People Often Say…

—Homeopathy? It’s nothing but a bottle of water!

Unfortunately, this is a widely held view. Echoing this, the Académie de Médecine (in France), once asked Guizot to exclude Hahnemann, who was the founder of homeopathy. And how did the minister respond? Simply, “Hahnemann is a scholar of great merit. Science must be free for everyone. If homeopathy is a chimera, or a system without any substance, it will fall by itself. If, on the contrary, it is progress, it will spread in spite of all our efforts to stop it, and the Académie should be the first to wish this, its mission being to encourage discovery and further the advancement of science.”

History and Origins of Homeopathy

Samuel Hahnemann, founder of homeopathy, was born in Meissen, Saxony, on April 10, 1755. He died on April 2, 1843 in Paris.

An excellent and knowledgeable chemist and botanist, he obtained his medical diploma in 1779, at the University of Erlangen. This was at a time when purging (massive enemas), bloodletting, and leeching were practiced. Confronted with the practices of his day, which were as fatal as the diseases they were meant to cure, Hahnemann reflected on ways to improve the outcome for his patients.

It was in 1790, as he was translating a medical document written by Cullen, that Hahnemann was struck by the contradictory properties attributed to cinchona. He then decided to experiment on himself with a measurable dose of this substance. This produced symptoms of intermittent fever, a type of fever similar to that observed in malaria, and for which cinchona has the effect of reducing.

He had just rediscovered the law of similars – first principle of homeopathy – set forth by Hippocrates, and he would develop this principle into a new therapeutic system. His motto would become “similia similibus curentur”: like cures like. A substance that causes a certain number of symptoms, when administered to a healthy subject, can cure these same symptoms in an ill subject. Experiments done on a healthy subject for different substances were compiled in the book, “Materia Medica Pura”.

At first, he continued to use measurable doses, while applying the law of similars. Then, because he was always trying to reduce the side effects of medicines and to improve the comfort of the patient, he began to progressively reduce the doses (to infinitesimal dilutions), and he observed that the results were more rapid and deeper. This is the second principle of homeopathy: the law of minimum dose.

A third principle on which homeopathy is based is succussion. This is a vigorous shaking (100 times) of the dilution, causing a release of the energy contained in each molecule, as they bang against each other. Thus, the higher the dilution, the more energy has been released, and the deeper the effect of the remedy. This is why low dilutions are used in complexes, as they are being used to treat mild infections. Highly diluted preparations, which are the most energized, are used particularly to treat more serious conditions or psychological problems, because they have a deeper effect. Hahnemann wrote: “Dynamization releases the quality and virtuality of a medicinal substance, by freeing these from the quantity.” Samuel Hahnemann: organon de l’art de guérir.

How Hahnemanian dilutions are made?

One part substance (mineral, vegetable, or animal) is added to 99 parts of solvent (water or alcohol), and by succussing this mixture (100 shakes each time) the solution 1CH (“Centésimale Hahnemannienne” in French, or centesimal dilution) is obtained. If this operation is repeated by taking one part 1CH solution and 99 parts of solvent, and successing, 2CH is obtained, and so forth, until the highest dilution used by Hahnemann, 30CH, is obtained.

The same system can be applied to decimal dilutions (DH, for “Décimale Hahnemannienne”), where one drop of substance is diluted in 9 drops of solvent, and succussed 100 times, to obtain the dilution 1D.

Beyond 12CH, Avogadro’s number has been exceeded, and there is no longer any detectable substance in the water from a chemical point of view. Nevertheless, through modern measurement methods (nuclear magnetic resonance) the ‘white hole,’ left in the absence of molecules from the original solution, can be quantified (this has been called water memory). It has been established that this is a remanent wave, for which the energy increases with the level of dilution (which Hahnemann intuited without being able to objectivize in his time).

Korsakovian Dilutions

In 1829, Simon Nicolaievitch von Korsakov, state councillor under Nicolas I, came up with the idea of using the single flask method of preparation. Though not a doctor, the councillor prepared homeopathic medicine for the tsar. He developed this method in order to reduce the number of flasks that would need to be brought to the country.

“During a series of trials conducted to define the degree of dilution where action ceases on the human organism, I quickly realized that to use one hundred-fold dilutions, it was necessary to have at one’s disposal an enormous quantity of flasks and corks. Hence, I wanted to find an easier and more economical procedure, and to this end, I came up with the idea of using the same glass several times. After emptying the contents of the glass (the first one hundred-fold dilution) so that there is only one drop left in the flask, new dilution liquid (99 drops) is added to the glass, and this is repeated until the desired degree of dilution is reached. Experience shows that a glass that has contained medicine in solution, even though rinsed, retains enough substance on the sides of the glass to fully impart medicinal properties to the next dilution.” APB (association pharmaceutique belge), compendium d’homéopathie, 1983.

