Dealing with leg and foot cramps

Foot Cramps in the night

I recently posted about sleep disorders giving some suggestions for their treatment. A closely related conditon is that of foot/leg cramps. Many people are brutally awoken from their sleep by these conditions and in this brief post, I hope to offer some suggestions for their avoidance.

Cramps usually affect lower legs and feet

First of all, what is the root cause of such cramps? When there is excess tension in the body (whether it arises from stress, over-exercising, excitement about some forthcoming event, or any other source) this manifests itself in strange subconcious muscle contortions and contractions. If the level of this muscle activity reaches a high-point and goes beyond a threshold, cramps ensue.

One of the most straightforward ways to prevent cramps is to allow to energy to drain out from the legs, to the floor. The easiest way of achieving this is to stand upright next to your bed before getting in for the night. Grab the back of your next with the right hand and reach as far as you can down the side of the left leg with your left hand. Remember not to lean over to the left: remain standing upright. Then repeat the process on the other side of the body.

Should the symptoms persist, I also find that Calcium Carbonicum can provide an effective remedy against these unwanted intrusions into your peaceful sleep.

Peace,Love,Respect.Darryl.xx

Cestodic Therapy: fast, easy weight-loss

How to lose weight fast, without eating less: Cestodic Therapy

I shall state from the outset that some people may find the subject that follows 'squeamish' or distatesful. I would ask you to put your predjudices aside whilst you consider what follows. And remember, given the choice between harmful chemicals which are designed to perpetuate your condition (and thus maximise the profits for Big Pharma) and natural remedies which have existed for centuries and been adapted for modern use, you would be very foolish to have any doubts about which path to follow.

Fact: Tapeworms co-exist peacefully with many wild animals. It is the norm for wild carnivores and herbivores to harbour so-called 'parasitic' worms. Furthermore, up until very recently, most humans had such relationships with worms: only with the advent of modern medicine have they been eliminated from human populations.

Fact: It is known that tapeworms of whatever strain come in two varieties: the helpful and the detrimental. Whilst it is important not to confuse the two, we would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater if we tar them all with the same brush.

Fact: The introduction of worms to your intestinal tract, under strictly controlled and regulated conditions, can help you lose weight quickly and effortlessly. Several patients of mine have been through this process and have found it to be by far the most effective weight-loss programme they had tried. In fact, everyone agreed the results were astounding.

Tapeworms live in the guts of most species of wild animals: foxes, birds, horses, reptiles, deer, fish... You name it, it's probably got a tapeworm. With no-one to 'de-worm' them, most of these animals co-exist quite happily with their tapeworm(s): it's a natural relationship which has been in existence for millenia. 

Tapeworm coexisting within host (cartoon)

The largest ever discovered tapeworm was recovered from the gut of a Blue Whale and measured 48.5 metres in length; it had a girth of 60cm at its thickest point. Needless to say, such large tapeworms can not live in terrestrial creatures: the largest tapeworm found in a human was discovered in 1991, measuring 11 metres. On the other end of the scale, tapeworms found in the intestinal systems of ants measure only 0.1-0.2mm. This all illustrates the tremendous variety this animal displays in its morphology. 

For some reason, modern techno-scientific, reductionist-rationalist medical man came on the scene and decided he didn't like the co-existence of animals with tapeworms. Yet again, the black-and-white dualism of the scientists' thought patterns failed to acknowledge the complexity of the situation and all tapeworms were branded as 'bad'. They had to be exterminated. Noxious chemicals that would expel the tapeworm from both mans' body and the bodies of his domestic animals were developed (and sold!). This interference with the harmony of nature has not only greatly diminished the natural tapeworm population but also left the guts of men and their animals out of sync with their natural balance.

The Problem of Obesity

Obesity is one of the leading problems modern society faces, and many 'cures' are out there on the market: from milk-shakes that taste good, to surgical procedures to remove fat. None of these interventions has much effect in actual fact – partly due to the fact that the intervention is a temporary one.

Obese Person

A Solution to Obesity: Cestodic Therapy

Enter Cestodic Therapy; something that has been around for many years but has been rejuvenated by myself and a group of patients. Over the last 4 or 5 years we have been working together to perfect a technique which allows the introduction of a tapeworm into you, the host. Matters were intially complicated by the fact that the beneficial tapeworm strain originally endemic to the humans of Western Europe has become extinct (the last known specimen is believed to have died with its host in 1972). After a bit of digging around and travelling, a closely-related strain from North Africa was imported (in my gut) to the cooler climes of London. Here, we began our experiments the results of which I am about to present to you.

