Homeopathy is a miracle and a science, measurable and imponderable

The Immateriality and Material Alchemy of Homeopathy

When Hahnemann asks us to consider that we are treating the vital force, we leave behind any illusion that this is a mechanistic science. The concept of disease as a "Wesen", an entity, mixed with the imponderable dilutions of our remedies leaves us on the edges of tangibility.


Yet, at the same time, all organic life is merely carbon-based, a mix of elements. Therefore, how very spiritual or immaterial can any aspect of homeopathy be? Perhaps homeopathy is a mechanical science, and we just don't have the proper tools to measure in quantities this small.





If we look to Hahnemann, his life and his philosophy echo the dichotomy between material and immaterial that we all face as homeopaths every day. Hahnemann was brought up in the rationalistic thinking of the enlightenment. Impressed by Romantic thinkers and their rejection of what had dominated the Age of Reason, Hahnemann took inspiration from Kant, Schelling, and the school of Naturphilosophie. Hahnemann followed the philosophers Descartes, Spinoza and Leibnitz. He went on to be a proponent of Vitalism and the Naturalism of Schelling and Heel. Then, his biographer, Richard Haehl states, "He advanced beyond this to spiritualism."
Hahnemann began his scientific work with "emphasis on scientific exactitude and empiric certainty as the starting point of his therapeutic reform," and later became "a strong opponent of materialism."


No wonder we as homeopaths continue this debate today, both with ourselves and each other.


The further Hahnemann investigated dynamisation, dilution, and long intervals between small doses, the more he found that, "the essential material had to yield more and more ground and the purely spiritual (dynamic) came more and more into the forefront." His work began utilizing extremely high dilutions, "such as cannot be perceived by the senses or determined by science," In potentizing remedies, Hahnemann spoke of the process of potentizing as the process to "liberate the medicinal power from its material bonds." The spirit-like, energetic force he found in man was also found in plants and minerals, and released by the power of succussion and dilution.
According to his biographer, Richard Haehl, "The reformer and research worker, who had at first proceeded on purely scientific lines, starting always from experiences and constructing on them his new theory of healing, had become in the eighth and ninth decades of his life, a mystic devotee in the province of religion. "


"With all this he rejected materialism equally as an outlook on life and as a foundation of his new theory. "


Yet, despite his understanding of the animating power of the remedies, the disease state and health itself, Hahnemann never lost touch with facts and truth. He denounced those who would not look truth squarely in the face. Hahnemann stated that, "his transformation of medicine would not have had so severe a struggle if the philosophers of his generation had not been such imaginative mystics and disregarded the facts of experience."


As practitioners today, how do we balance between immaterial doses and the material facts of healing? Gently.


Yet, we cannot lose touch with what is true and what is real. We cannot become poetic and lose track of the true reporting of accurate results. When Hahnemann talks about disregarding the facts of experience, this is, for me, a warning. We have all seen the effects when homeopaths lose objectivity: in deciding which cases are "cured", in conducting provings, in deciding the efficacy of the Doctrine of Signatures.


We have all seen invalid information and emotionalism override the good work of scientific fact measurement. We have all seen, and possibly made, poetic prescriptions, based on some theory or other and found the results not up to snuff. On the other hand, many of us have taken a leap of faith and found remarkable results. Self-watchfulness and honest introspection is a continual calling card. We must be mindful to always tell the true, to see the truth, and report the truth.


But, the fact remains, that homeopathy has an immaterial element. To practice homeopathy is to delve into a subterranean realm, a realm of great sensitivity, where insight and extensive listening on a fathomless channel can bring about physical changes so profound as to confound logic.
We listen.
We prescribe.
Then we watch as the remedy affects can astound beyond our clinical expectations of physical transformation.


Anyone who studies human anatomy can only deduce that we were created by some kind of cosmic design. The human brain alone is cause for contemplation. Loren Eisley, humanistic philosopher, states that "if anyone can explain to him how the human brain evolved from one, single cell, he will spend the rest of his money hiring a sky writer to draw exclamation points in the sky".


We are a miracle.
To restore health is a miracle.
And we get to travel this alchemical highway every day.


Can homeopathy develop a person's inner self? I think so. I have seen homeopathy change people's lives. I have seen them make decisions to marry, to procreate, to deal with the death of a loved one. Certainly, these are spiritual aspects of human life. And homeopathy touches them all.
We are asked, as homeopaths, to delve into the deepest recesses of a person's subconscious. Certainly treatment is available to the patient or practitioner who asks what time of day do you wake and what temperature do you like your liquid refreshment. But homeopathy offers much more.


Our rubrics suggest words like "Praying quietly for her soul", implying that there is something we can look for, prescribe on, diagnose and treat.
Empiric certainty? Scientific exactitude? Or Life force? Dynamism?





Health is freedom.
My own personal philosophy believes that emotional freedom is a great part of the physical dilemma. I believe that much physical pathology is created in the mind, and by liberating the subconscious, the imbalances in the physical will evaporate. By turning to the light, we turn off the darkness.


If there is one creator, and all He/She/It creates is good, then what is disease?


Disease, pain and suffering are part of the material aspect of living.
When we are born, we begin the onward march to our physical deaths.
This is inevitable, yet what are the goal posts along the way? The quality of our life, the manner in which we live our lives, the freedom we have from physical infirmary, decide if we fulfill our capacity to the best of our ability, and here it is that homeopathy has its finest hour.


Homeopathy finds the deepest part of the soul and liberates it.
Homeopathy touches the creative force, the spark that is the deepest, most generative part of our vital force.
The remedies speak to the intrinsic primal force that once inspired our very inception.
If life begins at conception (about which many scientists regardless of their political beliefs about a woman's right to choice agree) then there must be some kind of creative entity or spark that draws to the developing embryo the elements it needs to carry the soul into the body. It is this very entity that I find effected by homeopathic remedies.
When we deal with miasms, we are dealing with ancestors long gone, who have left their imprint through their DNA and their disease history on a new generation. We are treating the tuberculosis in a grandparent, the scabies from ancestors whose names have long been forgotten. And we are curing them. Is this not a spiritual feat?


Homeopathy is a miracle. And homeopathy is a science. Homeopathy is measurable. Homeopathy is imponderable.





Aude sapere    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapere_aude


Melanie Grimes. RSHom (NA), CCH, began studying at NCNM in 1972, but left to focus on homeopathy.
She is the editor of The American Homeopath, and author of Dr. John Bastyr: Philosophy and Practice, as well as numerous provings (Shark liver, Meteorite, Dragonfly, Blue-Green Algae). She lives in Seattle Washington.