Dilutions obtained in this way are called Korsakovian dilutions, or K, with the number in front indicating the number of dilutions (for example, 6K is the 6th Korsakovian dilution). Obviously, it is essential to shake the new mixture vigorously 100 times, at each new dilution.

Having consulted Hahnemann on his method, and once the “master” had given his approval, Korsakov developed it. The remarkable therapeutic results obtained by this method of dilution make it indispensable in our day.

In low dilutions, the Korsakovian method seems slightly more energizing than the Hahnemanian method, because of the single flask method. In fact, the energy bound in the surface tension force of liquids (which enables liquid to stay on the sides of a flask after it has been emptied) is added to the energy produced by the dynamization of the solution. That is why we prefer to use Korsakovian dilutions in preparing our Homeodel complexes.

The Preparation of Complexes

The homeopathic method uses remedies that cause specific effects resembling those of the illness it is treating (law of similars). The treatment is based on the specific reaction the organism has when sensitized by the medicine and through the illness. The body’s defence system responds rapidly, and it is the whole organism that causes its own healing.

For each ailment there is a corresponding remedy (law of similars). Using complexes that combine several remedies can therefore cover a greater number of ailments having the same symptoms (e.g. sore throat, cough, etc.). This is extremely helpful to patients who are not able to consult a homeopath, who would be able to determine the precise and unique treatment corresponding to their condition.

Homeopathy is a type of alternative medicine, just as are phytotherapy and energetic medicine, which includes acupuncture, osteopathy, etc. It acts to restore a person’s vital energy, through health promoting balance. It is through an imbalance of vital energy, caused at some point by a stimulus of some kind (grief, loss of employment, bereavement, etc.) that an illness can have access to the organism and cause harm.

Because of the way it is prepared, homeopathy has the advantage of causing no side effects. Therefore, it can be used by children and pregnant women, as well as adults, and is completely safe.

Homeopathy in the 21^st Century

Homeodel: a new way to reflect tradition.

Ever since the time of Hahnemann, Korsakov, Nebel, Pierre Schmidt, and others, it has been clear that the preparation of homeopathic remedies requires special care.

• The person dispensing homeopathic remedies must be involved at an ‘energetic’ level, and therefore be aware of his or her own inner equilibrium.
• Substances must be derived from the best possible sources, so that the vital energy of the plant is optimal.

It is of utmost importance to us that substances be derived from sources of the highest quality, so that we can be certain they contain all the potentialities we expect from them. Special care is given to plants, and they are grown organically to ensure they have the expected quantity and quality of active principles. In this way, preparation of remedies can be undertaken with the certainty that the living energy of the plant is optimal, and that its intrinsic properties will be expressed in the most harmonious way possible.

The method of preparation needs to be manual at the outset, so that the initial energetic imprint stays intact after the necessary technical sequences – for example, the use of a device to carry out the Korsakovian dilutions. This implies human supervision throughout the entire process of production, in accordance with the traditional method of preparing homeopathic remedies. While we certainly take advantage of technological advances to speed up the production process, we make sure that the foundation is solid. The first steps are manual, and thus preserve the intrinsic qualities and the initial energetic capacity of the original substances. Devices are used only for the purpose of amplifying the expression of potentialities more rapidly.

The preparation of these remedies requires meticulous care throughout the process, as we have no organoleptic control (odour or colour) in case of error. At this time, there is the possibility of ‘energetic’ quality control, because of the work of Professor Lasne and his team on the theory of high dilutions, which has succeeded in measuring energy released by a remedy through nuclear magnetic resonance. Furthermore, since the preparation of remedies is done with material that can undergo passivation (erasing of the energy imprint of a remedy by heating the substance to 120 C), we are assured that one remedy will not contaminate another.

Once the dilutions and succussions are done, we can then produce the different galenic types of remedies, such as granules, globules (unit-dose tubes), single remedy or complex drops, and homeopathic treatments, taking great care in this last step, as well.

Our philosophy, “a new way to reflect tradition”, represents our efforts to bring together Hahnemann’s criteria for effective remedies and modern preparation methods available to us that meet the present-day quality standards expected by our customers. In other words, our mission is to harmonize the Organon of Medicine—the bible of homeopathy—and present-day pharmacopeias (American, German, and French) that, in fact, are largely derived from this work.

Remedies prepared “secundum artem”—according to the rules of art!—made accessible to people and animals, for the well-being of all. This is our vision and ambition!