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ABOUT HOMOEOPATHY > THE EVOLUTION OF HOMOEOPATHY
Homoeopathy is a system of medicine based on
the principle like cures like. While mention of this principle
is found in the writings of Hippocrates (400BC) and even
earlier in those of the ancient Indian poet Kalidas (approx.
10th Century BC) it was a German physician Dr. Samuel
Hahnemann who in 1790 founded a system of therapeutics based
upon it. Hahnemann became interested in the curative powers of
the medicines, and in one of the text books of his time he
read that cinchona bark (from which quinine is extracted)
cured malarial type fevers as it is bitter. He thought that
the best way to determine the action of cinchona was to see
what effect it had on the body. Thus he took some of the
substance himself, and much to his surprise he developed
fever, chills and other symptoms resembling those of malaria.
This result made him see that the reason why cinchona is
effective in cases of malarial type fever is perhaps because
it is capable of producing a condition very similar to
malaria. He repeated this experiment and performed several
others with other medicinal substances on himself and on
volunteers from amongst his family, friends and students, and
each time obtained the same result. On this was based the
homoeopathic principle like cures like which means that a
substance that can cause a certain effect in a healthy person
can cure a disease with similar symptoms. For example a person
who has been poisoned with lead (chronic poisoning) will
experience symptoms such as severe colicky pain with spasm of
the abdominal muscles, constipation and paralysis and fatigue;
on the other hand a person suffering from these symptoms
especially where there has been no history of lead poisoning
can be relieved with the homoeopathic remedy Plumbum
metallicum (lead in homoeopathic ultra minute doses). The
homoeopathic principle can be used to heal or alleviate
conditions even where no medicines are employed; for example
an experienced cook when burned will hold his hand close
enough to the fire to experience an increase in the burning
pain rather than immerse it in cold water, as in this way his
pains are relived faster after a temporary increase in the
discomfort and also there is better healing.
Hahnemann’s experiments of testing medicinal effects on
healthy volunteers came to be known as provings. From the
provings were compiled records in which the symptoms obtained
were arranged systematically and these constituted the
Homoeopathic Materia Medica. During the nearly one hundred
provings that he conducted in his lifetime, and the vast
number of patients he treated using the system, the founder of
Homoeopathy noted the following:
1. Medicines produced changes not only in some particular
region in the body but affected the whole of the body and also
the mind. Holism is one of the basic tenets of Homoeopathy, so
that disease is defined as affecting the whole and not just a
part of the body. The homoeopathic physician notes down the
state of the patient’s mind in addition to listing his
physical symptoms and attempts to match the patient to a
homoeopathic remedy with a similar set of symptoms. For
example a mild, yielding, sensitive woman who is easily moved
to tears, who suffers from a disordered digestion due to an
erratic diet and who is thirstless but craves sour and pungent
foods which would aggravate her condition, will probably
require the homoeopathic remedy Pulsatilla as a similar
description can be found in the symptomatology of this plant
remedy.
2. While several medicinal substances did produce symptoms
resembling the same disease condition each substance did so in
its own peculiar way, with it’s own distinct conditions of
aggravation and amelioration of the symptoms, it’s own unique
accompanying sensations etc. In treating an individual also a
homoeopath will look for these peculiar symptoms which
individualize the patient, so that treatment is not diagnoses
based but individual based. Thus if of two children with
respiratory tract infection, the first is very irritable,
wants to be constantly carried by the mother but is very
irritable if someone else tries to touch him or even look at
him, has a thick white coating on the tongue, is thristless
and vomits with the cough he will probably require the
homoeopathic remedy Antim tart; whereas the other child if he
is of thin build, coughs especially in the evening between 4
and 8 PM, wants sweet foods but eats little, is afraid of
being alone and feels chilled easily, he would probably
require the homoeopathic remedy Lycopodium. Both might share a
common diagnosis but throw up quite different and peculiar,
individualizing symptoms which call for the selection of
different homoeopathic remedies.
