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Read Chapter One - Highway to Homoeopathy
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Sam Needleman
Foreword by Katie Boyle You can Purchase Highway to Homoeopathy at £9.95 Proceeds to charity |
"Like cures like"? In order to cure like with like, we must have knowledge of what like is. Therefore, to cure we must know what can cause, because what can cause can also cure, and vice versa. To this end, the remedies were proven. The substance, or medicine, was taken in various strengths and doses by provers. Every effect, whether physical, mental or emotional, was noted and collated.
In addition to the proving of remedies, we have knowledge of the action of a number of substances from their continual usage
and accidental poisonings. All this information is gathered and presented in schematic form in homoeopathic "materia medicas."These can be considered the bibles of homoeopathy. Every symptom or side-effect that can be caused or brought out by a particular substance is listed under various headings where the symptom may be found, e.g. mind, head, face, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, throat, stomach, abdomen, urine, male, female, respiratory, heart, extremities, back, skin, fever, sleep, and modalities. In this way a composite picture of a drug or a disease is built up, enabling us to match a remedy with similar symptoms found in a disease, thereby allowing us to treat like with like.
The most important symptoms are mental and emotional because they appertain to the person rather than a part. Homoeopathy treats the whole person, not just the disease. Put in a very simple way, the homoeopath is interested in treating Mrs Brown who has rheumatism, rather than treating Mrs Brown's rheumatism.
A thorough knowledge of a remedy will give an understanding of its characteristics and personality. Therefore, when we describe a rheumatic pain as being "of a Rhus tox nature," we know by its very form that it is worse after rest and ameliorated on movement. We may describe a headache as "A Nat mur headache" or "A Gelsemium flu." By this description we know the exact symptoms we can expect to find, and the remedy to give in this condition. Likewise, when strong mental characteristics and personality traits of a person match those of a drug or remedy, we then may describe the person as having "An Arsenic or a Phosphorus constitution," or being "A Thuja or Sulphur type."
A person may be considered to be a constitutional type when most of his or her characteristics correspond to the major symptoms of the remedy in question. You might then hear that the patient is being treated constitutionally. This means using the remedy that closely matches them as a type or personality rather than treating their migraine with a remedy known for its value in headaches.
But it is not that simple! Constitutions are not always clear cut. We could be a mixture of a number of constitutions, which are not always constant at they may vary and change, depending much on conditions and circumstances. Many factors contribute to making us what we are. Amongst these are our environment, health and, above all, hereditary traits.