The Whole Person
Mind and body are not separate but are a whole organism. Homeopathy treats the whole person – on the mental and emotional level as well as the physical.
The Vital Force
There is a life energy, or vital force, that always strives to bring the living organism back into balance and health. Homeopathic remedies stimulate this life force, or immune system, to bring about healing.
Susceptibility
Disease or illness takes a hold when we are susceptible to it; it is not usually something that hits us completely out of the blue. In many cases, emotional and/or physical stresses, or the environment in which we live or work, make us susceptible to illnesses that otherwise might not affect us.
Inheritance
Samuel Hahnemann talked about ‘miasms’ – inherited tendencies towards certain types of illness. In modern terms, we are talking about genetically inherited tendencies that come to us from our parents, grandparents and the many generations before which were affected by major diseases. We all carry these ‘imprints’ but we do not have to succumb to these inherited tendencies. Homeopathic treatment aims to make the best of our inheritance.
Like Cures Like
A substance which causes certain symptoms in a well person can be used in microscopic doses to cure an unwell person showing similar symptoms. This is Hahnemann’s Law of Similars.
Provings
To find out what types of illness a substance might cure, ‘provings’ of remedies have been carried out. This involves human guinea pigs taking doses of a remedy until they begin to exhibit symptoms. These symptoms are then noted as being ones that would indicate the use of that remedy as a cure.
Dosage and Combination Remedies:
Classical Homeopaths try to bring about a cure with the minimum amount of medication and so use only one remedy at a time. A Shamanic Homeopath may use several remedies as well as Shamanic techniques to aid someone’s healing. In acute cases, several remedies may be used in quick succession until one takes effect. A full case history is taken and constitutional typing and Mmiasmatic tendancies taken into account.
Succussion and Dilution
Remedies are diluted over and over again to achieve the minimum dose – and, paradoxically, to increase their potency. As well as being diluted, the remedies are also succussed, or shaken. It is in this process, discovered by Hahnemann that the remedies appear to release their healing energies.
Direction of Cure
In the 19th century, the homeopath Constantine Hering discovered what became known as Hering’s Law of Cure. This says that disease tends to move from the exterior of the body to the interior, from the extremities to the upper body, and from the less vital organs to the more vital organs. A curative homeopathic remedy can reverse these directions, with symptoms disappearing in the reverse order of their appearance, a process which can involve the brief return of old symptoms – sometimes mildly alarming for the patient, but a sign that healing is under way.
