Understanding
Classical
Homeopathy
The Foundations
of Classical Homeopathy
Understanding Classical Homeopathy
Heidi Grollmann & Urs Maurer
Groma Verlag
eBook-edition 2018
based on the 4st edition of the printed version
ISBN 978-3-907188-01-9
Copyright 2018
© Groma Verlag, Oberdorfstrasse 2, CH-6340 Baar, Switzerland
E-mail: info@gromaverlag.ch
Homepage: www.gromaverlag.ch
All rights reserved, including all translations into foreign languages. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.
Layout and design of the eBook edition: Peter Vint.
Publisher: 907188 - ISBN 978-3-907188-01-9
1st – 3rd Edition
We noticed, in our daily work with our patients, that was a great need for an easily understandable introduction to Classical Homeopathy.
We were particularly requested to explain the basis of Classical Homeopathy, since it is so often confused with other alternative health practices. It is, in fact, an independent science with its own laws. Furthermore, a well-informed patient can better understand the course of his or her treatment, in its context, contributing to a speedier recovery.
These methods of treatment require a different understanding of health and disease. The patient must be prepared to confront his illness and the healing process.
With this book, and a variety of seminars, we wish to add to the amount of information available and to bring Classical Homeopathy to a wider audience.
4th edition
The large demand -- over 10,000 copies sold in the German-speaking European area -- and the many positive comments from colleagues and patients has given us great pleasure. This shows that Classical Homeopathy is well established and widespread.
Now we have the fourth corrected edition already. We have reviewed and expanded the entire content. The following innovations enhance this addition: we have supplemented the various chapters with case histories taken from everyday practice. The chapter on the Miasms has been, after many requests from various quarters, greatly expanded. The chapter on Constitutional Treatment is new, as is the chapter on Frequently Asked Questions in the practice.
At this point, we wish to thank all those who, with their various comments, helped to add to this new edition. Also our thanks to Brigitte Kurath and Kathrin Büchi-Möller for their invaluable support.
Heidi Grollmann
Urs Maurer
This book will always remind me of the beautiful Greek island of Alonissos. I first came to know of the book during an International Open Teaching Seminar on Homeopathy, taught by George Vithoulkas, on Alonissos. It is such a beautifully produced and simple text, and I just knew that the English-speaking world would want to have the benefit of its easy and attractive introduction to Classical Homeopathy.
Patients and future patients of homeopathy will find in this book a clear and easily understandable introduction to the basics of the most powerful system of medicine in the world.
This book will appeal to all homeopaths who have been looking for a simple text that communicates to their patients the essence of what we, as homoeopaths, do and why we ask such an awful lot of strange questions. I expect it to be on sale in most homeopathic practices that wish their patients to be as informed as possible about the nature of their treatment.
The authors of this book, Heidi Grollmann and Urs Maurer, are two of the nicest people and most passionate homeopaths that I have ever had the privilege of meeting. They run a busy practice, a thriving School for Classical Homeopathy, seminars for professional and lay-person alike, write very appealing books on homeopathy, and still find time to run marathons and holes into the Zurich pavements.
All the wisdom and creativity is theirs, all the faults mine.
Hans G. Schrauder BSc LCH FHMA MGCP
Christian Friederich Samuel Hahnemann the founder and discoverer of homeopathy was born in Meissen on the 12th of April 1755, the son of a porcelain painter. Financial circumstances were anything but rosy at that time. Because of his exceptional talent, he nonetheless found a patron that enabled him to go to High School. In order to study medicine in Leipzig, he was obliged to pay his way by giving foreign-language tuition and performing translation work. He was one of the most respected translators of his time. By the age of 24 he commanded seven languages both written and spoken. In 1779 he sat his doctorate examinations in Erlangen.
Shortly after commencing practice he became disillusioned about medicine. Excessive bloodletting, brutal vomiting and laxative cures often ended fatally. Powerful medication made from Lead, Mercury or Arsenic poisoned the patients. Hahnemann protested loudly against these damaging and ineffective methods that were then normal. Soon, his colleagues were accusing him of heresy. Hahnemann gave up his practice in disappointment. He supported himself by translating medical works.
During the translation of a pharmacopoeia by Dr Cullen (1790), he was troubled by the explanation for the action of China bark on malaria, namely that it was due to its astringent effects on the stomach. This assertion struck him as unlikely. He decided on a self-experiment and took the China bark himself. He resolved to test its effects on the healthy organism, and repeatedly took this herbal remedy until his body reacted with a fever, shivering and other symptoms of malaria.
