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April 2006. The Phoenix Rises: How Homeopathy Continues to Survive & Thrive (Vol. 11, #1)
President's Message
What Constitutes a Cure? As Samuel Hahnemann exclaims, health occurs when: “In the state of health the spirit-like vital force (dynamis) animating the material human organism reigns in supreme sovereignty. It maintains the sensations and activities of all the parts of the living organism in a harmony that obliges wonderment. The reasoning spirit who inhabits the organism can thus freely use this healthy living instrument to reach the lofty goal of human existence.” (Organon of Medicine, para. 9, pg.14)
Hahnemann makes it very clear that the “real” person is not the physical body alone. The body is the vehicle for the “living spirit” (force, chi, qi, vital force, consciousness) which it uses to obtain knowledge and experience on this plane of energy/substance, so that is can evolve and experience all of life. In other works, so it can bring out all its potential (“the lofty goal of human existence”).
“If one finds in a chronic cases that the best chosen remedy does not bring about improvement, then it is a certain sign that an influence sustaining the disease still persists and that there is something in the patient’s life or environment which must be eliminated if permanent cure is to be achieved.” (Organon of Medicine, para 252, pg 177)
In Paragraph 286 Hahnemann discussed other therapies: “The dynamic forces of mineral magnetism, electricity, and galvanism act no less homeopathically and powerfully on our vital principle than medicines actually called homeopathic…”1 He said this was true especially in cases where the sensitivity and irritability are disturbed and in those having abnormal sensations and involuntary muscle movements.”
In Paragraph 288 he mentions that animal magnetism or mesmerism can be a great healing force: “This healing force....is a marvelous, priceless gift of God to man, by which a well-intentioned man (woman) exerts his (her) strong will over a patient with or without touching him, or even at some distance, in such a way that the vital force of the healthy mesmerizer gifted with this power dynamically flows into the patient....
“This healing force acts in different ways: on the one hand it replaces vital force in various places where it is deficient; and on the other hand it drains off, reduces, and more equally distributes it where it has become so strongly concentrated in certain parts that it has cause and sustained vague nervous conditions…”
Hahnemann understood these other approaches to cure, as well as the use of homeopathic remedies given under the strict law of similars. It is the word “cure” of which I would like to make mention. If we understand Hahnemann’s interpretation of an optimal state of health then “curing a case” defines more a partial cure than a total one. Total cure on all “levels”: (Physical, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual] of the person must function without any hindrance of energy/consciousness/life/substance. The “spirit-like vital force…reigns in supreme sovereignty.”)
Yet is such a state of complete health possible at this stage of our development as a species? Miasmatic and environmental influences, ignorance, injustice, unethical behavior, just to mention a few obstacles, may stand in our way for a long time to come. Even with the aid of homeopathy and the other non suppressive medical approaches, there may be many, many generations into the future before true health manifests on earth. However, If we accept the idea of “partial cure,” this is the reality today we can experience through true healing arts.
If someday all of us obtain perfect health, then there may still be one more stumbling block. Free will still may upset that balance on the mental, emotional and physical levels, simply by allowing us the choice to go to the extreme on any level. Then illness will surely raise its head again!
One must also enter into the equation the destiny of future humanity. Thousands of years from now, where will evolution take us? Will Hahnemann’s description for the state of health, where, “a living organism reigns in a harmony that obliges wonderment,” still hold true? Will we grow into a better one? Or did the old master leave us an understanding of nature that is pretty close to eternal.
Richard Hiltner , MD, DHt, of Ojai, CA, has been practicing medicine for 36 years specializing in homeopathy, and Traditional Chinese Medicine including acupuncture. He was board certified in homeopathy in 1978 and graduated from the Santa Barbara College of Oriental Medicine in 1988. For 12 years, he’s been President of the California Homeopathic Medical Society and Editor of its journal. For 6 years, he has been U.S. National Vice-President to the International League of Homeopathic Medical Doctors (Liga).