by Richard Pitt

Ways of Seeing is a title of a famous book by the author John Berger in which he states that our views of things are influenced and conditioned by our culture and beliefs. In particular he explores the relationship to the attitudes toward women as represented in art and the book has made a seminal contribution to the understanding of art criticism and the broader debate on objectivity and value as presented in any culture.

I entitled my essay in the journal, “Ways of Seeing”, as I wanted to explore the ways in which we approach the study of materia medica and case analysis and the challenges of exploring this body of information. As I mention in the article, Hahnemann in Aphorism 3 of the Organon stated that a physician needs to have knowledge of the healing power of medicine and knowledge of disease and how to match one to the other. Knowledge of medicines comes from the study of provings and the curative capacity of our medicines, as well as it does from the knowledge of the medicinal substance itself. However, as explored by Frans Vermeulen in both articles presented in this journal, this knowledge has been fraught with inaccuracies, assumptions and flawed provings, making our work even more difficult. Vermeulen is doing sterling work in clarifying many of these mistakes, even made by some of the masters of old, including Hahnemann, T.F. Allen and Hering. 

Editorial Part Two

After seven years of being editor of the California Homeopath, my colleague Marci Mearns and I have been exploring the possibilities for the future of the journal. We feel that the journal has offered a unique and indepth view on topics pertinent to homeopathy and our vision has always been to have a journal that extends the boundaries of conventional homeopathic writing and encompass a broader investigation into health and the contribution homeopathy can make.

by Frans Vermeulen

“Trust, but verify,” were the great American president Ronald Reagan’s watchwords in dealing with the Soviets about an arms control treaty. 

 Finding both fact and fiction blended in homeopathic anthology, we must institute an examination into the merits of subjects and substances. And in doing so we should be neither awed by authority nor allured by the fascinations of novelty. Lack of intellectual rigour, an acceptance of pragmatic just-so answers, and that old enemy, assumption, have combined to create the fog in which we find ourselves wondering and wandering around in materia medica land. 

by Richard Pitt

In many ways, AIDS is the disease of the modern world. Although cancer kills many more people than AIDS ever has, and Malaria is much more common than AIDS in Africa (irrespective of HIV status), AIDS has captured the popular imagination like no other disease. Partly because of the way it seemed to suddenly erupt onto the world, initially in predominantly gay populations in major urban areas in the United States and Europe - and now more so in Africa - it has provoked a massive world-wide campaign to address the disease, becoming the largest peace time operation in the world. In the West, after initial denial of the disease - partly as it was affecting gay people who at that time were not being socially accepted - the juggernaut of the pharmaceutical and medical industry as well as governments were activated, leading to the development of a huge AIDS industry to attempt to find a cure.

by Deborah Gordon

“Great, just a few more questions. You have told me about which foods you really love and which foods you just can’t stand. Now I’d like you to tell me, throughout a given day, what do you actually eat?”

After pursuing threads that lead me to the selection of the proper remedy, I question my patient further, at greatest length on the foods they eat, but also how they set up their home, their body care products, and their choice of exercise (or not!) to round out my vision of the way they live their life. As a younger homeopath, I had bottomless faith in the power of the properly selected remedy to right all wrongs, but since then, I have returned to the wisdom of Samuel Hahnemann. Ready for a little Organon review?

by Dr. Meetu Goel
MD (Hom.), NHMC & H
Senior Research Fellow, CCRH, Delhi

In Bilaspur, just one doctor, Dr. R. K. Gupta, conducted 83 operations with one instrument in five hours — less than four minutes per operation. Of the 83 women who underwent laparoscopic tubectomies, over 50 were hospitalised. Protocols state that doctors should spend at least 15 minutes on each operation and perform a maximum of 30 in a day. Dr Gupta is considered an expert in such cases, and was awarded by Chief Minister Raman Singh on January 26 this year for conducting 50,000 laparoscopic tubectomies. The doctor whose sterilization of 83 women in less than three hours ended in at least a dozen deaths the express operations were his moral responsibility and blamed adulterated medicines for the tragedy. Gupta said health workers gave the women ciprofloxacin, a commonly prescribed antibiotic, and ibuprofen, a pain killer, after the operations, which were conducted in a grimy room of an unused private hospital in a village called Pandari in Chhattisgarh.