If smoke is coming out of the chimney and you want to stop it you will hardly climb up onto the roof and try to catch it there. No! You know that the smoke is coming from the fire that is burning in the hearth; so you will let the fire go out, then the smoke will disappear.
Now natural medicine doesn’t run after the smoke, but seeks to put the fire out: in the case of illnesses we do not exclusively treat the organs in which the illness comes to expression but look for the causes of the trouble and endeavour to remove these. The causes are not usually in the affected organs themselves but, for instance, in the lack of activity of the eliminating organs; that is, primarily, in the kidneys and the intestines.59
Johann Künzle
It has always been the endeavoür of traditional western as well as oriental medicine to provide the human organism, via food, air, water and medicines, with substances that bürden human life and activity as little as possible. Ancient dietetic rules of health about assimilation and elimination originate from this. Every intake of substances from outside — including light, air and warmth—was principally regarded as a ‘poison’, as something foreign to the organism, that the ‘inner physician’ of our digestion transforms into our own flesh and blood. In other words, these substances are incorporated, and what cannot be used is eliminated by organs that are there for the purpose, to avoid burdening the organism unnecessarily, thus making it ill. This is the foundation of the oriental wisdom that ‘we eat ourselves ill and digest ourselves back to health’.
To speed up this process of elimination, the greatest value is attached to sweating, and blood purifying cures, bloodletting, fasting and purging the intestines.
But in the course of human development, our organism has had to come to terms not only with natural substances but increasingly, today especially, with synthetic aromas, sprays, fertilizers, and chemical additives of all kinds deposited as foreign mineral matter in the organs, hardening the living organism and making it impervious to cosmic life forces. Amongst these are the chemical ‘attacks’ of vaccines with their aluminium and mercury additives, temperature-lowering drugs, antibiotics, vitamin D, fluoride and excessive consumption of animal proteins.
But in our natural metabolic and breakdown processes, small quantities of toxins are also created, especially in the breakdown of protein-substances such as cadaverine and putrescine (from ‘putresco’ = to go bad), which the organism then eliminates via the liver, gall bladder, kidneys and the intestines and, if need be, also by way of the skin and mucous membranes. We can also think of the natural formation of alcohol in metabolism and poisonous carbon dioxide that is breathed out through the lungs. In severe illnesses such as tuberculosis and cancer, or severe burns, people can also be poisoned by their own decaying protein.
However, the destructive action of toxins not only affects the living organism but also alters our consciousness too through breakdown processes in the body. The effect of recreational drugs depends on this: life is sacrificed to engender altered consciousness.
It is well known in traditional schools of medicine that, to maintain itself, the organism always works from inside outwards, that is, centrifugally, to eliminate what is injurious to it, sometimes even through suppurative processes. For instance in naturopathy, additional laxatives (!) are given in cases of noninfectious diarrhoea—which is mostly a symptom of food intolerance-to support the organism in its detoxifying activity. This might seem an almost absurd idea in the era of ‘blocker’ and counteractive treatments. But suppressing the elimination process, in a centripetal manner, will make the illness worse, or move it to another organic level.60
Poisons can also serve human beings. I am thinking here not only of enjoyable poisons like coffee, tea or tobacco that cheer our lives, but poisons from the natural kingdom, which, if properly prepared, and given, can be helpful in cases of life-threatening psychological and bodily emergencies. The German word for poison, ‘Gift’ also means a ‘present’, as it does of course in English.
In homeopathy in particular, but also in various other medical systems, mineral, plant and animal poisons are used very successfully in therapy. The poisons that are transformed into remedies stimulate the strongest life forces in people, and by this means the organism can strengthen its activity and recover.
