Immunity and Susceptibility in Homeopathy

Cathy Lemmon (Hpathy April 2023)
The Merck Manual Home Health Handbook (© 2009) presents the idea that disease-causing agents are “invaders” of the body.  As with most conventional medical texts, this book seems to prefer referencing these items using terminology that can incite fear and a desire for aggression towards these “invaders”.  This is fine, as the conventional idea envelopes the idea of fighting off disease.
 
Even the founder of homeopathy himself, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), referred to sometimes “murderous”4 substances that can cause illness to come upon the body.  However, he was very clear in how these are most appropriately viewed – that illness was not caused by something outside the body.  Rather, the body will present symptoms commensurate with its susceptibility to what these agents present and how receptive to these our bodies are.

Homeopathic medicine promotes, maintains, and protects health.  With this in mind, it is not, necessarily, a good idea for the body to avoid illness.  Rather, the body desires to be healthy.
Homeopathic View of Health
In Aphorism 9, of his Organon, Hahnemann presents the vital force (“dynamis”) “animating the human organism (that) reigns in supreme sovereignty”, maintaining the homeostasis of “all the parts of the living organism in a harmony that obliges wonderment.”  He concludes this Aphorism with the statement that it is the “reasoning spirit” inhabiting this organism that, when things are running well, is allowed to “reach the lofty goal of human existence.”

Hahnemann essentially called that disease is what happens when the vital force of a person is disturbed, it is an internal, “dynamic” reaction to a substance.
 
Homeopath, James Burnett, explains further about this idea of dynamism and how it works in health, making it more relevant to our subject here.  In his book, Vaccinosis and its Cure by Thuja (©1884) Compton shares how it is nonsensical to vaccinate a “perfectly healthy individual who has never been vaccinated” as this person is “liable to catch small-pox”.  (At the time this book was published, this was still the only vaccine in common use.)
 
After vaccinating this “perfectly healthy” individual, him not contracting smallpox is then, according to conventional medical authorities, seen as evidence of the effectiveness of the smallpox vaccine.  Burnett makes very clear that, “no one can be more than perfectly healthy” and that any modification of this necessarily involves a “minus” from the “perfect healthy” the person had been enjoying.  Burnett presents that what this actually presents is that “the protective power of vaccination is due to a diseased state of the body.”
 
In other words, a person enjoying good health should be noted for this, not for a potential or possibility that he/she may get sick.  Illness will and does happen, even to the most resilient.  But this is not because the body may be missing an outside “thing”, but because the body, in its innate wisdom, realizes that there is something it must learn.
 
To insert a foreign substance in an unnatural way to the body (in this case, through an injection) for the purpose of eliciting an “immune-type” response from the body is a blanket approach that presents faults from its beginning, because it does not abide by natural ways that have worked since the beginning of time.
 
Yasgur’s Homeopathic Dictionary and Holistic Health Reference offers no definitions for the terms, “antibody”, “contagious”, “illness”, “immune”, “infect” or any words containing these.  These words are not founded in homeopathy or homeopathic medicine – they are based in conventional medicine, approaches, and understanding.
 
Do we get sick?  Of course we do.  Do some of us get sick more often and/or more severely than others?  Of course.  But avoiding illness altogether will not allow us to obtain our fullest potential.  Many studies have been in place and are still being done that confirm how the body, once it contracts and sees itself through a disease, will often, in ways, be more healthy than it was before.
 
Disease and Illness – Viewed Homeopathically: Yasgur presents this: “Disease – a lack of ease. Simply, an illness or sickness; a disturbance in structure or function of an organ, organ system, or part of the body. An abnormal condition of an organism or part thereof as a consequence of stress, infection, inherent weakness, or environmental stressors which impairs the normal functioning of the organism.
 
In Aphorism 11. Hahnemann shares quite clearly that it is only when the vital force is “untuned” through the influence of a “hostile disease agent” that “the disagreeable sensations and abnormal functions that we call disease” can occur.  He further shares, in the lengthy footnote to this (6th ed), about the dynamizing (“potentizing”) of homeopathic medicines as well as likening these to how magneticism works.
 
He observed the symptoms – the similar symptoms between what this medicine caused in a healthy prover to what he was observing in those contracting the scarlet fever where he was.  Somehow taking this medicine – in a whole, natural, homeopathic way – allows the “unseen” energies in the homeopathic medicine to interact with the “unseen” energies within the person, that are working to keep the person healthy.  This provides, on this energetic level, nontoxic yet highly effective prevention against the ravages a disease can present.
 
In the definition for “susceptibility”, Yasgur provides in his Dictionary, he says, quite succinctly, that “. . . Homeopathy . . . (aims) to decrease a person’s susceptibility/sensitivity to disease-producing influences. . .”
 
The idea of “immunity” is working to avoid something – in medicine, this is understood as avoiding contracting a disease, or getting sick.  On the other hand, homeopathy addresses  the idea of wellness, not by avoiding something but by promoting, maintaining, and protecting health.
 
