Leading Voices in Homeopathy

[Rudi and Patty]

Heilkunst, Precisely
by Rudi Verspoor DMH, HD(RHom.)

''Heilkunst'' is the term used by the German medical reformer, Dr.Samuel Friedrich Hahnemann (1755-1843) for his radical revision of the prevailing system of medicine. "Heilkunst" is a German word meaning essentially "the art of making whole". The term "homeopathy," also coined by Hahnemann, is often used, mistakenly, to refer to Hahnemann's complete system of medicine as set out in his various writings: the Organon of Heilkunst (Organon der Heilkunst), the Chronic Diseases (Chronische Krankheiten) and a collection of articles, misleadingly titled in English, The Lesser Writings (Gesammelte kleine Schriften). While homeopathy refers to the use of medicines against a disease using the natural law of similars, Hahnemann's complete system as set out in his extended Organon of Heilkunst covers the law of opposites and all the various aspects that fall under that law - diet, nutrition, lifestyle, energy work, psychotherapy, even antipathic medicine (such as anti-inflammatories).
 
The radical nature of Heilkunst lies essentially in the following aspects:
•  its explicit recognition, for the first time in medicine, of the polar nature of that living principle (''Lebensprincip'') or what he later termed the Dynamis (a generative and sustentive side - see below);
•  the dynamic or energetic nature of disease (as opposed to the prevailing material or mystical views); and
•  the use of medicines on the basis of their dynamic or energetic, not simply biochemical, effect.
 
Hahnemann, unlike any medical practitioner before him, also made a fundamental distinction between "disease," a dynamic impingement of the "generative" side of the Living Principle or "Dynamis," and "imbalance," a disturbance of the "sustentive" power (what traditionally was termed the ''vis medicatrix naturae'' or inner healer). 

He further provided a clear distinction between the initial action (''Erstwirkung'') of the disease agent, which involves an almost imperceptible impingement of the generative power (''Erzeugungskraft'') of the Living Principle, and the counteraction (''Gegenwirkung, Nachwirkung'') of the sustentive side (''Erhaltungskraft''), which produces the various symptoms we associate with disease, but which is really the effort of the Living Principle or Dynamis to rid the human organism of disease. The cure of disease involves the use of a medicinal agent (artificial disease) according to the law of similar resonance, and there were various levels of similitude identified by Hahnemann (homeo, homo, iso) according to the nature of the disease agent. 

Heilkunst also includes the use of the law of opposites, which involves the healing function of the sustentive power in such realms as diet, nutrition, lifestyle, energy work, psychotherapy, drainage and detoxification, all of which are contained in one form or another in the above-noted works. From this we find a clear distinction between the act of "curing" (destruction of the disease itself), which is what the therapeutic agent accomplishes through its power to affect the generative power wherein is lodged the disease, according to the natural law of resonance (similar or opposite), and "healing," which is what is accomplished by the sustentive power reacting to this artificial disease agent (medicine), and which can be supported where there are imbalances in energy flow, nutrients, blockages, etc.
 
This piece is continued at:
http://enc.slider.com/Enc/Heilkunst
_________________
Hahnemann College for Heilkunst
2411 River Road
Manotick ON K4M 1B4
Canada

www.homeopathy.com info@homeopathy.com

www.heilkunst.com info@heilkunst.com

phone: 613-692-1700

[DrWilson]

Dr. Verspoor, I have been learning about homeopathy for over thirty years and it is refreshing to see the way various teachers approach introducing students to what I describe as A New Understanding of the Natural World. I have been contacted by many students of homeopathy and am impressed with their eagerness to learn what seem to be new truths; I also have witnessed their frustration about the lack of uniformity among teachers and authors who describe homeopathy and the ways it can lead to major changes in the health and life experience of people. What is your advice to people who want to have a concise description of homeopathy and its place in the efforts to help people live healthier lives?

[Rudi and Patty]

Dear Dr. Wilson,

Your question is indeed an important and timely one. The situation you describe from your experience is exactly the problem we face - the enthusiasm of students for the deep truths and insights in the works of Dr. Hahnemann, which are part of a much larger stream in human consciousness, and at the same time the prevailing confusion and seeming contradiction in the teachings of his works.

This problem reflects the deeper, more objective problem that we face, namely that the teaching of Dr. Hahnemann's insights and genius is at that early stage in all science where the understanding is confused and the advancement to a more mature and effective is hampered by a lack of a common terminology or precision about the terms that are used. We have only to take the term "homeopathy" itself as a pertinent example.