Whether we can physically detect various toxins or substances in the organism or not, they are present as energy potential and must be raised by the human organization to a higher level so that they relinquish their one-sided nature. But if the organism succumbs too greatly to natural activity, and if the one-sided tendency of mineral, plant or animal becomes too strong there, as can be found in cases of kidney or gall stones, the growth of bacterial flora and fauna in the organs, or in the ‘animalization’ of the soul life, then illness occurs. Something lapses in us from harmony and equilibrium, and becomes subject to destructive natural forces. Thus Paracelsus for instance does not speak of a person ‘suffering from cholera’ but of a person in whom dominates the natural arsenic-forming activity, which is why he called him an ‘arsenic person’. Arsenicum homeopathically prepared as a remedy, that is, ‘potentized’ as Hahnemann understood it, introduces from without the same pattern of illness into the organism against which the organism then attempts to protect itself. In overcoming the arsenic externally introduced, the patient overcomes his own pathological arsenic activity, in this case cholera. The homeopathic principle of ‘similia similibus curantur’ is based on this — likes are cured by likes — although this is not its only healing principle. Homeopathy uses natural substances to create empirical, artificial poisoning ‘pictures’ so as to discover what a ‘belladonna illness’, ‘phosphor illness’ or ‘bee poison illness’ looks like, which one then attempts to cure in a genuine case of illness with the corresponding potentized remedies, calling upon the organism to cure itself. To illustrate this we could think of the psychological healing process of someone entangled in problems, with consequent depression, who encounters someone in whom he sees the same problems as he has. In trying to help this person, he solves his own complex and overcomes his depression. We can also see this phenomenon in self-help groups or when two people of the same temperament ‘collide with one another’.
We know that there are substances in nature, in the mineral realm, the plant realm and the animal realm, that are poisonous to us. Examples spring to mind such as the heavy metals like phosphate, nitrate, lead or cadmium, which tend to accumulate in fungi or in animal livers. Furthermore we know the classic poisonous plants or substances that arise in food that has gone bad such as mould fungi and bacteria or, in the animal kingdom, usually harmless insect poisons which can, though, become extremely dangerous in allergic reactions, not to mention snake or toad poisons, or illnesses caught from animals such as rabies.
In cases of acute life-threatening poisoning we must of course resort to specific medical intervention, but it is good to remember that there are also self-help measures in either emergency or chronic circumstances to support the medical detoxification interventions.
Minerals or metals that we call trace elements are generally vital for the organism, and one should preferably absorb them from vegetables or as a food supplement made with organic substances. There are sufficient amounts present in organic and especially in bio-dynamic foods.
Today we must ask ourselves whether the ‘American’ custom of swallowing enormous amounts of artificial vitamins or trace elements really helps the organs or whether in fact we are forcing them into mineralization and thus into excessive density. In this way physical processes gradually acquire the upper hand and thus hinder the life forces and also the soul from properly engaging in and organizing the body. We could think of this contracting and densifying process as an artificial ‘glass coffin’ that consolidates the organs and inures them from responding to the finer effects of remedies, since a mineral, dead ‘phantom’ takes up residence in the organs. This will especially be the case when taking psycho-pharmaceuticals, almost all of which originate in the petroleum and chemicals industry. Such medication may well be necessary sometimes of course, but it is still worth making a thorough study of this process of compaction affecting both the psyche and the body.
Back in the nineteenth century people still had a healthy sense in the USA for the fact that one shouldn’t simply stuff mineral substances into people when they are ill. In one of his novels Herman Melville described a scene on a Mississippi steamer in which a herb doctor attempted to enlighten a patient about the ‘mineral doctors’ and the effects of what they were doing:
You tell me, that by advice of an eminent physiologist in Louisville, you took tincture of iron. For what? To restore your lost energy. And how? Why, in healthy subjects iron is naturally found in the blood, and iron in the bar is strong; ergo, iron is the source of animal invigoration. But you being deficient in vigor, it follows that the cause is deficiency of iron. Iron, then, must be put into you; and so your tincture. Now as to the theory here, I am mute. But in modesty assuming its truth, and then, as a plain man viewing that theory in practice, I would respectfully question your eminent physiologist: ‘Sir,’ I would say, ‘though by natural processes, lifeless natures taken as nutriment become vitalized, yet is a lifeless nature*, under any circumstances, capable of a living transmission, with all its qualities as a lifeless nature unchanged? If, sir, nothing can be incorporated with the living body but by assimilation, and if that implies the conversion of one thing to a different thing (as, in a lamp, oil is assimilated into flame), is it, in this view, likely, that by banqueting on fat, Calvin Edson† will fatten? That is, will what is fat on the board prove fat on the bones? If it will, then, sir, what is iron in the vial will prove iron in the vein.’ Seems that conclusion too confident?61
These remarks shed light on the secret of nutrition and the transformation of non-human substances into one’s own flesh and blood, a process that Paracelsus described as the highest form of alchemy. For who can even imagine how a cow sets about turning grass into milk, a substance, which, by itself, maintains life and can be refined into numerous further products?
