Minutus

Thanks, Joy.

I think part of that college discussion about Pulsatilla that I reported
about the clinic patient was also a widespread conviction among my
colleagues and teachers that Pulsatilla wasn't a "deep" enough or "dark"
enough remedy to cover such a state.

My present patient does have delusions she is seeing horrible faces, and
also delusions that she's hearing music, both of which contain Pulsatilla
among other remedies. But that dark aspect of Pulsatilla that is evident in
the many rubrics, of which you gave a sample, just is not presented in the
usual Materia Medica descriptions, making it easy to discount the
possibility of using Pulsatilla for such a case.

Has anyone on the list had a case where the person presented with this type
of severe psychological symptoms and very physical symptoms perceived and
reported very intensely, and was cured with Pulsatilla? I'm curious, and
would like to get a better "feel" for this aspect of the remedy. (I will
give it, in any case -- it's indicated.).

Rosemary

Rosemary--This is a very intriguing discussion, and I look forward to
hearing its effect on your patient--whether or not it works!
Thanks!
Shannon
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I guess it is a point of reading the fine print

miserly
suspicious
irritable and touchy
disgusted
fixed ideas
religious mania (god doesn't abandon)
mania or epilepsy before menses or suppressed menses (doesn't want to
grow up)
fear of the opposite sex
sensation as if bandaged (oppressed)
sensation as if body parts were distending (growing up)
sensation as if smothered (warmth and damp are like death to Pulsatilla
and you will witness another type of mania is they are subjected to
this for too long)

sensation as if death were near
sensation as if turned in a circle for too long, fear of falling
sensation as if brain would burst and eyes fall out of head
sensation as if tongue has been burnt

frightful and disgusting dreams
screams or cries during sleep
anxiety and fear
suicidal
contemptuous
jealousy
insanity
kleptomania
misanthropic
monomania
rage and fury

Quite intense sx (plenty that suit Emily's client as well), but because
they change all the time you can't always get a hold of these sx and
they won't be the ones they want to tell you about because they don't
like to paint such a bleak picture of themselves to you - another
expression of the suppression they are going through - eventually they
can become fanatical because they lose themselves altogether and this
is another reason why their sx change all the time, trying to hang on
to something that helps them 'be' - hence the fixed ideas, something
fixed will stop them swaying and instead of being or setting out as
being malleable, yielding, they become totally fixed and inflexible.
That will be the later stages most like. Part of the Ranunculaceae
family where there are some other deep, morbid and dark rx. Best
wishes, Joy

http://www.homeopathicmateriamedica.com
http://www.homeopathicmateriamedica.blogspot.com
http://homepage.mac.com/joylucas/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/provings

WOW, that sure "expands" the picture!!!! Thanks, Joy!
I'm guessing that what might help to see this has puls in an
un-pulsatilla-ish seeming patient, would be the past history, likely to
find that, when you ask what they were like as a child etc., you will
see the puls picture there? And also that if you probe, find that the
reasons behind these disgusted, fixed, suspicious, etc., feelings, have
to do with feeling alone, abandoned?
I am really appreciating this discussion!
Shannon
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I have always thought that you can see Pulsatilla reasonably easy in a
child, it gets a bit more difficult in a young adult and it gets
harder after that. All case taking should involve a look at childhood
and, as you say, this could confirm it for someone who might need
Pulsatilla. They might also move on to a Silicea state as well and you
see this similar needing to yield there and if they can't then serious
illness sets in. Pulsatilla can also move into Thuja as well and
likely you'd be writing Thuja in the margins when taking the case but
latching onto the sense that there has been a history of abandonment
is the good start and you will be thinking of the Lacs as well of
course. Generally thought of as a Sycotic rx I would also place
Pulsatilla within the cancer diathesis if there has been a lot of
suppression going on for some years. Best wishes, Joy

-- In minutus@yahoogroups.com, Robert & Shannon Nelson
wrote:
they
faces,
presented
curious,

here's something I wrote about Pulsatilla sometime ago - Pulsatilla
re-visited
Pulsatilla has to be one of our best known remedies – I wonder why?
Perhaps it is because we all would like to be gentle, soft,
affectionate, yielding, mild, craving sympathy – all the classic
emotional symptoms of Pulsatilla - because so many of us have an inner
and intense fear of being abandoned, a fear which stimulates Pulsatilla
into the diseased state we think we know so well.

