The principles of Homeopathy

What is Homeopathy?

Homeopathy is a holistic system of healing, which chooses the remedy based on its similarity to the symptoms of the patient. The remedies used are prepared from substances originated from the vegetal, animal and mineral realm.

Homeopathy is a particular science, because it works with globules which look material, but their action is not material, but energetic. Homeopathy is like a bridge between the material (conventional) healing and the spiritual healing (which uses nothing material at all). It is the medicine of the future….

It has an awesome effect on humans and animals. It restores the balance on the threesome unity of the human being, the mental- emotional-physical, and raises the level of health of a person.

What does the denomination of Homeopathy mean?

The denomination is originated from Samuel Hahnemann himself, the father of the art of healing, who composed it from uniting the words homoios=similar and pathos= suffering, disease.

The basic idea of Homeopathy

The Similia similibus curentur principle means, that what causes disease in a healthy person, can cure (in homeopathic form) the same symptoms in the diseased person.

The actions of Homeopathy

With Homeopathy we stimulate the defense mechanism of the organism, which allows the Vital Force to heal the person and help him „grow”. By growing we understand that creativity of the person flourishes on all three levels, physical, mental, emotional, and this will result in a wiser, more mature and balanced personality. 
 

The defense mechanism and the Vital Force

The defense mechanism includes the immune system, the reticuloendothelial system, the hormonal system (and all cells, organs and organ systems, which participate in the organism's response to internal and external stimuli). The whole system is brought alive by the Vital Force.

The Vital Force is a complex, intelligent energy field, which contains every information that concerns and affects the organism; it supervises and coordinates the body's response to external and internal stimuli, and sustains life in the living, as long as it is flowing.

The role of the defense system

In circumstances of health, the defense system keeps the organism in balance and provides continuous, steady growth and renewal, in the condition of an optimal flow of the Vital Force.

If the Vital Force is disturbed, the body is in danger; it requires energy to maintain the balance on the different levels. These states of danger are perceived by the defense mechanism, which will react immediately.

The defense mechanism always chooses the best way to a specific problem in a specific organism to remedy, and to restore the normal flow of the Vital Force.

The defense mechanism always works perfectly (according to its possibilities) and for every problem there is a unique reaction.

It is unknown to us how the Vital Force makes the defense system work, nevertheless, if the health of the person reaches danger, one can immediately recognize that, and the only proof for that is the presence of the symptoms.

 What is the role of the symptom?

• Everything we know about the patient and his diseases lies in his symptoms.
• The organism wants to restore health by the means of the symptoms. The symptoms are the language of the immune system, by which it tries to tell the way it wants to restore health.
• Every symptom has this task, but there are times when this effort is not enough to accomplish its role.
• By symptoms the organism tries to restore health. Examples, without being exhaustive:

• In fever the immune system raises the body temperature by the cytokines it produces, trying to destroy invading pathogens, to inhibit their growth.
• By producing secretions the immune system surrounds the pathogens sending different cells to the scene, trying to destroy the pathogens.
• The cough has the task to clean the airways from pathogens, allergens, secretions, foreign bodies etc.
• By diarrhea the organism wants to clean itself from unwanted substances.

How can we help the defense mechanism?

It is our duty to respect the direction in which the defense mechanism acts and the principle of Similia similibus curentur. We choose a homeopathic remedy, which produces the same symptoms (in healthy people) as disease in the diseased people. We give a remedy which acts in the same way as the defense mechanism of the person. This way we respect the symptoms and with the correctly chosen remedy we strengthen them (the symptoms which were created by the defense system to fight the disease), giving a little more energy to them, so they can overcome the disease.

What is the difference between conventional medicine (allopathy) and homeopathic medicine?

Allopathy		Homeopathy
The human being is a biologic creature		The human being is a unity of the physical body, soul and mind
Human beings are similar in their diseases		No two human beings are alike, the totality of symptoms will be characteristic to each one
Diseases are expressed by diagnosis		Patients with the same diagnosis can have different symptoms
Treatment is in conformity with protocols		Treatment is individualized
Medicine is pointed against the symptoms.		The remedies act in the same direction as the symptoms.

