Breaking the chain of abuse: a case of Capsicum

This patient, a woman born in 1960, came to see me in December 2006.

Patient (P): “I have Multiple Sclerosis (MS); it was diagnosed in 1990. My first symptoms appeared in 1978, I started having problems with my balance. Then, I was ok until 1987 when I had some problems with my hearing. I had a strong flare-up in 1990, with sensory problems on one leg and weakness. I received cortisone and all got well again. Since then, when I have flare-ups, I take cortisone, and since 1996 I am on Rebif® (interfereron beta-1A) but I am tolerating it less and less; it gives me headaches. My life has become a nightmare because of these migraines. I had a strong MS flare last December; I received Solumedrol® (Methylprednisolone) then oral cortisone, but things did not go back to normal. During this past year I have lived at a slow pace. Since April I have migraines, and for the past 4-5 weeks I have been taking Topamax® (Topiramate, an anti-seizure medicine) for the migraines; it's the only treatment that works.”

Karim Adal (KA): Tell me more about your problem.
P: “What brings me to see you is that although I have lived with this MS for the past sixteen years, I have now had a very big crisis that knocked me out. It disabled me. I am not in my normal state for the past year. I’ve had to lie down for many long months. I am often very tired. And I do not tolerate the Rebif®. I can tell the exact day when I was attacked.”

KA: I can tell the exact day when I was attacked?
P: “Yes, because I have been keeping track of when and where I inject the drug for the past ten years. So, I know exactly the moment that I was attacked.”

KA: Tell me more on this MS.
P: “It started with balance problems that made my family laugh. Later, I had hearing troubles. Mom used to say: ‘She will invent an illness once more.’  My mother told me I was crazy when I told her the diagnosis. I have lived with few drawbacks; the disease has not been too much of a nuisance until now.”

KA: Describe more this MS.
P: “Once, I saw double. Another time, I couldn't hear anymore, just a whistling noise. Very often it manifests through my senses rather than affecting my strength. It always attacks the same sensory nerve. I feel pins and needles. My hand feels tied up (she gestures with her hand around her wrist). I often feel warmth instead of cold.”

KA: Describe "It always attacks the same sensory nerve."
P: “It is an observation that I have made. This one nerve repaired itself not as well as the others. Normally, it repairs itself much faster with the cortisone but, in fact, I attack the nerve a lot; I always attack the same one. I always attack the sensory part of the nervous system. If I attacked another nerve, it would be new and would have the capacity to regenerate itself.”

KA: Describe "I attack a lot, I always attack the same one."
P: “It is an observation. When there is a flare-up, it is with the senses… hands, legs, paresthesias, feelings of being tied up, cold, warm.”

KA: Describe "I attack a lot, I always attack the same one."
P: “In an autoimmune illness, the immune system attacks itself. The sensing side. It goes to attack the sensing side.”

KA: Describe “It went to attack."
Silence. At that point, I explained to her that I am just trying to understand her.
P: “I always attack the same areas. An autoimmune disease turns the body against its defense system. So, it is an attack. Instead of fighting against external elements, it fights against its own body.”

KA: Describe "attack".
P: “A fight. A war. A battle. It destroys healthy nerve cells. It makes a mistake with regards to the target. A destruction of the nerve cells.”

KA: Forget the nerve cells.
P: “A battle is when you want to destroy your enemy. You grab weapons and try to destroy the person in front of you. And when it ceases to exist you have won, the war is over.”

At this point she refused to go on, so I shifted my case-taking approach.

KA: What is the main problem?
P: “I never tried to fight against my illness. I do not dream of miracles. I simply try to cope with my treatment, with the beta-interferon, cope with the headaches and unease.”

KA: What is the symptom that bothers you the most?
P: “The moment that I inject myself with the drug, and even when I don't, my head becomes heavy; it is a permanent feeling. In the worst case scenario, I have a migraine that can last 3-4 days or it can be a state of permanent threat of a headache. I never have the feeling of a blue sky. The sky is always low-lying; there are always clouds.”

KA: Describe the migraine.
P: “Pulsations (gesture: hand makes a fist), little knocks, like a woodpecker that knocks, more and more rapidly (repeats gesture), then like a pitbull that tears off half of my brain.”

