The Law of Similars and Dissimilars and its Consequences

[Sheri Nakken]

MISC: The Law of Similars and Dissimilars and its Consequences
by Dr. Luc de Schepper, , MD, PhD, DI Hom., CHom., Lic.Ac.

It is important for the reader and homeopath alike to understand these two
basic laws of homeopathy in order to judge the choice of the chosen remedy
but also in the case of needing to change the chosen remedy (simillimum).
The simillimum or the rightfully chosen remedy for the patient is the right
remedy, the right potency (strength) and the right dose (amount). All three
of these parameters must be fulfilled. More about dose and potency will be
addressed in the next lectures. This lecture focuses primarily on some of
the laws that the homeopath must apply to find the simillimum. Other
lectures in the future will add pertinent information regarding Laws and
Principles of Homeopathy. Sometimes I quote an Aphorism from the Organon,
the master work of Hahnemann. For the public, the best Organon (and
cheapest) can be obtained at www.mimimum.com (Organon of Medicine, Jost
Kunzli Edition).

The Law of Similars or "Like cures Like"

What does this mean? How does the homeopathic remedy cure? This is answered
in A12-27 of the Organon and I have expressed it here in common terms:

"The curative power of our homeopathic remedy is based on symptom
similarity, not the same symptoms, of the chosen remedy and the presenting
picture of the patient. The chosen remedy creates a similar "disease" state
stronger than the presenting patient's natural disease."

In other words we create a similar and stronger disease than what the
patient present. Does this mean we must make the patient sicker before he
gets better? This is an unfortunate thinking of many patients and present
homeopaths. As you will learn further, this aggravation of your existing
symptoms (called similar aggravation) can be totally avoided by selecting
the right potency, frequency of repetition and dose (see further lectures).
Your homeopath must be familiar with the 5th and 6th edition of the Organon
and at this point at least 90% of homeopaths in the world are not!

This Law of Similars reminds the reader of the basis of vaccinations and
allergy shots that allopathic Western medicine uses in the practice. Alas,
although allopathy practices "unconscious" homeopathy in this instance, by
mixing many vaccinations, giving too much of a dose and repeating them too
often, allopathy sins against the rest of the homeopathic principles. In
other words, vaccinations would be much safer and provide real prevention
if they would be administered on the right time (who needs on the first day
of his life Hepatitis vaccinations; through breast feeding infants have a
natural immunity for first seven months), only one at the time and in
homeopathic (non material) doses. There are of course many vaccinations
that are not necessary: the child is much better off to go through
childhood diseases as this is an exercise for the child's immune system.
Adults who never had childhood diseases (or on the contrary had one of them
in excessive form) fit the homeopathic profile of more severe diseases
later, even cancer. For more info regarding vaccinations consult Sheri
Nakken's excellent web site: Vaccination Information & Choice Network :
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/homeo.htm
homeopathycures@tesco.net

Let's give a simple acute example of this first Law of Similars. Assume you
get travelers' diarrhea touring beautiful Mexico (usually this is not
advertised in the brochures). I actually had it in India: I had greenish
diarrhea, every 5 minutes, with bloating of the whole abdomen, after eating
contaminated food, plus nausea. Worst time was between midnight and 2 am.
As you can see I want to know a little more than the complaint, "I have
diarrhea" and no I am not anally fixated. This diarrhea is a natural
reaction of your immune system to expel the toxins of the bad food so it is
incomprehensible that regular medicine (allopathy) will advise you to take
something that stops this natural process of evacuation, in other words, go
against Nature's defense mechanism. By giving homeopathic China in this
case, chosen on the similar symptoms to be found in this remedy, I created
a stronger similar medicinal (caused by the remedy) disease and Nature's
Law always says that "the weaker natural (patient's) disease will disappear
through the creation of a stronger medicinal disease (my China disease). We
will learn further how we know when to discontinue this acute remedy
because we are cured! The same principle is in force for chronic diseases.
This homeopathic principle was discovered by Hahnemann in 1793 when he was
experimenting on himself with exactly this remedy (China: bark of the tree
contains Quinine) to provoke symptoms of malaria in himself. However when
he stopped the doses, his normal health returned and he had no bad
consequences from the proving of this remedy. This became the beginning of
all his experiments. Allopathy stumbled on the same principle when Edward
Jenner, an English country doctor, who discovered by coincidence that a
farmer's woman infected by cow pox was immune to the small pox epidemic
that was raging. Cowpox inoculation has been shown to prevent or greatly
diminish small pox and is till used now! This finding was the basis for the
first vaccination and later was found that the cow pox virus and the small
pox were very similar, not the same, in nature. It reflects again the first
homeopathic law as I stated before. Alas, allopathy has not learned
anything from the further findings of Homeopathy.

