The Homeopathic Times

HT: Jeremy, thanks for taking the time to be interviewed by 'The Homeopathic Times'.
You are well known for your interest in Homeopathic philosophy, what actually encouraged you to follow that route of focus?

JS: When I originally studied Homoeopathy I didn't realise the depth of philosophy possible, as most schools put the emphasis on materia medica and cases. You can sometimes tell the type of Homoeopath by just by asking which Homeopathic book they read first! For me it was Kent - I just love his philosophy. I knew I loved it but I didn't realise there was that much more to it until Joseph Reeves a teacher from Israel took me 'up a potency' in that regard and allowed me to see how many possible layers and levels you could delve into. I think this is what made me focus on philosophy. I have also realised that knowledge of philosophy is the main ingredient to becoming a competent homoeopath, material medica is secondary. It is essential to understand what exactly what is happening in each case, both in the long and short term.

HT: You mention you were taken 'up a potency' - could you tell us a bit more about what this means?

JS: 'Potency' - this is how I see Homoeopathic learning. I see it as a process of potentisation; there is a succussion and a dilution. The succussion is 'up, down, bang, bang, bang', and developed through seeing cases, reading materia medica, remembering data, looking at repertory etc. Dilution then is an understanding, an 'Ah-ha!' realisation, a going deeper and a broadening of knowledge. There has to be a good ratio between the two of these - a certain amount of practical study / remembering (succussion) and, once in a while, there has to come that 'Ah-ha!' realisation: going deeper in to the knowledge (dilution).

Today, when I meet a new group of Homoeopaths with the Dynamis School, I look around and I see the 12cs, 30cs, 200cs, the occasional 1M. These potencies are not better or worse, just steps along the way. What I want to achieve is to slowly potentise everyone to 10M. Naturally, that happens in stages. I often see the change around the 3rd weekend, an 'opening up' and I see how the understanding of philosophy makes a difference to their actual prescribing and case management. I have taught about 40 Dynamis school courses and I know from the feedback I get that this process works well.

HT: Do you find that every time you teach something in particular in philosophy that it changes?

JS: Yes, it often does. Not really a change but an enhancement, a potentisation of understanding. Quite a few people re-attend the course and find that it has changed, partially due to their own change of point of view. With every class I learn something new and it fills in the jigsaw a bit more.

HT: Jeremy, you studied both Chinese medicine and Homeopathy can you talk a bit about the crossover for you.

JS: I studied both at the same time but I was totally in love with Homeopathy so that I didn't always give Chinese medicine my whole attention. It was a full time school. I tried to find the crossovers and correlation but it was difficult. I examined all sorts of avenues - 5 elements, points, all sorts of things. Eventually, I went back to philosophy: I found that the real connection between these two systems is in the philosophy, not in the technical aspects.

In the Dynamis School I use the Tao Te Ching as a textbook. It is the basis of Chinese Medicine and when you study it, you can see there is a very strong grounding for Homeopathy in the Taoist philosophy. If you translate it into a practical way, you find Homeopathy as a system that follows those principals.

The other crossover is Chinese physiology and pathology because Homeopathy doesn't have this. To some degree this is a slight advantage because you are not looking for a diagnosis. The diagnosis is the remedy in Homeopathy. Nevertheless, in some ways it is a disadvantage because if we don't understand the pathology of the patient and are just going by symptoms, you can totally miss out what is happening and choose the wrong remedy.

Of course, we do have an underlying mechanism in Western physiology and pathology but I feel the Chinese method is more appropriate because they are energetic not structural systems. Being energetic they fit into our remedies and understanding of people. They really help in understanding the processes and doing differential diagnosis, so I would recommend people to study a bit of Chinese physiology.

HT: Does analysis using the elements stem from here?

JS: To a degree, and other systems. Consider a very hot case with palpitations etc. From a Chinese perspective there are two reasons; either there is too much yang like in Belladonna / Stramonium, or there is a yin deficiency. In the latter instance there is an underlying weakness so you may get what is called a 'false heat'. This looks very hot and full but this comes from an underlying emptiness of the cooling system like with Iodine. It looks hot and hurried and has fast consumption but, unlike with Belladonna, this comes from an underlying weakness.

