Homeopathy has a proud record of healing but has always been attacked by medical vested interests and restricted in every way by those pressure groups.
Renewed calls to ban it are now surfacing in a new worldwide co-ordinated campaign by the drug companies and their clients in governments.
The same thing happened in the early 20th century.
Homeopathy
In the late 1700’s a newly graduated German medical student called Samuel Hahnemann became disillusioned with the medical practices of his time and looked for a better way.
He gave up his medical practice and first turned to making medical translations to make a living, and gradually discovered or rediscovered the law of similars or like cures like.
This means that a drug which produces certain symptoms in a healthy person can often cure the same symptoms in a sick patient.
This was not a new idea, both Hippocrates and Paracelsus for example had said the same thing more or less, but Samuel Hahnemann ran with the ball and developed several interesting variations which became the new school of Homeopathy.
Homeopathy had startling success in the many epidemics of the time as well as in ordinary acute and chronic cases and it’s fame spread rapidly. It always excited jealousy and fear though in the established medical profession at large.
One key factor in Homeopathy was the idea of using very dilute doses of drugs instead of huge toxic doses as was common amongst doctors of the day. After a while Hahnemann found that shaking or succussing the medicine seemed to increase it’s potency. Those who owned pharmacies (including many doctors) were not impressed with the new cheaper low doses of course.
Hahnemann proved or tested the medicines on himself and later on assistants, the first famous proving was of Quinine (the famous anti-malarial drug from South America) which he found caused the symptoms of malaria in him in high doses but not the disease.
Hahnemann realised quinine fights malaria on the law of like cures like or the Law of Similars. Previously the usual explanation for it’s effectiveness was that the drug was astringent. But as Hahnemann observed there were many much more astringent drugs that did not cure malaria!
Many other provings followed, often of drugs already well known in herbalism, but the new method of provings and writing down in detail the symptoms produced by each drug in a healthy person seems to have been new and alien to orthodox medicine.
Of course since time immemorial herbalists had always tested drugs first on themselves for safety and to find the correct dosage, but perhaps not in the way Hahnemann had developed to check which symptoms were produced.
Anyway Hahnemann was seen as developing a largely different medical approach.
Hahnemann’s new system spread quickly but it was the typhus epidemic which followed Napoleon’s retreat from Russia which established his fame internationally.
Hahnemann cured so many who would otherwise have died of Typhus that Homeopathy became celebrated in the press. Orthodox doctors were not happy though that their inadequacies were shown up so convincingly.
Throughout the nineteenth century Homeopathy fought epidemics such as cholera, flu, scarlet fever and many others far more effectively than orthodox medicine.
Although some prominent doctors went over to homeopathy, most conventional doctors did everything possible to undermine and slander homeopathy, fearful of economic competition and the loss of their privileged monopoly.
Hahnemann’s system attracted many intelligent people to it’s banner, at one time 10% of all American doctors were homeopaths and in Europe many of the most famous doctors were homeopaths, such as Sir Compton Burnett the Royal physician.
The system spread to South America, India, Russia and infact to most parts of the world, although always attacked by orthodox doctors and pharmacists with every trick in the book.
Another famous convert was Constantine Hering, a German Doctor who later worked in America, who is usually remembered most for his Laws of Cure. Hering was asked by his university professor in Germany to write an article condemning Homeopathy but found himself becoming converted to it instead.
He went to meet Samuel Hahnemann and later he was cured of a wounded hand by homeopathy where allopathic medicine had failed to cure it. Hering later founded a Homeopathic college in USA, the first one in the world.
Hering also did a lot of work on serpent (snake) poisons, both to find antidotes and to use them as homeopathic remedies. He introduced for instance Lachesis (venom of the bushmaster snake) as a homeopathic remedy. Actually this happened by accident when he was bitten himself and observed the symptoms he suffered from, luckily he survived!
Known as the father of American Homeopathy, Hering authored the classic: “The Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica.”
Hering observed that symptoms re-surface as part of the curative process, and that the healing process occurs in a specific order.
Famously he developed his Laws of Cure. Like all these sorts of laws they tend to become dogma and there are always exceptions.
Indeed it now seems that Hering never claimed these Laws as being so universal at all and was much more flexible in their application than previously thought. Anyway they are worth stating here I think as there is definitely some insight to be gained from these Laws of Cure. Indeed roughly similar laws appear in many different types of medical tradition. One summary goes like this :-
1/ Symptoms heal from the deepest (most limiting)
level to the most superficial. This means often from the mental into the emotional and finally into the physical, although it can also be simultaneous on two or more levels.
2/ Symptoms resolve in the reverse order that they came:
the most recent going away first.
3/ Symptoms should improve from above downwards
4/ Symptoms heal from the most important organ to the
least important organ (ie. generally from the heart to the skin which is the most superficial organ).
5/ Symptoms improve from the center of the body to the
periphery (hands and feet).
When people start to learn Homeopathy they find that many texts are from the nineteenth century and so are written in a way that can be hard to understand from a modern outlook on medicines and from our modern language too. After all the nineteenth century was a different culture in many respects. It takes time to get to grips with it all but it is worth the effort.