3. In treating patients Hahnemann realized that if he
administered the medicinal substance as it was, even in small
doses, there followed an aggravation that was at times quite
intense, and also some poisonous substances could not be
administered as medicines. He therefore started diluting the
medicines, and in doing so he realized that a step by step,
serial dilution of the remedial substance when accompanied by
a process of succussion or vigorous shaking increased the
efficacy of the remedy while reducing it’s harmful and
undesired effects. In fact the more diluted and succussed the
remedy is the more potent it’s curative action. This process
therefore came to be known as potentization. Potentized
homoeopathic remedies are ultra dilutions of the original
substance and beyond certain potency none of the original
medicinal substance can be detected in the remedy, and it is
assumed that only the energy of the original substance remains
in these homoeopathic doses.
4. Hahnemann postulated that these ultra dilutions since there
were now beyond the material realm, also touched through their
action something immaterial, viz. the inner energy or spirit
which imparts life to the body, and keeps all it’s parts
working harmoniously. This energy he called the Vital Force.
The aim of homoeopathic treatment is therefore to stimulate
the restore the disordered Vital Force to return the body to
it’s original healthy state.
5. Through his clinical observations Hahnemann also identified
that there was something fundamental to the complaints that
the patient manifested with, and that when attempting to cure
it was necessary to also remove this fundamental cause of
disease which he called a miasm. He identified three miasms
and also classified remedies as being suited to eradicate
specific miasms, so that the homoeopathic remedy selected for
the patient would have to match not only the patient’s
symptoms but also cover his miasm. This gave prescribing a
certain depth.
The practice of Homoeopathy started gaining in popularity in
Europe, The USA and Asia. With new remedies being proved even
after Hahnemann’s death in 1843 the Homoeopathic Materia
Medica started to become voluminous. There was a need
therefore to create an index of symptoms which would serve as
easy reference for physicians. This index is called a
repertory.
Although this science had faced opposition right from the time
of its foundation, Homoeopathy continued to spread and
progress. It received patronage from some of the most
respected people in society and in the United States at the
turn of the century one of every five doctors used
Homoeopathy. There were many great homoeopaths in that country
at the time, viz. Dr. J.T.Kent, Dr. C.M.Boger, Dr. Nash, Dr.
Allen and Dr. H.C.Roberts, all practicing classical
homoeopathy. During this period homoeopathic literature
developed, its tools were sharpened, its philosophy expounded
and its practice evolved.
Homoeopathy had spread to India, and here too there was much
development. Calcutta was the stronghold of Homeopathy with
famous homeopaths like Dr. B.K. Bose, Dr. M.L. Sircar, Dr.
N.M. Chowdury and others. Development continued at this pace
in various countries across Europe, America and Asia into the
twentieth century until the 1930s when it’s practice began to
decline. One reason was that while Homoeopathy integrated
philosophy into its theory and practice there was a shift in
medicine to a mechanical model of the body. Then there was the
discovery of antibiotics and the use of steroids, and in this
way a wider rift developed between conventional medicine and
Homoeopathy. Another reason was that amongst homoeopaths there
started to emerge disagreements. Many deviated from classical
Hahnemannian Homoeopathy and some started prescribing on local
symptoms and diagnoses, while others mixed several remedies
(whereas Hahnemann had advocated the use of single remedies),
and yet others discarded the idea of potentised remedies; all
this with pharmacies patenting specifics, mixtures and
formulas, even homoeopathic hair oils and toothpaste! The
stream of Classical Homoeopathy began thinning, although the
science itself survived. Except for a handful of classical
prescribers, Homeopathy went into the hands of less qualified
people or prescribers with no classical foundation.
This state of affairs continued till the 1970s when it’s
practice and spread experienced a renaissance. While
Homoeopathy had considerably declined in the US and many parts
of Europe there were still a considerable number of
Homoeopaths in India. A Greek Homoeopath by the name of George
Vithoulkas, who also came to India to study the system, can be
said to have begun the resurrection of Homoeopathy in Europe
in the late 1970s. He re-emphasized treating the patient and
not merely his symptoms, and also laid a lot of stress on the
perception of the mind state, which Hahnemann had identified
as the most peculiar and thus most imortant aspect of any
patient. There had been homoeopaths before him who did this,
especially Dr. James Tyler Kent, an American homoeopath in the
early twentieth century, who was able to perceive remedy
states as images or pictures. This brought some life into an
otherwise dry materia medica where remedies had only been
looked upon as collections of symptoms, mental and physical.
