Turmeric Agni fire Formula and Fritz Perls
Curcuma longa: turmeric
Energetic Properties:Warm, bitter, pungent, and acrid.
Turmeric flew beneath the radar of Western herbalism until fairly recently. Our great eclectic's neglected or barely mentioned it as a medicinal herb. Turmeric escaped the early eclectic's, and western herbal medicine until the late 1960's and early '70's. John King, mentions it in passing in his Materia Medica from 1854. He mentions curcumin, an active constituents, as a stimulant aromatic and coloring agent. Jethro Kloss, who in, Back to Eden, brought for many of us the concept of herbal healing and health food in diet in the 60s and 70s, mentions it's cousin ginger, of the same plant family as being warming and stimulating but doesn't mention turmeric at all. Marco Polo in 1280 mentions turmeric as Indian saffron in root form. Then it seems to of slept for 700 years, a long time later waking up with a food medicine, food/medicine paradigm in the simple food preparation curry. As a food/medicine plant, it would be difficult to abuse it so here I address a simple formula to use this vital healing herb:Turmeric. In the formula that I outlined at the end you will see the addition of several herbs which increase bio availability. These additional herbs are important because turmeric has low bio availability and a short half-life when taken by itself.
Fritz worked extensively with dreams. He had a unique approach to working with dreams or dream analysis. He would also ask the client to reveal his dreams and in the process embody and play out the various elements of the dream. So if for example, a person had a dream of a cluttered desk, sitting at a "cluttered desk". Fritz would ask the person to take the hot seat and speak AS the cluttered desk. He would ask the person to speak AS "the clutter" on the desk. In the process of the dream analysis the cluttered desk would speak, the clutter on the desk would speak and in speaking we move away from avoidance. To allow the individual elements of the dream to speak and allow that hidden elements of consciousness to be exposed. The power of avoidance functions through neglect. He felt that there was a unique vitality to allowing these hereto for hidden elements to have a voice and acknowledge what they were saying. I call this, 'owning the dream', speaking for various elements of the dream with the voice of 'I'. In the same sense we have 'owning the disease' or 'owning the illness'. I think the same approach that Fritz Perls used with dream analysis has got to be used with intractable illness on the part of the person desiring resolution, and on the part of the practitioner facilitator. The basic concept behind bringing to the surface these previously unvoiced elements, is that in the being itself whether the psyche or the body, there is an infinite potential for healing. It is not so important to quantify what the healing process is as it is to experience healing.
1) The lack of contact: no social support. In terms of psychology there is a lack of awareness often times in the disease process and a quality vicariousness living that is highlighted by an extreme avoidance. Often times if you meet someone in a disease process you will find someone able to rattle off complex and sophisticated terms, often highly scientific and specific to their condition, chemical conditions, blood work and what not yet they don't have a personal connection to the disease in terms of their own minute to minute feeling in mind states. There is lack of contact with the physical body, with the emotional body often times there is serious grieving and soul-searching and there is an avoidance of the inner work that must be done to gain healing. In terms of the body and health this factor involves issues which could be related as in proper nutrition. Not nourishing the body. Having the body means feeding the body, if you are not feeding the body you are avoiding the body. You were not connecting to the body because you were not taken seriously the bodily needs and responsibilities of owning a body. And by this I don't mean going into some sophisticated process of of diet, some new elaborate dietary regime. I am talking about here is eating, eating food and drinking water on those most basic of terms, tasting the food. Chewing the food. Swallowing the food. There is a lack of contact with the bodily senses. Nursing the body could be a diet that includes whole fruits, vegetables, a departure away from things like diet sodas and processed food which have empty calories, and promotes mindless eating.
Tasting the food, chewing, taking time to give thanks and be aware and give voice to the ultimate exchange that goes on with eating. Whatever the food stuff, animal or plant, the plants have been harvested, the animals killed so our bodies can live. All forms of life are sacred, whether a slab of meat or a bowl of carrots. It is important to to cultivate reverence and gratitude and acknowledge the gift, the exchange.
Turmeric has a wide range of applications in its long history in Ayurvedic medicine in addressing chronic inflammation. In addition to its well-known anti-inflammatory use, it also has significant use as an antidepressant.