How Cestodic Therapy works

Cestodic Therapy consists of three main stages:

• Stage 1: Growth of worms in Nursery
• Stage 2: Training of worm to consume gut contents selctively
• Stage 3: Introduction to Host
• Stage 4 (strictly optional): Expulsion of worm

Growth of Worms in Nursery

Worms are hatched from eggs under strictly controlled temperature conditions under a heat lamp or in an incubator. Either way the temperature must be strictly regulated and maintained at 37.5 degrees (pm 0.5 degree). Within 24 hours of hatching, the worms are transplanted into the Nursery: a jar, containing a sugar solution (the worms' initial foodstuff). Special attention must be paid to the depth of this water: too deep and the worms will 'drown' through lack of oxygen. As the worms grow, the solution is topped up to maintain a steady supply of nutrients.

Egg sacs (technically known as proglottids) in Hatchery. Zoom in: there are three proglottids here surrounded by brown sugar, upon which the newly-hatched wormlets will initially feed.

Tapeworm Nursery (lid is left loose on jar to allow air circulation)

Training of Worm (Preparation for introduction to host)

Prior to this stage, a full analysis of the patient's needs will have been completed in conjunction with a nutritionist. The energy balance of her requirements will be known and a full dietary plan will be drawn up, indicating which food elements should be selectively 'mopped up' by the worm.

Seven days before the planned introduction, the young worm is removed from the nursey. At this stage, it usually measures 10-15cm in length. Upon removal from the Nursery, the worm is taught to feed on certain food groups. It makes sense that the worm is trained to consume carbohydrates and fats in much greater quantities than, say, vitamins and minerals.

Worm recently removed from Nursery. Measures about the length of a biro

To this end, the worm is placed in a bowl of the 'target foodstuffs'. This stage is a delicate one, in that the 'richness' of the foodstuffs to which the worm is exposed must be gradually increased. If sudden exposure to extremely rich or fatty foodstuffs is given, the worm may go into shock and die.

Initial Stage of Training: simple carbohydrates (rice). If you look carefully you can make out the worm amongst the rice. Constant attention must be paid to both temperature and moisture through these stages, lest drying out occur.

I like to start the process with a simple bowl of rice. After 24 hours I will add some bones from the cooking. With the passage of a further 24 hours, it should be safe to add some diced up meat (any red meat, or pork), then after a further 24 hours some diced up animal fat is added. These conditions are maintained at 37.5 degrees until the end of the week, at which point the next stage is to be undertaken.

Introduction of Worm to Host

This stage should be straightforward: in theory, it simply consists in the ingestion of the worm (without chewing, of course). However, I have found that (no matter how enthusiastic initially) the patients require some encouragement, and opening a bottle of good wine frequently helps the process.

In essence, the worm is rolled up into a ball and simply swallowed. Not difficult, but easier said than done.

Weight reduction to the target is usually acheived within a matter of 2-3 months, sometimes a little more, somtimes a little less (depending on a variety of factors).

Expulsion of Worm

This last step is entirely optional; some people do not wish to continue living with the worm, others do. As I have outlined above, it is the natural state of our digestive system to 'share its load' with a 'parasitic worm' (or several) so I personally do not recommend this step. The option is there, if requested but does entail the ingestion of some pretty nasty chemicals and entails the death of the worm.

Those are the steps involved in Cestodic Therapy. Now for a brief review of the results.

Results

The real names and identities of participants have been concealed in order to maintain confidentiality.

Those are the steps involved in Cestodic Therapy. Now for a brief review of the results.

Pete

Pete lost over 32lbs using this method in just 3 weeks. He elected to keep the worm in his system after having reached his target weight and reported an additional unexpected benefit: previously a sufferer of severe hayfever, his symptoms improved dramatically.

Pete: before and after

Tara

Tara lost over 70lbs, over a period of 2.5 months.

Tara: before and after

Cheryl

Cheryl lost about 40lbs; it took just over a month.

These are just a few of the participants who have assisted in the development of this natural weight-loss technique; in total I have worked with 12 people who have succesfully lost weight this way. I think the results speak for themselves: the speed and ease of weight loss using Cestodic Therapy is entirely unrivalled. Do get in touch if you are interested in learning more.