Vithoulkas, working along similar lines, developed an
understanding of essences of various remedies. He taught the
same at his seminars using video recorded case interviews from
his teaching practice. His enthusiastic teaching and
appreciable results inspired a new generation of homoeopaths
in Europe, the US and India.
One of the early schools of Homoeopathy in India has been the
Institute of Clinical Research (ICR). Founded in Bombay by Dr.
M. L. Dhawale this school came to it’s own in the early 1970s,
when it attempted to systematize the processes of homoeopathic
case taking and remedy selection. It introduced a post
graduate course and had the following of a band of very
dedicated and devoted doctors who believe in strict adherence
to methodology. Recently this school has expanded and put up a
hospital at Palghar near Mumbai. One of the main teachers in
the ICR, Dr Praful Barvalia, has taken the step of
co-ordinating Homeopathic therapy with other diagnostic and
therapeutic methods in the case of children with learning
disabilities and other psychological problems including
autism. His center in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, is a fine example of
coordinated work by a group coming from various disciplines.
Also in India in the mid 80s Dr. M. L.Sehgal from Delhi, like
his contemporaries in other parts of the world, focused his
attention on the mind state of the patient and how to perceive
it. Dr. Sehgal was of the opinion that one could prescribe on
the mind state alone. Working on this idea he developed a
unique and revolutionary concept whereby the mental symptoms
need not be asked to the patient directly but can be perceived
by the way in which he narrates his complaint. He also found
unique ways in which to apply existing symptoms from out of
the materia medica. For example the remedy Stramonium has the
symptoms “Fear of darkness” and “Desire for light”. According
to Dr. Sehgal the patient could be expressing these symptoms
when he said he is suffering from a particular ailment and he
is extremely anxious that he does not know what it is and he
would want to be investigated; this could be understood to
mean fear of the unknown (darkness), and desire for
investigation or knowledge of his problem (light). Dr. Sehgal
wrote a sereis of books and founded the Sehgal School of
Revolutionised Homoeopathy in Delhi. He also inspired many
people internationally, although there are quite a few who
appreciate him but do not follow him directly as he wanted to
exclusively use mental symptoms in his prescribing ( as
opposed to mainstream Homoeopath who would use both mental and
physical symptoms).
Also in the 80s, Jeremy Sherr, a homeopath based in England
restarted the process of proving new homoeopathic remedies in
the Hahnemannian style. Homoeopathic remedies are derived from
various sources of all three kingdoms, namely Mineral , Plant
and Animal. Examples of some Homoeopathic remedies are Natrum
mur (common salt), Allium cepa (onion) and Naja(venom of the
cobra). Sherr first undertook the proving of Scorpion. Sherr
exemplified his understanding of the remedy Scorpion with the
portrait of the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He
later proved Hydrogen, Chocolate and other new remedies. His
provings have been published have helped heal many a case in
practice. This inspired others in various parts of the world
to undertake more and newer provings so that in the last
fifteen years, more than three hundred new remedies have been
added into the homoeopathic armamentarium.
Among those who developed further the understanding of the
mind state of the patient is the Bombay physician, Dr. Rajan
Sankaran. He, too, regarded the mind state as more than just a
random collection of discrete and unconnected symptoms. But
his concept was that the whole of this state arose from an
altered perception of reality, which is called Delusion. For
example if a person views his situation as being very
dangerous and threatening, and himself as a helpless child, he
will react with panic and clinging. His apparent mental state
(panic and clinging) comes from the delusion that he is like a
child in dangerous surroundings. This false feeling will also
be seen in his dreams. Another example: a patient who views
himself as handicapped will feel incapable of handling his
everyday responsibilities and react by shunning his duties and
depending entirely on others. His apparent mental state (lack
of responsibility, lack of confidence and dependence on
others) comes from his inner, false perception that he is
handicapped. In this way Dr. Rajan Sankaran brought out the
importance of dreams and delusions as the basis of disease.
