Homeopathy: The Natural Mind-Body Medicine
Rooted in natural healing traditions from around the world, and harkening to modern physics, homeopathy stands poised to become the medicine of the twenty-first century.
A gentle, deeply-healing system of medicine founded by the visionary genius Samuel Hahnemann in the early 19th century, homeopathy uses healing substances so dilute that they do not cause the side effects of conventional pharmaceuticals. And unlike pharmaceuticals, which suppress symptoms that later recur (often on a deeper level), homeopathy cures from the inside out. It removes the underlying emotional or mental stress of chronic disease first, then moves the illness out of the body.
Homeopathy treats the whole person—emotional, mental and spiritual as well as physical. The well-chosen homeopathic remedy can bring about a profound sense of well-being before it even begins to cure the symptoms. And the search for the right remedy for a chronic disease begins with an inquiry into the emotional or mental trauma that might have triggered it.
Founded on unfailing scientific laws, homeopathy has stood the test of time for nearly 200 years. It is a form of energy medicine, working with the body’s own healing energy to strengthen it, using remedies that are safe, non-toxic and individualized to the patient.
Advantages of homeopathy over conventional drugs
- inexpensive: doses cost pennies per day
- no side effects or adverse reactions
- no habituation (i.e. no need to keep increasing the dose)
- no possibility of addiction or withdrawal
- no reports to the FDA of harm from homeopathic remedies
- once it works, you don't need to stay on it for the rest of your life
- well-suited to hypersensitive people who tend to react to drugs
- supports the immune system
- "side benefits" instead of side effects: other aspects of your health get better at the same time
- healing on the mental, emotional and behavioral level
- the current financial crisis in our health care and health insurance system could be solved by using inexpensive homeopathic remedies as a first line of treatment.
How can it work if there's nothing in it?
There is "something in it": information! Think of a remedy as a tiny computer chip. You could store a whole book on a computer chip, right? A homeopathic remedy is a way of storing and transmitting information to your body's healing energy (Vital Force). It teaches the Vital Force a better way to deal with something that has made it go out of kilter or off balance. Then the Vital Force can let go of the symptoms it has created to redress the balance – and you feel better, naturally.
Think of the homeopath as a piano tuner and the conventional doctor as a carpenter. Most of the time, a piano can be tuned without needing any sawing or hammering. Maybe once in a while the piano has been damaged in such a way that it needs to be repaired by the carpenter before being retuned.
In the same way, many health conditions can be addressed with the "retuning" of a homeopathic remedy. Sometimes – like if you've been in a car accident or if you've broken a bone – there's no substitute for surgery (the "carpenter").
How can a remedy store information?
Snowflakes are all chemically identical: all made out of water, H2O. Yet their patterns are all different.
In the same way, the water of different homeopathic remedies is chemically identical, but the pattern of the water molecules is different in a way that stores information. Cutting edge research in physics documents this effect of coherent or structured water.
Computers store huge amounts of information with a simple on-off, 1 or 0 effect of each electro-magnetic byte. Remedies are able to store huge amounts of information by changes in the orientation and bonding of simple water molecules.
How come I've never heard of homeopathy?
Pharmaceutical companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars to promote their drugs: they buy ads on TV, provide incentives for doctors to prescribe their drugs, and hire sales reps to woo physicians (not to mention the lobbyists on Capitol Hill: did you know there are more lobbyists than congresspeople?)
Homeopathy is the people's medicine. The remedies are not patentable; they are in the public domain. A tube of a homeopathic remedy that costs $7.95 in a health food store can last you for years. As a result, there are no extra funds generated to publicize homeopathy. Most people find out about it through word of mouth from satisfied users.
Why does Wikipedia say it's based on the placebo effect?
The editorial board at Wikipedia (which is not as neutral as they would like us to believe) has recently been suppressing attempts by homeopaths to post accurate information about homeopathy's mechanism of action and research as to its effectiveness. Please investigate for yourself, for example at homeopathic.com, the website of Dana Ullman, an expert on research on homeopathy.
In the experience of Teleosis faculty, students and clients, homeopathy's effectiveness cannot be based on the placebo effect. It works on infants, animals, even on plants. Anyone who has given a remedy to a baby screaming with teething pain, and watched the child stop crying instanteously, knows that it cannot possibly be the placebo effect.
Nor can the effect be based on a positive interaction with a professional homeopath, as some claim. No matter how supportive the experience, no matter how much the client enjoys feeling truly heard, the recommended remedy will not work if it is not a good match for the client.
The best proof of homeopathy's effectiveness is personal experience. If you have never felt or observed a remedy's healing effect, please try it for yourself (for an acute condition, i.e. one appropriate for over-the-counter treatment). Your local health food store will have books and remedies to help you.
If you would like to read more about research on homeopathy, we recommend you start with Dr. Bill Gray's Homeopathy: Science or Myth. For a thorough review of two centuries of research, please see Michael Emmans Dean's The Trials of Homeopathy. For more about the science behind homeopathy's mechanism of action, please see Bellavite and Signorini's The Emerging Science of Homeopathy: Complexity, Biodynamics, and Nanopharmacology.
How come my doctor says it's unproven?
Chances are your doctor is not familiar with the research on homeopathy, which is not at all her/his fault, since most of the research has been done overseas and is not taught in American medical schools.