Peace,Love,Respect.Darryl.xx

Treatments for Insomnia

Sleep Disorders

Disclaimer: the information provided here is for educational purposes only. Should you have problems with getting off to sleep, you are advised to seek the help of a profesional and under no circumstances to attempt to self-cure yourself. Messing around with remedies, some of which may be toxic if not treated properly, is foolhardy.

Human Life years gone by

In the past the human day would have revolved around the rhythms of mother nature. Rising when the sun rose, spending the day foraging, tending to the young and old, meditating, talking and eating, people lived at a natual pace. These days, however, all this has changed.

I believe the roots of the downhill spiral lie in the Industrial Revolution which began in England around 1760; they may, however, be a little before or a little after this event. The point is we have landed in a situation under which we no longer operate at mother nature's rhythms: we have usurped them and supplanted our own ideas in the place of nature.

Human Life Today

Rather than awaken with the rise of the sun, we are snatched out of our sleepful reverie by an alarm clock. Rather than spending the day looking for food and fuel with loved ones, we work in artificially lit offices and factories, doing artificial work whose value, at best, can be considered doubtful. And rather than working at our body's natural pace, we work at the pace of the computer or machine: “Man has become a mere appendage to the machine”, in the words of Karl Marx. (I am not a communist, but that man does have some great turns of phrase).

These developments have not taken place without effects on our spiritual and physical health. A hugely common cluster of disorders one sees in healing practice today are sleep disorders. I firmly believe they arise from the dictates of modern society – it stands to reason (furthermore, you never hear about Biblical characters complaning about problems getting off to sleep).

Some of my favourite remedies

There are a multidude of homeopathic remedies out there for those with this kind of problem. As ever, the remedy is tailored to the person and her particularity; the choice of remedy, its method of delivery and the level of potentisation will vary with each different circumstance. Here are a few that I like and use most often:

Valeriana

Especially useful for those only able to drop off towards morning, after a night of tossing and turning. When finally sleep comes it is full of anxious dreams. Often comes in herbal form as an infusion.

Valeriana

Arsenicum

Helps those who suffer feelings of suffocation during sleep and thus use many pillows under their head. These patients often get very thirsty and must drink several times through the night. After midnight, sleep gets worse with tossing and turning going on until the early hours.

Arsenicum

Oak Bark

Some people feel tired after having gone to bed, but are completely unable to sleep. Their minds may be active and full of ideas or reflections about the day gone by and this may go on for 3-4 hours. Finally, when sleep does come it is deep but broken too soon by the alarm clock.

Oak bark

Pulsatilla

As she goes to bed, the patient does not feel in the least bit tired although in the afternoon she may have felt tired. It may take some considerable time or sleep to occur once she has 'hit the sack', causing distress and irritation for a life partner who has to endure the tossing and turning.

Pulsatilla

There are many more remedies out there but these are just a few of my personal favourites. Of course, as ever, the choice of remedy depends on a host of factors for which it is beyond the scope of this blog to explore.

Peace,Love,Respect. Darryl.xx

The problem with Techno-Scientific Reductionist-Rationality

Techno-Scientific Reductionist-Rationality and its woes

What follows is an adapted version of the relevant parts contained in my Maiden Post. Looking at the viewing statistics, I can see that by far the least popular post was my initial one. Perhaps that is due to its great length.

I feel that this topic is so important to understanding the limitations of the modern medical and scientific outlook (and this the opportunities afforded by the holistic view) that I would reduce those relevant sections and post them here...

We live in a world that is governed by what I call 'Techno-scientific Reductionist-Rationality'; it is practiced and foisted upon us by people whom I refer to as Dawkinsists (after the nutty professor Richard Dawkins). Sometimes you may also see me refer to these people as 'Ditchkins'ists ('Ditchkins' was a name coined by my great friend Terry Eagleton to describe the deniers of all faith; it's an aglomoration of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens).

Richard Dawkins - the nutty professor

Terry Eagleton

Scientists take a world which is complex and varied and seek to simplify it as far as possible. They view it as a mechanistic system comprised of 'building blocks', which act with no more complexity than cogs in a wind-up-clock. The ultimate aim of these scientists is to find the smallist particle (the equivalent to a the grains of sand that make up a wall), strangely named the 'God particle'.