Dreams became an integral part of case understanding after
they were emphasized by Dr. Juergen Becker of Germany and Dr.
Sankaran. The way to deal with dreams was explained by Dr.
Sankaran as follows: “We have not to ignore a dream nor
interpret it. Interpretation of a dream is always a theory and
this is not what homeopathy is about. We simply need to go
into the exact feelings in the dreams and see where else do
such feelings occur in the persons life. The dream is closest
to the delusion, the false perception which is at the bottom
of the mind state of the patient.” These and other ideas were
contained in his first book The Spirit of Homoeopathy which
became immensely popular, and which continues to be among best
sellers in Homoeopathic literature. Apart from dreams there
are other ways to perceive the patients delusion, and among
these, the patient’s interests and hobbies, including what
books, movies, activities etc. fascinate him, or hurt his
sensitivity, were useful pointers to his inner state. Often
unable to recall dreams the patient can vividly describe a
scene from a movie or a newspaper story, with such powerful
emotions that it could have been his own story. Such a thing
is like a dream and can be used to perceive the delusion of
the patient. Dr. Sankaran later systematized this method in
his book The System of Homoeopathy.
Dr. Sankaran continued to develop other concepts, aiming at
systematizing homoeopathy and standardizing results. He used
his concept of disease as a false perception of reality to
understand miasms. In his understanding miasms represent the
depth and degree of desperation of the person’s inner
delusion. As Dr. Sankaran understood it, Psora, the miasm at
one end of the spectrum, shows a lot of hope, while Syphilis,
the miasm at the other end of this spectrum shows the least
hope and therefore the most desperation. He also added another
six miasms to the already existing ones.
Another very popular and now quite widely accepted, yet
controversial theory of his is the kingdom theory. Through his
very busy clinical practice Dr. Sankaran was able to identify
differences in patients requiring remedies from different
kingdoms. He was able to see the main issue with persons
requiring mineral kingdom remedies had to do with structure
and the loss of it, while that with plant kingdom remedies had
to do with sensitivity, while the animal kingdom remedies had
issues with survival as their basic problem. In this way for
the first time Homoeopathy which had been seemingly discrete
from other sciences such as chemistry, zoology and botany was
now very obviously connected with them. By understanding
miasms the way he did and through his kingdom theory the
practice of Homoeopathy became more systematic and simpler.
There were now over two thousand remedies in the homoeopathic
material medica to chose from, and in choosing one for the
patient it was easy to get very lost. Using Dr. Sankaran’s
approach one identified the kingdom and miasm and thus
narrowed down the possible remedies considerably. Therefore if
is a patient presents thus: He suffers from a degenerative
variety of arthritis and he needs support to walk. He feels
that his knees will give way and is willing to stretch himself
to do whatever he can to conserve his joints. He is very
afraid of any kind of loss especially financial, as to him
this means a loss of stability from which he will find it very
difficult to recover. He is dependent on others and fears the
loss of relationships, especially those that provide him with
a stable base. In this example one can see quite easily that
running through the mind state of the patient is the fear of
losing the stable base on which he is dependent. Even the
arthritis threatens that his knees, on which he depends to
keep him upright and mobile, will give way. The problem here
has to do with losing structure, whether it has to do with his
knees, his financial situation or relationships. This patient
would, in all probability, require a mineral remedy. Also he
views this loss of structure as a situation from which there
is little hope of recovery, and he is desperate and willing to
stretch himself and so whatever he can to prevent it. This
would put his miasm somewhere at the syphilitic end of the
spectrum. Now the selection of his remedy has been made far
simpler when the physician knows that he is looking for a
nearly syphilitic mineral remedy ( In this case, Calcarea
Fluor).
