibre foods, but nothing helped. Irritable bowel syndrome was treated, as was Crohn’s disease, because she had blood in the stool. Psychotherapy (hapto-therapy) also brought no success.

Other local complaints:
She has a kind of skin abrasion on the face that exudes wound secretion. She repeatedly suffers from aphthae in the mouth; examination shows that she currently has aphthae. Previously blood was found in her stool.

General symptoms:

• Improved by sun
• Aversion to cheese (3)
• Craving for ice (3)
• Previously allergic to cow’s milk
• High fevers in the past
• Glandular fever (infectious mononucleosis) in the past
• Sleeplessness at full moon
• Talks in sleep and grinds teeth
• Premenstrual complaints, especially breast swelling
• Almost no libido

Analysis:
To solve this case I applied the Sankaran method, using her sensations and perceptions.

Which kingdom is it?
The problem of the minerals is that they experience their structure as incomplete, or that they fear losing their sense of wholeness. Something within oneself (a projection of the inner world onto the outer world) is lost or incomplete, which here is obviously not the issue.

With animals we often experience very different sensations related to struggle and survival, which in Ms K’s case apparently is also not the case. There is no clear aggressor; she speaks of her girlfriend as someone who spreads into her space; then she speaks of “sensations that hit her directly in the heart”, something that has only to do with her. In her case it is about a particular sensation and its opposite (see explanation in the following text). She speaks of sensitivity and of something that happens to her. Under these circumstances it is clear that she needs a plant remedy.

Which plant family is it?
Initially I thought of the family Asteraceae (formerly Compositae), because of the blunt objects, the blows, the feeling of being smashed, the feeling of being in a boxing ring and being hit, the feeling of having too little defence and because of the high fever.

What does she feel?
At a moment when she does not expect it, when she thinks she has everything under control, she feels attacked by stimuli from outside: by a push, a blow or a stab. It hits her right inside, knife-sharp and radiates throughout the whole body, so to speak flies through her body. That is the typical state of the family Apiaceae (formerly Umbelliferae).
Sankaran describes the sensations of this plant family with the following words: “sudden, unexpected attack or violent impact, accidents, blows, turmoil, stab, wound pain, stabbing pains, in expectation of a blow” (buffer = buffer, that’s what the customs officers call themselves!). She reacts with distancing, withdrawing or retreating from the outside world. Sankaran describes paralysis, dizziness, dullness, sleep and rest as the opposite of the compensation. With the Asteraceae we do not have this aspect of suddenness, the unexpected attack. The feeling “suddenly being overwhelmed by a stimulus” is typical for the Apiaceae.
The findings of Jan Scholten also support the choice of this plant family. His description of the situation of the Apiaceae (Plant Seminar 5, May 2003) can be applied to this case. They have a need for control, they are thinkers, and they can block contact with their feelings and their body. They may suppress their sexual energy. Their senses are well developed (our patient sees and hears everything, she notices every possible detail). They have a need for darkness (on a walk in the woods she can completely switch off). The relationship to the mother is often distant, which can be expressed by an aversion to or aggravation from milk.

What is the appropriate remedy?
I found the right remedy by repertorising the plants. In my repertory Conium maculatum ranked very highly (threefold). Conium belongs to the Apiaceae family. I want to show here in which rubrics I found Conium:
Stomach: heartburn
Abdomen: pain, stabbing, as if by a knife
Abdomen: pain, as if from a blow
Stomach: pain, sore, as if bruised, in the pit of the stomach
Face: eruptions, sore, peeling
Fever: intense heat
General: eating and drinking, milk aggravates
Teeth: grinding in sleep
She describes that her body tends to form round encapsulations: the induration (hardening) of tissues (glands, tumours, breast cancer) also fits the Conium picture.

