This book review is reprinted from The Homoeopath with permission from Nick Churchill of The Society of Homoeopaths.
HOMOEOPATHY AND HUMAN EVOLUTION
by Martin Miles
Paperback, 171 pages
Reviewed by Peter Chappell
Preamble
Oh God, the Gods have done it again. They have dealt me an unexpected card, a body blow. It took a week to seep through my thick skin. It started when I met the old Chief Druid's 'partner' at the Jayesh Shah seminar. An unexpected surprise, and a chance to chat with an old friend. Then I saw it. Martin Miles' first book. I had told myself not to buy any books before I went out as it is a problem I have. But Martin and I spent seven years in the Druids studying esoteric stuff and incidentally, as it then seemed, homoeopathy. Chief Druid Thomas Lackenby Maughan was our 'guru', mentor, and for me the first 'real man' I had ever met. All previous versions paled by comparison, and most still do.
So I bought this book and started to read it. I was appalled and horror struck. It seemed so awful. So I laughed to myself, at least I will not even consider reviewing this book out of kindness to Martin. Then the Gods intervened. Unknown to me Francis Treuherz, appreciating the difficulty in reviewing this book having scanned it himself conspired with the Gods. Wanting to get the book reviewed by a sympathetic ear, he asked Martin if he would agree to me reviewing it. Because I understood all the history, knew Martin, the Druids, 'Druid-speak', etc. Martin, God bless his soul, agreed.
I was exceedingly busy at the time with more mind activity than I could cope with, over twelve projects on the drawing board or in execution and the last thing I wanted was more I mind' work. What I needed was to hang out, be physical, anything but stare at that damn word processor screen any more.
Initially then, I briefly rebuffed the idea, then I relented seeing the logic, then I gradually began to work on it in my mind and dreaming times. The book seemed less worse on second look than I thought. Then I looked at the old 'stuff that it brought up in me. And slowly the penny dropped. I was being asked to overhaul the homoeopathic beliefs I had taken on board from the Druids, and Thomas Maughan in particular. To review those crucial seven years on my life when I re-awakened. (Actually I was not asleep, all my life I was wondering who the hell designed this lot (this life on this planet), who wrote the bleeding script, and where was his front door? Thomas Maughan was the front door for me, though there was one door before and many since.)
This book reopens a few dusty cupboard doors in my inner house, and a few of these are also intimately bound up with the formation processes behind this Society and homoeopathy as now practised in the UK, so this book review is going to wander a bit yet remain, I hope, focused on the job in hand.
Martin Miles
Martin Miles RSHom, is a very committed homoeopath. Not for him the limelight, but more the steady progress of walking one path resolutely with conviction for around twenty years.
Compared to my meandering around the many ways within homoeopathy, my fanaticism pales. Martin has taught a class on homoeopathy for at least fifteen years and from it have come many homoeopaths and students. He inspires people with his insights and convictions and the book is full of them. His assertive comments abound in this book and here is a typical one about vaccination 'the spark of life, the light of the spirit is dimmed in a child who has been immunized'.
This book is interesting reading on several counts: Druids, because of their influences on the Society; Druid philosophical strengths and weaknesses that have impinged on homoeopathy and fill this book; Martin's views on miasms; the thymus gland; Druid teaching and the arcane, esoteric design of the universe. I will address each in turn.
The Druids
This book highlights the Druidic backdrop from which the Society of Homoeopaths was formed. Martin Miles along with Robert Davidson Tony Hurley and myself, were all in the same Druids' training group that went on for around seven years. Thomas Maughan, the then Chief Druid, taught us all homoeopathy, and influenced us all. Other notable Druids and ex-Druids from that time are Barbara Harwood, Ernest Roberts, Kaaren Whitney, Jerome Whitney, Mary Titchmarsh, all well known in the English homoeopathic community.
Another Druid was John Damonte, who taught another homoeopathic group, including notably Misha Norland, who briefly skirmished with the Druids as well as Elizabeth Danciger, Julian Carlyon, Berenice Benjelloun, Sarah Richardson and Kay Samuels. From these people and a few others came the Society of Homoeopaths (see The Homoeopath, 1:1 1980).
The Druid way of teaching
The Druids have a multifaceted way of teaching. Ritual magic, on-going groups with meditation, an experiential mind centred group teaching, healing rites, mind exercises, etc. Quite a complexity.
The Druid way of teaching is slow, deep and systematic. Some of its teachings are expounded in this book in interesting ways, but often it seems to me, too rapid, too ungrounded and too quick to give the reader any more than a cursory understanding.
This book is littered with snippets of Druid-speak,teachings spiced as quotations, in the text as statement and as explanations. Not just in its literal content, but also in the attitudes and the old fashioned, to my perception, thinking processes. You might find them rich pickings; if you do maybe the Druid Order is for you.
There are also certain unconscious membership traits that the Druid Order seem to pass on to its members as well. One is they speak in a way that seems to show that they have a 'hot line to God'. They give definite answers as if by right. A rather irrefutable statement. It gives them a type of spiritual arrogance that is frustrating and unappealing. Normally they smile too. The trouble is that this book does not! Thomas Maughan seemed to do it but with a sort of equal compassion and with a better hotline. I presume that current Druids do it believing that it will develop their hotline, but I see little evidence of that.
