About the author

Alan V. Schmukler

Alan V. Schmukler is a homeopath, Chief Editor of Homeopathy for Everyone and author of ”Homeopathy An A to Z Home Handbook”, (also in French, German, Greek, Polish and Portuguese). He is Hpathy’s resident cartoonist and also produces Hpathy’s Tips & Secrets column and homeopathy Crossword puzzles each month. Alan is a recipient of the National Center for Homeopathy Martha Oelman Community Service Award. Visit Alan at his website: Here.

6 Comments

  • Dear Alan

    Nice job. Well done. You have simply shown how to validate homeopathy. Some homeopaths who are mathematicians and physicists and try hard to show the validity and efficacy of homeopathy through harsh formulas and equations!!! However ignore the effective way of just taking a remedy and giving it to a patient.

    During about the last 6 years of studying and practicing Classical Homeopathy and 26 years of practicing Conventional Medicine I have learned that the easiest way of validating homeopathic remedies is just to take them and to watch the changes afterwards.

    My wife and I have learned to take the remedies before prescribing them to our patients. We have felt the therapeutic effects of homeopathics by our cells, our heart and our brain; they truly have changed us to two energetic and powerful persons who really love to help all people, as many as we can, to have a better healthy condition and to become happier in order to enjoy their lives much more and to have a better understanding of the world.

    Trying homeopathy is as simple as drinking an icy or cold glass of water in the hot days of summer, while you’re very thirsty.

  • Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed this cartoon. The critics are always attacking homeopathy, claiming that theoretically, homeopathy couldn’t possibly work. They say it’s too dilute to have an effect, etc. The one thing I’ve NEVER heard a critic say is: “It tried taking well selected remedies and they didn’t work”. You just never hear that.

  • This is so funny, Alan! Things really might be as simple as that, right?

    In my view, this cartoon expresses a vision of how the world should be. If we were living in what we might call “a homeopathic world” – a world in which the interaction of individuals, seen as dynamic complexes of chemical elements, proceeded in the direction of a cure, instead of suppressing symptoms and worsening the global disease – proving the worth of homeopathy might just be as simple as you envisioned. And indeed, how elegant would that be – how smooth, enriching, and ultimately ecological!

    Our reality, however, is much less ecological than that. And I don’t mean this as a value judgment: it is what it is, being the product of who we are… and again, we are what we are 🙂 That is how a huge number of people can dismiss homeopathy, or actively campaign against it, despite the fact that they’ve never actually tried it. One cannot help but wonder: if all these people are really convinced that homeopathic prescriptions are nothing but “fresh water”, why don’t they just take a sip or two and get done with it? What are they afraid of?

    The truth, in my opinion, is that apart from those who are driven by economic interests – something you can’t really do much about – most people who oppose homeopathy are driven by their personal fears. And you cannot tell someone who’s afraid of the sea to just take their clothes off and dive into it, can you? That is why I don’t expect too many people to heed your advice and “just try it”.

    I’m not sure the “equations” in your cartoon, i.e. research aimed at strengthening the scientific grounds for homeopathy, might be the answer. Still, as I wrote in another comment, I think this kind of activity is useful and commendable. Sure, those who are prone to deny any evidence for their own purposes will certainly find a way to say that this or that research is biased, or not rigorous enough, or whatever, or perhaps simply ignore it in order to neutralize its disruptive impact (see what’s happened with Montagnier’s studies on the properties of water). But I think that at least a few rational minds might question their beliefs and get to the point in which they “simply give homeopathy a try”.

    For anyone else, I’m still convinced, after years of reflection and debates, that the most effective strategy to promote homeopathy is to focus on clinical practice. Nothing beats a case in which a remarkable cure has been achieved, provided it’s presented in a thorough and professional way, including objective measurements.

    Ultimately, should we aim for large-scale promotion of homeopathy? Personally, I am not so sure about that. Homeopathic cure is such a long-term and individualized process – something I’ve experienced first-hand, as a grateful and engaged patient – that personal experience (and by extension, word of mouth) definitely seem more suited to it than anything else. My conclusion, therefore, is: let homeopathic doctors focus on their “high and only mission” – to “restore the sick to health” – and let us homeopathic patients focus on giving up our defenses so that such a cure may take place. Since each individual cure both encapsulates and advances the cure of the whole system, nothing more really needs to be done.

    All the best,
    Matteo Vegetti

    • Gee, from reading your response, one could wonder if you were gunning for your chance to win a copy of Dr. Bhatia’s best-selling book, “Lectures on Organon of Medicine, vol 1.” LOL! I KNOW I AM! I enjoyed reading both the cartoons and this response to it, however. Have a blessed, healthy life!

  • Hi Matteo,

    Thanks for your comments. At the moment there is a coordinated attack on homeopathy at a number of levels, so that the real threat to homeopathy is not from true disbelievers, but from those who oppose homeopathy because they have an agenda. This usually means Pharma or medical societies. If we just go about our business of curing, that will not deter these well financed campaigns. By merely claiming that homeopathy is placebo, in spite of evidence to the contrary, they were able to close five of the seven homeopathic hospitals in the UK. They have sued major homeopathic pharmacies, intimidating them into changing their product labels, and taken homeopaths to court, under threat of fines and imprisonment. The homeopathic community needs to be proactive. This is a propaganda war, with a lot at stake.

  • Dear Alan, I totally share your concern. Should I mention the recent study by Australian research council NHMRC (and the shocking accompanying articles by the Guardian, for instance)?

    I only have doubts about the best way to go about defending homeopathy. It seems weird to me that we should engage in a “war” of any kind, including propaganda. Of course we’d fight for defensive purposes only, but still, the very idea of fighting a war sounds out of line with the spirit of homeopathy itself (in my humble opinion, of course). Somehow the image of a Zen master comes to mind… What would he do if he was violently attacked by a spiteful opponent? Sure, he must respond to survive – but how would he go about it? In kung fu, for instance, as far as I remember the master only absorbs the energy of the attacker and gives it back. What would that mean in this context? Yeah, I’m aware it may sound too abstract to some… I apologize to them, I guess it’s just my philosophical mind 🙂 I’m actually aware that action is needed, and urgently so. I’m lucky enough that my homeopath is deeply involved in politics with relations to Homeopathy, and we often discuss about these issues, so much so that after several years I’ve decided to make a stronger commitment as an advocate/patient. I just need to take a little more time to reflect on the best path to follow, personally, since I’m deeply convinced that any action we take in relation to homeopathy must go “in the right direction”, just like the proper remedy. As far as I’m concerned, the debate is open.

    All the best,
    Matteo

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