Lawrence Bogle LCPH MARHxxx
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Biography
How did I find myself here?
How did I become a homœopath?
In a roundabout way, curiosity got the better of me: every questioning ‘why?’ might just as well be followed by, ‘why not?’.
For myself, this applies to almost everything. So when my doctor tells me my ailment won’t clear up without antibiotics I ask ‘why not?’, when I see the side-effects caused by drugs I ask ‘why?’.
And so it was I began to wonder about health, my own to begin with. I looked to find another solution when I didn’t much like the only one offered to me after a visit to my G.P.
I had developed a small lump on a lower eyelid, removal meant taking a scalpel to it and cutting it out. The only problem was I wanted to know what it was and why it was there. The answer was ‘probably’ a cyst but as to the why, there was no explanation available to me.
So whilst we can have some control or input to most of what shapes our lives and can take decisions to improve our lot, it occurred to me no such luxury is offered when it comes to dealing with illness or disease. The market place is all sown up in orthodox medicine where decisions often are unchallenged.
If we’re overweight we can diet; when stressed, we can learn to relax; indeed there are many disciplines we can adopt and, however difficult these might be, when we see change and success we feel good about ourselves. This is because we are taking the lead, resuming power and instigating change. When we’re ill however, we go to the doctor who either puts us on medication or sends us to a specialist for tests, or in my case, straight to the knife. Either way, we usually end up taking short or long-term drugs. All the while though, the patient rarely knows or understands what is happening to them and least of all what’s in the drugs they are taking. Why is this? Because our culture of orthodox medicine has created a system of absolute trust. We are often worried and vulnerable in our visit to the G.P., we want ‘it’ to go away, to stop. The G.P. knows that drug A when applied to B will result in outcome C, and away you go, everyone’s happy. Until that is, drug D is required to stop the awful side effects of drug C. Recently there has been a change in orthodox drug prescribing, at one time antibiotics were handed out like sweeties until the damage caused to the gut from repeated use was exposed. Nowadays one might meet the odd G.P. who is curious about alternative medicine: there are those frustrated by the limitations imposed upon them by drug therapy.
However, it is the questions raised by patients that will instigate change because, more often than not, sitting in front of a G.P. is the opposite of choice, we have no say. In our ignorance we see no other solution, until that is, we raise questions, and many are doing so.
As I was faced with a single option to remove the cyst or whatever it was, I decided to think about it. And I thought I wanted to hear what someone else working in health had to say. So I went to a homœopath.
Earlier on though, before I had any issues with orthodox medicine, my own questions regarding health addressed not the physical plane, I was curious about a much more fundamental level: the mind.
The questioner became the question.
In 1991 my good friend Pav told me about a course in Shamanism with Lesley Kenton. I’d previously read her work on food combining, tried it, liked it and encouraged by the resulting increase in energy, I was curious about this workshop. We went along and new ideas were pressed into my mind; some enchanting, others scary. We performed a ‘journey’. This is where, to the beat of the drum, lying on the floor, we were asked to let our thoughts guide us to a place of safety, deep in the earth for example, and just look around and sense who or what was there. Shamanism is an ancient spiritual practice which honours nature and all living things. There is a belief that all things have a spirit and that communication with that spirit is possible for the betterment of nature and individual growth. So for instance, rocks hold tremendous energy and trees great wisdom. (Here, by-the-way, there is a direct link with homœopathy, as we prescribe Silica which is pure flint, and Oak). Being a Shaman is entirely different to learning about Shamanism, as the former is ‘called’ upon to communicate between the physical and spiritual worlds, it is a role few embrace. It’s clear the study of Shamanism today can help individuals re-connect to their roots and be valuable in re-connecting a link with nature and inner wisdom.
And so I had more questions to answer; different ones, new ones.
It was also at this course that I first heard about Reiki. This is a healing discipline working with the body’s chakra system to re-align the chakras and allow energy to flow. Following a series of ‘attunements’ given by Reiki teachers, one is able to pass on healing energy through the hands to the receiver of Reiki. This was a concept beyond my imagination at that time; I thought the idea was a fantastic one but I couldn’t quite let it in.
