When you step beyond the idea that healing means: getting rid of symptoms, we find ourselves in trouble. That is: in trouble of finding words and definitions to clearly describe what we are doing and what is happening in the healing process. We even have difficulty labelling what healing actually means.
Symptoms are by definition indicators or signs of something; they don’t stand on their own. They are the result of something, they point to something, carry a message of something and as such have a meaning and a purpose. What is this something? Again it becomes a rather vague description. A dis-ease, a disturbance, a disharmony…..
We should only be happy when they disappear after the message is received and understood. Trying to get rid of the symptoms is like shooting the messenger whom you fear comes with bad news.
The comparison works not quite, as the ‘symptoms’ differ from the ‘messenger’ in that they are unpleasant, disturbing, painful or unbearable. A messenger doesn’t. But let’s imagine for a moment he is known for bringing the unpleasant news that action must be taken. He is so determined to deliver his message that he will knock your door day and night until you do. Chances are that in the end you consider shooting him, so that you at least can go to sleep again.
Regular medicine regards the symptoms as being the disease, and, logically, takes measures to get rid of them. However, they’d rarely kill him off immediately, but rather poison him, silence him, sedate him or take a piece out.
Patients expect the doctor to make the messenger go, one way or another, and if he fails, they seek a naturopathic practitioner or a homeopath. If we also concentrate on getting rid of the messenger, we do the same doctors do. This is self-evident as we are all raised en trained in the believe the messenger is the problem. The symptoms must vanish as we silently agree the symptom is the disease. Not that we actually agreed, it is rather a never questioned paradigm, because it is so clear and logical. Only fools would argue otherwise.
These fools are we. Homeopaths.
Yes, we want the symptoms to disappear but not before the reason to produce them is gone; then there is no longer a message to be delivered, as all is well again.
Looking for the reason of the symptoms (or the messenger) is done in psychotherapy (spoiler alert: it is your mom) and while it makes a person more accepting, the symptoms rarely disappear. First a person can blame others for screwing him up, later he is supposed to forgive them as they were screwed up themselves (who started all this, you might ask).
In homeopathy we don’t look for the ‘why’ of the symptoms. We assume a messenger comes to our rescue; he’s our chance to deal with some overlooked, denied disturbance. Without symptoms/ messenger we rarely pay attention or take action. Often, we are unaware of being limited, fixed, out of harmony or inhibited. We don’t question the way we operate; this is how we know ourselves to be. Hence, the homeopath doesn’t investigate the reason why you are the way you are, that would be a bit silly, wouldn’t it?
Note that it becomes more and more metaphorical.
Why would ‘the way you are’ be problematic to start with? The human condition is characterized by (among others) the experience of being imperfect and therefore needing or lacking something. This put conditions to our existence, which I call ‘conditions to be OK’. Reality is however that we are perfect and OK, as it is hard to imagine a creator who made such a mess of humans, being flawed and lacking. We could say we are perfect in our so called ‘imperfection’. What we experience as imperfection is our uniqueness, always different from the perfect Platonian ideal. Compare it to a Gemstone: all stones are different; it is the kind and amount of ‘impurities’ that give them their specific colour, and hence their beauty.
Agreed, the result is not the same: Gemstones shine and we suffer.
The reason might be that we can think. We think about ourselves as less-then-perfect, we feel ourselves separated from the source of creation on this Lonely Planet, and we don’t know how to get home. We are all on our journey, each one in his unique way, each one his individual path.
The homeopath wants to know: how is it and how is it to be you?
Most people don’t know how to answer these questions (which are formulated in very indirect ways but that is the background question the homeopath wants to be answered) and start rambling away their day of grace.
And we listen.
We listen very carefully.
In his unique universe displayed by the patient’s words and actions, the homeopath starts to see similar qualities in the outside world, where all perfect creations exist. Not one is feeling lacking, inadequate or imperfect. Nothing ‘out there’ has conditions to be OK, they are all OK, be it a stone, a plant, an animal, a fungus, a spring, a colour, an atom, a bacterium, a celestial body, all OK and perfect.
Metaphorically speaking, the symptoms (or the messenger if you will) display the outlines, the characteristics of a particular phenomenon or at least something similar ‘out there’. Homeopaths study the patterns of those phenomena, described in their Materia Medica. Then we can apply the law of similars. A known phenomenon with a similar pattern, a ‘perfect example’ is given to the patient. By the law of entrainment, the message is understood and overwrites the so-called imperfect idea in the patient. Then the symptoms/ messenger have done their job and can leave.
As an example: a woman might say: my problem is I never manage to do my own thing, there is always somebody to take care for; first my children and grandchildren, then my parents and now my sick husband. I can’t say ‘no’, if somebody is in need or pain and there is always something more urgent to do than my own development. I feel I lack self-love, boundaries.
The homeopath might think: yes, Plant, because you receive all input from the world around you and can’t but react to all of it. That is your nature, not a flaw, and it is exactly that giving personality that distributes beauty, abundance, food, shelter, medicine, parfum, everything. Without plants the planet would be a desert. Your caring and empathy is a blessing for the world. But you want something different. Your gift becomes a flaw, a burden, a limitation. This creates dis-ease and disharmony. Let this remedy with a similar but undisturbed pattern overwrite yours. Every phenomenon is pulled into being by divine creation and so are we, very complex and complicated, I agree but nevertheless.
As an addendum: needless to say, that a large percentage of our diseases are caused by our life style: toxins everywhere, bad diets, poor nutrition, too much stress etc. We all know this. The messenger also comes to point this out, in case we aren’t clever enough to realize the obvious. Any treatment to mitigate these symptoms, which allows the person to continue this lifestyle will only lead to more symptoms. A bolder messenger will come, knocking your door and this one may not be silenced before the message is delivered.
