The Journey

This journey has a certain structure which is holographically repeated also in our whole life, professional career, in every meeting, meditation session or a group work and naturally – in each consultation process we engage with our patients.

So we repeat this journey each day and each life over and over again many times until we become Aware. The structure remains the same:

1. each time it begins with knowing nothing or forgetting everything;
2. then it leads to becoming aware of what is manifested. i.e. perceived by senses;
3. then discovering of what has been hidden beyond that, i.e. finding out the true causes of what’s happening;
4. then finding stillness in all that – up until everything stops, all the world becomes still;
5. lastly, surrendering to the Totality. This excludes knowledge, by the way. so we kind of return to the beginning, to 1.

The treatment begins when the will of the patient surrenders to the will of the Tide.

Rollin Becker, D.O.

Ridiculously, even if the path of Present Homeopathy may seem about training our skills, increasing sensitivity and awareness up to a crazy levels – up until every remedy is experienced, recognized as sensations happening in the present moment – our main goal is to get rid of any kind of control, let everything happen spontaneously and surrender completely to the Totality, dissolve in it (it is impossible to achieve that)

First of all this happens with ourselves. Then it may happen with our patients.

Homeopathic Journey

Imagine all our remedies may be experienced live, perceived to the full extent (with literally nothing postponed to the future) and shared directly. Our relationship with the remedies follows the same stages of the journey that starts and ends in not knowing.

I. Getting rid of knowledge

I assume you’ve come to Present Homeopathy having at least some knowledge already. I’m not saying you have to forget what you know. It is all about fully perceiving the remedies, patient and Life itself – simply as they are. But soon you are going to discover that perception is happening in our Hearts. It really feels that way. It is evident. And slowly knowledge will become less and less important.

The perception that is happening now has real Liveliness and amazing spontaneity in it. Knowledge that’s based on the past experiences appears to be obsolete and outdated then. So we abandon the head and move to the Heart from which everything is perceived as happening in stillness. So we consult our patients from the Heart, we do not think or analyze anymore. Can you imagine that consultation way deeper and intense without mental efforts? We just sit in stillness and recognize what is happening. It is not the end of the road though… It half of our journey.

It may sound ridiculous, but the main obstacle that prevents homeopaths to advance further is abundant theoretical knowledge about the remedies. Having too much knowledge simply obscures our senses.

Our path starts with getting to the very roots from what everything has started – i.e. we begin with the direct personal experience. Knowledge (someone else’s experience) does not matter here. It is about building our own Materia Medica Pura – similar to what S. Hahnemann did in his time.

II. Experiencing Sensations

is a good start. They represent the manifested Yang side and are very common to homeopathic provings, remedy pathogeneses and everyday practice. Of course, we speak about the sensations we actually experience, those written down in books do not count. They range from pretty crude to extremely subtle ones. Naturally, we have to train our observation skills to become aware of the latter. i.e. to recognize them while listening.

There are also several rules for listening. Like having no prejudices (all the ideas about ourselves appear to be nothing more than prejudices and all of them are going to dissolve little by little with practice) and never focusing on the particular sensation alone, but Listening to the Totality.

Our journey actually starts when we understand that sensations are all about pure perception, that does not belong to the body. The perception is about how we perceive the body and the world around us.

Body appears to be happening in the perception and not vice versa. This little understanding makes the world of sensations infinite and open for precise exploration. Here we are no more surprised and bothered when reaction to the remedy comes as event or life situation. These are still the realm of sensations – only happening a bit wider than usual.

[The journey ends when we discover the perception belongs to the Totality. But that rarely happens on this II stage.]

If we engage into listening and we train a lot, we practice each day, we start discovering many new infinite worlds/levels we have never thought they existed. Each of them is represented by completely different kinds of sensations and different sets of remedies that help us to reveal these. Well, just imagine there are remedy sets that are experienced almost exclusively as life events and situations…

This sensational aspect of our journey has no end. The world of sensations and the arsenal of remedies are infinite. It may seem to be fun at first, we try to master them, it appears to be a Sisyphean task that is impossible to accomplish.

