What makes homeopathy different than other “alternative” or “natural” health modalities?

Doesn’t homeopathy refer to those things? Aren’t all “natural” therapies the same?

How is homeopathy different than herbs, or acupuncture, or even naturopathy?  To much surprise, the differences are plenty.

This will be a two-part article.  The second article will go into more detail into the various other “alternative” therapies and how they differ from homeopathy.  In this article, I’ll explain the primary parts of what makes homeopathy so unique from other “natural” or “alternative” healing modalities.  For this articles purposes, the words “natural” or “alternative” will be used interchangeably.

At the outset, each “natural” therapy has its own origins of development.  For a more comprehensive article on the history of homeopathy, its origins, and why it isn’t as widely practiced today as it once was, please visit one of my past blogs on this topic.

First, I’d like to mention the similarities between homeopathy and other alternative or natural modalities.  At Austin Clinic of Homeopathy, like all truly natural therapies, we seek to stimulate the innate healing power of the individual so that all physiological systems function at their best.  

Whatever does this mean?  What is this innate healing power?  Aren’t we just the sum of our physical parts made up of organ systems, cells, molecules, and atoms?

Yes, that certainly is true.  No one can deny the reality of our physical nature.  But, is that all there is?  What organizes the physical parts and structures to do what they do?  What intelligence is orchestrating our physical parts to function in healthy or unhealthy ways?  

Each “natural” therapy may have their own explanation for this.  And I’ll elaborate further on each of these in the next article.  But, the key similarity is that the innate healing power of the individual is not of a physical origin.  It is sub-physical.  It transcends the physicality of our bodies!

Sounds too hard to believe, right?  Too hocus-pocus?  Many people think and feel this way.  It is the source of many non-believers to the healing powers of homeopathy.  

I ask you, though, how do you prove you love someone?  Can you put love in a box (although some gifts in boxes symbolize this love)?  But, you can’t physically measure your love.  There’s no scientific instrument to do that, and probably never will.  Yes, we can absolutely measure what happens to our physical bodies when we experience love, but we can never actually measure love itself.  It retains no physical properties.  Yet, we all know it and recognize it in the face of a friend or relative.

In homeopathy we call this innate healing power of the individual the Vital Force.  Austin Clinic of Homeopathy operates from a vitalistic perspective, not a materialistic perspective concerned only with physical matter.  The vital force of the body is the non-physical, inanimate healing intelligence of the body.  Disease is considered a mistunement of the vital force that manifests as physical symptoms and dysfunctions in the bio-physical systems of the human body.    

In simpler English: problems with certain parts of our body are not the cause of the illness itself.  Organic disease does not originate from a physical place.  One of the few exceptions to this is disease that occurs as a result from a physical injury or trauma.  But, organic malfunctions of our body do not arise from physical origins.  It follows then that treatment should thus not originate from a purely physical source either.

The central tenet of homeopathy is based on the “law of similars.”  This is also referred to as the principle of “like treats like.”  A homeopathic remedy is chosen that is capable of causing, in a healthy person, symptoms similar to those of the sick person.  This is a principle of healing that goes back to the time of Hippocrates.  It’s not always the easiest to understand, but is absolutely scientific in its premise.  As a principle, it can be replicated time and time again.  It will never fail.  

This all happens in a vitalistic, non-physical way.  This is what distinguishes Austin Clinic of Homeopathy from other “natural” or “alternative” healing practices and this is what makes homeopathy so unique!

Austin Clinic of Homeopathy is dedicated to providing you superior care for your health and wellness needs.  Should you have any further questions or would like to begin your own homeopathic healing, please contact us here.

What do symptoms have to do with healing?  Aren’t you busy enough that they’re just simply in the way?

There are many businesses and industries that would have you believe this.  They make a lot of money from offering you drugs that suppress or mask your symptoms for the sake of not inconveniencing your life.  You can carry on and just take that pill, or pills, and continue on...until you need another pill to deal with the side effects from those pills.  So long as the drugs and symptoms don’t interfere with the convenience of your life, it continues on and on, with more and more drugs being added.

Yet, your symptoms are your body’s natural feedback loop that tell you something is wrong in the body.  The symptoms are not the problem.  We need to look deeper than that for true healing.

Your body has a natural healing ability.  Take, for example, a cut on your finger.  Over time, it will heal itself.  There is relatively little you need to do to help it.  Such a healing intelligence not only occurs on the physical level, but also on the mental and emotional levels of who we are, as well.  This natural tendency of the body/mind/emotions to heal is referred to, in homeopathy, as the Vital Force.

The Vital Force is a non-physical, in-animate, healing intelligence.  So far, modern science has yet to measure where or how it works.  Much of the scrutiny homeopathy receives resides in this feature.  I don’t get too hung up on that, though.  Can scientific instruments measure how much you love something or someone?  Physical instruments can measure what physical parts of the brain are involved when someone loves, but the experience itself cannot be quantified or measured.  Such mysteries open up our minds and our hearts to the workings of the universe that cannot be explained, yet remain completely relevant to our life.

In homeopathy, disease originates as a mis-tunement of the Vital Force.  This is in energetic terms, not in biochemical pathways or physiological processes.  Such an energetic disturbance manifests its effects as the physiological/biochemical symptoms that we all experience.  The symptoms can be mental or emotional or physical, or more commonly - all at the same time.  More specifically, this is when we have allergies, or cultivate addictions, or have chronic physical pains, or feel emotionally unstable or depressed, etc.

Because disease originates pre-physically, our symptoms are meant to be worked with, rather than against.  Suppressing them or masking them only makes the Vital Force express the mis-tunement in a different way.  This is one reason why drugs have so many side effects.  Not only is the drug toxic and thus creates several adverse reactions in the body, but it also prevents the Vital Force from expressing the natural disease of the individual.  The mis-tunement of the Vital Force has to go somewhere.  Typically, the natural, pre-physical disease of the person worsens as a result of suppressed symptoms.  Perhaps this could be one of the reasons why, despite great advances in technology, our state of health has declined, new deadly viruses continue to spring up, and cancer rates have increased.

To summarize, in our culture we’ve been miseducated about the role of symptoms. Rather than suppress them, they are meant to be worked with.  Symptoms are the end result of an inner, energetic mis-tunement of the Vital Force. When we understand the true nature of symptoms, we can better rely upon methods of healing, like homeopathy, that honor them and seek to strengthen the Vital Force’s ability to help heal ourselves.

In my practice, I’m ready to work with you and your unique, individual totality of symptoms.  No matter your disease, condition, or illness, homeopathy can help you.  Contact me today to get started.

In great health and healing,

Noel