In Ayurveda a person with kapha dominance tends to be overweight, sluggish and tends to present with allergic reactions, congested, stuck mucus and may suffer from depression. I think the key point here is depression. And I will address this soon in terms of the Gestalt approach to illness. Because while chronic inflammation has a metabolic and physical cause it manifests as a decrease in activity and this is called in Ayurvedic medicine, kapha dominance. So this kapha dominant formula addresses the multi-factorial processes of inflammation.
This kapha dominance could best be understood as a person with chronic systemic inflammation. One of the key points of inflammation is that it manifests as loss of proper function in a particular organ system and I think this would be a good working definition, nonjudgmental for what is often turned depression. Depression is precisely that, a depression in physical activity. A decrease in the essential inner life of the person. The person becomes involved with inner processes that would best be left to the inner flow of internal events and processes. Imagine a person, who was focused on changing an autonomic process like the heartbeat. The heart in normal conditions adjusts to an increase or decrease in activity, there is no need to control it, it controls itself. Thought and the pattern of thought is and should be for the most part an automatic process which changes with conditions. To be neurotically involved with controlling thinking is to distrust the natural movement within the psyche. The person is not 'moving', is 'stuck' and this stuck-ness and sluggishness of the body produces an over abundance of mental contents. Often these thought patterns of self-stimulation are loops of repetitive thought, that become more and more prescriptive in nature, focusing on should, what should be done, what could be done, what if scenarios.
This is the manifestation and this formula addresses various elements of this situation. For instance in something like chronic arthritis what you have is a joint which is unable to move or is painful to move so what you have is the person not moving. You have a person who is not moving around because they have bilateral knee joint pain. you have decreased or depressed physical activity which manifests mentally. And with this pain comes a lack of movement. And with this lack of movement you have lack of movement. So what happens when you don't move around, and you eat an american rich fat diet?
This is the manifestation and this formula addresses various elements of this situation. For instance in something like chronic arthritis what you have is a joint which is unable to move or is painful to move so what you have is the person not moving. You have a person who is not moving around because they have bilateral knee joint pain. you have decreased or depressed physical activity which manifests mentally. And with this pain comes a lack of movement. And with this lack of movement you have lack of movement. So what happens when you don't move around, and you eat an american rich fat diet?
There's no rocket science here, you become fat, overweight maybe/probably diabetic with elevated blood glucose levels. In short you have an entrance way to the ubiquitous, metabolic syndrome. Fat, insulin resistant, overweight, inflamed in one word whether this person realizes it or not, on an existential level he or she is depressed. I think it's very important for us as herbalists to look at disease processes directly and existentially. How does it feel?, What does it do? What is the result? What does this particular disease process accomplish? And the issue of avoidance or blockage. And so to answer the question, what is it doing? Not a whole lot. And that is the problem! Lack of movement. Stuck. Avoidances.
Here I would like to take an aside on the journey to my turmeric potion and explore the Gestalt approach to understanding illness, disease and treatment with herbal remedies.
Firstly, Fritz Perls(1893-1970)the founder of gestalt therapy was a German psychoanalyst, who emigrated to America and who lived and eventually became famous for his seminars at the Big Sur Hot Springs in California, at the Esalen Institute. One of the key points for understanding Fritz, is to realize and put yourself into the theatrical mode. Fritz had a strong background in the theater. This strong background in the theater led him to formulate some ways of addressing illness that could best be understood as theatrical. Fritz would ask his client to take the hot seat. To play out the illness, to play out the anxiety, to act out what they are feeling in the present moment. The client would change position and sit in a special chair, actually get up and then sit down in the hot seat as he called it, and in a somewhat theatrical sense play out the situation. Fritz would ask the client to take on the role of the other, may be the mother, the father, the lover, the boss, or the person he was having the problem with. I encourage you as an herbalist to take advantage of this approach, and give the illness room to speak. Give the illness a voice, allow the illness to speak. Give the illness the "I". Too often in the quest for healing we silence the disease process without hearing what it has to say. We fail to hear the unique lesson and stories of the illness.