Homeopathic Repertories of medicines and their indications list huge numbers of symptoms and from the point of view of better for or worse for, such as a patient feeling better if warm or worse for cold.
Remember Hahnemann tended to prescribe medicines on the totality of symptoms of a patient, taking into account also their emotional symptoms.
Like any system of medicine it takes time and effort to come to grips with it’s concepts and practices. There are many books available and a good place to start is a public library.
Some possible limitations of Homeopathy.
Of course Homeopathy relies on drugs, albeit safer doses and much cleverer prescribing of drugs than orthodox allopathic medicine. Even so, if one questions the value of treating diseases with drugs then it has limitations.
Taoist internal exercises, Indian Yoga exercises, mudras and others, as well as Wilhelm Reich’s bioenergetic psychotherapy are examples of other ways of treating many diseases usually without drugs of any kind
Another limitation of Homeopathy perhaps is the concentration only on the law of similars, which after all is only one of the laws of medicine.
Hippocrates for example had also mentioned the Law of Contraries, using medicines such as hot to relieve cold, dry to relieve damp or bitter to relieve sweet and other similar approaches which are well known from Chinese medicine, Western herbalism and other systems.
These contrary methods also can often work, so like cures like is not the only effective method known to man.
Certainly Hahnemann was aware of these other laws of medicine and even said he would use them where appropriate but it remains true that in homeopathy generally the law of similarity is usually the only method.
On the other hand homeopathy has in the past included for example "organ remedies" from Eclectic Medicine which are not strictly prescribed on the usual Homeopathic rules.
So there has been at times some practical flexibility of the rules so to speak.
Actually, homeopathy can be pretty profound in it’s understanding of disease, and has achieved incredible feats very often even where all other systems have failed, and it has many weapons against disease and a philosophy behind it.
Also there are many cheap books and many cheap remedies, and far less side effects than allopathic medine, so homeopathy might well be at least one of the main pillars in your medical edifice.
Even if you don’t actually practice homeopathy as such you could still find that a knowledge of it’s outlook and diagnostics will help you to use other modalities of healing.
Actually I am something of a fan of using what works even if it crosses boundaries of several health modalities.
The simplicity of it’s remedies makes you partially independent of the drug company monopoly on medicines (this of course is why there is a renewed push by governments worldwide to ban homeopathy!) as they managed to do in the early twentieth century in many countries.
The Book Depository website has hundreds of cheap homeopathic books, many printed cheaply in India by the B. Jain publishing company. Public libraries usually have at least some homeopathic titles also. The internet has many homeopathic websites too which can quickly tell you the indications for almost any homeopathic remedy (medicine).
Narayana Verlag company in Germany has a massive list of homeopathy books available and can send you a free catalogue.
The B. Jain company in India supports Homeopathy and has many books usually quite cheap on the subject.
There are many resources on the web about homeopathy, and in an emergency worth consulting, although in many third World Countries you will have trouble finding prepackaged homeopathic preparations. No problem though in places like India or Brazil or Argentina, where homeopathy is well represented.
But for information alone the web can help you anywhere, for example Boneset herb (Eupatorium perfoliatum) is indicated in Dengue fever which after all is known as breakbone fever. The herb may be available in some form in almost every country even if not in the homeopathic form. As always if necessary check the dosage (if necessary on the internet) to make sure exactly how to use it safely.
There are many homeopathy related sites on the net but some good sites are these
ABC homeopathy website is a very good resource at
https://abchomeopathy.com/
Another world directory and resource is www.homeopathyhome.com
Another comprehensive resource is www.homeopathic.com
An interesting Ayurvedic based site on many herbhttp://doctorherbs.weebly.com/
Homeopathic remedies come in many shapes, liquids and tablets and little nodules.
In many countries they will be readily available but in some Third World countries it might be impossible to find them.
Other types of herbal approach will exist everywhere though.
In many countries they will be readily available but in some Third World countries it might be impossible to find them.
Other types of herbal approach will exist everywhere though.
Most countries have at least one or two homeopathic pharmacies holding, trying to keep the faith.
Germany, South America and India are strongholds of Homeopathy, in spite of all the misinformation and attacks from Allopathic medicine for the past two centuries.
Samuel Hahnemann was a prodigious intellect, and the school of medicine he founded has saved a lot of lives, in spite of the obstacles put in it's way by money based medicine.
Hahnemann died in his 80's whilst in consultation with a patient.
Homeopathy probably remains one of mankind's best hopes in the event of an unstoppable viral epidemic or other similar health catastrophe.
Also see other pages on Eclectic Medicine and other subjects under MORE at the top of the page. Thanks.
Hahnemann died in his 80's whilst in consultation with a patient.
Homeopathy probably remains one of mankind's best hopes in the event of an unstoppable viral epidemic or other similar health catastrophe.
Also see other pages on Eclectic Medicine and other subjects under MORE at the top of the page. Thanks.
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This website contains general information about medical conditions and treatments. The information is not advice and should not be treated as such.
(2) Credit
This document was created using an SEQ Legal template.
(3) No warranties
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