Intrigued by Shamanism I attended other workshops. Here I must return to the point of questioning; it is to challenge, to discover, perhaps justify and ultimately, through one’s own mind to accept or reject new ideas or philosophies. A great deal of rejection gripped my mind in my early encounters with most things new out of a need to find my own way. For instance it’s easy to be the critic and to form an opinion about that which appears strange, this might be rooted in some deeply held and natural system of group behaviour, of wanting to belong, truth is it’s many things. Ultimately the desired state of mind is an open one.
On one memorable course I learned of ‘intention’ which means your plan ‘to do’, shaping your wishes and your energy. Prayer is intention, it collects energy and so has the ability to change outcomes. Brooke Medicine Eagle spoke to us about intention as well as many other things. She is one of the people i’ve not only been lucky enough to meet but am happier for it. Read about her in my ‘links’ menu.
I changed during and after my Shaman courses, such experiences are difficult to forget such as the one where a group of twenty or so of us climbed a small mountain blindfolded. This was an exercise in trust and senses. We were asked, after our blindfolds were on, to stand in a line and place our hands on the shoulders of the person in front: he or she was our guide. At the front of the line was the group leader who led the way, (sans blindfold), and another at the back. We walked on through grassland, uneven ground and sharp steps of rock. All the time my ears were pin-sharp as I heard birdsong and foot patterns, I could smell the grass and the rocks and somewhere far off, horses. The walk took about an hour until we reached higher ground and were asked to find a space on a smooth stone ground and sit down, still blind. To our left and then to our right the leaders began to swap chants and when this stopped they asked us to remove the blindfolds.
I can’t describe the incredible sensation I experienced. It was overwhelming as I saw in front of me and below, the vast landscape in incredible clarity of vision, as if seeing for the first time. I believe I was consumed with awe.
That and other experiences will stay with me and inform my work and life forever. If you’d like to attend a course in shamanic studies go to my ‘links’ menu and click on Sacred Trust.
The Reiki concept lingered, of course, and I had to learn more about it. So I went on yet another course, well three actually, each performing a number of ‘attunements’. Sitting in a chair, the Reiki symbols are ‘motioned’ or placed into the individual by a Reiki Master, through the crown chakra. When my eyes opened, some colours were different, something had shifted, I sensed I was seeing through a blue/purple hue. Through time and training, there I was; a Reiki Master, a rather grandiose tag, embarrassing to say publicly, but it was true, I could relieve ailments and feel energy buzzing in my hands by putting them on or close to another person, or the cat come to that. The more Reiki is needed, the greater the sensation in the hands. There are many other aspects to Reiki, one in particular is harnessing and sending energy, or intention, here it’s easy to see a link through Shamanism to Reiki. For instance if I witness an uncomfortable situation or see sadness, I can send Reiki. Whether a hostile situation or to someone down on their luck, I’m sending good energy to calm or sooth. In this way it’s like prayer.
So having explored the fantastic and the new, I began to seriously consider healing work as a new profession, but which discipline? There are hundreds.
Why not Reiki? Well because I don’t particularly like the ‘stillness’ of the treatment: I prefer movement, fluidity and energy and whilst Reiki has all of these things, the physicality of being silent, moving gently around the patient isn’t for me. I prefer to do, to get my hands dirty, to puzzle it out. I will however offer Reiki where it is needed and many a headache and muscle pain has shifted after treatment direct to the affected area.
Now we return to the small lump in my lower eyelid mentioned above. I was told to treat this I would be under local anaesthetic as they peel back the lid and cut out the lump with a scalpel. Not only would I be sliced with a knife but I would see it too. I said no.
A friend suggested visiting a homœopath and in complete ignorance I went along with it. I had heard of homœopathy but hadn’t a clue what it was. So, open minded, I sat opposite the homœopath while she asked many questions; some pertinent to my complaint, others ridiculous to me at the time (what has my lumpy eyelid got to do with whether I prefer spring to summer?). After a very enthusiastic and engaging consultation, I was sent off with tiny white pills to be taken at precise times.
What a result; not only did the lump disappear but I felt an incredible change. On some days it was as if the sun had come out and I felt great joy, on others there would be snapshots of vulnerability. But there was a change, I could feel it. Was it a sense of relaxation, of peace? I seemed to gain confidence and generally had a greater feeling of well-being.
