Hi Elaine,
Are you running into a lot of people who are using (or trying to use) the Banerji Protocols? Maybe the only one noticing is me?
No, “Marlie”, it is not just you!!! What I am getting are their patients who want to know how to stop aggravations and provings! (However, I hasten to add, I’m not sure if these people are really doing justice to the Banerjis’ actual way of practicing? But they CLAIM to be doing the Banerji Protocols!)
Here is one such person who contacted me. Her complaint was digestive in nature. She has asked me not to divulge the long list of remedies in high potency that she was prescribed because she wants to remain anonymous, but, suffice it to say, pick any remedy out of the air you want, and it’s for sure she got it! 13 remedies altogether, including Bryonia AND Rhus tox, to be taken together, which, as we should all know, are opposite remedies! By that I mean, if you’re in a Bryonia state, Rhus tox will not help you, and if you’re in a Rhus tox state, Bryonia will not help you; so, on that basis alone, I have to raise a red flag!
The follow-up isn’t for 2 months, which is a long time to go without any monitoring! But, you see, it’s a Protocol! It’s not individualization, which is the hallmark of homeopathy. You give the practitioner a diagnosis, and there’s a Protocol that goes with it, and that’s what you get, and that’s that; OK? They can’t answer any of your questions because it’s not their Protocol, it’s the Banerjis’ Protocol! They’re just passing it along to you, either take it or don’t. There’s no need to take your case in the Hahnemannian sense because… it’s a Protocol! Everybody gets the same thing, that includes the remedy, the potency, the number of days or weeks you’re supposed to take it….
Now let me explain something. The Banerjis live in India; they get 1,000 patients a day! They do not have time to take a 2 hour case! Even a half hour case! Their patients come to them with a diagnosis from a hospital. That tells the Banerjis what remedies to give so you’re in and out of your appointment with the Banerjis in five minutes! There are hundreds of people lined up outside the building in the sweltering heat, the Banerjis have no time for, “Do you like onions? … What was your childhood like?” They have to come up with a “short-cut”, if you will, out of necessity, just as Robin Murphy explained to me in my interview with him that when he was in Haiti after the earthquake, treating masses of people every day:
“I just came back from Haiti seeing 50 to 100 patients a day and I can tell you, constitutional homeopathy is worthless under such conditions!”
Just like the Banerjis, if he saw someone, he went by the diagnosis. If they had fungus, they got Thuja. It was all very much like the Banerjis. If you want to see the Banerjis practice, here they are:
And there is a case to be made in terms of practicing this way—by diagnosis. It’s one way of practicing homeopathy. Should we be treating every patient this way? Is it appropriate to every situation?
Here’s another patient on the “Banerji Protocols” who came to me for help. She has Lyme Disease. Here’s what she wrote:
***
Elaine, I started these last Friday:
Ignatia 200C – Two doses every day *
Rhus tox 1M – Two doses every day
Symphytum 200C mixed with Calc phos 3X – Two doses every day *
Hypericum 200C mixed with Arsenicum 200C – Two doses every day
Lycopodium 200C – Two doses every day
Merc viv 30C – Two doses every day *
Nux vomica 200C – One dose every day *
Calc carb 200C – One dose every other day *
Sepia 200C – One dose every 3 days
“So, in addition to [my other] symptoms, I feel the stomach ones have been building. The loose gassy stools are something I have never had before. I started burping just the other day. My stomach has started to burn…. I stopped all the remedies. … There was aggravation … I was on my own as she was hard to get a hold of. …
You asked what “practical homeopathy” is? This is a direct quote from her: “Practical Homeopathy is based on the Banerji Protocols. It uses specific medicines for specific diseases which are diagnosed by using conventional diagnostics.”
Although she says specific diseases, she was insistent that she did not believe in chronic Lyme. I told her my concern about aggravation and she was adamant that there would be no aggravation. …
When I email her, it has to go through her assistant who forwards it to her, who then forwards her response back to me and they are meaningless responses. Yesterday, I told her I was discontinuing treatment and there was no reason to call me again. … At this point I believe she is dangerous to my health. I think she knows she screwed up badly.”