Now regarding a chronic disease. Let's take the example of an autistic
child. The patient's symptoms (and this means a lot more than expressed
symptoms) are as much as possible matched to the proving symptoms of one of
the 3,000 and more remedies we have. A lecture in the future will exactly
state how you can assist your homeopath in providing the symptoms that will
lead to a cure of your case.

To further understand the action of the homeopathic remedy, one has to
analyze the laws of dissimilar diseases.

The Law of Dissimilar Diseases

The creation of a dissimilar disease (not a similar one like Homeopathy) is
the goal of allopathy. Not often is the word "cure" used anymore but
rather, allopathy tries to "control" the natural chronic disease. Remark
that I speak here of chronic diseases, not acute. Chronic diseases are
those that are at least 6 months and more old. Regarding acute disease,
Voltaire said rightfully, "Nature cures while the physician amuses the
patient." While this is correct for many acute illnesses, I will in a
future lecture show what kind of acute diseases do need an intervention.

But let's see what happens if we create a dissimilar disease, the goal of
allopathic intervention? What happens to the patient's presenting natural
disease? There are three possibilities!

1. The old stronger chronic disease repels the new weaker one (A36)
What does this mean? Any physician in his office and often the patient
himself has seen this. For example, patients with CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue)
would say: "I never get a cold." This is a form of negative immunization
due to the fact that the patient's constitution is already suffering from a
severe disease. The immune system is already fighting a mighty enemy and in
this state of high alert, a small enemy patrol (a cold) has no chance to
penetrate the defensive perimeter. So if such patient all of a sudden gets
a cold, it is actually often a sign of recovery.

When the homeopathic remedy has not been chosen in the right potency and
dose (too small), the medicinal similar disease we try to create, will not
be stronger as we wish to do and the remedy, although perfectly selected
homeopathically, will have no result. Homeopaths who claim, that the dose
and potency is not as important as the rightly selected remedy should
rethink what they are doing as it will lead to wrong decisions such as
changing remedies where this should not have happened. All that was needed
was a change in potency and/or dose and frequency of dosing (more about
this in later lectures).

This same principle also explains the allopathic drug resistance one might
encounter: if the natural disease remains stronger than the drug-induced
illness, the medication will not have any immediate suppressive (not
curing!) action. As a result higher amounts are given with even more side
effects.

2. The new disease suspends the old one, but does not CURE them! (A38)

This is exactly what allopathy with its drugs tries to achieve. The
stronger action of the dissimilar drug creates a dissimilar disease that
suppresses the existing patient's presenting natural disease (let's assume
chronic migraines) until the action of this medication runs out (half-life
time of medications). Then of course repetition of the drug or as time goes
on, larger amount of stronger suppression are necessary to obtain the same
results, however with more side effects, but no cure of the migraine is
achieved. Often the "cure" (read suppression) is worse than the original
disease as an array of drug side effects takes place. That in allopathy we
create a dissimilar disease is easily shown when in allopathy we always
speak of anti-this or that; for diarrhea we give an anti diarrhea drug,
anti-fever drugs, anti-arthritic drugs, etc, always the perfect dissimilar
drug for the disease as it is a 100% the opposite; this is not the same as
hormonal replacements like estrogen, insulin for diabetes, etc.). So the
only thing we achieve with allopathic drugs is suspending, the chronic
disease, not curing it. That's why your doctor always answers on the
question, "How long do I need to take this drug," "For the rest of your
life." This tells you right away that allopathy does not have a cure for
your disease.
When we talk about a new disease suspending the old presenting one, this is
also important for the homeopath. Assume you are in treatment for a chronic
condition (arthritis for instance) and now you have a very severe cold or a
severe emotional trauma. This is a NEW acute disease and needs an acute
intercurrent remedy for that cold or emotional trauma, while suspending the
chronic remedy you took (for arthritis) before this acute event happened!!
What does the patient see? That most of the arthritis symptoms as by
miracle disappeared or alleviated greatly while they have this flu. They
might say: "My chronic arthritis was much better while I had this flu. But
once the flu was cured, the arthritis came back just as much as before." So
be aware of those homeopaths who say that they never need an acute or
chronic intercurrent! They don't know the first principle of homeopathy and
will ruin your case for the future. In a further lecture I will expand
exactly for what acute diseases we need an acute intercurrent.

