Phos.

Phosphorus

Phosphorus

The chemical element phosphorus can be found in the cellular fluid of all living tissue. Phosphorus plays a vital role in the activity of the body's cells, most importantly in the transfer of genetic information. Many phosphorus compounds are used commercially in toothpaste, fertilizer, and laundry detergent. Phosphorus poisoning causes irritation of the mucous membranes and inflammation of tissue; over time, it can destroy bone. As a homeopathic remedy, minute doses are prescribed by practitioners for conditions accompanied by symptoms of fatigue and nervousness with a tendency to bleed easily and an unquenchable thirst for cold water. Pure phosphorus is diluted in large quantities of milk sugar to prepare the homeopathic remedy.

Parts Used

Phosphorus.

Uses

Phos. is good for fear and anxiety that causes nervous tension, insomnia, and exhaustion. It is also used to treat circulatory problems, such as cold fingers and burning hot extremities. Profuse bleeding, for example, in nosebleeds, bleeding gums, heavy menstrual flow, and bleeding from the stomach lining is eased by Phos.

This remedy is good for digestive complaints, such as nausea and vomiting due to food poisoning or stress (in which ice-cold foods and drinks are craved and vomited as soon as they become warm in the stomach), stomach flu, stomach ulcers indicated by a saliva-filled mouth, and heartburn.

Respiratory problems, namely asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia where there is tightness in the chest or breastbone, are alleviated by Phos. This remedy is also given for dry, tickly coughs that sometimes cause retching and vomiting, and phlegm streaked with dark red blood. It is also helpful for headaches that are worse before a thunderstorm and laryngitis. Ailments helped by Phos. are characterized by burning pain.

When ill, people who require this remedy dislike being alone, need the company of others, and sympathy.

Source

Phosphorus, which is found in phosphates and living matter.

Personality profile

Phosphorus has had a very good press up till now. Homeopaths generally regard Phosphorus as the nicest of people, and the type that everyone wishes they belonged to. Many Phosphorus individuals really are radiant, loving and spiritual, but the truth is never that simple, at least not when it comes to psychological types. Just as there is a progression from the least conscious to the most conscious Sulphur individual, the former exhibiting all the negative characteristics of the type, the latter all the positive, so there is the same kind of progression amongst Phosphorus individuals. Not all Phosphorus people are giving or spiritually inclined. The less developed Phosphorus may give when it suits him, or when he is in a good mood, but he is just as likely to be self-centered and inconsiderate.

The essence running through Phosphorus is a lack of personal boundaries, and it is this lack of boundaries that accounts for both the positive and the negative characteristics of the Phosphorus psyche. The vast majority of people develop in childhood an ego-identity which separates them from the rest of the world. Before this happens, the infant feels at one with his surroundings, and especially with his mother. This ego-identity is made up of hundreds of boundaries or conditions, which determine who the child thinks he is, and how he relates to the world around him. It is made up mostly of opinions and beliefs, and hence it is essentially intellectual in character, since it is the intellect which distinguishes and analyses, rejects and approves. Gradually, most children come to live more and more in their intellect, and as this happens, they become more and more separated from the world around them, since it is no longer experienced directly, but through the filter of the ego or intellect. The ego also includes emotions, which initially were impersonal in the infant, since there was no person for them to attach to. Hence the infant bathed in waves of contentment or fear, without knowing why he was contented or afraid, or even that he was. These were just feeling tones that pervaded his whole experience. Once the intellect has been established, there is a person who can identify with the feelings, and say, 'This is my anger, and my fear'. The person can also escape from feelings to some extent by dissociating from them.

The process of identification with the intellect is partial and incomplete in the Phosphorus individual. Phosphorus tends to experience the world like a young child. Sensory stimuli are more vibrant and immediate to Phosphorus, because they are not filtered by the intellect to the same degree as in others. As a result, they have more effect on him. This is equally true of pleasant and unpleasant stimuli. A beautiful sunset will send Phosphorus into a rapture that few other mortals ever experience, a rapture that totally bypasses the intellect. By the same token, Phosphorus will be acutely distressed by the ugliness and squalor of a slum district. This is not the outraged concern of Causticum, and not only the sympathetic suffering of Natrum, but an absorption by psychic osmosis of the 'vibes' of the place, which all of us experience to some extent, but are insulated from by layers of insensitivity, and by being firmly rooted in our ego. Phosphorus is like a sponge, absorbing all the impressions that are in the immediate environment, and then experiencing waves of emotion, both pleasant and unpleasant, which they produce.

To Phosphorus, the worlds of intuition and feeling are very alive and real, and this includes the feelings that exist in other people. Phosphorus can pick up on another's feelings, and sometimes does this without realizing it. For example, a Phosphorus woman may suddenly become anxious without knowing why, because she sits next to someone who is very afraid.

As a result of the extraordinary 'openness' of the Phosphorus psyche, reality is a far broader and richer experience for Phosphorus than it is for most other mortals, but it is also more confusing and bewildering. Although Phosphorus is capable of remarkable intuition or second sense, he is just as likely to misinterpret emotion and wishful thinking as intuition, and to be led astray by it. His intuitions are not reliable, because they get lost in a sea of sensual impressions, emotions and imaginings. The Phosphorus individual floats in the ocean of these constantly shifting currents, marveling at its beauty, shrinking from its terrors, and struggling to keep afloat, and avoid being swallowed up completely.