Copyright 2011-2022 by Joseph Ben Hil-Meyer Research, Inc.
By Bruce Berkowsky, N.M.D., M.H., NCTMB
I am going to devote this issue of the Journal Of Spiritual PhytoEssencing to some of the important insights I gained through my all too brief work with Eve Rosenbloom, a Spiritual PhytoEssencing (SPE) client/student of mine who passed away on April 11th 2007 after a protracted battle with metastatic breast cancer. Eve was 47 years old.
Of course, I will not be able to divulge any of the very personal details that she communicated to me during her anamnesis (the word used in SPE for case-taking or custom blend interview). Client/practitioner confidentiality is sacrosanct and must remain in force even after a client passes on. However, I will provide some general details regarding my process in developing her custom blend and her experience of the blend that may prove of value to you in your work and your lives. I feel certain that Eve, a teacher, would appreciate this teaching opportunity.
A Little About Eve
Before I present my observations as a practitioner, I want to say a little bit about my experience as a person. I knew several people named Rosenbloom while growing up in Brooklyn as I’m Jewish and it is a fairly common Jewish surname. However, it wasn’t until I met Eve that I realized all these years later that when the name is broken down into syllables it can be read as Rose-In-Bloom.
In conjunction with her given name one is reminded of an evening walk threw a rose garden. There is a very lovely and famous Hebrew song called Erev Shel Shoshanim that means Eve of Roses. I played this in class the year Eve attended in her honor. She was too ill to be in the room when I played it. So I brought it to her room afterwards. Her face lit up with joy when I gave her the recording. She told me it was her favorite song.
I first met Eve at the beginning of 2006. However, we established I-Thou relation right from the beginning and it seemed as if we had known each other for many years. She was a very good mother and a peaceful warrior who demonstrated remarkable courage and grace under fire when challenged by intense suffering. During all our interactions she displayed a calm fighting spirit and never once uttered a complaint. She had a very self-sufficient nature.
Eve’s cancer was never treated allopathically. She opted instead to pursue a completely natural therapeutic protocol. I have been a practitioner for more than 30 years, during 6 years of which I served as advisor to the late Aldrick Chu-Fong, M.D., a highly innovative New York oncologist.
I have never witnessed a good outcome in a case of breast cancer that has not been treated surgically when that option was clearly indicated. My feeling is that surgery is an ancient art which, when indicated as the best option, is a natural form of treatment. Thus, my personal belief is that that the surgical option in cancer should never be rejected purely on ideological grounds.
Nevertheless, I respect whatever choices an individual makes regarding his or her own course of treatment and refrain from passing judgment. I think Eve knew that her decision not to have her primary tumor surgically removed early on was a clinical error—the moment that changed all the rest. However, she had come to a realization that karmically, for reasons that are beyond rational understanding, she was meant to follow the direction she had decided upon and to learn whatever lessons unfolded for her during that journey.
Once she had committed to the path she had chosen, she never wavered. She moved forward with courage and purpose and developed a cutting-edge, highly individualized protocol.
The Tree Of Life Vessel Of Daat- Knowledge
Eve was an intellectual and driven by her desire to learn. She was a linguist and language teacher. This points to an association with the Tree of Life vessel of Daat or Knowledge.
Daat represents the ability to express one’s intelligence to others. Daat is the ability to communicate and develop an intelligent relationship with the outside world.
In the Kabbalah, the faculty of speech is viewed as a particularly crucial element in the process of Creation. Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem in his book Kabbalah writes: “The action and development of that mysterious force which is the seed of all Creation is … none other than speech: [When it is written in the Bible that] ‘God spoke’—this speech is a force which, at the beginning of creative thought, was separated from the secret of the Infinite.”
Proverbs 24:4 teaches: “And by knowledge [i.e., Daat] the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.” The word “rooms” in this context serves as a metaphor for the chambers of the heart, the esoteric aspect of which, in turn, serve as a reservoir for the emotions of the soul (i.e. “precious and pleasant riches”).
I included two oils associated with Daat into Eve’s blend: cinnamon and violet. I considered two other Daat oils as well: cardamom and clove, but ultimately gave their places in the blend to two other oils.
Cancer Miasm, Tubercular Miasm And The Desire To Travel
Cinnamon and violet had particular relevance because of their association with both Daat and the Cancer miasm. The Cancer miasm was an important archetypal factor in Eve’s case, as it is in the psycho-spiritual dynamics of every woman with breast cancer I have ever prepared a blend for.
