This is part two of a three part article discussing mine and others' experiences with homeopathy and why it is a viable alternative (and often complementary modality) for traditional health care.
I fell into homeopathy because my son, who qualified before me, was having amazing results. He had a client with a blood clot and she was on Warfarin, a modern drug that prevents blood clotting. Her doctor told her she would need to take it for the rest of her life. The woman was not happy with that idea and she decided to try homeopathy with my son. He gave her a remedy made from snake venom. Snake venoms have been used in various forms since ancient times due to their healing powers but as I described in part one of this article, homeopathic remedies are diluted thousands and thousands of times until there is no actual snake venom in the remedy so there was no chance of being poisoned. Snake remedies have an unusual affinity with blood and homeopathic snake remedies can be used for all sorts of conditions such as blood clots, varicose veins, heart conditions, poor or restricted circulation and so on. They are often prescribed with great success for stroke, menopause, heavy periods, PMS, or absence of periods. After just one single dose of the snake remedy, her blood clot cleared and her doctor took her off the Warfarin - something that was not supposed to be possible according to modern medicine.
This was the first time where I witnessed a remarkable outcome using homeopathy. I have witnessed many more since then, including some of my own cases, one of which I spoke about in part one of this article, that have had remarkable outcomes doctors said would not be possible. In my first year of study, observing a case, I watched a woman go through a complete transformation. She was the very last person you would want as a friend. This woman was a complainer. She was bitter and angry and felt that everyone was out to get her. Everything in her life had gone wrong for years, her children disowned her, people let her down left and right, and she had a long list of physical issues that she wanted to address. She actually brought this list with her to her consultation and read off several pages of stories and complaints to the prescribing Homeopath. Her primary complaint was redness and painful swelling in her hands. The homeopath prescribed nitric acid. After several doses over three months she had turned into a sweet and caring person who loved life and loved her home. Her hand complaints had healed and she had become fascinated with bird watching which was bringing out her nurturing side, giving her great pleasure, and helping her find peace of mind. At her last consultation she was happy and smiling and full of the joys of life. When you see this kind of result unfolding before your eyes it feels like magic.
There are over four thousand remedies in the homeopathic Materia Medica. Because remedies are prescribed on an individual basis, you can’t say, oh, headache, yes Belladonna. It might be a Belladonna headache or it might be a Bryonia headache or a Nux Vomica headache. A consult with the client is necessary and the prescription is different for different people in different physical and emotional states. This what makes homeopathy the most challenging but also the most rewarding thing I have ever done. You are never done learning. There is always another remedy to learn, a new case presenting a familiar remedy in a new light, or someone proving a new remedy to add to the Material Medica; the body of provings of all the remedies in use today. I’ll talk about provings in another article.
Remedies can come from anywhere. Many are plants, poisonous and non-poisonous. Many are minerals. All the precious metals and gemstones have been made into homeopathic remedies. There are remedies made from diamonds, gold, silver, platinum, aluminum and even gemstones such as black tourmaline, beryl (emeralds and aquamarine) and so on. There are remedies made from poisons and diseases. The homeopathic remedy Nux Vomica, strychnine, is a classic remedy for nausea and vomiting. Like all homeopathic remedies it works for some people and another remedy might be better for other people with the same physical symptoms but a different personality.
Nux Vomica is suitable for people who often get digestive issues when they are frustrated or anxious whereas Arsenicum album (white arsenic) is more suitable for people who tend to get hot and irritable when frustrated. Both substances, arsenic and strychnine, are poisons and in their unpotentized form would make you vomit. But in their potentized form, they cure vomiting. This is what we mean when we say “like cures like.”
This basic tenet of natural healing was well known by Hippocrates about 2,400 years ago. He is reported to have said “vomiting is cured by vomiting.” if we stop and think about that for a moment. Haven’t you always felt better if you were nauseous and then you threw up? The philosophy of like cures like was echoed again by Paracelsus, a 15th century physician, who was famous for his philosophy of toxicology. He believed that all things can be both poisonous and non-poisonous and the difference lies in the dose. As an example, vitamin A supports healthy organ function but overdosing can lead to liver damage and other issues. The wisdom of Hippocrates and Paracelsus was rediscovered by Samuel Hahnemann in the 1800s who experimented with dosage and developed the system of homeopathy. The ancient wisdom is still as true today as it was thousands of years ago. The premise of how homeopathy works is all based on the right dose - what in homeopathy we call the infinitesimal dose - the absolute smallest possible dose that will trigger the body to heal itself without causing ill effects.
