Homeopathy — a germinal seed of modern pharmaceuticals.
We know Samuel Hahnemann, M.D. (1755 – 1843) as the Father of Homeopathy and of Experimental Pharmacology. He was the first to prepare medicines using a specialized methodology, the advent of a scientific approach to dosage. Before then, it was guesswork and largely dependent upon a practitioner’s experience and subjective judgment.
Dr. Hahnemann proved that a remedy that produces symptoms in a healthy person will cure those same symptoms when manifested by a person experiencing that particular disease.
The “Law of Similars” and Potentization
Two important ideas at the foundation of the science of homeopathy are the Law of Similars and potentization. The “Law of Similars” states that since exposure to a substance can precipitate specific symptoms in a healthy person, that same substance—correctly prepared as a homeopathic remedy (see below under Potentization)—can stimulate the body’s own healing powers to recover from similar symptoms during illness.
For example: A person who chops an onion can develop watery eyes, a runny nose, sneezing, coughing, and throat irritation from exposure to the onion’s active substances. Allium cepa, the onion’s homeopathic version is made of potentized red onion; it has demonstrated over and over again that it can help the body overcome a cold or allergic reaction manifesting as similar symptoms (watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing, coughing, or throat irritation.) The remedy prepared from the red onion can assist the body in overcoming the same symptoms that the onion itself produces. In essence, it is an aggravating or counter-stimulant therapy which evokes the self-healing capacity which resides in our human energy field comprised of body-mind and spirit.
Potentization is a process under which a substance undergoes a series of precise dilutions and succussions (a vigorous shaking action). Potentization is the repeated process of dilution and succussion which sets the molecules into “chaos”, thus bringing about an energetic change, which imparts a deeper curative effect.
Homeopathy works extremely well on children, elderly persons, and pets. A good profile of your case can provide the specific subtle frequencies to gently and effectively catalyze the healing process. Purifying the body by detoxification and then using fresh fruits and vegetables for nourishment falls in the companion realm of Naturopathy.
Homeopathy was used in the United States until the advent of synthetic pharmaceuticals. It is still widely used with high success rates in Europe.
Recommended Reading:
Coulter HL. Homeopathic Science and Modern Medicine: The Physics of Healing With Microdoses. Berkeley: North Atlantic, 1987.
Coulter HL. Divided Legacy: A History of the Schism in Medical Thought. Berkeley: North Atlantic, 1975; 1977; 1981; 1994.
Hahnemann S. The Organon of Medicine. 5th Edition; 6th Edition.
Kent JT. Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy. Berkeley: North Atlantic, 1979 (reprint).
Vithoulkas G. The Science of Homeopathy. New York: Grove, 1980.
Wauters Ambika. Homeopathic Color Remedies. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1999.
Notes from “A Brief Study Course in Homeopathy”
By Elizabeth Wright-Hubbard, M.D. (1896-1967)
Homeopathy outline
- That there is a natural law of cure: like cures like.
- That the basis of therapy is a vital rather than a physiological one, i.e., that the vital force must be stimulated to cure the patient and that only so can he really be cured, that any other drug therapy is palliative or suppressive.
- That a single remedy at a time is all that is needed, which follows from state 1, because there cannot be two things most similar to another. The single remedy has the further advantage that when one thing is given, one can evaluate its action; whereas, if four are given, you cannot know which one helps, or in what proportion.
- That a minimum dose is essential. This is based on the Arndt-Schultz law that small doses stimulate, medium doses paralyze, and large doses kill. In other words, that the action of small and very large doses of the same substance on living mater is opposite.
- That the Materia Medica must, because of the Law of Similars, be composed of the results of remedy experimentation with small doses on relatively healthy humans (so-called provings).
- That disease is not an actual entity but a name assigned for classification purposes to manifestations of departures from normalcy in individuals.
- That individualization is essential, i.e., that no two people are exactly alike in sickness or in health, and that although even homeopaths must classify, they draw vastly finer distinctions. Theoretically, there should be as many types of pneumonia as there are people who have it, but owing to the small number of proved remedies compared to the substances that might be proved, there can only be as many pneumonia types to date as those for which we have remedies.
- That suppression is one of the greatest dangers of medicine.
- That chronic disease is constitutional matter and has a philosophic bearing on prescribing. One cannot practice true homeopathy without the concept of chronic disease.
HERING’S THREE LAWS OF CURE
The symptoms are cured in this order with the correct remedy:
- From within outward
- From above downward
- In the reverse order of their appearance.
This is never the case in chronic disease untreated by homeopathy; therefore, when observed, one can be sure that it is the remedy which is curing and that it is the remedy which is curing and the correct remedy has been found. Hering’s laws are so important that they warrant an example.
A rheumatic fever case, where the joint symptoms have disappeared and the heart is affected receives the similimum (correct remedy). The heart improves, pains return in the shoulders and elbows, these disappear and the knees and ankles are involved. These in turn pass off and the patient completely recovers. If the symptoms do not go in this order, the remedy is wrong. When a patient on a chronic remedy develops a different symptom, search back or question the patient rigorously to determine whether this is the recurrence of an old symptom.
These laws of cure may or may not apply in acute disease. Usually they do not. If the picture of a chronic disease includes a suppression, especially if the suppression is due to crude drugging, the chronic remedy acting according to the third law of cure will sometimes restore the original discharge or eruption.
Pathology should not be removed by surgery until AFTER the sick constitution which produced such pathology has been cured. Sluggish patients, often owing to much allopathic drugging (prescription medications), will often require a very high potency to elicit any action at all.
It is an absolute rule that when favorable reactions sets in, the administration of the remedy must cease. So long as improvement is visible in the patient himself, the remedy should not be repeated. No only is there no need of “more of a good thing”, but a repetition of a remedy which is still acting successfully defeats itself and actually hinders cure.
When to prescribe or treat again? The rule is never to repeat or change the remedy while the patient himself is improving. When the improvement has apparently ceased in acute diseases, you may need to repeat the same remedy in the same or a higher potency, or, if your remedy was not a similimum, you may need another remedy to round out the cure. You must be sure that the cessation of improvement is not due to emotional, mechanical, or hygienic cause, or merely to the aggravation or outcropping of single symptoms. In chronic work, you should wait some time—from 3 to 4 days to 2-3 weeks or more, as the vital force has cycles even on the upward grade, and true curative action must not be interrupted until it is certain that the reactive force is exhausted. Watch and wait!
When you have had true improvement, and particularly in chronic cases, you have observed the working of Hering’s Law of Cure.
Most patients require “medicine” often, not only so that they feel that something is being done, but so that they may have remedies for emergencies and it is not only honorable but necessary to give placebos.
The most difficult cases to mange are the new patients who do not yet understand what they must NOT DO: that they must NOT suppress again an eruption or discharge that the homeopath has been trying to bring out again. Always warn your patients with suppressions in their histories, if a rash or a discharge reoccurs, to do NOTHING and LET YOU KNOW. Aggravations are not so hard to handle if you warn patients. Tell them that they may occur and that it will be a good sign if they do.
RECAP. Never repeat a remedy when the patient himself is improving. Never change a remedy when the symptoms are following Hering’s Law of Cure in the reverse order of the symptoms. Never change your remedy when a discharge or eruption follows the administration.
We can also use Informational Medicine to scan for remedies which are bet suited to you and your condition.