I cannot divulge most of the details (aside from the fact that she had breast cancer) that led me to conclude that the Cancer miasm was operative in Eve’s case. However, I can mention a general one that is characteristic of the Cancer miasm type. Eve loved to travel.
A strong desire to travel is associated with two miasms: Cancer and Tubercular. However, the quality of this desire for the Cancer miasm type is very different from that of the Tubercular miasm individual. The former loves what I call “cultural travel.” She wants to travel in order to immerse herself in a foreign culture and, while there, experience the milieu like someone native to that land.
On the other hand, the Tubercular miasm type desires what I describe as “romantic travel.” She craves romance in an exotic locale and to contextualize her entire experience of that land through the prism of that romantic experience. Even when actual romance is not a factor, she will romanticize her experience of the people and culture. Hence, travel is a more subjective experience for the Tubercular miasm type than it is for the Cancer miasm individual.
Also, there is a certain sense of freedom inherent to travel. In general, the Cancer miasm type’s urge to travel is often the product of a desire to escape suppression of her true self, most commonly by specific authority figures in the family (e.g., the mother, father or some assortment of members of the family group). The Tubercular type travels to escape a sense of suffocating oppression by general societal forces and parameters. While the Cancer miasm type craves the freedom to “feel,” the Tubercular miasm type yearns to “breathe free.”
Eve was a “cultural traveler.” She once moved to Japan for three years because she was fascinated with its culture, art and food. Also, she spent her junior year in college in Israel. Wherever she went and stayed for a while, she became fluent in the language of that country (she was fluent in Hebrew, Arabic and Japanese)�a distinct sign of the desire for cultural immersion.
Not surprisingly, Eve was determined to attend the 2006 Spiritual PhytoEssencing annual training intensive in LaConner, Washington. Most people in her condition would never consider traveling hundreds of miles and attending a 3-day class. By this time Eve’s health was rapidly deteriorating and she had developed pleural effusion.
Pleural Effusion
The pleural space lies between the parietal and visceral pleura. Parietal pleurae cover the inner surface of the chest cavity. Visceral pleurae envelop all the outer surfaces of the lungs.
Normally, very little fluid is present in this space and this fluid volume is maintained by lymphatic drainage via the visceral pleura. When, as a result of decreased or complete blockage of lymphatic absorption (in Eve’s case caused by malignancy), the fluid level in the pleural space exceeds normal limits, pleural effusion develops. The average life expectancy of someone after a diagnosis of malignant pleural effusion is three to six months.
Eve was receiving thoracentesis on a regular basis. Thoracentesis is a procedure that removes fluid from the pleural space. A needle is placed through the chest wall into the pleural space and the excess fluid is drawn out. Clearly, thoracentesis is very unpleasant experience.
The Healing Circle
During the entire class weekend, Eve was having a very rough time and could only be in class for brief periods. I would regularly go to her room during breaks to check up on her and provide whatever assistance I could.
On Saturday afternoon (the workshop that year spanned Friday to Sunday), one of my diplomates, noted author and aromatherapy teacher Valerie Cooksley, R.N., Di. SPE, skillfully conducted a powerful healing circle in which everyone took part.
Eve sat in a chair and was surrounded by a circle of more than 40 people who were reaching into themselves to project healing energy. It was a remarkable experience for everyone.
Eve kept her eyes open and, with a subtle Mona Lisa-like smile, beamed light back our way. I couldn’t help feeling that she was reciprocating by projecting her own light and reflecting ours back to us so that ultimately we received as much of a healing treatment as she did. That whole weekend whenever Eve was in class, I recognized that I was learning more from Eve than she was from me.
Blending For Eve
I interviewed Eve for her custom blend in late January 2006 and she received the blend and potentized dilution (a micro-dilution of the blend dissolved in an alcohol/water solution that is prepared using the homeopathic method of sequential dilution and succussion) about 2 weeks later.
As a well-made custom blend is the subject’s soul portrait in oils, it is no surprise that the blend was powerful, elegant and deep-running. When Eve first used the blend she was literally stunned by it and experienced an intense altered state that persisted for hours.
She used her blend and potentized dilution for several months as instructed, but then instinctively began using these less and less frequently until she stopped using them altogether about nine months later. The blend had run its course.
In SPE practice, a client uses a succession of custom blends over the course of years, with each new one reflecting the stage of soul-unfolding facilitated by its predecessors. In general, the first blends I prepare are relevant for about one year. The first follow-up blend has an activity-expectancy of as much as two years. Succeeding blends may continue to be indicated for more than two years.
