Homeopathy and Soul – II – The Homeopathic Process and Christian Philosophy

II. The Homeopathic Process
The last article, “In the Beginning” was an introduction to homeopathy, explaining how its principles were discovered by Hahnemann with a plausible explanation of how it worked. Hahnemann was truly inspired to have conceived of this gentle system of healing, as well as to develop the foundation of basic principles of practice most adequately during his own lifetime. Unfortunately there persists till today some confusion with how these basic principles are clinically applied, a problem that Hahnemann himself faced with colleagues in his time. He was strongly critical of untenable variations of (mis)using these principles after critically perceiving their long term effects. He explained with reasons, various instances why a violation of some foundational principles were unacceptable for homeopathic treatment. This violation though, has continued to this day as homeopathy is misrepresented or remedies misused with the mistaken idea that there are no “side-effects”, as well as a lack of commitment to learning the basic guidelines already in place. Here is an article to read on Homeopathy Principles by Dr. Manish Bhatia which states that,

“Every science has certain fundamental principles which guide the whole system. Homeopathy as a science of medical treatment has a philosophy of its own and its therapeutics is based on certain fundamental principles. These are:

1. Law of Similia
2. Law of Simplex
3. Law of Minimum
4. Doctrine of Drug Proving
5. Theory of Chronic Disease
6. Theory of Vital Force
7. Doctrine of Drug-Dynamisation”

When a patient comes to me for treatment, I often spend a considerable amount of time explaining to them the “homeopathic process”. Many develop misconceptions from previous experiences with homeopathy and with how remedies have been used. Complicating this problem, is an abundant exposure to a diametrically different approach to disease and its treatment (which can be alarmist and fatalistic) propagated by the dominant system of medicine. I have found it necessary to create an educated awareness so that my patients experience truly effective homeopathic treatment for long-term health. Part of this learning includes developing a confidence in one’s God given, inherent ability to fight disease through enhancing one’s own, well equipped, well developed, sophisticated Immune System.

The first misconception people have, is that homeopathy can be used like allopathy ie: a specific remedy indicated for a specific disease diagnosis. This unfortunately continues to be upheld by some homeopaths who still think “allopathically” and use homeopathic remedies in an allopathic way. For example: Arsenic for food poisoning, Nux Vomica for constipation, Allium Cepa for colds, Arnica for injuries, Belladonna for fever, etc. While this may work in first-aid emergencies or at a very basic level for some acute and temporary problems due to partial similarity, it can be a disastrous line of thinking for treating chronic disease with homeopathy. One cardinal principle in homeopathic treatment is that each person is individual and hence requires a remedy as well as case management which is individually tailored to the development of disease and hence the process of cure, in that person.

The second most common problem I encounter, is a patients’ (mis)conception of his/her state of disease. The disappearance of a symptom that may be disturbing or troubling is not necessarily a sign of cure, however satisfactory it appears, because it may be only temporary and will recur again in one form or another at a later time. For example: If someone has a bad eczematous patch on the arm which is oozing and itching, disturbing sleep. After some treatment (homeopathic or allopathic), this patch disappears. S/he feels better and is relieved. But a few months later the person has begun to have the first few attacks of wheezing bronchitis that develops in a year or so, into Chronic Asthma. What has happened here? The common interpretation is that the eczema is apparently “cured”, but now there is a new problem, Asthma. NO, from the homeopathic perspective, the disease expression is NOT cured has only been shifted, and pushed to a deeper organ of expression, from the superficial skin to the lungs. The disease has in fact progressed! The correct homeopathic treatment subsequent to this will relieve the asthma, but the previously suppressed eczema will recur in a mild form again. This too will be CURED in time, as the person continues with committed follow-up for homeopathic treatment. Sometimes this process can take 1 year, but at the end of it, there will be no asthma and no eczema as well. The person persists in stable health for quite a few years after.

Hence, correlation with the history of development of disease is the only way to know whether the disappearance of symptoms has been truly curative or is simply a form of suppression. Suppression means that the disease process continues unabated and is only taking a slightly deviated route. So if this happens under the influence of a homeopathic remedy without a general improvement in the disease condition, we consider that the remedy may have only palliated or suppressed a condition, but has not cured. This is not true homeopathic treatment.

