Often they are active care-givers. They usually put other people’s needs in front of their own. They are sympathetic to people and animals. This gives them a strong sense of duty. And with that also comes undeserved feelings of guilt. There can also be great anxiety about others.

Often this can manifest in perfectionism. Growing up in a demanding environment can lead to feelings that what they do is never good enough. They try to be perfect in everything. This can lead to an accompanying sensitivity to criticism. Constant striving to ’do it right’ leaves them vulnerable to the opinions of others. Children with this miasm simply fall apart if they are reprimanded. They become restless and can have destructive outbursts.

Sometimes the idea that the person with the cancer miasm is judged and oppressed lives only in the mind. Often the big duty and expectations they feel are put on themselves only by themselves. It is imagined that others expect them to be perfect and be responsible and take care of everything.

The cancer miasm seeks to be in control, to not let anything go wrong; to keep everyone from harm. Preventing catastrophe. But all of the planning in the world cannot stop the ’big plan’, whatever that may be.

At the core, the feeling is– ‘I need to be bigger than what I am. It is up to me. I have a big responsibility to make everything ok.’ But if this were really true, it would almost be like trying to take over the work of God, Spirit, Energy, Creation (whatever you want to call it). Cancer seems to represent a lapse in faith. As well as a belief that we must take faith’s place.

It is really kind of egotistical of us humans to think it is really all up to us. But what we need to hear is, ‘relax, it is not all up to you, it is not your fault, you can let your guard down, the world will not fall apart if you relax and go off duty’

Which further begs the question–what is our true duty? It is noble to live a life for others and may feel like our calling. But in actuality, nothing can be done to benefit other humans or the planet without first listening to our own truth.

Living our own truth. Relaxing into ourselves. It is then that we are most effective–when we are following our own guide. Your duty, then, is ultimately only to you. If you take care of that first, everything else will come along effortlessly.

But conventional medicine insists on lumping the symptom and the cause and a war is waged against the body with cancer. And it is battle with full artillery.

A patient with a malignant tumor is often rushed into surgery. Conventional medicine sees the spread of cancer as only a matter of time. They seek to quickly rid the body of these ‘bad guy’ cells. But surgery is dangerous for the body, does not get rid of the cause of the condition, and is in fact suppressive. Samuel Hahnemann in his Organon of Medicine paragraph 202 states:

“If the physician of the old school destroys the local symptom by some external means, thinking thereby to heal the entire disease, nature compensates for this by awakening the internal malady….it increases the internal disease.”

In no area is this ‘war’ against cancer cells more evident than in radiation and chemotherapy. Radiation treatment is given to localized cells near the tumor. Treatment is from three to six weeks and causes malaise, fatigue, nausea, anorexia and vomiting. These effects indicate the poor state of the immune system after this treatment. It damages both normal and malignant cells.

Chemotherapy uses toxic chemicals to fight cancer cells. It was originally derived from mustard gas which is used for chemical warfare. Let the battle begin. Chemotherapy is used routinely in about 50% of people with cancer although it has been found that it is only of use in about 5% of cases. As quoted by Dr. Stephen Gascoigne. He explains further:

“Chemotherapy cannot possibly kill all cancer cells since it kills normal cells at the same time. To kill all cancer cells by such a method would require the death of all cells. Hence it is left to the immune system to remove any remaining cancerous cells. Unfortunately, the immune system is particularly damaged by chemotherapy and so less likely to be able to help.”

Because it is toxic to normal and malignant cells alike, chemotherapy causes excessive systemic damage such as mouth ulcers, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and hair loss. The blood is affected, causing anaemia. There can also be psychological and intellectual impairment and reduced fertility.

Chemotherapy is carcinogenic, or cancer causing. Someday I hope we will look back on this damaging, caustic therapy in the way that today we look back with bewilderment at the treatments like blood-letting of past doctors. ‘Remember when they used to poison people to try to heal them? That was crazy!’

Cancer patients are lured by fear into these disastrous treatments. It seems a metaphor for our world situation, and how our country has chosen to deal with terrorists. The fear has been heightened and used as a tool to allow our government to commit heinous acts of violence, not to mention violate our constitution. The terrorists will blow themselves up for their beliefs. They do not fit in to the norm and are delinquent, just like cancer cells. There is no controlling them. Our solution is continued violent aggression in attempt to control them. But what we have created a disastrous situation that has become a breeding ground for more terrorism. This is like the body found with cancer cells that has been put under anesthesia, cut up, radiated and poisoned. It is now a breeding ground for disease, and most likely more cancer cells.