Martin's way of Druidic thinking and expression comes across in this book as arrogance, proselytizing, preaching to lesser mortals. Also strong statements are made without any justification, cases, references, etc.
Yet there is a germ of truth in many of Martin's statements. Try this one.
There are four necessary requirements for the practitioner of homoeopathy to develop, these are: detachment, observation, memory and respect of truth.
This is classic Druid-speak. 'Is it true?' What about compassion, empathy, inner understanding, intuition, etc., I am sure that we can all add to this list.
Thomas Maughan
Thomas Lackenby Maughan died in 1974, 1 think. He was a very inspiring man, a great figure to many of us at the time. He was a Scot brought up on the aftermath of the 'Golden Dawn' Aleister Crowley, Madame Blavatsky and many others. She is quoted in the book, and initiated more than a few who influenced our age. She was a powerful lady, a force behind Thomas, and Edward Whitmont talks about her too.
Thomas had several 'partners' in his varied life, and reputedly conned one of them to go on a one-way air ticket to Australia saying he would follow but did not. He was then no saint. He was a Scorpio, and rose like the eagle, and Martin's book is dedicated to 'The Eagle Man' Thomas Maughan. He also plummeted like the devil. In fact one of his many stories concerned the devil. In journeying around the 'Tree of Life' on a vision quest' he knocked on the devil's door. The devil answered and peered out, his tail curled up and draped over his arm. He gingerly opened the door and took one look at Thomas and slammed it again. He was afraid Thomas would take over his job, so it was said.
However, great men are not great for long. In living history, great men and great women have come and gone who are now giants in our cultural memory. Yet in every case we have moved on from their pioneering work. Freud started psychotherapy, yet invented fantasy theories that supported child abuse for another century. Jung added the spiritual dimension yet was completely disinterested in the physical body, thereby restricting the development of psychotherapy. Hahnemann invented homoeopathy and yet his latter day prescribing appears pathetic (see the writing of Rima Handley, especially the Homoeopathic Love Story (North Atlantic Books, 1990), a beautifully written book which I treasure).
Thomas Maughan likewise was a spiritual teacher of power and vision and even with his limitations he has left an aftermath that still reflects itself in this book and in other Druids, and in homoeopathy. My point is that however great the man or women, let us not idolize them or think them blameless or forever wise. Everyone is full of holes, or as Thomas put it, la human being is a loosely connected bunch of ill assorted attributes'. There is no blame in being a giant in the human world, but also we can all move on, or can stay stuck, but only at our peril.
From my perspective Thomas Maughan did not leave a clear vision of homoeopathic philosophy behind him, but more a flavour of a 'cottage industry' approach, an amateurish flavour, which I find still emanates from some of the remaining Druids. For example he prescribed Morgan 200 followed by Sulphur I OM in a day or so for most new patients 'to brighten up their image'. He believed in a concept he described as taking people 'round the houses' in a sequence of remedies, and in 'not giving the constitutional until they were really ready'. He was an avid user and experimenter with combination remedies. The combinations invented by Thomas are advocated by those who profess a 'practical' style of homoeopathy. His materia medica was quite basic and he never taught about repertory as I recall.
So it came to pass that the founders of the Society were not classical homoeopaths rooted in its philosophy but inspired amateurs rooted in Druid philosophy. In fact it would be true to say that classical homoeopathy came about in spite of rather than because of the Druidic beginning and that this is the source of a major conflict of beliefs in our Society today. Currently the major non-classical schools are run by ex-druids and their students are often caught in this confusion of philosophies. It was, I suggest, only when some of the 'brighter' students of various colleges, searching for some clarity, and intellectual coherence, were exposed to teachers from overseas that the classical revival began, and these people are still the standard bearers.
Today it seems a significant section of the homoeopathic community have arrived at the view that the Organon and the Mind section of the repertory are the seats of homoeopathic wisdom. The Complete Repertory contains the distilled wisdom of every generation of homoeopaths, whereas materia medica is still based on individuals' limited expression and a fair amount of repeated errors and prejudiced observations. The Complete Repertory is closest to the group spirit of homoeopathy as each generation adds to it.
Along with this is the genius of the Organon, which surely Hahnemann did not fully understand even though he wrote it. Certain flaws in his practice still existed at the end of his life which do not fit in with the spirit nor the practice as specified in the Organon. It seems to me that the Organon, arcane and boringly expressed as it is, is a shining beacon of a high intelligence, yet Samuel did not fully practice what he had preached. Why? Was it simply old age? Was he a divided soul or was it a divinely inspired book beyond his own appreciation? And these flaws in homoeopathy have persisted to this very day and were obvious in the teaching and practice of Thomas Maughan. His practical philosophy and combination remedies etc., the key flaw that shows up in the combination remedy Approach so I will address this next.