Therefore, as Eve had responded so strongly initially to her blend, I at first thought it wise that she continue work with her blend. I ascribed her lapse in using it, after nine months, to the fact that she was working with a wide variety of actual disease-treatment modalities that she had prioritized above the blend (SPE blends are not used to directly treat disease, only to engage with the higher Self). So I suggested she continue using the blend. In fact, she did use it a few more times and then instinctively stopped again.
At this juncture, I concurred that the blend had “flamed out.” I hadn’t observed such a brief period of blend relevancy since the first year I began SPE blending when I had not yet developed the ability to reach as deeply into a case with the opening blend.
As my understanding of the art has expanded exponentially since those early days, I am now able to formulate opening blends that touch the very heart of a case and so remain relevant for much longer before a follow-up is required to sustain forward momentum.
At first, I was puzzled as to why the blend had an abbreviated run, given that her powerful initial response to the blend indicated that her soul had a profound affinity for it.
My puzzlement ended when I next spoke to Eve. I plugged in deeply and observed that, despite the fact that she was no longer using it, her custom blend continued to play a crucial role in her journey. She simply no longer needed to actually use the blend in order to sustain its action. Additional doses at that point would have unnecessarily turned up the volume of her deep soul processing and increased her level of psychical tension. This was a key understanding that I had arrived at and it led to others.
A dying person’s time continuum is highly condensed. One month for someone who has only a year to live may be comparable to three years for a healthy person. Thus, the nine months that Eve’s custom blend acted is all that could be reasonably expected of it.
Normally, an opening blend is succeeded by the first follow-up blend. However, in Eve’s case I could sense that a follow-up blend was not in order. The first blend had injected a catalytic force into Eve’s soul that I now knew would persist for the rest of Eve’s life and beyond. So there simply was no place to go with a follow-up blend.
This was a one-blend case. I had fulfilled my role and so I stepped out of the way and observed Eve’s spirit body expand in concert with the progressive diminution of her physical body as she moved inexorably toward transition.
Therefore, bear in mind, you will likely have only one chance to prepare a custom blend for a dying person that will help open the higher channels to understanding, acceptance and orientation regarding the meaning of one’s life on Earth and what will transpire after crossing over.
Always be aware of this and do a thorough and thoughtful job when constructing the blend. Otherwise you will miss the train as it briefly idles in your station. Both you and the person you are blending for will have lost an important opportunity for soul enrichment.
End Of The Season
On Sunday afternoon, during a break, as the class weekend was beginning to wind down, the room emptied and I saw Eve, painfully thin, sallow, exhausted, breathing shallowly, sitting alone at the back of the room. I went over and sat by her. I said: “So Eve what do you think?” She knew without any clarification from me what I was asking and replied: “I am going to keep on. I know that I am going to get well.”
I had already had too much experience with cancer cases not to recognize the end-stage of the disease. I knew she was wasting away and literally drowning. Nevertheless, I have learned to never count anyone out, especially not a fighter like Eve. So I asked next: “Will you be coming to next year’s class?” She answered: “Definitely. I will be there.”
I was sure she would. Eve had always been good to her word. At the next training intensive my students and I could feel the illuminating presence of her being.
A Relevant Hasidic Tale
There is a traditional Hasidic tale concerning some students who sought out one Rabbi Zusya, a 19th century Hasidic master, feeling that he could explain to them the enigma of the existence of evil in a world created by God.
They considered the rabbi to be a credible resource in this reference because he was very pious despite suffering from painful illness and dire poverty.
The students asked: “Rabbi Zusya, how do you explain the existence of evil?”
Rabbi Zusya replied: “What evil?”
The students then referred to the rabbi’s poverty and suffering. “Oh that,” Rabbi Zusya responded, “surely that is just what my soul needs.”
Written by Dr. Bruce Berkowsky, N.M.D., M.H., NCTMB
www.NaturalHealthScience.com
Dr. Berkowsky, a registered naturopath, master herbalist and classical homeopath—is President of Joseph Ben Hil-Meyer Research, Inc. He is the founder/teacher of both Spiritual PhytoEssencing and the Natural Health Science System which he designed following many years of research and clinical practice, and includes herbology, nutrition, homeopathy, aromatherapy, exercise, traditional nature-cure as well as East/West healing arts/bodywork. Dr. Berkowsky teaches in-depth seminars/teleseminars/workshops to health-care professionals and spiritually aware individuals.
Disclaimer: This publication is intended as an educational tool, and not as a prescription. Seek the advice of your health-care provider before discontinuing any medication and/or trying any new remedy or technique.