And here’s another one, Marlie:
“Hello Elaine, I’m curious if you can help me with a problem, its fairly urgent. I have COVID for 2 weeks now and I have Lyme. I’m having some severe anxiety over the last several days that wont go away; dizziness, muscle spasms with shaking, stiff neck. I would really appreciate your help. Here’s what my homeopath is giving me. The first set of remedies is for COVID:
This next is for Lyme:
“I don’t know much about homeopathy and what should be done and not done, I hired ______________ from an article she wrote on Lyme. Do you know her? I’ve been with her for 9 months now and mostly plateaued in my progress, she just sent a protocol for the Covid, I will attach some screen shots of my Lyme protocol and recent covid program, I would appreciate your opinion on it, it also strikes me that she never has follow-up questions for me on my follow-up appointments, is this normal? I just write down basic symptoms. If there’s a chance you can get it sorted out that would be great. I’ve never experienced anxiety before Lyme. I’m spending thousands of dollars on these programs and maybe should try a different route, thanks again. Here’s the current protocol I’m on:
I sent the patient the previous Lyme case I wrote about above and here’s what he said:
“Oh my goodness, this is all too familiar: can’t get a hold of her, bad reactions, can’t ask questions, can’t ask what remedies do. In some ways I’m worse now than when I started, new symptoms I’ve never had before. Would it be best to stop what she’s giving me?”
I told him yes, stop everything! Here’s what I heard back from him:
“Elaine, first I wanted to say thank you so much for exposing __________. I had no idea and feel silly for staying so long. I feel way better today after stopping everything. I still have symptoms but my appetite is back, anxiety is way lower, energy is up, mood has improved. I really appreciate your time.”
***
Elaine, that is quite a write-up! If anything the protocol buzz seems to be getting more ridiculous all the time.
Someone’s gotta blow the whistle on this! Again, I seriously doubt that this is the way the Banerji’s themselves are practicing? Given what I know about them? But this is definitely what I’m seeing from their so-called followers.
It’s bad. I see very little evidence that the protocols are working.
Marlie, how can they possibly work? Did you see the COVID “prescription”? Gelsemium 10M four times a day for 4 days? A remedy called Arsenicum Aurum 200C four times a day for a week… and then, Scutellaria 200C AND 1M, for some reason? Four times a day for TWO WEEKS??? This is breathtakingly bizarre, arbitrary, reckless, cavalier, brash, fool-hardy, ill-advised, unmoored….
And people are now making up their own protocols and adding to them!
That’s what it looks like, to tell you the truth.
Ironically it seems the most harm to homeopathy right now isn’t coming from the allopaths but from the “protocols”.
That’s because you can’t prescribe this way without inviting aggravations and provings! And then, how do you undo them? Well, I have really had it! This is NOT homeopathy, folks; OK? Not homeopathy. In fact, I don’t know what it is!
_______________________
Elaine Lewis, DHom, CHom
Elaine takes online cases. Write to her at [email protected]
Visit her website: https://ElaineLewis.hpathy.com
Thank you Elaine for calling attention to this misrepresentation of both the Banerji Protocols and homeopathy. When I read the list of remedies being handed out, my first thought was, “These are NOT Banerji protocols!” The Banerji protocols are mostly two, sometimes three remedies, often used in alternation, and based on years of observing the effects of the remedies used in that manner. The prescriptions mentioned in this article didn’t deserve the label Banerji protocols or homeopathy.
Hi Alan, thanks for lending a new perspective on the Banerji Protocols, but I must say, the first homeopath mentioned in the article, the one who said, “No one else calls me between appointments but you!” has the following on her website:
“I merge my understanding and experience of classical homeopathy with the Banerji Protocols. This is my secret weapon!
