What is Homeopathy?
Homeopathy is a system of natural health care that has been in worldwide use for over 200 years. It is recognised by the World Health Organisation as the second largest therapeutic system in use in the world. While it is most popular in India and South America, over thirty million people in Europe also benefit from its practice.
The name homeopathy, coined by its originator, Samuel Hahnemann (10 April 1755 – 2 July 1843), shown on the left, is derived from the Greek words for 'similar suffering' referring to the 'like cures like' principle of healing. Hahnemann was born in Germany two hundred and fifty years ago. At this time the old world view was being renovated and traditional beliefs, many flimsily based upon superstition, were being increasingly subjected to the rigour of experimental scrutiny and assessment.
Homeopathy is based on two principles that have occurred regularly throughout the history of medicine, both in eastern and western worlds. The first principle of 'like cures like' can be looked at in several ways. One is to assume that the body knows what it is doing and that symptoms are the body's way of taking action to overcome an illness. This healing response is automatic in living organisms; we term it 'the vital response'.
The application of a correct homeopathic medicine increases the body's ability to take this action and so makes the body's own healing more rapid and effective. In chronic illness, this vital stimulus literally lifts the suffering person over the stumbling block of their disease. Before the medicines are decided upon, their curative powers are discovered by testing them out on healthy human subjects and carefully noting emotional, mental and physical changes. This is termed a 'proving'. This information constitutes the basis for 'like cures like', for a medicine's unique symptom picture must match up with the individual's expression of the disease. The second principle, that only 'the minimum dose' should be employed is based upon the understanding that the stimulus of the medicine works from within the vitality and is not imposed from the outside. Only enough is administered to initiate the healing process which then carries on, driven by its own internal healing mission.
Why is it so popular?
- Homeopathic treatment works with your body's own healing powers to bring about health and well being.
- Patients are treated as individuals, not as a collection of disease labels.
- Homeopathy treats all your symptoms at all levels of your being, be it spiritual, emotional, mental and physical and finds the 'like cures like' match for them.
- Homeopathically prepared remedies, providing the minimum dose, are gentle, subtle and powerful. They are non-addictive and are not tested on animals.