Conventional medicine does not see any other possibilities in removing these cells except by all out war. Once malignant cells are present, it is believed that they can only be healed by removing them surgically or killing them with radiation or poison. A person who has gotten rid of cancer cells through surgery, radiation and chemotherapy is said to be ‘cured’ through the eyes of conventional medicine. But in Hahnemann’s words, “a single symptom is no more the whole disease than a single foot a whole man” (Organon #7 p. 13).

Often the cancer returns later in the same location. We have been led to believe that this is just the nature of the disease that is cancer. In reality, it is the treatments that are suppressive and do not truly cure because they make no attempt to remove the original cause of disease. They have in no way addressed the person’s susceptibility to the cancer: The reason that they got cancer in the first place.

Going in to bomb and attack the terrorists has back-fired and created an unhealthy situation for all in the area, much like the state of a body after chemotherapy and radiation. How would the situation be different if, instead of meeting violence with violence, we focused on creating a healthy environment where the positive could thrive? What if, after the terrorist attacks, instead of war and strife, we went into the area to truly rebuild, to offer basic services like clean water, education, electricity and safe streets? The people would have lost their tolerance for terrorism. A healthy society would have an opportunity to grow.

The diagnosis of cancer can be an opportunity for health; a wake up call for the body and mind. Imagine how disempowered the people of war torn areas must feel. They have no control over events and can’t even safely run their lives, much less organize and plan a healthy society. Healthy cells in the cancer patient must also feel this way. They are under attack, just when they are so sorely needed to be doing their best to preserve health. Holistic treatment for cancer puts the immune system first, allowing it to flourish and grow. Empowered cells support health in the way that only they know best. And that is a formidable enemy for cancer: An empowered, healthy, and supported immune system.

But cancer is not an attack from outside, it is a development within.

The first thing that holistic treatment needs to address is beliefs: “It is not happening to me it is happening within me.” This concept puts the control back into the hands of the patient. “I am an empowered individual given this opportunity to walk a path to health.” It is important for the patient to understand how cancer versus normal cells operate and what we know about some of the causes of cancer. Information is power and empowerment is key.

Because stress is a leading cause of the development of cancer. An attempt must be made to remove all stress from the life of a cancer patient. Stress has been shown as a large factor in the reckless growth of cancer cells. But what is more stressful than learning that you have cancer?

The next step in holistic treatment is learning relaxation and visualization techniques. A cancer patient must come to understand the power of thought and emotions in creating the reality of health and disease. Because of the overwhelming fear that comes with diagnosis, the mind has a lot of negativity to overcome. With relaxation and meditation techniques, the thoughts and feelings, “I am sick, I am going to die” can change to: “I am empowered, I have a strong immune system, I am healing, I will survive.” This patient has a much better chance of returning to health. We create our own reality and one should never underestimate the power of the mind.

First empower the person, then to the immune system. Cancer cells, or any diseased area in the body can be seen as ‘stagnant‘, blocked energy, like an eddy in a river where the water does not flow. Homeopathy and other holistic treatments like Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine seek to return the flow of energy to these places. This is the empowered immune system allowed to do it’s work.

Homeopathy seeks to remove the hereditary or miasmatic taints that caused the person to become susceptible to cancer in the first place. In this light, homeopathy is essential to any holistic cancer treatment plan. Nutrition is also important to give the body the best building blocks to work with. Counseling can also help the empowered individual face the emotional changes along the path to health. A live-in treatment facility/spa offering these treatment options in a relaxed environment with warm, organic meals would be a great way to obtain positive results.

A cancer patient who chooses to treat themselves holistically and recovers, will be much healthier than before they began. By addressing the true needs of the body, mind and spirit through homeopathy, true cure could be on the horizon. ‘Cure’ in homeopathy is not just the removal of cancer, but the removal of deep underlying causes, predispositions which cause susceptibility to disease.