My passion for health and homeopathy and eagerness to enhance my approach to my practice, led me to the Banerji protocols, having seen the incredible work and rates of success they achieved with many diseases.
After intensive study and having the privilege of meeting Dr Prasanta Banerji in London, I have been able to replicate such success rates within my practice. Dr Banerji was truly an inspiration to me.
My love for homeopathy is integrating the Banerji Protocols into the general understanding of homeopathy and showing how they weave together. I use a multilayer approach and I use the Banerji Protocols in alternation with any other existing layers to maximise success in my cases. This works incredibly well and produces amazing results in the most gentle way in any casework.
I use remedies that are proven by Dr Banerji to be successful for working on different systems of the body and span over 150 years of solid and reliable experience in their clinics. This is one of the ways that I approach detox and it produces excellent and gentle results.”
Uh….I don’t think so! Alan, I can only say, the Banerji’s have their work cut out for them because this is what’s being done to people in their name: provings, aggravations and rudeness to patients who won’t “fall in line”.
I agree completely! To me it looks like something from a Naturopath-those who also claim to be homeopaths as well (??), and prescribe accordingly. I have had more than one family member be treated by naturopathic doctors and have homeopathy added into their treatment plans. It seems ridiculous to me that this is allowed-they didn’t attend 4 years of homeopathic medical training, why are they prescribing? (Both times the homeopathic remedies included were in high potencies and were to be taken for toooo long, similar to examples given above.)
Anya, totally agree with you about naturopaths prescribing homeopathic remedies! They are reckless and clueless! But, I have to say, I know who the 3 practitioners are in the above article, and I’m afraid they’re “real” homeopaths and if you want to know more, send me an email.
I must agree here. I’ve recently been diagnosed with Acute Lyme disease….the protocol I used in no way resembled what I see here so I don’t know where the information comes from.
While the reported prescriptions seem overdone or excessive, I’ve never been comfortable judging a situation without hearing from both sides of the story. I would like the homeopaths who supposedly issued these prescriptions to confirm or deny or explain. Hearsay is not the same as knowing.
Alan V. Schmukler
I would love that Alan, that would be ideal! I would love to hear someone say, “I prescribed Condurango for 2 weeks because…” or “The reason I prescribed Symphytum was because….” because that way you’d get to hear how ridiculous the whole thing is! Unfortunately, much as I’d like to name these people, I can’t for obvious reasons. They’d be saying I ruined their reputation, destroyed their business. So no one is being named. What is being called out is the latest “fad” in prescribing, much like the Sensation Method had become a fad and gotten way out of hand. It’s not so important to name names as it is to warn people that if they hire a homeopath and they encounter prescribing like this, know that this is not homeopathy, and know that it is potentially very dangerous. As we speak, I am still trying to help the third person in the article, the one who had both covid and Lyme Disease, he still has proving symptoms, it’s very hard to undo this damage.
Elaine, Thank you for your article, Calling Out the Banerji Protocols. People need to be made aware of how homeopathy is being mis-applied.
Your use of actual comments from clients is very illustrative. Thank you for making this known.
I am surprised by this comment Cilla – didn’t you just do an interview with JC for her APH academy? And a friend of hers that you are?
that is quite interesting as I have followed Joette Calabrese homeopath who has studied at the Banjeri clinic and she does not suggest anything like this! This sounds like someone pretending to be the Banjeri clinic of India.
Lynn, you may have “followed” Joette–not sure what that means, but, I get her patients all the time, wanting to know how to stop aggravations and provings.
I would have to agree and disagree. I have heard multiple reports of Joette putting people on just tons of remedies all at once and problems resulting. I am not sure though that she truly represents the Banerji’s well. I don’t hear of them practicing in that extreme way. I emailed them directly once for an issue with my son which I consulted with a classical homeopath on for over a year with zero success. They emailed me back only ONE remedy for him to take (and yes, daily, but only in a 30C potency) and his issue completely resolved. This was several years ago and he’s been fine. I think there are times and places for different approaches than some of the super strict classical approaches I’ve seen, but this type of stuff represented here is way over the top and damaging to the homeopathic industry!
