Inner Health ezine Winter 2006

Insight work
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insight work

LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDING AND LEVELS OF CURE
Melissa Burch

WHEN WE HAVE A PROBLEM with our health, how many "levels" of healing do we acknowledge?

Often, we're only aware of the pathology and the symptom: The migraine needs to be cured. The pain behind the right eye that feels like a hot iron poker needs to go away. But what about the associated emotion? We experience deep sadness when the migraine comes during our vacation. And what about our beliefs about ourselves? We may feel unworthy of love or fun because everyone else must be taken care of first. And then there's sensation. We feel vulnerable, shattered, fragmented, not put together. And then it is possible for the expressions to reveal the source of energy that influences us -- it is three dimensional, goes into the ground, and up into the sky like a tree.

These "levels" are layers of human experience. While we often feel pain (and health) on the physical level, there are many, more subtle layers that ultimately define our health and wellness. These are:

• Emotional feelings,
• Images (often seen in dreams),
• Sensations (which are so much a part of us we often can't identify them without significant probing from a homeopath), and
• Our sense of connection to the universe or direct energy.

Or think about it like this: When we turn attention inwards, we first become aware of our body and mind, and the sensations from various parts of the body, including our thoughts and emotions. Then we become aware of a deeper world of imagination. Then we get in touch with an overall experience of sensation, which is a general awareness in the whole being, body and mind.

Having the opportunity to describe these experiences - and then take medicine that works on an energetic level to address our many layers - is the art and science of homeopathy.

Whether we realize it or not, all these levels are part of us. We experience life physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

For example, I may feel a burning pain in my right arm because I do too much with my right side, and I'm always doing my best to feel accepted in the world. Here is the point where the mind and body express the state that causes the physical problem.

With careful probing from a homeopath to help articulate the suffering in as much detail as possible, it is possible to discover even deeper layers and connections. For example, I might speak about a burning pain and my need to feel accepted in the world using words like resistance, force and weight. These terms express a deeper layer that might benefit from a homeopathic remedy. Through this realization, often we tap into a collective consciousness to identify the exact qualities of the substance we require at the moment. For example, one person could describe a bird that attacks its prey and flies at jet-like speeds, and would benefit greatly from the remedy made from eagle's blood.

What happens when we address these deeper layers? Often, it's much more than relief from our original complaint. Because we've benefited from holistic medicine working at the energy level, we also experience a deep and profound shift in consciousness. We create many more choices for looking at ourselves and the world around us.

Even without homeopathic treatment, we can become more skilled at recognizing and articulating our deepest emotions and beliefs, along with discovering the sensations that run through us consciously or unconsciously (for more about how to do this, see the Insight section of this issue). This helps us become more balanced and lessen the intensity of our suffering. In effect, through awareness we become more whole, and more able to go with the flow and experience the oneness of everything.

With energetic medicine, which imprints the human field, we get information to restructure our deepest layers so that the delusion or the misperception of reality, which manifests in mental, emotional and physical symptoms, will reduce or go away entirely.

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case study

HEALING A CRACKED LIFE FOR A 28 YEAR OLD WOMAN

the case
WHEN ASKED ABOUT her reason for making an appointment, the 28-year-old woman says that her sinus headaches that are not improving. In fact, last night they were extremely horrible. She says, "It aches like anything. It came as a sudden constant pain on the left side and including the eye, like a plate. It was hurting here." (She gestures a line through the top of her head.)

In this reply the patient has given the pathology (sinus headaches), an emotion (horrible), and a local sensation (achy pain, sudden, constant, on left side through her eye). She also has given a visual image that it is like a plate. This image is a direct expression from her chief complaint. The homeopath will explore this idea to see if it expresses a mind/body connection and a deeper sensation.

the challenge
The patient says she can't speak or do anything when she has these headaches. "It would be less painful to die. It feels like it could burst my head. It feels like so much pressure, like an earthquake, like a cracking in a line." At this point, the patient has reached a level of consciousness that is beyond the headache. The sensation of a sinus headache feeling like a cracking line is totally unique to this patient. How does this earthquake image make any sense? This image is what resonates to the natural world and is the clue to the remedy that will cure her sinus headaches and restore harmony.

She describes the sensation as a kind of lava; it is soft, not solid, like jelly. It is like rubber, more transparent, yellowish. It is coming out of the crack but is not coming out like water. It is not cold or hot. It is room temperature. It is sticky.

