origin

What’s in a name?

The name homeopathy comes from the Latin words Homoios and Pathos which mean “similar” and “suffering.” Why this name? Well, about 1200 years before Christ, both the ancient Greeks and the Egyptians were known to be able to cure a sick person by giving him a remedy that would induce a similar illness in a healthy person (see the beautiful Telephus Sage for illustration). But the father of modern medicine Hippocrates (460-370 BC) already described this rule: “Sometimes diseases are cured by a similar disease and sometimes by their opposite. But we must always first use the similar illness and consider this method as a universal law. ”Thus, there are two views on healing:

– We all know healing by the opposite. After all, most allopathic remedies are based on this. For example: During an infection a certain bacterium starts to multiply itself quickly in the body. The drug (in this case antibiotics) gives an opposite reaction. Instead of stimulating multiplication, the process is stopped by killing the bacteria. Effective but not always the best long-term solution.

– The other method means that two similar diseases cannot be actively present in the body at the same time. If we are infected with two similar diseases, the body will only respond to the strongest or most aggressive of the two. This immediately drowned out the other disease and therefore solved it. So this natural law was known for at least 1000 years before a German doctor, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1845), continued to work with it.

The biggest difference lies in this opposite principle. In one theory it is the bacterium (or virus) or the abnormal / diseased tissue that is the cause of the disease.

In the other, the disease is seen as a condition of the entire human being expressed by the body through a single organ (system) using a bacterium (or virus) or abnormal tissue. This is the holistic vision (see also below).

Samuel Hahnemann
So it was Samuel Hahnemann who gave the name homeopathy to the healing this way. But who was Hahnemann then? On April 10, 1755 he was born the son of a porcelain painter in the German city of Meissen. Although almost the entire family worked in the porcelain industry, and it was therefore logical that Samuel would also work in this, he turned out to have enormous talent for languages ​​and scientific studies. Because his parents could not afford it, his teachers felt it was a shame to let such a talent be lost, with the result that his lessons were free and in 1775 he left (with knowledge of 8 languages!) For the University of Leipzig to to study medicine. A study that he continued after two years in Vienna where there were more practical facilities for such a study. After completing his studies, he could not fully agree with the form of healing applied at the time: People were allowed to swallow numerous medicines while they did not know what they were exactly good for, almost every complaint required loss of blood, let people take very toxic substances (including mercury and arsenic), hygiene was hard to find, people with mental disorders were physically abused and there was no attention for the patient either. And in order to provide for his maintenance, he started giving private language lessons and translated books.
One of the books he translated was Cullen’s Materia Medica. In this he found exactly what he was looking for. The inspiration for a new healing method. In this book there was a description of the kina plant. This plant was already widely used by the South American Indians against malaria and was brought to Europe by missionaries for fever-killing properties.
Hahnemann decided, for unknown reasons, to experiment with this substance on his own. He made a tea from the plant and after taking it he wrote the following: “My feet and fingertips and so on first got cold. I became lifeless and sleepy; then my heart began to thump; my pulse became fast and hard; then an intolerable fear and trembling followed; a powerlessness in all limbs; pounding head; Red cheeks; thirst; in short, these were all symptoms that are usually associated with exchange fever (malaria); they all performed. Each time these symptoms lasted two to three hours and only came back if I repeated the doses. I discontinued the drug and was in good health again. ”
And homeopathy was born with this. He had discovered a plant that caused the same symptoms in a healthy person as it healed in a sick person. From this moment on he started to experiment extensively which symptoms could be triggered by which plants (later also minerals and metals).

Hahnemann decided, for unknown reasons, to experiment with this substance on his own. He made a tea from the plant and after taking it he wrote the following: “My feet and fingertips and so on first got cold. I became lifeless and sleepy; then my heart began to thump; my pulse became fast and hard; then an intolerable fear and trembling followed; a powerlessness in all limbs; pounding head; Red cheeks; thirst; in short, these were all symptoms that are usually associated with exchange fever (malaria); they all performed. Each time these symptoms lasted two to three hours and only came back if I repeated the doses. I discontinued the drug and was in good health again. ”
And homeopathy was born with this. He had discovered a plant that caused the same symptoms in a healthy person as it healed in a sick person. From this moment on he started to experiment extensively which symptoms could be triggered by which plants (later also minerals and metals).

