Being in the midst of World Homeopathy Awareness Week (April 10-16) requires an explanation of what homeopathy actually is!
The following are excerpts from the encyclopedia Papyros-Larousse-Britanica compiled by professor George Vithoulkas in 1982 and taken from the International Academy of Classical Homeopathy website.1
homeopathy, also spelled homœopathy: the therapeutic system founded by the German Physician S. C. F. Hahnemann. (Born Meissen 1755, died Paris 1843).
The name originates from the Greek words “όμοιος”=”homos” (similar) and “πάθος”=”pathos” (disease, suffering).
The Law of Similars: like cures like
The whole system (of homeopathy) is based mainly upon the principle that the cure of a disease is accomplished by drugs that are capable of producing, in a healthy individual, similar symptoms (suffering) to those of the disease to be treated.
For instance, it is well known that Belladonna causes mydriasis, i.e., enlargement of the pupil. In a case of mydriasis, the homeopathic doctor will prescribe Belladonna in a highly diluted potency to bring the pupil to its normal state. Another example is Digitalis, widely used by orthodox medicine to reduce tachycardia, ie excessive rapidity in the action of the heart. In homeopathy, Digitalis in high potency will be indicated in some cases of bradycardia, where the pulse rate is very slow.
This principle was expressed by Hahnemann with the Latin motto
“Similia Similibus Curentur. ’’
“Let similars be treated with similars. ”
Hahnemann maintained that this is a basic law of cure.
The idea was mentioned originally by Hippocrates, but it had also been expressed by Paracelsus and others.
The provings
To ascertain the curative virtues of the drugs Hahnemann suggested that they should be “proved” upon healthy persons – that is to say, they should be taken by individuals of both sexes in gradually increasing doses, but not beyond the subtoxic levels. The manifestations of drug action thus produced were carefully recorded. This record of “drug-symptoms” the signs and symptoms produced on relatively healthy organisms, after being verified by repetition on many “provers, ” and combined with the toxicological effects of some of the drugs that were known through the then existing medical literature, constitutes the distinguishing feature of a voluminous homeopathic pharmacopoeia called “Materia Medica.”
The main theories of Hahnemann
Based on the “Law of Similars” and the provings of the drugs upon human organisms, Hahnemann proceeded to develop an entire medical system. He published his theories for the first time in his main book “Organon of the Art of healing” in 1810. In 294 Aphorisms Hahnemann expounds the principles of his System of Medicine.
He later published his “Materia Medica Pura, ” in which he included all the drugs that he himself and his followers had proved upon themselves and others. He also published his “Chronic Diseases” in which he claimed that all chronic diseases were the result of suppressed skin eruptions, suppressed syphillis and suppressed gonorrhea.
He considered that these three groups of diseases – when wrongly treated – remained within the organism in an altered form, eventually manifesting themselves as chronic diseases. He called them the miasms of Psora, Syphillis and Sycosis ( by sycosis he meant the gonorrheal miasm).
Hahnemann was strongly criticised for these theories, even by some of his own followers, who though they abandoned this idea as useless still practiced homeopathy.
Some essential points of Homeopathic theories that complement “the Law of Similars” are :
That there are no diseases as such, but only diseased individuals.
That the indicated remedy should fit the symptoms of each individual case and not of the disease.
That the necessary amount (dose) of the remedy needed to bring about a cure is the smallest possible one, indeed an infinitesimal one.
That the symptoms of a disease, during the process of a cure disappear in the reverse order of their coming.
Individualisation of the case
An important concept that Hahnemann introduced, differentiating homeopathy from main stream medicine, was Individualisation.
As he maintained that there are no diseases as such but only diseased individuals. The treatment of the sick should be aimed at the cure of the individual rather than his disease. According to such a concept ten patients suffering from the same “disease” for example, epilepsy, would possibly receive ten different drugs, unless their symptom manifestations were identical down to the last detail, an infrequent but not impossible occurrence.
The prescription of the drug for each case should be guided by the similarity of the drug pathogenesis, “the provings”, and correspond to the individualised specific and peculiar symptomatology of the patient.
The defence mechanism.
