ho·me·op·a·thy

the method of treating disease by drugs, given in minute doses, that would produce in a healthy person symptoms similar to those of the disease (opposed to allopathic or conventional medicine)

Homeopathy operates under the “law of similars” - the notion that a malady should be treated by an element that causes like symptoms in a healthy person. This element is repeatedly diluted in water (or alcohol) and “succussed” (shaken), often to the extent where no molecules of the element remain in the homeopathic solution. Homeopaths insist, however, that the water retains a “memory” of the element, even if the element itself is diluted out of the solution. Stranger still, the more diluted a solution, the more powerful its supposed effect. (Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of modern homeopathy, at one point claimed that a powerful (dilute) homeopathic solution need not be imbibed, but merely smelled, in order to have its desired effects.)

Sound goofy? Wait, it gets goofier.

The following excerpt is quoted from an article written by Paul Bahder, MD; and originally appeared in the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy.

First let us focus on fundamental peculiarities of homeopathy and its differences from conventional, allopathic medicine. Homeopathy differs in its understanding as to the goal of treatment. It does not address or seek to eliminate physical signs and symptoms but understands them to be expressions of the vital force. In homeopathy we are not trying to manipulate physiology, change high fever to low, eliminate pain, swelling or redness. We are not even trying to eliminate anger, anxiety or sadness. Our ideal is “to restore health rapidly, gently, permanently.” And as to what health is, we can look to the brilliant definition of health given by George Vithoulkas: “Health is freedom.. freedom from pain in the physical body, having attained a state of well-being; freedom from passion on the emotional level, having as a result a dynamic state of serenity and calm; and freedom from selfishness in the mental sphere, having as a result total unification with the Truth.”

In other words, health in homeopathy in its highest aspect is understood as a process of opening up to the spiritual, that is supramental realm, in ever greater submission to It and toward eventual “unification with It”. This can take place and the patient is thus elevated unto a higher level of health, into the realm of higher freedom, where he or she is released from material sense of limitation when the homeopath himself functions at this level.

Similarly, Dr. Randy Martin states:

…homeopathy helps to bring about harmony to the human body/mind/spirit by intervening in the energetic process of the individual. In other words, the correct homeopathic remedy will help to unblock the energetic “kinks” in a person which are keeping them from progressing on their emotional and spiritual path. Herbs and vitamins won’t do that, because they only work on the physical and chemical level and not on the energetic level.

The correct homeopathic remedy will also help to create more clarity in the individual. The remedies will agitate that which is pathological in a person. If a person is fearful, deceitful, angry, jealous, suspicious, dishonest, or just downright confused, the homeopathic remedy will help to create clarity in the person so that they have a greater degree of the type of freedom they need to engage life head on, in order to change that particular problem behaviors. On the other hand, if the person is very powerful, but has trouble expressing and manifesting that power, the remedy will help them to come more fully into their hidden source of power. If the person is fearful of robbers or rape, for instance, it’s going to help them energetically to clear this energy out of their auric field.

Vital force? Unification with the Truth? Auric field? This is not medicine. This is New Age voodoo.

The National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) has a very balanced and brief history/definition of homeopathy. Under heading 9. Are there scientific controversies associated with homeopathy?, the report states:

Some people feel that if homeopathy appears to be helpful and safe, then scientifically valid explanations or proofs of this alternative system of medicine are not necessary.

So, the homeopath has isolated himself from reason and the scientific method.

…

This is where I make the Benny connection. Mr. Hinn, along with other faith healers, claims to have healed countless people across the globe. Sick people flock to his crusades with the desperate hope of being healed of their diseases. I own The Many Faces of Benny Hinn DVD, a six hour collection of documentaries and exposes on Mr. Hinn’s healing ministry. One image that has always stuck with me is a sea of wheelchairs at one of Hinn’s crusades - a multitude of seriously ill. Of course, these folks never make it to Hinn’s stage.

I have only met one person who has claimed to have been healed at a Benny Hinn crusade. This individual said she suffered from chronic headaches (or some other chronic pain). She said this pain disappeared after attending Hinn’s crusade.