Dynamize and potentiate
Yet this is not all. Because Hahnemann was of the opinion that: “the highest ideal of healing is: a rapid, gentle and sustainable recovery of health, or the elimination and destruction of the disease in its entirety, in the shortest, most reliable and harmless way, according to good understandable motives. To bring about a mild cure, it was necessary to use diluted substances with certain substances because in pure form they triggered violent reactions or were simply toxic. And although you would expect a dilution of a substance to work less well, Hahnemann discovered that the power of a substance only increased. And even if a healthy person took the substance, he could sometimes develop more symptoms if he took the substance diluted.
However, some substances are difficult to dilute (think of metals, for example).

So Hahnemann had to find a way to be able to dilute these substances. He probably already had some idea at the time of the theory that everything is energy (the concept of energy was still unknown at the time and this proposition was therefore entirely) because he developed the idea that if you let a substance come into intensive contact with another neutral substance (after extensive research Hahnemann chose milk sugar) that the latter would take over the effect / energy / soul of the substance. He called this process dynamic. The energy from the material was made movable and extended to the other material; the milk sugar. This milk sugar was then the basis for the medicine to be made. However, the results were so good that Hahnemann started to apply this to all medicines. So also substances that could easily be diluted. In this way a standard procedure for all medication preparations could arise and milk sugar can be diluted and stored indefinitely with some water and alcohol for shelf life. Hahnemann had already discovered that a diluted drug was more powerful and now discovered that he could strengthen a drug in its strength by shaking it intensively with each dilution. He discovered, for example, that at a certain point there were dilutions where no molecules of the original substance were present (number of Avogrado: there are no more molecules present at dilutions of D24 and higher), which still worked. In fact, she often worked even more powerfully than the pure fabric. And we are not talking about a toxic or chemical effect, but about the ability to induce symptoms or to cure them.

Holism
But it can also be different. Many healing methods use the holistic model. Which means that man is more than a sum of parts. Simply put there is no disease within this vision, there is only one sick person. Where the doctor might talk about a sick stomach, from a holistic perspective, the person is seen as a very complex creature that is out of balance. The specific way of being unbalanced is expressed in the stomach.

The difference? From a holistic viewpoint, it is therefore important to focus the treatment on the entire person and not only on the stomach. By bringing the whole person back into balance, the stomach will heal itself through the self-healing capacity of the body. The big difference lies in this: if all organs are interconnected with each other to form a larger whole, then it is of no use to deal with a single aspect. In fact, it is often suppressive if you do this. Suppose the stomach upset is due to stress. The body gives a signal to take it slower. This signal is then not heard but pushed away. Result: the body must “invent” a new signal to make it clear that it needs to be calmer.

But what is illness
Before you delve into a healing method, it is first important to consider what health actually is. Because if we want to be able to cure a sick person, we need to know the condition to bring someone to. When is someone better? Illness is a very subjective thing. For example: A bruised little finger will be unpleasant for a guide in a museum. But for a concert pianist it can be a disaster. So while one person may not even experience it as a disease, the other may consider it a serious illness. With this in mind, it is interesting to look at the definition of health from the World Health Organization (WHO):
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not just the absence of disease or weakness.”

If we assume that this definition is correct: is the guide sick then? Or is a child with a fever who just plays on and is not bothered by anything? In both cases there is a disease but there can also be a physical, mental and social well-being. It is certainly not the case that I do not agree with this statement, but I would like to nuance it with the following text by George Vithoulkas:

Health at the physical level: 
Every illness, expressed by pain, discomfort, weakness, always tends to limit the individual. With that we can already say that health on the physical level has to do with freedom. Physical health can best be described as freedom from pain in the physical body with a physical feeling of well-being.

