meandering minds…

Rudi said he’d seen a great Datura tree at one of the houses on the main road, and he was excited to point it out to be on the way to church.

So this morning he said, “there! there!” and I thought he was nuts, all I saw was a coral hibiscus plant. So, I humoured him and we enjoyed the church service with Vernon for the third Sunday of Advent.

But – on the way back he said it again, and slowed down… and stopped. And there, behind the coral hibiscus, was a Datura plant! Amazing.

(For those of you who don’t know about Datura Stramonium… I will add some materia medica below. Suffice it to say – Rudi wouldn’t let me chew on one.)

And the flower – closer:

They were pendulous, gorgeous, beautiful. Pale, though, they went from a deathly yellow to a pale coral to dead.

And the materia medica, from Vermeulen’s Concordant:

Parts of body seem enormously swollen. Devout, earnest, beseeching and ceaseless talking. Loquacious, garrulous, laughing, singing, swearing, praying, rhyming. Sees ghosts, hears voices, talks with spirits. Rapid changes from joy to sadness. Violent and lewd. Delusions about his identity; thinks himself tall, double, a part missing; [11] lying crosswise, one half of body cut off. Religious mania. Can’t bear solitude or darkness; must have light and company. Sight of water or anything glittering causes spasms. Delirium with desire to escape [Bell.; Bry.; Rhus-t.]. [2] Awakes terrified, knows no one, screams with fright, clings to those near him [child]; [4] child doesn’t know where it is, calls for parents, although they may be present trying to console it; [11] started with great force and alarm, crying out that she is going to fall, clings to her mother with as much desperation as if she were going to be thrown from a precipice. Fearful hallucinations which terrify the patient; sees ghosts, vividly brilliant or hideous phantoms, animals; jumping sideways out of ground or running to him. Wildly excited; as in night terrors. Does all sorts of crazy things. RAVING MANIA, with cold sweat.

Religious insanity; [11] despair of salvation; inspired talking, singing, pious looks. The talk of others is intolerable. Self accusation. Loss of reason or of speech. Talks in foreign tongue. Laughs at night, during day. Proud, haughty, merry exaltation. Fear and anxiety on hearing water run. Aversion to all fluids. Mania; curses, tears his clothes with teeth. Violent speech. Exposes the person. Sits silent, eyes on ground, picking at her clothes. Wants to kill people or himself; [11] wants a razor to cut his throat.

Anxiety when going through a tunnel. Everything, everybody seems new. Wife thinks husband is neglecting her, man thinks his wife faithless. [4] Young men or women who pray, sing or talk so devoutly or constantly as to excite the sympathy of all in the home. Can’t bear to be alone; wants hand to be held. Pangs of conscience; thinks he is not honest; doesn’t know his friends; raves about his business. [5] Esp. sees small black animals, such as bugs, dogs and all sorts of crawling things. With the frightful delirium, he froths at mouth, eyes protrude as in terror, bites, strikes, and has a squeaking voice.

Apprehension; starts up in a fright, all motions are hasty and forcible. [6] Victim of mental violence, full of excitement and rage. The loquacity of Stram., unlike that of Lach. and Hyos., is confined to one subject; [8] talks of nothing but one subject. [7] Stupid indifference to everybody and everything. The child on waking is frightened at everything that first meets its eyes; wants to run away from them. Unconscious snoring; jaws hang down; hands and feet twitch; pupils dilated. Weak memory; loses thoughts before she can utter them; calls things by wrong names; [11] weeps about her weak mind; after sunstroke. [8] Chases imaginary objects.

Desires company during menses. Delusions; body alive on one side, buried on the other; DOGS ATTACK HIM; that he is falling; room is on fire; thinks he is naked; impression of danger; fishes, flies, etc.; thinks he is divine; that he is in communication with God [[11] delivers emphatic sermons, prophecies]. Indicates his desires by motions of hands. Praying at night. Sadness in sunshine. Weeping in dark. Weeps all night, laughs all day. Desire to break things. Aversion to everything that is black and sombre. Childish behaviour. Gossiping. HURRY IN MOVEMENTS. INDIFFERENCE; DOESN’T COMPLAIN [[11] from stupefaction]. Loquacity during menses. Pleasure in his own talk.

Threatening; [11] threatens to use knife on those about him, or threatens to knock everybody down, to break furniture or to throw himself out of window. [11] Stupor: resembling highest state of intoxication from spirituous liquors. No correct estimation of distances, or size of objects; reaching hands to catch hold of objects across room, and running against persons and things, which they appeared to view as distant. Inability to give proper answers, rapid change of ideas, so that he seldom completed a sentence. Conversing in different languages. Running about, crying out that all evil spirits were pursuing her. Imagines he is quite alone in a wilderness, abandoned.

Thinks he is dying and will not live over night, rejoices and gives directions about his funeral. Takes attendants for dogs and barks at them to make himself understood. Thinks that he was killed, roasted and being eaten. Bed seems full of creases. Thinks she is not fitted for her position; neglects her duties. Believes herself unworthy of eternal bliss from being unable to perform her duties. Sees snakes under and about her, at night on awaking suddenly. Hears dancing, music, sees men and hears them talk in foreign tongues. Fears: he will lose his sense; his lips will grow together; to suffocate; everything is falling on her. Constant vision of an executioner standing before him, yet lively, talkative, laughing and joking about his hallucination. Piteous appeals for help.

Declares he is God and then that he is the devil; after a dreadful shock, occasioned by the death of his brother, who fell dead in his arms. Wants to scream but can’t; or screams until hoarse or losing voice. Kleptomania; steals from his roommates everything he can get hold of. Disposition by words and deeds to scold persons whom he otherwise loved. Laughing as if tickled; wants to be kissed. Delusion being a distinguished person, of high rank. Thinks he has every imaginable disease; that he has power over all disease. Often leaves his chair to rush at people whom he thought he saw fighting and quarrelling before him. Hears a loud voice, scolding, vituperating and accusing him of ungodliness. Takes offence in imaginary quarrels and attacks aggressor. Full of wit, but indecent. Will not answer any questions, avoids the eye. Evades carefully looks of other persons. Makes all kinds of faces and imitating motions, gestures and voices of different animals. Incredible quickness in destroying things.

Grasps at things quickly and hurriedly, thinks he has seized a thing before touching it; if he does hold the object he doesn’t feel that he has hold of it. Makes all motions hastily, with great force and hurriedly; anxiety if he can’t finish them at once. Asks to be held because he is falling. Hasty; hurries off too fast, with all his might, if he wants to go to another place. Crying mood, with inclination to give offence and to feel offended. Timidity and anxiety in presence of strangers; headstrong and obstinate at home. Slightest contradiction irritates her so much that she sobs with anger. Senseless quarrelling; continued violent scolding.

Somnambulism alternating with severe spasms. Heard continually, on right side of occiput, a loud voice, scolding, vituperating and accusing him of ungodliness; talked continually, sometimes prayed, expecting, with great anxiety, the flash of lightning which was to kill him. Strikes with one arm, grasps with the other. Thoughts of suicide during heat. Settled melancholy alternating with exalted states. Anticipation of death alternating with rage. Lively delirium alternating with fright.

~ by photokunstler on 13 December 2009.

Posted in Abaco, Bahamas, Elbow Cay
Tags: Datura