From a symptom point of view if you only see heat symptoms it will look like the same thing. However, if you can tell what is happening with the patient these are totally not the same thing. In addition, from a Chinese physiological point of view if you find out what this yin deficiency is about or what brought it about - (it might be lack of sleep, too much sex, from menstrual disorders or grief) this helps to identify the cause of the symptoms. Piecing those things together therefore assists. Furthermore, knowing then that in Chinese physiology the lungs and the skin and colon are connected you can see the symptoms are part of one thing. If, for example, a patient has asthma and then it moves to diarrhoea this is two parts of one problem. Chinese physiology gives me a structure to work within whereas in Homeopathy you only have Materia Medica to work within.

HT: What book would you suggest people read to get an overview?

JS: There are many books on Chinese medicine the one usually recommended is 'The Web that has no Weaver' by Ted Kapchuk. In Stephen Gascoigne's books there is also good information as well as other modern textbooks for Chinese medicine.

HT: When you were going through the Taoist books did the link appear obvious immediately or did it take a bit of thinking?

JS: Both. For example when it says 'to make something shrink you must also expand it' - that is the basic Homeopathic philosophy of the Law of Similars. Likewise in saying 'that without substance can enter where other things can not go' this is relevant to potentisation. Then, as you go deeper there are more and more subtle levels to allow you to understand. In the Dynamis School I ask people to read from the Tao Te Ching and relate it to Homeopathy and when I read these observations I learn.

HT: Tell us a little about your approach to the miasms.

JS: My approach is to study the 'Organon' and 'Chronic Disease' because they are the source of the knowledge. There is a lot to learn from new systems on miasms but I don't know if miasm is the correct word for these. Miasm has a very precise definition for Hahnemann - he suggested there were only 3 basic miasms (perhaps you can argue for the fourth, cancer miasm). This besides, without reading these two texts it is difficult to understand what miasms are about. Secondly, by using only vague psychological characteristics of the miasm it can be confusing, so for example for the syphilis miasm there really has to be some strong destructive characteristics - both physically and psychologically - that go together with a syphilis case.

HT: On a very practical note, a lot of people have graduated from various colleges around now - what would you say to them?

JS: First of all congratulations for choosing the best profession in the world and you are lucky people. The next thing is don't give up. If you love Homeopathy and that is what you want to do then don't give in. Conversely, some people may find they just love studying and they don't want to practise and they don't lose out from purely studying. There are many ways to enjoy Homeopathy without having to practise.

It takes a while to build a practice and I am sure they have prepared for that in college. In reality if a Homeopath sees a patient every 4 to 6 weeks they are going to need 6 or 12 times as many patients as an osteopath, acupuncturist or chiropractor who sees the same patient once or twice a week. This makes it difficult as some patients don't hang around that long or they get better! So you do need to work at building that practice and to make a living from it you must persevere through the first 2 years.

You have to be a bit proactive. Develop leads to send you patients, or maybe find a place in a natural health clinic and give talks. When I started I gave talks twice a week for 2 years to the rotary, the breast feeding clinic etc - sometimes I'd give 10 talks and have no patients from them, then sometimes 6 months later a patient may come. You never know when you will get the golden patient that will send you a whole lot of other patients!

Marketing counts. Giving out business cards, advertising, writing articles in a local paper and radio - all the things that I am sure you are taught in college.

HT: What about charging? Some people battle with that issue to start with?

JS: It's something that is difficult for me so I can sympathise. I prefer to get other people to do it for me if I can! But in the beginning you can't do that so what helps is if you send a letter out to patients when they book giving the time of their appointment, a map, things that you need them to bring with them and outlining your fees. This way it is nice and clear and you don't have to talk about it too much on the spot.

Always remember how much time and energy you are spending on every case and study. Don't forget people are not paying you as a guarantee to getting better. Rather they are paying for your time. Of course there can be times where you may be treating a person for a year and they are still not getting better then perhaps you decide not to charge them for a while!

Finally, make sure you book a follow up appointment there and then for the patient and send out a reminder letter so that once the patients come you don't lose them.

HT: Thanks Jeremy for sharing your ideas and sizeable food for thought with us.