HOMEOPATHY - WHAT IS IT?

There is a lot of misunderstanding about what homeopathy is and what it is not, so here's a few facts:

HOMEOPATHY IS THE APPLICATION OF THE LAW OF SIMILARS.

The law of similars
is the principle that underpins homeopathy (NOT dilution)

• Homeopathy means administering a remedy that is capable of producing similar symptoms to those of the patient. Thus cure is effected by the remedy being sufficiently similar to the disease.
• A homeopathic remedy is not homeopathic until it is prescribed effectively. Until that point it is just a dilute substance with the potential for homeopathic application, it only becomes homeopathic when it is matched to symptoms it cures.
• Homeopathy does not mean just tiny doses. You can use large doses homeopathically. The reason for small doses is that it lessens the likelihood of side effects. e.g. Rhus-Tox (Poison Ivy) is a great remedy homeopathically for sprains and some types of influenza etc. when potentised, but if it wasn't given in hilghly dilute form it would also cause new symptoms.
• People refer to a substance being given in 'homeopathic' doses (when they mean 'miniscule amounts') but that is not accurate either, unless the remedy worked it wasn't homeopathic, irrespective of how large or small the dose. This term for 'very high dilution' gets used (innacurately) for convenience.
• We call 'potentised' remedies like Rhus-Tox, Sulphur, Sepia, Nux-Vom etc 'Homeopathic remedies' for convenience, but it is not really accurate. They are not homeopathic until matched to a patients symptoms, i.e. prescribing homeopathically is what makes them homeopathic. So a remedy cannot work ( or be homeopathic) if not correctly matched to the symptoms.
• Herbs and plants may be used homeopathically but homeopathy is not the same as herbalism.
  e.g nettle may be used homeopathically to cure some urticarias, (a type of skin rash) and herbally to treat some types of eczema. It is the mode of action that determines whether it is an homeopathic or herbal effect.
• Remedies aren't just diluted, they are diluted and succussed. It was a surprise to everyone that remedies continued to work even though they were tried in progressively higher dilutions. (Homeopathy however is not unscientific. Obviously chemists and pharmacists do have a lot of trouble comprehending how it works and that's no surprise as it's really in the domain of physics not chemistry, that it finds explanations for its mode of action.)
• The remedys' recorded characteristics (their homeopathic definitions) are mapped out in the Books of Homeopathic Materia Medica. A Homeopathic Materia Medica is a collection of detailed symptoms and characteristics of a remedy, recorded from homeopathic provings and clinical experience.
• Some homeopaths may also give counselling or advice on diet & nutrition, lifestyle, tissue salts, Flower remedies or other 'vibrational' essences.
• Homeopathy has nothing to do with 'dowsing', or 'kinesiology', or 'radionics' or 'irridology' or 'spiritualism', or 'reiki', or 'hands on healing' or 'astrology' or (add latest esoteric fad), etc. Some homeopaths use other 'diagnostic' techniques or therapies as well as homeopathy, that doesn't mean it should be added to the definition of homeopathy, (or that they don't work, just that they do not define homeopathy)
• Homeopathy makes no claim to cure 'souls' or bestow 'enlightenment' or have specific religious connotations or connections. Those who tell you otherwise have inculcated it with their own belief system
• What homeopathy does is cure symptoms through the application of the homeopathic remedy, that's all.

The Eastern mind is better placed to grasp the potential of homeopathy: it is so different to standard Western medicine that it difficult to comprehend from within the paradigm of the Western medical mindset. e.g. a good understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) will better prepare the student for the energetic principles of homeopathic study than will most qualifications in Western Medicine (Doctor, Pharmacist etc.) whose tenets [because they are primarily reductionist and suppressive] are in general diametrically opposed to those of most holistic disciplines .

Etymology:

homeo– or homoio–
pref.
Like; similar: homeostasis.
[Greek homoio-, from homoios, from homos, same.]

–pathy
suff.
Feeling; suffering; perception: telepathy.
Disease: neuropathy.
A system of treating disease: homeopathy.
[Greek -patheia, from pathos.]