3. A complex disease forms

Two dissimilar diseases of the same strength can be active at the same time
and will settle down in the area of the patient for which it has the most
attraction or affinity. Therefore complex diseases exist to which the
immune system needs to fight two or more diseases simultaneously, a mighty
battle. Such complex disease creates of course different sets of symptoms
making our selection of the homeopathic remedy more difficult. The most
common cause of these complex diseases is the suppressive acts of
allopathic medications. Some diseases become incurable by such measures.
How many patients do we know that take 5 different medications for their
ailments and five additional ones to suppress further the side effects of
the first five? Everyone sees this in practice. It is a hard task for the
homeopath to rectify such illness, but not impossible!
This is the end of lecture One. To answer an additional question from the
public. Someone after listening to a lecture about finding THE remedy of
the year for flu (called genus epidemicus) was all excited and thought,
"maybe there is a genus epidemicus", in other words ONE remedy for all
autistic children. Sounds logical yet it is totally wrong. When we talk
about genus epidemicus we are talking about acute diseases that come up
sporadically among the population like the yearly flu. In other words every
year we have a different flu virus (that's why the old previous flu
vaccinations are worthless and dangerous) but the homeopath after examining
about ten flu victims can determine THE remedy for that year's flu. When we
speak of ASD we speak of a chronic condition that is determined by many
more individual factors: constitution, hereditary factors, causality, etc.
We never treat a name of a disease, but a patient with a disease. It is the
gravest mistake of allopathy to try to put diseases names on people. The
goal of course is to apply a treatment protocol. However any person knows
that he is a unique individual, with unique features, background,
hereditary factors and as Carl Jung concluded, therefore will react on any
situation in his own individual way. The law of individuality is just as
much a sacred principle as the previous Laws. We might have ten ASD
patients and need ten different remedies. I wish it was different as
practicing homeopathy would be easier! Let's face it: when you go to the
tailor, does he have one dress or suit for everyone? One size fits all?
Dr. Luc de Schepper, , MD, PhD, DI Hom., CHom., Lic.Ac.
www.drluc.com

[Sheri Nakken]

http://www.drluc.com/lecture-one.html
MISC: The Law of Similars and Dissimilars and its Consequences
by Dr. Luc de Schepper, , MD, PhD, DI Hom., CHom., Lic.Ac.

It is important for the reader and homeopath alike to understand
these two basic laws of homeopathy in order to judge the choice of
the chosen remedy but also in the case of needing to change the
chosen remedy (simillimum). The simillimum or the rightfully chosen
remedy for the patient is the right remedy, the right potency
(strength) and the right dose (amount). All three of these parameters
must be fulfilled. More about dose and potency will be addressed in
the next lectures. This lecture focuses primarily on some of the laws
that the homeopath must apply to find the simillimum. Other lectures
in the future will add pertinent information regarding Laws and
Principles of Homeopathy. Sometimes I quote an Aphorism from the
Organon, the master work of Hahnemann. For the public, the best
Organon (and cheapest) can be obtained at www.mimimum.com (Organon of
Medicine, Jost Kunzli Edition).

The Law of Similars or "Like cures Like"

What does this mean? How does the homeopathic remedy cure? This is
answered in A12-27 of the Organon and I have expressed it here in common terms:

"The curative power of our homeopathic remedy is based on symptom
similarity, not the same symptoms, of the chosen remedy and the
presenting picture of the patient. The chosen remedy creates a
similar "disease" state stronger than the presenting patient's
natural disease."

In other words we create a similar and stronger disease than what the
patient present. Does this mean we must make the patient sicker
before he gets better? This is an unfortunate thinking of many
patients and present homeopaths. As you will learn further, this
aggravation of your existing symptoms (called similar aggravation)
can be totally avoided by selecting the right potency, frequency of
repetition and dose (see further lectures). Your homeopath must be
familiar with the 5th and 6th edition of the Organon and at this
point at least 90% of homeopaths in the world are not!