Beyond issues such as these, it is best seen from the homeopathic perspective, that it is good, for the promotion of health, to not only work to reduce susceptibility, but also to prepare for and work with these illnesses, because they are and ever will be a part of our environment and are not going to simply “go away” with promotion of this idea of mass immunity.
 
The “IMMUNE SYSTEM”: When looked at for what it is and contains, it is fascinating – and it also essentially covers the entire body.  Indeed, there are some key components, including bone marrow, the thymus, the spleen, lymph nodes, tonsils, and the appendix.  But basically, just about everything else, in one way or another, effects or is affected by the body when it deems an “immune” reaction is appropriate.
The idea of “ANTIBODIES”: The name “antibody” was coined by the German scientist, Paul Ehrlich around 1900.  The had found a form of immunity happening in an animal serum from which they were removing all cells.  Not having a name for it, Ehrlich coined the term, „Antikörper” (antibody) to likely simply be a “place holder”, until a more appropriate term was found.  Yet, in spite of its odd sound and actually, in 1903, being called, “weird”, this term, “antibody” has stuck.
 
The antibody was first given recognition as the “fundamental unit of immunity” in 1950. Historically, the presence of antibodies has been seen as an indication that one has been exposed to disease, nothing more. Supporting this, several studies have concluded that the presence of antibodies does not necessarily equate to immunity.  It has also been determined that the absence of antibodies does not indicate a lack of immunity.
 
Science and Truth: The idea of “science” ceases to be science when ideas are no longer explored or questioned. Fundamental homeopathic principles have remained unchanged since the time of Hahnemann – and this form of medicine continues to provide marvelous results.
 
Since Hahnemann found the prophylactic effectiveness of homeopathic medicines in 1799, research into this has continued to the present day. Some ideas continue, which are good to grasp within homeopathy, as the view from “within” still remains unchanged.
 
Hahnemann makes it clear that disease-causing agents can, indeed, be horrid – and we do need to be cautious and prepared because of this.  However, it is the condition of the body that determines if infection will happen and how mild/severe this infection will be, if the body will show any symptoms at all.  This is where the focus is best kept, as far as the promotion of health.
 
This idea of promoting health, so central to homeopathy, was further expounded upon, in reference to prophylaxis, by Burnett, Vaccinosis.   He wrote this work during the time when the vaccination for smallpox was still what was primarily done – hence his focus, for this work, on the homeopathic remedy of Thuja.
 
But he knew there were many other homeopathic medicines that worked prophylactically for various diseases.  While making it clear that he did not consider himself “anti-vaccination”, Burnett shares in this work quite clearly the idea that, with the homeopathic view and understanding of health, it seems nonsensical to vaccinate a “perfectly healthy individual who has never been vaccinated” simply because this person is “liable to catch small-pox”.
 
Observing things homeopathically: As far as the idea of avoiding disease altogether, this is an idea best approached quite cautiously.  First to recognize, of course, is the idea of fear, which opens the door to susceptibility to just about anything.  Unfortunately, along with this, must be recognized that avoiding getting ill – so trying to say we are healthy because we never get sick – does not make sense for proper health either.
 
Is “immunisation” the most appropriate word to be utilizing when it comes to the idea of prophylaxis within homeopathy?  I present that it may not be, if “immunity” is thought of as avoiding the contraction of a disease, not allowing the body to get sick.
 
Though Hahnemann never used the term himself, determining similar symptoms in a disease outbreak to find a remedy that will match these as closely as possible has become known as determining a Genus Epidemicus (“GE”).  These symptoms must present themselves consistently in every circumstance of a presenting illness.
 
This can prove very helpful in determining the most appropriate homeopathic medicine to utilize for prophylaxis.  In his Organon, Hahnemann repeatedly notes at least two diseases which consistently do this: smallpox and measles.  However, determining a GE remedy is not as easily approached today.
 
Locally, this can happen with some degree of “ease”.  But, considering the worldwide outreach of homeopathy today, there are varying differences in climate and weather patterns, temperature, elevation of habitation, etc which must also be taken into consideration in determining a GE.
 
Hahnemann makes it very clear, in his Organon and other writings, that the expression of the disease – the manifestation of the symptoms – must be noted in every circumstance.  It is the individual not a labeled “disease”, and the individual’s response to this  condition that we are treating, or working to prevent.
 
The work within homeopathy is very intense, very focused.  But it is not based on conventional understanding – rather, on symptoms.
 
CONCLUSION
 
I am known for my promotion and education regarding homeopathic prophylaxis.  This nontoxic form of “immunization” should never be considered “homeopathic vaccination”, as this is not at all what we work, with homeoprophylaxis, to promote.
Hahnemann determined in 1799 that Like not only Cures Like, it also Prevents Like.  In his Lesser Writings – Cure and Prevention of Scarlet Fever – he shares this:
“Who can deny that the perfect prevention of infection. . . would offer infinite advantages over any mode of treatment, be it of the most incomparable kind soever?”

References
https://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/immunity-and-susceptibility-in-homeopathy/
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