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HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES

The preparation of homeopathic remedies is described in great detail in the “Organon of the Medical Art”, which was written by Samuel Hahnemann, the developer of homeopathy, back in the 1800s.

Homeopathic remedies are produced using a process called dilution & succussion. The remedies are made of substances from the plant, mineral or animal kingdoms. The results of this process are potentized substances, thus empowering the substance’s healing power to work at what we might today call a vibratory level, resonating with the vibratory level of the person (or animal) to whom it is given.

In the case of plants and perhaps other dissolvable substances, they are soaked in water, or alcohol for many hours in order to get a base. In the case of minerals and other already dry substances, they are ground to a powder before being soaked in milk sugar, water, or alcohol. Then the alcohol mixture is succussed (a very powerful and specific means of mixture that includes a pounding action). There is more dilution and more succussion to different levels of power; remedies usually come in different potencies. This is what explains the numbers that you see beside a remedy name. The amount of potentization in a 30C remedy is one part of the medicinal substance to 1×10^-60.

Many homeopathic remedies are substances that were used in their whole form dating back to the 19^th century, since Hahnemann began the discipline and he lived from 1755-1843. This explains such remedies as Arnica Montana, Chamomilla, Belladonna, Sulphur, Mercury, Lachesis and many others. However, homeopathy has not been stagnant and so remedies continue to be developed.

Homeopathic remedies are developed through a system called “proving”; in which healthy people voluntarily take a potentized substance and record their symptoms; mental, emotional and physical, for a period of time. Often they are not working alone, but with a partner, whose role it is to assist in observing and recording the effects. Symptoms can vary widely, because each of us has our own characteristic features and so a homeopathic substance will affect us in widely varied ways. All of the records are then compiled and the common symptoms are given more emphasis in the description of the remedies.

Today homeopathic remedies are made by pharmacies, but in the beginning many homeopaths made their own remedies, which is what Hahnemann recommended. With the advent of pharmacies there is more consistency in remedies and there are many choices.

HOMEOPATHIC PHILOSOPHY

The first sentence of the Organon of the Medical Art¹ states that “The physician’s highest and only calling is to make the sick healthy, to cure, as it is called.”

In homeopathy a person who is sick is in a state of dis-ease; a term that has been used to describe holistic approaches. “It is a man that is sick and to be restored to health, not his body, not the issues.”²

Let us give this statement some consideration; if we think about it from a personal perspective, we know that being sick feels awful and distracts or disallows us from our usual activities. It does not matter what this sickness is, the way that we feel becomes the priority of the day. If the illness is less restrictive, it still causes distraction.

In illness from a homeopathic perspective, we need to address the symptoms as described by the patient. Often our symptoms might seem incongruous to a named disease or illness, but instead of being tied to the description or name of a disease, we might consider the individual person and their symptoms, as the priority and understand that they are experiencing symptoms in their own way. If we address this individual description, along with practitioner observations, with as exact a prescription as possible, we will have a more thorough restoration to health.

¹Hahneman, Samuel, MD (1842), Organon of the Medical Art, Edited & Annotated by W.B. O’Reilly, PhD, 1996. Birdcage Books, Redmond, WA.

²Kent, James Tyler, MD (1900), Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy, Reprint: North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA, 1979.