Ann, so glad to get your opinion! Yes, I’ve been watching the Banerji’s on youtube and so far I haven’t heard anything ridiculous.
I would like to know who to avoid please –
Mel, there are lots of them! Check any practitioner’s website, they proudly display their Banerji Protocol affiliation.
first time I’ve heard complaints about her. I ususally read her articles but have not taken her courses. I am always open to and looking for
other info and use other sources also. I tend to use my homeopathic materia medica for most situations but am still learning.
Lynn, if you want to learn, please take Robin Murphy’s course. We just had an article about the course in “Tidbits”:
https://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/tidbits-91-after-robin-murphy-what-now/
The North American Society of Homeopaths has been working diligently with other professionals to inform the public about predatory practitioners calling themselves “Homeopaths”. As a small and emerging profession we have proceeded with care as not to besmirch the noble art we all love. It seems there is damage being done and a return to integrity and ethical conduct is overdue. We need to hold practitioners accountable for their actions.
I’ve found the Banerji protocols very useful but as Alan points out, the protocols were developed after years of observations. Giving a bunch of remedies chosen with a wing and a prayer is not a Banerji protocol.
Well, then what is a Banerji Protocol, Richard? From what I’m seeing, it’s based on diagnosis. If you have COVID, I don’t even have to take your case, here are your remedies. If you have Lyme disease, I don’t even have to take your case, here are your remedies. Do I at least have that much right?
No, you do not have it right at all. Take one of Joette’s courses and you will learn how to properly use protocols.
What don’t I have right? I have damaged patients, patients with proving symptoms. Their “practitioners” take no responsibility for them. These patients have taken so many remedies that when I ask them, “What remedy caused that?” They don’t know!
I see the usefulness of many different approaches to homeopathy and have had great success with Banerji Protocols to uproot chronic problems as well as acute situations. I want to be able to treat myself and my own family and using this method has been a God-send. And sometimes I benefit from the help and suggestions of a Classical practitioner. I am grateful for both. I’m a retired OB nurse….over the years saw so many health care practitioners practice from opinion and outdated information…..Homeopaths are not immune from this problem either.
Banerji Protocols, like so many wannabe “improvements” on Hahnemann’s homeopathy should never be mis-represented as homeopathy .. and from my (admittedly limited) reading on Banerji protocols .. “not” homeopathy .. not every use of a homeopathic potency is homeopathy !
It takes years of study and practice to master homeopathy .. and there are not any good shortcuts.
Persons who may once have been homeopaths and then invented their own methodology for using potentized remedies should not market such methodology as a “new and improved” homeopathy, because it IS NOT. What it is, is a perversion; a muddying of the waters; anathema.
Another day, another sub-genius reinventing the wheel.
Hahnemann’s homeopathy stands on its own as a healing art.
No “modifications” have been found to be useful during the 179 years since he returned to Source.
If or when someone has proven full mastery of Hahnemann’s homeopathy ..
let h/ir propose a better method, should they have found one.
I had great success with a Banerji protocol for my pet. The vet gave my dog only 2 months to live with a cancer diagnosis. I immediately followed the protocol to the letter (no Rx meds) – gave her multiple remedies 3 times a day. I had a good spreadsheet to keep up with it all! She lived 5 months – and actually showed increased energy and engagement with the family during that time of being on the protocol. It was a blessing to see how it worked for her.
I too have used the banerji protocols – but more like how it says in the books. They are a tiny part of my practice and are only used in cases where I’m either out of time or due to the complaint being quite minor – like warts, or constipation. My wife (also a Naturopath) has used the single Sepia for migraines with some impressive success. When the Sepia fails, she sends them to me and I use polarity analysis to workup a precise Rx – easy peasy.
