Reprinted with the permission of The Society of Homeopaths (from "The Homeopath" Journal Summer 2009). Reviewed by Graz Baran.
During the last 10 years, Dr Bhawisha Joshi, in partnership with her husband, Dr Shachindra Joshi, has been developing a detailed understanding of the relationship between the signatures of individual elements within the periodic table, and their pictures in the materia medica.
Dr Joshi considers the themes and patterns of the first three rows of the periodic table as a whole - increasing atomic weight, chemical properties of the elements in the columns, in comparison to change of atomic volume and electron structure - and identifies their equivalence in the known themes and patterns of the remedy pictures of the elements.
The development of the theme of each row is considered in relation to each member of the row. The use of case examples and references to materia medica and repertory thoroughly root her observations in clinical practice. We can observe well-known polychrests that for years have been considered as discrete pictures, develop clear relationships to each other. Stage-by-stage, we get to see the common thread that links the picture of sodium (Natrum) to that of magnesium, and on to aluminium, then silica, phosphorus, sulphur and chlorum (muriaticum). As well as the links, we see the fine distinctions between each member of the row. Each section provides us with the patient language typical of each row and examples from the repertory. There are chapters on the distinguishing features of halogens and noble gases, and a section on distinguishing between a patient needing a salt or an element. We are introduced to the kingdom of Imponderables.
The book is thoroughly rooted in the sensation method that has been gathering momentum since the start of the millennium, a global endeavour in progress, developing framework for a more systematic classification of materia medica. This, in turn, can provide a means of assessing the degree of accuracy of any prescription. An open, yet rigorous, approach to case taking has been pivotal to this. The author makes a significant contribution to this project and has pre-supposed the reader has knowledge of the principles involved in the sensation approach.
This builds solidly on Jan Scholten's initiative since 1993, and on the subsequent development of the model by the Bombay group as a whole, under the leadership of Dr Rajan Sankaran. It complements Dr Jayesh Shah's collection of case and remedy examples: Into the Periodic Table, Second Series (2005). Dr Joshi systematically fills gaps, clarifies ambiguities and describes a process that links a version of the seven ages of man, starting from conception and ending in disintegration, to the seven rows of the periodic table.
I understand that a second edition, which will address a frustrating preponderance of typographical and grammatical errors, is in process. For the reader new to the sensation method there is plenty of material to provoke a more systematic way of remembering and understanding the materia medica of minerals. If you are already a sensation method practitioner this book is a 'must have' in that it could facilitate your differentiation skills.
Reprinted with the permission of The Homeopathic Links Journal, volume 23, Spring 2010. Reviewed by Francis Treuherz, MA RSHom FSHom, UK.
I often start a book at the end to see the bibliography and learn what works the author has consulted. But there is no bibliography as the book is all the author's own work, based on cases seen with her husband. Instead I found the last main chapter is about imponderable remedies described as a family, as a group with their patterns of energy as the common thread. I have many times given talks to groups of people for whom homeopathy itself is a great improbable and imponderable healing art, and I learned that if my talk was to be taken seriously not to give an example of the patient with an in-growing toenail cured with Magnetis polus australis. It ranks as improbable as the water going out of the bath the "wrong" way round in Australia. Like the author my cases of imponderable remedies and probably yours, were always empirical and never based on the whole theme of the group of remedies. I never saw these remedies clearly. Now I do grasp their essence.
That is the essence of this book. The author has seen an improbably large number of cases of patients needing remedies from the table of elements, and so many of them have been successful which brings the book to life. Here the sensation methodology from Bombay and the periodic table insights from the Netherlands have been combined. We can read about the duality and polarity of remedies, expressed as the I and U of minerals - the first three rows - and imponderables, also of plants, animals, and nosodes for comparison. There are noble gases, halogens and salts. There are many lists, tables and diagrams as visual and mnemonic aids to learning, and cases and more cases (how do they manage to see so many cases of these remedies?), which is why you cannot read this book fast, it is too rich and varied, it will take time to sink in.
The book lacks the benevolent eye of a publisher's editor as it is self-published. Mistakes of style, grammar and spelling have crept in. Try and ignore them. The dynamic duo has created a dynamic book, which will surely become a modern classic of homeopathy
