HOMOEOPATHY THE TRUE ART OF HEALING


Paracelsus also states that he who wants to know man must look upon him as a whole and not as a patched up piece of work. If he finds a part of the human body diseased he must look for the causes which produce the disease and not merely treat the external effects. Philosophy-the true perception and understanding of cause and effect-is the mother of the physician and explains the origin of all his diseases.


[ Mr. Edward F. Kingkinger is a member of the Homoeopathic Laymens League of Philadelphia who has been interested in Homoeopathy for some forty years. His researches into the philosophy and practical application of Homoeopathy led him to acquired an extensive homoeopathic library.

The following talk correlates the teachings of Paracelsus with those of Hahnemann and also shows how Homoeopathic practice demonstrates the close interdependence of man and nature, the little with the larger universe. Mr. Kingkinger surveys with penetration the position of the homoeopathic layman today in relation to the commercial drug concerns and his own physician. Editor, Jl. of the Am. Inst. of Homoeopathy.].

BIRDSBORO, PA.

By EXAMINING the underlying principles that have been in the healing of the sick throughout the ages, we can show that the Philosophy of Homoeopathy has a scientific foundation whose principles are and will always remain basically true. It was known in ancient Indian, China, North and Central America, in fact, any study of ancient medicine would doubtless yield the information that the principles and practice of Homoeopathy were in general use before Western civilization frightened them away.

In medieval times the philosophy of Homoeopathy may be traced in the writings of the great Scientist and Physician-Paracelsus. In a recent article Dr. Irene Bastow Hudson commented on the similarity of the teachings of Hahnemann and Paracelsus.

The great Homoeopathist of our period is Samuel Hahnemann, who was born in Saxony in 1775 and lived eighty-eight years; and he only belongs to our modern life because we are still using his books and methods. Before him there was the very great Paracelsus, born in Zurich. The latter-Alchemist, Occultist, Reformer and physician-was murdered in 1541.

The published works of Paracelsus show all the principles of esoteric Medicine; his descriptions show that he dealt with the hidden powers of the human body, and distilled a “spiritual” substance for sick persons that must have been very closely akin to the high Potencies which the homoeopathic physicians now employ. It would almost seem that Paracelsus understood the action of these substances as well as or even better than we do, but his prescriptions have come down to us wrapt in so much mystery and Alchemy that often we do not know at what he was aiming.

When Hahnemann wrote: “It is only by means of a spiritual influence of a morbific agent that our spiritual vital power can be disease, and in like manner, only by the spiritual operation of Medicine can health be restored,” it seems to us that he is merely repeating the words of Paracelsus written some three hundred years earlier. And now, a hundred years later than Hahnemann we are beginning to find out that we need to study the “electrical” radiations of living bodies.

When Paracelsus, the Hermetist, gave rhubarb for cholera, or sanguinary herbs to stop bleeding, there is no doubt that he was able to extract the spiritual essence of the substances he prepared and to present them to the patient in the best form. But even the lesser physician, when prescribing the drug in potency, is giving a vital force to the patient which enables the sick man to reorganize his inner workings and to save himself.

Only in cases of advanced disintegration can there be no cure, merely alleviation. (THE ESOTERIC ASPECT OF HOMOEOPATHY, The Aryan Path, Jan. 1941) Samuel Hahnemann, father of modern Homoeopathy, published during his life 116 volumes of large works and 120 pamphlets.

He derived his philosophy of life from a study of the writing of Plato and the vital teachings which are the underlying basis of real Homoeopathy he took from Paracelsus whose philosophy was similar to that of Plato. Those of us who have studied the writings of Paracelsus have found them most helpful in understanding the philosophical concepts of Paracelsus may be profitably compared with the aphorisms of the Organon.

There are, as Paracelsus says, natural born physicians and others which are artificially made. As the majority of mankind is still in a very unspiritual condition, it is not at all surprising to find a plain person with little learning more capable of restoring health than some of the great graduates of Medical Colleges who have much theoretical knowledge but no power to heal. In the words of Paracelsus:.

All diseases, except such as come from mechanical causes, have invisible origin, and of such sources popular medicine knows very little. Nature causes and cures diseases and it is therefore necessary that the physicians should know the processes of Nature, the invisible as well as the visible man. He ought to look with his own eyes into the book of Nature and become able to understand it.. a physician should possess spiritual perception, spiritual knowledge and spiritual power. These qualities belong not to that which is human in man, but to the light if the spirit which shines in him.

Paracelsus wrote that a knowledge of nature is the foundation of the science of medicine. That a physician must be a philosopher, that is to say, he must dare to use his own reason and not to cling to opinions and book authorities-be they old or new.

He must above all be in possession of that faculty which is called intuition and which cannot be acquired by blindly following the footsteps of another; he must be able to see his own way. If you wish to be a true physician you must be able to do your own thinking and not merely employ the thoughts of others.

Paracelsus also states that he who wants to know man must look upon him as a whole and not as a patched up piece of work. If he finds a part of the human body diseased he must look for the causes which produce the disease and not merely treat the external effects. Philosophy-the true perception and understanding of cause and effect-is the mother of the physician and explains the origin of all his diseases.

In this understanding rests the indication of the true remedy and he who is not able to understand will accomplish nothing. A physician who knows nothing more about his patient than what the latter will tell him, knows very little indeed. He must be able to see the internal in the external man. He must know the relations existing between the microcosm of man and the macrocosm of nature and know the little by the power of the great. Of the true physician he wrote:.

The greatest and highest of all qualifications which a physician should possess is Sapientia, i.e. Wisdom-and without this qualification all his learning will amount to little or nothing as far as any benefit or usefulness to humanity is concerned. He alone is in possession of wisdom who is in possession of reason and knows how to use it without error or doubt. As the sun shines upon us from above, likewise the talents necessary for the exercise of an art, whose germs exist in the human heart, must be developed in the rays of the sun of divine wisdom.

We cannot find wisdom in books, nor in any external thing; we can only find it within ourselves. A physician should exercise his art-not for his own sake-but for the sake of the patient. Let his speech be “yes” and “no”, and let him avoid prevarications. He should know the laws of nature, but above all the constitution of man, the invisible no less than the visible one.

Paracelsus recognized and taught five original causes of disease. One class was caused by impurities taken into the system through improper food, drink and air. He advised physicians to treat such diseases by the process of elimination, by ridding the body of these poisonous substances, and not by introducing other forms of poison into the system.

Rheumatism, gout, dropsy and other diseases are caused by such accumulations of impure and superfluous elements, and Nature cannot recover until such elements are expelled, and the vital powers of the organs restored. (De Ente Veneni) Another class was caused by intense emotion, envy, hatred, a morbid imagination which may result in numberless forms of illness. Yet another class was due to moral causes. In the final analysis, Paracelsus said, all diseases are the result of wrong thinking.

Many diseases are rooted in moral causes and can be cured only by reforming the moral nature. But wrong thoughts which are now manifesting themselves in the form of disease may not have been set in motion in our present life. They may have been engendered in a previous incarnation, and are only now expressing themselves as disease. For this class of disease there may be no immediate remedy. The physician and the patient should recognize the Law of Karma and wait patiently for the causes to work themselves our as effect.

If the time has come for the evil effects to disappear, the patient will come in contact with a physician who will help him to rid himself of his disease in a natural manner. But “if it is the will of Providence (Karma) that the patient should still remain in his purgatory, then will the physician not be able to help him out of it.” Everything that Paracelsus taught and wrote was always from the point of view that man is a little universe, an integral part of Great Nature; this unity of Life he expressed in these words:.

Edward F. Kingkinger