These are a few hints to analyze the information we gathered in the consultation first into big categories (2^nd or 3th dimension), then in kingdoms (Gemstone) in order to be left with a limited amount of possible remedies, we can look up in our MM.

What is Vital, that’s the question.

It happens that one gets confused because a case looks like containing information of many kingdoms. Let me tell you a secret: they all do! It is very rare to find a case so clear-cut that only 1 kingdom is represented. At least…. That is what it looks like at the first glimpse. The reason is we heard words like structure, attack, sensitive, survive, support, empty, function, lack, disappointed, miss, ambitious, identity, responsibility, grief, etc and we are at a loss what kingdom the patient belongs to. But we can only decide at the kingdom when we are sure the information is vital. And how do we know?

This of course is the crucial point!B
Even when the theory is well understood and we know the vital disturbance (sensation) is what we prescribe on, and this vital disturbance is expressed on all levels, in daily practice we often doubt whether the information is vital or not.

The shortest way I can put it (and more explanation in my books) is that the vital disturbance, which is the state of the patient we attempt to treat

On level 1, the physical level: what doesn’t belong to the pathology belongs to the state
On level 2: the marked generalities belong to the state
On level 3: what doesn’t belong to the story belongs to the state
On level 4: what doesn’t belong to psychology belongs to the state
On level 5: the experience of the self and the world is the state

Level 1 and 2 are quite easy but the problem starts at the mental/emotional level. The patient has a state, a personality and a story! How can we discern what is what????

Here is where common sense comes in. Lots of what I call the Vital Approach and the Noetic Approach isn’t very magical or weird but plain common sense.

Personality
In the same way we study anatomy and physiology in order to know what we can expect in a particular pathology and what is queer, we study psychology, to know what is normal functioning and what is psychopathology. We have to have a good insight in human nature (aphorism     ) to spot the Strange, Rare and Peculiar in a patients psychological functioning.

But a person always is a product of his family, his social and cultural background, his upbringing, his IQ, gender, place in the family, personal biography, etc., in other words of his context. This taken all together will result in a personality.

This is not the same as the Story. The story of the patient is the arena where he experiences his issues. Often this will be his family, work and relationships, because for most of us, these are the most important aspects of our life. So the story in itself is no basis for prescription, but the message conveyed in it. The patient will hardly ever tell you this message directly but indirectly it must be in his story: it is the very reason why he’s chosen this story in the first place! Mind you: there are millions of happenings, circumstances, events or anecdotes a patient can chose from his experience. The reason he picked out the ones he did is because the Vital is there. If the patient doesn’t add the message, the homeopath can simply ask: ‘and how was it for you?’ or any other formulation that is open as possible and aiming at the experience, which is the Vital disturbance or the State.

What is this State then? It is the way the patient experiences himself (and hence the world). Usually he has no idea there is a possible other way of being or experiencing as no one ever asks for it. Yes, there are other ways of thinking, liking, feeling but this is about being. Would it not be so awkward we could ask our patients: how is it like to be you? Of course we don’t do this but basically this is what we want to know. And I can’t repeat it enough: the State is not a product of the Mind, it is not the sum of free association, imagination, metaphor or preference.
State comes first and the Mind is shaped and influenced by it.