TALK : 48 DISCUSSION SESSION answers by Dr. Rajan Sankaran About Vital Quest by Dr. Paresh Vasani

Transcription

1 TALK : 48 DISCUSSION SESSION answers by Dr. Rajan Sankaran About Vital Quest by Dr. Paresh Vasani Hello and welcome. Today is our last Discussion session on WWR. And I thought it is best that we discuss some common questions that address issues from the entire program so far. So we will start with the questions and I will do as many as we can: Munjal, you asked: Q: Your insight about Sensation & Reaction is like a 'first truth' for the homeopathic community. Would you please share the journey of experiences, intuitive flashes etc. while you arrived at this truth? A: Well I have shared this earlier in my talks and I will happily condense it here. I started my study in Homoeopathy with the repertory since my father was very very good at it and then with the Materia medica and the study of Organon and Philosophy and so forth. And then I found that there are so many types of ways one could practice Homoeopathy. Some people use Key notes, some people use Repertory, some people use other things. And what was important was I found that there was a kind of unpredictability or confusion and there was not much certainty, at least for me. And in my effort to find a consistent method, I started a small study group with my colleague Dr. Jayesh Shah and Studying cases of success and failure we found that those cases where the remedies- symptoms, general symptoms, mentals matched the patient, they had the highest chance of success. And I tried to understand why? And this is of course, well-known in Homoeopathy that Mentals and Generals are very high in evaluation. And when I tried to understand why the answer became simple that disease is a holistic disturbance, and therefore they first manifest in the mind and generalities. Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 1

2 In the generalities and then only it goes to the local. This was an intuitive flash you might say. I remember the very day it happened. I was not very far from where I am sitting here. Right now in my car driving. And as the car took a turn, it came to my mind, this sentence Potentised remedies have dynamic effect only. Which everybody knows. But it flashed into me. I understood it for the first time that a remedy dynamized and potentised cannot have a local effect. It doesn t have a material substance that can go and affect an organ system. It can only affect the whole and that s the whole idea of Homoeopathy. It s holistic. Disease is an affection of the whole. It s a dynamic affection, not an affection of the parts. And therefore a symptom anywhere may be a dream, may be a mind state, may be a craving is as much part of the symptom totality as any other. The next point was the importance to the mind state. What is here important is the word mind state and not mind symptom. So I understood that a mind symptom is only an expression of an overall mind state and taking it further, I understood that the totality of the mind state itself is an expression of a specific perception which I call Delusion; that lead to the study of remedies and their delusions, and people and the delusions. That took it one level deeper and then another flash occurred when a student asked me a question, Why do people who need snake remedies, dream of snakes? This was a very important stop for me because it s such an obvious question, with no obvious answer. I thought about it 6 months. This question went on in my mind. I didn t have an answer. And suddenly it occurred to me that patients who need snake remedies have dreams of snakes because they have the spirit of the snakes within them and that s why we get such exact pictures. It is so unbelievable I tell you. Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 2

3 3-4 days ago I had a patient, a girl who had panic attacks. And when I asked her describe the panic attacks. She described to me a feeling of being confused, lost and alienated as if suddenly she experiences herself in a very strange situation and it s a crisis and she doesn t know how to come out of this. Her remedy was Nux moschata. It is a typhoid miasm in the family Magnolia whose main symptom is to be lost, bewildered, confused, strange, suddenly shocked. But what is interesting about their case was that every single thing, she mentioned, she mentioned the buzzing in the head. She mentioned the mistakes that she makes during speaking and confused it with wrong word. She described a floating dreamy state. She described the symptom that when she sees blood, she faints. It was unbelievable! How could she describe symptom by symptom from the book? So I came to understood that she does not.. is not similar to Nux moschata but actually Nux moschata lives in her in spirit. Then I understood, disease as we call it is the spirit of something else that is speaking from within us and then the classification came either it is an Animal spirit, a Plant spirit or a Mineral spirit and is there a difference between the three of them. And once this idea flashed and then I started doing research and I had a huge practice at that time as you very well know that before you start practicing Sensation method, you usually have a huge practice. You know that I guess by now. And then it drops just joking. Anyway I had a huge practice at that time and then I started looking at my successful cases and its true Mineral patients had items to do with my structure, lost or with feeling of lacking. An Animal patient had to do with competition and Plants with sensitivity. This became so clear. And when you study these remedies, it becomes more clear. An Ignatia, a Pulsatilla is very very sensitive, a Lachesis and Apis is very competitive and a Calcarea and a Natrum are have to do with dependence and relationships. It s so obvious after you know it becomes so obvious. That s how it started. Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 3