She continues, "This crack is like the crack in my relationship." The patient now has made the connection that the crack is an image she experiences physically as well as emotionally (a mind/body symptom). It is at this point in the interview that she begins to cry. This understanding of the crack relates to her marriage, which also feels like a crack. This is a confirmation to the homeopath that the road taken from the chief complaint is reaching a deep core level with the patient.

results
The patient describes images of lava that do not have the quality of lava, but more like the substance of sap from a tree. The remedy Terebinthinum is made from the sap of trees and proved to be curative for this patient. Her sinus headaches went away and she found a way to resolve her issues with her husband. She said, "I am going with everything, even the crack, I try to grow with it. I have faith that the future will be better, and faith in my relationship now."

analysis
The level the patient reached through the homeopathic consultation was at the Level of Energy, which is to name the qualities of the substance that will heal her. The patient tapped into a collective consciousness that helped her describe the remedy that she needs. She has traveled from the physical realm (all consuming with the pain of the headache), to connecting to her emotional life through the image of the crack as the pain in her head and the pain in her relationship. This awareness is the process of healing and finding harmony through homeopathic consultation and treatment.

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insight

REVEAL YOUR LAYERS OF EXPERIENCE

HERE IS A SIMPLE, effective way to understand how you experience life. First, think about your main problem - whether physical, emotional or mental. Then set a timer for thirty minutes and write everything you can about your problem - in longhand. Stick to one problem as much as possible. Keep writing without pausing or thinking. When you reach a point where you feel there is nothing more you can write about your problem, write the question, "What do I mean by [?]?" and pick a key word, phrase, image that resonates with you, sticks out in the sentence, has energy, or is unusual, and then write that word into the question: "What do I mean by [put the idea, word, image here]?"

Keep writing until there is another pause. Then repeat the same question and finding a word to ask: "What do I mean by [?]?" until the timer goes off.

Next, read out loud what you wrote - preferably to a friend, or to yourself. Take a colored pen or highlighter mark every intense word, image, and idea. When you are finished, make a list of all the marked words. Group the words that mean the same thing or have similar ideas. Reread the groupings using this key:

• If you have mainly words that fit your story or are factual, you live life at the level of your story (Level of Fact).
• If there are more words indicating emotions, then you tend to be more emotionally-based.
• If there are more images, then your life is at the level of your visions.
• If there are more sensation words or expressions, you live more at the level of sensation.
• You may find that your writing seems like nonsense or describes the quality of an energy substance; this is the level of energy that you are able to articulate in your writing and perception.

"Level of Fact" is the most closely related to the material world. Deeper levels of Sensation and Energy are the more immaterial or energy realms. Change happens at the level of Energy and Sensation first, and then through to the level where you experience the emotions, and finally you can name the problem (example: headache, depression, etc.).

Homeopathic remedies balance and remove the energetic imprint that is causing the suffering. This produces healing at the energetic level and through to the physical and emotional levels. For more information or to make an appointment for a homeopathic consultation, call 617-491-3374 or email nancy@innerhealth.us.

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take action

1. For more information about layers of healing or to make an appointment for a homeopathic consultation, call 617-491-3374 or emailmailto:melissa@innerhealh.us.
2. Homeopaths are organizing in the US by collecting and documenting key information about the homeopathic community. If you would like more information or are a homeopath and want to fill out a survey and participate, please email mailto:melissa@innerhealh.us.
3. For practitioners who want more information about upcoming workshops, holistic health care advocacy, publications, new research, or other events, call 617-491-3374 or email mailto:melissa@innerhealh.us.

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patient advice

One dose of two to three pellets taken one time can be an effective treatment. There is no need to repeat the remedies daily, unless your homeopath prescribes daily repetitions. Do not take another homeopathic remedy, or combination of remedies, without consulting your homeopath.

After you begin homeopathic treatment, it is advised
to not begin other alternative practices, such as acupunture, herbal medicine and shiatsu, without consulting your homeopath.

Homeopathy can treat any disease or problems that may arise in your life. Keep your homeopath informed about what is going on, even if you don't think it is important. You may have come for migraines, but the homeopath is treating the whole body. For example, if you get the flu, be sure to consult your homeopath.

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TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT

A natural health practitioner can change your life. Experience deep healing for your mental and physical complaints in a gentle, permanent and non-invasive way.

CALL: 617-491-3374 EMAIL: nancy@innerhealth.us

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