The Soul of Remedies

Dr. Rajan Sankaran speaks about the book The Soul of Remedies

The Soul of Remedies
Clear, concise, confirmed descriptions of the inner view of a hundred remedies, and how they express this in the clinical situation.
This is a companion volume to Rajan Sankaran’s earlier works, The Spirit of Homoeopathy and The Substance of Homoepathy.

Excerpts from Foreword
For a long time, I hesitated to write a book on remedies because I am well aware of the dangers inherent in such an undertaking. In the first place, there is a strong possibility that the reader, especially if he is a beginner in the field, might become fixed on these remedy pictures and forget that every remedy has a wider range and greater scope than any one individual can see or describe. Not realising that these pictures represent only one version, only one view of the remedy, he might wrongly imagine that he had seen the whole. I also realise that an idea imperfectly communicated which might easily be corrected in a "Live" teaching situation, is far less easily rectified when it has been committed to print. Finally there is a danger that the reader's Materia Medica may be narrowed down to the limited number of remedies described here; it may create a tendency to try to fit all patients into one of these pictures; thus young practitioners might fail to make the unprejudiced search through the Repertory or the more complete Materia Medica which the best prescribing requires.

My books "The Spirit of Homoeopathy" and "The Substance of Homoeopathy" have achieved some popularity. These books, written to introduce students of Homoeopathy to my line of thinking are not, and were never intended to be, texts of Materia Medica. Nevertheless, some readers found the ideas on various remedies presented in these books useful in practice, though somewhat inconvenient in form, since using the index to check a particular remedy often obliges one to look in several different places. A number of readers have attempted to reorganise this material so as to allow for easier reference, and it seems that some of these attempts have almost made it to publication. However, as I read through a few of them I found many gross errors which would have conveyed quite erroneous ideas, incorrectly purporting to be my own.

It was at this point that I decided that I might as well write a book in my own style to convey my own experience. The material presented here has been observed and confirmed in my own practice; it is material I am sure of. I have not included remedies of which I have little experience or knowledge. I have attempted to convey the innermost feeling or the basic delusion of the remedy while connecting the situation, source, miasm and kingdom. The rubrics and physical symptoms cited are ones which I have observed repeatedly and often used to confirm the remedy prescribed. These ideas have helped me in my clinical practice and I wish to share them with the profession.

This book is meant for those who have read "The Spirit of Homoeopathy" and "The Substance of Homoeopathy" because it is those earlier works that most fully express my understanding of the Organon and Materia Medica. Without an understanding of my ideas on such things as case-taking, classification of remedies according to kingdom, miasms, etc., this book will not be of much benefit. This work may be used as an adjunct to the previous works but not as a substitute for them. The reader who attempts to use this book without understanding the fundamental concepts may easily find himself lost without a compass.

Finally let me repeat that the reader must bear in mind that this book is based on experience of one homoeopath amongst the multitude and should be taken as the "notes along way", not as the final word. Used in this way it may be of value.

- Rajan Sankaran

Review in Hpathy by Vatsala Sperling

This book includes the connections that Dr Sankaran makes between basic delusion, source, miasm and symptoms.

In order that I may do justice to the book 3 by Dr Rajan Sankaran, The Soul of Remedies, and review it for what it stands for, what its strengths and weaknesses are, I am inclined to pick up a simple and timeless book most homeopaths know about – the ninth edition of Materia Medica with repertory, by William Boericke.

It was first published in 1901. I pick a random rubric from page 561: PROPENSITY to pray, beseech, entreat. The remedies listed are Aurum metallicum, Pulsatilla, Stramonium, Veratrum album. In the materia medica part, Boericke gives symptoms from head to sleep, concluding with modalities and remedy relationship.

Aurum mind symptoms include self-condemnation, worthlessness, profound despondency, disgust of life, thoughts of suicide, great fear of death, peevishness and vehemence at least contradiction, anthropophobia, mental derangement, constant questioning without waiting for reply, cannot do things fast enough, over-sensitiveness to noise, excitement, confusion.

On reading these symptoms, we get an idea as if the person is in a very dark place in his life. But is it true that every time we see an Aurum metallicum case, the person is going to be in the very dark place? This is where Dr. Sankaran’s sketch of the soul of Aurum metallicum is different from how and what we read about Aurum metallicum in our classic materia medicas...... Read More