4 And then the idea of miasms came in and then the Plant kingdom and then the families. I remember this was a very interesting period in my life. Must be about 2001 or something like this. I was in a place in USA called Asalen, I was giving a seminar and just before that seminar I came to the idea of Plant families and that each family had a specific sensation and that each remedy in the family belonged to a different miasm. This idea just occurred to me. Before I went to ASASLEN, I remember I was there, this was a beautiful place. It was on the Pacific ocean, on a cliff, a very isolated place, miles from nowhere. And I worked there night and day while giving the seminar and each family would be studied and understood. It was such a revelation and I tell you that what I understood at that time still holds true today and still I use it and still a lot of people now use it. These were some of very very inspiring moments in my life. And then I remember that at that point I understood, you have levels, you have Name, Fact, Feeling, then I had studied Delusion and now Sensation. And I asked is this the end? Is this the end? Is that We have 5 Levels. I said, No there has to be probably one more and then I came to the idea of energy that the energy pattern is even deeper than sensation. When the energy pattern level, the 5 th level was discovered, the 6th Level was discovered, a very close friend of mine she asked me, But Rajan what s the use of this energy level. It s no use, no point. Once you know the sensation, You know the remedy, what s your problem? Why do you want to go any deeper? What s the big use of this? And I said, I don t know. A scientist, a researcher doesn t ask what s the use. He asks What is. He wants to know what is. Not What is the use of it? Use of it comes later. Just the discovery is the joy. And then we understood the importance of the energy level because the entire sound, the hand gestures, everything is the energy pattern. When you focus on the energy pattern, the sensation reveals itself. You have to find the energy spots in the patient, that was the 6th level and I remember it for instance going down memory lane huh, nostalgia I would say. I hope I am not Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 4

5 already in an Antimonium crudum state being nostalgic and redundant any way. Just for the moment. I was giving a seminar in Goa. It was for the Russians and there while I presented the 6th Level a participant came up to me and she said, Can t you make it 7? I said, Why? she said, 7 is a good number. I like 7. She said. I said, Do you? She said, Yes look there are 7 days in a week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And she said, There are 7 notes in music so if there is 7 notes in music and 7 days in a week, 7 is good. Somehow the logic appealed to me and I said, Yes 7 is good, no problem. So after energy pattern what could there be a 7th level? And this kept me thinking for a long time observing. Is there anything even preceding, even deeper than the energy pattern and then I said, Yes, there has to be a canvas on which a painting can happen. If there is a pattern there, there has to be screen.. the movie is energy, the screen has to be blank. It is even pattern-less but still individual and then again the colleague asked me, the inquisitive colleague, she said, Ok, energy I can accept. Now it s good. But the 7th is totally useless. It s completely blank. It doesn t even give you a pattern and then with time I discovered that the 7th level indeed is the most important of all the levels because that s the level at which the patient gives the case. That s the level at which all happens without the screen, where s the movie? So each level presented itself, each kingdom presented itself, each miasm presented itself. Each time I thought could there be another pattern? What about this pattern of crisis? What about this pattern of trying? What about this pattern of hectic and suffocation/ what about this pattern about disorder? What disease, infection exactly represents that pattern in nature? Each was a discovery. And I tell you at the end of all this, I hope it s not the end but at least now we are pausing. I tell you when I look back at all these so called discoveries, I don t believe that I did it at all. I sincerely believe and when I look at all the books that I wrote, I don t believe that I couldn t have written any of them I don t trust that me, the individual with this limited capacity can really do anything. But it s Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 5

6 somehow you have the intention and you allow yourself to become a channel of information then I think the information, the knowledge comes through you. But you don t feel really an ownership to it because it s not it s not what you created. It is what is? Columbus did not create America. He merely lost his way and landed in a place he didn t know the maximum we can attribute to Columbus is that he didn t have proper directions. That s it. So things happen, we don t know why. So I hope a little bit of this reminiscing of this journey I could share with you the spirit of how this knowledge came about. Munjal, you asked: Q: While this correspondence is valid at the Vital Level, have you found that it remains valid even at the local level? Or do you see that the local level follows another 'law' where the sensations/conditions connect with modalities/reactions of the patient? A: Well Munjal, the answer is pretty simple. That at a deeper level, the local and the general reflect the same energy, there is no difference. It is as if the local is a microcosm of the whole, which is a macrocosm. As if it is like a hologram where in every local symptom you will find a glimpse of the pattern of the whole. Some of our most remarkable cases have been those in which the exploration of the local level one got the exact sensation that applied to the whole person. This is a jump from level 2 to level 5, from fact to sensation and if this happens in a case then the exact energy pattern or the remedy is revealed. But you can also come to that energy pattern from any part of the case. Be it emotion, be it delusion, be it sensation. And in all these levels you will ultimately find the same pattern. Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 6

7 Catherine you asked: Q: What remedies would be helpful during birth, which is acute, with several different stages of mother's and child's states? Could you, please, prepare a list of remedies for birth, so that we could prepare a "birth kit"? A: Catherine, I have had a very limited experience in treating woman during the labour process. But with the limited experience I have and a lot of input from my colleagues, I feel one thing is for sure that the woman who is in the labour process, it s like an acute crisis situation and here the woman s state is revealed in its full form. The type of pain, her sensitivity to pain, her state of mind, the physical symptoms, the characteristics are manifestations of her individual state. A colleague who is now no more, Ananda Zaren from California has worked extensively in cases of labour and documented some of them. Her experience was that in the labour process it is the best time to see the remedy of the woman, because there she is at the most uncompensated and clearly expressive of her state. As an example I can offer a case where a close friend was undergoing the labor process and the whole process had come to a halt and it was not progressing any further. The bag of water was not bursting and my friend and her husband wanted the delivery to happen naturally, while the gynaecologist wanted to artificially rupture it. She called me at that point and I asked her what is her experience at that moment and she said that for certain legal reasons she wanted the child to be born before midnight on a particular day. There was a lot of pressure on her that the child should be born at that particular time or before that particular time and she was extremely disappointed that this was not happening. Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 7

8 When I asked her to describe the disappointment. She said that this disappointment brought to her a memory and her consciousness a lot of past unpleasant occurrences where whatever she expected or wanted never happened accordingly resulting in a feeling of grief and this grief was usually internalized never expressed. Based on this history, I gave her a single dose of Natrum Muriaticum 1M and within a few minutes the membranes ruptured spontaneously and she had a completely natural delivery. This and some other such experiences lead me to the opinion that the labour process should be approached from the point of view of individualization, like we would treat any acute or chronic case. If we know the remedy of the woman beforehand it is very likely that during labour she would manifest that state of that remedy, though in a more acute form. After the labour process, after the delivery, if there is a trauma, if there is an episiotomy or if there is a Caesarean then one can use Arnica and Calendula. The treatment of pregnant women is done exactly the same way with the idea of individualization. The only exception here in pregnancy is that it can happen sometimes a woman might have a different state during pregnancy than her normal one. Therefore in a pregnant woman, the case should be reviewed afresh. Local symptoms, emotional symptoms, dreams, cravings and aversions especially which came during pregnancy had to be taken into account. In Talk 46, I have recited a case of a 34 year old woman with Hyperemesis gravidarum to whom I gave Kali-bromatum. You could refer to that case for reference. Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 8

9 Now I have a very very interesting question to answer which is something I had Which is something I have probably not covered during the talk at all and I was really not willing to but since this question is come, I would like to answer it. Ross Loraway, you asked this question: Q: That you want tips for the operation of a Homoeopathic clinic especially a business where the sensation method is prescribed. You say that this includes administrative details, lay out of the clinic, charge, staff or anything which you regard as essential or very important. A: I guess this question will be of interest especially to younger practitioners and students and nevertheless I would like to give you some tips about practice. I have now a practice for 30 years and I dare say it is a successful practice in many ways. So I could give you a few hints about it. The first thing I do here: Now a days in my practice is I create a home like atmosphere visual. Could we home like atmosphere. Vishal, could we do one thing, could we just turn around the camera and show this room. This is where I practice. You can have a look. Just see he will turn it around for you and you will see there s a couch there and then. You can see.. there is all set up here. It s like a living room here. I have two chairs in front of me, a couch on my left. I am sitting here on my chair. Today, Dr Paresh is here with me. You might have had a brief look at him, he is going to talk to you later. Normally my assistant sits here on this chair and the patients are seated right in front of me. There are 2 chairs right in front of me and there s nothing in between me and the patient. There s just a very small coffee table here, right down. But it doesn t block anything. And there s the patient s chair in front of me and behind the patient I have got a little cupboard and there s a Buddha sitting in the middle. So this is how it is and this has a double advantage. One is because there is no table in between. I can freely record and observe the Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 9

