Editorial
By Richard Pitt
We are happy to present the 2nd edition of the California Homeopath as part of our goal of producing four editions a year, beginning in 2013. We are slightly behind schedule but are gearing up now for two more editions to follow this one before the years end. As editor of the journal, I am very interested for us to expand the numbers of homeopaths who would like to contribute to the journal so please do consider writing articles on any subject pertinent to homeopathy. Our vision for the journal is for it to be a broad exploration of homeopathy and allied subjects, anything pertaining to the world of natural medicine, and to bring together homeopaths and healers from all over the globe.
The new president of the California Homeopathic Medical Society (CHMS), Stuart Garber has written an article outlining his vision for the organization, which as he said, originated back in the 19th century and so represents a continued presence of homeopathy in California. More than ever, there is a need to have strong organizations to represent the profession and in California, where there has always been an active homeopathic profession and community, the role of the CHMS can be important for the profession. We encourage all homeopaths in California and beyond to join the society and support our work in maintaining a strong homeopathic presence in California and the US in general. Also, by being a member you get access to this journal. In light of the developments in California I thought it appropriate to have an article by Kathleen Schieble, a graduate of Pacific Academy of Homeopathy in San Francisco and one of the founders of the Bay Area Homeopathy Association, which she now runs and keeps alive an active community organization in San Francisco.
I am currently in the UK and just over one week ago there was a front page article in the Daily Mail – one of the more righteous right wing rags in British journalism – stating that Prince Charles was in a row with the National Health Service (NHS) over access to homeopathy and other alternative and complementary forms of medicine on the NHS. The subtitle said “Top Doctors say Homeopathy is Witchcraft.” No other newspapers had anything on the subject but it was just one more example of the vitriol channeled toward homeopathy in the UK in the last few years. Some people are determined to exclude homeopathy from the National Health Service which is under increasing pressure to cut costs and maintain services which they are finding difficulty doing. While the benefits of the National Health Service are renowned – not having to walk the tightrope of privatized care in the USA, when losing your job can mean losing coverage and where healthcare costs are the highest in the world – the system is creaking and consuming a vast proportion of the GDP of the country. The argument should really not be about whether healthcare is private or public, but the quality of it and where the focus should be much more on prevention, and giving people knowledge and more autonomy over their health. However, in the UK, when it has come to criticizing homeopathy for taking precious pounds away from “effective care”, little attention is really given to how homeopathy really can contribute to preventing sickness and in the end saving money for the NHS. It has consumed such a miniscule proportion of the NHS budget that the attacks against it really have nothing to do with economics but is simply a politically motivated agenda based on a philosophical aversion to homeopathy.
Hence my article called “The God Question and its Implications for Homeopathy” is an attempt to explore the philosophical dynamics that underlie the attacks on homeopathy and other natural therapies under the rubric that they are not “scientific” and how the idea of Scientism has taken hold within some of the scientific community and much of the media in the UK, both from left and right wing positions. Ironically there is somewhat more support for homeopathy in right wing circles than the New Labour movement in the UK.
Following on from the previous theme of Homeopathy in Africa, there are two reports from Ghana and Kenya and the work going on in both countries. I have lived and worked in both countries, working for both projects, more recently in Kenya where Marie Magre, a Dutch woman has lived for five years and is running a three year full-time professional school in Homeopathy. She is helping to develop the homeopathic profession in Kenya and when I was there, we started a new organization called the Kenya Association for Homeopathy. Please do go to her site at www.4kenya.org and see the work she is doing as well as read the newsletter. Similarly in Ghana, Linda Shannon and Angie Metzger have been doing amazing work for a number of years, along with other colleagues in supporting a school and other projects in Ghana. Much progress has been made and they are lucky in having competent people living permanently in Ghana helping to run the project.
On a whole other topic, experienced British homeopath, Rob Bannan, who has lived for many years in the USA, has written a fascinating article on a relatively new method of attempting to find a similimum for people, using an Algorithm system created by the Candegabe family in Argentina. Do read the article to get a better idea of what is going on. Rob is convinced of its efficacy in helping to find remedies for patients that would be impossible using conventional methods.
There are also a couple of book reviews, one of a book by Harry van der Zee and Peter Chappell, exploring further the PC resonances and its philosophical and practical application and a great new introductory book on Homeopathy by Burke (Begabati) Lennihan.
I hope you enjoy this issue of the journal and please be in touch. As mentioned, any articles are gratefully received and if anybody has any ideas of themes and directions for the jounal, do let us know.
Best Wishes,
Richard Pitt