KA: Describe "a woodpecker that knocks, a pitbull that tears."
P: “The woodpecker makes a very small noise; first, it's far away and it hammers softly, then it comes closer and closer, gets stronger and stronger and more regular; a jackhammer in the head. As if someone tore off half of my brain, caught it in his jaws (gesture of biting). I would have liked to make him open his jaws. It grasps; my blood is pulsating.”                                                                                                                

KA: Describe more this sensation.
P: “I never had my calf torn off by a dog, I imagine that it must feel that way. Crushed, destroyed.”

KA: Tell me more about the migraine symptoms.
P: “It pulses, it stabs. You feel the blood that splashes like waves.”

KA: Tell me more (I gently encouraged her to continue the process).
P: “An unbearable pain. No vomiting but everything hurts me all the time. Everything can trigger a migraine: light, coffee, chocolate, alcohol. Even the cell phone. Cigarette smoke, perfume, my periods, missing a meal.
“It is not even as if it was torn off; the pitbull stays here and continues to squeeze and I would like him to open its jaws. It stays here and pulls with closed jaws. It pulls, like a dog pulling on a toy, on a rag. It does not let go. It twists the rag in all directions. It crushes. It attacks part of the skull and shakes it in all directions and does not let go.”

KA: Describe more.
P: “And sometimes, it also hurts behind the spot where it pulsates. With the finger on it, I can stop the pulsation. Sometimes, it makes a wave, a tsunami. Sometimes, I can stop this tide (gesture of hitting forward with a fist). It’s like a beating, like someone banging on a door.”

KA: Any dreams?
P: “As a child, I had recurring nightmares where two men came into my house. The men had a coat, a hat; they were terrifying. I opened the door; I could not resist; they came in. I'd wake up.”

KA: Describe "terrifying".
P: “A panic. I lived all my childhood in panic and fear. I had a mother that used to beat me a lot. She was very unstable. We were always afraid of blows, of everything. Afraid she would abandon us. Fear of the unknown. Fear that she wouldn't come to get us from school, she let us get lost in stores. Fear of never finding our way again, of never making it back home.”

KA: Describe more the panic and fear.
P: “Fear that things turn to madness within a few seconds. This made me be on the alert. Always extremely on the alert, ready to start. Never relaxed. Always ready to go. That's why I use the word panic.”

KA: Describe "on the alert, extremely on the alert".
P: “We had to always be worried about the future. Five seconds after receiving our Christmas gift, it was thrown out of the window. So, one could never rejoice, take things for granted. A permanent state of war.”

KA: Describe "a permanent state of war".

P: “A very temporary cease-fire. A smile until the next blow. Silence for a short moment while waiting for the next gunshot. Temporary silence.”

KA: As if?
P: “There is always an emergency, like these persons that sleep all dressed. My mom slept for a long time with her clothes on, she lived through the war. You had to go when the sirens blew… you never knew when she would hit us. We never knew when madness would strike. It wasn't just the violence of the blows, but that it would come anytime, like a bolt of lightning from the middle of the sky.”

KA: Describe "like a bolt of lightning from the middle of the sky".
P: “All is well and then, all of a sudden, she would start hitting. It made me fearful. No, I am not fearful, I am mistrustful.”

KA: The persons that sleep all dressed?
P: “To be ready to go. On the alert. You can never sleep a deep sleep. You have to always be ready to react. Never trusting. Never let go of your weapons. Like an animal on the alert. Like a leopard or an animal looking for a prey. The prey cannot sleep quietly; he needs to feel, look all around him where the danger comes from. He puts all his senses on alert to survive. He looks where danger is coming from, with his sense of smell, his eyes, all of his senses. What will get him in one bite. Whatever the danger is, it is bigger than him.”

KA: Describe that fear for the animal.
P: “Survival. You have to deal with it; otherwise it's death. He has to multiply his strength ten-fold and look towards his survival. Fear triggers adrenaline molecules that put him in such a state of stress that he tends towards survival.”

KA: Describe the fear.
P: “In me, fear triggers all that is needed to go in the right direction. Once, in an elevator, a young man trapped me. I think he wanted to rape me. I hit him, I knocked him out and chased him down the street while cussing at him. It was only afterwards that I felt very fearful and started shaking. My strength was multiplied ten-fold; I could have hurt him.”

KA: Describe this state.
P: “I am unaware of everything around me. I don't control myself. My strength is increased ten-fold. I don't think. I become another person. I don't see it, I don't feel it, it is too short-lasting. It feels all-powerful, nothing stops it. Time stops, memory, nothing else counts. It is only afterwards that I realize what happened.”

