Book Review on Conscientious Objector – Why I Became A Homeopath by Carole

Dick,

I find myself so moved by this first chapter of your new book. The content—your aesthetic and moral revulsion in reaction to the standard elements of physician training is compelling. Your tone is steady, factual, descriptive and persuasive without being polemical.

Most of all, I find your writing really beautiful, even when what you’re describing is ugly. In musical terms, each phrase/sentence/ paragraph reads as a sustained legato line. No sudden sforzandos or punchy staccatos…it’s a long, smooth arc and it really works.

I hope this doesn’t sound fulsome. Remember: I’m a non-believer!

Please send me more!

Thanks so much for sharing your memoirs with me.

As you said, chapter 3 turns the corner into homeopathy theory and practice, but it strikes me that in the context of your personal journey, the material continues to be more like sharing/teaching than arguing/preaching. And that, of course, opens me to learning. 

I was among those who thought that the heart of the practice lay in the use of these infinitely diluted remedies, which I couldn’t put together with what I know of your otherwise rigorous mind!

But the idea that homeopathy is a gentle practice that works with our natural system rather than a practice that attempts to overcome symptoms/illness with force—that catches and holds my interest. Your words—it’s a “yoga of self-care”—completely disarmed my resistance. As did your detailed descriptions of individual cases and how you experienced the patients and formed ongoing relationships with them, as partners in their quests to feel better. Why, indeed, would one not try a gentle approach that does no harm first—why not at least give it a try—before taking on slash and burn allopathic drugs and surgeries?

So yes, please send chapter 4 my way!

                                                                                                                                                                                     Carole