It seems to me that her story is representative of the vast majority of “healings” at Hinn’s and others’ crusades. Hinn never regenerates limbs. He never restores sight to the blind or hearing to the deaf. Those “cured” at Hinn’s crusades almost invariably suffer from some kind of chronic pain or other nondescript infirmity.

In other words, the kinds of health problems that naturally fluctuate. Even those who suffer from very serious chronic pain experience ups and downs. This leaves the hopeful crusader susceptible to the regression fallacy: a false ascription of causation due to the failure to account for natural fluctuations. “Of course, my headaches went away because Brother Hinn knocked me over with his Nehru jacket!” Nevermind that the headaches came back a week later. (Probably, because you lost faith…)

Those who believe in these kinds of “faith healings” also fail to consider the placebo effect, or the power of suggestion. As much as I hate to admit it, the faith healers, the namers-and-claimers, the health and wealth peddlers, the prosperity pimps, etc. do preach a grain of truth: there is a real power in positive thinking. Mind over matter, as they say.

This explains, in large measure, the supposed “power of prayer”. Please, don’t misunderstand. I believe that “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective”. However, when universities study the “power of prayer”, they are not only studying born-again, Bible-believing, Christians. They are taking into account Muslims, Buddhists, Wiccans, etc. And the results of these studies are positive across the board. This “power of prayer” works for the Hindu as effectively as it does for the Christian. And this shouldn’t surprise. God is not a genie. He does not wait in heaven with a prayer scale, waiting for the right amount or intensity of prayer before He heals a particular invalid. The “power of prayer” is really the power of the human mind. A sick person who truly believes that God (or some other supernatural force) is going to heal him will have a much more positive outlook than the atheist. This positive outlook has a real impact on the body’s ability to fight to illness. (To a degree, of course. No amount of happy thoughts will stave off Stage IV lung cancer.)

…

 

I believe the same errors are in operation for those who buy into homeopathy. Consider the following quote by Wendy Kaminer, author of Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety:

When I go to my homeopath maybe I’m following one of the precepts of the recovery movement that I’ve always derided: I’m thinking with my heart and not my head. Or maybe I’m acting rationally after all. Believing in homeopathy may be irrational, but not using homeopathy if it works would be even more irrational. I care only if medicine works, not why. (I have the vaguest understanding of antibiotics.)

So I don’t listen to scientists eager to tell me why homeopathic remedies can’t possibly work, because they violate the laws of chemistry. Assuming that the scientists are right, and the remedies I’ve taken are mere placebos, why would I want to start doubting - and diminishing - their effectiveness? Why not be susceptible to placebos?

(Quote found here.)

Ms. Kaminer doesn’t use homeopathy because it makes sense, or because it is true. In fact, she concedes that it is irrational. She uses it, because “it works”. So, according to Ms. Kaminer, the snake oil salesman really isn’ t all that bad of a guy, as long as he makes his customers feel better. The snake oil, after all, is no less effective (scientifically/medically speaking) a placebo than the homeopathic solution. If the snake oil and salesman are able to place a patient in a more positive frame of mind, and thus trigger a “healing” placebo effect, no harm/no foul. Right? Postmodern medicine, anyone…?

What really irks me, however, is the fact that Ms. Kaminer, along with the vast majority of homeopathic enthusiasts, will one day visit a real doctor. The day when they discover that lump. Or the day when their child contracts a serious meningitis. When Ms. Kaminer is faced with real disease (not some nebulous pain), she will drive straight past the Wellness Center to the good ole’ M.D.

Therein lies the cognitive dissonance. Homeopathy and modern medicine operate on conflicting theories. You can’t have it both ways. Either (really dilute) like cures like, or it doesn’t. Either the pathogenic theory of medicine (the conventional notion that microorganisms cause disease - the foundation of modern medicine) is true, or the homeopathic theory (that disease is caused by an imbalance in one’s vital force) is. They can’t both be true.

As I mentioned here in regards to vaccinations, this kind of anti-scientific attitude is stupendously unappreciative of the undeserved blessings bestowed upon 21st Century man via modern medicine.

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