I find anger has been getting a bum rap lately, and so I thought I would find my voice in defence of this basic human emotion:

• Anger is a sign of respect; it requires engagement and enables change. Think about it: if I allow myself to be furious with someone’s behaviour, it is because I am able to distinguish the person I love from his conduct, and, more importantly, I recognize his agency. It would be absolutely futile to be angry with someone if I regarded his behaviour as necessary. Anger is a call to freedom. I am forever indebted to those who dared to get angry with me: they are the ones who forced me to bump up against my own limitations and called me to transcend them. Relationships fail in the absence of anger.

• A failure to express anger leads to impotence: sexually, personally, and politically. Uninhibited anger is one of the surest signs of a good bed mate and responsible citizen.

• Anger is the agent of change. Suppression reinforces the status quo. I am encouraged by parents who allow their children to get angry with them. This cultivates citizens who can stand up for themselves. If children cannot stand the heat in the kitchen, how the hell can we expect them to stand up for their rights and freedoms in the political arena?

• Anger is what safe guards our ability to enjoy the pleasures of life.

• If we don’t learn to harness our own anger it wreaks havoc on our bodies. I have learned to trade a urinary tract infection in for a bout of uninhibited anger, which ranks among the most empowering experiences I’ve had to date.

• Clear, rational anger relieves anxiety and agitation. When we direct our anger at what is inhibiting us from doing our work in the world, it no longer comes out in pathetic ways. Road rage is the result of stifled anger, not anger pure and simple.

• The surest way to get a battered woman out of her oppressive situation is to incite her anger. Women have, for centuries, been made to feel guilty about their anger, and we wonder why they have been systematically marginalized in the political arena. Give me a fiery woman any day.

• Getting comfortable with anger fosters community. It is fear of anger that perpetuates the view that government is necessary to keep human nature – - nasty, brutish, and short – - in check. Those who allow anger to be unleashed, discover that it is nothing more than an expression of love and do not equate anarchy with mayhem. Compare Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents with Reich’s Children of the Future.

• Anger is an expression of love.

• Anger speaks and we need to start listening.

Following on in our series on Character Types, (Last month’s focus was on the Hysterical Type), we will take a brief look at another type this month : the Passive Feminine.  These 2 examples of character types differ from each other in many ways, and are structured on very different energy dynamics.  You may want to review the previous articles in this series to re-acquaint yourself with the general understanding of how character types work (automatic and unconscious habitual perceptions, behaviours, and reactions), and how we approach them in treatment.

The Passive Feminine is a sub-type of the general area of blockages linked to the anal stage of development.  The most predominant characteristics of the passive feminine are:

• Excessively polite and compliant
• Passive
• Orderly
• Cautious
• Feelings of inferiority

However, these surface characteristics are a very strong cover-up for some deeper emotions of anger and hostility.  When this outer shell is penetrated (either in therapy, or in other informal life situations), a deeply rooted outburst can emerge, which may include qualities of spitefulness, or contempt.  With the passive feminine, however, these underlying emotions are usually very successfully buried, and it takes a tremendous amount of therapeutic force to penetrate to this hidden depth.  These patients usually suffer from a degree of exhaustion, as their energy is used up to a large degree in the maintenance of this repression of emotion.  It is instructive to read some of Dr. Reich’s published cases, and how intensive and lengthy the treatment would be in order to get to the breakthrough, and then beyond.

The general therapeutic goal in breaking through this strong character defense, is to find ways of provoking the patient enough that their hatred and rage becomes mobilized, and can begin to be discharged within the therapeutic context.  Within the context of Medical Heilkunst, we are very fortunate to have both homeopathic and homotonic remedies at our disposal, which are able to get at, and begin to transform this energetic core, without needing to engage for weeks and months at a time in psychological battles with the patient’s  defenses.  The fact that Dr. Reich meticulously documented these battles in his case studies gives us a very precise map of this territory, and we are now able to traverse it at speeds that would never have been possible for him as he pioneered these methods.