The research has primarily been done overseas because our homeopathic pharmacies cannot afford to fund research the way American drug companies do. The US government has funded a few studies which have been demonstrated the effectiveness of homeopathy and have published in peer-reviewed journals (for example, on homeopathy for childhood diarrhea and for mild traumatic brain injury).
To reassure your doctor, try telling her or him that homeopathy is an accepted part of the national health care system in many countries around the world (including Canada) and that FDA regulations in this country are comparable to those for drugs. In other words, the FDA treats it as a system of medicine, quite different from vitamins and herbs.
For more information: See this article by Begabati Lennihan, Director of Teleosis, or listen to an interview with her. Please also see the article on homeopathic psychotherapy by Co-director Loretta Butehorn, Ph.D., DIHom.
How is Begabati's practice different?
If you have already seen a homeopath, or heard about the process from someone who has, you might appreciate the ways in which Begabati's practice is different:
Most homeopaths start with a single dose of a high-potency (strong) remedy in order to induce an aggravation (a temporary worsening of symptoms which makes it clear to the homeopath that the remedy is correct and is working). Begabati starts with a low potency (mild) dose of the remedy and gradually increases it in order to avoid an aggravation. Instead, she establishes benchmarks at the first appointment which will help you as well as her to notice whether the remedy is working.
Many homeopaths refuse to tell their clients the name of the remedy they are taking; Begabati finds that telling her clients about their remedy helps them to feel more involved in the process.
Most homeopaths ask their patients to avoid coffee, mint, and possibly other factors such as dental work, electric blankets, and a long list of foods and bodycare products with aromatic oils. Begabati does not find these avoidances necessary with her system of daily dosing of the remedy.
Hypersensitives (people who are extremely sensitive to environmental influences) are ideal candidates for homeopathy (because they feel the remedy working so clearly and so quickly) – except that they tend to suffer more than anyone else from the high potencies used by many homeopaths. Begabati adjusts the strength of the remedy to the sensitivity of her clients, using extremely gentle potencies for hypersensitives, so that even people who may have suffered from previous homeopathic treatment are often able to benefit from homeopathy with Begabati.
Many homeopaths ask their clients to stop taking vitamins and herbs, and to stop other modalities they may be using like acupuncture or chiropractic. Begabati encourages her clients to continue doing anything that they feel is helping, except not to start anything new at the same time as the remedy in order to assess the remedy clearly. In addition, based on more than fifteen years of running a health food store, she is very knowledgeable about supplements and other modalities which she recommends when she realizes that homeopathy cannot do everything for a client.
Finally, Begabati supports her clients in whatever spiritual practice or personal growth work they are involved in, believing – as her spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy would often say – that there are many paths to enlightenment. She often frames her discussion of her clients' remedies in the larger picture of how homeopathy can support their life lessons and fulfilling their purpose on earth.
Resources
Best introductory book on homeopathy:
Lansky, A. Impossible cure.
Other recommended reading:
Chappell, P. (2003). Emotional healing with homeopathy. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Chernin, D. (2006). The Complete homeopathic resource for common illnesses. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books. The most complete how-to guide.
Coulter, C. (2000). Nature and human personality. Berkeley Springs, WV: Ninth House Publishing. Personality types of the most common homeopathic remedies.
Coulter, C. (2001). Homeopathic sketches of children’s types. Bethesda, MD: Ninth House Publishing. A description of children’s psychological types.
Cummings, S., Ullman, D. (1991). Everybody’s guide to homeopathic medicines. New York: G.P.Putnam/Jeremy Tarcher Books.
Gray, B. (2001). Homeopathy: science or myth? Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books. An excellent and readable review of the research on homeoapathy.
Reichenberg-Ullman, J. (2000). Whole woman homeopathy. Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing. An excellent guide to self-care for women’s conditions.
Reichenberg-Ullman J., Ullman, R., Luepker, L. (2006) A Drug-free approach to autism and Asperger's: homeopathic care for exceptional kids. The books in this series are not how-to guides; these conditions need to be treated by a professional homeopath, but they do provide many examples and an excellent explanation of how homeopathy can heal them.
Reidlinger, J., Lennihan, B. (2002). Homeopathic medicines. In: Handbook of non-prescription drugs. Washington, DC: The American Pharmacists Association.
Ullman, D. (2007). The Homeopathic revolution: why famous people and cultural heroes choose homeopathy. A fascinating look at hundreds of famous people throughout history—and some surprising current celebrities—who swear by homeopathy.
Ullman, D. (2003). Homeopathic family medicine. Berkeley, CA: Homeopathic Educational Services e-book.
Ullman, D. (1995). The consumer’s guide to homeopathy. New York: G.P.Putnam/Jeremy Tarcher Books. A good basic self-help book, with additional excellent chapters on research on homeopathy and how it works.
Ullman, D. (1992). Homeopathic medicine for children and infants. New York: G.P.Putnam/Jeremy Tarcher Books.
Ullman, R, Reichenberg-Ullman, J. (1999). Prozac-free: homeopathic medicine for depression, anxiety and other mental and emotional problems. Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing.
Ullman, R., Reichenberg-Ullman, J. (1996). Ritalin-free kids: homeopathic treatment of ADD and other behavioral and learning problems. Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing.
Ullman, R., Reichenberg-Ullman, J. (1999). Rage-free kids: homeopathic medicine for defiant, aggressive and violent children. Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing.