How do we know the healing "worked" or "didn't work?"

[karen]

I wanted to bring up this issue that seems to creep in to just about every situation that has to do with the application of some form of healing, everything from energetic healing to nutrition. And that is, what do we mean when we say that something "worked" or "didn't work?"

 

I'll start with this example. I used to have a lot of migraines. During that time, I got a blood infection and went into septic shock. I was in the ICU with tubes everywhere. During that month, I had NO migraines. I had never gone that long without them. Did the antibiotics, the trauma, the infection, "cure" the migraines? Hardly! But the symptom did go away.

 

And the reason it went away is because the new trauma superceded the root cause of the migraines, and the migraine symptoms quieted down for a while when my life force was preoccupied with this other life-threatening situation.

 

The point is, the symptom went away. Now of course, there are also many instances in which we do something truly health-promoting, which causes a symptom to go away. But in both cases, the symptom goes away.

 

So, doesn't it seem important to know why the symptom went away, not just that it did? Or more precisely, what happened that resulted in the symptom going away. And even more fundamentally, what a symptom really is, because we want to know whether removing a symptom is a true measure of success.

 

I would say that in my first example, the migraines being gone was NOT a real indication the cause had been removed (and the symptom did return sometime later, as the cause was still there).

 

This is all based on the understanding that mostly when we have health problems, we're talking about symptoms that we're experiencing, and symptoms are the effects of something, not the cause.

 

When we say we have a cold, we're experiencing certain symptoms that we want to go away. If I take a decongestant drug, the symptom may go away. But the cause of the cold is still there, and will find a different means of expression at some later time. Sometimes the different means of expression look so different that we don't recognize it as the same essential thing.

 

So, the cold went away. The heartburn went away. What exactly went away? We're glad to be rid of the symptom, of course, but wouldn't you feel uneasy if you killed a messenger, knowing that whoever sent the message is still out there? (and probably even more pissed off now!) How do we know that we got to the root of it?

 

That's why I think it's important to know precisely what all of our "lotions and potions" are doing, when we apply foods, nutritional supplements, herbs, breathing techniques, energy healing, acupuncture, bodywork, etc. to try to treat a certain symptom or condition. Are we treating the symptom, or the cause of the symptom? How do we reliably identify the cause (diagnosis)? And what about multiple causes? Many health issues involve a complex interaction of causative factors.

 

What about the fact that one person's headache could be caused by not drinking enough water, while another person's is from emotional issues, and another person's is from eating wrong foods, and another's is from structural imbalances - and the structural imbalances could be secondary to eating wrong foods. Then if all those people take the same remedy "FOR headaches," is that rational? And if the headache went away, do we know that we were "successful?" What is success?

 

Dr. Hahnemann showed that there are several different things that can happen when you use a particular remedy, and that we can objectively know which one we're doing in any particular case:

 

1. It might remove the underlying cause (cure) - in which it might take some time before we even notice a change in symptoms

2. It might calm down the expression of the symptom temporarily in a benign way (palliation), without affecting the cause

3. It might remove the symptom in a harmful way (suppression).

 

He also taught how to know exactly what we are doing when we give a certain remedy, whether it's #1, 2 or 3.

 

Much of what we do when we're using natural remedies only empirically, is #2. We're not usually using powerful drugs that suppress the symptoms so that they are pushed deeper into the system. And we're not usually hitting ourselves over the head with a hammer so that the hangnail symptom is forgotten . But still we're often only working on the surface level of effects, not causes.

 

When we feel better, we assume the treatment is successful. I'm not knocking feeling better! But to approach natural medicine rationally, we have to think beyond the surface appearances.

[NeutralWire]

I'm in full agreement with this philosophy but I would like to ask a question: the 'underlying cause', how do you express what this is in Heilkunst?

 

Presumably, since you agree that the purpose of disease is to learn something, the cure is always that the learning has taken place in some way? This would be my basic approach.

 

In the self-knowledge paradigm one gets closer and closer to the root 'decision to be ill' which results in wellness on a deep level first -- that's what you're calling 'cure'. But how do you see the self-knowledge aspect of it in Heilkunst?

 

NW

[Apech]

Very interesting. Thanks for this Karen.

 

I have noticed that if say, I have a bad headache and I sit in meditation the the most effective way of getting rid of the headache is not to focus on the symptom at all. Rather as when you might try to still thoughts by focusing on them - they get more active because the attention energizes them. So if I remove my attention from the headache and then from my body and focus completely on say, my breathing. Then a healing process seems to kick in - because somehow I have removed my conscious self from the process. I can then 'let' the healing occur. I take this to be that the causes are 'deeper' than the symptoms.

 

I know this is a simple example but I think the general principle could be applied to more serious conditions.

[karen]

NW - great,challenging questions as always, and I think I'll reply in my private practice area, soon.

 

Apepch7, good point. I would agree that the false ego is hogging the attention, and to shift the attention can help. (NLP, Ericksonian hypnotherapy, and Vipassana come to mind). Still, there are often force fields (disease entities) causing the symptoms that can't be destroyed that way, although the energy fields can be worked with.

[NeutralWire]

karen -- just as a thought for your deliberations on that. You've mentioned several times that the decision to become ill is made in order to learn, my question is really, how do you actually access that decision so that you can review it? Do you have any particular way?

 

I mean, in this system do you see that you have made this decision to use the energy in a particular way, and thereby become well from learning what needed to be learned?

 

This must be something that happens, no? That people say, I see now why I decided to be ill?

[Apech]

NW - great,challenging questions as always, and I think I'll reply in my private practice area, soon.

 

Apepch7, good point. I would agree that the false ego is hogging the attention, and to shift the attention can help. (NLP, Ericksonian hypnotherapy, and Vipassana come to mind). Still, there are often force fields (disease entities) causing the symptoms that can't be destroyed that way, although the energy fields can be worked with.

 

 

If we posit an organizational self at the highest (or most subtle) field energy level - then might it not be possible that by removing 'false ego' you can let through a capacity to deal with those disease entities. In other words rather than a negative of removing our conscious interference we are allowing our own healing. Now I know the capacity to do this would vary hugely from being to being but I just wondered if this idea fits with your thinking.

 

I remember a homeopath that I used to know and a Chinese healer both saying the same thing - that ultimately we heal ourselves.

[karen]

Ok, I posted replies in my private section, whew!