Homeopathy is an energy signal sent to the subtle body via the oral intake of a medicinal substance. Homeopathic remedies are usually in the form of liquids that are taken from dropper bottles or pellets and tablets infused with the liquid remedy. An explanation of how homeopathy works might go as follows: when your body is afflicted by something, be it a virus, a germ or a negative emotion, it tries to heal itself. But when the life force is weak, your immune system is also weak. Stress and illness deplete the life force and weaken the immune system. The body cannot rally sufficient response to overcome the disease. So you introduce a helping agent - something that produces the same symptoms as those your body is fighting to overcome. This rallies the life force, the immune system is kicked into high gear and suddenly it finds the vital energy to overcome what is ailing it.
When you need to put a big nail in a piece of oak wood and your small hammer is not doing the job, you need a bigger hammer. Homeopathy is a bigger hammer.
If you look up homeopathy in the internet you will find it’s often called pseudo-science. This is code for no-one really understands why it works! And the lack of scientific explanation is used as an excuse to de-bunk it. When you are researching homeopathy I encourage you to use sites that are written by homeopaths and not those whose mission it is to debunk homeopathy because it competes with big pharma and mainstream medicine. If you ask someone who has been successfully treated by homeopathy they will tell you - it’s like magic. Not everyone has success with homeopathy. It depends on several factors. The most important is the skill of the Homeopath. Not all Homeopaths are conscientious or persistent in finding the right remedy - just like medical practitioners and artisans in all walks of life, some are better than others. There are over 4,000 proven remedies. This makes the job hard. There are methods and strategies for narrowing down the remedy choice so that it is easier to find one that will work, but you have to study these methods and execute them accurately. A solid education from a reputable homeopathy school is therefore essential. A conscientious and dedicated Homeopath enjoys the rewards of watching people get better - really get better - and leaving their medicines behind.
In part one of this article I spoke of a case where the client had a blood clot and was taking Warfarin. Warfarin is a drug that prevents blood clotting. So this is good if you have a blood clot and you don’t want it to block your brain or your heart. But if you get a cut or an injury, you can bleed out and that of course is no fun at all. There is a long list of side effects of Warfarin. Homeopathy has no such side effects. Sometimes it takes a time or two to find the right remedy. But whether you are given the right remedy or the wrong remedy, there are no side effects such as bleeding out. Sometimes you can have the return of old symptoms. We call this an aggravation and it is a sign that the remedy is acting - so that’s a positive thing. With careful prescribing, the return of old symptoms is slight and the symptoms pass through you on their way out the door. Traditional medications such as cortisones, steroids, antibiotics and so on are what we call suppressive medicines. They cause the body to suppress the symptom but they don’t cure the root cause. This is why children treated with cortisones for eczema will often develop asthma as they get older. The energy imbalance that created the eczema is still present within them and when it is suppressed by modern medications the body still wants to rectify the energy imbalance. It is as if the body starts to cry louder - please listen to me - something is still wrong. Asthma in in the lungs so it is more serious than eczema which is only in the skin. Another example is the fact that people treated surgically for digestive issues will often develop lung issues or arthritis. The energy of the disease just goes deeper and starts to cry out more loudly - "please pay attention to me." Homeopathic remedies address this underlying energy imbalance - the so called “other song” within us as discussed in part one.
There is something in nature that will resonate with every frequency of disturbed or distressed energy that humans can express. This means that a multitude of different diseases and mental or emotional conditions can be treated homeopathically. In another article I will talk about how we discover remedies and prove them so that they can be entered into the Materia Medica; the body of homeopathic literature that covers all the known remedies and the symptoms they help with. Because the Materia Medica is so vast, and growing every day, modern Homeopaths use software programs to help them discover and distill the exact right remedy for a given set of conditions that describe someone’s constitutional state or their diseased state, or what Dr. Rajan Sankaran calls our “other song.”