Sankaran seminar, 24–25 April in Badenweiler

“Observe carefully and without prejudice!” and “Look for the peculiar—the strange of the case/the manner of expression!” – that was the message Dr Rajan Sankaran repeatedly impressed on the roughly 150 participants of the seminar.

Nothing else is what Hahnemann taught:
The key to the case lies in careful observation and in finding the “peculiar”… Thus Sankaran’s sensation method is not something entirely new – different, but remains on the basis of what the pioneers of homeopathy discovered. Without a repertory and a sound knowledge of materia medica the search for the “sensation” cannot lead to successful prescribing – we must remain on this foundation of homeopathy. Against this background Sankaran himself views his method only as another step in the development of homeopathy – towards increasing wholeness.

Fascinating video cases from his practice, which he repeatedly commented on and explained, vividly drew the audience into his approach to case-taking: namely letting the patient talk until something happens – until they say something that is special, that stands out. That point is then picked up and explored further, in the patient’s own words – without one’s own judgements or interpretations. “Describe it!” “What does that mean?” … From the gestures and from what the patient spontaneously tells, without thinking, even if objectively it may be complete nonsense, it becomes possible to find the theme that recurs in other contexts too – that runs through as a central sensation. This then makes clear whether it is a question of structure, so that a mineral or salts are indicated, whether a sensation is in the foreground and a plant remedy is required, or whether struggle and survival strategies point to a remedy from the animal kingdom…

Despite his rather reserved nature, Sankaran, with much humour and an incredible presence, succeeded in conveying a lively impression of case-taking technique and its associated analysis. “For Germany I can only prescribe remedies from the mineral kingdom – everything works so incredibly precisely and is so structured here…” – Naturally meant as a joke, this nonetheless anchored even for the newcomer:  Mineral kingdom = structure.

Within the kingdoms each order or family, indeed each row and column of the periodic table, has its own perception of life. The “sensation” of reptiles is the sudden, unexpected attack – as shown in the hunting behaviour of reptiles. It is about killing, about terrorism, about cutting into pieces… Reptiles are cold-blooded (also in the figurative sense) – they must compensate for the inability to run long and fast by camouflaging and hiding – a concealed attack from ambush – like a crocodile lying in wait under water for its prey and perhaps even being mistaken for a rock… then suddenly it strikes lightning-fast… It is this quality of expression that reptile remedies address – whether from the victim’s or the perpetrator’s side.  - The sudden unexpected violence determines the thought and feeling world of a person who needs a reptile remedy.

A finer differentiation is then achieved through the themes of the individual orders and families. Snake remedies are characterised by violence – extreme injury – often in the form of venom (themes include terror, kidnappers, bombings, lack of morality, politics, etc.). Unlike mammals, and also unlike the Crocodylia (crocodiles, alligators, caimans and gharials), which are also reptiles, snakes are poor parents. There is no care for the young. – Their often strong colouring serves as a warning and at the same time as an attractant (e.g. for females) – so glamour – the glittering world, the presentation – winning a position plays an important role. Sensitivity in the throat area (feelings of gagging, of being strangled; aggravated by tight clothing…) is also indicative of snakes, which, lacking limbs in the figurative sense, are almost entirely a long neck. Under certain circumstances elements of the snake’s mode of locomotion can even be reflected in the patient… As a group from the animal kingdom the core quality is competition – being better than others, also jealousy when someone else attains the coveted position… On the other hand a kind of split nature – two wills or two sides – one side that gives no hint of what lies dormant in the depths and the other the violent side…

Videos of crocodile attacks, different modes of snake locomotion, the threat behaviour of a king cobra… accompanied and illustrated the behaviours and expressions of the two video patients that Dr Sankaran presented for the reptiles.

“A good homoeopath knows nothing at first… – he approaches a case without prejudice and observes… the brain is only a hindrance…” - How important value-free observation is and that it is about looking behind the “scenes” and not only at empty phrases was underlined by the example of a very, very restless child. It described extremely vividly and illustratively hours-long stories and imaginative, self-invented games: of competitions, of life-threatening situations it found itself in and had to find ways out of, of ghosts that pursued it, of dinosaurs that wanted to eat it and… and… and… What seemed more obvious to experienced users of the sensation method than to immediately think of a remedy from the animal kingdom!? Perhaps Tarentula!?
In closer analysis it emerged that survival struggle or competition was by no means in the foreground. – The actual theme was the feeling of boredom. All the restlessness, all the stories and games served the sole purpose of entertaining this child. - Mood – boredom – desire for amusement amel.   – Piper methysticum (kava kava) from the family Piperaceae (pepper family) was the remedy that helped her. The theme of this plant family is on the one hand pain and on the other boredom (also in the sense of monotony) with a craving for entertainment…

Badenweiler in the sunshine

For me, who had not previously dealt with this method, it was very impressive and exciting. I will certainly deepen this “homeopathic chapter” for myself – because – as Sankaran demonstrated with cases: one does not always reach the goal with a particular method, not even with the sensation method. So why limit ourselves to one slice when we could draw from a pool of possibilities?

Silke Burzlaff