By Mani Norland.
Homeopathy is a system of natural health care that has been in worldwide use for over 200 years. It is recognized by the World Health Organization as the second largest therapeutic system in use in the world. While it is most popular in India and South America, over thirty million people in Europe, and millions of others around the world, benefit from its use.
Over the years it has grown in popularity in the UK and the USA with a wonderful track record. People go to homeopaths because of referrals, not because of advertising and marketing campaigns. Homeopathy works with energy, the energy that drives everything in nature and that holds molecules together; the universe is full of it.
How it Works
Homeopathy is based on three fundamental principles
Like cures like
The first principle of “like cures like” can be looked at in several ways. One way is to assume that the body knows what it is doing; nature knows how to survive and will do its best to ensure the survival of the organism. Symptoms are the body’s way of taking action to overcome illness. Some “thing” has disturbed the body; it could be a virus or continued stress levels at work.
The body produces symptoms—these are its defenses against illness; nature’s way of shaking the illness off. Homeopathic physicians call this healing response, automatic in living organisms, the “vital response.” The similar homeopathic medicine acts as a stimulus to the natural vital response, giving it the information it needs to complete its healing work; thus “like cures like.”
A crude example may help to explain this. If your hand is cold and you want to warm it up, you can either plunge it into hot water (opposite) or into icy water (similar). By making the hand colder, you stimulate the internal vital response to naturally heat the hand.
Single remedy
No matter how many symptoms are experienced, only one remedy is taken, and that remedy is aimed at all of the symptoms. For example there is no such thing as a standard homeopathic flu remedy. The remedy you take has to match your particular flu—where it occurs, what brings it on, what type of pain you are feeling, what aggravates it, what makes it feel better, your state of mind and other symptoms you experience. Everyone is unique; everyone experiences disease differently.
Homeopathic physicians ask, “Why do you have the flu, how is it individualized in you, and what is it an expression of?” Then, with this background, the treatment starts. Just stopping flu symptoms with orthodox medicine is like putting tape over a warning light without getting to the source of the problem.
The minimum dose
Only enough medicine is administered to initiate the healing process, which then carries on, driven by its own internal healing mission. Homeopathic medicines given in minimum doses stimulate the body’s vital chemical responses and do not produce the gross side effects that are so often the pitfall of conventional treatment.
Homeopathy works on all levels—physical, mental and emotional. It treats all the issues as one; it addresses the cause, not the symptoms.
Homeopathy does not have treatments for diseases; it has remedies for people with diseases. It takes into account the whole person and their situation.
Prescribing the right homeopathic remedy takes a little more time and patience than conventional medicine. It often is a highly rewarding process—healing in itself. Just taking the time to talk about what is troubling you, and to hear yourself say it, shifts things, and being truly listened to is often a rare occurrence in our busy lives.
Why is Homeopathy So Popular?
• Homeopathic treatment works with your body’s own healing powers to bring about health and well being.
• You are treated as an individual, not as a collection of disease labels.
• Homeopathy treats all your symptoms at all levels of your being—spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical and finds the “like cures like” match for them.
• Homeopathically prepared remedies, providing the minimum dose, are gentle, subtle, and powerful. They are non-addictive, and not tested on animals. []
To find a homeopath in the US, see National Center for Homeopathy, www.nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org, 703-548-7790; or North American Society of Homeopaths, www.homeopathy.org, 206-720-7000.
Mani Norland is principal at the School of Homeopathy where he trained as a homeopathic physician, and is managing director of Alternative Training. See more at https://www.schoolofhealth.com/ and https://www.homeopathyschool.com
Mani Norland’s article first appeared in Well Being Journal, V 17, No 4. Other homeopathic medicine articles in Well Being Journal: Vol 20, No 1, “Burns Heal with Homeopathic Causticum”; “Homeopathy Saves the Day,” Vol 22, No 2; and “A Homeopathic Treatment for Bee Sting,” Vol 25, No 3.
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