Poisons and Antidotes; part 3 of 3: Antidote, Detoxification, and Tolerance
By Injection…Getting Under our Skin
Venomous animals typically deliver their poison to bypass the protective skin barrier and come into direct contact with blood and nerve; in other words, by injection. In the language of anthroposophical medical science, an animal poison ‘trespasses’ into the realm of the ego-organization (higher human aspect of ourselves) just as a plant poison trespasses into the realm of the soul (animal-like aspect), and a mineral poison into the realm of the organizing forces (plant like aspect). The word ‘ego’ is not used in the Freudian sense, but to describe our higher human faculties such as self-consciousness and ability to form healthy judgements. Blood and nerve represent the physical part of the human being that minerals, plant, and the lower animals do not share.
Whether it is the sting of a hornet or the bite of a snake, these poisons are among the most feared and with good reason; nerve and blood support the possibility of using higher human functions in everyday life - our thinking and powers of judgement. For in order to form healthy judgements, even as needed on an everyday basis (such as when to cross the street for example), we need clearheaded thinking and a strong heart, constant and calm.
Once venom is injected during a snake bite (their hollow fangs act like hypodermic needles), it can work in several ways depending on the type of snake. Some venom’s toxins target the nervous system. These are called neurotoxins. Neurotoxins prevent neurons in the brain from transmitting signals. This causes paralysis. Other toxins target the blood and circulatory system. These are called haemotoxins. Haemotoxins can cause red blood cells to burst, cause blood to clot, or severely lower blood pressure. Without the correct antidote, death is certain and painful for these most poisonous snake bites and may happens in hours or less. Fortunately, and thanks to the nobility of the horse species, there is an antidote for some snake venoms if the snake bite victim can make it to a hospital in time.
Anti-venom, which is stored under refrigeration at hospitals in areas where snake bites are common, traditionally has been obtained from horses. When a horse is bitten by a snake, it usually does not die, but after a period of time is able to overcome the effects of the venom through the activity of its immune system. Some of that horse’s blood is harvested and the life-saving antibodies are purified out to be used in anti-venom for human beings.
A physician who lived in 2nd century Greece, Nicander of Colophon, made the astute observation that toxins which come from certain toxic molds behave like a snake poison: ‘Let not the evil ferment of the soil injure a man; it will often swell up in his chest, at other times it will choke him, when it is fostered over the viper's coil deep in its lair, sucking up the monster's venom and the noxious breath from its mouth. This is the evil ferment which they call Fungi in general, for to different kinds different names have been assigned’. This knowledge about mycotoxins is only just in the last decade beginning to be rediscovered and recognized i.e. that gasses produced by certain toxic molds affect nerve (central nervous system function) and blood (immune and clotting function) to the point of severe disability and illness or even death. Rabies, a viral infection which attacks the nervous system and causes certain death by slow paralysis if untreated, often comes from the bite of a bat, skunk, or raccoon; and also with a certain irony from ‘man’s best friend’, the common pet dog. This illness is likewise treatable by components extracted from blood; in this case immune substances extracted from the blood of other infected human beings are used therapeutically. There is likewise a rabies vaccine that is grown in human cell culture.
In all of these instances of animal poisons bypassing the protective barrier of the skin by injection with direct access to blood and nerve, there is the need for borrowing life forces from another sentient being (a being who also possesses a soul, and therefore blood and nerve) in order to prevent death. And speaking of ‘best friends’: a phrase dropped casually by friend or family (while up on their ‘high horse’) in an email or conversation such as ‘people who caved in’ (on one side) or ‘people who don’t care about others’ (usually on the other side), ‘gets under our skin’ much more easily than a similar comment injected from someone not as close to our heart. This is a different sort of poisoning (because not only the body can be poisoned; the soul can be as well, and for that matter relationships too which is where higher aspects of our being resides). And the realm from which this kind of poisoning comes from is still yet higher than the realm of the animal since a human being has the possibility of exercising their higher human functions. Relationships among human beings are governed by higher beings that do not have physical bodies, and are therefore more powerful and able to exert far more powerful effects. The antidote for this type of poisoning is active forgiveness (see note #1 below).