Cogs - all we really are... (according to Ditchkins)

The machines which scientists use to observe this world aren't actually neutral obervers: rather, they make the objects which become visible. From X-Ray crystallography to the geiger-counter, the instruments of science do not simply create a picture of what is out there, they produce what is out there. This is a well-documented fact amongst sociologists of Science, like Bruno Latour.

Once the techno-scientists have 'discovered' something, what do they do next? They create yet more interventions (experiments/hypotheses) on those objects which were previously 'discovered', thus uncovering yet more 'facts' about out universe. This is why science is reffered to as a 'discourse': a “practice which forms the very object of which it speaks”.

Scientist in a lab - does this look like real life to you?

Let us examine this techno-scientific worldview a little more. You and I see the world in a multiplicity of colours and tones, depths of hue and shades of grey. The techno-scientists do not. To them there are just two colours: black and white. Everything done in their labs is reduced to this simple binary division. This is why they often make simplistic proclamations like “God does not exist” or “homeopathy does not work”.

The only words in their lexicon are “existence” and “non-existence”; “yes” and “no”. However, both you and I know that between the dual termini of “yes” and “no” there lies a continuum of possibilities – as elduded to by Robin Thicke in his recent hit song Blurred Lines.

Robin Thicke - what les between 'yes' and 'no'..?

The Holistic worldview, on the other hand, recognises that reality is much more complex than the scientists would have you believe. When you go to your family doctor, after a series of brief questions s/he will give you a pack of pills.

If you visit a holistic healer, after an in-depth exploration of your deepest self, s/he will prescribe a course of treatment tailored to you as you are today. And external factors will also be taken into account: the season, the position of the celestial bodies, the phase of the moon...

This is one of the reasons why homeopathy frequently works so much more effectively and quickly than mainstream medicine.

Which brings me to one more point... The refrain amongst the reductionist-rationalists is “homeopathy hasn't been proven”. This is simply not true. What they mean is their scientific testing schemes fail to grasp the way in which homeopathy works. They are looking for a yes/no answer, whereas homeopathy delivers something more ambiguous. It is as if they are trying to catch butterflies in a net designed for catching Tuna. The butterflies escape. The means for verification and acceptance have to be more nuanced. I have worked with patients for a decade and I can tell you that often we have to tweak a treatment, but we practically always find an effective remedy for the problem in hand.

Homeopathy section - British Pharmacy

With each passing day, more people stand up and take note of what holistic therapies have to offer. Maybe it is through word of mouth or maybe it is from personal experience but increasing numbers of people are attracted to join our ranks. And what is currently an offshoot of mainstream medicine, we will coalesce and soon we will become the mainstream. Soon we will be a crowd, shouting from the rooftops: demaning our rightful place at the centre of healthcare policy. Consider this a manifesto for action; it is time to start marching!

Peace, Love, Respect. Darryl.xx

Chronic Fatigue/ME Remedy

Chronic Fatigue/ME Remedy

Up there amongst the most common ailments I see in the clinic (and I see these almost every day) are chronic fatigue disorders. I believe that this constitutes a whole family of related illnesses and they become manifest in differing ways between people.

This is a prime example of where modern medicine fails its patients. Most of those who come to me to seek help with these problems are turned away by their family doctor, told the illness does not exist or that their symptoms are indicatie of some other illness, such as depression. I don't doubt for one moment the very real existence of this cluster of conditions and I have seen huge improvements in almost all of my patients, confirming my opinions of both cause and cure.

I don't know whether the following happens to you often or not. All I can say is, those of us who have been in this game for long enough tend to develop a heightened sense of intuition. I suppose this goes with the territory to a certain extent: without intuition you can not really practice homeopathy or any other kind of healing.

Anyway, I digress. Early on in my career I would see a great deal of patients complaning of Chronic Fatigue-type symptoms, each of them different.

One cluster of patients, complaining of tiredness and difficulty getting out of bad of a morning proved very difficult to treat. The standard thing I used up until then was Calcarea Phosphorica, however, try as I might I couldn't do much for these patients.

Then one day a glint of intuition occurred to me. I had been thinking of the energy-giving and -taking properties of mangets, and the iron content of the blood – two interconnected phenomena. I considered: if iron particles could be magnetized just enough and their vital energy transferred to the patient, this might just do the trick

There followed a period of experimentation after which both I and the patients became convinved this was phenomenally succesful.

