With the words of the founders of this discipline, I will try to explain what homeopathy is and how it was created, its principles of actions and its philosophy, things that your doctor probably does not take time to explain to you when he/she prescribes a remedy for your illness.
Based on these explanations, one is more informed and can choose to adopt such a discipline for his/her own health and well-being or take another avenue.
In my opinion, in order to clearly decide if to follow such philosophy, the major fact to keep in mind is that the organism has an INNATE capacity to heal itself and to keep a (physiological) balance, therefore to strive to go back to this balance when illness appears and find health on its own. When you see ameliorations or solutions of your original condition, think about this potent survival tendency or your own body.
· Homeopathy is a method to cure a sick person and not a disease. It uses minute doses of remedies, i.e. such small quantities that produce the least possible interference with the individual vital force and yet sufficient to trigger a necessary change.
· The individual vital force is the patient’s dynamic plane or the essence of life, which governs the body and keeps it in balance; according to homeopathy, it is at this level that disease originates and that defense mechanisms act. The remedies produce a gentle but efficient effect of healing by acting on the dynamic field and thus by strengthening the defense mechanisms without causing unwanted aggravations.
· The medicines have been chosen by a technical procedure of proving, which is a systematic study of the pathogenic (disease-producing) power of substances on healthy human beings. The substances are derived from animals (such as duck liver), plants, minerals (such as metals) and disease products, such as syphilis chancre, gonorrheal discharge etc. During such provings, the healthy subjects record in minimal details all the symptoms caused on them by the action of such substances (inlcuding poisons). The idea behind such testing is that the same substances that cause symptoms in healthy individuals produce healing in the diseased ones, when the symptoms of both correspond perfectly.
!!! This is the very important part explaining what a remedy is: once the substances have been found and their symptoms described, a process of potentization or dynamization is applied to them in order to increase the intensity of their electrodynamic field: by repeatedly and serially diluting and shaking (succusion) against an elastic object the original substance many many times, its energy is liberated and made more available to interact with the dynamic plane of the patient. Further, by this process the strongest poisons are not only rendered harmless, but are transformed into beneficial healing remedies. The process is thus done as follow: after preparing a tincture or a solution of the original substance (I cannot find the original concentration of such solution) one drop is diluted into 99 drops of solvent. This dilution is successes “with great force” 100 times. One drop of this is then added to fresh solvent, and again succussed…”this process can be carried out literally forever”(Vithoulkas, 2005). For example, 200 C requires 20,000 serial dilutions and succussions. “High potency remedies often takes as many as 3 months to make”- even with machines! Machines should be monitored for the force of succession 9that can be equal of greater that the foce of a man’s arm) so that no mechanical errors can enter into the standardization of preparations.
The preparations then are preserved in alcohol and at the last moment after prescription these are used to wet the sugar pellets that make the final product.
* General dilutions used:
[The laws of chemistry say that there is a limit to dilution without loosing the original substance. This limit is related to the Avogadro's number and is approximately equal to the homeopatic potencies of 12C or 24X].
24x = 12 C = the dilution process + ‘succussion‘ is repeated 12 times and at each step u=one drop of prodcut is diluted in 100 drops of solvent. The final concentration is 100-12 or 10-24 = one drop of original substance in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 drops of solvent water or alcool + water) [This dilution has a probability of 60% to contain one molcule of a substance]
60x = 30 C = 10-60 = 1 drop of original substance 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 drops of solvent
1 M = 1000 C = 1 drop of original substance 102000 drops of solvent
1 CM = 100.000 C = 1 drop of origianal substance 10200000 drops of solvent
!! Once the dilutions are carried out to such infinitesimal values, one could doubt of the presence of any substance in the final remedy. In fact, homeopathy believes that the energy is released and transmitted to the molecules of the solvent: the more the substance is diluted, the finer its energy is and the more potent the remedy becomes: its action is deeper, longer and more widespread.
· The remedy is necessarily individualized to each patient and cannot be bought over the counter or predicted in advance of the analysis of the case, which is carried on as an extremely detailed interview between the patient and the physician and a physical examination in order to describe all symptoms at all levels (physical, emotional and mental) that are specific to each case. The totality of the symptoms is the only information that the physician needs in order to find the perfect remedy for the patient.
· Classical homeopathic treatment is usually the prescription of one remedy at a time, in order to address the proper cause of illness. During the treatment, the process of healing takes place in a certain order and it is often shown by worsening or change of symptoms: past symptoms or sensations can reappear before disappearing for good; in cases of deep pathology, symptoms relating to vital organs will improve first while superficial tissues (such as the skin) will show new symptoms or improve later. The head and upper body will tend to improve before the lower body and legs. It is important to not interfere with this natural hierarchy of healing.
· In many cases, results are different than expected, depending on the history of the patient, and on his/miasms (genetic influences).
References
Dhawale, M.L. 2010. Principles and Practice of Homeopathy, Part 1: Homeopathic Philosophy and Repertorization, 5th ed., Dhawale Memorial Trust, Mumbai
Ian Sample (2008). "Pharmacists urged to 'tell the truth' about homeopathic remedies". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2008-07-21.
Kent, J.T., Nigam, H. 2007. Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy with Classroom notes and Word Index, 7th ed., Jain Publishers, Ltd. USA
Vithoulkas G. 2005. The Science of Homeopathy, Jain Publishers, Ltd. New Delhi