What I see unfolding with patients on the basis of their treatment, is consistent with the map the Reich laid out, but which happens on a completely sped up time frame.  One very valuable remedy in passive feminine cases is the Homotonic remedy Staphysagria.  I recently treated a patient with this, and before their following visit, they experienced a period of extreme exhaustion – this was their healing reaction from the remedy, which means that a particular disease layer has been destroyed, and is a sign that the body is pushing the debris out to the surface, which is experienced as a temporary worsening of their condition.  After this healing reaction cleared for the patient, they came back to their next session in a state of energy and joie de vivre which I had never seen in them.  This is always the type of evidence I’m looking for to verify that a given remedy has hit its target, and the patient has been able to move to an increased level of health.

According to Wilhelm Reich, there is a basic contradiction between human longing for freedom and our biophysical incapacity to accept it.[1] In other words, our ability to be entirely self-regulating individuals – - invulnerable to false authority – - is a function of our physiology. Reich observed that our character structure, which determines our capacity for resonant relationships, fulfilling work, and inspiring studies, is rooted in our (oftentimes chronically rigid) musculature.

This clinical insight informed his advice to psychotherapists that “in explaining the reasons for the failure of a particular case, the analyst must avoid statements such as that the patient ‘did not want to get well,’ or he or she was not accessible; for this is precisely what we want to know: why didn’t the patient get well, why wasn’t he or she accessible?”[2]

In view of the most challenging cases, Reich would more readily accept the limitations of his therapeutic technique than conclude that the stubborn individual sitting across from him simply did not want to get better. His clinical success with so-called masochistic patients supported his claim that even those who inflicted pain on themselves were motivated by the pursuit of pleasure: their muscular structure simply could not tolerate the expansiveness that pleasure generates. As such, their self-mutilation was actually a source of relief for them: they were too armored to take up the reins of a healthier, happier, life. But they certainly wanted (i.e. cosmically longed for) freedom. The question for Reich was: (how) could this freedom be attained?

A testament to its seeming indelibility, Reich recognized that armoring is a function of civilization: its specific purpose is to hold back and assist individuals to conform and thus reduce anxiety. Rather than yell and threaten to kill his father, for example, Reich observed that an enraged child would rather tighten his throat, which, over time, would develop into a stutter.

By Reich’s account, we are a hobbled, diseased, flock of subservient patrons. And, since armored parents raise armored children, armoring is a self-perpetuating pandemic. Seemingly necessary to preserve the status quo, it enables us to conform to societal expectations. But, in order to do so, we often have to deny what we really want. We literally have to tighten our bodies to prevent the energy mounting in our loins from running amok.

So where does that leave those of us who want to emote freely and have the capacity to surrender to life’s many pleasures? Reich identified the futility of any mass overhaul of societal norms and, towards the end of his career, found most hope in prophylaxis by informed child rearing: “We cannot tell our children what kind of world they will or should build. But we can equip them with the kind of character structure and biological vigor which will enable them to make their own decisions, to find their own ways, to build their own future and that of their children, in a rational manner.” [3] But, along the way, he also developed therapeutic techniques to help his patients soften the chronic armoring that had a clamp down on their character structures. And, while I can appreciate Reich’s eventual emphasis on prevention, right now, it is the de-armoring aspect of his work that I find most relevant. I certainly care about future children, but my immediate interests are in learning techniques to soften my own musculature, break through my own armoring, and transmute my own character structure. This is why I am impressed with the de-armoring arsenal at Arcanum. This is also why I have recently become so interested in the Bowen Technique as a modality to complement my future Heilkunst practice.

I was initially captivated by this hands-on technique when it was used on me after I dislocated my shoulder. It was a serious injury (I had left it dislocated overnight to tend to in the morning) and the prognosis was quite bad. Dissatisfied with the options laid out for me, I flew across the country to my trusted Bowen practitioner who restored full mobility to my arm in a single session! While the long list of acute and chronic ailments (http://www.boweninstitute.ca/bowen/conditions.html) that Bowen can address continues to amaze me, as my studies of this technique progress, I am increasingly interested in its de-armoring properties. Over the course of my training, I continue to notice a profound shift in the character structures of my classmates and myself. We are all softening at the touch of each other’s “Bowen Hands.”

Bowen’s efficacy is often attributed to its ability to re-balance the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), where the body’s self-healing mechanisms are governed. The ANS controls over 80% of bodily functions and is very susceptible to external stressors. In our fast-paced society, most people we encounter are living in a constant state of high stress and sympathetic dominance. Bowen catalyzes the transition from sympathetic dominance to parasympathetic dominance, which is necessary for healing to take place. Expressed differently: it is also the state our body needs to be in to release chronic armoring.