The laws of Classical Homeopathy

• It cures like with alike - Similia similibus curentur ⇔ The law of similars
• There are no diseases – only sick people ⇔ The law of individualization
• The correct remedy is the one that covers the totality of the symptoms (physical, emotional, mental) ⇔ There is a need for only one remedy at a certain time
• The necessary amount of the correct remedy to obtain a cure is minimal ⇔ The law of potentizing /of minimal dose
• In the process of healing there is a certain direction to cure, the symptoms will disappear in a certain sequence ⇔ The law of the direction of cure
• The testing of a remedy is done on healthy people ⇔ Proving

The law of individualization

This follows straight way from the law of similars. Choosing a remedy which resembles the most the patient`s symptoms means individualizing the treatment. We don`t treat diagnosis, which may be the same while the symptoms differ a lot, pointing to different remedies. In classical Homeopathy no treatment protocols are accepted.

Only one remedy at a time

In the interpretation of classical Homeopathy there is only one remedy needed for a patient in a certain time. If more than one remedies are needed, they will be administered one after another, always according to actual symptoms.

The minimal dose

We already know from conventional medicine that even the minimal dose of a substance can have an effect on the living organism. For example the presence of pollens or cat dander (often so, that the cat is not even in the room anymore) or some perfumes can cause a quite severe allergic reaction in sensitive individuals. It is a well known example the one of the onion, which causes lachrymation and a runny nose while its skin is being taken off, though no visible part of the onion reaches the eyes or the nose.

In Homeopathy we work with minute doses. Actually over C12 potency there is no molecule of the original substance to be found in the remedy.

In Homeopathy not so much the dose is important as the patient's sensitivity to the remedy. We choose the remedy for which the patient is the most sensitive and give it in the minutest dose. These minute doses are not anymore acting on the material plane; they act energetically, because they stimulate the Vital Force itself.

So dose itself is not very important: it doesn`t matter whether it's only one globule, three, ten, or a whole box at one time. The important thing is the potency and the rhythm of administering.

What are remedies made of and how are they prepared? Potentizing.

Remedies are made of substances of vegetal, mineral and animal origin, by the procedure of potentizing.

In the process of potentizing one part of the mother tincture of the original substance is taken and diluted with 99 parts of water and this solution is then succussed thus obtaining first potency (C1). In the next step, out of this potency (C1) one part is taken and again diluted with 99 parts of water and dynamised again, obtaining C2 potency. For preparing the C3 potency one part out of the C2 potency is taken and is diluted with 99 parts of water, then dynamised. And so on. As we progress from the low towards the high potencies there will be less and less material substance and more and more information. Above the C12 potency there is no material substance to be found in the remedy.

There are other methods of dilution in addition to C- centezimal (based on hundreds), for example the D-decimal (based on ten), the LM (based on fifty thousand) potencies.

Homeopathic remedies are to be found in the form of lactose globules, tablets or solutions in authorized pharmacies.

Hahnemann in his time prepared the remedies by hand; at the end of his life he was using the C60 potency. In our days the remedies are made in authorized drug making factories, the process of production and the distribution as well is regulated by special legislation.

In our days even very high potencies are available (for example 100M- 100.000, 50M- 50000, 1M-1000 dilutions are made).

The remedies have been tested on humans by proving.

Direction of cure

Direction of cure was formulated by Constantine Hering, American pioneer homeopath (in the eighteen hundred years).

Every symptom of a disease will disappear in the reverse order of their appearance, and respecting the direction of cure: from upside down, from the inner to outwards, from more important organs to the less important ones.

Provings

The principle of proving is one of the principles of Homeopathy. During the proving healthy provers are testing the action of the remedies, they register the symptoms caused by the repeated administration of a remedy. The provers don`t know the name of the remedy, they don`t communicate with each other, the observations are recorded by themselves and objective observers. Out of the totality of recordings the proving of the remedy is born.

Tools in Homeopathy

• Materia Medica
• Repertory
• Organon

The Materia Medica

• Contains description of remedies, their whole symptomatology.
• Sources:
  • Symptoms recorded by healthy provers in the  provings,
  • Clinical observations: symptoms which were cured by the remedy at sick people (not one, but many people),
  • Data from toxicology: symptoms obtained from accidental or intentional poisonings,
  • Autopsy findings: which were described by Hahnemann in Chronic Diseases.
• There are about 2000 remedies recorded in different Materia Medica-s, out of which we know very well around 400. Any recording should remain very objective, free from any kind of interpretation.

