Homeopathy & 270 years
Happy birthday to Samuel Hahnemann !
WORLD HOMEOPATHY DAY !
April 10 2025 marks 270 years since Samuel Hahnemann graced our world and selflessly gave so much to the betterment of humanity.
Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) was the first physician to systematize the chaotic practices of medicine1 and the first physician to be memorialized in Washington DC.2
I cannae help but wonder how Hahnemann would judge homeopathy of 2025 - harshly no doubt considering all of the ‘protocols’ being peddled by shameless sellers of arbitrary ‘methodologies’ utilizing homeopathic medicines but neither the philosophy or theory…3
Dr. Tyler said it best;
‘‘There is law behind cure; and if we desire to evoke its power, we must conform to its conditions. The only known law of healing is Hahnemann’s similia similibus curentur…’’4
Aged 42, the light had come to Hahnemann who was fully equipped and ready to enter his life's great work, for which all before had been a preparation.5
And, when Hahnemann had the courage to prescribe only one thing at a time, he could not help feeling a little ashamed of the mean opinion the apothecaries were sure to form of him, the apothecaries who made up the prescription being paid in proportion to their length…6
The opinion of the apothecaries with regard to Hahnemann did not improve with time - clearly !
An important concept that Hahnemann introduced, differentiating homeopathy from main stream medicine, is individualisation.
Hahnemann maintained that there are no diseases as such but only diseased individuals and, that the treatment of the sick should be aimed at the cure of the individual rather than his disease.7
In Aphorism 9, Hahnemann (1810) implied that there exists an energy-like state, an “intelligent force” supervising and synchronizing the actions and reactions of an organism.8
§9. In the healthy condition of man, the spiritual vital force (autocracy), the dynamis that animates the material body (organism), rules with unbounded sway, and retains all the parts of the organism in admirable, harmonious, vital operation, as regards both sensations and functions, so that our indwelling, reason - gifted mind can freely employ this living, healthy instrument for the higher purposes of our existence.9
Since the early 1800s homeopathy has considered chronic disease driven by a dystonic vital force now known as the biofield.
The biofield being the regulator and mediator of biological interactions intimately connected with information delivery within an organism holding and conveying vital information for biocommunication and bioregulation as studied, for example, in the research field of bioelectromagnetics.1011
Devices which measure biofield properties, the electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG), are widely used in clinical settings. For research in a controversial field such as homeopathy, EEG as an outcome measure enables utilization of more objective and sensitive tools to detect effects.
In fact, the EEG based research of Dr. Iris Bell in homeopathy showed evidence of sensitizability in pain pathways and EEG alterations in fibromyalgia and as a way to distinguish subsequent verum responders to homeopathy from verum non-responders. Additional studies by Dr. Bell and EEG show subtle effects of homeopathic medicines as biomarkers, in insomnia, and in environmental chemical intolerances.12
LMHI-France celebrates the 270th Anniversary of S. HAHNEMANN’s Birth during "World Homeopathy Day”, on 10th of April 2025, in Paris !
This is an opportunity to explore ongoing research and address the challenges facing homeopathy: scientific recognition, its role in integrative medicine...
10:00am-12:30pm: Parisian walk tracing Samuel Hahnemann’s footsteps (led by Colette Lesens, PhD, author of two books on the life of Samuel Hahnemann)
4:30pm-19:00pm: Symposium “Homeopathy in 2025” LMHI & Homeopathy Around the World
MORE INFORMATION13 or to REGISTER lmhifrance33(at)gmail.com
‘‘ If I did not know for what purpose I was put here on earth – to become better myself as far as possible and to make better everything around me, that is within my power to improve – I should have to consider myself as lacking very much in worldly prudence to make known for the common good, even before my death, an art which I alone possess, and which it is within my power to make as profitable as possible by simply keeping it secret.
But in communicating to the world this great discovery, I am sorry that I must doubt whether my contemporaries will comprehend the logical sequence of these teachings of mine, and will follow them carefully and gain thereby the infinite benefits for suffering humanity which must inevitably spring from a faithful and accurate observance of the same; or whether, frightened away by the unheard nature of many of these disclosures, they will not rather leave them untried and uninitiated and, therefore useless.’’ Samuel Hahnemann, 1828.14
In 2025, homeopathy still takes courage to practice in the way outlined by Hahnemann…
Homeopathy & Ernest A. Farrington, M.D.
Professor Farrington was possessed of superior analytical powers and was never satisfied to accept a view or theory save if it were demonstrably true.
American Institute of Homeopathy. (2025) https://homeopathyusa.org/history-of-aih-our-heritage-our-future/
Homeopathy & John H. Clarke M.D.
was indeed an outstanding character, and if one can compare him with another, it is with him who was probably the greatest homoeopath that the United States produced Dr. James Tyler Kent. They had the same forcible way of expressing themselves combined with an inherent retiring nature, the same intolerance of anything second-rate, especially as relating to their beloved system of therapeutics, the same scorn and contempt for time-servers.
Homeopathy & Revolution in Medicine
Thus Hahnemann anticipated another of the improvements in medical practice fondly imagined to be a discovery of recent years and credited to Englishmen. All honour to the English doctors for the work they did, and the reform they brought about; but the originality is not theirs -it belongs to Hahnemann.
Homeopathy & Hahnemann
Being in the midst of World Homeopathy Awareness Week (April 10-16) requires an explanation of what homeopathy actually is! (and is not)
Vithoulkas. The basic principles of Homeopathy. The Encyclopedia Papyros-Larousse-Britanica. Available from: https://www.vithoulkas.com/research/scientific-papers/homeopathy-article-encyclopedia-papyros-larousse-britannica
Hahnemann, S. (2005). Organon of Medicine. Sixth edition. (W. Boericke, Trans.). Indian Books and Periodicals Publishers. (Original work published 1842.)
Rowold J, Hewson PD. 2020. Biofield Frequency Bands-Definitions and Group Differences. Glob Adv Health Med. Dec 24;9:2164956120982568. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8981232/
Rubik B, Muehsam D, Hammerschlag R, Jain S. Biofield Science and Healing: History, Terminology, and Concepts. Glob Adv Health Med. 2015 Nov;4(Suppl):8-14. doi: 10.7453/gahmj.2015.038.suppl. Epub 2015 Nov 1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4654789/
https://www.lmhi.org/Home/NewsDetail?newsId=d4291abc-0136-49ec-bf91-5acff72903b1
Hahnemann, S. The Chronic Diseases – their peculiar nature and their homeopathic cure Vol. I; Authors Preface. 1997. B. Jain Publishers. (Originally published 1828).