I outline the process as I have developed it here.

Take an iron rod and magnetize it by stroking a magnet against it. Here I am using a magnetic screwdriver, it doesn't really matter what you use. The number of strokes neccesary to achieve the correct balance varies, depending on the properties of the iron, and your magnet. I can usually feel in the tips of my fingers that hold the rod when it is ready. You want to get to the stage where you can sense the magnetism as a slight tingling/tickling sensation, but I mean slight.

Magnetization of Rod

Then, using a piece of sandpaper, sand the rod to produce Iron finings. You only need a pinch of these. Now we are ready for Potentisation... For most of my patients, this is done at 7C or 8C, with very little variation.

A small pile of filings

Discovering this remedy was one of those 'Eureka' moments for me, and I would like to share it with you. Iff you decide to try it, proceed with caution; as you well know, magnets can have considerable effects on the body, especially when the exposure is prolonged.

Peace,Love,Respect. Darryl.xx

Eliminating Spirits

Eliminating Spirits

This is a task which befalls me very rarely, fortunately. Still, when the need arises, it is good to have a technique to deal with the challenge.

It is my view that the world is now populated with more people than have ever lived before. Add into the mix the number of animals and other living beings on the planet at this moment and multiply it across the years of history, you come to a staggeringly large number of beings which have lived and died.

It therefore goes without saying that the world is becoming increasingly full of spirits. Some of these are good, others indifferent and a minority cause problems. Be it a disgruntled fox, a jealous dog or the serf condemned to a life of misery on a Feudal estate seeking revenge in the afterworld, angry spirits can undoubtedly crause great distress for the living.

My wife hails from Siberia where an ancient tradition has long been proven to rid people and places of unwanted spirits. I shall hereby share the remedy with you.

Yakutsk - my wife's town

Take a healthy, live domestic cat and remove a few pinches of fur from one front leg. Rather than pulling this out, I would recommend the use of sharp scissors. Place this into a small jar, along with 5 or 6 drops of turpentine. (As an aside, in Siberia they use the extract from a local tree which contains similar properties to turpentine; this being unavailable in the UK, I elected to use turpentine and can vouch for its substitutability).

Put the jar in a safe place, far from any flammable materials. The inside of a fireplace, or even a kitchen sink will do. Drop a match into the mix and stand by while it burns. This will take a few minutes.

Preparation in a safe place for burning

No, the smell is not particuarly nice but it does a good job of driving the spirits away. I don't know why this works, perhaps the spirits can't stand the smell, perhaps there is more to it. I am not qualified to say; all I know is on the occasions when it has been neccesary, this method has never failed me.

Peace,Love&Respect. Darryl.xx

A Natural Hayfever Remedy

A Natural Hayfever Remedy

The time of year when those of you who are unfortunate enough to suffer from this malady are exposed to pollen is upon us. As such, I shall share my procedure for treating this illness.

Take a bowl of distilled water and place it outside, in the environment where the pollen source is. This could be in your garden, or in a local forest, or even the edge of a farmer's field (assuming he grants you permission).

The Distilled Water in the Environment

This is left for a timespan of 48 hours. Collect the bowl and the next step is dilution (the current mix is extremely unstable and dangerous and should be used without potentization under absolutely no circumstances).

I take 3 drops and potentisize it sequentially into 500ml jars. The number of repetitions depends upon the individual, body size, lifestyle and severity of symptoms but is usually between 5C and 10C.

Preparing for Dilution

With the elimination of hayfever symptoms, you are free to enjoy a sneeze-free summer!

Some Musings on the Abu Hamza Guilty Verdict

Abu Hamza in happier times

I heard about Abu Hamza's recent guilty Verdict while I was in the bath. A seemingly innocuous place within which to hear such news. As a man who reputedly preached 'hate' from Finsbury Park Mosque what do the self-appointed guardians of public safety expect him to preach from his prison cell? All-pervasive forgiveness? Compassion?

This is a case where the attempt to sanitize society and maintain public morality leads to an elusive source of contamination. Like the speck of dirt that remains when you clean your windows with a cloth: little do you realise it arises from the cloth itself. In the same way that the cloth and the speck entail each other, Abu Hamza and Theresa May also (re)constitute one another: they go hand-in-hand (hand-in-hook) as they dance the seemingly eternal waltz of socially-constructed binary opposites. I believe it was Schopenhauer who said that although the characters on the world's stage change, the actors do not. From the Christian Heretic Priscillian and the Roman authorities, to Abu Hamza and the Western State; the same themes continue to play themselves out.

