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Mark O'Sullivan, 2nd Year Essay: Miasms

Irish School of Homeopathy 30. May. 2006

Subject: Miasms
Word Limit: 1500 words

“Miasms represent susceptibilities programmed into energy as it compacted itself through


countless millennia to become the stuff of our physical being and to give us the opportunity
to creatively participate in our own evolution”.
Jerome Whitney, in The Homeopath No. 57, 1995
1. When taking a chronic case how would you find out about your patient’s miasmatic
inheritance? (300 words)
When determining the most active miasms of your patient, most everything about them can
be examined for the hallmarks of the most active miasm. One would look into the nature of
the patient's complaints to spot the miasmatic susceptibility, then see if there are miasmatic
themes inherent in them which stretch back through their history of health, into that of their
siblings and ancestors.

If a patient presents with a skin condition that is dry and slow to heal, you're thinking of
Psora. If it is spreading fast and producing lots of tissue, then Sycosis is indicated. Finally, if
it is septic and destructively corrupting the surrounding tissue, Syphilis is indicated. If more
than one of the above characteristics is present, the Tubercular or Cancer miasms are
indicated. The modalities and timings around symptoms can also reveal miasmatic motifs.
Any one of these miasms could be dominant in a condition despite it having the same
allopathic label.

Physically, the body shape, proportions, birthmarks and their location, the shape of the
teeth and nails can all provide pointers to a dominant miasm. The patient's health history
can be elicited, providing clues in the childhood diseases, serious conditions during their
lives, susceptibility to accidents, allergies and the immunity's robustness. Similarly the
conditions of their upbringing whether sheltered or full of strife, controlling or absent
parents. The kinds of activities and friends they have associated with, will all narrow the
field of dominant miasms and correspondingly, of indicated remedies.

The mental and emotional picture will also be indicative of the active miasm. Are they
closed or open? Do they experience strong fear, doubt, rage, grief, guilt, shame or self-
loathing? Each of these are strong keynotes of different miasms.

Finally, determining the situations and health complaints of their siblings and ancestors can
shed further light on the miasmatic inheritance of your patient.

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Mark O'Sullivan, 2nd Year Essay: Miasms
Irish School of Homeopathy 30. May. 2006

2. How is this information useful to you when assessing prognosis? (200 words)
Knowing the active miasms provides huge insight into the likely progression, complications,
speed, severity and curability of your patient's pathology. It will also provide a view on how
your patient is likely to behave during the progress of cure and what likely further conditions
your patient is susceptible to.

In Psoric patients, the outlook can be good, since this miasm is less compacted and deeply
pathological as the others. Progress can be slow, as underfunction, lack of vitality with
somaticised fear and grief1 are likely to be present.

Sycosis is trickier, with its keynotes of imbalances and extremes2 leading to deeper rooted
pathologies that change state quickly. The patient's psychological profile is more complex
than the Psoric and their often excessive lifestyles may present more obstacles to cure.

Syphilis, the most destructive of the three Hahnammanian miasms has the deepest, most
painful, aggressive pathologies in its diathesis. Conditions arising from this miasm do not
have a good prognosis and the practitioner is alerted to this. Again, obstacles to cure in the
form of lifestyle or existing heavy allopathic suppression for severe conditions can be in
place as challenges to case management.

Thus, by identifying the dominant miasm, clear indications can be gleaned as to the likely
progress of the disease and the likelihood of new conditions arising from the miasmatic
weakness in the future is diminished.

3. How is this information useful to you when making a homoeopathic diagnosis? (400
words)
When the dominant miasm is identified an indication as to the depth of the pathology is
indicated. For example, If a patient with GIT disorder displays the psoric diathesis, the
practitioner has an indication that intestinal under function is likely, whereas in the case of a
syphillitic patient these symptoms may alert her to the likelihood of ulcers or pre-cancerous
conditions as the causation.

A Psoric profile may lead the practitioner to ascribe the emotional aetiology to an episode of
grief whereas with the syphilitic it is more likely to be anger. These are simplistic examples
but illustrate how similar constellations of symptoms may be ascribed differing diagnoses

1 Lilley, David Seminars, Module 1, Day 1 (audio)


2 Ortega, p69

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Mark O'Sullivan, 2nd Year Essay: Miasms
Irish School of Homeopathy 30. May. 2006

when seen from the miasmatic perspective.

The practitioner can ascertain if the dominant miasm is dormant, active or exposed3. If the
miasm is exposed, the patient's picture corresponds to that of the nosode of the miasm, so
this is given as the current similimum.

If the miasm is identified as active, then this can be one method of narrowing the field of
likely remedies for the patient, matching the dominant miasm to a remedy known to act on
that miasm.

Also, during the progress of cure if the well indicated remedy ceases to act, the practitioner
knows that the prescription of the nosode of the dominant active miasm can assist in
moving the case on. She also is forewarned of the likely progress of cure, according to
Hering's law as expressed through the dominant miasm.

In terms of potency, identifying the dominant miasm can be useful in order to match the
energy of the potency with the energy of the condition. Psoric states are generally
enervated, so the practitioner may choose to go with a lower potency than with the more
intense syphilitic state. Sycosis can be more challenging in this regard, since in their
unbalanced state, overfunction may be masking underfunction in a different area of their
totality leading a weakened state to appear more charged than it actually is.