So what could have done this? How could these tiny pills of potentised milk and sugar give me such a feeling? Further changes were accrued with each visit and I felt different; happier, less anxious, relaxed.
A year or so passed by and I was looking for something new. My job as an art director was fine but I could see in a couple of years time it would lose it’s hold on me. I needed to start again, to go off in a different direction.
I thought of the process of treatment the homœopath offered and it intrigued me. I liked to be asked questions and I liked even better asking them. ‘Could I do what she does?’ I thought. Again I decided to find out more.
I literally picked up the Thompson local phone book, looked under homœopathy and found The London College of Practical Homœopathy, rang its number and attended an open day. Amidst a disparate group of would-be-students, I was faced with Robert Davidson: a no nonsense Scotsman, who managed to alternate enthusiasm with dourness, an unlikely combination. He was the principle, a stranger to me and I liked his approach. It appeared from what I learned that day that training to become a homœopath would not be an easy ride but for those willing to change and adapt, the rewards would be considerable. Davidson told us about the course in these terms almost with a warning attached and I suppose it was that which persuaded me: I wanted to be challenged. I was fascinated by what I learned that day. It sounded like here was a practical no-nonsense and scientific approach to health. This was a system I could imagine myself working with and a couple of months later I found myself sitting in a room full of strangers, and this I swear: I hadn’t even heard of Arnica.
After a gap of fourteen years I returned to college in 1998, part-time. I qualified as a practitioner in 2002. In-between those two dates my entire universe has been shaken, turned upside down, re-set and modelled anew. I can say, hand on heart, learning about homœopathy has been the most challenging task I have yet had to face. In terms of questions, they come wholesale, factory sized, in terms of curiosity it’s enough to put paid and an end to all the why’s and why not’s. Full stop. Ignorance truly is bliss.
Imagine this; there are over 3,000 remedies, you might use 100 of these regularly or 20 or maybe a thousand depending on how brave or daft you are. We had to get to know at least fifty of these remedies intimately; how they affect the head, the mind, gut, menstrual cycle, joints, sweat, dreams and so on. What affinity did they have to energy, to weather or food, fears and desires? To which kingdom did the remedy belong? Where is it on the periodic table? What other remedies resemble this one? How do you differentiate between them? What follows which well? Which antidotes another? on and on. Next learn to listen, to really hear. Unlearn to decipher what you think is being said and just listen and watch, write it all down. Begin again to learn about the body, the brain, the bones and the sinues and just when your head is popping or pulped there’s the joy of potency; 1M or higher, 6, 12, 30 or 50c, LM or X, stay low or go higher? The joy of potency.
Then there are the teachers, some unreachable, off in a higher orbit, others groaning under the strain, all presenting a different view on their subject. An idea gets settled in the head only to be dug out by a contrary opinion. And the reading. It doesn’t stop. Looking for The Book for each area of homœopathy, the one that explains it simply, without complication, easy to pick up, not put down-able. Such a book doesn’t exist, cannot be written alas; individual prescribing and learning is, well, a matter for the individual.
Here’s how I see it; once you begin to see the power and literally life changing/enhancing forces of homœopathy, life will never be the same again. It simply can not go away and I would be lying if I didn’t confess I wished, in those early days and beyond that I’d studied something simpler. A thing with a formula say, whereby if you add A to B then C will come next. Not so with homœopathy. But if it’s all of the above, then why stick with it?
Simply because I see it as the most complete form of healing available in our time. It doesn’t poison; it cleanses; it can break down years of negative patterns, it requires you to be well. It asks only that the patient allows an unburdening of that which stops health flourishing. It honours nature and the natural flow of everything we need to heal. And what an honour it is to be witness to healing, to see individuals become better.
With experience, the practice of effective homœopathy for me has become easier. I have to say I have never questioned the efficacy of homœopathy, it is a discipline I approach with enthusiasm and delight in its works.
All the time at college we were taught that learning takes place by doing. This is true, I’ve been doing this for a good few years and although compared to some I’m an infant, I think I can do it. Robert Davison once remarked, ‘Make sure you can do what you say you can do’. I think I can.