The well known aphorism of homoeopathy " similia Similibus Curentur" which can be
explained as: the same substance which can produce the specific symptoms in a healthy individual, may cure the patient of
a disease producing identical or similar symptoms. The correct remedy should resonate with the illness (in a biological sense).
Health, to the homeopath, is a state
of harmony between the parts of the body and also between the person as a whole and the Cosmos. In
health. the as yet unexplained life force in each person is vigorous. It
is usually spoken of as the vital force, which in disease is the true curative mechanism. The object of giving the similar
remedy is to stimulate the vital force. The object of hygiene and mechanical intervention is to clear its path of obstruction,
for the vital force to act. No remedy can cure disease; as such it can only, at best, help the vital force to regain proper
function. The keenly intuitive , brilliantly logical and scientific mind of
Hahnemann perceives the study of diseases in unmistakable terms that disease is not a fixed entity
but an ever changing process like that of life itself. Disease is an abstraction of our mental concepts by collating
the presenting signs and symptoms; the factual reality is the diseased person. It is our mind which, for the purpose of practical convenience, has separated
the disorder from the diseased person and given these concepts general names but in fact the educated mind attempts to
separate what is inseparable.
Barthez conceived the presence of the Vital Force in every part of the body, but unable to
work separately. He maintained that diseases are affections of this Vital Force. R'eit (1800), a contemporary of Barthez,
hypothesized that this Vital Force is inherent in matter and inseparable from it. The doctrine of the Vital Force of Hahnemann
maintains that disease is a morbid affection of this force. This force gives animation to the body and mind, and this animation
is weakened during illness.
The first edition of the Organon of Medicine was published in 1810.There was no mention of this
force and its derangement, nor is it mentioned in the three subsequent editions, which followed it.In 1833, in the last (fifth)
edition of this work publishedin his life time. the Doctrine of the Vital Force is enunciated.Again, in the fourth volume
of the first edition of Chronic Disease published in 1830, there is the statement, ,,with the existence of the
never resting, preservative Vital Force in our organism, a speedy and complete cure occurs". The question today is, what led
Hahnemann to this conclusion that health and diseases are merely two different states of this Vital Force. If there was
no doctrine of Vital Force, his individualisation of patients, drug dynamisation and infinitesimals would have been hard to
explain and would seem illogical. The Doctrine of Vital Force was positively the outcome of his approach to the individuality
of the patient and the specific remedy.
Vital Force as defined by Hahnemann, is the spirit-like
dynamic power of life. It is this Life Force which maintains life in living beings.The person is capable of self
protection because of this Vital Force. Unceasingly, we are exposed to a millenia of pathological forces, but we do not
constantly fall ill because the Vital Force is continually affording protection against these morbific forces.
This is the Life Force which is deranged first by morbid forces. The Life Force overcomes
the disease forces eventually. Either due to the long continued exposure or due to the greater strength of the devitalizing
forces, the Vital Force may be deranged. It starts producing abnormal signs and symptoms, which indicate its disharmony due
to the disease. The normal functions of the body are changed.The body start behaving abnormally.The sensations of various
kinds are felt.The power of self-protection is diminished and the body becomes subject to many sufferings.The normal co-ordination
between the mind and the body is altered and the parts or organs become dysfunctional. The Vital Force is a dynamic
power, hence it can be only affected by other dynamic forces.The dysfunction of the Vital Force can be cured only by the dynamic
power of medicine. No cure is possible by crude drugs.Hahnemann's theories were evolved from clinical observations, moulded
with practical experience. His reasons were based on practical considerations. Metaphysics had no fascination for him. Nevertheless,
he was forced to postulate the concept of life principle, which he probably tried to avoid in the first four editions of his
work. His opponents consider his Doctrine of Vital Force to be the most controversial point in the homoeopathic system of
medicine.To deny a Vital Force seemed to Hahnemann, like being unable to distinguish between a cadaver and a living body:-
"As to the bow the cord is, So to the body is the Vital Force." -Long Fellow.
In the- Sixth edition Hahnemann changed the term to Vital Energy, probably to keep it in line with
the Oriental concepts of Qi, and Prana; with which he was totally familiar.
Hahnemann placed the strongest emphasis on individuality and on individualising
in disease. Each person suffers, according to him, from nameless illness, which never before occured in the same manner, in
the same person, under the same circumstances, and which can never again occur in exactly the same manner. Hahnemann
further maintains that, no true cure can take place without a rigid personal treatment (individualisation) of each case. The
keenly intuitive , brilliantly logical and scientific mind of Hahnemann perceives the study of diseases in unmistakable terms
that disease is not a fixed entity but an ever changing process like that of life itself. Disease is an abstraction
made by our mental concepts by collating the presenting signs and symptoms; the factual reality is the diseased person. It is our mind which, for the purpose of practical convenience,
has separated the disorder from the diseased person and has given these concepts general names but in fact the educated mind
attempts to separate what is inseparable.
Man must be regarded as greater than the sum of his parts; a whole human being in health and disease and his reactions to
his environment cannot be overlooked. As the twentieth century advanced, the torrent of scientific discovery rushed on impetuously, that it all but engulfed the humanism of medicine. In
the pursuit of knowledge, man was fragmented and his organs, tissues, cells and secretions subjected to intensive study using
the Cartesian-Newtonian paradigm of scientific methodology. Unless basic medical thought be directed to the study of the whole
man in relation to his external and internal milieu, it will be misconceived in aim, structure and balance.
Hippocrates, the father of Western Medicine, had written that, "The nature of the human body
can only be understood as a whole". But this received scant attention till Hahnemann discovered the therapeutic Law of Homoeopathy
and the provings on healthy humans, thus enabling consideration of man's emotions, his mind and his body as a single inter-reacting
unity. Hahnemann's greatest contribution may be that he made it possible by his unique method of human provings (self-experimentation),
to fully apply the srmilia principle. This was conceived in Ayurveda, as also by Hippocrates, and fairly forcefully expressed
by Paracelsus and suggested by Avicenna and Galen. However, no one elaborated and systematised and used it as a governing
principle in prescribing until Hahnemann did so. The main infrastructure that others lacked to establish this methodology
was the provings. Hahnemann also occupies a special
place as one of those who carried out human experiments on himself, his family, friends and students. A few names stand out
before him who did self-experimentation to find out the properties of drugs.Shen Nung in China (circa 2500 B.C.) may be the
first. It is also said that Paracelsus preferred to prescribe medicines that he had tried on himself.
The modern medical world has, in many ways, accepted Hahnemann's
Similia, Simplex and even Minimum. Nowhere, is this more apparent than in the practice of modern immunology and vaccine therapy.
At the tomb in the special Cemeterie du Pere Lachaise in Paris, there could
not have been a more appropriate epitaph; "Non inutilis Vixi " (not lived in vain).
From
my tutorial scrapebook in Clinical Homeopathy
Stefanatos ( 1997 , 228 )tells us that the " electromagnetic fields
(EMF) emanating from bacteria,viruses and toxic substances affect the cells of the body and weaken its constitution."
So vitalforce is identified quite explicitly with electromagnetic fields and said to be the cause of disease. But somehow
the life energies of the body are balanced by bioenergetic therapies." No antibiotic or drug, no matter how powerful, will
save an animal or human being if the vital force of healing is suppressed or lacking" ( Stefanatos 1997,229 ). So health
or sickness is determined by who wins the battle between Good and Bad electromagnetic waves in the body."
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