When Reich questioned what produces chronic muscular contraction, his investigation led to the realm of the vegetative nervous system and the basic antithesis of vegetative functioning. He found that “excitation of the sympathetic nervous system causes contraction, which is felt as anxiety. Parasympathetic excitation causes expansion, which is felt as pleasure. It is chronic sympatheticatonia, therefore, which causes and maintains the armor, which in turn maintains the neurosis.”

After a Bowen session, when I feel my body shift into parasympathetic dominance, I know that it is in the requisite state to disarm itself. The gentle rolls over my muscles and connective tissue inform my nervous system of the state of tension in the musculotendinous tissue, which then responds to finally break the vicious cycle. I experience profound relaxation and my entire body is restored to a state of grace, no longer chronically compromised by social pressures. It is more labile and flexible and free to arm and disarm itself as appropriate. It is – - or should I say, I am – - no longer in a constant state of emergency.

True: I will never forget the immediate rehabilitation the Bowen technique granted me after my accident. But it is the overall softening and openness to pleasure that I am most grateful for and most interested in carrying forward.

To participate in Carol-Ann’s Bowen clinical, contact her at: cagalego@gmail.com

[2] Wilhelm Reich, Character Analysis, trans. Vincent Carfagno (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1972), 9.

[3] Wilhelm Reich, Children of the Future, ed. Mary Higgins and Chester Raphael, trans. Derek Jordan et al. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983), 7.

Following on from my last post on the various typologies we draw on in Medical Heilkunst, this post is a brief description of one particular character type, called the ‘hysterical type’, or ‘hysterical character type’.  The Character Types were most clearly developed in a therapeutic context by Dr. Wilhelm Reich, and provide one of the cornerstones we draw on to map the shortest route from illness to health for each patient.  A person’s character structure is a type of ‘force field’ which shapes the flow and function of their life energy, and is visible in terms of certain characteristic behaviours and typical situational reactions, as well as some of the physical symptomology suffered.

This ‘force field’ originates in a mix of shocks, traumas, and other blockages to the life energy during early childhood development, and remains in adult years even when the precipitating situations are no longer a real factor in the person’s life.  By their nature, the defensive patters of the character structure operate in an automatic, unconscious manner (the autonomic ‘reflex’ system in the body), and the first challenge in treatment is to raise the patient’s self-awareness of these patterns sufficiently, which involves going through the most defensive aspects of their ego structure.  There are a variety of ways such a structure is retained in the organism, including chronic contraction of the musculature and insufficient breathing habits (biological armoring) along with rigidified beliefs and perceptions about the world (psychological armoring).  All that to say, that there can be a tremendous amount of built-in resistance encountered in attempting to uproot and overturn these patterns, and at times might feel like a “life and death” battle between the patient and practitioner.

The basic structure of the hysterical type has attained a relative degree of health in terms of the stages of natural development of the child, and has been mostly rooted in ‘genitality’ (the natural conclusion of all the healthy fevers of childhood being transformed and rooted in the emerging sexual energy of puberty); however, rather than a fully healthy expression of the ‘genital character’ type, the hysterical type is also built on a permanent form of anxiety, around which the basic behaviours and reactions are built.

The hysterical type simultaneously has a drive towards healthy sexual expression, and yet a deep anxiety and avoidance of the same.  This makes for a characteristically flirtatious attitude, which then turns to withdrawal, or even blatant attacking of others in order to calm the resulting anxiety.  This seemingly contradictory conduct is best understood by seeing that the hysterical type uses flirtatiousness as a way to assess a person or situation for danger, which makes sense in the context of the character structure, but not from the point of view of healthy behaviour.  Unlike other character structures, there is a fair bit of healthy, ‘lively’ energy of the hysterical type, however it tends more towards a restless or fidgety nature.

The main goal in treatment of the hysterical type is to raise the patient’s self-awareness about the nature and origin of their current way of being, while also finding a way to “corner” them, in the sense of confronting their core defense without allowing them any way to ‘escape’ or ‘run’ from this moment of realization (which would be their normal tendency).  Much of this therapeutic structure can be set up by a correct sequence of homeopathic and homotonic remedies, along with other supportive modalities, which sets up for a much easier moment of resolution between the patient and practitioner.