KA: Describe "all-powerful".
P: “There is no longer any fear. You are unaware, fearful of nothing. If he had had a gun, I would have taken it from him. Craziness. I was just unaware of anything else. Afterwards I started shaking like a small girl.
“For the hunted animal, there is fear when facing danger, describe the danger. An animal always on the alert in the jungle; there is always an enemy stronger than him, someone looking to eat him. There is always the danger of death.”

KA: What is the opposite of this hunted animal?
P: “Someone who is fearless, totally relaxed; he is reading peacefully in the sun, sleeping quietly, fearing nothing. Relaxed. The mind thinking of nothing, enjoying his hobbies.”

KA: Any other childhood nightmares?
P: “One that I had every night, which I was always unable to describe. It is more just a sensation, as if I was a sort of ball that was being rolled in sand. A disagreeable sensation of pins and needles, tingling. As if I became a ball of sand.”

KA: Describe "tingling".
P: “As if you rub sand on the skin. It burns. It tears me up, it hurts.”

KA: Tell me more about your childhood?
P: “It was not relaxed. I was on the alert, a hunted animal, so hunted down that I could not think about my studies. All day long I worried if I would get blows once I got home. I was tense, on the alert, with non-stop fear of blows, of everything. I just wanted to grow up and get out of there (long silence). Fear of being abandoned, beaten, fear of everything. I wasn't even afraid of being unloved; I was sure of it. Once, she left me in the middle of the street at eighteen years old, in London. I did not speak any English, had no money, no address… so now, I have this rage as well as determination to never be at the mercy of someone like that.”

KA: How was it in this street?
P: “A big desire for vengeance. A big injustice. I felt lost and at the same time angry, sad, very angry with myself as well as her. I should have been on the alert and should have seen it coming. I was enraged; I could have hit her, lost control.”

KA: Fears as a child?
P: “I was very afraid of staying at home alone. I waited in the building lobby until two o'clock in the morning, when someone returned. I couldn't be alone in that house. I was afraid of robbers as well as of the dark.”

KA: Describe the fear of the dark?
P: “Oh no! It was the worst; I used to sleepwalk. They had to tie me to the bed. Since I did not find my way, I would wake up my sister because I would bang into the wall. It was my obsessive fear, this sensation of waking up with my nose against the wall.”

KA: Do you have hobbies, a passion?
P: “I would like to have a family (emotion). I probably wanted to succeed where Mom couldn't: having children, having my own family. I had many treatments in order to have children.”

KA: Describe your sensory symptoms.
P: “The last flare-up started with the feet with hot-cold feelings, especially cold. Impossible to warm up, even with boiling water. Then, the hands, impossible to warm them up. I was shivering all day long. My teeth were chattering, as if my body temperature had gotten lower. I was covered with pull-overs, and I was still cold despite that. The sensation that you are an ice cube. Then, it got better with cortisone. But a sensation of being tied up (gesture) around the hands. Pins and needles. Numb. As if the blood no longer flowed.”

KA: Describe "tied up".
P: “As if the blood no longer flows, tingling, thousands of pins that sting. As if you had a glove, you don't feel your fingers anymore. You no longer have the sensitivity. As if you put a rubber band and blood no longer flows. It’s painful. Like when you have your blood taken. They tie up your arm; it hurts a lot.”

KA: Describe "you no longer have the sensitivity."
P: “As if you wore a glove. You touch objects through a glove.”

KA: On a scale of 0 to 10, these hand symptoms?
P: “6 or 7 over 10 let us say. This summer I was at 2. Now, if I look for something in my handbag I cannot find it. My hand is blind, especially the left.”

KA: Describe your headaches.
P: “It feels like fireworks, that fast. It’s like an exploding bomb.”

KA: Do you take other drugs?
P: “Nothing. I don't want to take anything anymore. I'd like to live without medications.”

KA: How is your sleep?
P: “On the alert. A fly wakes me up. I never sleep straight through the night.”

KA: What spices do you like?

P: “I love all spices. Mom is Vietnamese. As a child, I used to go crazy for any kind of Asian food. Still now. All exotic cuisines.”

KA: Which spices?
P: “All kinds, whether curry or cardamom or clove.”

KA: Any sore throats as a child?
P: “A lot of pharyngitis. Huge sore throats with fever, my tonsils were removed.”

