Dreaming the case

21.11.08

Its 5 am and I am wide awake eating roasted cashew nuts and writing the blog, which is slowly taking me over. I shouldn't be awake right now. Islam may be a great religion, but whoever gave their Muezzin a loudspeaker should be shot. Every morning at 5 am I get called to someone else's prayers at a volume that even my best ear plugs can't resist.

I was awoken from a dream. In the dream a lawyer, a kind of friendly acquaintance, had arranged for most my land to be taken away from me, and the same for some others in my village. I could see the map; what was once a nice square piece of white had been reduced to a black butterfly shape of islets, with no connection between them, so that as well as loosing more then a third of the land, it would be difficult to move from one place to another. I was naturally very upset; how can I live on this reduced piece of land. We tried to protest, peacefully at first, then angrily, but it was painfully obvious that this would not change. It is not a pleasant feeling to have your land taken away.

I think Africa lives in a dream world. While we are awake, she is asleep, below the equator, below the subconscious. In every one of the 20 or so cases I have seen so far, I have prescribed on a single powerful dream, which every patient had. If I had to prescribe only on the physicals or mental symptoms I would be lost, they are all common. But the dream opens up the case and gives it meaning. When you ask them about dreams, they smile happily.


Case 107, a devout Muslim woman, has a variety of abdominal complaints, such as painful gas, indigestion, menstrual pains etc. She also has head complaints, such as a headache from the sun, and from eating certain foods. Like many of the previous cases, she is worried about dying; she feels great responsibly for her family, she is the main provider. This is common to nearly every case so far. She believes she got the 'Disease' (don't mention the name in public, or even in clinic) from nursing her mother. I am not so sure. Her husband is a long distance driver, and that profession is most prone to trouble, as there are legions of prostitutes at every night stopover. Her husband does not have the disease, but she does. However, there is still a strong possibility she got it from him; there are many 'discordant couples' in which one partner is infected, while the other remains disease free. No one is sure how this happens, but this disease can have a very long fuse. Meaning that you may not see a person is infected for a long time. This is one of the main problems with blood transfusion. The donor has a blood test and is found to be clear. Good news. They give blood. Three months later they are found to be positive, and it is not from yesterday. 50 more people now have AIDS. Just one other way that this virus makes a fool out of humans.

Back to case 107. Meanwhile I have nothing to prescribe on, too vague. But, she has a recurring dream, which only began since she has been infected. In the dream a lizard crawls horizontally over her throat. I understand this to be a separation of head and abdomen, the main affinities of the case. I now refer back to what I call my 'dumb repertorisation', the collection of common, obvious symptoms begging for a strange rare and peculiar. From the list of remedies I pick Nat-Sulph. I know that this remedy has a strong head body separation ( e.g.' Desire to hang himself), as well as a strong sense of responsibility and a talent at hiding emotional facts – a mind body split. Thanks God for dreams, and let’s hope it works.

Talking of Nat-Sulph, I have had my first diarrhea last night, but I am still cheerful.

I also get an email, from a very old friend, Tali Bradly, who has finally finished a project she has struggled with for a long time. It is called ' The Dream'.

Last night we ate at Margot's favorite restaurant (out of the three we can choose from). It is called "Chef's pride". The owner is a fat and elderly man called Ali Baba. When he comes over to chat at our table, I am surprised he remembers my name from 3 days ago. Ali Baba is an impressive elder. He tells us of his travels. As a young man of 21, which would have been somewhere in the late 60's, he traveled from Tanzania to Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Ethiopia and a host of other African countries I haven't even heard of. He crossed Egypt into Israel, where he spent 6 months. He reels off a list of places in Israel, some of which I know, some of which I don't. He seems to remember every day, every market place, every incident. In every place he goes, he stops to work until he has enough money to continue. He works his way through Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Austria, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Hungary, France, Holland and all the way up to the northern tip of Norway. All along the way he stays low to avoid trouble, and somehow manages to cross borders with a Tanzanian passport and no visa. After this he traveled to Australia and New Zealand, then sailed on to Fiji. Now he owns "Chef’s Pride". Respect.

Margot tell me with some contempt about 'OverLanders'. These are groups of Europeans who travel across Africa on a very slow bus, seeing the sites. They consider themselves great adventures, but most of the time they party, drink, and mingle only with themselves.

At the moment, I feel neither like Ali Baba nor like the OverLanders. My homoeopathic journey is happening in the dream world.

Bye for now,

Jeremy