10 hand gestures of the patient and secondly, it creates a very informal atmosphere (ok turn it back Vishal) And I think this is a very nice atmosphere to work in, instead of a very formal table and chair arrangement. So that s one hint I want to give you that really helped me. Patients take an appointment with me and the way we do appointment system is as follows: That the patient is allotted about 1½ or 2 hours appointment time with me in advance and they are told to come to my office and collect the Questionnaire booklet. I found this booklet very useful for many reasons. First of all the patient becomes familiar with what kind of questions are going to be asked. Secondly, it gives us a sense, how much the patient is committed to taking the treatment, how serious they are. And thirdly, I also charge them my full consultation fees in advance. The money is taken in advance because that ensures that I don t waste my time in case they don t turn up and usually if they pay in advance, they generally either cancel or they turn up. So this is another small hint that I do. With regard to the charges, I believe in charging very well. My charges are among the upper range in Indian circumstances and also in world circumstances. And I think it is important to charge well because then you give your best and you say, I value what I do. I think that the service we provide to our patient is unique. We not only help them in their symptoms but we help them in their overall health. We help them in their state of mind and the amount of money that they save in terms of hospitalization, investigations, reference to Doctors, future health problems, work loss is enormous. And I think we should fully realize the value do what we do. And if we do that we should charge well. And we should really do the very best job we can. One is we need to work with the latest software. We need the latest books and especially the latest software whatever they are I am not recommending any Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 10

11 particular software at the moment. But you need a latest software with a computer, repertory, Materia medica and what not. Secondly, we need to constantly update our information. We need to read journals, we need to go to seminars, we need to know what is happening and be in touch with the latest. Thirdly, we need to put full attention and study every case, every rubric, every symptom in detail. I tell you one thing, there are people who read Repertoires and there are people who go beyond repertoires. We should go beyond repertories simply a few symptoms coming together in our repertory should never satisfy us. I had such a fantastic experience last week. I met with a colleague and we were discussing a particular case and he suggested a particular remedy and when he went home within 4 hours. He had sent me the exact quotations from Allen s Encyclopedia and Hering s Guiding symptoms which indicated that remedy word for word. I really appreciate that. I appreciate that somebody goes and studies from the source books. Similarly, when you study my books, when you study Structure, when you study Plant Insight into plants or you study Survival series. It s important to study these books in depth and not simply read the summaries or the Schema and come to superficial conclusions. So we need to do our best and it s important that the patient realizes this that they see that you are giving the best.. if you do your best. The patient can see that. They can see the amount of faith that you have in yourself. I think this is very very important. The patient will have as much faith in you as you have in your own self. I often delight in telling the story of Mahatma Gandhi. There was an incidence for instance I saw from his life. That I saw from his life that I can tell you. When he was in South Africa, he had established a small company called Tolstoy farm based on somewhat socialist principles, ideology. It was an experimental community of people living and working together and it threw the interest of some journalist. One of the journalist wrote to Gandhi that Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 11

12 he would like to come to the Tolstoy farm and see how it functions. And Gandhi wrote to him, You are most welcome. But when you come, do bring a stone with you as big as what you can carry. This journalist was baffled. He said, I am going to meet this man to see the farm. Why should I take a stone? But anyway because he had been asked, he took the stone and Gandhi meets him at the door..and he says ok you brought the stone and he says, Ok what should I do with the stone? and Gandhi said, Just drop it into that hole over there. And he says, Can you explain? He drops the stone and he says, Can you explain? and Gandhi says to him, Listen. This Tolstoy farm is situated in such a place where there is formed a little hole which gets filled up in the rainy season and then people, they find it difficult to cross. So I thought, the best is to fill up this hole with stones. So I calculated that so many stones are needed and if I get 10 visitors a day and each one brings a stone, then by the time it s rainy season this hole is going to be filled up. That was Gandhi s calculation. And of course, it worked. For me this is a lesson in how much faith a man has in himself. This man lead an entire nation to freedom and brought an entire empire down simply because of the tremendous faith that he had in himself and this is what shows to your patient. When you sit and in front of your patient what he is guessing? What he is looking at? What he is evaluating is how much confidence you have in yourself. And what is confidence? Confidence doesn t mean that you know everything or you think you know everything this is not confidence, this is stupidity. Nobody knows everything. Confidence means that you have the ability to know what you know, what you don t know the difference and if you don t know, you will try to find out. That you will do your very best and that you believe in what you are doing. That is confidence and that shows and that is the single most important factor in the success of your practice. This is what I believe. The patient picks up on it. The other little hint that I can give you: For example: If the patient is doing well, no problem. But what if the patient is not doing well? 6 months have passed, the results are not up to expectations. What do I do? I myself schedule the patient for retaking of the case. I spend again one Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 12

