Homeopathy

Homeopathy is a form of energetic medicine that is based on the concept of “like cures like.” It was discovered by Samuel Hahnemann, MD in the 19th century when he realized that quinine, which was used to treat malaria, would actually cause malaria symptoms if ingested by a healthy person. He also found that mercury, which was used to treat syphilis, also produced syphillis-like symptoms in healthy individuals. He then began testing other medicines and found that medicines used to treat disease could also temporarily cause symptoms of the disease when ingested by healthy individuals. Hahnemann then decided to flip this concept around. He tested many substances - from the plant, mineral, or animal kingdoms - on healthy people and documented the symptoms they caused. And when patients came to him with certain symptoms, he would treat them with the remedy that matched those symptoms best.

The reason homeopathy is considered an energetic medicine is that substances have to be diluted so much that no identifiable molecules of the original substance remain. Hahnemann found that this was the only way to avoid toxicity by highly poisonous materials. What is believed to remain is the “energy” of that substance. This is the beauty - and highly contested and hotly debated issue - of homeopathy.