15. The message in the bottle: homeopathy
Classic ‘pure’ homeopathy: one takes a number of drops of ‘messaged’ water and gets better. That’s what we are told and guess what, it’s true indeed.
◊◊◊
What is also true is that the person not only takes the water, but also ‘takes’ the expectation that this water will help him. Question: which of both makes him better: the water or the expectation? The question is not whether ‘it’ works. The question is what ‘it’ is.
◊◊◊
Therefore, is the human mind a possible explanation for what happens in homeopathy? I don’t answer that question here. You can answer it yourself. If you say yes, then so much for the homeopathic explanation. It’s in the gutter. As simple as that.
◊◊◊
We as a society should take a very good look at this. There is far more at stake than some water, some alternative medicine or some billions of dollars. At stake are we ourselves. If our minds are doing this, we should respect them. To negate this possibility beforehand, is to disrespect our own minds. That’s bad.
◊◊◊
So.
◊◊◊
‘Scientific’ medicine is not able to tackle homeopathy as long as it denies, in practice, the huge placebo effect of many of its own medications. If you want to be really critical of someone else, you have to be really critical of yourself also.
◊◊◊
The true message in the bottle is that we should look at the broader context of what is happening here. Don’t bet your life on the watery explanation. There is a message hidden somewhere all right. But it’s probably not inside the water. It may be inside us.
◊◊◊
Let’s not waste more words on this.
◊◊◊
Related Posts
The Client is the Therapy
This is about the client in psychotherapy. It is also about the patient in medicine insofar as the mind is involved ― say, psycho-somatics, easily involving half of the medical domain. See my book Your Mind as Cure. Psychotherapy, schematically A good evolution in healthcare, including psychotherapy, is to put the client at the center. Read the full article…
‘Being Certain’ (or Not) in Mind-Related Medicine
Physicians, including me during years of practice, experience many moments of ‘feeling sure’ about a diagnosis or the underlying cause of a disease. But how sure should we be when we feel certain? Especially in mind-related medicine, the answer may surprise us. The overconfidence trap Overconfidence is not unique to medicine. It is a cognitive Read the full article…
Stress Kills
Stress probably kills more people per year than there were casualties during any year of WWII. Yet, to those who should see this, it seems too uncomfortable to do so. Or they prefer not to listen – or not to talk about it. Meanwhile, may you be one of those who will die a stress-death? Read the full article…