While I can't put words into Zizek's mouth, I feel his sentiments would echo mine here. The nightmare apparently dreamed up by Hamza actually arose from our own, collective mind and as the spiritual condition which he represents is gradually eliminated from our everyday lives, it (re)emerges in new and unexpected ways.

What value has peace without the threat of violence? In the same way that we need to eat, we need people like Hamza. And that is why I for one am not celebrating his condemnation this week.

Maiden Post

Initial thoughts
As a sometime homeopathic practitioner (up until now having worked mainly with family and friends)in the process of expanding a practice, I have taken the decision to start this blog. In it, I plan to share my musings, discoveries and general thoughts with you, the public.

I had deliberated long and hard as to what could constitute my maiden post. We live in challenging, spiritually empoverished times, and never before has homeopathic medicine (and alternative therapies in general) been under such relentless onslaught from critics and self-styled sceptics. With this being on my mind I decided some kind of a riposte to this cynicism may provide ample material with which to open this blog. Indeed, it seems an appropriate topic, as one of my aims is for this blog to stand as an outpost against the cynics' front, led by Generals Dawkins, Goldacre et. al.

Modern Science and its woes
The hegemonic paradigm governing society's version of reality at the present time is the techno-scientific one as promoted by the likes of Richard Dawkins and Ben Goldacre (to name just two well-known British sceptics). It has taken over all aspects of life, pushing to the sidelines any more nuanced, spiritual considerations of anything from the environment to medicine. Few public figure dare stand in opposition to this monolith, HRH Prince Charles being one valient and notable exception.


I, for one, wholly reject the entire edifice of techno-scientific rationality. It is a system based on the abstraction and filtering of reality through a lens which "creates the objects of which it speaks" (to quote the late French philosopher, Michel Foucault). I.e. science invents a concept and then develops 'technologies' (tools, instruments, medicines, etc) with which to measure and treat this contructed concept. In a further turn of the vicious cycle, these technologies 'discover' new concepts which in their turn lead to yet further scientific 'developments'.

Science takes as its object a reality which is comprised of a multiplicity (more than 50!) shades of grey and reduces it to the simple binary of black and white. Whence the simple one-size-fits-all model of modern medicine which ignores the individuality of each human being  and instead attempts to standardize us, treating patients as if they were mere robots rolling off a production line.

I believe the majority of the ills (not just medical) facing modern society arise from the prevalence of this outlook and its all-pervasive influence. Many of the people whom I have the honour to treat come to me because modern medicine fails them. It either fails to recognise their symptoms as a sign of malady, or it fails in its prescriptions of treatment. As I have said above, this system does not represent reality as it stands; it contructs its own version of it. To boot, from car exhaust fumes to modern pesticides, from mobile phone masts to flouridization of the water supply, modern industrial society creates many of the illnesses which it seeks to redress through its medicine.


The Alternative

This is where I believe modern homepathic and alternative remedies come in. Based on thousands of years of trial, error and wisdom these approaches to healing offer everything that modern medicine does not. Recognising that each person is unique and no two ailments are alike enables us to better tailor a treatment system to tackle the inevitable maladies of everyday modern existence.

The adoption of a holistic approach , taking into account all of the influences on the life of the patient is the foundation of this system for understanding reality.

Indeed, although my main interests and speciality lie with homeopathy, I would not for one minute hesitate to refer a patient to a practitioner in a different field (say accupuncture, or Crystal therapy) should I feel that might be a more appropriate course of action for the particular circumstances than homeopathy. After all, this is what the holistic approach is all about: recognising interdependence and accepting our limitations when we reach them.

My 'awakening'
As a personal note, I became convinced of the usefulness of homeopathy when some years back I developed an adverse reaction to a large satellite dish installed by my neighbours just a few metres from my own house. I had long suspected I had what is known as Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (henceforth EHS) as being anywhere near overhead electric cables, or even sitting too close to the  TV would make me feel slightly nauseous and dizzy. However, the installation of this satellite dish caused problems of an entirely different scale. Insomnia, nightmares when I finally got to sleep, nausea and a general feeling of mailaise ensued. My sensitivity to electric currents became more and more acute - it got to the point where I could no longer use any electrical device at all (I couldn't switch on a light or even use an electric toothbrush) without feeling ill. Turning the entire electrical supply to my house off ameliorated the condition somewhat (although next door's dish didn't go away). I lived like this without electricity for 3 months.

