Susceptibility

 

 

 

 

SUSCEPTIBILITY-Introspection of a Homoeopath:

Susceptibility implies ‘vulnerability’ or ‘receptiveness’; a propensity to be affected. This also means it is a weakness, in a sense. Like a tendency to be affected by – certain thoughts, diseases, certain external and internal impressions or influences.

Susceptibility is the intrinsic factor causing disease.

But susceptibility also bestows the potential and power to react to stimuli.

Susceptibility is important to us in many ways; because it is the prerequisite to develop a tolerance or resistance. It is an important component of the body’s dynamic equilibrium.

As it has rightly been said, ‘instability is a necessary prerequisite to stability’; similarly susceptibility is a prerequisite to develop resistance!

Were we not susceptible to knowledge, would learning be possible?

It is necessary to have a susceptibility to taking in new ideas, and experiences.

We need to have a deep susceptibility to suffering, healing and Homoeopathy in order to be good Homoeopaths!

No amount of teaching can teach if the receiver has not the susceptibility to learn.

If there was no susceptibility we would probably never have evolved;

and when there is no evolution, extinction is the rule.

However what concerns us is the nature and intensity of susceptibility so that it can be moderated and health be restored.

The body produces antibodies in response to an antigen, or what it perceives as an antigen. It may be its own cells, such as we see in autoimmune diseases.

This is a morbid susceptibility. We can sight a number of examples, where a reaction to a morbid stimulus, causes self harm. The reaction of the body, in its attempt to curtail, or wall off the infection leads to inflammation, necrosis, or fibrosis as in the case of tuberculosis or chronic appendicitis. This leads to loss of tissue, or intestinal adhesions and obstruction as in chronic appendicitis, or pulmonary fibrosis and bronchiectasis in lung diseases. These reactions as well as the virulence of the organisms are detrimental to health.

What if there were an ideal situation, where there would be organisms in the body, but they would not cause harm; live in a sort of harmony.

Is this not a form of non violence?

To quote Prof James Ewing, the highest authority on pathology in America of his time,

(Pg. 81, ‘The Genius of Homoeopathy’)

“The effort to produce passive immunity against the various infections by means of sera may fail in spite of the destruction of all the bacteria present in the body, by reason of the endotoxins thrown out in the process of bacteriolysis resulting from the serum injections.”

“It seems therefore, that the effort must be made in the future to enable the tissue and the bacteria to live together in peace rather than to produce a state where the serum is destructive to the bacteria”.

Also articles in leading medical journals, (Boston Surgical Journal, and the Therapeutic Gazette), explain that by diminishing the number of bacteria, the period required for formation of requisite antibodies was unduly prolonged.

So when we say that Homoeopathy heals the susceptibility we mean that it moderates the susceptibility from a morbid level that causes self harm, to a level, where the body and mind can defend itself without compromising its wellbeing.

The ‘rapid gentle, permanent restoration of health’.

Susceptibility has been identified in Homoeopathy to be having certain specific patterns. Hahnemann with his penetrating observations classified some basic patterns and called them ‘miasms’. Newer observations have been made on studying the trends that diseases follow today, and new miasms or disease patterns have been named like the ‘malarial miasm’, ‘Aids miasm’, ‘typhoid miasm’ and many more. But they confirm with the susceptibility patterns identified by Hahnemann.- Psora, sycosis, syphilis, and to go a little further, Burnett’s Tubercular.

But where did this susceptibility come from?

If we consider ourselves and all beings as energy quanta, or energy packets of varying frequencies, (the ‘varying’ gives us individuality), and parts of the infinite universal energy, which recycles itself, the ‘psora’ or itch has developed during the process of separation from the universal energy.

Reference to this reasoning can be found in Misha Norland’s ‘Signature, Miasms, Aids’ and the Bhagvad Gita.

Inheritance of susceptibility-

The susceptibility patterns which I will refer to as ‘miasms’, are the blueprint which is transmitted to the offspring. The offspring is the product from the gamete cells of its parents which have codes of their susceptibility. So, the offspring tends to have similar sensitivities and predispositions. Certain traits may remain latent, and may express themselves in subsequent generations. They may also be acquired during the lifetime of the person.

And they may get modified due to other factors, like suppressive treatment, or surrounding influences like weather, and state of nutrition. They will be modified by anti miasmatic treatment, in a curative way. So subsequent generations of people who have received the correct Homoeopathic treatment are healthier!

The similimum:

A proving unfolds the susceptibility patterns of a drug. It reveals to us, the ways in which it can produce a disturbance in the thinking and functioning of a person. This is then understood in its characteristics and related to a sufferer. A case taking does the very same, in the sense that we try to understand the person’s inclinations, and ways of thinking and functioning. His points of energy stasis and the currents of its flow. We form an anamnesis, a picture, or rather a portrait –as Hahnemann says, of the disease, consisting of the characteristic features, and essence.

Modus operandi of the similimum:

The homeopathic drug is like the clone of the suffering soul, which ‘vibrates on a similar energy frequency’ so to say. The patient is most susceptible to the similimum, and its action is therefore quick and definite; not easily disturbed by antidoting factors. It has the potential to deepen the very flaws already present, so that the vital energy is made more aware of the disturbance, and it brings about a state of dynamic equilibrium, in which the disturbance is nullified or cured, with the innate power of a living body to constantly try to sustain its ideal functioning; this we term as ‘dynamic equilibrium’. This again is the power to react, a susceptibility, which enables the body to heal itself.

This can be understood in terms of healing taking place on any of the different levels of existence of a living being- the spiritual, mental, and physical.

Homeopathy understands this natural power of the life force to heal and maintain itself.

We therefore find deep seated benefits, and long lasting spiritual, mental and physical health.

The susceptibility of a person can be identified by the symptoms presented on the various levels of the mind body and spirit, and classifying them under the miasms. A helpful definition of symptoms of each miasm has been given in J.H. Allen’s ‘Psora and Pseudo psora’.

This can give us a better and clearer graphic understanding of the depth and potential of his symptoms, and bring us closer to the similimum. A follow up diagram of the same can help us to study the changes in the susceptibility can be a proof of the progress of the case.