Samuel Hahnemann defines health as such: “In the state of health the spirit-like vital force (dynamis) animating the material human organism reigns in supreme sovereignty. It maintains the sensations and activities of all the parts of the living organism in a harmony that obliges wonderment. The reasoning spirit who inhabits the organism can thus freely use this healthy living instrument to reach the lofty goal of human existence” (Organon #9 p. 14). In other words, with a state of true health the soul and spirit of a person are free to seek a fulfilling life. A lofty goal of which we are all on the path.

Normal human body cells collaborate with neighboring cells to make sure that body tissues become the right size and shape for the body’s needs. Decades before a cancer tumor is formed or detected, one rogue cell starts to reproduce abnormally. This is a result of an accumulation of mutations in a certain class of genes within the cell.

Cancer cells do not respond to controls for size and growth. They also have an ability which normal cells do not possess, to migrate from their site of origin to form masses of similar cells in other parts of the body. This is called metastasis. For a cell to be successful at migrating, they must detach from their host tissue or organ and enter a blood or lymphatic vessel. Then they must travel to distant sites and develop a new colony.

There are many controls that these cells must overcome to attain metastasis. Normal cells have cell-to-cell adhesive molecules that keep them in place. Cancer cells seem to be missing or have damaged adhesion cells. Normal cells will quickly die off if they are not held in an insoluble meshwork of protein that fills the space between the cells. Somehow cancers cells are ‘anchorage independent’, which means they can survive without being connected to this matrix. The first place that blood goes from a certain organ is to the lungs. The lungs are therefore the most common site of metastasis and lung cancer has become the greatest killer.

As these cells grow, they become more and more aggressive, with an unwavering determination to disrupt normal body function. Early growth of cancer cells goes largely undetected. The condition is evident only when the area grows big enough to cause symptoms. This is a key behavior of cancer: To grow bigger in order to be seen.

It is as if these cells had been offended in some way and are determined to express their frustration by becoming independent and rebellious. They don’t heed growth controls and refuse to be held down by the necessary nurturing of the extra-cellular matrix. They are reckless, and push to grow in all directions, traveling unseen to distant regions to invade and occupy. They are the rebel resistance, who against all odds survive and flourish.

The way cancer cells push in all directions to increase their space represents our own quest for self-expression. The cells behave like the soul wishes it could. Cancer cells overcome all obstacles to self-expression. They are wild, and will not conform to any of the levels of control that the body provides to keep them in check. Cancer can be seen as an inward manifestation of outwardly unexpressed soul desires. If a person is unable to actualize their truth and their dreams, unable to stand up for themselves, to live a life for themselves, the cancer cells take over the task.

Sometimes the suppression of individuality can come from an oppressive life. Often there is a history of a lot of demands and responsibility on a person. Perhaps it is a family situation in which healthy expression is discouraged. In each situation, there are outward controls on who a person can be and what they can do. Cancer represents living a life according to others. Personal desires and longings move inward. A cancer tumor is unlived energy.

To some extent, we have all hidden who we are, and have put those dreams and drive on hold because someone said to. We have allowed someone else to dictate what it is we should be. Our authentic self lies dormant and hidden. Cancer represents the tension that comes from living someone else’s truth. Cancer is yourself unexpressed.

Healing cancer means becoming sensitive to our own individual needs, priorities and pleasures. We need to give our self permission to respect and give expression to our own true nature. We all have something to say about ourselves in how we live our lives. We must live our own truth.

2012 is a year ripe with change. How do we know? Is it because the Mayans noticed it as an end of an astrological cycle? Is it because doomsday theorists are always looking for a new hype? Is it because it is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius?

On June 5th 2012, the earth and the sun and Venus will be precisely aligned. Venus will be able to be seen crossing over the sun as a visible black dot. These exact conjunctions come in pairs separated by 8 years, the last one happening in 1984. The next time this happens won’t be until 2117. Not much is known about the effect of this astrological event, but the Venus transit of November 1630 was followed by a plague of disease that wiped out 16,000 Venetians.

In late June 2012, planets Uranus and Pluto form an exact 90 degree square angle. Uranus and Pluto are outer, slow moving planets, and aspects between them are rare and long-lasting. We are already feeling the effects of this aspect and we will continue to feel it through 2015. A conjunction of these planets happened in the mid-1960′s and was said to have spurred the hippie, love, anti-war, revolutionary change that happened during that era. Astrologers, in fact, call aspects, or angular relationships, between these two planets ‘revolutionary’. They mark a time where things that seemed they could never change, do change, and faster than imaginable.

