Homoeopathy
What is Homoeopathy?
How Homoeopathy works
The History of Homoeopathy
The Proving of Remedies
Principles of Homoeopathy
Potentization
Conclusion
What is Homoeopathy?
Homoeopathy is a gentle yet effective form of treatment for a wide variety of conditions. It is holistic in nature, which means that each patient is treated as an individual, and all mental, emotional and physical aspects are taken into account before a remedy is selected. These totality of symptoms then provide the homoeopathic practitioner with enough information in order to select the appropriate remedy for the individual patient. Homoeopathy makes use of biologically active substances from plant, mineral or animal origins in very diluted form to influence the body to heal itself.
The word Homoeopathy comes from the Greek Homois meaning similar and Pathos meaning suffering. So, in other words, homeopathy is the treatment of disease with substances that would, in a healthy individual, elicit the symptoms of that disease.
How Homoeopathy works
If we consider health as a state of “ease” (physically, mentally and emotionally) then illness is a state of “dis-ease”.
Homoeopathy works on the principle that we all have an innate ability to overcome “dis-ease”. This “vital force” that we have within us allows our bodies to function optimally, our cells to grow, repair and divide normally and all our bodily systems to interact harmoniously with each other. Thus when our body starts to express its “dis-ease”, homoeopathic remedies allow this “vital force” in our body to correct itself, without any harmful effects.
The History of Homoeopathy
Homoeopathy’s principle of “similia similibus curentur” or “let likes be treated by likes” was first applied to medicine by Hippocrates, alongside the principle of contraries (which is the principles on which orthodox medicine is based).
Later this principle of similars was elaborated on and developed by Dr Samuel Christian Hahnemann, a medical doctor from Germany, who is known as the “Father of Homoeopathy”. In 1790, while translating a Materia Medica by William Cullen (a well-known professor of chemistry at Edinburgh University), Hahnemann came across the statement that Cinchona (Peruvian bark) had properties of curing malarial fever. He tested the theory on himself by taking “four drams” of Cinchona daily for several days. The symptoms Hahnemann developed were typical for malaria. Intrigued, he started experimenting on family and friends and started proving other substances as well. Thus homoeopathy was born.
The Proving of Remedies
Hahnemann did the first proving on himself using Cinchona and recorded the symptoms he experienced. Other homoeopathic remedies are derived from the vegetable, mineral and animal kingdoms. They are harvested from their source and then prepared in accordance with the directions of the homoeopathic pharmacopoeia.
These medicinal substances are first proven on healthy individuals, in order to “ascertain their pure action in order to effect the homoeopathic cure of natural disease”. The set of symptoms exhibited by the healthy individual are recorded and used as a reference to treat similar symptoms in patients. This record of symptoms constitutes the homoeopathic Materia Medica.
Principles of Homoeopathy
Homoeopathy is based on the following principles:
- The Law of Similars: Any substance will produce certain symptoms if given to a healthy person for a long enough period (see “proving of remedies”, above). Thus if these collective symptoms are found in a “dis-eased” person, the “dis-ease” can be cured by the homoeopathic form of the substance which produced them in the healthy individual.
- The Law of the Minimum Dose: The healing power of a substance is in direct ratio to its degree of dilution (which is accompanied by a period of potentization – see below).
- The Law of Individualization: A homoeopathic practitioner regards each patient as unique and individual, and the homoeopathic medicine is selected to match those aspects which makes them unique.
Potentization
The original substance is diluted in a specialized process called potentization, which involves vigorous succussion of the remedy with each step of dilution. Homoeopathic remedies are available in different potencies and are dispensed in different mediums, such as alcohol, distilled water and lactose.
Hahnemann found that by potentizing homoeopathic medicines, the “medicinal powers of the crude substances” become “immeasurably and penetratingly efficacious” and the toxic nature of crude substances are eliminated while maintaining their therapeutic action. This has now been shown to be a phenomenon of quantum physics. It is the quantum form of the remedy that renders it capable of providing the curative stimulus.
Conclusion
Hahnemann wrote in his Organon of Medicine that “homoeopathy is a perfectly simple system of medicine, remaining always fixed in its principles as in practice, which, like the doctrine whereon it is based, if rightly apprehended will be found to be complete.”
Homoeopathy is a scientific, reliable and natural system of medicinal therapy that treats patients in a holistic manner to bring about cure on mental, physical and emotional levels.