The gestalt approach centers on "I"-ing the disease process. As herbalists we must develop a gestalt approach to illness. We must develop techniques and therapies to encourage the client to come to a personal knowledge of the owner state and re-own and re-integrate this disease state into the modality of health. Rather than get down into new diagnosis. Rather then get into infinitely more complex elements of the disease process housed in scientific jargon, why not experience the bodies own ability to heal itself through helper herbs. All the while knowing that it is the body itself that is doing the healing not the herbs certainly not the herbal practitioner. Healing is rooted in the process of homeostasis which is continually happening at every level of the authentic person. Look at the illness personified. This is what I call the Gestalt approach to illness. So in the case of inflammation, in the case of a person with two arthritic bad knees, what we have is a person who is not doing very much. So that's what we have to look at, this lack of activity. Yet when we are looking at this 'lack of activity', we're not looking at the lack of activity as a separated scientist, as in the medical model, we're looking at a person who is not doing things. We are looking at a person, a human being in front of us who has an illness and that illness is accomplishing something. So we have to ask, 'what are you doing?' We have to ask, 'what would you be doing if you weren't ill?' And then we have to ask, 'what are you avoiding?' 'What does the illness accomplish.?' We can use the theatrical approach of gestalt to have the person speak as the illness, speak as the joint itself in pain, speak as the inflammation, we can have the bad arthritic inflamed knees speak by utilizing the hot seat. In this case we need not so much a hot seat but a therapeutic presence. It is important that the person with inflamed joints comes into a personal relationship with the inflammation and incorporates this darkside into the healing. We don't eliminate darkness we simply bring light to the situation.
All too often in Western medicine there is an acknowledgment of the disease process, arthritis or inflammation as a dynamic three dimensional something. Yet there is not enough freedom to give the disease itself, a voice. In order to give voice to an illness you require space, light, and awareness. It is important to see what is there acknowledge what is there and to be with what is there. to see where the disease is going in that particular person, not so much on a cellular level but what it's doing in the person's daily life. Especially in terms of avoidance, it is critical to find out what it is that the person is avoiding. And it is most important that we facilitate this seeing into the avoidance from a personal perspective. We need to allow the disease the freedom to be a living being within the person, within the whole person. We need to become facilitators so that the person can acknowledge and understand the disease not so much from a physical or medical or cellular component but from a psychological perspective of activity or non-activity. The person has to come to grips with avoidance and it is impossible to follow merely a mechanistic I will pathic mode of healing because what is required is growth, and growth is a painful. There are strong forces the key person bound to an illness in terms of lethargy sloth and torpor.
So let's explore briefly how the herbalist can facilitate a gestalt approach to the illness at hand.
According to Fritz Perls, there are six factors causing psychological discomfort. I would like to translate these factors that cause psychological discomfort into healing factors and factors which cause physical discomfort in the sense of illness. The six factors are:
Tasting the food, chewing, taking time to give thanks and be aware and give voice to the ultimate exchange that goes on with eating. Whatever the food stuff, animal or plant, the plants have been harvested, the animals killed so our bodies can live. All forms of life are sacred, whether a slab of meat or a bowl of carrots. It is important to to cultivate reverence and gratitude and acknowledge the gift, the exchange.
2) Confluence: the environment takes control. In this case the most therapeutic dimension has to do with awareness. Often in a person who is chronically sick, with chronic inflammation or an intractable disease process, there is a confluence from a fixation on the disease process. Often this is facilitated by medical practitioners who focus on intricate, minute aspects of the disease process.
It seems everyone has become a medical professional on some level and has amazing knowledge about their illness. They have blood tests, CT scans, x-rays, allopathic and alternative therapies all describing and informing the reality of, Why i am sick. All in elaborate terms. The person is held hostage by data, by facts, made all the more powerful and inescapable because they are scientific. In terms of confluence the person is swallowed. In terms of confluence the person is drowned. In terms of confluence the disease is and in is capable fact made clear and in evitable buy a fate composed of DNA, genetics, and other forms of paranoia and gloom. From this perspective one of the most therapeutic aspects of healing has to do with the plants themselves, sometimes it can be the aromatic qualities of an herb. Smelling the herb in its natural form with its aromatic essence there is a certain freedom in all our aromatic plant medicines because they have that ability to bring one back into the body. Aromatic herbs are especially useful in this regard. Likewise pungent foods, garlic, onions, aromatic spices. Digestive bitter tonics, and or bitter salads before meals can both awaken the digestive juices and awaken the body to promote digestion. Lavender essential oil can do this by just bringing the person back into their body. Confluence is a psychological shock because you were swallowed up by these inescapable facts and at that point you were powerless and can do nothing but be sick. Visual cues can be powerful. the beauty of a wild place to reenable sensitivity -. This can take the form of spiritual affirmations or it can be simply time in a beautiful place
Contact with the non-human beautiful place is extremely important to awaken healing modalities.