Combination remedies
Martin gives combination remedies a section in his book, reflecting Thomas' ideas well. It seems he swallowed this one whole without critical examination. (This latter is Druid-speak, which the book is full Of, which I will explain. In Druid teaching one is taught never to adopt an idea, to swallow it whole being the expression, before properly understanding it. Martin's book is full of such little 'teachings' being expressed at every opportunity.)
In the chapter on groups Martin waxes strongly in support of combination remedies. He states the principle that a group is stronger than any of its component parts. However, there is another maxim perhaps applicable, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Suppose the remedies cancel each other out? My point is that you cannot assert some philosophic aspect and leave it at that. You have to test them somehow.
Yet he fails to address how and I wonder why? It is common knowledge that to understand a combination remedy is very simple, what you have to do is to do a proving of it. Standard homoeopathic know-how. He goes on 'we must discover its field of influence, power and limitation' etc., when referring to combinations. And how does he use them not knowing this? And why not get to the point and say how? And if he is that keen on them why has he not done some provings?
Again I quote 'combination remedies are of prime use as drainage remedies, essential in most cases of cancer, because of high levels of toxicity in the body...'But surely every homoeopathic remedy acts partly by drainage. Is not every aggravation in fact a naturopathic clear out and a drainage process? That is what an aggravation is. If the body is so toxic, then the way to treat it will still be indicated by homoeopathic observation. Toxicity is present in every case. So maybe we need to be better observers of more subtlety in such cases and to be more skilled in low potencies, but normal principles apply. I think no one is suggesting that at some level of toxicity the body stops operating according to holistic principles and goes allopathic are they?
So I think this is a blind alley of unclear thinking and double standards. If you think this way you will surely not learn how to operate homoeopathically in such highly toxic situations. True, if you are blind, or have nothing you can go on, combination remedies for toxic clear-out might be a stop gap of last resort, but to go in first seems to me to be a therapy of despair, without principle or sign posts, an essentially blind approach, and cutting off the possibility of doing detoxification with awareness.
I would personally suggest that the LM potencies offer a tremendous option in allowing low potency repetition of remedies in a safe controlled way. Combine this with seeing cancer as a multi-layered case and the way is open to clear homoeopathic prescribing, not blind dogma.
Arcane speculation or a fools' paradise?
The essence of this book seems to me to be an exposition of Druid and Rosicrucian teachings dressed up in homoeopathic clothes. Which is fine because that is what in effect the title is about. If you are interested in 'The Rosicrucian Cosmos Conception' then the final quarter of the book is for you. Written about a century ago, Martin gives you his version. Called anatomy and physiology, it discusses the esoteric aspects of the body.
Martin's references, while heavyweight, are all pre-1922, averaging around 1900, and this to me sets the tone. Out of date philosophy, pre-psychology, pre any modern thinking and a philosophical backwater that is well past its sell by date. Still, if you like esoteric history read on.
There is a great deal of intermixing of homoeopathic information and critical observations intermingled with philosophical concepts about the universal and the evolution of mankind. For example at one point he drops in the concept of the division of the human species into the two sexes, and the development of sexual diseases to limit the sexual over activity that followed. This is based on Rosicrucian or Druid teachings or maybe both. But is it true? Or is it an out of date speculation of what really did happen? I remember once going to a psychic, before I decided to be a homoeopath, and this very basic person said I should be a nurse. What she picked up on was that I had medical inclinations, and since I was too old perhaps to train as a doctor she said nurse. The only two options in her head. Well when the Rosicrucians divined the history of the human race, perhaps they too had a language limited to their time. So I find this sort of interesting arcane information weak and limited and suspect.
Conclusions
In this book Martin is attempting to weave many threads. Homoeopathy, Druid teaching methods in the way he writes, esoteric anatomy and human functioning, spicing it with Druid quotations, and his own brand of perceiving the world.
He seems fine on lots of the pure homoeopathic stuff, that is the best and for me the only homoeopathic reason to read this book, but as soon as he starts to philosophize, dressing up Druid or other teaching with homoeopathic clothes it reeks of the proselytizing, arrogance and all the rest.
So to me the good bits are the chapters on gonorrhoea, some on cancer, the thymus gland, some of the disease chapter etc. However I would have welcomed much of this with much harder facts, any facts, case examples, case based justifications, materia medica of the thymus gland he speaks about a lot, so that it was convincing and well argued rather than 'asserted'.
His chapter on childhood diseases is nothing like the quality of Paul Herscu's book. His vitriolic attacks on vaccination have been well covered elsewhere. His philosophy pales by comparison to the Whitmont Tapes Opening Doors, now on sale by the Society, which are spoken by a man of wisdom, out of humility, with substance and explanation, (highly recommended, a real treat).
In summary then this book is like a dustbin full of very old dusty clothes of dubious origin, perhaps those removed from the characters on the front cover, and amongst the clothes are also some jewels, but even these seem insubstantial, lacking facts to back them up.
Peter Chappell, RSHom, FSHom practices in Bath and West London. He is currently Director of overseas seminars for the London College of Classical Homoeopathy, and is enjoying teaching doctors in the Czech republic.
The Homoeopath Vol.13 No.1 1993