During this time, I tried appealing to the neighbours to move the dish: to no avail. I tried appealing to the local council: to no avail. I contacted my GP to see whether any treatments were available. I might as well have been banging my head against a brick wall. Finally, a friend suggested I contact an acquaintance of his who was a practicing homeopath. The course of treatment with which I was treated, while it took some time to take effect, was a revelation! I recovered almost to my previous state of health and immediately became a "convert".

Convinced of the benefits of homeopathy, I became ever more interested in the subject and began reading everything I could in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding. In time I even began to practice homeopathy: initially on willing (and brave!) family members, later on other friends and acquaintances. As with many things, word of mouth is the best publicity and ten years since my 'awakening' I stand with a small but growing and loyal client base. I am now even developing new treatments through my own research (some of these homeopathic, others not - but they are, nonetheless, holistic). I have even branched out into Holistic Vetinary Medicine. More on these topics will be posted in the future.



A rebuttal to Sceptics


Occasionally at parties and other such events I am approached by sceptics and asked to explain myself (the audacity!). Dawkinsists (as I call them)  claim there is no evidence to support the claims of alternative medicines, whereas conventional medicine is based on watertight foundations.

This has happened (and no doubt will happen again) so many times that I am now well familiar with the uncanny exactitude with which the scenario repeats.

I always begin by patiently explaining the limitations of the scientific worldview (as outlined above) and then citing the multiple cases I have witnessed (or heard about) which validate alternative therapies. "But these therapies are not scientifically testable" comes the response... Yes, my rebuttal of the scientific procees has gone over their heads; I try to approach the argument from another angle. The claims of alternative medicine are simply not amenable to the kind of testing to which science subscribes. Alternative medicine (unlike science) recognises each separate situation on its merits and thus scientific studies lumping all sorts of disparate individuals and circumstances together can not be undertaken. The evidence on which we rely is of a different kind (but no less valid): that of our intuition as practitioners.

Alas, rare is the occasion when the Dawkinsist relents and accepts that like the Yin and the Yang (or oil and water) the holistic and scientific version of reality do not mix; each stands on its own ground and maintains its territory. (The problem is that the scientific is fast encroaching upon the territory rightfully belonging to the holistic).

The connection with spirituality
I do not neccesarily classify myself as a religious person. I am, however, certainly of a spiritual bent. These days, it is not neccesary to adhere strictly to one religion: we can pick elements from disparate faiths and mix them together as a pastiche (in true postmodern style). I might admire the Buddhist doctrine of re-incarnation, the Christian ten commandments, along with the Hindu concept of Karma (to name just a few, simple elements of my own spiritual compass).

The point is, we are free to mix and match (or not, as the case may be) different elements from different spiritualities. I find that many (but not all) of my patients are of a similar disposition when it comes to the unexplained. I also find that many of those who dismiss my work (and are often blunt in telling me so) lack any kind of spirituality whatsoever in their lives.

Again, scepticism of spirituality betrays the all-too-familiar Dawkinsist/scientific trope: embracing the black/ white binary division of nature. I am rather more drawn to the more nuanced and discursive take on the issue, taken by Terry Eagleton and other theorists (sometimes rather crudely lumped together as 'postmodernists'). Dawkins sees the issue of God (or any supreme Deity) as an issue of existence versus non-existence: 'yes' versus 'no'. However, a range of points can be (re)situated between thes 'yes' terminal and the 'no'.

The truth of the matter is nobody can say whether or not a God of some kind exists. Interestingly, I have noticed that patients who do believe in a spiritual force often recover more quickly and with fewer hitches than those who don't.

Hope For the Future
Although currently holistic medicine remains very much on the sidelines, with each passing day it gains new adherents. More and more people are waking up to the problems foisted upon us by techno-scientific rationality and are open to the possibility of alternatives.

The alternative is here and it won't go away! This blog is yet another voice, a voice in a growing crowd that will soon be shouting from the rooftops to demand the replacement of the techno-scientific with the holistic! Watch this space...