These two astrological events of 2012 speak of ‘health’ and ‘revolution’. 2012 marks an opportunity for a ‘healing revolution.’ It reminds me, metaphorically of a homeopathic ‘healing crisis’. In homeopathic treatment, movement towards health is stimulated by a correctly chosen homeopathic remedy. Sometimes for a short time after a remedy, symptoms can intensify before they improve. Sometimes symptoms from the past can re-appear before harmonizing into health.

I tell my homeopathic clients this: The key to a homeopathic ‘aggravation’ or ‘healing crisis’ is movement. You may be feeling strong symptoms, but with the vitality of the remedy behind you, the symptoms are sure to quickly change, moving you right through it, taking you to the next place. It could look like a couple hours of feeling down and an opportunity for emotional release, or maybe the returning pain of an old injury that is now having the opportunity to heal in the right way. Whatever it is, it is in movement. It is in flux, it is change, it is healing. What you are feeling in the moment won’t last long. You are not getting sicker, you are in fact getting healthier!

We are living in a time of crisis. It is everywhere and hard to deny. People are feeling squeezed, financially, politically, and spiritually. This is right in alignment with the rare astrological events of 2012. It is a very important year for all of us. Eric Francis, Astrologer (planetwaves.net), describes it “like nothing we have ever experienced.” But the question is…Is it a healing ‘crisis’, or is it a healing ‘opportunity’? That all depends on how you decide you would like it to be. For those of us that are lucky enough to continue through life unaffected, blinders securely fashioned that hide the reality of the chaos, confusion and crisis around us, the choice may be to do nothing. But most of us more aware beings will not have a choice in whether or not to take notice. The conscious landscape around us is vastly changing as our physical hereditary body structure as well as the social and political structures of the past are shaken to their core.

The 2012 astrology like getting a dose of a high potency homeopathic remedy. And it might feel like things are getting worse, but they are actually trying to release, heal, and express, so that things can get better. We are moving and changing. It is a dynamic time. That is the key to sanity in 2012. Don’t get attached to where you are in the process, because the process itself, is essentially about change. It is like the saying in Montana, ‘If you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes and it will be different’. Our lives will be full of movement in this time of rapid transformation, IF you can let it happen. Don’t get attached to where you are now. You are in process, you are changing. Let the old fall away and welcome the new, more healthy picture. Find the tools and support and creative projects that can help you to stay grounded and harmonized through the changes.

Most of us are sentimentally attached to our various sicknesses, whether they be expressed through symptoms in the physical body or mental/emotional sphere. We are so used to them, they start to define us. How else would you describe the common phenomenon of modern diagnosis of mental illness: “I am bi-polar.” It’s not that you simply have a disease, you are that disease, at least in the programmed belief system of western medicine. ‘I am _name your disease_’ is a statement that, on the one hand, defines a person, and on the other hand, indicates that it is a condition that is not expected to change anytime soon, if ever.

Our attachment to our illnesses, physical and mental, make it seem like they will never change. And in fact the western medical system is very invested in us continuing to believe such rubbish. They are holding hands with the pharmaceutical industry that wants to keep us believing that we need to be on those drugs now, and for the rest of our life. But with the 2012 healing revolution…change is here. And even the dis-ease that defines us, that we have been programmed to think can never change, will begin to change, whether we like it or not.

So what can you do? Are you on the train or off the train? One of the fundamental issues that will come to light is the simple definition of ‘health’. When we say the word, it conjures images of not having to go to the doctor, not having to be in pain. But in essence, health is so much more. It is something that very few of us can even comprehend. Health is more than the physical body. As long as we try to isolate medicine and healing into parts, we will have no true healing. The health care you seek needs to recognize that the body and spirit and mind are all interrelated and that it’s the whole of you that needs to be addressed. Classical Homeopathy is one modality that successfully takes into account the ‘whole person’ in healing.