The complex mechanism of the defence system of the organism was collectively called by Hahnemann “the vital force” (science calls this the biofield2*)
This expression implies that behind the material defence mechanism there exists in the organism an energy-like state, an “intelligent force” that supervises and synchronises the actions and reactions of the organism.
The logic behind such thinking, according to homeopaths, lies in the understanding that symptoms are nothing more than the response of the human organism’s defence mechanism. Fever rises, for instance, in order to counteract an infecting agent, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc., and the organism needs to be supported in its curative effort, rather than repressed.
Homeopaths believe that in giving a drug that is capable of producing, on a healthy individual, symptoms similar to those present in the patient, they are in effect stimulating and at the same time supporting the defence mechanism in its effort to get rid of disease.
Homeopaths maintain that the real cause of disease is not the infecting agent, but, rather, a weak defence mechanism which accepts disease, a weak immune system. By strengthening the immune system instead of killing the microbes they believe that they are doing more to produce a lasting state of health in the individual. To contemporary homeopaths it is evident that vaccination is based on a similar logic.
Corroboration of the “Law of Similars” is shown by established medicine’s adoption of the serum therapy when treating such diseases as diphtheria, where a modified form of the infecting agent is introduced into the patient’s system.
Opponents maintain that homeopaths do not look for the real cause of a disease which, they claim, is often an infecting agent. Homeopaths maintain that by strengthening the defence mechanism they actually go deeper into the real cause of the imbalance, which is the weakness of the constitution and its inability to fight off disease. Moreover, in most chronic diseases the causative factor is unknown, and therefore cannot be treated as such.
The minimum dose : preparation – posology
Homeopaths maintain that in order to affect a cure using homeopathic remedies, it is necessary to employ very minute doses. In most cases the doses are so small as to be infinitesimal.
There are several methods of preparing homeopathic medicines : the decimal, the centesimal and the quintecimal.
Here we shall describe only the centesimal, which is the most frequently used at this time.
In order to make the first centecimal dilution or first centecimal trituration, 1 drop of the pure mother tincture, or 1 grain of the crude substance, are mixed with 99 drops of twice distilled water, or 99 grains of saccharum lactis (sugar of milk) respectively. The liquid is thoroughly and vigorously shaken for a specific number of times, usually ten, or the powder is triturated for a specific time, usually one hour, and the resultant liquid or powder is marked 1C, meaning first centecimal dilution or trituration. To make the 2C potency, 1 drop or 1 grain of this first dilution or trituration are mixed with 99 drops of distilled water, or 99 grains of milk sugar, and are succussed or triturated as described above, and marked 2C dilution or trituration. This subdivision of particles may be continued to an indefinite degree.
This process is called “potentisation” and the resultant remedy is referred to as first, second, third etc., “potency.”
The potencies that are used by Homeopaths can start from the second or third and can go on up to potencies of 12, 30, 200, and beyond.
The dispute between homeopaths and conventional doctors
The greatest dispute concerning homeopathy arises from the use of infinitesimal doses that are looked upon by conventional doctors with great suspicion.
The theory of potentisation and the extreme dilution of medicines resulting from it is actually the main grounds for disbelief in homeopathy by orthodox medical doctors and other scientists, who see no real substance of any kind -not even a molecule- once the dilutions have passed a certain number called “The Avogadro number”, and therefore they cannot understand how these medicines can be effective at all.
Homeopaths claim that their experience shows that they get even better therapeutic results with high potencies and that the power of the drug is rather in a kind of new subtle energy state of energy that has resulted from potentisation. Therefore they are not dealing with “material” medicine but rather with “energy” medicine.
Opponents maintain that the results obtained by homeopaths are only placebo effects, a kind of auto-suggestion that is known to exist in medicine especially if a person thinks he is taking a “magical” medicine.
Homeopaths reply that their remedies actually work best in babies, little children and animals, thus excluding the possibility of auto-suggestion.
….
(continuing at Homeopathy article from the Encyclopedia Papyros-Larousse-Britannica)3
*The Biofield
The biofield is defined as “a complex organizing energy field engaged in the generation, maintenance, and regulation of biological homeodynamics.”4
“All living systems coexist within and co-contribute to a biofield, which we define in terms of electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic fields.’’5
Every living being has an electromagnetic field surrounding them - including cells; monocyte physical long-range cell-to-cell communications via their biofield have been confirmed.6 7
Common existing medical science examples of biofield study include electroencephalographic (EEG) measuring brain activity, and electromyographic (EMG) measuring muscle activity.