Dr. Sankaran also connected the periodic table of elements to
homoeopathy, so that the table itself can be viewed as a map
of remedy states. Similarly he studied the plant kingdom
remedies using the existing botanical classification into
plant families. In this process he discovered one level deeper
to delusion, viz that of sensation. Each plant family shared a
common sensation; what differed with each of it’s members was
the degree of desperation with which the sensation was
experienced (miasm). One had begun with looking at physical
and emotional symptoms, then realized that delusion was deeper
to both of them, and now there was yet one level deeper to
both mind and body, viz. sensation. Each person expressed a
unique sensation which connected directly with the source of
the remedy. More recently he has discovered a still deeper
level, that of energy. Each patient has a unique energy
pattern ,which is seen in various expressions including body
language and especially through hand gestures .It is this
energy pattern disturbance that is the problem and needs to be
treated. Thus the original Hahnemannian idea that disease is a
disturbance of the inner vital force and that homeopathy is
energy medicine has now become a practical reality. Dr.
Sankaran’s concepts widened the horizons of homoeopathy as
never before, as one was now able to prescribe even remedies
not yet proved. Dr. Sankaran has written six major books, some
of which have been translated into twelve languages.
Dr. Sankaran leads the Bombay School of Homoeopathy, and
together with his colleagues Dr. Jayesh Shah, Dr. Sujit
Chatterjee, Dr. Sunil Anand and Dr. Sudhir Baldota has been
teaching through video cases a unique method of case taking
and remedy selection at seminars in twenty five countries
around the globe. The school also holds annual international
courses and seminars in Mumbai, some of which have been
attended by over a thousand participants. The unique case
taking method as taught by Dr. Sankaran, traces the patients
experience of his suffering or ailment right down to the
deepest level, viz. that of sensation and energy, till that
point where the source of his turmoil is reached. Although
through this method Dr. Sankaran has attempted a
standardization of the case taking and remedy selection
techniques in homoeopathy, the technique itself remains
artistic and varies with patients, something that is in
keeping with the basic principle of individualization.
Working along similar lines another homoeopath, Dr. Divya
Chhabra, also from Bombay started exploring the use of the
Freudian concept of free association in bringing out the inner
delusion and arriving at the remedy. She has developed her own
method of case taking in which the patient is allowed to begin
with peripheral expressions or situations and from there the
case taking progresses as a spiral to the centre which is his
innermost delusion. Her method is popular with homoeopaths
both in India and abroad.
Dr.Jan Scholten, a Dutch Homoeopath, continued the exploration
of the periodic table as a means of understanding the nature
of mineral remedies in Homoeopathy. Through his work the
entire periodic table can be related to Homoeopathy. A journey
down the table from the first to the seventh period
corresponds to the development from infancy to old age, from
powerlessness to power, from dependence to independence. For
example, row 3 of the table deals with people involved in
everyday tasks, while row 4 deals with the innovators,
inventors and artists, people involved in creative work, and
row 5 deals with people in position of power and
responsibility; heads of organization, leaders, dictators,
kings. Also he realized that the left half of the table
represents a climb towards success, while the right half
represents an effort to maintain one’s position and then a
decline. In this way he could predict the mind state of
elements not yet proved, and later provings and clinical
application of his concepts confirmed them. He has written two
major books, viz. Homoeopathy and Minerals and the Homoeopathy
and the Elements, both of which are immensely popular, and
through the use of which many unproved remedies have been
utilized.
In the past five years, another Mumbai based homoeopath, Dr
Prafull Vijaykar, has expounded his ideas. Termed “Predictive
Homoeopathy”, it attempts to understand the basic constitution
of the patient and uses the same as the basis of prescribing.
He also has connected Homeopathy to embryology through his
theory of seven levels of suppression. With the help of
several cases from his practice he has illustrated that when a
symptom is treated locally it is suppressed to a deeper level
in the organism. Cure, on the other hand, should result from
within outward, namely in the reverse order of the
suppression. This phenomenon is already well known in
Homeopathy as the Hering’s Law of Direction of Cure. Dr.
Vijaykar has emphasized this law and uses it as a strict
yardstick to judge whether what is happening in a given case
is suppression or a cure.
