Oliver Schalles is a naturopath with over 30 years of practice in Germany, who settled in the south of Spain in 2006. Among his healing practices, he offers a healing modality called AEP Therapy to those in the local community who want an alternative way of healing than that being offered by conventional medicine.
He learned AEP Therapy “first hand” from Dr. Clement himself, who referred to Oliver as his
“ famulus”. This is the Latin word for “pupil”. He was awarded a certification, giving him the right to teach Clement’s method . “As far as I know, I was the only one who was awarded this certification”.
In February of 1989 Oliver was invited to a leprosy station in south India, where he taught the doctors there how to use the medicine and the lab staff how to properly prepare the solutions that he uses to cure / treat non-healing wounds, infections, and other tropical' illnesses.
In 1996, while visiting the Chips family, he was invited to the ceremonial world of the Lakota Indians. Since his return to Germany, and now, Spain, he has been conducting sweat lodge ceremonies.
His participation in a 3-week Primal Therapy intensive in Heidelberg in 2002 awoke in him a 'strong, practical 'interest in this therapy. Since then he has been “on the primal road”.
He believes that there is a strong, direct correlation between the way the primal process and his AEP Therapy works. In both ways of healing, the body is reacting to information that is given to it. In Primal Therapy, that information is expressed in feelings and the connection of those feelings to memory. In AEP therapy, the information is biochemical in nature. He has, in fact, observed 2 cases from his practice in which participation in his AEP Therapy resulted in body/primal healing as a byproduct.
Oliver and I had a conversation not long ago about this subject:
Oliver: A woman I was working with had problems with arthritis, depression, and hypertension. She was on medications for these things. She became interested in urine therapy from speaking to someone who knew about my work. So she wanted to try it. After 3 or 4 days of using the preparation, she noticed a palm-sized bruise on her hip and asked her doctor about it, since she hadn’t fallen or otherwise struck that area.
She and the doctor were perplexed. She then asked me about the bruise. Could it have been a result of using the dilution? I asked her if she had had an accident when she was very little. She said “no”…“but it’s exactly where my ex-husband hit me fiercely years ago!” That remembrance was a big “wow” for her, as she made the connection and asked me, if I thought that my preparation made it happen. “It is amazing” , I replied . “It seems that AEP Therapy has resulted in the healing of a long unseen trauma, by enabling you to re-experience the effects of that trauma, along with insights into the cause of the bruise.
Oliver: I was also using this therapy on another woman who, later, reported feeling a bruised feeling on her stomach, like someone had struck her. I asked her the same question: do you remember being injured when younger? She said: “OMG, yes, when I was 10 years old someone jumped on my stomach and I was in the hospital for 3 days.” This memory came with a “wow” emotion, as well, as she made the connection to it.”
Jim: This is so interesting, Oliver. The formulations that you prepare are designed to work with the body to stimulate its natural healing processes. The same is true of the many naturopathic health practices of every culture. I see primal therapy as being just such a healing practice. Janov’s concept of the Imprint…and the necessity of making the Imprint conscious describes a process that could happen with the application of any of the naturopathic health practices. What you have described seems to be just such a healing or connection to consciousness originating out of the application of urine therapy to healing.
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Arthur Janov presents pictures of the phenomenon that Oliver presents, in his book How You Get Sick, How You Get Well. (1) His is a picture of finger mark bruising that developed during the course of therapy with him. He presents this phenomenon as being an imprint of early trauma during the birth process. The appearance of the bruise represents a connection to the early birth trauma…an event that he calls a primal. As he said….“…the memory of a repressed trauma is far more complex than simple verbal recall; it contains the original state of the entire system during the trauma and can be literally relived.” And “In the primal, whatever the individual cell networks did originally to survive they will do again”. (2 )
During trauma the nervous system instantly assembles a cascade of sensorimotor responses to the threat, all designed to survive it. The cascade of responses involves every cell in the body and, in the above case, even the hematoma at the site of physical attack.
The many aspects of a traumatic reaction are connected energetically. The unconscious re-assembly of these reactions is responsible for the disordered behaviors we see in anxiety, chronic anger, et. They are what makes us suffer and feel depressed. LeDoux refers to this unconscious re-assembly as defensive survival reactions.(3)
The bruise that appeared on the first woman and the bruised sensation that was experienced by the other led to spontaneous insights about their causes. These insights, by themselves, may be enough of a healing event for them. On the other hand, they might feel that some other issues they have might be connected to these events. Curiosity about this might lead them into a Primal session during which more somatic experiencing is involved. During such a session they might start by placing their hands over the exact location of the presenting hematoma/bruised stomach sensation. Focusing awareness on these areas and paying attention to whatever comes out of those places usually causes other parts of the body that are energetically connected to the original areas to start presenting sensations, etc. Sometimes a word or phrase emerges. Sometimes a sound. Sometimes a movement or a change in body position occurs. Whatever presents itself, you’re asked to get your ego out of the way and just “let it happen”…. just be present with it. This spontaneous emergence is the automatic re-assembly of the imprint. Usually, small sensorimotor components present themselves, increase in intensity and complexity, then slowly begins to dissipate. These feeling cycles can last 1-3 hours, depending upon the person. Afterward the client might have an insight. And, further work might result in the further expansion of the elements of the imprint. Little by little, in this way, the client’s trauma responses begin to lose their energy, along with the act-outs that they generate.
This happens because the newly conscious trauma responses are switched off by the medial-prefrontal cortex, whose job it is to shut down primitive brain reactions that have no relevance to the present moment. This change is permanent and is experienced as a feeling of being more at ease in your own body. It represents understanding on the cellular level.(4) If stress testing is conducted, there will be a gradual movement of the stress response into the normal part of the bell curve.(5) Janov’s brain fMRI results demonstrate a changed brain after Primal Therapy. (6)
1. Janov, Arthur, Why You Get Sick, How You Get Well, Dove Books, West Hollywood, Ca. 1996,
P 210.
2. Ibid., P216, Paragraphs 3 and 2.
4. Pullaro, Jim, Fear Memory Integration, iUniverse, Lincoln, Ne, 2005, P
5. Ibid., PP 75 and 76.
6. Janov, Arthur, Why You Get Sick, How You Get Well, Dove Books, West Hollywood, Ca. 1996, Appendix C: Brain Maps.