This book review is reprinted from Volume 20, Winter 2007 Edition, with permission from Homeopathic Links.
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Autopathy: A Homeopathic Journey to Harmony
Healing and Self-Healing with Water and Saliva
By Jiri Cehovsky
2nd revised edition 2006, translated by Wm. T. McEnchroe, edited by N. Churchill,
5.5 x 8.5", 172 pages,
ISBN: 80-86936-03-1, www.autopathy.info
Reviewed by Jay Yasgur. R.Ph., M.5c., USA
In this short book consisting of three parts (origins, autopathy, and case histories), Czech homeopath, Jiri Cehov5ky (born 1947) presents his argument for autopathy, which, he rightly notes, is not homeopathy.
"Autopathy should not be a substitute for homeopathy or other alternative or conventional and specialised methods of treatment. It should be a further contribution, another approach to holistic healing, offering new and - my experience permits me to say - as yet unimagined opportunities. It stems from an understanding that is shared by certain religious systems, one of which is Buddhism: that everyone carries their cure within themselves" (p. 7).
Autopathy is a similia therapy which employs a potentized remedy made from a bodily fluid of the individual (patient) - in this case - saliva, which the author justifies on the grounds that it is a substance closest to the upper, more spiritual, chakras. This way the auto-remedy not only cures the pathology but harmonises ("improvement in the higher spiritual sphere") the soul energies. For a comparison see Peter van 005terum's "Tears: A Key to a Remedy" (1997).
Cehovsky, who has integrated autopathy into his 2S years of classical homeopathy experience, outlines his methodology in Part II. Here he describes how to make the fluxion remedies using his Autopathic Bottle. He also recommends five different potency levels (40C, 80C, 120C, 200C, and> 200C) based primarily on patient vitality. The most common potency he uses is the 200C.
"It is always useful to point out that autopathy is not a therapy in the sense of materialistic science, nor does it claim the reduction or elimination of illness as its primary goal. The preparation solely and exclusively operates on a person's spiritual sphere, which in some terminologies is called the soul, in others the fine-matter body, elsewhere the dynamis or astral body and so on. It acts in a sphere which, from a social point of view, does not fall under the terms of 'health care' but spirituality, faith in higher principles superior to the material and mundane sensory dimension of our existence. The preparation acts in that sphere in each of us through which, according to Swedenborg, we touch heaven. It doesn't directly affect the physical body or the psyche. All positive changes in a person's health and psychological state, all healing, is the harmonising consequence of the improved influence of this spiritual, higher frequency sphere on the whole of our personality.
Autopathy is able to positively influence an individual's karmic disposition. Autopathy also only acts to the extent that the individual's karmic disposition allows. The approach to this method is also dependent on karma. If someone finds this philosophy not to be right for him, then he should seek other forms of therapy. His karma will anyway make that decision for him" (p.12S).
Cehovsky has done a credible job in bringing new light to a methodology which we all have no doubt pondered using. While this book contains no index and no reference citings - it does contain a two page bibliography - these minor points should not detract from the worth of this small volume.
The book is well laid out and the author's writing style is very clear.