3) Unfinished business: inability to gain closure. The patient is not only not living in the present moment, the patient is reliving reenacting events from the past. Often the illness itself is a time for transformation where the person due to the illness has withdrawn from a toxic situation. The idea of that illnesses itself part of health is very important. The idea of a self regulating organism with the potential for healing must be encouraged. Often something good, something new is happening in embryo, and this new life needs to be taken seriously. It is important for the patient to take seriously their goals, their ambitions, and their dreams into a cohesive plan. Often times it can be healing for a person to realize that the sickness that they suffered enabled them to grow and reach a new world in a sense. To see a new heaven and a new earth, to send to a new world, to climb up the ladder to a new place. Herbal therapies are often ways to allow for a more courageous self to emerge from the disease process. In our society and in in our culture there is a subtle idea that there must be continuous growth for health, continuous activity. The truth is that the times of sickness can be regenerative and bring this new insights. The reality is that things cannot expand infinitely, sometimes in the advancement of a goal there has to be withdrawal, and often illness can be a portal into this new self development.
3) Unfinished business: inability to gain closure. The patient is not only not living in the present moment, the patient is reliving reenacting events from the past. Often the illness itself is a time for transformation where the person due to the illness has withdrawn from a toxic situation. The idea of that illnesses itself part of health is very important. The idea of a self regulating organism with the potential for healing must be encouraged. Often something good, something new is happening in embryo, and this new life needs to be taken seriously. It is important for the patient to take seriously their goals, their ambitions, and their dreams into a cohesive plan. Often times it can be healing for a person to realize that the sickness that they suffered enabled them to grow and reach a new world in a sense. To see a new heaven and a new earth, to send to a new world, to climb up the ladder to a new place. Herbal therapies are often ways to allow for a more courageous self to emerge from the disease process. In our society and in in our culture there is a subtle idea that there must be continuous growth for health, continuous activity. The truth is that the times of sickness can be regenerative and bring this new insights. The reality is that things cannot expand infinitely, sometimes in the advancement of a goal there has to be withdrawal, and often illness can be a portal into this new self development.
4) Fragmentation: Denied or fragmented self. The body sick, is a fragmented person. The central part of fragmentation is avoidance. The fragmented self is a self that avoid seeing itself. It is precisely the fragments that are creating avoidance. So it takes seeing and often times the act of awareness brings unification. It's important to practice attention and cultivate attention. It's important to not focus on the medical model of intricate cellular level mechanics, because this somatic focus on molecular structure doesn't engender health. It's often a further movement into fragmentation, just because something is sophisticated and scientific doesn't mean that it leads towards healing. We all know the client who knows so much more than we do about the realness of their illness. So it's important to involve the client in the process of getting better and this can be the simple process of making herbal teas, tinctures and formulas preparing simple wholesome foods and the whole process of doing something rather than talking about being ill. It is imperative that for health to unfold we must become participants rather than watchers. We have to engender in the client the confidence that he or she can be a participant in their own health and well-being.
5) Winner/Loser: conflict of values and expectations. The idea that you're a loser because you're sick, and that you're a winner because you're healthy is part of this duality which creates in itself sickness and health. Health is a dynamic state that is continually evolving and sometimes illness and disease or part of that process of health. Anxiety is very much a exit from the present moment into a nebulous past or an uncertain future. Being tense and overextended can become a habit and it leads to a chronic condition of avoidance. A lot of this culture of avoidance has become rooted in our technology especially the technology of the smart phone, the computer, the automobile, recorded music. A lot of this technology is actually a support for our anxiety, and unplugging from this technology of avoidance can bring a great deal of peace rather quickly. A great deal of our cultural energy is used in supporting impossible expectations. Part of the cultural fuel is based on dissatisfaction. It is of paramount importance that the clients acknowledges that awareness is the key. So often it is better to ask a good question than to receive a good answer. The question comes from the questioner, it is something real and dynamic. We need to encourage the client to ask questions, to feel, to experience what ever it is they are experiencing rather than seek out a solution. It's important to understand that you don't need any information to ask a good question. Everything that you need to know regarding your question is right there. So much of the culture of dissatisfaction is based on seeking answers because answers are always in the future where as the question is right and available. There is a kind of power in being present in the real situation of what's happening without posing an answer. Not to be an expert, but to be a beginner, that is where we need to go to the beginners mind.