But I agree, I wouldn’t just lump these folks into the “Banerjee” are all bad camp. The Banerjee family decided to discard the law of similars and use conventional diagnosis and data mining to derive common Rx’s that help. They developed their protocols from data mining. True, it’s not via homeopathic principles, but they do have some impressive results with cancer and other conditions.
Pejorative framed articles like this are written in homeopathy commonly. In fact, it’s not at all uncommon to see conventional docs making similar claims about homeopaths. But to my mind, it’s flinging mud and not constructive. That doesn’t mean we should ignore when homeopaths are giving long lists of Rx’s – we should call that out constructively. But to state that these providers are following the Banerjee protocols to my mind is disingenuous.
Ultimately, with all the different methods and uses of homeopathy, our best option is to run studies comparing them. That way, we can have an objective process to evaluate the various methods. Without that approach, we tend to devolve into “tribes.” I think we can do better, we need to do better.
The Banerjee protocol is helping people in rural India. It has it’s limitations, but what you are describing is NOT what is written about in the Banerjee books. The Banerjee family appear to have their hearts and heads in a good place and deserve to be treated as such.
Tim, I agree. I’ve re-written parts of my article based on what you’ve said.
Thanks Elaine, for sticking your neck out here!
Personally Ive moved along from the old “Single dose, single remedy, and wait 3 months…” which I was taught in the early nineties. I DO try to see the way ahead with environmental and medications remedies and sarcodes. Almost always as single remedies. Paced over several months, alongside classical remedies. I am comfortable with this. And with email contact being normalised (was in the past considered “intrusive”) I definitely do encourage questions and reasonable follow up. This also is working well, but not every practitioner does it! Really we can NEVER be sure of how our patients will react (or not) to a remedy, or be certain of potencies and dosing required for an individual. It’s all play by ear!
I bought the Banerji books out of curiosity, and it just BAFFLES me. The protocols themselves yes, but more so how they have been since usurped and misused. Now the cat is out of the bag here in comments – where all this auto prescribing (by “coaches” not homeopaths) is coming from. We as homeopaths KNOW that this is happening – too many remedies, too often, and for far too long. I am working with one patient now, where I suggested Camphora to try to “undo” all the “noise”. Looking like this is one answer for now, but heck, it’s not an instant one!
This is shocking. Is the current generation of Banerji’s aware of what is being promulgated in their name?
“People throw rocks at things that shine”, Taylor Swift.
1. Those plans listed in this post are not all Banerji Protocols
2. Sometimes a client and practitioner are not right for each other and yes, they should try something else.
I am a homeopathy lover…I love that there are so many ways to use homeopathic remedies. Right now I primarily use Banerji Protocols and without lifting a finger have a full practice 100% from referrals of happy clients. I spent years studying the material presented by Joette Calabrese and it has paid off. That said, I’m open to other ways of using homeopathic remedies and study those too…Classical, Eizayaga’s layers, Robin Murphy’s Clinical Homeopathy, etc. It’s all great!
“New is always bad. Never not be afraid!”, Grud Crood
New (although technically the Banerji Protocols are not that new) is how we evolve. Hahnemann evolved the way he used homeopathy until his death. Do you think his intention was for the evolution to stop there?
If protocols are not for you why bad mouth them and other practitioners? I’m assuming you have 100% client satisfaction and have never lost a client to another practitioner. Once I engaged a very reputable and one might say famous homeopath even though I was studying Practical Homeopathy. I wanted to see how things would go with a non-protocol, one remedy at a time approach. After giving it some time I switched to Joette Calabrese because I wasn’t getting results fast enough. This was for a serious chronic condition. I got faster results with her because of the more frequent dosing and using more remedies. This is not to say the first homeopath did anything “wrong” it just wasn’t what I was looking for.