This Law of Similars reminds the reader of the basis of
vaccinations and allergy shots that allopathic Western medicine uses
in the practice. Alas, although allopathy practices "unconscious"
homeopathy in this instance, by mixing many vaccinations, giving too
much of a dose and repeating them too often, allopathy sins against
the rest of the homeopathic principles. In other words, vaccinations
would be much safer and provide real prevention if they would be
administered on the right time (who needs on the first day of his
life Hepatitis vaccinations; through breast feeding infants have a
natural immunity for first seven months), only one at the time and in
homeopathic (non material) doses. There are of course many
vaccinations that are not necessary: the child is much better off to
go through childhood diseases as this is an exercise for the child's
immune system. Adults who never had childhood diseases (or on the
contrary had one of them in excessive form) fit the homeopathic
profile of more severe diseases later, even cancer. For more info
regarding vaccinations consult Sheri Nakken's excellent web site:
Vaccination Information & Choice Network :
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/homeo.htm
homeopathycures@tesco.net

Let's give a simple acute example of this first Law of Similars.
Assume you get travelers' diarrhea touring beautiful Mexico (usually
this is not advertised in the brochures). I actually had it in India:
I had greenish diarrhea, every 5 minutes, with bloating of the whole
abdomen, after eating contaminated food, plus nausea. Worst time was
between midnight and 2 am. As you can see I want to know a little
more than the complaint, "I have diarrhea" and no I am not anally
fixated. This diarrhea is a natural reaction of your immune system to
expel the toxins of the bad food so it is incomprehensible that
regular medicine (allopathy) will advise you to take something that
stops this natural process of evacuation, in other words, go against
Nature's defense mechanism. By giving homeopathic China in this case,
chosen on the similar symptoms to be found in this remedy, I created
a stronger similar medicinal (caused by the remedy) disease and
Nature's Law always says that "the weaker natural (patient's) disease
will disappear through the creation of a stronger medicinal disease
(my China disease). We will learn further how we know when to
discontinue this acute remedy because we are cured! The same
principle is in force for chronic diseases. This homeopathic
principle was discovered by Hahnemann in 1793 when he was
experimenting on himself with exactly this remedy (China: bark of the
tree contains Quinine) to provoke symptoms of malaria in himself.
However when he stopped the doses, his normal health returned and he
had no bad consequences from the proving of this remedy. This became
the beginning of all his experiments. Allopathy stumbled on the same
principle when Edward Jenner, an English country doctor, who
discovered by coincidence that a farmer's woman infected by cow pox
was immune to the small pox epidemic that was raging. Cowpox
inoculation has been shown to prevent or greatly diminish small pox
and is till used now! This finding was the basis for the first
vaccination and later was found that the cow pox virus and the small
pox were very similar, not the same, in nature. It reflects again the
first homeopathic law as I stated before. Alas, allopathy has not
learned anything from the further findings of Homeopathy.

Now regarding a chronic disease. Let's take the example of an
autistic child. The patient's symptoms (and this means a lot more
than expressed symptoms) are as much as possible matched to the
proving symptoms of one of the 3,000 and more remedies we have. A
lecture in the future will exactly state how you can assist your
homeopath in providing the symptoms that will lead to a cure of your case.

To further understand the action of the homeopathic remedy, one has
to analyze the laws of dissimilar diseases.

The Law of Dissimilar Diseases

The creation of a dissimilar disease (not a similar one like
Homeopathy) is the goal of allopathy. Not often is the word "cure"
used anymore but rather, allopathy tries to "control" the natural
chronic disease. Remark that I speak here of chronic diseases, not
acute. Chronic diseases are those that are at least 6 months and more
old. Regarding acute disease, Voltaire said rightfully, "Nature cures
while the physician amuses the patient." While this is correct for
many acute illnesses, I will in a future lecture show what kind of
acute diseases do need an intervention.

But let's see what happens if we create a dissimilar disease, the
goal of allopathic intervention? What happens to the patient's
presenting natural disease? There are three possibilities!

1. The old stronger chronic disease repels the new weaker one (A36)
What does this mean? Any physician in his office and often the
patient himself has seen this. For example, patients with CFIDS
(Chronic Fatigue) would say: "I never get a cold." This is a form of
negative immunization due to the fact that the patient's constitution
is already suffering from a severe disease. The immune system is
already fighting a mighty enemy and in this state of high alert, a
small enemy patrol (a cold) has no chance to penetrate the defensive
perimeter. So if such patient all of a sudden gets a cold, it is
actually often a sign of recovery.

When the homeopathic remedy has not been chosen in the right potency
and dose (too small), the medicinal similar disease we try to create,
will not be stronger as we wish to do and the remedy, although
perfectly selected homeopathically, will have no result. Homeopaths
who claim, that the dose and potency is not as important as the
rightly selected remedy should rethink what they are doing as it will
lead to wrong decisions such as changing remedies where this should
not have happened. All that was needed was a change in potency and/or
dose and frequency of dosing (more about this in later lectures).

