Below contains answers to some common general questions and some related to the clinic work. • What is homeopathy?
• How old is homeopathy and how was it discovered?
• What are the Remedies made from?
• How do you know the healing properties of each remedy?
• How does homeopathy differ from normal medicine?
• What’s the difference between Classical homeopathy and other kinds of homeopathy?
• Is homeopathy safe?
• Why is homeopathy so controversial?
• Why can’t we prove homeopathy works via normal double blind clinical trials like the big drug companies do with their drugs?
• But isn’t homeopathy just placebo effect?
• I have heard about suppression, what is this?
• Why has homeopathy got a bad press in the past?
• What kind of diseases can be treated?
• Can I get treatment from your clinic?
• How can I find a “good” homeopath in my own country?
• What if I want to know or read more about homeopathy?
What is homeopathy?
Homeopathy is a complete system of medicine that treats the person as a whole. A homeopathic doctor will collect together all the patient’s symptoms from all levels of health. This includes not just the physical complaints but the mental and emotional symptoms too. An experienced classical homeopath will then select the most important and characteristic symptoms and match them against a homeopathic remedy. The energy captured in the administered remedy is such that it resonates with the disturbance of the patient and stimulates the body’s own healing force to bring about a cure.
How old is homeopathy and how was it discovered?
Homeopathy was discovered in 1790 by a German doctor called Samuel Hahnemann. During these times it was normal medical practice to use bloodletting, leeching and poisonous ointments made from toxic substances such as mercury. Dr Hahnemann became disillusioned by the barbaric medical practices of the time and gave up his physician work and made a living translating medical text. During one such translation he discovered something curious. He found that it had been documented that a south American bark extract was effective in the treatment of malaria. The explanation for its curative action being that it was “bitter”. Dr Hahnemann was a scientist by nature and decided to experiment on himself. These were the very first recorded scientific medical experiments. He prepared some of this Peruvian bark and started to take the extract. Very quickly the previously healthy Dr developed malaria-like symptoms. As soon as he stopped taking the extract his health was restored. What he had discovered was to make history. What could cure a sick person of malaria could induce similar symptoms in a healthy person. Hence the term homeopathy (like cures like). Over the next few years Dr Hahnemann discovered that if he diluted the extracts down with vigorous shaking that he could eliminate any of the physical toxic effects of the medicine while increasing the potency of the healing action. He published the first edition of his famous “Organon of Medicine” in 1810. The 6th edition is the standard philosophy text book for all classical homeopathic schools.
What are the Remedies made from?
The remedies can and are made from all three of the natural kingdoms, the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms. An extremely small amount of “crude” substance is used and this is diluted down to remove any possible poisonous effects. Each dilution is followed by a vigorous type of shake or bang known as potentiation. The process of dilution and potentiation ultimately leads to there being none of the original physical substance left while at the same time capturing within the internal molecular spaces of the water the unique energy “signature” of the original substance. The memory of water is at present unproven.
How do you know the healing properties of each remedy?
As explained in a previous answer, Dr Hahnemann had discovered that the Peruvian bark could cure malaria in a sick person and cause very similar malaria-like symptoms in a healthy person. Following on from this Dr Hahnemann continued to experiment on himself. Being healthy and taking numerous natural substances repeatedly he started to record the symptoms he developed. Each time when he stopped taking the substances the symptoms disappeared leaving no lasting ill effects. Over time he “proved” many medicines and recorded them in detail. He also recorded his clinical results, further fortifying the keynotes or characteristic symptoms of each remedy. There are modern day “provings” of new remedies. There are very strict guidelines laid down by homeopathic governing bodies. For example the “provers” have to be healthy, of mixed ages sexes and races and have no knowledge of the remedy being taken. Unfortunately some modern homeopaths do not follow these sensible and scientific rules and instead put a new remedy under their pillows and “dream” symptoms. This is just one example that separates the classical homeopaths from the non-classical. It is also important to note that because the remedies have been proved in isolation to any other remedy that they should also be given to a patient for their treatment in isolation. i.e. no mixing of remedies otherwise known as polypharmacy.
How does homeopathy differ from normal medicine?
In normal medicine (sometimes called allopathy), each individual symptoms or complaint is analysed in isolation. Drugs are given to directly focus in on and combat these symptoms one at a time, often with side effects. This treatment is all on the physical level. Ever increasingly powerful drugs are administered to “keep the symptoms down”, they suppress the symptoms, hiding them rather than treating the true cause. In homeopathy the symptoms are not seen as the disease but as signs to be interpreted telling us that there is a deeper imbalance that must be addressed. Once balance is restored then the symptoms no longer exist.