Health on the emotional level:
On the emotional level, that which addicts us and all our attention absorbs passion. Here we should not see passion in the sensual sense but in the broadest sense. Excessive or inappropriate passion for something shows an emotional imbalance. In the sensual sense we can think of the man who is so in love that he commits murder out of jealousy. This is acting from a state of jealousy (which is an exaggerated passion) and not from falling in love. But we can think of all the passions that bring the individual to a state in which he / she considers destructive actions to another or himself. An individual in a healthy emotional state will always try to find the golden middle ground. Fanaticism and dogmatism are attitudes that distinguish themselves from logic and understanding and exhibit an unhealthy emotional involvement that usually results in a form of a catastrophe for themselves or others.

Passions of this kind usually entail an enormous love for something / someone who, when not answered or insufficiently answered, leads the person in question to a form of “crime” towards others or himself. Often emotional needs and uncertainties are also confused for true love and affection. However, if these are confused, an emotional bond is created that constantly demands things from the other person under the term “give”. Love becomes a barter.

The opposite of passion, a state of apathy, is also not desirable. As is clear from the above, it is the golden middle ground that carries health. A state of calm and serenity that is dynamic and creative instead of indifferent or destructive. A state in which love and positive emotions dominate hate and other negative emotions. Passions therefore arise from a weakness and not a strength. And to evolve as a human being, we must make a conscious effort to free ourselves from these “animated” passions. In summary, health on an emotional level is therefore a freedom of passions, resulting in a dynamic state of serenity and calmness.

Health on the mental and spiritual level
This is the hardest to define. If we look at what disturbs us most in our mental peace, then that is all that comes from selfishness and desire. We see this easily and much confirmed in daily life. The more selfish a person is, the more trouble he / she has to deal with criticism of his knowledge, status or achieved goals. This while a humble person, who perhaps knows and achieved the same thing, easily steps over it and often can even learn from the criticism. The egoist therefore only sees how things affect him negatively. And therefore loses his mental balance. The degree of inner good feeling is therefore determined by the outside world. We see this same pattern in desire. Just think of people who have plenty of money and still don’t have enough. They are in a constant fight for more. And this has consequences for the mental state. It is selfishness and desire that keeps us from looking at the objective and seeing the truth. As these traits increase, a sense of being better arises, knowing things better, haughtiness, arrogance. Examples of this are countless in history. But because nobody is free from any form of selfishness or desire, it is not about how you can live without these limitations, but how you can live without them determining everything for you. And an important first step in this is recognizing that we have these qualities in us. Because only if we acknowledge that we have it, are we able to recognize them in ourselves and therefore change them. If we can think with minimal influence on egoism, arrogance, desire, feelings of superiority, etc, we can live a mentally healthier life. And just like the healthy emotional state, this can only be achieved through a conscious effort. This is in contrast to physical health, which is largely congenital. In summary, health on the mental / spiritual level is freedom from egoism, resulting in total union with the truth.

How do we measure health?
From the above it is now somewhat clear what health (and therefore some illness) is but how do we see if someone is getting better? Because healing is not always immediately observable. A complaint can remain unchanged while the patient is a lot better. Or (and this is even harder to evaluate) the patient is relieved of his physical complaint but has not changed further or has even received another complaint instead. We often see this with eczema. The eczema disappears and bronchitis occurs. Or there is bronchitis and when it disappears, eczema suddenly develops. Health is therefore more than just a physical complaint / symptom. And we cannot see physical, emotional and mental health separately. They have to do with each other and influence each other. Just think of complaints after sadness, headache after stress, etc. To see if someone from a disease is really well cured, it is important that we look at the creative (take the word creative in the broadest sense of the word) ability. Creation increases the more space there is to create. And so as there is more physical, emotional and / or mental freedom.

