How it Works

Every science has certain fundamental principles which govern the whole system.

Within Homeopathy, six examples are:

• Theory of Vital Force
• Doctrine of Drug-Dynamisation
• Law of Similia
• Law of Simplex
• Law of Minimum
• Doctrine of Drug Proving

Theory of the Vital Force

Within the human organism there is an innate mechanism of creation that generated life. This same mechanism can maintain and regulate the organism in order to survive and thrive. This mechanism can also be identified as the vital force.

Hahnemann speaks of the vital force in Aphorism 10 of his Organon of Medicine as:

"The material organism without the vital force is capable of no sensation, no function, no self preservation; it derives all sensations, and performs all functions of life solely by means of the immaterial being (the vital force) which animates the material organism in health and disease."

For example, if one experiences a cut or the common cold the vital force can overcome this stimulus and correct it by sending the necessary constituents from within. Such as, cells to form a new layer of skin or antibodies to fight off invaders. This extraordinary process happens without thought or intention and is an immaterial force in nature.

However, the vital force can become dynamically deranged by morbific influence leading to abnormal sensations and functions. These are then manifested outwardly through the material body as abnormal signs and symptoms, the totality of which constitutes the disease.

As the vital force within the human organism produces these signs and symptoms, it is communicating how it is not functioning at the optimum potential and needs assistance. It does not need to be controlled but rather supported and treated as a unit in order to regain homeostasis within the entire organism.

Again, if a cure is to be reached it is the vital force that must arouse itself first or be stimulated in order to arise for the recovery. If the vital force is too debilitated or exhausted then Homeopathic medicinal aid may be of no help.  

Doctrine of Drug-Dynamisation/Potentisation

This is where Homeopathic remedies become an invaluable contribution to our health care system. All of the remedies are derived from substances found in either the mineral, plant or animal kingdoms of our environment. They are scientifically prepared in order to remove the toxicology of the substance and release strictly the curative information provided within the structure of the substance’s creation. In other words, the vital force of the substance. 

According to Dr. Stuart Close, "Homeopathic potentisation is a mathematic mechanical process for the reduction, according to scale, of crude, inert or poisonous medicinal substances to a state of physical solubility, physiological assimilability and therapeutic activity and harmless, for use as homeopathic healing remedies."

Homeopathic remedies are potentised by two methods. The first is Trituration - in case of insoluble substances. The second is Succussion - in case of soluble substances.

A few of the Objectives of Potentisation in Homeopathy are:

• Reducing the medicinal substance helps to avoid unwanted medicinal aggravations and side effects
• The action or potentised medicines is deeper, longer, and more wide-spread

Homeopathy believes that vital force is immaterial by nature; therefore the only possible medicine is receptive to is not the crude substance but rather the immaterial vital force of that substance.

The Laws of Homeopathic Medicine

The laws that govern the use of these dynamic medicines are very clear and the Homeopathic practitioner’s focus.

• Law of Similia
• Law of Simplex
• Law of Minimum

Homeopathy is a therapeutic method of symptom-similarity. The word homeopathy is derived from two Greek words, "homeo" meaning similar  and "pathos" meaning suffering.

Law of Similia

Similia similibus curantur – let like cure like. This law states that substances which  are capable of producing specific symptoms when consumed  in repetitive doses by a healthy individual are also capable  of treating a "similar" set of symptoms, the result of disease, in a sick person.

The recognition of this law was there even before Hahnemann. Paracelus, Hippocrates, and ancient ayurvedic texts have on occasions mentioned this law. But it was Hahnemann who recognized the universality of this law and lifted it from oblivion to make it the basis of a complete system of medicine.

For example: If you cut an onion, you may have watery, burning eyes with nasal drip. The theory then is that if onion was given to a sick person with watery, burning eyes and a nasal drip a curative reaction would take place.

Law of Simplex

Classical Homeopathy is defined by administering only one homeopathic medicine at a time as only one homeopathic medicine can correspond to the total picture of the patient. A prescription that does not aim for this totality is not homeopathic. As the presenting symptoms change, so can the medicine given. Using one remedy at a time enables the practitioner to correctly evaluate the changes within the organism from the remedy and clearly determine what to do next. Furthermore, the homeopathic remedies were proved singly, and the Materia Medica was built up on the observed effects of drugs given singly, either in planned provings or in accidental provings; therefore, the practitioner is obliged to use one remedy at a time.

Law of Minimum

The minimum dose is essential in Homeopathic practice. This is to ensure the innate regulatory mechanism does not become controlled but rather stimulated to change in the least invasive way.

The minute dose means that quantity of a medicine which is though smallest in quantity produces the least possible excitation of the vital force and yet sufficient to effect the necessary change in it. Organon (§ 246).

The quantity is minimum, yet appropriate, for a gentle remedial effect. This concept of minimum dose lead to the discovery of a practical process called potentisation as mentioned earlier.

Administration of the minimum dose has the following advantages:

• Avoids unwanted aggravation
• The minute dose does not allow the drug to do any organic damage nor is there any risk of drug addiction or side effects

The Law of Least Action, formulated by Maupertius, the French mathematician, states: "The quantity of action necessary to affect any change in nature is the least possible, the decisive amount is always a minimum, an infinitesimal amount.”

Doctrine of Drug Proving

In Homeopathy, we prescribe only those medicines whose medicinal properties are known through 'drug proving'. Drug proving is a systematic investigation of pathogenic (disease-producing ) power of medicine on healthy human being of different ages, both sexes and of various constitutions. These recordings of drug proving give the only reliable knowledge of medicines which is very essential to cure disease homeopathically. Different medicines must be proved thoroughly in order to obtain full details of their curative properties.

The drug must be proved on human beings because:

• Animals do not give subjective or mental symptoms.
• Effects of the same drug on animals and on human beings are different.
• We do not get the modalities and finer symptoms in animal provings

History of Homeopathy

The founder of Homeopathy was Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), a German scholar, physician and chemist. Hahnemann felt that the healing methods used by his contemporaries at the time were very dangerous and ineffective. These treatments included such things as purging, bloodletting and using poisonous substances such as mercury and arsenic in large doses.

Hahnemann claimed that the medicine of his time did as much harm as good. He gave up his practice as a result and made his living chiefly as a writer and translator, while resolving also to investigate the causes of medicine's alleged errors. While translating William Cullen's A Treatise on the Materia Medica, Hahnemann encountered the claim that Cinchona, the bark of a Peruvian tree, was effective in treating malaria because of its astringency. Hahnemann claimed that other astringent substances are not effective against malaria and began to research cinchona's effect on the human organism by self-application. He claimed that the drug evoked malaria-like symptoms in himself, and concluded that it would do so in any healthy individual. This led him to postulate a healing principle: "that which can produce a set of symptoms in a healthy individual, can treat a sick individual who is manifesting a similar set of symptoms." This principle, like cures like, became the basis for an approach to medicine which he gave the name Homeopathy.

He first published an article about the homeopathic approach in a German medical journal in 1796; in 1810, he wrote his Organon of the Medical Art, the first systematic treatise on the subject.

Hahnemann continued practicing and researching homeopathy, as well as writing and lecturing for the rest of his life. He died in 1843 in Paris, at 88 years of age.

What Homeopathy is NOT:

Naturopathic medicine is a system of therapeutic medical science comprising many natural healing techniques. It is a ‘drugless’ system and employs herbology, spinal and soft tissue adjustments (chiropractic), Homeopathy, botanical medicines, hydrotherapy, acupuncture, nutritional guidance and synthetic supplements.

Herbology is the art and science of restoring health in an ill person by the use of plants and their extracts alone in crude form.