This book review is reprinted from the British Homoeopathic Journal Volume 82, Number 4, October 1993, with permission from Peter Fisher, Editor.
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A New Model of Health and Disease.
George Vithoulkas.
Paperback original.
9.95 pounds. [Editor's note: As of August 1996 Minimum Price Books' price is $12.95]
ISBN 1-55643-087-6.
Published by North Atlantic Books (USA).
Distributed exclusively in Great Britain by Airlift Book company.

As the author says, this book is written (after 28 years of mature reflection and experience of treating over 150,000 homoeopathic cases), to show that the paradigm of conventional medicine has not only failed to prevent or cure disease, but is actually responsible for a worldwide degeneration of health due to the excessive use of powerful chemical drugs. Vithoulkas aims to show, by enumerating the natural laws which govern the phenomena of health and disease, that a new paradigm of therapeutic modalities does exist but is suppressed or neglected by present day medical authorities. He points out that the basis of medical research and therapeutic application has been disastrous for the health of mankind because researchers have ignored the 'eternal truths' that underlie the true principles of medicine and health.

Vithoulkas draws on the life expectancy statistics of industrialized and developing countries to show that the most expensive and best medical care not only does not confer a longer life but is responsible for a reduced quality of life in those with serious diseases on suppressive drug treatment. Indeed, he asserts that if we could measure the quality of health where drugs are most used, we would change our medical system immediately.

The author relates drug overuse with the inability of our immune systems to prevent the appearance of alarming new diseases. Antibiotic misuse is linked to immune disability which has allowed the rise of micro-organism mutations, chronic systemic symptomatology due to fungal overgrowth and the appearance of newer, more virulent strains leading to the rise of AIDS. He quotes Rene Dubos: 'The age of affluence, technological marvels, and medical miracles is paradoxically the age of chronic ailments, of anxiety, and even of despair.' The worldwide pattern of suicide statistics are quoted to bear this out. Medical research at the core of allopathic medicine, by trying to find chemical and biological agents to eliminate the pathological agent, is based on a wrong question-the real question is why does the organism allow a disease state to occur in the first place, and how can we best support the body's natural defences to rid itself of disease? Is there another way?

Attempting to answer this question, Vithoulkas introduces the energy complex of the body on three planes-the mental-spiritual, emotional-psychic, and the physical-material, which exist in congruent hierarchical relationship. (He makes the point that because scientists have to ignore individualized reactions in drug trials, it is precisely these mental and emotional areas which suffer most where drugs are used in a suppressive way). Health is defined as freedom from pain in the physical body, a state of well-being; freedom from passion on the emotional plane resulting in a dynamic state of serenity and calm; and freedom from selfishness in the mental sphere, having as a result total unification with the truth, which last may only be achieved by conscious effort. The measure of health is the degree to which an individual is free to be creative.

The author then relates the individual energies to the universal, and speaks of the levels of dissociation, the nature and cause of disease, the organism's defence system and the directions of disorder or cure. He concludes by hypothesizing about the upsurge of AIDS as a syndrome of a greater pattern-the relentless progression of complex chronic diseases due to the destruction of the 'inner ecology' of the human organism.

This book is well researched, with an impressive back-up of statistics, quotations from relevant medical sources and good diagrams. Whether or not one agrees with all his conclusions, it is a book that profoundly challenges complacency and stimulates deep reflection on where modern medicine is heading. It must be of welcome interest to all homoeopaths and other professionals whose work is based on energetic modes of healing in its truest sense. I recommend it as a thought- provoking, alarming and inspiring book. The sense of urgency it communicates is a reflection of the spiritual crisis the author foretells if we fail to change our approach. Read it, and reflect upon the old Chinese proverb 'If we don't change our direction, we are sure to end up in the direction where we are headed.'

ALICE GREENE

British Homoeopathic Journal
Volume 82, Number 4, October 1993