13 and half hour to two hours with him and I can do it as many times as I want. I am not ashamed to tell him, Listen I don t think this remedy has worked. We need to sit. We need to do what it takes. And if still I am not satisfied, I am very very happy to refer this patient to another colleague and take his opinion. This way the patient may benefit and I will learn too. I am not afraid to say, Listen, this I have tried enough. And this only increases the faith of the patient in you because he realizes that you mean the best for him even if it means to tell that I can do it. The people I had the most respect for in my life especially one Dr. Roheet Mehta to whom this entire WWR is dedicated. He passed away a few months ago at the age of 90 something. This man used to bring his patients to me. He was when he started bringing patients more than 25 years ago, I was at that time in my mid 20 s and Roheetbhai, this Doctor elderly senior Doctor was in his late 60 s. So he was bringing his patients to consult with somebody less than half of his age and he was absolutely not embarrassed. And he had absolutely no feeling of defiance. He had complete trust in himself. He knew what he was, he knew what his capabilities were and he knew he wanted the best for his patients at any cost. I had so much respect for him and his patients considered him almost divinity. Harrison in his text book of Internal medicine, he wrote, No greater responsibility or obligation can fall to the lot of a human being than to become a Physician. In the care of the sick, he needs scientific knowledge, technical skill and human understanding. He who uses these with courage, with wisdom and with humility will provide a unique service for his fellowman and will built an enduring edifice of character within himself. The physician should ask of destiny to know more than this. He should be content with no less. If I have this spirit in you then you will built a unique character within yourself and provide unique service for fellowman and Harrison wrote at the end of this chapter, he said, The secret in the care of the patient is the caring for the patient, the empathy that you have with the person in front of you. That is the secret. Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 13

14 Also it s very important that you don t only say Homoeopathy, Homoeopathy, Homoeopathy. All the time and be fanatic about it. Some Doctors get Homoeopaths get angry.. don t use that medicine. I told you not to take aspirin. I told you not to take anti Hypertensives, how dare you Things that have no effect, now you suppressed it. Now you spoilt it. Now you I don t say anything like this. I understand, I tell the patient, Well listen you did it. It is No problem but this is what happens if you do such a thing. I explain it to them. And I tell you if I feel the need allopathy, if they need surgery, if they need a consultation. If they need a diagnosis. They go there, I refer them. So the patient has even more faith in me because they know I am not fanatic. Also I think it s important in your own practice that you do counselling. I treat families, I treat Grandfathers, Fathers, children, Grandchildren, Great grandchildren. Sometimes 5 generations, 4 generations, 3 generations and these people come to me for all kinds of advice and I sit with them and I talk to them and I listen to them. Sometimes I reflect to them, sometimes it s important to hold their hands, that s it. I think the first thing you do when a patient walks into your practice for the very first time is just to look at him in silence. Many times silence is very embarrassing for people. It s not for me. You can just. I think before you even ask any questions, it s just important to look. Just to look who is in front of you, to make an eye contact, to establish rapport. And the same way is also your care to the patient is manifest in the way you handle acutes. A lot of doctors including I must say my own father advised me not to call the patient yourself. They said you give the remedy and let the patient phone you, don t phone the patient yourself. I have assistants whose job it is to call the patient everyday. The acute cases if you have fever my assistant will phone you every morning or every morning and even till you are better. I want to show clearly I care and I do. This is how I manage my acute cases. I also try to make it convenient for the patient so that they can send me their follow ups by . They can send me their Follow ups by telephone. They can send or we can Skype Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 14

15 and talk to them if necessary. And we also have a system by which you can courier them the medicines from here. I found it generally better to dispense medicines rather than to prescribe them because it s convenient for the patient and it s also surety of the reliability of medicines. As staff I have a receptionist, I have a person who prepares the medication. I have two assistants at the moment. Normally, I worked with one who was Meghna for 9 to 10 yrs. But now she has become the Dean of the academy so I have two other assistants and they handle a lot of sometimes Case taking, sometimes Follow ups, s, Phone follow ups, acutes, referrals etc etc. and they learn at the same time. So this is a good apprenticeship for them. Also I think it s very important to have patient awareness seminars. What do I mean by them, I mean that from time to time, we can call patients together. Those especially the new cases of the last month or so and explain to them what is homoeopathy? What s the importance of dreams? What are we treating? What is the prognosis? And so forth and allow them to share their difficulties. These kind of seminars are intensely helpful. Similarly I think if you set up a website with information in it about so many things, about FAQ s or vaccinations, about do and don ts, about timings etc. It makes it easier. So I guess these are some of the hints that I would like to give to you about practice. I hope this has been useful for you. I just listed it out at random and I just narrated it in any order. So I hope you could make some sense out of it and use it. My father often said, he wrote a book called on How to be a successful Homoeopathic physician? I think this book is included in the book Elements of Homoeopathy which are edited and he wrote in the book. He said that a successful Homoeopathic and a successful prescriber are almost two entirely different things. Unfortunately many many times, a successful prescriber is an unsuccessful physician. And the other way around and he wrote about some tips from his practice. I just shared with you some tips from mine, talking of updating our knowledge and about software. There s a question from one participant. Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 15

