Classical homeopathy utilizes a single homeopathic remedy, aimed at simultaneously curing all of the patient’s symptoms both at the physical, emotional and mental levels.
Classical homeopathy is based on the principles established by its discoverer, Samuel Hahnemann, a German doctor from the 18th century, who after feeling disappointed with the medicine of his own time, devoted his life towards the search of a different medical system which might bring in-depth and long lasting healing of human suffering.
Hahnemann understood that disease is not merely a set of physical or mental symptoms which more or less trouble the patient, but believed instead that illness is the manifestation of a central imbalance of the individual’s vital force. The vital force he defined as the energy that governs the shape and structure, as well as the sustainability and development of all live beings. In a state of harmony, the vital force expresses itself in good health and strength, whereas in a state of imbalance it manifests through weakness and disease. All material, structural or functional alterations of the organism are always manifestations of the vital force that sustains all live beings.
Each individual possesses a unique vital force that expresses itself in a unique form. Each patient manifests unique disease profiles. The imbalance of the vital force manifest through symptoms at the different levels of the being: symptoms at the physical levels, tendencies towards certain diseases, mental obsessions, recurrent dreams, fears, strange feelings and emotions, etc.
If the whole picture is not corrected from the root, symptoms and disease will eventually become chronic conditions and the individual will be reduced to permanently live in poor physical health and lack of inner freedom, preventing him to purse the full development of his life’s potential.
For this reason, treatment of ailments at the local level, such as conventional medicine treats specifically tonsillitis or bronchitis, does not imply a deep cure of the individual. Instead it only targets the elimination of one of the symptoms that is produced by the vital force, ignoring the deeper state of imbalance of the whole system.
The body’s vital force gives rise to symptoms as a mechanism to compensate for the existing imbalance; for instance, in a situation of extreme stress it can bring about a state of influenza that forces the person to remain in bed and rest. Another example is a situation in which a general infection emerges and the organism produces a high fever in order to fight bacteria or viruses that have invaded the body. When the vital force becomes unbalanced, it reacts by creating symptoms that will rebalance the situation, thereby safeguarding the total integrity of the organism.
When the symptom created as a mechanism to preserve the rest of the body is eliminated, an even deeper imbalance develops that eventually manifests through more complicated symptoms: starting at the skin level and spreading further until the vital organs are reached, sometimes even putting an end to the patient’s life.
For example, many times when psoriasis or dermatitis is suppressed in a child, a condition of asthma develops subsequently. Later, when the asthma is also treated suppresively, abnormal patterns of behavior emerge, such as hyperactivity or ADD.
We can say that – the patient is not ill because he suffers from arthritis, but rather that because the patient is ill he has developed arthritis. Eradicating the arthritis does not cure the patient, it only eliminates a specific manifestation of his unbalance.
The situation could be compared to that of a car with engine problems in which the red light of the temperature or oil levels goes on as a means to draw the owner’s attention so that he will solve the real problem.
What would we think if, upon taking it to the garage to have it repaired, the mechanic merely pulled out the red light instead of fixing the oil tank? In fact, the only possible purpose of healing needs to be directed towards reestablishing the equilibrium of the person’s vital force.
Classical Homeopathy looks at the person as a unique integral unity. Accordingly, Classical Homeopathy does not simultaneously utilize various remedies to treat the person’s different symptoms: one remedy for the psoriasis, another one for slow digestions and yet another one for sadness.
Instead, it relies on the administration of a single remedy each time to treat the total underlying imbalance which is the cause of the patient’s different symptoms, the actual bull’s eye of the system and the reason for the individual’s ailment. Once health is restored by such means, not only do the patient’s symptoms disappear, but his general state of wellbeing also becomes strengthened and the development of serious future disease is generally avoided.
SUSANA AIKIN, CCH, RSHom (NA), is a Classical Homeopath graduate from the School of Homeopathy of New York. She has practiced homeopathy for over ten years.