And then there is Chiron, the centaur (half-man, half-horse), who is credited in Greek mythology with being the teacher of Aesclepias - the archetypal physician-healer. As the ‘wounded healer’, this archetypal story reminds us that it is often the case that someone may need to play the role of the beast of burden in order that others can learn about how to truly heal. This includes first responders, medical assistants and nurses, among others, who are especially and intensively exposed to contagious illness as an occupational hazard. My family and I had to go through the experience of toxic mold exposure in our home in order to for me as a medical provider to become competent at recognizing and treating life-altering mycotoxin illness. A conference that I attended more than a decade ago in Texas taught by the late Dr. William Rey was full of medical doctors who had to experience debilitating illness caused by exposure to EMFs (electromagnetic fields) before they left the rapidly decreasing camp of health care providers who dishearten their patients by assuming they are just malingering (faking illness) or ‘just’ mentally ill. These situations are inspiring cases of transformation - taking a poisonous influence into one’s own being, thoughtfully experiencing it, observing it and putting it into relationship with other knowledge and common sense, and being able to thereby heal others and hopefully oneself as a result.
It can be hard to think of a destructive process as being necessary for life. A classic example is in our very bones. A healthy person has specialized cells whose task is to constantly break down bone which are in balance with other kinds of cells having the task of building them up again (‘bone remodeling’). This process allows not only healing of fractures, but also growth and adaptation to new stressors. A second example is the fact that a healthy spleen helps break down old and damaged red blood cells. If this process of destruction does not happen, the blood may become too thick and not flow as easily as it should. In fact, common health challenges such as cancer, hardening of the arteries, allergy, and some digestive problems are based in our forces of destruction not being strong enough! Medicinal substances are often given with the idea of strengthening destructive forces such as destruction of ‘germs’, breaking down a tumor, lessening plaques forming in the arteries, or ensuring that foods are fully broken down in the digestion. Needless to say, these forces of destruction may become too strong or act out of place, and then we have unchecked inflammation. It’s not so much a matter of destructive and constructive forces being ‘equal’ all the time, but rather of each force acting at the right time and place for the well being of the entire organism.
1) One can be up on one’s high horse, or one can actually ‘be the horse’ by imitating the helping gesture of a horse at a soul level. Sergei Prokofieff, in his book’ ‘The Occult Significance of Forgiveness’, comes to the following two conditions of a true (active) forgiveness: ‘The first consists in the need to forget the wrong to which one has been subjected which is wholly impossible without a real act of self-overcoming. The second….consists (in contrast) in the ceaseless remembering of that inner promise, which is also inseparable from any true act of forgiveness and consists in voluntarily taking on an obligation to restore to the world as much goodness and love as were objectively removed from it by the immoral or evil action.’ In contrast to a passive, one-time act of a ‘forgiveness’ which only has a narrow personal significance, Prokofieff thoroughly develops a case that true forgiveness is continuous and active; and furthermore has a much broader significance for humanity as a whole. Through this conscious forgetting and remembering, along with choosing to take on the karma of the one who perpetrated the wrong upon us, Prokofieff makes the case that when we sacrificially forfeit the right to receive recompense from the one who did us wrong, we thus free our angel to direct the perpetrator’s compensatory deeds to wherever in the world it is needed the most.
2) Some toxins or poisons can be removed before it has a chance to do too much harm. Examples of these ‘binders’ include chlorella and humic and fulvic acids (derived from peat). Support of the principle detoxification organs kidneys, liver, and skin assist the process of removal.
3) In the case of immune system involvement involving allergic responses (including autoimmune illnesses), the substance itself may not be so important as how the body transforms it and reacts to the substance or process. In these situations, it is a matter of loss of tolerance of the immune system. Developed by Dr. Ty Vincent, Low Dose Immunotherapy (LDI) is a therapy that I wish I had brought into my practice many years ago when Dr. Vincent first suggested that I look into it while I was working in his office space in Alaska. Having been using it in my Oregon practice for a few years now, I am continually amazed at what it is able to do gently, safely, and at relatively low cost (especially compared to shelves full of supplements!). For example at a recent conference for practitioners of LDI, it was mentioned that doctors have been noticing resolution of loss of smell and taste after using one of the antigens. Another surprising finding was the successful use of the ‘chemical-mix’ antigen to resolve symptoms of EMF sensitivity. The effects of food and environmental allergies and sensitivities (which vary from digestive symptoms and rashes to headaches, insomnia, behavioral and mood changes and chronic pain or fatigue), have been resolved for some people with just taking a few drops of tasteless liquid under the tongue every 7 weeks. Please see our resource page or call our office if you are interested in trying LDI.