16 Q: How do you use the vital quest in your daily practice? This question comes from Angle Lara. A: So I can say that I use the Vital quest daily, in my daily work in two ways: One is if the patient writes his history or if I type a history. I can paste it into the Vital Quest program. The Vital quest selects all the important sensation words that come out and then it analyses these words into Kingdoms and Miasms. Sometimes I can put only the important sensation words and then see what the analysis comes to? The second way I can use it or I do use it is with the Reference material. That means the Vital quest gives the best Reference material as far as the sensation method is concerned. Clearly giving the different kingdoms, the qualities of the Kingdoms, the Qualities of each sub kingdom and also the qualities of each of those remedies in those Sub kingdoms in terms of the source information, the natural information, the provings, the Repertory, the cases etc. So such rare remedies like Birds, Animals which are not found in other Materia Medica can be found in all their information in the Vital quest. So it really is a ready reference material. So I have here with me my colleague Dr. Paresh Vasani who together both of us developed this Vital Quest program and I have asked him to come here specially today to give us a very short explanation and demonstration of how the Vital Quest can be used in practice. For that he has already included some slides in the PowerPoint which you might need to just go over as he speaks. (PV - Dr. Paresh Vasani) PV : Thank you Sir. Hello everybody. I would start with a very small example which I saw in my practice sometime back. She was a mother of two kids, twins. Both of them were 5 years old. The whole family was coming to me for treatment and both the boys were extremely restless and very mischievous and seeing them in your consulting room you get extremely worried about every aspect. Oh my glass Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 16

17 items in my clinic. What will happen? so I asked her that how do you handle him? How do you take care of both of them? she said, It is very simple for me. I just raise my voice and I tell them, keep quite. And they have to obey me otherwise just one tight slap from me and they sit down. So her main problem was recurrent Urinary tract infection with severe pain in lower abdomen and she described her pains as they are just killing me. And the other peculiar aspect about her was her interest and hobbies. And that was martial arts. She was a very very good player of martial arts in her life. So when I asked her more about it, she said, You have to wait in a fight with the opponent. You have to wait, observe them more and then charge at them, finish them off. You just wait for the opportunity and attack them and your attack should be with speed. Now what do we do with such kind of cases? How do we put in our Repertory? Where do we look in our Materia medica? These were the difficulties that we faced in our practice. There were many difficulties we faced in Case-Taking, in analysis or in these kind of cases. Where do I reach, for some information, for this case? With this idea almost 12 years back I approached Dr Rajan. There was one sentence in his book, Substance of Homoeopathy that if you study the system very well you can develop a software out of it. That struck me that we need to have a guide, we need to have a companion in your clinic who can guide you in every step whether it is Case Taking or whether it is analysis of the case or an information. So let s go ahead with the case and I will show you how Vital Quest helped me in this case. I was looking for some information and obviously I looked into Animal kingdom. Let s look at the presentation first: So if you open your PowerPoint and go to the next slide it will show you main screen of the Vital Quest and a button with a square box or a rectangle box read Reference info. So when you go into the information about the remedies it takes you to the information about Animal kingdom and sub kingdoms. There are various sub kingdoms given here. So let s go further to the next slide and will Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 17

18 examine some information about Mammals. So what we do for Vital quest is we study each Animal, each source, their families, their Sub kingdom, their nature, their behaviour from internet, from books, from various cases, clinical cases and Dr Rajan gives very valuable inputs to it and he gives us what could be the sensation of this Animal. So in Vital quest if you see on left side, we have given various blue arrows showing classification, natural history, essential highlights of that source, of that Animal. Most important you will say I can study this information on the internet. But how do you understand the sensation? The Homoeopathic expressions in patients, how will I understand what is the sensation of Cat, of Dog, of Lion, of Tiger? So this is a place where it gives you the information and then there are key words. How will you differentiate different remedies? For example: in this case, if you look at words - killing me, if you look at words charged, attack. Attack with speed all these words help me to go to a source as Cheetah, as a remedy. Now the question was: How do I differentiate Cheetah from other Cats? What are the expressions or what are the sensation of Cheetah as the remedy or the source? So this is where the Vital Quest comes. And it s not only Cheetah but I can study any Animal whether it is Goat or a Cow or dog or their family. Lets go to the next slide. So if you are studying the source as Cheetah, you will see the same thing the natural information about Cheetah, their behaviour. What are the sensations of this remedy, what are the key words? And how will I differentiate Cheetah from tiger and from Lion and from Leopard. We have also given a lot of video links because sometimes seeing a video or a movie of that behaviour of that Animal gives much more information. Then even reading 20 pages. That gives us source or the energy of the source. Let s go to the next slide. The same we can learn in Mineral Kingdom also. In Mineral kingdom, we have given, you can click on any row or any column of Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 18