Example of treatment: A patient comes to a Doctor with the following symptoms
• Head ache
• Bad back
• Blocked nose
• Anxiety
• Sweaty palms
• Sweet smelling urine
• Constipation
The normal/allopathic doctor would give painkillers for the headache and backache, some decongestant for the nose, a neurotransmitter inhibitor for the anxiety, glucose inhibitor tablets for the elevated blood sugar and laxative for the constipation.
On the other hand a homeopathic practitioner would ask more questions on each of the symptoms to determine the details of each one and together with a series of other questions choose ONE remedy. If this remedy is selected correctly and at the right potency it will bring about a complete cure of all the symptoms. Of course a patient may have many complex layers and further treatment by additional remedies may be needed once previously suppressed symptoms come to the surface.
What’s the difference between classical homeopathy and other kinds of homeopathy?
Classical homeopaths follow the teachings and clinical experience of the great Masters like Hahnemann and Kent together with the modern day Master Vithoulkas. Like any other science, homeopathy is based and on natural laws. These laws do not change and are not subject to today’s latest fashions or theories as normal medicine is. Homeopathy as a subject is vast and take years of hard dedicated study and clinical experience to master. Because of the difficulty in learning the “scientific art” properly there are many new contemporary off-shoots of homeopathy that have recently come to light many attempting to shortcut the difficult learning process. Unfortunately these contortions also go by the name of homeopathy. This has led to confusion in the public and press. Examples of such unscientific practices also going by the name of homeopathy are.
• Administering unproved remedies
• Remedies used following dream proving
• Remedies used following meditative proving
• Dousing. • Radionics
• Suppressive and palliative treatment using homeopathic remedies.
• Doctrine of signatures: i.e. if someone says “I feel barking mad” then the homeopath gives a “dog” remedy. If the patient is wearing a stripy jumper they should be given potentised tiger or zebra
• Polypharmarcy: Prescribing more than one homeopathic remedy in one go.
• Interchanging remedies quickly
• Unnecessary repetition of remedies (danger of proving)
These techniques may very well be effective under the right circumstances, we cannot say. However, without laws and principles to follow they certainly should not be under the banner of homeopathy. The term classical homeopathy came about to distinguish the scientific original version from the potential quackery of some contemporary ideas.
Is homeopathy safe?
Homeopathy is nature’s own way of healing; it is the most gentle and purest form of medicine with no side effects like allopathic drugs. If an incorrect remedy is selected then there is no harmful effect because the energy of the disease and that of the remedy are not matching in their resonance. If the correct remedy is selected there can sometimes be a reversal or return of old or previously suppressed symptoms. This is known as “Herrings Law” and is taken as a very good sign. These are short lived and an unwinding back to a higher level of health. Some contemporary homeopaths repeat remedies in quick succession. Caution should be advised here. It is not often that a repeat of a remedy is needed. Indeed repeating of a remedy many times can imprint on the bodies own system the keynote symptoms of the remedy, in other words the patient can start to “prove” the remedy.
Why is homeopathy so controversial?
The number one reason for homeopathy’s controversy especially amongst the scientific community is that the remedies contain “nothing” material. After the sequence of successive dilution and potentisation there is none of the original substance left (deletion has gone past Avagadro number). Homeopaths maintain that the unique energy signature has been left behind in the water while the physical substance has been removed. This does not sit well with many scientists. It should be noted that just because at present we do not have the technology to read and measure this energy it does not mean it does not exist. Recent experiments on quantum mechanics (atoms and energy) state and prove that matter does not really exist, but it is only energy that exists. We knew about bacteria before we could see them under the microscope. We knew about simple hereditary traits before DNA was discovered.
Why can’t we prove homeopathy works via normal double blind clinical trials like the big drug companies do with their drugs?
It is true that clinical trials with homeopathy show disappointing results. The main reason for this it that the mode of treatment and drugs used in homeopathy do not “fit” the methods used by drug companies. Double blind clinical trials have been tailored and designed over many years to be very effective at showing the symptoms alleviated or developed while testing ONE drug on 1000s of individuals with the SAME disease. In homeopathy there really are no named diseases as such. If we have 10 patients with eczema-like symptoms they may very well and most likely get given 10 different homeopathic remedies. Double blind clinical trials would dictate that only one drug (the same drug) was given to all the patients. If we give all 10 patients one and the same homeopathic remedy then we might expect a result in only one patient. More research is needed in how to match homeopathic treatment with normal drug trials or in developing methods to prove the effectiveness via different but acceptable methods.
But isn’t homeopathy just placebo effect?