From this, Hahnemann concluded that malaria was cured by China bark, not because of its astringent action on the stomach, but by the fact that this medicine produces the symptoms of malaria in the healthy.
For six years, following this immense discovery, Hahnemann carried out experiments on himself and family members, using various substances. Increasingly, Hahnemann turned again to the practice of medicine. He did not shy from questioning generally accepted truths and sought his own explanations. Thus, he represented a serious threat to established medicine.
Hahnemann coined the expression ‘homeopathy.’ This came from the Greek "homoios" (similar) and "pathos" (suffering). He recommended the use of only single remedies, which, in addition, he prescribed in small doses. Because of this, dispensing chemists became his greatest enemies, since they feared for their businesses. Despite continual persecution, homeopathy continued to develop.
His major work "The Organon of the Art of Healing" appeared in 1810. The basic laws and principles of homeopathy, which remain valid to the present time, are recorded therein . The multiple volume work "The Chronic Diseases" appeared between 1828-1830.
In 1835, the widowed Hahnemann married a young Frenchwoman. He moved with his new wife to Paris. This last episode in Hahnemann's life was very important for the expansion of homeopathy. For eight years, Hahnemann ran an extensive practice in Paris. He led it successfully until just a few weeks before his death. Hahnemann died at the age of 88, on the 2nd of July 1843. He lies buried in "Père Lachaise," the cemetery for the distinguished in Paris. His grave can still be visited.
The basis of homeopathy is the "law of similars". "Similimum similibus curentur". "Similars are to be healed with similars", i.e., an illness can only be healed with that homeopathic remedy, which produced similar symptoms in a healthy person.
What should be understood by that? You have a cold, complain of tears in your eyes, itching or burning eyes, tickling in the nose, attacks of sneezing and have developed a watery, acrid, sore producing nasal secretion. Only the homeopathic remedy that is capable of producing these symptoms in someone healthy can help you.
This symptom picture occurs when you are cutting onions. Within a short while the above-mentioned symptoms of burning eyes, acrid nasal secretions etc., appear. Should you now develop the same or similar symptoms as with the previously mentioned cold, the remedy Allium cepa, made from the common onion, would cure this cold.
To clarify the Law of Similars, a second example: you certainly recognise the condition of excess consumption of coffee. Depending on individual sensitivity, many people develop complaints such as nervousness, shaking, palpitations, sleeplessness etc. The homeopathic remedy Coffea (coffee) would often be prescribed for the above-mentioned symptoms.
One can already begin to find mention that like can heal like in the ancient writings of the Greek doctor Hippocrates (460 to 377 BC). Paracelsus (1493 to 1541) hinted at this principle in his works.
However, Hahnemann was the first to pursue this knowledge with thoroughness and persistence and develop it into a well-founded method of healing.
Before we occupy ourselves with the cure, we must settle exactly what disease actually is.
Why does one catch the flu while the other remains healthy, although both came in contact with the same flu patient?
Why does one person react to the enjoyment of food with massive skin eruptions while the other can eat it unscathed?
Why can a good pupil quite calmly sit an exam while the other, equally good, pupil fails the exam from anxiety?
Why are some people susceptible to something and others not?
Homeopathy intensely addressed these questions and concluded that a superior energy called the Vital Force or Dynamis steers all the functions of life.
The task of the Vital Force is to maintain harmony and order in the organism. Every component of the organism, every organ and every cell is influenced and guarded by the Vital Force. The Vital Force protects us from illness and confers immunity against factors inducing disease.
As soon as the Vital Force is weakened or out of balance, e.g., through strain, stress, mental problems etc., a person becomes ill. The organism is no longer protected from the causes of disease, e.g., bacteria, viruses, fungi, pollen, stress etc. Only a disturbed Vital Force causes disease.
Changes to tissue or organs, e.g., inflammation, ulcers, deformed joints, cysts etc., are not themselves the disease, rather the results of the disease process. They are simply indicating that something is not right inside the person. The patient isn't ill because he has a tumour; rather the tumour is there because the patient is ill.
Indeed, viruses and bacteria are never the true cause of disease. It is the weakened Vital Force that encourages the growth of foreign organisms such as bacteria, viruses and fungi. That means, first comes the disturbance of the Vital Force, and then the agent spreads.
When the symptoms of an illness are removed, either surgically, e.g., the removal of haemorrhoids, or through medicinal action, e.g., the treatment of eczema by the use of strong acting ointments, that doesn't mean by a long shot that the illness is conquered.