This brings up a good point to keep in mind as we explore various aspects of the system of Medical Heilkunst – that there is a clear distinction between how things function in a state of health versus how they function in a state of disease.  That is to say, that health and disease are not merely two opposite ends in a spectrum, but that a qualitative shift is needed to move from one state to the other.  Without such a distinction, health can only be measured in relative or subjective terms, and you can never be certain how a case is actually progressing on this basis.

Reich’s approach with Character Typologies was built around such a sharp distinction between health and disease, and his therapy had a clear map of whether the patient had yet been restored to a state of health or not.  With the understanding of what a healthy character type looked like (what Reich called the ‘Genital Character Type’), there was an objective reference point for how any of the pathological character types differed, and where the main disturbances were rooted in each case.  Any character type (either the healthy ‘Genital Type’, or any of the neurotic types) is defined both in terms of a biological structure (free flow of life energy through the system, contraction or relaxation of the musculature, sexual function operates on a natural basis or not, etc.) and a psychological structure (ability to respond appropriately to various situations and people, connection to inner and outer love function, clear sense of self, or not, etc.).  Any of the neurotic character types exist as some form of defense mechanism which was created during various stages of early childhood development in response to any number of factors, including severe stresses and traumas, as well as the general emotional dynamics in the family, and ability of the parents to allow the natural impulses of the child to be expressed, or not.  Even though the original childhood situation has passed, the defense mechanism of the character structure in the adult is retained, and stands between the patient and therapist as a block towards restoring health.

Reich used the term ‘genital’ as the reference point for this healthy character type, based on the idea of childhood development generally following a descent beginning from the primacy of the ocular function after birth, and completing with the rooting of the life energy into the maturation of the genital function at the time of puberty.  The Genital Character Type (healthy type) is what naturally emerges from a course of childhood development which is not unduly blocked by strong emotional or physical shocks or traumas, and which was allowed by the parents to develop according to natural emotional and sexual impulses.  Generally, parents who are any of the neurotic character types can not allow for their child to follow this natural course of development, and will suppress or repress the course of natural development in one way or another.  Even when the conscious intention is otherwise, the unconscious defensive pattern of the neurotic parent will aim to similarly block the child.  This is why it is often necessary for the parents to undergo treatment while treating a child for a chronic issue.

In studying Reich’s Character Analysis, it is clear from his case examples that it took an intense amount of therapeutic effort to break through the patient’s neurotic character defense.  It was not unusual for his patients to see him 2 or more times per week over the course of many months, before the neurotic character defense could be fully eliminated.  The fact that Reich had to go to so much effort in his process meant that his work provided a very thorough understanding of the energy dynamics in this context, and the road map is now very clear in this area.  Reading through these cases, I’m very thankful for the medical tools that I now have available (homeopathic and homotonic remedies along with understanding of other supportive modalities), which greatly reduce the amount of time and effort it takes to break through this layer.    You could say that a homeopathic remedy, in this sense, is one of the greatest labour-saving devices ever invented.  Not that the need for proper Therapeutic Education of the patient is eliminated, but that so much work can be accomplished in between sessions by the remedies that the patient is taking, and the actual therapeutic relationship between practitioner and patient can be much more focused on dealing with the core issues.

In the following posts in this series, I’ll outline in more detail the characteristics of some of the neurotic types, such as the Hysterical Type, and the Passive Feminine Type.

Both reactions fall short of the ideal Hahnemann upheld when he developed homeopathy as the foundation of rational medicine. He was critical of close-minded dogmatism as much as he abhorred “blind empiricism.” Originally trained as a chemist, Hahnemann recognized that his use of “dynamized” medicine carried the health sciences beyond the explanatory force of chemistry. Rather than discount his findings or discredit the laws of chemistry, however, he focused his criticism on the over-extension of chemistry, which he found to have “taken upon itself to disclose a source at which the general therapeutic properties of drugs are to be ascertained.”[i] Delimiting the explanatory force of chemistry, he stressed that it may help find the medicinal powers of substances, but it cannot reveal anything about its functions in the human body, which is of a living nature.[ii] He recognized that, as a method originally developed to study inorganic material, chemistry was necessarily limited in its capacity to illuminate living processes.