Double blind clinical trials have effectively proven that the placebo effect is very powerful. The difference between homeopathy and placebo is that placebo is a short-lived rise in general well being, whereas homeopathy is a genuine long-term improvement of health. The human mind is so powerful that just trust in the doctor and the desire to be healthy together with a “pill” can stimulate the patients’ own healing mechanism temporarily. Both homeopathy and placebo tap into the same healing mechanisms, just that homeopathy is deep and long-term providing the natural healing force with the energy to provide real cure and direction in this cure. Furthermore, it is true that many homeopaths have their most successful results when treating babies and children. A baby does not know of doctors and pills and placebo. The same can be said for the treatment of animals.
I have heard about suppression, what is this?
When the body is imbalanced the natural controlling energy within throws off symptoms. Because this energy has some level of basic intelligence, symptoms are expressed within the least important systems first. The least important being the outer layer of the skin. Imagine if you were told you had to sacrifice one part of your body. What would you do, opt for bad skin or kidney disease or a brain tumor? Of course we all go for bad skin. This hierarchy runs through not just the physical plane but also the mental and emotional too. It is better to have a head-ache than to be clinically depressed. Imagine as a child we are relatively healthy but develop eczema. This is treated with cortisone steroids and the symptoms disappear. However, because the symptoms are not the cause of the disease but only the outwards expression of the disease the real imbalance has not been addressed. This is suppression. Later on the eczema will return with the same intensity and place or often worse. If there is a deep suppression and/or a familial predisposition the disease will go to the next least important organ/level and the child will develop asthma, for example (moving from epidermis to mucosa). This process would normally continue throughout childhood, with tonsillitis, headaches for example, until in adult hood and with appropriate predisposition or inherited weaknesses the individual develops diabetes or the disease shifts to the mental sphere and the patient suffers from depression. The continued use of powerful drugs over generations has led us to more and more complex and incurable diseases and mental illness. All through suppression. We are working a clinical system to try and show and predict the pathways of suppression.
Why has homeopathy got a bad press in the past?
The main reason that homeopathy is controversial; is because the “energy” of the individual or the remedy cannot yet be quantified or measured. Because of this the scientific community at large refuses to look at the effectiveness and results obtained. Furthermore, because of the increasing level of disillusionment with the powerful drugs of normal medicine there has also been an increase in the popularity of homeopathy. This on the surface sounds like a good situation for homeopathy, in fact there has been a recent revival over the past few decades. However, like in any trade there has also been an explosion of “bad” homeopaths with ideas that are even more controversial and unbelievable than classical homeopathy. This for understandable reasons has given the press and public true ammunition to attack homeopathy in general. A third reason for homeopathy’s unpopular press is the lack of support and sometimes aggressive treatment by the big drug companies. Billions of dollars have been invested in developing new and powerful drugs. Homeopathic medicine is very cost effective, at a fraction of the price.
What kind of diseases can be treated?
Any kind of disease can be treated effectively. When an experienced homeopath looks at a patient, he/she looks at the level of health behind the patient and not at the named disease in itself. A patient is either curable or incurable irrespective of what named disease they have been diagnosed with. To say all eczema or psoriasis can be cured would be foolish and if any homeopath tells you this then it would be advisable to find a new homeopath. If your level of heath is such that treatment can be effective it would not matter if you had a common cold, diabetes or cancer. Of course, once certain physical pathological tissue changes have been effected, only palliative treatment is possible. For example if all the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas have been totally destroyed by the body’s own antibodies then it is hard to reverse and provide a cure for type II diabetes.
The most common named diseases we treat in the clinic are:-
• Eczema
• Psoriasis
• Diabetic gangrene
• Diabetes
• Autism
• Migraine
• Respiratory disorders
• Global retardation
• Vitiligo/Leucoderma
• Anxiety disorders
Can I get treatment from your clinic?
Yes you can. Dr Mahesh can take your case and give you treatment over the phone or via skype (internet-phone). If you would like to explore this possibility and find out more please email info@centreforclassicalhomeopathy.com
How can I find a “good” homeopath in my own country?
Not all homeopaths are “classical” homeopaths and even those who claim to be, may not truly understand the teachings and methodologies. Unfortunately, the best way to get reliable treatment is through recommendation, just as you would with any line of business. Any homeopath that follows the teaching of the modern Master George Vithoulkas would be more likely to be classical.
What if I want to know or read more about homeopathy?
Have a look at the links page on this site. Also if you want to read a good book without technical or confusing language, which describes homeopathy and the levels of health with some case examples, there is no better book than “The science of Homeopathy” by George Vithoulkas