Prescription: Conium maculatum MK (= C 1000 by Korsakov)

Follow-ups:

After 7 weeks:
Overall she is doing well; she feels stronger. For the first time she went on holiday alone, to Germany, something she would never have dared before because she felt so “wobbly”, so insecure. She is holding her own and experiences herself as grounded. The world no longer passes through her, she is no longer so easily overwhelmed by external influences and is no longer so easily swept away by her emotions.
One week after taking Conium she drank black coffee again for the first time in three years and had no problems with it. She no longer has to watch what she eats; she can eat spicy and fatty foods. She can now also enjoy her wine without problems; previously it caused acid belching. Her stools are now only rarely painful and irregular; in any case much better than before, and they no longer smell so badly. The abdominal cramps have disappeared, as have the bloating and belching. If you press on her abdomen she no longer has the feeling that the intestinal contents will spill out.

Prescription: Repeat dose Conium maculatum C 1000.

After 12 weeks:
After taking the remedy she had an initial aggravation; pains in the viscera and a wobbly feeling. A few days later she felt well again, even better than before. She feels very good, relaxed, strong and stable. If she drinks too much coffee she gets into trouble, but apart from that she has no problems at all. The aphthae have completely disappeared. Previously she had the feeling of “getting hits every day”; now she says that this feeling no longer occurs at all.
I agreed with her to repeat Conium in case of a relapse, or if she had any other complaints, and to call me if necessary.

After 28 weeks: 
I wrote to her GP and noticed that I had not even asked what she had done with the medications that had been prescribed to her (Pantazol, ranitidine). So I called her to find out. She had stopped all the medications on her own initiative; all she had needed during this time was one dose of Conium. She was still “amazingly well”.

Considerations:
What was the actual problem of this patient and what is the essence of her “feelings”?
Because I found the remedy so quickly using Sankaran’s method, some emotional and situational aspects did not come up. One could say that the main problem was indeed the feeling - but what is actually this “feeling”, or rather, what is the nature of this “vital sensation”, this core sensation, as Sankaran calls it? Sankaran describes it as a non-human energy, as something that can change the life principle of the organism, and which we experience as an abnormal sensation (The Sensation in Homoeopathy, p. 421). Through the interference of this energy with the life principle all activities and psychological processes acquire a fundamentally different quality. It is as if this person wears yellow glasses, everything they see is then experienced as yellow (The Refined Sensation, p. 53). The energetic pattern then corresponds to that source (the remedy).
Sankaran explicitly states that the vital sensation is the deepest and most constant experience of a person, the principle that binds body and psyche together. I conclude that this principle is overarching to body and psyche, which would be logical, because this sensation manifests at the level of the life principle. The assumption that the vital sensation is one of the deepest experiences is permissible, provided that every access in the history leads to the same point; but does this necessarily mean that the vital sensation must be a higher instance than the psyche?
Although Sankaran approaches the concept of sensation pragmatically and does not delve further into it, his description makes me think of the sensation as an invasive energy that disturbs the system: “A plant or an animal lives in it.” (The Refined Sensation, p. 53); “Disease is the other song that plays in us” (Bert Lefevre, Ingrid van de Vel, Seminar SHO 2006). Does the sensation have something to do with an external energy and if so, how does this energy enter us? Or does this feeling come from within us? If we place the mind above matter, could this feeling then be the projection of a mental image or film onto the emotional or bodily level of a person? Could this mental image then represent the central problem of this person? Could the image follow a pattern that resonates with another energy source in nature, provided that the psyche is subordinate to the sensation?

If I relate our patient’s sensation to the mental level, then it could be that her central mental concept overwhelms her like a shock which she cannot handle because she is so sensitive and is so quickly thrown off balance.

One could also consider whether it is at all relevant to probe the nature of the vital sensation exactly, since Sankaran’s excellent method is useful and practical even without understanding it. The ultimate reality of life cannot be understood rationally. Perhaps the vital basic sensation cannot be understood at all because it is a higher principle than our mind can grasp.

Category: Case
Keywords: digestive disorders, sudden blows, buffer, Apiaceae, Sankaran, Scholten, Conium
Remedy: Conium maculatum