Is it a psychic or energetic situation that ails you? You may be aided by seeking intuitive support, astrological counseling, or something of the sort. 2012 marks the shift into the Age of Aquarius, and Aquarius is about the collective and the individual. We are growing more and more aware that we are one of many living on a planet. It is harder and harder to ignore what goes on in the rest of the world. And in our own individual lives, psychic awareness is growing. How much of what you feel is really your own feelings? Just like it is getting more difficult with internet technology to ignore the rest of the world, it is also getting harder and harder to separate our emotional and energetic field from those around us. This may call for training and guidance in intuition, meditation, or psychic health.

2012 is marking a period of accelerated change, just like the body after a well indicated high potency homeopathic remedy. It is up to us to decide how to make the most of it. But the spectator part of the game is near over. Very few of us will be able to maintain our comforting attachment to illness and dis-ease. Our world is getting shaken up. The good news is that the physical, emotional and spiritual healing done by individuals in their own life will positively affect the rest of the world, like an infinitesimal homeopathic dose. Personal healing is global healing because of the increasing interconnectedness spurred by the growing collective consciousness in our new Age of Aquarius. It is time to transform this era of personal and global ‘healing crisis’ into personal and global ‘healing opportunity’. 2012 sounds like the perfect time for A Healing Revolution.

Adrienne Elise, founder of the Intuitive Empowerment Institute is a Waldorf Trained Teacher, Classical Homeopath, and Intuitive Reader, having completed over four years of training based on the BPI(Berkeley Psychic Institute) model with MT Center for Psychic Studies and Intuitive Way of Walnut Creek CA. Adrienne completed her Waldorf training at the Eugene Waldorf Teacher Training in 1995. She is certified with an Advanced Practitioner Diploma from the School of Homeopathy, Devon, UK, an internationally accredited four year program. Adrienne has a private practice in Missoula, Montana: ‘Freedom Homeopathy’ (freedomhomeopathy.com), also the home of the Intuitive Empowerment Institute (intuitiveempowerment.com). Adrienne Elise is a singer/songwriter. You can check out her music at adrienneelise.com.

Sankaran, in his practice and research, began to identify interesting patterns that could not be ignored. It started in the plant families. He noticed, for instance, that all of the homeopathic remedies made from plants of the composite family were indicated for injury. What’s more, he recognized that the theme ‘injury’ came up in all levels of each remedy, not just the physical symptoms. Each remedy pictures of the plant family also contained a theme of ‘feeling injured’ in the mental/emotional realm. As he started to uncover these ‘themes’ throughout the plant remedies, he started to see how they fit into categories according to plant family.

These themes fit the ‘doctrine of signatures’ or looking closely at a way a plant grows, allowing its characteristics to tell you what the plant might be indicated for. Not only did he see common themes within each plant family, he saw that these ‘themes’ would present themselves again and again in cases where these plants were indicated on every level of the human being. He started to call this theme the ‘sensation’ of the case or remedy. This word makes sense because often the theme, or central component of a case, presents itself in how the patient describes the sensation of pain. A patient needing a remedy from the lily family,(Liliflorae family), for instance, may have a feeling of being ‘pushed out’. This may manifest in feeling ‘pushed out’ by her community of friends, but she would also use the same words to describe the sensation or painful feeling of an umbilical hernia. Sankaran saw this theme, or ‘sensation’ as the center of the case, where all other symptoms come from.

But because we live in a compensated world, it may be difficult to assess the ‘sensation’ or center of the case with traditional homeopathic casetaking. Sankaran found that guiding patient’s descriptions deeper and deeper, through word association and other techniques, he could more easily access the ‘sensation’ or uncompensated part of the person’s case. This center or sensation could be called the hidden soul essence. Sometimes getting to this place in a casetaking looks a little bit like a psychological session, striving to go deeper into the subconscious. The distinct difference is that homeopaths are not looking to understand or analyze, they are simply trying to paint a picture. The picture will match the most similar substance in nature, very clearly fitting into either a plant, mineral or animal category.

Sankaran’s work created waves in the homeopathic community. Modern homeopaths seem to either embrace the method or see it as ‘crackpot’. The most controversial concept that has come out of Sankaran’s method is his belief that, if you can find it, a person may need only one remedy for their lifetime. Traditionally in homeopathy, treatment has been seen in layers. Homeopaths treat the symptom picture on the surface of the case, thereby removing a ‘layer’ of disease with the understanding that a new and different disease picture, as well as indicated remedy, would emerge when the next ‘layer’ presented itself.