This same principle also explains the allopathic drug resistance one
might encounter: if the natural disease remains stronger than the
drug-induced illness, the medication will not have any immediate
suppressive (not curing!) action. As a result higher amounts are
given with even more side effects.

2. The new disease suspends the old one, but does not CURE them! (A38)

This is exactly what allopathy with its drugs tries to achieve. The
stronger action of the dissimilar drug creates a dissimilar disease
that suppresses the existing patient's presenting natural disease
(let's assume chronic migraines) until the action of this medication
runs out (half-life time of medications). Then of course repetition
of the drug or as time goes on, larger amount of stronger suppression
are necessary to obtain the same results, however with more side
effects, but no cure of the migraine is achieved. Often the "cure"
(read suppression) is worse than the original disease as an array of
drug side effects takes place. That in allopathy we create a
dissimilar disease is easily shown when in allopathy we always speak
of anti-this or that; for diarrhea we give an anti diarrhea drug,
anti-fever drugs, anti-arthritic drugs, etc, always the perfect
dissimilar drug for the disease as it is a 100% the opposite; this is
not the same as hormonal replacements like estrogen, insulin for
diabetes, etc.). So the only thing we achieve with allopathic drugs
is suspending, the chronic disease, not curing it. That's why your
doctor always answers on the question, "How long do I need to take
this drug," "For the rest of your life." This tells you right away
that allopathy does not have a cure for your disease.
When we talk about a new disease suspending the old presenting one,
this is also important for the homeopath. Assume you are in treatment
for a chronic condition (arthritis for instance) and now you have a
very severe cold or a severe emotional trauma. This is a NEW acute
disease and needs an acute intercurrent remedy for that cold or
emotional trauma, while suspending the chronic remedy you took (for
arthritis) before this acute event happened!! What does the patient
see? That most of the arthritis symptoms as by miracle disappeared or
alleviated greatly while they have this flu. They might say: "My
chronic arthritis was much better while I had this flu. But once the
flu was cured, the arthritis came back just as much as before." So be
aware of those homeopaths who say that they never need an acute or
chronic intercurrent! They don't know the first principle of
homeopathy and will ruin your case for the future. In a further
lecture I will expand exactly for what acute diseases we need an
acute intercurrent.

3. A complex disease forms

Two dissimilar diseases of the same strength can be active at the
same time and will settle down in the area of the patient for which
it has the most attraction or affinity. Therefore complex diseases
exist to which the immune system needs to fight two or more diseases
simultaneously, a mighty battle. Such complex disease creates of
course different sets of symptoms making our selection of the
homeopathic remedy more difficult. The most common cause of these
complex diseases is the suppressive acts of allopathic medications.
Some diseases become incurable by such measures. How many patients do
we know that take 5 different medications for their ailments and five
additional ones to suppress further the side effects of the first
five? Everyone sees this in practice. It is a hard task for the
homeopath to rectify such illness, but not impossible!
This is the end of lecture One. To answer an additional question from
the public. Someone after listening to a lecture about finding THE
remedy of the year for flu (called genus epidemicus) was all excited
and thought, "maybe there is a genus epidemicus", in other words ONE
remedy for all autistic children. Sounds logical yet it is totally
wrong. When we talk about genus epidemicus we are talking about acute
diseases that come up sporadically among the population like the
yearly flu. In other words every year we have a different flu virus
(that's why the old previous flu vaccinations are worthless and
dangerous) but the homeopath after examining about ten flu victims
can determine THE remedy for that year's flu. When we speak of ASD we
speak of a chronic condition that is determined by many more
individual factors: constitution, hereditary factors, causality, etc.
We never treat a name of a disease, but a patient with a disease. It
is the gravest mistake of allopathy to try to put diseases names on
people. The goal of course is to apply a treatment protocol. However
any person knows that he is a unique individual, with unique
features, background, hereditary factors and as Carl Jung concluded,
therefore will react on any situation in his own individual way. The
law of individuality is just as much a sacred principle as the
previous Laws. We might have ten ASD patients and need ten different
remedies. I wish it was different as practicing homeopathy would be
easier! Let's face it: when you go to the tailor, does he have one
dress or suit for everyone? One size fits all?
Dr. Luc de Schepper, , MD, PhD, DI Hom., CHom., Lic.Ac.
www.drluc.com