KA: Any illnesses that run in your family?
P: “My uncles and aunts had cancer. Mom had several intestinal operations, forty years ago. She never really knew why, a polyp, maybe a bit cancerous.”

KA: And malaria?
P: “Yes, Mom has it. She has attacks when she goes to warm countries. It's talked about a lot in our family, that she has malaria, that she won't die from it, that it gives you high fevers.”

KA: Where does she live?
P: “In Geneva. I don't see her often. She's not easy. She doesn't want to walk anymore.”

KA: Was she born in Vietnam?
P: “Yes. She came here in 1958. Dad married her there.”

Prescription: Capsicum 1M, 2 doses

January 2007

She has stopped the Topamax®.

P: “My hands are much much better. They are less blind; it’s as if they came back to life. I can do small things. I’ve made a lot of progress and other than some days, I am practically not tired anymore. I have started jogging and am doing fitness classes. My legs are less weak.”

KA: Describe the change in your symptoms.
P: “It started to come back to life like a hand that had been frozen, with a few small tinglings that aren't bothersome, because there is life.”

KA: The feeling tied up?
P: “Practically not present anymore.”

KA: How much better are you compared to the first visit six weeks ago?
P: “60 to 70 %”.

KA: What difference does it make for you?
P: “I can start doing small things. The earrings, the bra, buttons, tying my shoes… these things were eating at me. Before there were days where I couldn't attach the bra or put earrings on. That helps my mood a lot. It's a lot easier. The hands are getting better every day. This improvement started two weeks after the remedy. Does this mean that your intention is to heal my MS?
“There is a little change in my mood also. I am much less tired so I am happy to cook dinner; I readily read a story to the children. My Dad came to our house every evening and it didn't bother me. Normally, when night falls, I can't stand being outside. I am afraid of the dark, of the unknown. I've always had that. This time, at 6 pm, no problem, I went out to get my Dad. I was stunned. Night time, rain, snow, whatever, I was without fear. No fear at all!”

Plan: Sac lac

Ten days later, she had a return of old symptoms with restless legs, not so strong.
P: "My leg jumps up like a small electrical discharge. It used to be much stronger, so strong at times that I had to take Temesta® (lorazepam) to fall asleep."

March 2007

P: “I am feeling much better. Everything is better. I am feeling much less tired. I don't have weakness in any limb. The left hand is almost 80 % better and the right one 95 %. My hands are not blind anymore. The sensation of being tied up and the tingling is much less than before; I don't even notice them during the day.”

KA: What difference does it make for you?
P: “I am back to having a normal life, like everyone. My energy is much better. The electrical discharges in the legs are gone. I sleep straight through the night, like a child. And I also did something I had never done before: even when I was sick in the hospital, I felt obliged to put makeup on. Now, I couldn't care less. I could never leave the house without earrings. Now, I go out without any. People looking at me does not affect me at all like it used to.
“Something else I noticed, when the children have to vomit… I had a problem with that. I couldn’t vomit since I was eleven. Before, when the children were about to vomit, it would put me in a state of terror. I was anxious, cold; I started shaking, I would spend sleepless nights thinking they might vomit. I was on the alert all the time. Now, I don't even think about it. My sister vomited almost every night. My parents lived in a separate house. You had to go out in the dark to knock on their door. So, we did not go.”

KA: How is your fear of the dark now?
P: “It's completely gone!”

Plan: Sac lac

She had a return of the hand tingling while skiing (!) in April 2007 and was given Capsicum 1M again.

June 2007

P: “I have a normal life. I stopped keeping track of my hours of rest, of my fatigue… I can even go out at night. I have a normal life and many things are tempting. Before, I was just tempted to lie down. I could not do even the vital minimum of shopping for the family. I calculated my time. I spent a lot of time resting around short periods of activity. Now, I am never tired. I can last until midnight.”

September 2007

P: “I stopped beta-interferon today; replaced it with Copaxone® (glatiramer acetate injection). I can't stand cigarette smoke but I am able to put perfume on. I drink a bit of wine; I am less sensitive to light. I feel less beaten up. My issues with needing to pee urgently that I have always had are gone and have been gone for the past two months. Everything makes me laugh; I am very easygoing.”

October 2007

P: “My mother passed away. I did not get along with her; she was a source of terror for me. Many of my symptoms have come back in the past five days, my hands are worse, it stings and tingles a lot. Both hands, the left one worse. But I don't have a problem grabbing things from a handbag.”