19 Periodic table or any element. For example: Let s look at Niccolum for example next slide and the same thing about Niccolum that what is given in the books. What are the proving excerpts? What is natural information about Niccolum. What are the sensations of Niccolum? What are the cases of Niccolum? So complete information about that element is given and this you can read about any element in Periodic table. Next slide.. The same applies to Plants like if I want to study Plants and family or I want to see and examine the chart and the remedies and the miasms. I can read it here. Next slide and you can see the list of Plant families that we have explained there are 31 plant families that are given and each family in detail.. Next slide Let s examine Anacardiaceae. You will see what is the sensation of Anacardiaceae. What are the remedies given in Anacradiaceae and you can click on each remedy and read further about it. Whether you want to read about Anacardiaceae or Rhus tox anyone. What are the key words? The most important, how do you see this family in patients. What are the expression of the Plants? If there are some cases or some provings information and very vital differences of different Plant families. And there are other Kingdoms if we go to the next slide. So information about miasms, about nosodes like how to perceive different nosodes and how to differentiate them or various Sarcodes or Imponderabilia. What is the sensation of Sun as a remedyor moon? Or Light or X Ray, all this information is given. Next slide is, If you want to refresh your concepts like what is Vital sensation? What are Level of experience? About various kingdoms. You can read them here. Again the information from the books, Materia medica books from all our pioneers like Boennighausen, or Allen T F, Allen H C, Clarke, Kent, Boger, all Drs Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 19

20 Rajan s books or various recent provings by Misha Norland or Nancy Herrick or Dr Torodo, Dr Jayesh Shah, Dr Sujit Chatterjee. You can open these books, you can read those chapters. Next you can search through these books. If you want to search single word or multiple words which we normally see in all the multiple words which we normally see in all the softwares and searching words through specific or specific Kingdom, sub kingdom, source. You can put that in filter and it shows you all the results. Next slide suppose if there s a remedy and I don t know whether we have a remedy prepared from this or more information. If I want to read then there is a facility when you click on remedy button, it shows you complete information that whether you search it on internet or you can search it on the source, that is given to you or you read it in Vital Quest or other source books by pioneers. So from all the places you get complete information about the remedy. Next slide And our study is never complete without clinical cases. So there are clinical cases, cured cases by various authors. So you can read about them and get more experience Next slide What are the advantages here we see? From various sources whether you talk about pioneers or whether you talk about recent provings or clinical cases or internet where the natural history came in. so from all the sources, the information is available at your fingerprints, are easy to use method and the most important aspect is constant updates because information is non stagnant. You learn more in more. There are more cases. So constantly Vital quest gets updated and those information is passed to the others. So this serves as a tool to be in touch with the method, with the recent developments in the method. Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 20

21 So how do we use this information? Based on this information, we find out what is the sensation of this source? What are the key words? Let s go to the next slide. And we have developed a unique Case Taking and Analysis system using this information. So when how do I solve a case using vital quest? That you can see with this slide. So in the main screen, there is a box where you type the exact history of the patient. Suppose patient says that I have throbbing and splitting headache. And I cannot move my neck with that. It hinders me in my work. You simply type the sentence into that box. You can see with a red arrow automatically the words which are important which are non-human words, are very important non human words would get highlighted. So if you just simply type the patients answer, it will observe important words for you and it will give you the list of those words. Now you will say that I do not know Case Taking so well. What do I do? So we have a Case Taking help there at different steps. You can read that help and it guides you. Go to the next slide suppose you in the beginning want some help, like what is the entry point of the case? How do I understand what is entry point? Or you are quiet ahead in a case but you are not sure whether this is a sensation or no? I am stuck in a case. How do I go ahead? So all this guide is given to you. When you read this guide, you can understand what question do I need to ask? How do I go ahead? Let s go further. You will say: But I am not used to typing my whole case. So what do I do? Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 21

22 We have various flexibilities in using Vital Quest: 1) Ideal way is to type the whole answer in the software. Every word that the patient speaks, it gives you an unprejudiced picture or you can simply type 10 or 15 important words of the case. Sensation level words, what you feel? Just put them inside or sometimes we copy the whole case from a word document and paste the whole case in the Vital Quest. No doubt, there are advantages and disadvantages of each way. Let s go to the next slide. This is a screen that tells you that I have pasted the whole case and you can see with red arrow all the words that came up in a case, all the non-human words like busy, running, rejection, isolation, family. So you can select the words which you feel are very important and click on to analyze Kingdom. And you go further and that will show you the analysis. But before you go ahead to analysis, there are some warnings. There is some guide available. Next slide it shows you this guide that have you have reached the sensation level. What is the sensation level? How do you go deeper into sensation? Next then it gives you the highest kingdom possible in the case. Here it will show you the possibilities that is coming up. Next slide software is very unintelligent. Any software you take it. But what we want is that software should be able to understand what is the experience of the patient? There should be a combination of mathematical calculation and the speed of the software with our human intelligence. And our perception of our gestures and energies and this is what happens in the slide Where it will list you all the words of the case. If I am thinking of a Mineral Kingdom then it would ask me, These are the words of Mineral kingdom? in the case, do these words convey you this concept of making, breaking or maintaining the Structure? So here you are able to connect the energy, the experience with the words. If you feel yes, you go ahead and if you feel no, just discard it. Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 22