Actually, all homeopaths face the same problem: no matter how long we study and train, no matter how many seminars we take we still can’t reach perfection. So we get into thinking we miss something and we are going to improve that in the future. That’s exactly what science is telling us – everything is constantly moving, changing, evolving. But what if all that is just another prejudice?

Imagine no matter how subtle and diverse sensations may be, they comprise only half of remedy experiences.

III. What’s hiding beyond the sensations?

Here things start to get tricky. Homeopaths try to find the reason for these sensations to arise. But they look for it in the remedy. They analize repertory rubrics and try to reconstruct the situation that gives rise to these sensations. Theoretically that seems a pretty sound approach. It leads to the idea that remedies have their own “essences”. One of the recent examples I’ve stumbled upon several days ago is this overview of Chocolate. It is called “situational Materia Medica”.

Exactly! Usually there is a situation or life event that hides beyond these sensations. That’s what we call the causal level. It is very important, but… It never belongs to the remedy, but to the patient! Just like sensations do! So here exploring the remedies means exploring ourselves and our lives.

But there is still another half…

IV. Stillness

is just the opposite to sensations. Think of that for a second. Stillness represents Yin side and can not be expressed in words, therefore almost ignored during homeopathic provings, absent in remedy descriptions and rarely implemented into everyday practice. That’s ridiculous as it actually stands for Health and Dynamis.

Well, usually we have to take part in numerous provings, experience hundreds if not thousands of remedies first. And only when we get sick and tired of these subtle and amazing sensations, when we get bored of wandering these new subtle worlds, when we no longer see any meaning in experiencing something new, when we eventually start longing for Home, only then we revert onto stillness. Stillness is the direction for getting Home.

Similarly to sensations, stillness has its gradations as it is perceived differently at different levels. Sometimes it feels like body becoming still. Sometimes it feels like the world has stopped completely. Little by little we start to recognize the levels of stillness by its depth and/or the hint of sensations (it is that little white Yang dot on the blach Yin side).

E.g. one of these levels called the Meeting Point is perceived like a starry sky by most of us. It represents our last stop before the incarnation. We may return there to reconnect with our mission, our potential, talents, etc. When a patient arrives to this level during the consultation… Well, nothing happens, it’s just a silent vast starry sky. But it is obvious he’s about to change his life in the nearest future. Sometimes quite radically.

The tricky thing of working on that silent side is that we have to become still ourselves in order to perceive stillness.

I know, many homeopaths will ask, “What has stillness to do with Homeopathy that is based in pure symptomatology?” And here we meet the biggest paradox…

Well, Homeopathy emerged as Yang: based on manifestations/ symptoms and aimed at acute diseases. All the early homeopathic history and success relied on these.

But chronic cases remained a problem. All S. Hahnemann’s further research was targeted for dealing with these. But actually he never stepped out of symptomatic manifested Yang side. Neither did homeopaths after him. So the Yin side of Homeopathy has been missing up until now.

Nevertheless, that still/Yin side appears to be absolutely essential chronic cases where that hidden part rules over the vague manifestations and to Homeopathy itself which is all about the potentizing and potential.

Dynamis

: the state of that which is not yet fully realized  : POWER, POTENTIALITY — contrasted with energeia

Merriam-Webster dictionary

Ridiculously homeopaths still consider potentizing to be Yang process leading to increasing the energy.

Strangely, S. Hahnemann himself used a greek word Dynamis a lot. Look, it is exactly the opposite to the energy.

As we move into stillness, energy decreases, goes into its unmanifested potential state, Dynamis. That’s our remedies.

Also, practitioner’s skills become kind of inverted here in that Yin/stillness side. Look, being still is just the opposite to what homeopaths were trying to do up until now.

EFFORT

Listen to nothing, shut the senses off.

The nothingness is something.