The effect of individualized homeopathy on the biofield aka vital force has been measured in fibromyalgia patients (who show evidence of EEG pain pathways alterations) - the homeopathy group experienced significant EEG increases.8 9
The paper Effect of Coronavirus Worldwide through Misusing of Wireless Sensor Networks ‘‘illustrates all individuals suffer from sensor disease due to reflecting of wavered sensors at open eyes sights with high speed electromagnetic-radio tracking systems.’’10
Yes, it turns out that Coronavirus is the backbone of the wide body area network11 (WBAN 802.15.6) however, the tracking and tracing of all humans through EMF radiation via the (current) 5G network causes injury, every disease known to man in fact…12
… the list is too large to include in its entirety here …
Medical science is incredibly far, far, far more sinisterly advanced than you have ever been told, or have ever imagined…
(A BIG thank you to the people who are trying to bring this horror to light (in no particular order) Attorney Todd Callender (Clouthub); Sabrina Wallace the original psinergist13 (Odysee); Maria Zeee (zeeemedia.com); and the work of Hope & Tivon which includes the presentation Medical Body Area Network Nightmare14 - I warn you here to brace yourself)
IT IS IMPORTANT TO STATE individualized homeopathy - that is homeopathy prescribed for an individual by a competent homeopath15 - can be a remedy for many, regardless of the sinister (or not) cause shown, for example, in the alleviation of suffering in 360 individual cases of ‘COVID-19 like’ symptoms16 (being a non-communicable sensor disease spreading worldwide through misusing of processed radio frequency)17 and, post COVID-19 mRNA Biological Injection18 (my peer reviewed case study).
(Homeopaths, if you are aware of further examples please send them to me!)
Where is homeopathy at in 2024?
As the body of evidence for homeopathy grows, the idea that homeopathy is just a placebo effect is becoming increasingly implausible19 with cutting edge reproducible accelerated computing enabled microscopy measuring nanoparticulates in various potencies of Aurum metallicum (gold).20
The basophil degranulation processes (part of the mammalian allergic response) are highly sensitive to homeopathic preparations, and accordingly twenty basophil degranulation experiments have been undertaken since Benveniste et al., in 1988 (published in Nature 333,816- 819). Currently the HRI, in collaboration with the Hiscia Institute, are investigating the feasibility of another such experiment.21 (It is well known that the Benveniste experiment22 shortly after the release of its findings, was proven false by a scientific committee sent by the journal Nature to the author’s laboratory, as explained by George Vithoulkas in his paper “The controversy over the memory of the water.”23
Dr. Steven Cartwright summarises his decade’s long body of research in which he has employed solvatochromic dyes to establish a mechanism of action for homeopathic medicines thanks to the Homeopathic Research Institute.24
And as at the end of 2022, 271 randomised controlled trials of homeopathic treatment for 144 medical conditions were published in peer-reviewed journals - 157 were double blind.25
Sapere Aude!
