Beyond Body and Mind

The Homeopathic Compendium

This book is the English and revised version of the Dutch book that was published in 2010.

It contains 14 chapters of which 8 describe the eight cases that were chosen to form the core content of the book. The work is based on the Master Classes that were given by the author over a period of several years.

The book starts with the intriguing chapter ‘About Knowledge’. The author here introduces us to her personal vision on what knowledge is and where it is to be found. She describes the different ways in which knowledge can be obtained, but it is clear to her that it is always there and it just needs to be (re)discovered.

In the introduction she describes how the book originated and what her intention is with it. Though an introduction is almost mandatory for a book, here it offers, beside the general information on intention and structure of the book, enough valuable lessons for the reader to make him stop, think and reread.

For example: ‘…a lot of vital information (all levels all of the time) is being overlooked because it is considered as trivial. It could be a simple word or a common expression, one that is not even being written down by the homeopath, just because of its commonality. But just the fact that something so trivial or so common is still expressed makes it all the more level-five information! A wrong sequence or a superfluous addition to a rather common word or expression makes it special!’

Or: ‘But this is exactly how we lose the rare, strange and peculiar-ness of this word! Many times I have noticed that my students or homeopaths make a beautiful analysis and were able to give strong arguments for their thinking, except that this one strange, inexplicable issue remains. If a remedy doesn’t explain this peculiar word or act, it is not the right remedy!'

Throughout the whole book we can find such ‘little’ gems.

It is clear that she is a teacher pur sang and has the desire to make the reader familiar with the in-depth case-taking process and which pitfalls to avoid. In this she is successful. The cases are very interesting to read, and through them there is a lot of valuable information to gather for both students and the experienced homeopath. The analyses given are thorough and add to the impression that here we are meeting someone who knows what she is talking about. Several aspects of classical and contemporary knowledge of homeopathy are included and get their rightful place in the process.

The structure of the core part of the book—the cases—is set in a question-answer format. The material is based on the patients whom were seen during training courses. There is an antagonist present in the form of a questioner who asks questions about the information given by the patient or the reasons for Anne to ask the patient certain questions. By including these questions, we, as readers, get a ‘chair’ to sit on. Anne's replies help us see her thinking and approach of the cases.

Through this format the cases become as lively as one could hope for, given the fact that they are in writing, which always has its limitation. For the reader who is not able to see the patient in real, this limitation is brought back to the minimum. There is a lot to be learned from the information given by the author. There are many lessons or valuable reminders in the analysis of the cases. We can find explanations of known concepts that show her deep understanding of them. We get a more refined understanding of what we should consider as strange, rare and peculiar, and how essential this is for a successful prescription.

The cases represent a nice variety of the different kingdoms and there is a Monera and an Imponderable case included as well.

Given the fact that first and foremost a teacher is speaking here, this book is highly educational and I can recommend it at such whole-heartedly.