James Jealous “An Osteopathic Odyssey” p.40

Here we actually learn not to do, not to know, not to understand. If on the Yang side we learned to listen, to recognize every even the subtlest sensation, here we even learn not to listen!

That sounds ridiculous, but in practice that’s more than simple. Please, do a little experiment. Try hard to listen to something (doesn’t matter to what). Then stop trying, shut off any effort. What has changed?

The less we manifest, the less effort we put into something, the deeper is the stillness. It takes years of daily systematic training and practice to become fully aware of stillness – so deeply seated is the habit of doing.

Of course, stillness is not something we can be proud of and prove/ demonstrate to others. In stillness we lose all the ideas about the strength of our remedies.

Stillness also seems almost incompatible with classical way of prescribing that is based on analytical thinking. But it perfectly suits Present Homeopathy that uses no prescribing and is based on pure live experiencing.

One day I was told that when the patient comes to consultation in a deeper stillness than a doctor, then doctor is healed by the patient. That became a turning point.

STILLNESS

There are stillpoints through which transmutation occurs.

To know this phenomena one must see the activity of the stillness.

James Jealous “An Osteopathic Odyssey” p.40

So why is stillness so important? Well, to put it simple, reaching that stillpoint is an opportunity for the System to stop and restart into its own Health. It is like reverting to our “factory settings” if you prefer technical terms. Or you may call it tuning to the inherent rhythm of the Universe. Or… Well, these are all just words. They are not important at all.

The only important thing is that stillness opens the doorway to…

V. Silence

The potency of stillness is different at different rates. The Potency of the Silence is always the same.

James Jealous “An Osteopathic Odyssey” p.47

When Silence comes and is experienced all the world becomes silent – no matter if we stand in a temple or in the centre of a busy supermarket.

It is obvious that Silence belongs to the Totality rather than a person or remedies. Somehow everything around seem to be flooded by silent Liveliness, the body including – and the Healing begins.

Silence is absolute. My Silence and your Silence is the same Silence. There is only one Silence. It stands beyond every sensation and stillness. It is the only Reality. It is our Home, our true Self. It is the Healing itself.

They call it the Tide in biodynamic osteopathic tradition.

Classical vs. Present

These approaches are very similar with just one difference. In classics they think all these belong to the remedies and are caused by these during provings. The present way of seeing things is that all these belong to us and are brought up to the surface as we react to the remedy information.

That single difference appears to be the radical game changer.

In classics homeopaths study remedy symptoms that despite being experienced sometime in the past are detached from a real life. They are just a list of symptoms. And then the imagination game begins. Here different remedy “essences” and “situational Materia Medica” start to emerge. Like that one with the chocolate. Often it reminds the games of imagination. Looking at the chocolate from a “dreams of hedgehogs” perspective and interpreting that as “feeling of separation” might work in a case or two. But is it all the chocolate is about? Hmm…

Such “situational materia medica” already gets too far from the original sensation of a prover. And it loses the energy, it does not take us any further.

On the other hand Present Homeopathy is based on real live experience that is happening now. Not even several minutes or seconds before. Just now. It might be chocolate. But each time we may find out the true causes of such reactions. Each time the remedy appears to trigger something very personal in the patient. We may find a hint to what’s happening in the remedy descriptions, but that’s just a hint. We share it with the patient while experiencing the sensations and together with him build the missing part of the puzzle.

But the main difference is that Present Homeopathy becomes the key to

Our own journey

Imagine what has started as exploring the remedies appears to be our own journey. It also goes through several stages: observation, witnessing and Presence.

I. Leaving prejudices aside

Imagine everything we know about ourselves, everything we’ve been taught are no more than prejudices. All the narratives are put aside. Even the story that we were born. Do you remember being born? If you do not – put that story aside up until you find out the Truth. What’s left is pure

II. Observing / Listening

Imagine exploring our “sensibilities” leads us through a practice of observing sensations. We simply call it listening.

Imagine sensations do not belong to our bodies. They are the way we perceive our bodies and actually, everything. As we advance with our practice we discover that everything is perceived as sensations: from the physical body to the very depths of soul, from “me” to the surrounding world.

