homeopathy This claimed healing modus is included here because it is an excellent example of an attempt to make sympathetic magic work. Its founder, Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann (1775?-1843), believed that all illnesses develop from only three sources: syphilis, venereal warts, and what he called "the itch." The motto of homeopathy is "Similia similibus curantur" ("Like cures like"😉. It claims that doses of substances that produce certain symptoms will relieve those symptoms; however, the "doses" are extremely attenuated solutions or mixtures, so attenuated that not a single molecule of the original substance remains. In fact, the homeopathic corrective is actually pure water, nothing more. The theory is that the vibrations or "effect" of the diluted-out substance are still present and work on the patient. Currently, researchers in homeopathy are examining a new notion that water can be magnetized and can transmit its medicinal powers by means of a copper wire. Really. The royal family of England adopted homeopathy at its very beginning and have retained a homeopathic physician on staff ever since. The only concern of homeopaths is to treat the symptoms of disease, rather than the basic causes, which they do not recognize. Thus homeopathy correctly falls into the category of magic. And quackery.
The other kind of quakery is the overemphasis on the "germ theory." Every "health expert" predicted massive epidemics in the afermath of the tsunami, and that did not happen. The stressor theory of Hans Selye and the free radical theory of Denham Harman can now be united, but too much has been committed to the germ theory. The evidence is there, for all to see, on www.pubmed.com. Do a search for oxidative, ROS, free radical and you'll see what I mean. This way of understanding "disease" is consistent will all the lines of evidence, whether it be demographic, epidemiological, molecular, toxicological, endocrinological, or physiological. If you search this group for montygram you can read some of my posts, where I explain all of this in detail.
http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/homeopathy.html Currently, researchers in homeopathy are examining a new notion that water can be magnetized and can transmit its medicinal powers by means of a copper wire. Really. The royal family of England adopted homeopathy at its very beginning and have retained a homeopathic physician on staff ever since.
COMMENT:
"One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise, she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion."