KA: Tell me about your mom's death.
P: “It was almost a relief for her. For me as well, it's as if the dictator is no longer here. There always was the menace, the fear; it’s not totally gone yet. I feel liberated with regards to the harm she did to me, but a knot in the stomach remains.”

KA: The fear is not totally gone yet?
P: “The night that she died, I was very fearful. I did not want to see her. I was very cold, I started shaking. I was even afraid when I saw her in the chapel, as if she was going to wake up to yell at me. The flower vase made a noise… I turned around as if I was going to receive a slap. It is as if the prison bars have been taken away, but I am not yet out of prison.”

KA: Describe when the flower vase made a noise.
P: “As if she was going to wake up to yell at me. Before, when I went into a pub, I would count the number of cigarettes. Like alarm bells, skulls, and crossbones, I had the impression that every cigarette butt would get crushed on my head.  It was painful. A wound. A burn. And the pain would amplify with each puff.”

KA: In this environment, in the pub, how does one feel?
P: “Like a prisoner, trapped and tortured. But I can now tolerate once again cigarette smoke.”

Prescription: she was given Capsicum 1M for the relapse of her symptoms due to her mother's death.

January 2008

P: “I no longer get headaches. I no longer have a problem with cigarette smoke, even in public places. I can even tolerate a coffee. It is a normal life!”

KA: Emotionally?
P: “I am well. I am much less closed in inside my old fears. I used to be afraid to phone people because, as a child, I had to use the phone to call my dad, but he was important and you had to avoid disturbing him. Now, I can phone anyone without problem.”

KA: What dreams had you had?
P: “None”.

KA: Are you sure you haven't had any dream?
P: “Just a dream of my mom smiling, and she was very gentle, which I never had in real life or in a dream.”

KA: Describe this dream some more.
P: “She wasn't saying anything, just smiling. My sister and I were fighting, saying: ‘She is mine!’ in order to be with her. That never ever happened in reality.”

KA: How did you feel in that dream?
P: “Very peaceful, calm, the feeling of having a mom that I never had before.”

KA: Your mom had a difficult life?
P: “Yes. She was born in Vietnam. Her dad was famous and left; she never knew him. My grandmother wanted to raise her in high society but she could not with a fatherless child. My mom was beaten. Her marriage was very difficult; he cheated on her with her sister. She was raped once by a gang.”

KA: She was beaten?
P: “By my grandmother”.

This profoundly healing dream happened almost exactly one year after the original visit. She has done remarkably well over the years, never needing another remedy. I will relate to you some of the highlights of the subsequent consultations.

March 2008
She relates a dream: “My mother was nasty and aggressive towards my daughter, attacking her. I became very angry at her, yelled at her, ‘Stop it! You're not going to start again with her as you did with me!’ I did not feel beaten by her; I was defending my daughter as if she had been in my place.”

June 2008
“I am back to a normal life at 95%. When I came to see you my life was not a life; I was a wreck, couldn't do anything, did not function, neither in my mind nor in my body. Now, I am active and functional as I used to be, a normal mother without stress; I take things calmly. I feel so much better, not sick at all. I used to feel at death's doors, with no future. I have great energy; I am happy, calm, positive. My life is wonderful.”

December 2008

She had a dream on the anniversary of her mom's death: “In the dream, I was saying to myself ‘Is this the person that I used to think was so nasty? She is nice after all.’ A very soft gentle dream, peaceful, serene. I did not feel any aggression. It was the first time in my entire life that I was not fearful that she would hit me. So much peace.”

June 2009

“There is no tension like big clouds. It's like a clear blue sky.”

May 2011

“A dream with my mom where we argued and yelled at each other. In my life, this never happened; I used to swallow my anger and rage, I never spoke up. All my life, she hit me and I would swallow my anger because of the blows. Here, it was very calm, very light. I just spoke up for the first time ever.”