The Miasma’s
VAccording to Hahnemann, nobody is born free of any taxes. We all have our weaknesses that are shaped by our genetic background. Moreover, weaknesses are still formed or fueled by the area in which we live, the food that we eat, the climate in which we live, the things that we experience, etc. This burden includes a personal aptitude for certain complaints. That is not only about bacteria, viruses and fungi. It goes on. Each of us has the aptitude for certain reaction patterns. These unique reaction patterns emerge when we are under stress or when we become infected by a certain organism or substance. Hahnemann called this tax the miasma (literally it means “a blemish”). Every disease can be placed in a certain miasma. But every sick person can also be accommodated in this. And even in a relatively healthy state, there is always something of such a miasmatic pattern to be found in us. Hahnemann distinguished 3 main miasmas that he named after diseases. Diseases that, due to their extreme symptoms, sketched a clear picture of a certain pattern. He named the following 3:
Psora, named after the scabies disease
Sycose, named after the gonorrhoe disease
Syphilitic, named after syphilis

Every disease was characterized by very unique characteristics. Put simply, psora is the most primitive pattern there is. It is a pattern that occurs due to lack. A lack of hygiene. A lack of money. A lack of confidence. A lack of the body’s ability to respond adequately to a pathogenic external stimulus. In a Biblical context we can also call this primordial sin. We have made a mistake and are no longer good enough for Paradise. And each of us carries a piece of this debt. In parallel, we can also state that almost no one has the youth he would like. There is often an element of lack in childhood: too little attention, too little confirmation, too little love, etc. The child unknowingly responds to this by developing a sense of guilt. “I am a lesser child, otherwise my parents would have paid more attention to me.” In the terms of Thomas Harris (see book I am Ok, you are Ok) we are here at the stage where the theme “I am not ok” begins to form. In disease we see all kinds of deficiency diseases.

We see the compensation in sycosis. For example, where the psoric person will say, “Never mind, I can’t do it,” the sycotic person will say, “I can’t, but no one can see that.” So I’m going to immensely perfect myself in a related aspect so that I can compensate my ignorance. ”In the youth we see all kinds of compensation techniques arise here. Of course that all happens unconsciously but the child can start thinking “I may not get the highest marks, but then I will be the nicest one.” But with every compensating step the fear of falling through the basket comes. One of the most common sycotic feelings “What if the others see that I’m actually not so good …” We also see this pattern by gonorrhoe. You can have it without people seeing it all too easily from the outside. So you can go through life relatively unnoticed. But what if the other person finds out that you have this disease …
In the Thomas Harris classification we are here in the I am not okay, you are okay. We see these overreactions in the body. “All kinds of inflammation, too much muscle tension, too fast-acting organs, etc.

Finally there is the syphilitic miasma. Like the syphilis disease, it is a destructive pattern. There is no longer any hope here to hide anything. There is only the intensity and the destruction from a despair because there seems to be no longer any recovery. Psychologically we see here that thoughts arise from I am okay, but you are not okay. Indifference arises “I might as well start using drugs, life is meaningless anyway.” In disease we see destructive patterns here: autoimmune diseases, ulcers, dystrophy, degenerative processes and major depression.

Over the years, this theory has been further developed. Hahnemann himself described that there are few diseases that are unilaterally in a pattern. We often see mixed forms. So where Hahnemann started with three main patterns, all sorts of intermediate forms have now been named which are also named after the diseases in which they occur in the most extreme form: malaria, AIDS, cancer, tuberculosis, etc. What should you do with this classification? A system like this does give the therapist a clear view of the disease how he is now, which way he is developing and therefore what can be expected from the treatment.

Over the years, this theory has been further developed. Hahnemann himself described that there are few diseases that are unilaterally in a pattern. We often see mixed forms. So where Hahnemann started with three main patterns, all sorts of intermediate forms have now been named which are also named after the diseases in which they occur in the most extreme form: malaria, AIDS, cancer, tuberculosis, etc. What should you do with this classification? A system like this does give the therapist a clear view of the disease how he is now, which way he is developing and therefore what can be expected from the treatment.

A simpel example:
A man comes into practice with all kinds of abdominal complaints: abdominal pain, bloating, flatulence, heartburn, bubbling and too soft stools. It all started when he received a promotion at work. In practice, he appears very capable and confident, but he says that he has to do his very best at work to be able to handle it all. We then see a sycotic image here (doing the very best to hide possible ignorance or uncertainties). But we also see that there is an uncertain image (the poor self-confidence of the psora) underneath.