But next to the sensation method, this traditional protocol is a ‘zig-zag’ to cure. The sensation method allows a homeopath to immediately go to the ‘center’ or ‘sensation’ of the case. It is a more direct line to cure. Really? One remedy? That may be all people need in their whole life? This concept is seen as challenging to many homeopaths. In Sankaran’s book, The Other Song, he explains his Sensation method in simple language for the lay person or interested patient. He talks about how we each have a ‘non-human’ part of our self. This is a dynamic energy that we have chosen to help us through this human experience. It is a plant, mineral, or animal substance.

This ‘non-human’ part of ourselves, as all plant, mineral and animal substances, can be seen to exist as a truth in an energetic form on the astral plane. This is the ‘plant spirit’ or ‘animal medicine’ that shamans, medicine men and healers have worked with over centuries. Homeopathy and the sensation method offer a modern systematic way to get there. Homeopathic medicines are diluted and succussed, or shaken with each dilution. Hahnemann explained that each time a remedy is diluted, it is brought more into the energy of the substance and further away from the physical form. As a remedy is diluted and succussed, it is moving closer and closer to the core essence, or truth of that substance, the same truth that is represented on the astral plane, that may present itself, for instance, as a vision of an old woman plant spirit to a Shaman in South America.

‘What is your ‘medicine’? Samuel Hahneman, founder of homeopathy, brought forward basic laws, laws of the universe, that dictate the science of homeopathy. He talked about striving to find the ‘similimum’ in homeopathy, or the most similar remedy in symptom picture. Thus homeopathy has become a research science. Homeopaths are always gathering, documenting and organizing symptoms of each remedy which help to identify the best remedy for a patient. The sensation method is a way to find the similimum for your soul. But the method still relies on the documentation and research, just like homeopaths using traditional methods. The sensation method also rests heavily and is completely congruent with the original laws and concepts brought forward by Samuel Hahnemann, the laws that define Classical Homeopathy.

When we are in ill-health or out of balance, the symptoms of the ‘non-human’ part of ourselves become stronger and more evident. They come from our center, our place of sensation, and so therefore can be seen on any level of symptoms, physical, emotional or mental. The remedy offers a ‘road map’ to the body of the best way to cure. And what better road map to offer than the patient’s true soul essence, a substance that resonates with the ‘non-human’ part of them?

An important part of the practice of the sensation method is to explain to the patient, in detail, why a remedy is indicated on every level of the case. The information is then available to the patient’s conscious mind. A well indicated homeopathic remedy turns the patient towards health. Continued improvement demonstrates the action of the remedy. But conscious understanding of the substance and how it resonates with their own symptom picture can be an important part of the healing.

As the healing continues, a person is also presented with the opportunity to turn their disease into their medicine. Gifted with a true understanding of the tools they have to work in the world, the individual can express the truth of themselves in creative freedom, which is true healing. Hahnemann described ‘health’ as a state where the vital or dynamic force, or healing force of the body is free to pursue the “lofty goals of human existence.” The remedy offers the opportunity to move beyond health to creative expression and service. When we are bogged down with hereditary disease, we are kept from expressing our truth and offering our gifts to the world. The non-human part of the self is the ‘medicine’ that both cures and provides an opportunity for creative expression.

People needing a homeopathic remedy of a butterfly, as with all insect remedies, may have a fear and/or fascination with death. It is something they think about all the time. Insects live and die quickly. Often their life is over in an instant from being swatted, being too close to a pool of water, or sudden cold. But butterfly has this aspect in even a stronger awareness, as they go through a death like transformation in their life cycle. In un-health, this may look like a obsession with death. But a butterfly patient in the process of healing also found his niche and a great ability in hospice work, helping the dying and families of the dying.

When you receive your remedy, more easily found through the sensation method, healing takes place over time. But ultimately the gift is that the non-human part of you can become your ‘medicine’. The remedy you need to bring you back to health is also a way you may like to work in the world. It can be a road map, not just for the body to return to health, but also the vehicle of your work and how you would like to express yourself in the world.

For more information please visit Freedom Homeopathy’s website: http://www.freedomhomeopathy.com