What is it a true homeopathic physician seeks to do in the homeopathic treatment process?

The instructions below form the basis of my own developement as a homeopath. Becoming a true homeopath is a continious learning process through one’s lifetime. Here is a basic guideline from the Organon:
First, the homeopathic physician is expected to take a detailed homeopathic medical case history of a person seeking homeopathic treatment. This is in order that the homeopath fully understands the patient and his disease, as well as the type of homeopathic management this patient will require in the long term. This history includes homeopathic details of the predominant/chief complaint, other physical problems that are present and the mental (emotional) state. This information, when analyzed for characteristic homeopathic symptoms helps us reach the correctly matching homeopathic remedy or series of remedies needed. In addition, a detailed past history of illnesses and family history of disease is necessary. This helps the homeopath to perceive how disease developed and progressed in a persons lifetime in order to make, what is termed as, a “miasmatic analysis”.

Disease development and its Cure

You see, an expression of disease described as a ‘diagnosis’ by the dominant school of medicine, is not an isolated phenomenon of illness. It represents a continuing process of deteriorating health and imbalance, that initially starts with more simple ailments like skin allergies or common colds, but later in life moves to deeper organ disturbances like asthma, heart disease or brain diseases. In most people, serious health problems do not manifest themselves right at the start of ill-health. They only develop once the more simple problems have not been effectively treated. An initial imbalance produces these simple, superficial illnesses. But when these problems have been suppressed by symptomatic superficial medication, the initial imbalance that caused these symptoms in less life-threatening areas of the body remains uncorrected. They persist and may get worse under stressful conditions. It is now forced, in time, to express itself in more important and deeper organs.

This is the phenomenon of disease progression and has been observed over and over again in nature and in human beings. It is a natural progression of deteriorating health, one that each of us can easily perceive with a little common sense, because it is simply so obvious! This natural phenomenon is similar to the process of aging. It is a slow continuous deterioration that can progress faster if greater suppression (deviation) of superficial disease occurs. Hahnemann gives us various examples of these disease conditions and their subsequent progressions, in the Organon (eg: Aphorisms 35-51) as well as the Chronic Diseases, with appropriate case references which he collected from various Medical Journals and Papers. These were educated and scientific observations made by senior physicians of good repute. Hahnemann had access to all these works and studied them in detail. He knew many languages and was involved with the translation of some of these writings.

The process of cure of disease under homeopathic treatment, thus, is in the reverse order of its development. This means that the more serious disease symptoms especially those that have appeared last, will be the first to respond to a correctly chosen homeopathic similimum remedy, while symptoms that have been present for a longer time and are in more superficial organs will respond later. Only once the more recent and serious disease symptoms have been cured, can the older and more chronic problems be resolved. This occurs repeatedly in nature and was more closely observed by Dr. Hering. For homeopaths, this Natural “Law of Direction of Cure” (Aphorim 28) as it is termed, appropriately attributed to Hering’s observations (which I will talk more about in the next article), is one of the important guidelines to whether the homeopathic treatment course is correct and is following the right direction towards cure.

Every effort should be made to educate a patient to be part of understanding this process of disease development, as well as observing the process of cure in one’s own case. One then realises that though one experiences substantial relief when one begins treatment, the treatment remains incomplete if it is not followed through over a significant period of time i.e. at least 1 year. I have observed over this time period, that most patients experience adequate improvement of health in mind and body. They fall sick less often, and they develop a healthy immune response to infections (miasmas) from which they recover quickly and easily. So much so, that they HARDLY EVER become seriously sick with any major illness. Thankfully, this has been my clinical experience with most committed patients, and gives me the confidence to say that sticking to the true homeopathic principles propounded by Hahnemann is a great investment in ones future health.

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Leela D'Souza

Leela D'Souza is a Bombay-based homeopathic professional whose experience includes intensive medical training in one of India's leading homeopathic medical institutions. Her private practice in homeopathic healing spans a decade and a half. http://homeopathy2health.com/