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

Richard Moskowitz, MD, is a hero of mine, so this review may not be entirely unbiased!  I was a dozen years behind him in discovering midwifery and then homeopathy, and so reading his books over the years has been a wonderful validation of my own path and a shared experience with someone who arrived at these insights from within and then beyond the conventional system of medicine.

His latest book:  Conscientious Objector: Why I Became a Homeopath takes the reader on a journey through a life well-lived with honesty and integrity, following the whisperings of his own “vital force.”  (Homeopaths assess the attunement of the “life force,” which is an expression of the patient’s health in body, mind and spirit.) He started out as a shy and “bookish” kid with “scruples.” Later these scruples would be sculpted into a high degree of ethics, which he articulates with elegant clarity in his writing.

He went through the rigors of studying philosophy and medicine, and he became a doctor. He practiced Family Medicine for 53 years:  in Boulder, CO from 1967-1973; in Santa Fe, NM from 1974–1982; in Boston, MA from 1982-2020. Beginning his career in Boulder, he was invited to attend homebirths, where he would begin to see “the vital force” at work.  At the first birth he attended he says he learned to sit down, be quiet and pay attention.  He said this birthing woman “…taught me pretty much the whole course of that day, without saying a word.”  We can see that Dick was ever refining his ability to be observant and listen respectfully to people he worked with.  This was an ethos he carried and refined through all the years of practice.

He attended homebirths for 12 years (in Boulder and Santa Fe) and wrote a book on the use of homeopathy during pregnancy and childbirth, which is a wonderful resource (and how I came to know about his work).

In his work as a family doctor, he came upon the limits of conventional medicine, but was also confronted with its dangers.  He realized he’d been trained as a soldier to fight “in the front lines of the endless war against disease, armed with the most advanced chemical and surgical weapons to kill, shoot down, or at least correct and remove all symptoms and abnormalities whenever, wherever, and however they showed themselves.” Jarred by this realization, he began to see himself as a guide to help people through the medical system in ways that would keep them from getting hurt too badly.

He was to discover homeopathy after he moved to Santa Fe.  Finally, he would find a coherent system of theory and practice of medicine that “would work well in his hands.”  Homeopathy offered a coherent, systematic body of thought, with principled assumptions that rang true to his own intellectual development, and it provided a careful methodology that followed logically from them.  With wonder he realized that this system of healing came into the world fully formed from the brain of one extraordinary man, Samuel Hahnemann, M.D. (1755-1843), based on the ancient Hippocratic idea that the manifestations of illness and disease are the attempt of the organism to heal itself, rather than something wholly bad or abnormal, to be arrested, corrected, or eliminated by any means necessary.

He shares cases and remedies with us, and we share in his delight as we read about how these principles of healing, articulated by Hahnemann, work!  Dick practiced homeopathy for 46 years with ever growing depth of appreciation for its power and efficacy.

The book also outlines why he became even more convinced that his observations regarding the “modern medical enterprise” were true and important to share.  He takes us through a careful analysis based on his experience and insights.  Reading the chapters on “The Medical System” was surprisingly reassuring, since they are logical and clear, allowing non-medical and medical people to consider the tenants of healing and the dangers of over-riding these innate healing powers and natural processes with a panoply of powerful drugs and procedures.

The book also takes us through his analysis of vaccination.  Because he practiced medicine for over 5 decades, and because he is an astute observer, Dr. Moskowitz began to notice the long-term effects of vaccines on people.  This became a grave concern to him, and he writes about this forcefully in this book.  Because of his long experience, he is able to see patterns of chronic disease emerge that should be of grave concern to us all. Finally, with elegance he sums up his understanding of the true “medical enterprise” in the following 3 aphorisms, which he took from Paracelsus, a great philosopher/physician of the Renaissance:

1.   Healing implies wholeness
2.   All healing is self-healing
3.   Healing pertains solely to individuals

To these, he adds a fourth aphorism made clear to him by his own experience 4.   Health, illness, birth and death are inalienable life experiences belonging wholly to those undergoing them, such that no one else has the right to manipulate or control them without their explicit request.

In addition to serving people through his practice, Dr. Moskowitz has used his voice on behalf of homeopathy by teaching, lecturing around the world, and also serving on the Boards of homeopathy associations, like the NCH and the AIH.  He has written 5 books, over 120 articles, published in various journals, on homeopathy, natural medicine, midwifery, vaccination, and the philosophy of medicine.

This book is informative and inspiring—this is what a life well lived looks like! Clearly the vital force spoke loudly to him all along, and he listened.

With respect and admiration,

Patricia Kay, CPM (Certified Profession Midwife, retired), CCH (Certified Classical Homeopath)