As homoeopaths attempted to understand the patient at deeper
and deeper levels it became apparent that the main idea of the
interview in homeopathy is to get to the finest level of the
symptoms experienced by a patient. Each symptom is probed
deeper and deeper till the peculiar sensation is uncovered.
This sensation represents the individuality of the person and
will be often seen to be the connecting thread in the whole
case. The body and mind will express this at the deepest
level. With all this emphasis on the mind state of the patient
homoeopathy has been thought to be similar to psychotherapy
and analysis, and sometimes attempts have been made to combine
the two; homoeopathy is deeper than psychotherapy as the
latter deals with the subconscious and conscious minds whereas
the realm of homoeopathy is that of energy which is the basis
of the subconscious and conscious minds. The idea of the
homeopath is not to ask why of a phenomenon, rather he goes
into the what exactly of a phenomenon. The basic philosophy is
to observe without judgment each phenomenon as it gets finer
and finer and this is very similar to the process of
meditation. Meditation, like homoeopathic remedies, reflects
the patient’s inner turmoil, and is being recommended by some
homoeopaths to complement the work of homoeopathic remedies.
In that sense homeopathy does not subscribe to the
cause-effect theories. For example it does not say that stress
is the cause of peptic ulcer or hypertension. It says that
stress itself is a part of the disease as much as the ulcer or
hypertension is. Together, stress and the ulcer/hypertension,
are two expressions of the same basic disorder, a disorder in
the deepest level of the being, and it is this disorder that
needs to be seen and treated. There is no psycho-somatic
medicine or somato-psychic causation; there is only the
totality of observable phenomenon. The homoeopath is
interested in observing the sensation expressed in the ulcer,
and this will be no different than the sensation in his
emotional stress taken to the deepest point.
For example the patient may say that with his ulcer, apart
from the symptom of burning pain which is commonly experienced
with the condition, there is a feeling that the stomach is
very weak and is fragile and can break from any slight
indiscretion. When this person’s mind state is examined it
will be that his emotional stress is based upon a feeling of
others finding out that he is not what he portrays to be, and
this will be expressed as a feeling of fragility with regard
to the image he projects. WHAT THE HOMEOPATH WILL OBSERVE IS
THAT THE SENSATION EXPRESSED IN THE ULCER, WILL BE NO
DIFFERENT THAN THE SENSATION AT THE BOTTOM OF WHAT THE PATIENT
CALLS AS STRESS. The fragile sensation , seen both locally and
mentally is actually an expressioin of the deepest level of
the disturbance, deeper than mind and body , and the
underlying basis of both. A remedy with such a sensation (in
this case, Thuja) will bring a healing action at the deepest
level, thus helping his ulcer and his stress at the same time.
All this development and change in concepts and literature in
the last fifteen or twenty years has also seen the emergence
of newer and better tools for the science. Kent’s repertory,
which is over a hundred and fifty years old, was perhaps the
repertory most frequently referred to by homoeopaths well into
the 1970s. Today, there are many more repertories available,
and the largest of them, the Complete Repertory compiled by
Roger van Zandvoort is about six times the size of Kent’s
Repertory., David Warkentin, an innovator from California,
pioneered the development of software in Homeopathy. His
Reference Works programme, which began as a simple tool for
searching for specific symptoms in the vast literature of
Homeopathy, has now evolved into a great tool for selecting
the remedy, based on many modules, many complex functions etc.
There are now four main software in use in Homoeopathy and one
of them has been developed by a Mumbai Homeopath, Dr. Jawahar
Shah.
Homeopathy continues to grow significantly in many parts of
the world. In the USA and Canada there has been a revival in
the past fifteen years. Whereas in the early 1970s there were
only 50-100 physicians in USA who specialized in homeopathy,
yet by the mid-1980s it can be estimated that there are
approximately 1,000 homoeopathic physicians, this apart from
approximately the same number of health professionals from
different disciplines who also use homeopathic medicines, and
these include dentists, podiatrists, veterinarians, physician
assistants, nurses, naturopaths, acupuncturists,
chiropractors, and psychologists.
Many new schools and practitioners have come into existence.
In Great Britain Homeopathy has been available within the NHS
since the Health Service first began in 1948. There are
currently five NHS homeopathic hospitals and many
community-based and independent clinics where qualified
medical homeopathic doctors work. Many GPs, and other members
of Primary Health Care teams have received some training in
homeopathy and use homeopathic treatments on a daily basis
within their routine work. Recently homoeopathy in the UK has
become even more organized under the Society of Homoeopaths
that has set standards of education and practice. This
organization is a member of the European Council of Classical
Homoeopathy which is now pressing for strict standards of
homoeopathic education all over Europe. Homoeopathy is most
popular now in Holland and Germany. What is also interesting
is that in the former Soviet Block countries of Eastern Europe
including Russia, the science was banned in the communist era.
Now in the short span since the collapse of the USSR,
Homeopathy has evolved very rapidly with teaching courses and
books available in the local languages. Russia has now over
500 homoeopaths.
Homeopathy is widespread in Europe, but it is even more
popular in Asia, especially India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Presently, there are well over one hundred four- or five-year
Homeopathic medical schools in India and most are affiliated
with universities. It has been estimated that there are over
1,00,000 homeopathic practitioners in India.
Homeopathy is very popular in South America and is still
widely utilized. It is firmly rooted especially in Brazil,
Mexico and Argentina, where it is very popular and recognized
by the governments of these countries. It has been estimated
that there are now approximately 2,000 doctors in Argentina
who practice homeopathy, and a similar number in Brazil.
Several innovators have emerged from this part of the world,
notably T.P.Paschero and his associate E.F.Candegabe. They
worked in depth on the mind state of patients and remedies.
Candegabe is especially known for his concept of Minimum
syndrome of Maximum value, wherein he identifies the core
symptoms of the patient and the remedy.
Others from this region include P.S. Ortega, who worked
extensively on the Hahnemann idea of miasms. Masi Elisalde,
another homeopath, founded a school based on his own
understanding of remedies. His ideas attracted many
homoeopaths especially in Europe. His basic philosophy is
based on Christian concepts. Parallels between homeopathy and
religious ideas are not unique. The Israeli homeopath Joseph
Reeves saw much similarity between Homeopathy and the concepts
in the Jewish holy book, the Kabalah.
Besides the countries already mentioned Homoeopathy is also
widely practiced in France, Greece, Belgium, Italy, Spain,
Norway, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand South Africa,
Nigeria and Israel.
Several homoeopaths also worked on finding the common ground
between Homeopathy and other disciplines like psychotherapy,
meditation and music, and among them is Dr. Rajan Sankaran.
Dr. Sankaran has especially applied the homeopathic principle
to music. This concept is based on his understanding that
homoeopathic medication, by it’s very nature, only reflects
what is inside of you, your inner turmoil, by making you aware
of it. In this it is similar to music as any music which
affects a person does so because it only reflects his own
inner music. He studied the possibilities of using Indian
ragas as healing agents. In order to do this he used the
homeopathic idea of provings to note the phenomenon produced
by the substance and then use the substance on patients
displaying similar symptoms. He took some ragas and played
them to audiences in different countries to observe the effect
produced and also note if the effect was universally same or
specific to a particular background. He found that there was a
significant similarity of effect of a specific raga, crossing
all boundaries. He noted the effect of some ten ragas and
hopes to expand this to more ragas. He uses music in some
cases to complement his therapy, selecting specific music for
specific patients based on his music provings. He is now
working with using music and art generated by the patient
himself as a healing agent, in consonance with the basic
principle of homeopathy.
Dr. Juergen Becker, a homeopath from Freiburg, Germany was one
of the first to break free from the traditional confines of a
homeopathy very strictly bound by a study of symptoms. He
started examining fairy tales and mythology as possible
prototypes of patients and remedies. Somewhat similar to Carl
Jung, Dr. Becker also examined the phenomenon of
synchronicity. His seminars in Bad Boll in Germany in the mid
eighties, though controversial at that time, drew a number of
Homeopaths. His ideas are somewhat more accepted now. In the
past five years Dr. Becker has been working with a newer
method of potentising remedies, called the C4 potencies, which
he believes affect much deeper levels than the traditional
Hahnemannian potencies.
Other homeopaths too started using more and more means of
perceiving the inner turmoil of the patient. A New Zealand
based Homeopath, Deborah Collins, and her husband Bert, took
this a step further and used past life regressions and
recollections to see clearly what kind of situation could
explain the current behavior and feelings of the patient and
used this information to help select a remedy. A homeopath
from Koln, Germany, Dr. Muller, pioneered the use of colors as
a tool in selecting the Homeopathic remedy. He did extensive
research and located very specific colors for specific
remedies. The patient would be given a whole table of colors
in several hundred shades and asked to select one. This idea
somehow did not become very widely used. Often these other
methods have been used to complement the traditional methods
and not exclusively. Also included in these methods are
Iridology, Astrology, Kirlian photography, face reading,
handwriting analysis, constitutional types and pendulum
dowsing. However none of these are widely used.
Some homeopaths of the present day see themselves as a part of
the alternative or holistic movement, and sometimes combine
other therapies with homeopathy. These include Biochemics,
Bach Flower remedies, acupuncture, osteopathy, yoga,
meditation, diet, naturopathy, Reiki, pranic healing,
counseling etc. However, most classical homeopaths will use
only one form of therapy at a time (usually the constitutional
remedy of the patient), so that they can properly evaluate the
result.
The various schools of Classical homeopathy can be likened to
the various gharanas of Hindustani classical music. They share
basic concepts, yet differ in the styles of rendition. There
is a lot of common ground and much give and take between the
various schools. Many practitioners of classical homoeopathy,
while having their foundation is one school feel free to take
from other teachers. Many seminars and workshop on the recent
methods are held in various parts of the world. Mumbai, in
particular, attracts many homeopaths from all over.
Most
homoeopaths will agree that it is a nice time to be practicing
Homoeopathy, in the midst of this renaissance.
The evolution of Homoeopathy can be summarized thus:
1) From merely looking at symptoms to understanding the
phenomenon as a whole
2) From superficial to deeper understanding of the mind state
3) From limiting to homeopathic books for information, to
taking information from all sciences like chemistry, zoology,
botany.
4) From studying only patients symptoms to going into movies,
books and all phenomenon that he is sensitive to and using
that information. Also more usage of dreams.
5) From fewer remedies to many more.
6) From seeing homeopathy as isolated, to seeing it as a part
of holistic movement and finding common ground with other
therapies.
7) From unclassified information to clear classifications into
kingdoms and miasms.
The evolution of homeopathy can be likened to developments in
the field of art. From more factual art one saw emotions being
portrayed; later one saw paintings that depicted subconscious
images like angels ,devils etc and still later art (modern
art) depicts only the colors, shapes, form and movement, and
gives a pictorial expression to an inner energy pattern which
is beyond fact, beyond emotions and even beyond dreams. In a
similar way Homeopathy has progressed in perceiving the
patient and remedy to deeper and deeper levels and this
translates into much better percentages of success than
before.
It is important that the patient choose the right Homoeopath,
someone who practices classical Homeopathy. The signs of such
a homoeopath are that he will take time to go over the details
of the whole case, from head to foot, and ask questions
regarding all aspects of the patient including his likes and
dislikes in food and also his reactions to various physical
and psychological factors. He will make a detailed inquiry
into the mind state of the patient and often the dreams. A
patient generally leaves such a consultation with a feeling of
being seen and understood in his very core, often seeing
himself in a way he has not done before. The classical
homoeopath gives a single remedy at a time and will carefully
study the response especially to see that symptoms are going
in the right direction and the patient in general and mentally
is feeling better and not only has some relief in symptoms.
What he aims for is not only to tackle the chief complaints of
the patient but to, over time, bring about a quantum shift in
the entire being of the person towards health and freedom. He
asks for no more, he is content with no less.
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