6) Polarities: never seeing gray, always black or white. It's important to encourage a shift from perfection, or even cure to activity. Activity engenders further activity, where as non-activity does the same in that the more non-active you are the more nonactive you become. No one is seeking a perfect cure or absence of disease, that's beyond what anyone can do, all we are asking or hoping for is dynamic activity. The key point is that the organism itself in the act of awareness has a great potential for health and that is what we are harnessing with our herbal preparations.
The Gestalt Prayer by Fritz Perls
"I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I,
and if by chance we find each other, it’s beautiful.
If not, it can’t be helped."
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I,
and if by chance we find each other, it’s beautiful.
If not, it can’t be helped."
-Fritz Perls 1969
In Ayurvedic medicine, "The Kapha Dosha is comprised of the earth and water elements. It is the heaviest of the doshas and is associated with slow metabolic processes, congestion, blockage of circulation, lethargy, procrastination, and excess weight." Within this paradigm Asian medicine sought way to stimulate the vital fire or Agni, and balance the bodily and mental systems with therapeutic herbs chief among them ginger, turmeric and Piper spp or black pepper. These three food/medicine or spices are called trikatu. As food/medicines we already know that they are essentially safe. They're safe because they're eaten his food daily and that is reassuring.
Trikatu is also a respiratory stimulant and helps to warm the body aiding in recovery. Trikatu – Tri – means three, katu – herbs that are hot and pungent. – overall, Triaktu powder is a fine powder mix of three spices. Trikatu literally means the three pungents as it is composed of equal proportions of Black Pepper (Piper nigrum), Indian Long Pepper (Piper longum) and Ginger (Zingiber officinale).
"Composed of water and earth, the Kapha dosha is responsible for maintaining the structure and lubrication of your mind-body physiology. When Kapha becomes aggravated or excessive, you may experience congestion, sinus problems, weight gain, diabetes, excessive sleepiness, and fluid retention, among other symptoms. You can use herbs that have light, heating, and aromatic qualities as part of an overall Kapha-balancing lifestyle."
"Known for its concentrated heating potency, ginger is often used in Ayurveda to treat Kapha disorders such as sinus congestion, sluggish digestion, and obesity. Ginger strengthens the digestive fire or Agni and helps remove accumulated toxins."
I consider this formula an alterative warming stimulating aromatic formula.
It is useful as an antidepressant, anti-inflammatory and tonic for the whole body system.
Here is the formula : The standard preparation for fresh alcohol tincture is 1 to 5 with 60-75% alcohol. My research indicates that the active components of these plant materials are best extracted in a mixture of water and alcohol as some of the components are not alcohol soluble but are water-soluble.
The general recommendations here or to take the fresh Tumerick chop it into very find pieces along with the ginger. Then to crush the dried pepper, cardamon and coriander. Place all ingredients in a quart mason Mason jar and allow them to sit for 7 to 10 days, keeping them in a cool dry place and checking them once or twice a day. After this time strain them and then place in 1 ounce medicine dropper bottles. When pulling up the medicine from the dropper bottle you'll notice that by squeezing the rubber ball you'll get about half of a dropper full, so I would take three of these half droppers three times per day mixed in either water or tea. Due to the stimulating the effect I would not take this formula after say 3 PM if you plan on sleeping at a normal hour.
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The Turmeric Formula
9 part turmeric fresh, 2 part ginger fresh, 1/2part each(black pepper ground)piper nigrum, coriander, fennel; cardamom- and 1 part honey
1:5 ratio fresh plant
60% alcohol
it is potent.
- See more at: http://www.chopra.com/ccl/light-and-aromatic-herbs-to-balance-your-kapha-dosha#sthash.7xt2bYE5.dpuf
- See more at: http://www.chopra.com/ccl/light-and-aromatic-herbs-to-balance-your-kapha-dosha#sthash.7xt2bYE5.dpuf
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