A few weeks ago I had a minor miracle with homeopathy, which is now the third time this has happened. The second involved the rejuvenation of a stray cat with a terrible dental abscess, based on the advice of this article. What started it this time was burning my hand pretty severely in the kitchen, an event that's not too infrequent as I tend to be a bit impulsive around boiling liquids. Usually I just get a blister or small discoloration and that's that--end of story. This time the pain was so severe that I was unable to sleep despite having an early morning class the next day. The last time I burned myself that severely it removed all the skin from the back of my hand. That was over three years ago and I still have a scar across that entire area. So when it happened a few weeks ago I was convinced that the same thing would happen again and I would be unable to use my hand for the next week. The pain was excruciating and elevation combined with ice packs seemed to be doing virtually nothing. I had just ordered a high potency homeopathic remedy kit and decided to give that a try instead. Searching for the correct remedy can be a very time consuming process because, in any given situation, classical homeopathy dictates that only one remedy is given.
Since I had 300 remedies and was really suffering, I decided to just take whichever ones were indicated for burns. I found a list online of about 7 burn remedies and took them all in rapid succession. It did nothing. I began to despair, thinking I had just wasted a large sum of money on a placebo, not to mention hundreds of hours of research over results that may have all been in my head. My hand kept throbbing until 3:30 when I decided to try again, thinking that maybe there was a remedy I had missed. Poring over the homeopathy sites, I discovered that Causticum was another remedy useful for burns. So I took it, despite the fact that it is only a rarely used remedy, and was asleep within 20 minutes. The next morning it was like nothing had even happened. There was a tiny bit of redness, but the pain was so insignificant that I wouldn't have even noticed it if I didn't already know it was there. This is definitely not normal for me as I have slept peacefully many times after receiving burns that left blisters and pain for days afterwards. The absence of pain was really quite shocking.
So this led me to do some thinking about an article featured prominently in google's homeopathy search results, entitled "Homeopathy: The Ultimate Fake". The article is based on a scientific study in which homeopathic remedies were examined under a microscope only to demonstrate that no molecules of the original substance could be found in the sample. Homeopathic remedies are prepared with the idea that infinitesimal quantities of a substance will produce a better result than larger portions. The apparent molecular absence led researchers to conclude that homeopathy is obviously a fake, since there could be no causal link between the patient's beneficial results and a chemical reaction based on metabolism of the remedy. So my quandry is how exactly my somewhat miraculous homeopathic healing came about in absence of any biochemical origins. I can propose two explanations, one being that the particles in question are too small to be perceived through microscopic analaysis, and the other quite a bit less scientific. Homeopathic philosophy is based on the premise that disease is the result of a phantasm, a spirit that can follow a person from lifetime to lifetime. Although some of the modern homeopathic literature I've read has attempted to explain the phantasm as a function of genetics, it was amusing to discover that HP Lovecraft's writings portray phantasms as disincarnate entities who eat people. Clearly they wanted to sweep that one under the rug before it got discovered by the inquisitorial medical industry. So it seems likely that the empirical effects of homeopathy are derived from expunging a parasitical attachment from the soul of the patient, quite literally rendering a holistic practice into a form of exorcism. This makes a lot of sense to me because many of the symptoms listed under remedy profiles include quite detailed descriptions of "hallucinations", including little hairy brown creatures, skeletal apparitions, furniture transforming into people, etc.
So after my burn healed I googled "homeopathy spiritual discipline" and discovered that homeopathy is traditionally considered to be a faith-based science, although modern interpretations of the repertories have obscured that aspect somewhat. Researching homeopathy's founder, Samuel Hahnemann, revealed that he was heavily influenced by Emmanuel Swedenborg, a scientist, theologian, philosopher and inventor who became a Christian mystic in his later years. Swedenborg was accused of heresy because of his rejection of the Catholic concept of an eternal hell. His initiation into mysticism happened when he had a series of visions in which he communicated with angels, demons and other spirits, believing himself to have travelled through heaven, hell and purgatory. Based on his visions, Swedenborg proclaimed that the Church had lost its true identity as an institution based on charity and compassion. He saw God as an expression of love and mercy instead of judgement and condemnation. Swedenborg also rejected the idea that salvation from the material world could be accomplished through faith alone, stating that the combination of faith and charity were necessary to produce revelation.
In light of these insights into the mindset of homeopathy's founder, I have come to a much deeper respect for the discipline. It is actually quite humbling to be the conduit for a modality that is a directed expression of the vital force, as homeopathy is traditionally considered. My research into classical homeopathic philosophy is really just beginning at this point, so hopefully there isn't too much misinterpretation in this post.
