Homoeopathy (from the Greek homoios meaning similar and pathos meaning suffering) is a highly systematic method of stimulating nature's vital forces of recovery. It was founded in the late 18th Century by the German physician, Samuel Hahnemann. Appalled by existing medical practices, which so often did more harm than good, Hahnemann sought a method of natural healing which would be safe, gentle, rapid, and effective.

Practiced world wide for two hundred years, homoeopathy recognizes that human beings possess a powerful capacity to heal themselves and views mental, emotional, and physical symptoms not as disease, but as natural attempts by the individual's innate life preserving vital force energy to defend itself and restore health and balance.

How Does Homoeopathy Work?
Homoeopathy applies the natural Law of Similars (articulated by Hippocrates in 500 BC) which states: That which has the power to make the healthy sick, also has the power to make the sick healthy. Hahnemann and his followers established the truth of the Law of Similars by conducting experiments on themselves called Provings. Over long periods of time they took small doses of various reputedly poisonous or medicinal substances and meticulously recorded the symptoms they produced. Individuals suffering from similar symptoms to the ones produced were treated with these substances with very encouraging results. This experiment established the principal of Similarity.

In order to avoid side effects, Hahnemann, the scrupulous scientist, worked to establish the smallest effective dose. To his surprise he found that in using a unique method of serial dilution and succussion (agitation), the more diluted and succussed the remedy was, the more potent it became, this concept of the infinitesimal dose being more effective than a large dose is beginning to be accepted by modern science. Hahnemann's experiments proved that homoeopathic remedies act curatively when they are not only similar in symptom-causing potential, but also a little stronger than the individual's natural disease. Remedy potency is selected that best matches the strong or weak state of the individual's life force energy. Taking a microdose of a remedy prepared according to the homoeopathic principles kick-starts the body's self-curative survival mechanism, which restores equilibrium throughout the organism. In Hahnemann's true homoeopathy, remedies are never routinely repeated and never combined with other remedies.

Classical Homoeopathy has the potential to allow people to fulfill their highest potential, mentally, emotionally and physically, and so can change the world for the better. By helping kids to focus better in school, improving people's confidence and ability to get along harmoniously with others, increasing or balancing their energy, enabling people to be more productive, decreasing the desire for drugs and alcohol, increasing self-awareness, improving the immune system, enabling people to live with fewer or no medications, and promoting healthy lifestyles.

What do Homoeopaths Do?
Homoeopaths do not diagnose or treat disease in the contemporary sense of the word. Unlike practitioners of mainstream medicine, homoeopaths recognize and treat the unique state of each individual's vital force energy as expressed in mind, body and spirit. The homoeopath seeks to remove the cause of the trouble by stimulating nature's vital healing force.

To do this, the homoeopath must understand a great deal about the sick individual: the past health and life circumstances, the pattern of health in the family and the present state, including the characteristics of personality - artistic or moody etc; fears and aspirations; preferences for such things as cold or hot weather, the sea or mountains, plain or spicy food; and the individualizing characteristic symptoms of distress and disharmony.

During a comprehensive homoeopathic interview, the homoeopath collects all the subjective and objective information. Then a unique multi-dimensional picture of the person's disharmony can be perceived. Using data from homoeopathic Provings, the homoeopath systematically selects the single remedy that is most similar to the person's overall state and recommends that remedy in the single, smallest dose needed to achieve a curative response. Adequate rest, appropriate diet and exercise obviously support rapid lasting recovery.

True Hahnemannian homoeopathy is the most effective homoeopathy.
Before consulting a homoeopath, it is important to understand there are multitudes of different ways that homoeopathic remedies are used today. Use of homoeopathic remedies in any way other than as described above, is more accurately termed "homeotherapeutics" and may not be well proven. This should never be confused with homoeopathy, as founded by Samuel Hahnemann and practiced effectively, according to specific, clearly comprehensible and well proven principles.