Recently, a new field has developed in the life sciences, which reinforces Hahnemann’s delineation of chemistry, called biosemiotics. One of its central tenets is that living entities do not interact like mechanical bodies, but rather as messages. That is, living systems always exhibit certain organizational characteristics, which enable them to react to differences in their surroundings, and thus to “create” and exchange information. Without this basic difference between life and non-life, evolution as we understand it, would not be possible. In light of this observation, biosemioticians employ methods that follow the model of semiotics – - the study of signs, symbols, and their interpretation- – rather than applying the chemistry and physics of lifeless matter to processes created by life.

As the science of signs in living systems, biosemiotics invites the medical community to reconsider the physicalist terms in which biomedical researchers have traditionally explained the efficacy of medicine. If we endeavor to not only observe (with statistical precision) but to also understand the ways in which medicine informs the operation of the living organisms with which it interacts, then our explanations must extend beyond the physical laws operative in medicine to the information they introduce to living organisms. Within the biosemiotic framework we can legitimately question whether potentized medicines alter the health of organisms by locally controlling the physical laws according to which a diseased body is operating, a consideration that brings us beyond the limitations of physical discourse and into the domain of language.

[ii] Ibid., 115.

That’s a great question!  In the case of the blood types, and the genotypes, there are no apparent correlations, but who knows what a carefully organized research project could reveal about a more general pattern of correlation.

Heilkunst medicine works as well as it does, because it works though the correct application of corrective therapeutics applied at the right time to various dimensions of typologies of health and disease that we’re all made up of.  If nature herself did not work on the basis of typology, then it would not be possible to have any system of medicine, as each individual would be a completely unique phenomenon governed by laws uniquely their own.

Personally, I have always been drawn to various typology systems, and is partly what brought me to Heilkunst medicine, which treats at a variety of levels of typology, such as:
•    Blood type diet (D’Adamo)
•    Glandular type diet (Abravanel)
•    Metabolic type diet (Walcott)
•    Genotype (healthy constitution)
•    Phenotype (highly stressed constitutional states)
•    Character typologies (Dr. Wilhelm Reich)
•    Jurisdictions of disease causation:
?    Homogenic (specific physical or emotional trauma)
?    Pathogenic (includes both acute miasms such as measles, and chronic miasms, such as tuberculosis)
?    Iatrogenic (disease caused by doctor’s error)
?    Ideogenic (disease caused by belief)
?    Geogenic (disease caused by natural phenomenon, such as magnetic lines of the earth)
•    Temperaments (Ancient system of “earth, air, water, and fire” giving rise to Phlegmatic, Sanguine, Melancholic and Choleric personality types)
•    etc.

Though I excelled in the heated class discussions and provocative assignments, I knew that it was never enough to simply undermine the status quo. As a student of philosophy, I recognized the imperative to offer a viable alternative. And so, I decided to complement my critical orientation to the health sciences with a more committed role: I decided to become a physician.

My first consideration was naturopathy. It reinforced the principle I repeatedly returned to in my academic studies: “First do no harm.” Moreover, it was under the direction of a trusted naturopath that my own health started to improve. But when I asked him about his training, I realized that my experience was more of an accident than the rule. He explained that he was introduced to disparate modalities like different entrees at a buffet. With enough offerings to stimulate any palate, without a principled organization, I knew that it could never satisfy my ethical and scientific standards.

After two years of extensive research, in my fourth year of University, I found the Hahnemann College of Heilkunst. I was immediately impressed with its emphasis on mapping out the entire context in which Heilkunst is rendered meaningful. I was satisfied with the justification provided for its suitability as a framework for dynamic medicine. My studies quickly allowed me to navigate through the “natural health” field and admit only what could be supported by sound reason.

My experiences at Arcanum are a further testament to the strength of rational medicine. I now understand why solid principles are demanded by all those interested in accepting responsibility for their own health, not just burgeoning philosophy students. As the first point of contact, I interact with practitioners, students, and patients alike. Since all discussions are grounded in a common context, all participants are invited to become fluent in the language of their own health. Whether I am searching for an explanation from my mentors or introducing a prospective patient to Heilkunst, I am confident that our exchanges empower all voice to spring forth out of understanding rather than quiver under the authority of others. In light of the functional relationship between health and autonomy, I recognize this principled foundation as the only appropriate context for medicine and expect nothing less.

Often, in my Clinic, I will ask a woman to describe the characteristics of a healthy woman so she can define for herself what she is aiming for.  The room generally gets pretty quiet.  The trouble is, we don’t know all that many.  I feel that we need to create more archetypal models for each other.

About the time we were born, post-industrial age, our mothers cooked, cleaned, combined Kraft Dinner with Hamburger Helper and threw out the dishes awarded at the old movie houses to replace them with Tupperware. Most of us witnessed the cancer state of mind incarnate as our moms rescued everybody else to the exclusion of themselves, living the un-lived life hungering to be someone else named Jones or Smith.  In cookie-cutter homes in suburbia, moms had only a sherry or coffee party in the afternoon to look forward to while their husbands went off to the office in the family Buick with a brown vinyl briefcase sporting a three-piece-suit. If our Mothers worked, they typically were stenographers, typists, and general Girl Fridays in service to the men.

After the mind-blowing 60’s, we began to re-order ourselves and look through “the Doors” of rose coloured glass.  The “me generation” had us shortening our skirts and questioning the status quo.  But have we really come all that far?  Just yesterday, I heard a women say, “but I can’t quit my job of abject drudgery, I have to pay the bills!” So reluctantly, I listen, to the litany of stories and complaints about dead-beat husbands, beastly bosses, unfulfilling work, isolation and lack of support with the child-rearing, and the absolute state of never-ending exhaustion.  Yes, we independent women have had the biscuit and have been eating it too.  But are we any more happy and healthier, or just “crummier?”

As of 2003, women’s mortality rates were only slightly lower than men’s.  Cancers, respiratory disease, infectious diseases and even poisonings are now almost just about par with our post-industrial office-hubbies.  We put on our nylons and our pumps, filled our own briefcases and bought independence.  Without any help in the kitchen,  full-time Nannies for our babes, or house-keepers that we drool over in our Jane Austen book clubs, we are wholly stressed to the max., and some women I know are actually teetering on the brink of suicide.  Holy crap, is this the biscuit we chose to chew on or a dried out old rusk?

So if we’re aiming to become healthy women, and there are few archetypes to choose from and we aren’t it, we risk becoming like our mothers (God forbid!), does this mean we are trapped with no way out?  I feel that when things look the most dark and bleak is the time to search for the flashlight and plumb the depths to see if we can start to crystalize a smidgen of light out of this mess!  The only way I know how to answer this question is to talk about the woman that I know best … me!  And God knows, I may die trying to figure this out, or even finding that darn flashlight.

The thing is that I set my needs at the top of the list before anybody else’s.  It is a bit like when you are on a plane and the Flight Attendant instructs you to put the oxygen mask over your face first before attending to the care of any other human being, including your own child.  I realized some time ago, that I’m no good to anyone else until my needs are met. I happily serve my patients a very busy 4 full days of the week in clinic; I receive a massage every two weeks; I study hard, but not to the exclusion of my play; I go away alone to cabins or kayaking in Algonquin Park to think and just “be” once a month in the summer.  I live potently in that which I have set goals that have become reality out of love.  I do not struggle needlessly at anything.  I eat very well, exercise gracefully about 45 minutes 6 days a week, and I sleep like a log.  I am in a resonant, orgastically rich loving relationship, and my beloved children live with their awesome Father 2 weeks out of every month which really contributes to my health as a mother.

When my children are with me, I have the most amazing league of beautiful folk, with small children or no babes at all, who love a chance to spend time with my kids a couple of times a month.  I work this arrangement solely on the basis of trade as I wholly value their services.  I work at what I absolutely love and am destined to be and I don’t spend a minute complaining about a thing in my life … except that my school debt needs to be paid off faster than it is.  I love my home and live on a farm with trails through forest for hundreds of miles.  I have amazing friends who wholly wait for me to finish my post graduate studies so we can spend more time together.  I have a family, by choice, and one by birth, however, I don’t have an ounce of obligation built into the latter one.  Thanks be to God!

I embrace my femininity, living from my hips, I am quick to smile using my whole body and I can also be enraged in an instant at the Pharmaceutical Companies or at the Political Machine.  I seek only pleasure, resonance, congruency, while wholly being connected to my feelings (and displaying them confidently) with the capacity to surrender assuredly.  I’m never politically correct and take full responsibility for my feather ruffling.  I am afraid of the political machine and what will happen when the federal reserve goes tits up.  I throw tantrums like a stubborn 2 year old, but I’m also mature and I’m told wise for my years.  I am not easy to live with, but I am wholly cherishable, smart at times, funny as hell and very bloody intense and I love myself more than anyone.  I am bold, brash, and often inappropriate and I can dance like a sufi fiend, and often do.  I speak my mind and my heart, I love to hear myself sing, and I love to watch myself write anything.  I am pulsated with endless creativity and I’m wholly unabashed to say so.

I will only engage in what I feel is generative, freeing and in line with my core values, so if someone asks me if I’ve read the latest mystical book that is all a-buzz, I will say “no” and if pushed to answer “why?”  I will say that when you have access to principles and the oracle of truth to be able to “cure disease,” why do I need to follow someone like Robin Sharma or Eckhart Tolle?  Why should I choose to be on a mission when I can be a seeker that has actually arrived!  Can you imagine how jazzed I get to know how to cure Cancer, or how to enable an Autistic Babe to speak for the first time, or potentially save a man’s life from his Father’s heart disease?  The community I joyfully celebrate has gone beyond, McTaggart’s popular book, “The Field,” where she, “describes scientific discoveries that she believes point to a unifying concept of the universe, one that reconciles mind with matter, classic Newtonian science with quantum physics and, most importantly, science with religion.”  To a Heilkunstler, this smacks of mysticism and doesn’t anchor us in the principles of spiritual science or consistently help to solve disease,  it does make us yawn, though.  Yes,  I’m totally politically incorrect?

As a woman and a Heilkunstler, I’ve made it my goal to be my own mentor.   Whether I am sitting with a patient (or holding them lovingly and securely) while they cry, or hanging with my kid’s at the local coffee shop, or writing my thesis, or swimming laps at the pool, I hold myself wholly accountable to my self.  Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of Heilkunst, defined health as:

In the healthy human state, the spirit-like Living Power (Autocracy) enlivening the material body (organism) as Dynamis holds sway unrestrictedly and keeps all of its parts in admirable, harmonious, vital operation in both feelings and functions, so that our indwelling rational spirit can freely avail itself of this living healthy instrument for the higher purposes of our existence.

A healthy 21st Century Woman is what I strive to be, wholly availing myself to my higher purpose.  This is what Heilkunst is all about!

Rudolf Steiner was right on the mark when he said, “as above, so below.” We know that our colons share the same “atmosphere” as our brains.  Dr. Gershon recognized that Serotonin, the chemical that helps to renew us primarily through inducing healthy sleep, is actually propelled out of the colon.  Dr. Gershon wrote a book called The Second Brain which does a superb job explaining why the gut muddies the brain and nervous system if our digestion is distorted by disease and related conditions.

If you consider that 8-9 litres of water bathes the large intestine daily, extracting the last of the minerals and salts from our fecal matter before it exits the rectum, we start to clue in to how the toxins are also subject to this permeable wall and end up in our mesenchymal layer (we are 80% sea water).  With this in “mind,” we start to clue in to the fact that  the brain sits in this same fluid.  Only 6-7 tablespoons of water exit our bodies at one time with stool, so if we starve our system of the amount of pure water we need to consume every day, we are really creating a primordial mucky soup around our brain and organs from our own “undigested” shit!

When folks introduce probiotics, practice proper elimination techniques, eliminate processed grains and sugars from their diets, eradicate the diseases, including the heavy metals – voila! – they think better, are less nervous, and their focus becomes stellar.  Autistic children generally crave sugars to feed the yeasts and foci infections found liberally in the gut that coat the heavy metals (the yeast actually function to prevent heavy metal poisoning).  That is why it is absolutely imperative that chelation be done on the basis of principle and knowledge, which Heilkunstlers are wholly trained in, as you don’t want to trip the system to release the toxicity in the gut too fast, or you end up with a die-off nightmare.  Through principled medicine, the sugar cravings just slow, and the healthy relationship between the two brains is restored.

This is extracted from an e-mail response by us from the Hahnemann Centre for Heilkunst Autism group from this article.