Rajan Sankaran's six day Vancouver seminar was an outstanding opportunity to come face to face with the radical evolution of homeopathic method and materia medica offered by the Bombay School. Over the years this approach has stabilized into a complete and coherent method, while details and the depth continue to sharpen and clarify with accumulating experience. The Vancouver seminar systematically revealed the necessary steps to practice the sensation method effectively, as well as the typical problems encountered.
Rajan has been the focus of tremendous controversy and opinion. Yet spending any amount of time with him, watching his cases and listening to his discussions, it becomes clear that the critics, for the most part, have not gone deeply into his work, but instead judge superficially. Similarly my years as Editor of Simillimum demonstrated that there are many who practice what they imagine to be his methods with the same superficiality. Nevertheless, after five days of immersion, it is hard to escape the conclusion that what the Bombay school is offering is a critical evolution of the art and science.
Rajan's brilliant presentation, punctuated with his outstanding sense of humor always makes his courses a special delight. At the close of the seminar, Rajan received a standing ovation, expressing the appreciation of the attendees for the sheer brilliance, heart and practicality of what had been offered. Here we will offer some sketches and excerpts from the seminar.
The major portion of the course was taken up with video cases and presentation emphasizing the method of case taking. This is based on Sankaran's map of the seven levels of a case. Keeping the seven levels in mind, it is possible to know exactly where you are in the case taking process and what is required to move deeper. This is not small contribution in itself. Whether one applies the entire method or not, this is a valuable map to ,gauge quite precisely in what aspect of the being the case is moving.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the case taking process is the patient's words and gestures can be used to shepherd the patient into ever greater depth, ultimately to decouple the patient from the context, to literally separate the sensation from the person, in order to highlight that which is "global" rather then "local".
It is a subtle game wherein once a certain depth is achieved, the patient is blocked from going back. Yet this is done without at all disturbing the pure expressions of the patient. "The emphasis in direction must be the patient's, not yours. Allow the patient complete room to move."
"Open ended questions: 'Tell me more about this.' No direction at all."
"Connect to that which is the energy in the case. Allow the patient open space to describe symptoms. When they go to an area that has no energy, go back to the place where the energy was last seen. 'What is it that comes to you in the moment that you made this gesture.'"
"Once the sensation has become clear, it is necessary to prevent the person moving back to superficial areas. 'Not when and where or how, but what is it you feel - what it felt like, what is the feeling.' You don't want to know about the person but about the sensation." This is a very strong movement away from a tendency to become lost in the story, to attemp to find the remedy through a psychoanalysis of the patient. Rajan shows a very clear homeopathic path out of this common point of confusion in contemporary homeopathy.
"You can start with anything that has the energy in the moment but the first ten minutes are vital. Allow the patient to go where he wants to go. You let the direction come from within and together observe where the energy is going. The first ten minutes is most spontaneous. The purest form of energy comes at this time."
"Keep the patient in the present even if the experience was in the past. The sensation is present, continuous and constant beyond time and space. Isness means complete totality of phenomena, examined in the deepest possible way. The complete phenomena in the moment, is the truth. Every 'why' is a theory, we avoid the question why in any form."
"Move as the patient moves. If the patient gives importance to something, you give importance to it. The ability to move with the patient is the main quality of case taking."
In video cases, sometimes Rajan would say directly to the patient, "I'm not interested in you or your brothers, I'm just interested in theword 'boycott'." This is seeking to find the energy beneath the story, to disconnect the sensation from the patient.
In his discussion of the kingdoms, a point that I found new and interesting_ was his description of animal cases as involving a sequence, a pattern. Whereas in plants, it will always come back to a fundamental sensation and its opposite, each animal patient will describe a story as a sensation, though it will all boil down to survival, a struggle with self or a situation, competition or comparison. Whereas in plants, the sensation is the endpoint, in animals the sensation leads to a sequence of animal related issues.
