The Homeopathic Remedy
Hahnemann made his astonishing re-discovery of “like cures like” when he came across a medical case during a translation job. Besides being a top notch chemist and medical doctor, he often translated texts for a living and was conversant in several languages (check his biography). The text that he translated involved the use of a Peruvian tree bark (Cinchona) for the ailment of malaria. He noted that the ingestion of the bark created the same symptoms of malaria and tested this on himself (numerous times). Satisfied that it was possible the bark was creating the same symptoms of malaria and that this was the way it worked to cure that same disease, the idea of “like cures like” was reborn. It is often speculated that during this time Hahnemann researched history for this fundamental idea and others. It was the action of putting the pieces together that created his place in history. Yet, his most important discovery was yet to come.
Hahnemann had a working model with the Peruvian bark case and he needed more substances that could be used as medicines for other illnesses. He needed other substances that would create similar symptoms to ailments experienced by his patients. His idea was that the symptoms created by a “medicine” would overwhelm those similar symptoms in an ill patient much the same as Cinchona overwhelmed malaria. His greatest contribution to mankind was the discovery in how to create this “medicine”.
He took crude substances such as poison ivy, table salt, honey bees (yes, stinging bees!), coffee, tea, spearmint, etc and made remedies with them. At first the substances were in their most crude form. Sometimes they were given in high doses and sometimes low. He enlisted many friends and family members to ingest these substances and relate their experiences while under their influence; to note the symptoms that these substances would create in a healthy individual. This process he called “proving”. His healthy helpers were “proving” (displaying) the symptoms created by the substances they ingested and accurate notes were recorded as to these symptoms. And then he discovered something quite extraordinary and counter intuitive. He discovered that the crude substances when diluted in water or alcohol created or rather "proved" these same symptoms in a more pronounced way. Let’s say for arguments sake that ingesting salt created a mild headache. Upon diluting this salt, the provers were experiencing a more definite headache and upon further dilution, an even more pronounced headache. The substances on further dilution became more potent. But there was more to this process...
The way Hahnemann created higher potencies in his remedies (after many years of trial and error) was to take a natural substance, crush it, pulverize it and then dilute it with alcohol or distilled water. Then he would take one drop of that dilution and dilute it again. In between dilutions, he would shake the solution by banging it against a springy type surface (like a thick book). He called the process of shaking/banging the solution, “succussion” or “succussing”. It is the succussion that increases the strength of the remedy during processing. The succussion would bring out more pronounced symptoms from a crude substance that had been diluted and create a potentized (high strength) “medicine”, called a Homeopathic Remedy.
As Hahnemann diluted dozens of crude materials to make into remedies, he gave the potentized remedies to groups of “provers” and made note of the symptoms that each remedy created in these individuals. Symptoms were then catalogued for each potentized remedy and kept in a book called the Homeopathic Materia Medica. This book is essentially a list of all symptoms created in a healthy person by ingesting a particular potentized remedy. During his lifetime, Hahnemann created and personally tested (proved) dozens of remedies. Now Hahnemann had his similar diseases and with them could treat and cure illness. Not obvious? Let’s take an example…
Hahnemann is approached by an ill patient who says he has pains in his eyes when looking down, frequent numbness in his fingers and legs and a ringing in his ears that will not go away. First, there is a check of the catalog of remedies (Materia Medica) and a search for the remedy that causes these same symptoms; Hahnemann reaches for the dilution of some substance that has shown in his “provers” to produce the exact same symptoms (Natrum Muriaticum- Latin name for common table salt- potentized). This remedy has been strengthened by succussion (banging and shaking) to make it strong and potent. This remedy creates an artificial disease that is to be greater or “bigger” than the natural disease of the patient (yet it is a similar disease). He gives this remedy to the ill patient… providing or causing a similar “disease” of symptoms to extinguish the same symptoms in the patient. The patient is cured by the law that “like cures like”. No two similar diseases can coexist within an individual; the greater disease will squash the smaller disease that is similar. One “medicinal” disease (the artificial disease created by the remedy- Nat Mur (abbreviation)) extinguishes the real disease in the patient because it is greater due to potentizing.
The End!
Just kidding, there is a lot more, but you now have the basic idea of how Homeopathy works. |
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