But there is much more to Pulsatilla.

As a plant, Pulsatilla requires cool air and excellent drainage. It is
inimical to heat and damp – if their roots sit in water or the plant is
scorched by the heat of the sun, then it will die. The threat of death
has to be one of the most profound circumstances to be in and this
helps to clarify some other symptoms of Pulsatilla.

Anxiety as if in hot air
Visions of fire
Attempts to escape
Anxiety in bed, must uncover
Anxiety during flushes of heat
Aversion to company during heat
Confusion of mind during heat
Dullness from damp air

Ecstasy during heat – Pulsatilla is a suicidal remedy, heat can drive
them to this and they will choose to drown themselves in water that
they know will kill them.

Pulsatilla is the Spring Anemone and Spring is all about change and
contradiction. As we leave behind the ravages of winter there is an
interlude of turbulence when Spring tries to impose itself. Thus,
Pulsatilla is all about contradiction and change and yet there is….

Fixed ideas, especially about food and religion
Says he is well when very sick
Makes mistakes in speaking
Refuses to eat (often plump)
Fear of eating
Delusion sees bees and insects – well it is spring and time to pollinate
Delusions about criminals
Delusion committed a crime (anxiety of conscience)
Fear of poverty (anxiety about business)
Fear of heights
Suspicious
Jealous

If you remember the death threat that hangs over Pulsatilla you will
realise that it is easy for them to slip into ideas of suspicion, fear
of being persecuted and jealous of those who do not suffer these
states. They want to escape this.

Delusion pursued by enemies
Irritable, takes everything in bad part – can be morose and repulsive
Attempts to escape
Hurried
Involuntary gestures of the hands – folding and wringing
Sensation as if cold water poured down the back
Sensation as if being smothered when lying down
Sensation as if arms were broken and dislocated
Sensation as if brain would burst and eyes fall out of head
Sensation as if death were near.

Death is black and this colour features quite strongly in Pulsatilla.

Delusions of black cats
Sees black forms when dreaming
Sees devils
Dark aggravates
Fearful in twilight, the dark, at night, during sleep
Vivid exhaltations after midnight.

One of my favourite teachers, David Mundy, once wrote about Cinderella
as being Pulsatilla – “and when the clock strikes midnight”, (midnight
being the blackest hour)

Delusion hears delightful music (at the ball of course).

A critical time for Pulsatilla is puberty – this is REAL change and
they find it hard to adapt and become stuck. They want to be a child
forever, they don’t want to be abandoned into the big, wide world, so
they ‘cling’ on to the childish state and have problems growing up.

Absent menses
Childish behaviour
Sensation as if bandaged (swaddled as a baby?)
Aversion to the opposite sex
Delusion a naked man is wrapped in bedclothes with her
Delusion women are evil and will injure his soul
Disgust
Sensation as if parts are growing
Shrieking during sleep (also grunts and whines)
Wants to be carried.

Pulsatilla also has a great affinity to childhood diseases such as
Measles, Mumps and Chicken Pox.

Pulsatilla has to protect itself and this is one reason why they are
selfish, stands to reason really.

Selfish
Miserly
Kleptomania

And yet there is also a sense of great abundance about this remedy.

Very affectionate
Abundant ideas
Theorising
Ailments from excessive joy
Excessive weeping

Pulsatilla has an affinity to ailments of the eyes. Being such a weepy
remedy it is said that the tears sprang from the eyes of Venus.

Best wishes, Joy

http://www.homeopathicmateriamedica.com
http://www.homeopathicmateriamedica.blogspot.com
http://homepage.mac.com/joylucas/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/provings
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