Back to the case taking process: "What is it about a verbal expression that repeats in the whole being of the patient." Sankaran terms this "the global ill the local". "Search in every local phenomena and you should come to the same sensation."
"However, in the animal, there are many sensations, you won't be able to bring it to one."
A few points on the subject of gestures:
"What is it that comes spontaneously to the patient when making the gesture? Wait until the gesture comes without words to utilize it in the case."
"'What does this gesture mean? What comes to you when you do this?' The patient at that stage is in a semi-hypnotic state. You have got rid of the mind."
As with dreams, he emphasized that we never interpret the gesture. It is a matter of recognizing its presence as a very pure expression of the energy of the patient, especially when a very acute questioning has pushed them to the point of using gestures without words as reference, the semi-hypnotic state referred to above. The gesture itself is then asked after, its meaning sought through the patients own words. It becomes a potent new tool in itself for deep inquiry.
Rajan commented, "I can't believe I practiced for over twenty years without utilizing the gestures."
Materia medica during the seminar ranged more or less according to the cases. Interesting presentation were made on birds, mollusks, minerals, with a special emphasis on row three of the periodic table. There was also a fairly detailed discussion of the noble gases.
In terms of birds, the key ideas are responsibility and freedom, group and family responsibility. Earth and sky. Bound and free. Words such as close, shut, caged, shackled, bound, chained, trapped, lured, confined, fly free, take off, to rise, openness, wind, escape, floating, light, soaring, buoyant, weightless. There are various other features that he described in relation to the raptors specifically.
Mollusk words: Pull, contract, draw in, drawing, withdraw, blank out, shut out, caught up, stuck, restrain. Some of the specific characteristics of different categories of mollusks were discussed.
In discussing a Magnesium case, he talked about the third row and identity. This was an extremely insightful look into the modem perspective on the materia medica of the minerals. The main feeling of the third row is the desire to be cared for and the need to establish identity. The main fear is fear of separation from the one who cares for you. By contrast, in the second row the fear is to come out of the shell or to be stuck in the shell.
The feeling of being different and fear to be different, this is Natrum and Magnesium. They don't want to be different, they want to blend in. They are not ready to be different. "I should not have my own opinion." They may say, "I have to do it and I don't have any choice." There is a fear of being different. They are obligated to do as they are told, left they be left behind.
After Natrum and Magnesium comes Alumina. "Should I blend in or not?" This is the classic confusion of identity. In Silicea it is the impression that is important. Identity is fixed. In Phosphorous and Sulphur they want to be different and assert their identity. Chlorine develops a completely opposite identity, "I am the opposite of you". He feels betrayed, hurt and let down by the identity given to him, so wants to break free from that and assume the opposite identity.
A case was given of a remedy from Column 18, the Noble Gases. These have a dizzy, floating feeling. Hovering, not grounded. Dispersed, diffused.
Cut off disconnected in my own world, no interactions, detached, separated. Neutral, peaceful, content unaffected, self-sufficient, insular, whole, safe: "I was left in my own universe."
Incomplete and chaotic. The compensation is to go to the opposite side of being complete with it. Total sense of incompleteness/total completeness. In column 18 there is no one to complete the structure.
Rajan also discussed at some length the problems in the application of the method.
His first point regarded prejudice and prejudgment in the mind of the homeopath. Once the mind is fixed on something we hardly see anything' else. "See what does not fit in with what you observe in the characteristics of the patient. If you don't look for what is not included, you will stay in your prejudice." Search for the bit that doesn't fit.
We seek to discover what is in the local that is global. Dig in the local till you see the global.
The story is important if the energy if there.
Another problem he identified was the need to distinguish sensation and delusion. "Delusions is the image, the sensation is the experience, often very unexpected and always global. It applies to whole being and for his while life. Delusions apply only to the mind and are not common to the body and mind."