Sheena, I am really surprised at how unfamiliar people are with Hahnemann’s Organon and what they think “classical homeopathy” is. One dose and wait a month and then report back is what we call Kentian prescribing. Kent never read the 6th ed. of the Organon. Hahnemann said in his final edition that this business of waiting a month or longer for results from a remedy is no good and the patient deserves better. How many of you knew that? He talks in the Organon about complex cases where — YES — a number of remedies are needed in alternation with each other! I’ll bet this is coming as quite a surprise to many who were so sure they knew what “classical homeopathy” was! It even may sound a bit like the Banerji Protocols, but here’s the difference, they’re not given as a one-size-fits-all to all people with a certain diagnosis! Does everyone with covid need Gelsemium 10M four times a day for 4 days? I would actually be surprised if anyone needed Gels. 10M four times a day for 4 days! I have never needed to give Gelsemium higher than 1M. You give it once, you see what happens, if there’s an improvement you repeat it at the first sign of relapse or if the case stalls. You do know what provings are don’t you? It’s what happens when you take a remedy over and over again for no reason! And most of us don’t know how to get rid of them, that’s what prompts people to do google searches for “homeopathic aggravation” and that’s how they find me! And then I’m forced to write an article about the real damage this method is causing to real people, and it’s so predictable; how can it not happen? High potencies, unnecessary repetitions and no supervision! I’ve done a google search for Banerji Practitioners and I’ve looked at their websites, and here’s what I’ve found: For a price, you can click on your disease from a list and get your “Protocol” and commence taking it, all on your own! No supervision! And why? Because it’s a Protocol! I’m going to recommend a book to you, all of you. It’s Hahnemann Revisited by Dr. Luc De Schepper. People love this book, it’s so easy to read, and you’ll, at long last, find out what classical homeopathy really is. Amazon has it.
I would urge you to understand the Banerji Protocols and their usage before judging them. You seem to be judging the protocols based on the usage by a couple of practitioners who may or may have been appropriately trained. A better way to judge the Banerji Protocols would be to learn how to use them by taking a course from someone who has interned at the Banerji Clinic and then trying it out yourself.
Sheena, the “couple of practitioners” in this article are considered the top Banerji practitioners in the world. As I said in my article, this is not homeopathy. The use of remedies in and of themselves does not mean you’re practicing homeopathy. There’s no way to describe what I am seeing here, in the above examples, as anything other than complete insanity. Plus which, I believe my article states that when you see as many patients as the Banerji’s see in a day, you’re entitled to come up with shortcuts out of necessity. But how does this pertain to the rest of us? We have an obligation to learn homeopathy the way the old masters knew it, when there were homeopathic hospitals and homeopathic medical schools. We’re lazy here in the modern world, latching on to all the latest “stuff”, all the shiny objects: The Sensation Method, Combination Remedies, Drainage, etc., and now this. People don’t even know the basics: if there’s an aggravation or a striking improvement, stop dosing! Put the remedy in water and succuss the bottle a few times before each dose. No one has studied the Organon! And no one could have ever imagined anything as reckless and dangerous as the prescribing I exposed in this article, which bears no relation to homeopathy at all. Listen, I would invite you and others to take the Hpathy Quiz each month, learn the real way to solve cases using homeopathy.
That covid protocol is not the banerji treatment. You can see the correct one remedy on their website (not the sellers that claim to have the banerji protocols). Actually, none if these are Banerji. They have one authorized book published, the rest is made up!
Wendy, the point is, the people who are doing this are Big Banerji Boosters and this is what they’re doing, rightly or wrongly. So if you go to one of them, this is what you’re going to get. The Banerji’s are to be forgiven for not having the time to take the traditional case when a thousand people are lined up outside in the street every day in India to see them; but, what about those of us who don’t have 1,000 people waiting outside our doors, can’t we take a proper case? You know: etiology, sensation, location, modalities, concomitants? Can’t we do that? Do we have to say, “You have what now? Oh. Then here are your 10 remedies! Take them for 2 weeks, and don’t ask me any questions because it’s a protocol, I have nothing to do with it, I’m just passing it on!”