Finally, when taking the totality, miasmatic background included can result in a better
selected remedy which the practitioner can feel more confident in staying with for the
duration of the treatment, while it is still indicated, since it addresses the patients condition
and their miasmatic background. The knowledge of the miasms increases prescriber
confidence4.

3 Smith, Michael, from lecture notes.


4 Banerja, p4

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Mark O'Sullivan, 2nd Year Essay: Miasms
Irish School of Homeopathy 30. May. 2006

4. Hahnemann described three miasms: psora, syphilis and sycosis; most homoeopaths
now recognize at least another two. How and why has his theory of miasms evolved? How
many miasms do you think there are? (600 words)
The theory of the miasms were a late Hahnammanian innovation, which arose out of careful
clinical observation and led him to the conclusion that underlying chronic conditions were
caused by dynamic, energetic, inherited and contagious diseases passing down through
the generations of humanity. David Lilly claims that Psora may well have begun with self
awareness, the awareness of death and the attendant Psoric keynotes of grief and fear that
arose from them. In other words, with the funerary rites of Neanderthal humans5.

The irony in Miasmatic theory is that it arose from the western rationalist enlightenment
tradition which holds as axiomatic that as humanity advances through time, we improve in
health, morality and technology. This is often mis-termed “evolution” when in the darwinian
sense, that word simply means “adapting to one's environment” without the value
judgement of “getting better” attached. Miasmatic theory would hold the opposite – that as
time goes by, miasms increase in number and strength, causing a deterioration in health
and moral integrity. This, plus the embracing of holism has meant that Homeopathy has
been swimming against the current of mainstream enlightenment thinking ever since.

Hahnemann himself acknowledged that his miasms were just the ones that he himself had
encountered during his practice. This has left the door open for other disease states to be
termed miasmatic in places other than Europe. Then there are also conditions arising from
the pollution we have visited upon ourselves, such as heavy metals or hormones, for
example, which have been termed miasms. There is also the progression of time to
consider. In Hahnemann's time, world population was under a billion, whereas now it
numbers almost 7 billion.6 More population over more time means more contagion. This is
demonstrated by the increase in chronic disease, even as death rates have decreased. The
incidence of Sycosis and Syphilis alone have multiplied exponentially since Hahnemann's
day and have been complicated by centuries' worth of suppression by new allopathic drugs.

So here we are. We know that times and health have changed since The Chronic Diseases
was published and see arising from the population, rampant chronic disease conditions
such as Tuberculosis, Cancer and AIDS all of which are now ascribed miasmatic status
with their own nosodes. The work of Sankaran and his followers have put forward the
typhoid, malarial, ringworm and the leprosy miasm. All of these new miasms have been
5 Lilley, David Seminars, Module 1, Day 1 (audio)
6 From: http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm

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Mark O'Sullivan, 2nd Year Essay: Miasms
Irish School of Homeopathy 30. May. 2006

theoretically retrofitted into relationships with Hahnamann's original three. Then there are
also the Heavy Metal miasm (caused by listening to too much AC/DC*) and the hormone
miasm cased by successive years of the pill and other hormone drug therapies infusing the
environment.

There is the question here of what constitutes a miasm and how are these subsequent
classifications of remedies being used:

“...Therefore the distinctions of the miasm are useful only if they have clinical relevance –
that is if they help us to find the correct similimum. In a sense, it does not matter if the
proposed miasm is “real”. If the definition of the miasm is clear and easily determined by all
trained observers in the patient and the remedies can be more easily identified by this
grouping or categorisation, then the concept is useful. The proof, as they say, will be in the
pudding”7
Morrison appears to imply that the existence of the miasms is a moot point so long as they
are useful classifications of disease type. I doubt that Hahnemann intended the miasms to
be considered a convenient taxonomic fiction and if the above logic were to be applied to
homeopathic remedies themselves then the logic of the above utilitarian argument would
hold them to be only convenient placebo.

If the miasms are indeed impacted, unresolved disease energy passing down through time,
looking to express both their positive and negative transformational power then it makes
sense that through mass suppression, they will complicate, strengthen and cross-fertilise. I
believe this is what has happened with TB, Cancer and Aids. I have not sufficient clinical
experience to comment on Sankaran's new classifications and as for the metals and
hormones, these have not arisen organically from within the population as the miasmatic
diseases have and so are more like very large maintaining causes than miasms.

References:
Morrison, Roger. “Back to Basics” Homeopathic Times, Vol. 9 No. 1.
Sankaran, Rajan. “The Soul of Remedies” 1997, Homeopathic Medical Publishers, Mumbai, India
David V. Tansley, “Chakras – Rays and Radionics”, D.C.1984, C.W. Daniel, Essex, UK.
Ortega, Dr. Proceso Sanchez “Notes on the Miasms”, 1980, National Homeopathic Pharmacy, New
Delhi, India
Banjera, Dr. Subrata Kumar “Miasmatic Prescribing”, 2001, Allen College of Homeopathy, Essex,
England.

* NB: This is a joke


7 Morrison, Roger in “Back to Basics”. Homeopathic Times Vol.9 No. 1

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