Homoeopathy differs from conventional medicine in many aspects. Little recognized to date is the unique, multidimensional nature of the response to homoeopathic treatment. We discuss this ‘colour’ of the homoeopathic response; altered temporal awareness, the paucity of language, selective amnesia, lack of self-awareness, the holistic character of the improvement, and the development of acute illnesses, all in response to successful homoeopathic treatment. We conclude that, beyond its biological effect, homeopathic treatment affects awareness. Homoeopathy (2005) 94, 196–199.
Keywords: homoeopathic improvement; Hering’s law; therapeutic response; multidimensional
Introduction
Cartesian philosophy has been the central pillar of scientific discovery, and a great benefit for humanity. From locomotive to the space shuttle and from penicillin to PET scan, this paradigm has dominated western scientific production for over 400 years. However, the wholesale adoption of Descartes’s worldview has not been without cost. Lost in the shuffle have been many of the subtler aspects of our existence.
Homoeopathy is a system of medicine based upon the law of similars. It maintains a holistic philosophy of health and illness. In that vein, homoeopathy anticipates a subtle and qualitative model of cure and improvement. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homoeopathy, declared that ‘after careful selection of similar homoeopathic medicine, health, recovery, follow in imperceptible, often rapid transitions’,1 and that ‘commencement of amelioration or aggravation is not perceptible to everyone [and]can not be described in words’.2 We maintain that this ‘multidimensional’ nature of the homoeopathic response has gone largely unrecognized, in no small part due to our prevailing cultural bias towards Cartesian logic.