Imagine, sensations have no locality at all. Please, check it out yourselves. Perform a little experiment that will take 5-10 minutes of your time: sit, relax, close your eyes, find a whatever sensation in your body (there is always some sensation present here), stay with it for a while (yes, ignore the other ones) until you explore it and it becomes vivid and detailed enough. And now try to locate its borders as well its centre. You’ll be surprised.

Imagine such observation practice – listening to thousands of remedies also leads to a strange discovery that our inner sensations and outer world sensations are perceived in the same manner. The very process of perceiving what’s inside and outside does not differ at all!

Such discovery leads straight to

III. The Heart / Witnessing

Here we no longer divide into inner and outer. The worlds suddenly becomes One. Nothing is separate anymore. Perception appears to be happening in the Heart in this stage. Here we clearly perceive everything happening in it. Heart does not belong to a person anymore. It encompasses all the world in itself. It appears to be a magical space where the world is created. Attention creates and perceives the world simultaneosly here.

The only problem in this stage is that we can’t locate ourselves anymore. Our bodies are perceived just like anything else, but I myself remain a total mystery. I see I’m not in body, emotions, mentalities, events, stillness,… Here I can perceive everything that exists – up to the very depths of Soul – but I am definitely not that. I perceive that instead.

I know, there is a totality of symptoms in classical Homeopathy that can be defined, written down and shared. But here in the Present Homeopathy it is all about the direct perception of what’s happening now. There is no way you can share the present moment except simply being in it.

Imagine only here we start to understand something about the true nature of sensations. E.g., it appears that sensations have always belonged to the Totality and not to the body. Listening to the sensations becomes listening to the Life itself. It is not listening anymore. It is Listening.

Imagine there is no observer in the Heart. Here we still perceive ourselves as persons, but strangely we do not feel we belong to the body. It is impossible to perceive the Totality and to be in our body at the same time. Totality encompasses body as well as everything.

Imagine, here we can neither locate our self nor discern any details, just the Totality. Such state is usually called witnessing. Observer who has been living in the head and perceiving the world through eyes, ears, nose and other senses of perception dies here. But dying, as my grandmother told me, is not easy.

Imagine, perceiving the world as One, we totally lose control! We even lose our will. But the habit of controlling and clinging to details doesn’t go away quickly, so usually it is a pretty painful period of antagonism between the head and the Heart in this phase.

IV. The Presence

Imagine we move one step further – and we discover Emptiness as essential quality of the Heart. To tell the truth, it’s Emptiness who finds us. Emptiness precedes the Totality. Emptiness gives birth to the Totality.

Then little by little we become dissolved in that Emptiness. That process does not differ from our daily practice of remedy making. You see, most homeopaths think they add something with potentiation: energy, depth, vibrations,… But the simple truth is that a simple dilution is happening.

Having encounters with the Totality each day we also get diluted little by little. At first it feels great. Dilution is perceived as expansion. You may call it “expansion of consciousness” if you like. Our borders start to dissolve and that gives us a very intimate relationship with everything around. We merge with the world. We feel patients and trees around as if these are ourselves.

Being excited with new sensations we get with that “expansion” we forget the centre – we forget “I”, “myself”. We spend years exploring the subtleness of the world around. We actually discover new worlds that have not existed for us before. When we get tired of new sensations we look back and we can’t find the centre, nucleus, “I” anymore.

Witness dies here. What is left? Nobody knows. Should we agree to call THAT Presence?

Imagine nothing changes with THAT, except perception becomes completely impersonal, non-local, infinite, transparent, attributed to the Totality. Becoming one with both the Totality and Emptiness, discovering one’s “sensitivities” and eventually fully “knowing thyself” has nothing to do with rational understanding nor ads anything extra. It is not evident in public and can’t even be expressed in words.

Imagine you feel like you are not a person, but the total openess to perception that simply happens in the present moment.

The Present Homeopathy is both for that finite knowledge and infinite revelation.