                                                                                                                                  

Analysis and comments

This case is very touching in many regards, but I would like to first and foremost comment on an essential aspect that led to the choice of the title for the case: Four generations. This case is a good example of transgenerational transmission of a disordered energetic pattern. We see this occurrence in some patients and their families in our practices, and in this specific instance, it seems clear that the energy disturbance pattern started at least at the level of the patient's grandmother, who beat her daughter (the patient's mother) who in turn beat her daughter (the patient). It might be presumptuous to go further in our thinking process, but I would nevertheless argue that the MS that our patient developed was an illness that our patient's subconscious brought on her to "replace" the beating act in a woman who consciously refused to fall into the same pattern of violence towards her children as her forebears. The hand that beats becomes totally numb!! This is where the sensation method allows us to beautifully connect the dots, since we can quickly hear in this case how her illness is experienced at the sensation level in a similar fashion as her innermost sensation at deeper levels of experience throughout her life, and it is a good illustration of the definition of the sensation level as the level where the mind and the body meet and manifest the same energy disturbance.

It is quite interesting to see that the Materia Medica of Capsicum has rubrics such as Numbness, insensibility: forearms; Tingling, prickling: forearms, and especially the left forerarm, which was the side that was worse in our patient's case. This symptom must somehow have developed to "prevent" in a way the beating of her children, or, said in another way, one could argue that if she had beaten her children, she would not have developed this incapacitating illness.

This case has an energy that could have led us to prescribe an Animal remedy; this is a common occurrence in cases needing a Solanaceae remedy and a trap that one must be careful to avoid. Many images of animals might be given to us by patients needing Solanaceae, but one has to see that the central issue is not one of survival, but rather the terror that the patient experiences. Years ago, when preparing to present this case, I spent some time reading the case and noting down all the words and expressions reflecting the Solanaceae themes and I found that all the sensations belonging to that family were expressed throughout the case (violence, violent terror, pulsating, constricting, startling, striking, fight or flight when facing a dangerous situation, as with the young man in the elevator: fear triggering adrenaline molecules, strength multiplied ten-fold).

The miasm is quite obvious in this case. The malaria miasm is when one is stuck in a chronic situation (sycosis) with intermittent attacks (acute miasm), in this case both in her life (stuck with a violent mom, with acute unpredictable episodes of beating: "All is well and then all of a sudden, she would start hitting") and her illness (a chronic illness with episodic flare-ups). A beautiful description is given of this when she describes going in a pub and feeling like a prisoner, tied up, trapped (stuck) and tortured, everyone will come and crush a cigarette butt on her head (intermittent attack). These images show the intensity of her state, how it is felt in any situation in her life, even simply going to have a drink. Her mom having had malaria is but another confirmation of the miasm; it is not needed in order for us to prescribe, but it shows the inherent logic of our homeopathic system and the sensation method.

Another powerful description is manifested in her childhood dream where the central sensation is one of being rolled in sand, pins and needles, being burnt, hurt, and torn up. This is the sensation that Capsaicin, the active component of chili peppers, produces when in contact with skin.

One particularly moving episode is her reaction when mourning her mom. Despite knowing that her mother is in the coffin, a sudden noise made her jump up and startled her, as if her mother had woken up and given her a slap. This shows the intensity and depth of her state.

I would like to end by pointing out the beauty and depth of the healing that one can achieve through homeopathy.

She goes from stating "I never have the feeling as if I had a blue sky. There are always clouds, as if the sky was low-lying," and "like a lightning in the middle of the sky", to "there is no tension like big clouds. No clouds. It's like a clear blue sky." One is deeply touched by the beauty of those images, how they manifest the inner sensation of going from darkness to light, whether it is a reflection of the polarities of light and darkness one finds in Solanaceae, or a reflection of the journey from darkness to light that our patients experience during their healing voyage.

Finally, the healing dreams she has with her mom, where she fights with her sister in order to be with her, having the "feeling of having a mom that I never had before," or the "very soft gentle, peaceful, serene" dream where she states: "It was the first time in my entire life that I was not fearful that she would hit me." In another dream, she is defending her daughter against her mom, saying "Stop it! You're not going to start again with her as you did with me!" Here, we can say that the transgenerational transmission of the energy disturbance (the hereditary violence) is finally interrupted, the spell is broken in some way, her subconscious clearly manifests the fact that this situation is no longer acceptable, that the inner delusion no longer needs to be validated, which in turn means that her illness (the MS) is no longer "needed". That is the depth of healing that can be achieved with our wonderful art. We should remain, every day and forever, grateful for having the privilege of practicing such a beautiful healing art, and never lose the sense of awe that comes when we see such results in our practice.

Photos: Shutterstock
Older woman sitting in bed; wernerimages
Young scared girl; FlexDreams
Red capsicum pepper; Radu Bercan