23 Next slide. So if you feel Yes, it s a Mineral case then go further in the case. Then the software guide you how do you go to the Sub kingdom. How do you select the right Row of the periodic table? There is a guide available to you. Next slide So once you go further, it gives you the highest Row possible. Row 3 or Row 2 or Row 4 and again if you want to see which words, just click on this button, show wordgroup and it shows you words. You compare with the context of the words and go ahead. If you don t agree, you can simply discard. Next.. And you can see if you click on Row 3, you go further towards the source. So it gives you the highest Kingdom, Sub kingdom and the source. The same applies in Animal kingdom and a Plant kingdom. Let s quickly go through that. So we go to the next slide. When you click on Animal Kingdom again there is a guide available. It tells you how to differentiae Kingdoms. When you go further.. next slide. It gives you whether it could be Mammals or it could be Reptiles or be Molluscs and each time you can see the words. You can compare the context and next slide It takes you up to the family or order whether it is Carnivora or Perrisodactyla and you go further and it gives you Cheetah or Jaguar or Leopard or whatever it is. So again Kingdom, Sub kingdom, order and source. Next slide When you go to the Plant kingdom, again there is a guide available. Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 23

24 Next slide.. It shows you the highest family possible Next It shows you the Plant that is possible in the case. So in all the Kingdoms, this is what you can do. Some more aspects..next slide.. we have information about Posology, about follow up of the case. You can read Key words of any classification and there are many more features. Just few words if I would say, it s more as a guide, as a companion. It s not as a replacement that yes I would put a case and it would give me the right solution. Whatever is the highest remedy, I should give that no. but it makes you think. It develops your thinking process. It gives you an insight that yes this could also be a possibility. Thank you very much. If you need more information, you can visit our website. Thank you. RS: Thank you Paresh, for that demonstration of Vital Quest. Let s go to some more questions. Isabelle Monford, You asked: I don t understand proving. We can create an artificial disease. The prover is sensitive to the substance. He will have local symptoms and mental. Then when we give a remedy for our patient. If he is sensitive, there could be proving with this, couldn t there? How long does it lasts? Is it with all dilutions? This is a very interesting question. If we give a remedy to any person and he can develop a proving, then can t a patient who has been given the wrong remedy develop a proving of it. Now theoretically, it is surely possible. But practically, it simply doesn t happen. Or it happens so rarely that it is such an exception. So the question is why doesn t it happen in patients that they develop provings of Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 24

25 remedies that are not indicated. I ponded very long over on this question, and the answer, the best answer that I can come up with, which of course is also a theory. Is that there is an essential difference between a proving and giving a remedy to a patient. And the difference is this, that a proving happens because of the intention to prove..hmm..that s why it happens.. I remember.. I was a child.. I was about may be 4 or 5 years old.. I had a cousin 6 months older to me. And the story goes, that when the adults had left the house for some reason and when they returned. They found that my cousin and me had discovered the secret of sweet pills. That was stocked in an entire cabinet of homoeopathic remedies. Bottles of sweet pills from A-Z of all potencies. And we were busy in opening each drawer, opening each bottle, emptying the sweet pills in our mouth, and the next bottle, and the next bottle, we almost done 3 full potencies of remedies from A-Z, before the adults returned. My grandmother and mother nearly collapsed with fright, Because we now would be monsters, proving every remedy in the book. Can you imagine, bad enough to have one remedy state. But nothing happened. We were as ever. No problem. And this is very common experience. Mothers phone up and they say O doctor, my child took the entire bottle and swallowed it. Now what s going to happen. We say nothing, go home, go to sleep. Nothing will happen. And we know this is true. So why don t these children prove the remedies. So I believe that the proving happens out of the intention to experience something new. Therefore the entire system is receptive to that experience, the prover is someone who has voluntarily decided to open up his consciousness to a new experience. That s his intention. The patient on the other hand, takes a remedy with an intention to heal and not to experience a new situation. So if the remedy does not heal, the patient does not react to it. The easiest example I could give you the simili is of music. Talk 48 Discussion Session Dr. Rajan Sankaran 25