The term is first used generally to refer to anything even remotely connected to what Dr. Hahnemann wrote, leading to endless arguments as to whether something is "homeopathic" or not, such as the use of tissue salts, or giving sarcodes, such as thyroidinum to treat the thyroid gland, or Morbillinum to treat cases of measles, not to mention to prevent it, and giving a patient Lac caninum because they had a dream about being treated like a dog. Further, the giving of advice about nutrition and supplements, as well as general counseling is also considered to be part of homeopathy.

The term is also used to refer more precisely to the giving of a substance to a patient based on the law of similars, and with reference to provings as collected in the Materia Medica. Anything that involves the giving of a remedy that is not explicitly based on the symptoms of the patient is not considered as coming within the purview of homeopathy.

We will never have any clarity about homeopathy until we have clarity in our terms. That is the basis for communication and the advancement of learning. That is the basis for any true science. We could say that the study of the treasures bequeathed by the genius of Dr. Hahnemann - as well as of all the other thinkers connected to him in time and spirit - has not yet come of age. It is hampered by a lack of understanding of the context within which Hahnemann's ideas must be studied, and by a lack of precise terminology.

Thus, to be precise, homeopathy, based on Hahnemann's intent in creating this term, refers only to the prescribing of a medicine that produces symptoms in a healthy person (proving) similar to the symptom pattern in a patient. Nothing else can be considered to come within the purview of this term. This then leads us to the challenge of dealing with all the other things that Dr. Hahnemann talks about. What are we to call his system of medicine that includes much more than homeopathy - he refers to diet, nutrition, psychotherapy, mesmerism (energy work), prophylaxis, treatment based on cause, etc.? Well, he gives us a term - Heilkunst. He called his fundamental work, Organon der Heilkunst. Now, the term Heilkunst is often translated as the banal "system of medicine" or "rational medicine" but Heilkunst is a living term, much like homeopathy, and should be used as such. This allows us to use a precise term for Hahnemann's complete medical system, thus avoiding confusion.

Another example would be the issue of remedy versus medicine. The one is very general, that is, anything that remedies a problem, but the problem might be an imbalance in vitamins or hormones, versus a disease. Medicines are more prescisely for disease, remedies being perhaps better used for things that restore imbalances. And then we see that we need to distinguish between disease and imbalances, as they are not the same; though all disease can imbalance, not all imbalances are disease. And so it goes. Without the work needed to be precise in our terms, which requires that we first of all be precise in our understanding of Hahnemann's works - all of them - we will never attain to the clarity that students seek and our patients need. Homeopathy, to use that overworked term, has become a tower of Babel.

However, Heilkunst has the ability to provide that clarity of comprehension and common understanding that is needed if the genius of Dr. Hahnemann is to fully be realized to the benefit of a suffering humanity. Within Heilkunst, we can then place homeopathy within its proper jurisdiction - the application of a medicine to cure a disease in a patient based on a matching of the symptoms of the disease to the similar disease image produced by the medicine when given to healthy persons (provings). This then frees us up to categorize, as did Hahnemann, the other forms of use of the law of similars: based on cause, such as Arnica for contusion disease, Opium for fear; or based on a resonance with the disease agent, such as the isode Cortisone for the iatrogenic cortisone disease, or the isode MMR for the iatrogenic MMR vaccination disease, or the nosode Psorinum for the chronic miasm, psora; or the similarity of condition or state rather than disease, as in the use of sarcodes in organotherapy, which was prefigured in Hahnemann's writings.

The correct understanding of homeopathy and Heilkunst frees the mind to then develop all the different ways that Hahnemann provides for the application of the law of opposites (diet, exercise, psychotherapy, etc,), as well as for the understanding he gave of the two fundamental types of disease - the primary or tonic disease, which is constant in nature and has only one curative medicine, such as Psorinum for psora, and the secondary or pathic disease which is derived from the primary, which is variable in nature and can only be determined from the symptom manifestation, which is termed homeopathic prescribing, such as all the medicines for all the possible psoric diseases, the anti-psorics.

One could go on and on, of course in this productive way, but much of the work has already been done in the work, The Dynamic Legacy: from Homeopathy to Heilkunst, available through Minimum Price.

Thus, to answer your question, homeopathy as strictly defined is only for the treatment of secondary, pathic diseases, and cannot be used to treat the deeper, primary diseases spoken of by Dr. Hahnemann. Heilkunst, which is the complete system of medicine founded by Hahnemann, and which includes homeopathy, is able to get at these deeper diseases and also contains principles for the application of regimenal (diet, nutrition, etc.) measures, such as saunas as asked in a previous question.

Rudi Verspoor
_________________
Hahnemann College for Heilkunst
2411 River Road
Manotick ON K4M 1B4
Canada

www.homeopathy.com info@homeopathy.com

www.heilkunst.com info@heilkunst.com

phone: 613-692-1700

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