History of Homoeopathy

Through long time experiments and careful observation Dr. HAHNEMANN found two facts of great importance for homoeopathy:

1. By giving healthy people natural substances steadily in small doses they generate symptoms, which are typical for the administered substance. Many people have experienced these phenomena on their own without giving it further thought. Coffee can cause palpitations of the heart, cutting onions can cause watering eyes or a running nose etc. It`s also known that each individual toxin will cause a specific type of poisoning, therefore a person poisoned by belladonna would develop different symptoms than a person poisoned by arsenic. In 1790 Hahnemann began examining these phenomena scientifically by taking small doses of china, which is the source of quinine. After administering them himself HAHNEMANN became ill and developed symptoms similar to malaria. Following this HAHNEMANN tested several medical substances on himself, his family and his students, in the course of which the occuring symptoms were exactly documented. By doing so the homoeopathic materia medica was developed giving exact information on the effects every substance has on the human organism.

2. In further long-term experiments HAHNEMANN discovered that a specific remedy with the closest correspondence between the homoeopathic materia medicaand the syndrome can cure an ill person. In simple terms this means that a certain headache could be cured by a remedy that causes a similar headache for a healthy person, a runny-nose can be cured by a medicine which causes a watering and not e.g. a purulent secretion. In order to cure gently, rapidly, definite and lasting in each case of illness, choose a medicine that can call forth a complaint similar to the one that is to be cured. With this sentence HAHNEMANN summarized the basic principles of his self-discovered method of curing.

SIMLIA SIMILIBUS CURENTUR		SAMUEL HAHNEMANN

After more than 50 years of research HAHNEMANN came to the conclusion that the symptoms of an illness are an indication of an inbalanced state of the vital force. This vital force is not an element of the material world, though has to be perceived as something dynamic or spiritual, which infuses life into our material organism. In other words, occuring symptoms are a sign of the vital force being out of balance and causing an illness to arise. A homeopath`s task therefore consists in finding the appropriate remedy in order to re-establish the balance of the vital force. Therefore in regarding all this, there are two consequences amounting from homoeopathic treatment.    1. An illness, be it a stomach ulcer or depression, asthma or migraine, can have effects in other areas of the organism, which are not often seen to be in close relation to the present illness. However, it is especially these symptoms, not in the centre of the present illness, which makes every medical history a specific case. The homoeopath looks for symptoms within the entirety of the person regarding not only the physical symptoms but also the emotional and mental state of the patient. Classical homoeopathy is a medicinal method of curing, which encompasses the entire human being.    2. Because the vital force is not material, it cannot be brought back to a state of harmony by a medicine of material substance. Therefore HAHNEMANN, again in long years of research, developed a special procedure which dematerializes medicine and even increases it's effectiveness. This procedure is called dynamisation in which the basic substance of the medicine is diluted, step by step, with alcohol or lactose and with every step is strongly shaken or rubbed. Many substances only then obtain their deeper curing power through this procedure, such as charcaol and milk. © Markus Brüggenolte