The Repertory

• Contains the classified symptoms of the remedies.
• It is a kind of a dictionary of symptoms: symptoms put in homeopathic language can be looked up in the Repertory, after the keyword all of the homeopathic remedies that have that symptom in smaller or higher degree can be found.
• During repertorization every symptom of the patient is recorded, looked up in the Repertory and during this process the possible remedy (or remedies) usually show up.
• Repertorization makes easier to find the similimum remedy, but it cannot replace the knowledge found in the Materia Medica. The information obtained from the Repertory has to be compared to the symptoms of the remedy written in the Materia Medica.
• There are more known methods of repertorization.
•  Today, there are modern computer softwares of repertorization, which significantly shorten the process of selection. These are only tools which may help, but computers cannot replace the taking of the case made face to face, or the objective observing of the patient, or the experience coming from it.

Organon

• In this work Samuel Hahnemann formulated the principles of the science and art of healing that he founded and called Homeopathy.
• The sixth and last edition, which was published postmortem, has to be the “Bible” of every homeopath.
• Organon 1§: “The physician's high and only mission is to restore the sick to health, to cure, as it is termed. (…)”
• Organon 2§: “The highest ideal of cure is rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of the health, or removal and annihilation of the disease in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable, and most harmless way, on easily comprehensible principles.”
• Organon 4§: “He (the physician) is likewise a preserver of health if he knows the things that derange health and cause disease, and how to remove them from persons in health.”

The levels of health according to Prof. George Vithoulkas

What is health?

The concept of levels of health comes from George Vithoulkas who, first of all, defines health expressing it by the concept of freedom.

Health = Freedom

• freedom from pain and a sense of well-being;
• freedom from passion resulting in a dynamic sense of peace and serenity;
• freedom from egoism, leading to a clarity of thinking and perception of truth.

The criterion that perhaps best expresses the degree of health on all, physical, mental and spiritual levels, is creativity. 

The human being is a unity of mind-body-spirit

Life is going on three levels: physical, mental and spiritual planes, which are connected to each other by the Vital Force. On the spiritual or mental level there are recorded changes in our understanding (our perceptions) and consciousness. On the spiritual or emotional level changes associated with emotions are recorded. Within the human being the highest in hierarchy, the most precious sphere is the mental plane, followed by the emotional and then the physical level. The defense mechanism will always try to protect the more valuable planes, keeping the diseases on the periphery as much as possible.

There is a certain hierarchy within each level:

Mental	Emotional	Physical
complete mental confusion	suicidal tendency	diseases of the brain and nervous system
destructive delirium	apathy	hearth diseases
paranoid thoughts	sadness	diseases of the endocrine system
delusions	fears	diseases of the liver
lethargy	phobias	diseases of the lungs
dullness	restlessness	diseases of the kidneys
concentrating difficulties	irritability	diseases of bones
memory deficit	discontent	diseases of muscles
attention deficit		skin diseases

Concerning a certain organ or system of organs there is also a hierarchy, which will mostly determine the prognosis, the quality of life, because there is great difference between acute and chronic rhinitis, petit-mal or grand-mal epilepsy.

The possibility of healing is determined by the innate predisposition of a person to certain diseases, the level of health of the individual, chronic treatments, the amount of suppressing treatments in the personal history of the patient, his lifestyle.

Areas which are dead in the body, missing organs cannot be replaced (not even) by Homeopathy.

Homeopathy cannot do prevention, at least not in the basic interpretation of the word prevention. Certain pathologies, possible diseases in the future cannot be prevented by protocols, if there are no symptoms to base the prescription on. Prevention in Homeopathy means that by giving a remedy based on actual symptoms we can promote the self-healing power of the organism, by this his susceptibility to diseases will lessen (after a while of well conducted treatment), and even if disease occurs, the healing will be easier. This way it can also “prevent” in some degree the development of chronic diseases (certainly within the limits mentioned above).
 

Evaluating the effectiveness of homeopathic treatment

The most important criterion is if symptoms go away. The patient with no symptoms doesn`t require treatment.

On the long run (after years) is to be evaluated whether the patient has grown in his inner values. If treatment was successful, one can say that the patient is feeling well, because he has a better Vital Force, has joy and creativity, has plans and faith in the future, is more balanced, more patient, friendlier, he is full of love, he is wiser and enjoys life.