Sarah Penrose can always be reached via goodhealthforgreatlife.com
https://www.vithoulkas.com/research/scientific-papers/homeopathy-article-encyclopedia-papyros-larousse-britannica
Rowold J, Hewson PD. 2020. Biofield Frequency Bands-Definitions and Group Differences. Glob Adv Health Med. Dec 24;9:2164956120982568. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8981232/
https://www.vithoulkas.com/research/scientific-papers/homeopathy-article-encyclopedia-papyros-larousse-britannica
Scott-Phillips TC. Defining biological communication. J Evol Biol. 2008 Mar;21(2):387-95. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18205776/
Hammerschlag et al., 2012. Biofield research: a roundtable discussion of scientific and methodological issues. J Altern Complement Med. Dec;18(12):1081-6. Available from: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/acm.2012.1502?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed
Rowold J, Hewson PD. 2020. Biofield Frequency Bands-Definitions and Group Differences. Glob Adv Health Med. Dec 24;9:2164956120982568. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8981232/
Fels D. Endogenous physical regulation of population density in the freshwater protozoan Paramecium caudatum. Sci Rep. 2017 Oct 23;7(1):13800. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5653844/
Bell et al., 2004. EEG alpha sensitization in individualized homeopathic treatment of fibromyalgia. Int J Neurosci. Sep;114(9):1195-220. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15370183/
Miah et al., 2021. Effect of Coronavirus Worldwide through Misusing of Wireless Sensor Networks. American Journal of Bioinformatics Research. 11(1): 1-31. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360154514_Effect_of_Coronavirus_Worldwide_through_Misusing_of_Wireless_Sensor_Networks
Miah et al., 2021. Effect of Coronavirus Worldwide through Misusing of Wireless Sensor Networks. American Journal of Bioinformatics Research. 11(1): 1-31. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360154514_Effect_of_Coronavirus_Worldwide_through_Misusing_of_Wireless_Sensor_Networks
Sabrina Wallace: JAIC, JSTAR, ISTAR, ISR, DOD and Psinergists Formal Presentation From 2022 When She Started Screaming From The Rooftops! Available from: https://www.brighteon.com/64f7e723-cf4c-4ead-8b10-b9d03c0ae5ca
https://zeeemedia.com/interview/hope-tivon-mk-ultra-for-the-masses-nanotech-neuroscience/
Mahesh et al., 2023. COVID-19 cases treated with classical homeopathy: a retrospective analysis of International Academy of Classical Homeopathy database. Journal of Global Health Reports. Vol.,7:e2023027. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371454971_COVID-19_cases_treated_with_classical_homeopathy_a_retrospective_analysis_of_International_Academy_of_Classical_Homeopathy_database
Miah et al., 2021. Effect of Coronavirus Worldwide through Misusing of Wireless Sensor Networks. American Journal of Bioinformatics Research. 11(1): 1-31. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360154514_Effect_of_Coronavirus_Worldwide_through_Misusing_of_Wireless_Sensor_Networks
Roberts ER, Mosley AJ, Tournier AL. Insights from a Decade of 'Cutting Edge Research in Homeopathy'. Homeopathy. 2024 Feb;113(1):1-3. Available from: https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/s-0043-1777309
Berghian-Grosan et al., 2024. Ultra-high dilutions analysis: Exploring the effects of potentization by electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and deep learning. Journ mol liquids. 401, 1 May 2024, 124537. Preprint. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167732224005932?via%3Dihub
https://www.hri-research.org/hri-research/how-do-homeopathic-medicines-work/basophil-degranulation-experiments/
Davenas E, Beauvais F, Amara J, Oberbaum M, Robinzon B, Miadonna A, Tedeschi A, Pomeranz B, Fortner P, Belon P, et al. 1998. Human basophil degranulation triggered by very dilute antiserum against IgE. Nature. Jun 30;333(6176):816-8. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2455231/
Vithoulkas, G. 2017. The Controversy Over the “Memory of Water.” Med Sci Hypotheses. 4:1-6. Available from: https://www.medscihypotheses.com/abstract/index/idArt/901167
https://www.hri-research.org/hri-research/how-do-homeopathic-medicines-work/physico-chemical-properties-of-high-dilutions/
https://www.hri-research.org/resources/homeopathy-faqs/scientific-evidence-for-homeopathy/
Thanks for writing this excellent explanation of the history and methodology of Homeopathy.
I read with interest that the term "biofield" was defined by the committee of the CAM, who coined it as: “a massless field, not necessarily electromagnetic, that surrounds and permeates living bodies and affects the body.”
Although this is a step on from a medical system that refuses to accept the existence of the life force, or whatever we choose to call it, this definition is a long way short of Vital Force, or what James Tyler Kents called Simple Substance, and described the attributes of so thoroughly in his Lectures of Homeopathic Philosophy in 1899.
In the ancient world, The Vital Force was key to our cosmological understanding of everything. Our ancestors perceived it as a spiritual force, intimately aligned with consciousness, intention, and the expression of divine will.
Of course, these days we are squeamish about affiliations with these overtly spiritual concepts, so we have dumbed down or done away with references to the soul or the spirit.
I wonder though Sarah, and I am asking this rhetorically, that in our determination to have a seat at the science table, are we at risk of throwing the baby out with the bathwater?