Fundamental
What is homeopathy?
Homeopathy is a system of medicine based on the principle of similars. The name is composed of the two Greek words homoion (similar) and pathos (suffering) and was created by the discoverer of scientific homeopathy, the physician, pharmacist and chemist Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (born 1755 in Meissen, died 1843 in Paris).
Samuel Hahnemann and the development of homeopathy
Dr. Samuel Hahnemann was a dedicated physician who spent many years engaged in research and finally succeeded in developing an original healing process, founded on elementary rules. The principles on which the method in its present form is based have remained unchanged for the past 200 years. During years of experiments and meticulous observation he discovered two important facts concerning healing:
- If you give healthy subjects
certain natural substances regularly in
relatively strong doses, these persons will
develop symptoms of diseases which are
characteristic for the substance administered.
A lot of people have already noticed such effects, probably without even wondering why they occur: coffee causes palpitations and insomnia, cutting onions can bring tears to the eyes and cause a runny nose. Moreover it is generally well-known that different poisons cause different toxic symptoms: a person who has consumed deadly nightshade will present different symptoms from a person who has consumed arsenic or toadstools.
- In 1790, following an
experiment on himself with cinchona bark - at
that time known as a remedy for malaria - he
began to investigate these symptoms. After
consuming certain quantities of cinchona bark
powder he became ill and for a short time
presented symptoms resembling those of malaria.
He concluded that there must be a connection, and
for a number of years he experimented with
different medicines on a group of volunteers,
meticulously noting the symptoms presented (proving
of medicines on healthy subjects). In this
way he gathered a knowledge of medicines that
enabled him to anticipate the effects certain
substances might have on the human organism.
He carried out further experiments over a long period and noticed that only those substances that caused symptoms in healthy subjects similar to those of the disease were capable, in their potentiated form, of curing a sick person. For example, a certain type of headache can only be cured by a substance that causes a similar headache in a healthy person. Similarly, a streaming cold can only be cured by a medicine that causes a streaming (not a catarrhal) cold.
Samuel Hahnemann
(1755-1843)
"To cure mildly, rapidly, certainly and permanently, choose, in every case of disease, a medicine which can itself produce an affection similar to that sought to be cured (homoion pathos)"
"Simila
similibus curentur"
=
"Let
similar things be cured by similar things"
It is the homeopath's task to find the remedy that corresponds to the disease suffered by each patient. For this, he will need a complete and exact description of his patient's symptoms and signs (if possible including all previous doctors' diagnoses). He must record everything in detail. The very first case taking can sometimes take a long time, but it is necessary if the therapist is to have a comprehensive overview of all previous illnesses in the life of his patient. The patient will be expected to assist the therapist as much as he can, and he must never conceal any facts, even if he finds them embarrassing, strange or unimportant. The pledge to secrecy, which applies equally to physicians and homeopaths, guarantees the patient absolute discretion vis-à-vis third parties.
After the facts have been recorded, the symptoms must be analysed and the corresponding medicine selected. The choice of medicine is an extremely delicate task - in fact a real skill - that once again calls for time and concentration, and for which the homeopath must study the properties of a number of medicines in the specialised literature (Materiae medicae and repertories, as well with the help of the computer). The dose and strength of the medicine prescribed must be individually adapted to the sensitiveness of the patient. The treatment, during which several different medicines may succeed each other, always starts with a single homeopathic substance, even for chronic disorders. The course of treatment is discussed with the therapist at regular intervals.
During over 50 years of research Hahnemann found that the symptoms of an illness are actually not the illness itself, but merely its outwardly perceptible manifestation. In fact, in a sick person a central source of energy has become disharmonised, which is why the patient has become ill. Hahnemann calls this source of energy "vital force". This is not a material force, but is to be understood as "dynamic", energetic and spiritual. (As a comparison, electric current isn't a material substance either, but it is still a source of energy!). It stimulates the material part of our organism consisting of atoms, molecules, cells, tissues, organs, etc., it preserves and controls all vital functions, and thereby generates harmony.
At death, this vital force leaves the body and, although all the cells, organs, etc. remain unchanged, the person is no longer able to live. When symptoms of a disease appear, this is a sign that the patient's vital force is disharmonised. The conscientious healer considers it his duty to reinstate harmony and order in his patient's vital force by means of suitable medication. This is the one and only point where healing can be achieved.
Since vital force is not a material substance, but something energetic and dynamic, the medicines that are to restore harmony cannot be material either. In years of research Hahnemann developed a special process for the manufacture of medicines, known as "potentisation". A number of the natural substances used in homeopathy only receive their healing properties through this process, e.g. cooking salt, iron, gold, copper, etc. Other substances which were originally toxic, such as arsenic, phosphorus, mercury, snake poison, etc. can be converted into important curative medicines through potentiation.
Both acute and chronic diseases can be treated by homeopathy. However, the sphere of application of homeopathy cannot be determined by clinical diagnoses (migraines, rheumatism, asthma, etc.). It is the symptoms of the patient that determine the selection of a medicine as described above. Naturally, one cannot expect the healing of damaged organs, genetic defects, etc.
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