Normally we have a detoxifying mechanism in our organization, an ‘inner physician’ who helps us cope with the poisons we have ingested or which have arisen in the metabolism. For instance, poisons dissolved in fat are deposited in our own fat and are therefore rendered harmless or have their harmful effect mitigated through biochemical processes. Heavy metals can then only be mobilized if they are transformed into an organic compound and assimilated again into life processes, subsequently being eliminated via the liver and the intestines. A substance called glucuronic acid, derived from sugars and containing phosphor, plays an important part in this. In higher doses, Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) can partly take on a similar function.
In principle the organism’s own protein has a detoxifying action, especially in the case of minerals and heavy metals. In cases of poisoning a detoxifying effect can be brought about by giving chicken protein, milk or even plant oils. These substances are the bearers of strong vital forces, and can resist the attack of purely mineral actions. Particular oils, such as sunflower oil, are used as a morning mouthwash for about 10 to 15 minutes, to rid the body of heavy metals via the tongue. Next to the intestines, the tongue is the most important eliminator of metals. Nowadays, when patients are suffering from mineral and metal toxins, algae preparations are also often given, since algae, through their connection with living seawater, are potent remedies against excessive physicalization, and easily absorb and store metals.
Conversely it is also true that we can use the so-called ‘heavy metals’ or metal compounds as outstanding homeopathic remedies if problems occur in the organism in food digestion. We mentioned already that food substances taken in from the outer world have to be transformed, so that they lose their ‘foreign’ character and do not become poison to the organism. The alien substance ingested has to be ‘humanized’ right into its molecular structures so that each person possesses his own protein. But if ‘logical’ metabolic stages go haywire, substances remain a part of the alien world, and external laws continue to dominate in them. These substances then irritate the organism-leading for instance to allergies—or they end up in the wrong place, or overstrain excretory organs like the kidneys or the liver. If fat or protein degenerate in outer nature we speak of them going rancid, or bad. If this natural tendency external to the human element continues in the organism it leads to various irritations in the stomach and intestinal tract, to deposits and halitosis. In such a case homeopathic metals can help the protein and the fats to be better incorporated into the organism. Arsenic combats the tendency to rancidness, and the halitosis caused by deposited fats. If intestinal problems are triggered by decaying protein, giving rise to flatulence and cramps, then copper (cuprum) in homeopathic dosage, for instance cuprum 6×, is the best remedy. This also has an anti-parasitic effect, for instance against certain ‘foreign residents’ in the intestines such as worms and other parasites.
Medical supplies to take on your travels, especially to the tropics, should at the very least include Arsenicum 6× and Okoubaka 2×. Besides having a detoxifying effect they also stabilize the circulation and prevent energy loss through dehydration. Arsenicum is especially helpful if a person can’t for instance keep anything down, such as essential medicines. In addition if you avoid ice-cold drinks, this will greatly reduce the risk of an ‘abdominal cold’.
In cases of plant poisoning, symptoms are not only nausea and intestinal cramps, as with mineral toxins, but strong effects throughout the organism with diarrhoea, cramp and dimmed consciousness.
Whilst the minerals and metals attack our life organization, plant poisonings go further, into soul structure. The whole life of feeling and sense perceptions begin to change. Whereas in the case of mineral poisonings we have to fortify the life forces as such by administering the life-bearers, protein and oils, with their connection to light and warmth, in the case of plant poisonings we must resort to substances that break down and eliminate alien life, helping to stabilize organs and re-incorporate soul life in the right way.
In nature we find such a substance in trees whose bark has a high tannin content. This substance is also used to remove protein from animal skins, and to preserve them, a process we call ‘tanning’. Wherever inner and outer decay and disintegration is occurring, or something is rotting, or alien life is threatening to gain the upper hand, we work with oak bark or willow. These barks are anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and disinfecting. So the substances obtained from these are good in the case of diarrhoea and ulcers. A substance in willow bark is also of course synthetically manufactured today, and is known worldwide as salicylic acid or ‘aspirin’.
