What is a proving?

Homeopathy as a system is based on provings. It is the provings of medicines that form the scientific basis of homeopathy. Each medicine has been "proved" to elicit symptoms in several or many provers. In a proving, a homeopathic medicine is given to healthy persons. Whatever symptoms they develop are carefully noted by trained observers. This experimental data allows us to deduce that a particular medicine caused those symptoms in healthy persons and will, therefore, cure those same symptoms when given to a sick person.

A "proving" familiar to us all is Ipecac, known for its universal ability to bring on nausea and vomiting by its ingestion in large amounts. A few doses of highly diluted Ipecac can relieve vomiting whether the cause is viral, hormonal i.e. morning sickness, or even as a side effect to cancer chemotherapy.

The Poison Ivy plant (Rhus Toxicodendron) is used in homeopathy in minute amounts for poison ivy, and other rashes and skin eruptions. Everyone knows that the live plant creates itchy rashes when touched by most humans.

Remember what happens when you peel and chop onions? Users of homeopathy are known to dose themselves with Allium Cepa (red onion) when allergy season comes on with its symptoms of watery discharge from eyes and nose.

Guess what homeopathic coffee (coffea) is used to treat? If you are thinking homeopathically you would guess --insomnia and nervousness!

Many remedies in the homeopathic materia medica are poisons in their undiluted form, but are indispensable for countless ailments in their dilute homeopathic form, i.e. white arsenic (Arsenicum Album) is commonly used for abdominal flu or food poisoning gastroenteritis symptoms (diarrhea, stomach cramps and vomiting). Homeopathic remedies are always referred to by their Latin names.

We now have documentation of 1000+ substances proven on healthy people for homeopathic practitioners to use to find the similar remedy. When a patient seeks treatment for chronic health problems, one remedy is sought that covers all of the symptoms for that patient's constitution. When the correct remedy is administered it is common to see swift, improvement in that person's well-being and physical health lasting months and years, from just a few micro doses. To aid them in their investigative search for the most similar remedy, homeopaths have computer software to correlate information from their hundreds of reference books.

How are homeopathic remedies made?

Single plant, mineral and animal substances are diluted and succussed (shaken) over and over in a method called potentisation. Homeopathic remedies are prepared in homeopathic pharmacies. One part of the plant extract, i.e. is diluted in 9 parts of water and then shaken. Then one part of this 1x dilution is again diluted in 9 parts water and shaken. Now it is 2x--and this is continued in a serial manner. Homeopathic practitioners use remedies diluted to 6x, 12x, 30x, 200x in this decimal system, and on up to 100,000x and even more dilute. The centessimal dilutions are diluted 1:100 each time and designated 6C, 30C, etc.

Hahnemann noted that potentized medicines acted more forcefully than they did in the gross form, and that the more a medicine was diluted and succussed, the stronger its action. So, the more dilute, or potentised a substance is, the more powerful its action on the governing system of the body, the VITAL FORCE. Chemically, there can be no molecules of the original substance left in the solution after dilution past 24x. The energetic imprint of the substance appears to be left in the solution, perhaps because of the shaking process and a concept known as the "memory or water". Because of their dilute nature it is unlikely that the remedies exert any chemical action on the cells of the body. Since the vital force is an energy system, the remedies are thought to work on the energetic level itself.

What is the Vital Force? (aka Chi, Prana, Ki, Life Force)

Disease consists of a disruption of the central regulating energies that maintain life. Hahnemann called this regulating energy the "vital force". Practically ignored by modern science, except under the limited term "immune system", every other culture's traditional healing system recognizes such a concept as central to understanding and affecting the health. "Chi" in China, "prana" in India--the life principle that regulates body, mind and spirit does not lend itself easily to technological investigation, but its understanding is the next frontier in medicine. It is the vital force, which a homeopath attempts to reach and stimulate when a homeopathic medicine is administered. [See also Pranic Healing on this site.]

How does Homeopathy differ from conventional medicine?

Allopathic medicine, the name given to conventional medical practices today, from the root word "allo" meaning other or opposite, is based mainly on the "law of contraries", or "opposite cures opposite", hence its "anti" stance when approaching symptoms. The drug categories of anti-biotics, anti-pyretics, anti-inflammatories, anti-hypertensives, etc prove this point. Most conventional medicines go against or have an action opposite to the symptoms that the patient is presenting.

The allopath, being system and diagnosis oriented, sees each complaint you have as related to an organ or system, i.e. indigestion to the gastrointestinal system, P.M.S. to the hormonal/reproductive system, arthritis to the bones and joints, and so on. So the allopath selects an organ-specific or chemistry-changing drug to suppress the annoying symptoms. Each diagnosis is treated separately and rarely is a connection made between mind and body.

The Homeopath always tries to see the body as a whole and avoids suppression at all costs. Building the immune system and making the vital force stronger is the main goal of homeopathy.

There is scientific research being done to assess the effectiveness of homeopathy for many disease states. Results have been positive and are proving what homeopathic people have known for years; Homeopathy helps almost every imbalance in humans and animals. Look at the "links" section to find out more about homeopathic research.

What is the history of Homeopathy?

A physician named Samuel Hahnemann developed classical homeopathy two hundred years ago in Germany. Hahnemann formulated his Law of Similars, and he began to treat sick people. His success in a time of the appalling medical practices of bleeding, purgatives and superstition spurred homeopathy to spread throughout Europe. Royalty from several countries used it and the Royal Family of Britain still has homeopathic physicians.

Homeopathy was imported to the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century, and during the next fifty years it became an extremely popular and well-recognized form of healing. By the turn of the 20th century, homeopathy had gained widespread support and was practiced by many doctors in more than fifty countries throughout the world.

In America, homeopathy fell out of favor around 1930 in the United States when antibiotics and modern drugs were developed and people wanted to embrace the technological advances that were changing health care as it had existed. Only after the 1970's was homeopathy found again by holistic minded consumers health professionals. Now the U.S. homeopathic pharmacies do a booming business and there are hundreds of homeopaths and many homeopathic schools.

Homeopathy continues to be widely accepted and practiced by many doctors and highly trained practitioners throughout the United States, England, France, Germany, India, and South America and elsewhere around the world.

Although its scope has broadened over the years, the underlying principles of homeopathy have remained unchanged.