Rajan laid great emphasis on the three levels of kindgom, subkingdom and source as a critical map in finding the patients remedy. This was discussed early in the seminar at some length and was a particularly valuable aspect of the method. Once you come to sensations, you need to go through the kingdom first, then the subkingdom, then the source. He described the source as having three aspects: approximations, characteristics from repertory and proving; and the exact qualities of the sources or source language.
Approximations are family themes applied to the specific substance and often the remedies found in his charts are approximations. Rhus tox for example has the crisis of stiffness. This is an approximation and not exact. The approximation will be the global in the case and connect the human to the source, but is somewhat less precise. I particularly appreciated this term, as it is often a point of criticism of Rajan's work, whereas here we understand that he understands that this is imprecise.
Characteristics from repertory and provings are often exactly the symptoms of the source. Lastly are exact qualities of the source and are rarely fond in materia medica, but rather are best found via google! These are specific expressions of the source alone and the human filter is removed. It includes the inexplicable, attraction or repulsion to particular things, colors, patterns, diverse qualities that may pertain to the inherent physical nature of that particular substance.
In discussing the problems of application he cautioned not to stop at the kingdom or subkingdom level and then go to the repertory to differentiate. He urged us to go further into the subkingdom aspect of the case, to find if the source indications might emerge. Here you need knowledge of the subkingdom in order to have a sense of where the case is positionally.
On hand gestures and his more recent work with doodles, he said to look for what comes up spontaneously and not to seek for what it is or what it means. Look for the experience and watch whatever comes in the moment.
Another problem is over reliance on a single word or expression, when the sensation is not one word. The sensation is an experience that is conveyed by a whole group of words. Some will be more prominent. Do not let these words mislead. We should see the experience conveyed and not the words alone. Too much emphasis on a word without looking into the experience is misleading.
For example, a patient says "explosion" and we think of an explosive, but this is likely wrong, as it is not the word, it is the experience. Words are deceptive but how to know this? When asked further about injury or explosion, the patient does not give more words around explosion or injury but talks more of victim aggressor and sudden, lethal attacks. This leads in an entirely different direction. Do not chase the words, rather go quickly to the experience.
He mentioned a case we had viewed, where the person had gone into talking at some depth about a temple and there had been indications for a bird remedy. He pointed out that the temple is human specific and therefore not important. "Otherwise, you will start thinking of birds that fly around temples and be completely misled."
Another problem is the everyday state of the patient. The more superficial the more difficult to go more deeply, requiring more patience, care and specific application of what Rajan terms "bypasses", in order to direct the patient into a deeper plane of expression.
A further area that was identified as a problem, is the importance of differentiating the story and the sensation, as they are often different. The story is local, the sensation is global. The story may be one of disappointed love but the sensation could be one of exhilaration (Coffea), incompleteness (Beryllium), or rivalry (Cencheris).
"There is no thing called love, there is only the experience. It's all individual experiences, which is global. What is true about one individual is not true for the other.
All the pieces come to the same thing, the universal experience of that individual. Nothing exists objectively, only experience is, only the isness of the individual in that moment."
Towards the end, Rajan developed his philosophy of the healthy human being:
The human song is the song that is the nature of the human. He is a social animal and he is a being with his own will and individuality. He wants to blend in, to belong and to give to the group. At the same time, he seeks. development of the self and progress and an individual.
Knowing that his ego is temporary he seeks to find deeper more permanent truths. Thus he balances spiritual seeking with material desires in a harmonious way, recognizing the reality of both aspects. So, he is partly self-seeking, partly selfless.
Health is to be in a human state, not in any other state.
When you handle a situation as a human, and not in your diseased state (which is the fixity of an animal, mineral, or plant. See the interview in this issue - NT), there is a certain ease, a sense of now that is there. It doesn't get hooked on to your so-called perception. It's like the ease with which you breathe when you don't have asthma.
Health is when a person becomes natural: easy, spontaneous, without effort.
Sensation Refined 
