Today marks the beginning of World Homeopathy Awareness week, and is also the birthday of Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of Homeopathy.
Hahnemann was a doctor with integrity, giving up the medicine of the day due to the harm it was causing. Instead he took to translating medical texts, until he disagreed with one part of the book he was translating. He had a breadth of knowledge, but was the ultimate scientist- when he disagreed with someone else’s theory, he came up with his own hypothesis, and then tested it.
The definition of science is: “the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.” (Oxford dictionary online).
Not only did Hahnemann experiment, and develop his theory and his form of medicine called Homeopathy, but he was continually improving upon how he practiced, and also the writing it down so he could share with others. Over his lifetime Hahnemann wrote 6 editions of his Organon, which is a book of his instructions to Homeopaths. Here are his first two, which describe the ideals he lived by and had passed on to all Homeopaths since then:
Aphorism 1:
The physician’s high and only mission is to restore the sick to health, to cure as it is termed.
Aphorism 2:
The highest ideal of cure is rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of the health, or removal and annihilation of the disease in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable, and most harmless way, on easily comprehensive principles.
There was a lot of controversy over this new system of medicine, but Hahnemann not only had the evidence that Homeopathy was both safe and effective, he was also strong enough to stand up to the criticism and continue with his life’s work.
His record stands for itself. While more than 200 years have passed since he first proposed his theory of “like cures like”, millions of people around the world use Homeopathic medicines for many conditions from acute disease, to long term chronic illness, to mental, emotional and behavioural conditions.
Homeopathy has not stood still either, there are so many more remedies now, different methods of finding remedies, and Homeopathy is used for detoxing from a wide variety of modern toxins that never existed in Hahnemann’s time.
In World Homeopathy Awareness week I challenge you to talk about Homeopathy, to share what you have used it for and why you continue to use this safe and effective form of medicine.
I have seen amazing results in both my practice as a Homeopath and in my personal life. Each day I will share a short personal story of how Homeopathy has helped me and my family. I would love to hear your stories as well, about how you found Homeopathy, or something you have used it for.
Disclaimer- laws prevent Homeopaths from claiming to “cure” diseases or conditions, and by definition, in New Zealand, any substance that has a therapeutic purpose in treating a medical condition, is a medicine and therefore needs to be prescribed by a registered Doctor. Homeopaths treat people, not diseases, and if in the course of treating a person they have an improvement in their health then that is exactly what we are aiming for.