Obviously there are numerous other plants containing tannin, such as sage, tormentil or bilberry, that all have their merits; but here we must highlight trees whose peripheral ‘skins’ especially absorb influences from the surrounding cosmos. We can mention in passing that, besides tannin, oak bark contains much calcium, which is very helpful for treating allergic disorders.
In recent years and decades, though, other potent tree barks have come into use as remedies, such Lapacho bark from South America and the bark of the West African Okoubaka tree, both of which, in a similar way to oak and willow, can be used in homeopathic dosage against food and bacterial poisoning of any kind, nicotine damage in the metabolic region, or after lengthy periods of taking antibiotics, here often in combination with Nux Vomica.
In this connection let us mention the detoxifying effects of coffee and tea, which, besides caffeine also contain tannic acid and therefore assist the digestion. Every intake of food is basically already the beginning of a gentle poisoning, so that we actually never know whether we can tolerate the food we have eaten however good it is. Coffee should, as far as possible, be drunk after the meal, tea during the meal — as is often anyway the case.
In cases of vomiting, caused by eating food that has gone bad, we recommend a strong cup of black tea (ice cold!), one spoonful at a time, in order to detoxify oneself, calm the stomach and stabilize the circulation. In many cases the same can be done with ice-cold coca-cola and pretzel sticks to stimulate the circulation, the salt replenishing lost minerals.
The dangerous effects of animal poisons are not usually found in the stomach and intestinal tract, since they are protein substances digested through metabolism and therefore rendered harmless. We can therefore actually drink or eat snake poison without coming to any harm!
They only become injurious and a risk to life when they enter the blood stream directly. The concentrated soul quality expressed in animal poison seeks to attack and dissolve our spiritual-bodily organization. One could also say the attack is directed against our ego bearer, the blood. Bodily and soul symptoms of complete and rapid dissolution after certain snakebites, for instance, are devastating. On the other hand, snake poisons in homeopathic dose are wonderful remedies for many virulent illnesses through to cancer. We owe to physiologist, Konstantin Hering, a pupil of Samuel Hahnemann, one of the most potent homeopathic remedies using snake poison, Lachesis muta from the highly poisonous pit viper. This is used, among other things against life-threatening inflammations.
We can have an almost homeopathic experience of the positive effect of animal poisons when we are stung by insects such as ants, bees or wasps. If we don’t suffer from allergic reactions to any of these insect poisons, we feel a warming of our organism, manifesting as inflammation, which exerts a healing effect on ‘cold’ complaints such as rheumatism, gout and arthritis—disorders that threaten to over-mineralize our capacities for limb movement. In this context let us also mention the stinging nettle, which even grows in places where people have left piles of rubbish and actually has an enlivening effect on the soil. It does the same in the human organism when too much ‘rubbish’ has piled up, with a need for purification or purging of the blood. Rudolf Steiner, the founder of biodynamic agriculture, told farmers that stinging nettles, with their iron and sulphur content-which are needed in our blood for detoxification-are a real ‘blessing’ and do not deserve to be left to grow either unnoticed or scorned. If we only recognized their true value in the landscape and in medicine, he said, we would plant them ‘close to our hearts’.
Where animal poisoning is concerned—and this applies for instance also to the transmission of rabies—the blood must be helped by direct injection of an antidote to neutralize destructive forces. In the case of an allergic disposition toward certain insect bites, the same toxin can be injected in homeopathic doses to gradually overcome the allergy.
Poisoning and detoxifying in a healthy organism are two activities, like breakdown and synthesis, that occur naturally in us. Everything is poisonous, our wise ancestors used to say, it is only the dosage that determines whether something has a curative or destructive effect. Even the healthiest food, enjoyed to excess, can so overtax a person that it eventually makes him ill. In this connection we can as well ask ourselves whether everyone actually ought to drink two or three litres of liquid a day, or whether we might do better to attend carefully to our ‘inner physician’, that is our instincts?
In order to detoxify itself, the organism has diverse possibilities of elimination, whose end products can tell us a lot about the organism’s inner activity. The next chapter is concerned with this.
*Prepared as medicine.
† The name of an anorexic man who, literally having been reduced to only skin and bones, was being passed round by a showman in New York.