The Healing Process

 

This goes beyond the physiology of healing of skin, bones, organs, etc. This page deals with the overall flow of healing as affected by the Autonomic Nervous System. One of the most helpful approaches to understanding how the body handles the toxic stresses of life is in the chart on "Homotoxicology." This graphically shows that when a deep level of the body's systems is supported and moves toward healing, then other parts of the body that are less important are likely to show signs of taking on the effort of helping the healing process. 

 

Graphics of unique responses: 1) Prigogine's "Dissipative Structures" model;

2) Vithoulkas' nesting cones model of levels of human function. Each of these adds to understanding how complex each of us is and why our responses vary.

 

Homotoxicology Chart: Human stress responses to toxic overload

Web Screen View;   downloadable printable Adobe PDF version [Get free PDF reader]

 

               Mentioned elsewhere on this web site, sometime also see:

Five Levels Map to Guide Healing: 

See as fast-loading HTML page, or printable PDF file. [download free PDF reader]

         Dr. Klinghardt gives a description of this "Vertical Healing System."

Healing Power of Nature. This is my handout that describes factors that affect health and healing.  Fast-loading HTML page, or original printable PDF file.

Blocks to the Healing Process: Obstacles to Cure / ANS Function Factors.

[See also Introduction to Homeopathy | Why "Classical Homeopathy" often fails]

Classically, homeopaths recognize "Laws of Cure":

Hering's laws of cure

The homeopathic laws of cure were outlined by Constantine Hering, a student of Hahnemann who came to the United States in the 1830s. Hering enunciated three laws or principles of the patterns of healing that are used by homeopaths to evaluate the effectiveness of specific remedies and the overall progress of constitutional prescribing:

• Healing progresses from the deepest parts of the organism to the external parts. Homeopaths consider the person's mental and emotional dimensions, together with the brain, heart, and other vital organs, as a person's deepest parts. The skin, hands, and feet are considered the external parts.

• Symptoms appear or disappear in the reverse of their chronological order of appearance. In terms of constitutional treatment, this law means that miasms acquired later in life will resolve before earlier ones.

• Healing proceeds from the upper to the lower parts of the body.

Healing crises

Homeopaths use Hering's laws to explain the appearance of so-called healing crises, or aggravations, in the course of homeopathic treatment. It is not unusual for patients to experience temporary worsening of certain symptoms after taking their first doses of homeopathic treatment. For example, a person might notice that arthritic pains in the shoulders are better but that the hands feel worse. Hering's third law would indicate that the remedy is working because the symptoms are moving downward in the body. In constitutional prescribing, a remedy that removes one of the patient's miasmic layers will then allow the symptoms of an older miasm to emerge. Thus the patient may find that a physical disease is followed by a different set of physical problems or by emotional symptoms.

 

My notes on The Healing Process and Healing Reactions

 

As you begin homeopathic treatment and the body's immune defense and repair system begins to "clean house" there may be any of several responses. These need to be assessed individually to be sure they do not represent a new disease. With the skin as the least important area to discharge "toxins" and the mental aspect as the most important area to protect, the life energy can create a wide range of signs as different imbalances are addressed. Regarding memories, old memories are not necessarily relived but instead more space is created for resolution, release, inner peace.      

 

The following are credited to Rudolf Verspoor, homeopath.

Healing Stages: Rudolf Verspoor writes about watching a patient go through healing stages: "...You say it is frightening to go through. But listen to your patient. She is not frightened. It is frightening to look at, maybe, but she is not frightened. She is in a good place despite all this stuff. She is quite happy. Talking on the phone she is ecstatic about all this. She thinks it is good stuff. She feels better, stronger, cleaning out old stuff. What you discover is that as you go through it yourself, you discover that all this stuff is really on the surface; it is superficial. You could be quite calm, collected, controlled and at peace inside, but you have this incredible sense that it is out there. You are feeling it, but it is out there so you are safe and protected. So reading it out of context can be misleading. You have to do it with the patient. That is where you get the confidence that this is a good process..."  

Question: If someone has kidney problems or cystitis, should they be concerned that they will end up on dialysis while they are healing?      

Answer: No, but they may get a lot of symptoms. The kidney patient will not end up on dialysis. They may have all the symptoms even heart things; talk to them and see that at the mental/emotional level they are coping better or they are not really sick. If they know what to expect they will realize it is not a disease process they are experiencing. They know they are not really sick and they just have to be reassured.      

Q: How about a child with an ear infection?      

A: When they get treated at the healing crisis they are going to show symptoms in the ears. So they will pull at their ears. If you distract them they are fine, and it doesn't get worse. Or if you talk to the child they seem fine. But if the mother takes the child to the doctor, the doctor will see inflammation in the ear and think there is an infection because the signs point to that. If the parent knows what to expect, they will see that it is not a disease process and will wait.      

Q: Lab tests?      

A: Temporarily, the cholesterol or other finding may go up a little. An example of how medicine and homeopathy interpret a situation differently: A little girl had jaundice; she couldn't produce the enzyme to assimilate the bilirubin so it collected in the liver. She was treated homeopathically. The lab reading of bilirubin shot from under 300 to 600; the medical doctor was quite concerned. But the mother said "Look at her. She hasn't had any infections all winter, she doesn't have jaundice now and she is happy." The test was telling the doctor she was at a level he equated with danger; he didn't believe there was a healing process going on. But the doctor had to admit she did not appear to be suffering despite the reading. So, the signs may be there but other things are not there. There may be some temporary symptoms and signs, but you have to look at things more closely. If in the end there is a need for intervention that needs to be considered, but this is rare.  

Interesting note: Some patients report having tooth discomfort during homeopathic treatment. This has been explained as the effects of increased flow of energy through the acupuncture meridians supplying the teeth. Again, do not make decisions to treat a discomfort before carefully analyzing whether it is part of the healing process.