For many years when I first started studying homeopathy, terms like “energy medicine” and references to quantum mechanics used to drive me crazy. I once knew a physics grad student who complained that new age people were like crows: flying over the fields of science, picking up shiny bits and taking them back to impress the other crows, but not understanding what they were really used for. There is a lot of truth to that, for better or worse, and this is one reason why alternative things like homeopathy seem so woo-woo to scientific-minded people. The problem is that there is a clash of communication styles. Maybe it’s a left-brained vs. right-brained thing, I don’t know. They’re not exclusive, but people do seem to have a preferred style.

I tend to be more of an analytical thinker, so when someone tells me something that I recognize as factually inaccurate, it distracts me. My brain stops and says, “Wait a minute. That’s not correct.” Then I kind of stop listening, and start making corrections in my head.

For example, when somebody talks about a homeopathic remedy having “vibrations,” my mind used to groan, “There are no vibrations!” Now I realize that while “vibrations” … (more)

If you are going to going to seriously test (or use) homeopathy, there is one word that you need to remember: similarity. The homeopathic effect is dependent on a similarity between remedy and patient. I don’t mean similarity of diagnosis, but the similarity of a pattern of physical as well as mental and emotional symptoms and traits. In other words, the remedy should fit the complaints and the state of the patient who has them.

Taking homeopathic remedies is sort of like archery. If you shoot and miss the target, you get no effect or a very subtle effect. If you hit the outside part of the target, the remedy should be somewhat helpful. If you hit the center of the target, you can have very significant results.

With acute conditions, it’s like having a bigger target — it’s easier to get at least some result. This is why it possible to use some of the “take X for condition Y” homeopathic products that are found in stores. However, the better homeopathic results usually require more individualization, and much more so for chronic problems.

Here’s the bottom line: if you give the same homeopathic remedy to a group of people with a common … (more)

Say I give a homeopathic remedy to a patient who complains of, among other things, rheumatoid arthritis. Her rheumatoid symptoms improve over six weeks. Can I really say that the remedy caused this improvement?

What if she’s had rheumatoid arthritis for many years and had tried conventional treatments and some other alternative healing modalities without much effect, but felt better after taking a homeopathic remedy?

What if, in addition to the rheumatoid symptoms, after taking the remedy she also had improvement with some other problematic but non-pathological things, such as that she was less bothered by something that used to cause her stress, and that a disturbing recurring dream changed?

What if she took the remedy and felt better for a time, then started to worsen again and took the remedy again and improved a second time?

What if after those six weeks her rheumatoid arthritis symptoms were gone altogether, requiring no more remedies or conventional medications? (Not the kind of result you get from a placebo effect, although I’m open to the possibility.)

I’m not intending to put this out there as evidence for homeopathy. I understand that this is hypothetical and anecdotal. (And for the record, I’m not saying all my patients have … (more)

Understand that a question like, “But how do you know homeopathy works?” is an odd question from a homeopath’s point of view. It’s like asking, “But how do you know that color is gold?” It’s not a belief or a theory or an interpretation, it’s just experience.

People who ask that kind of question, or talk about “believing in homeopathy,” haven’t experienced what homeopathy is capable of. When they use the word “homeopathy,” they are talking about the lite version, like getting rid of a headache or shortening a cold, things that might happen anyhow. But that’s barely scratching the surface. The results from well-practiced homeopathy simply can’t be explained away by placebo effect or even some new age positive thinking mind-body effect, which covers what most people who don’t have the experience seem to believe about homeopathy.

If I talk about my experience, skeptics will dismiss that as “anecdotal evidence.” I understand their point of view. It’s where I started out. But look at it from my point of view for a moment. It’s like if I start a new garden. I plant some seeds and later plants come up. How do I know that any single plant is where it … (more)