Hi Michael.  I’m glad you wrote.  One of the reasons I wrote Impossible Cure is that I wanted people to understand what homeopathy is and what it isn’t. There are a lot of people out there practicing something they call “homeopathy”, but it has nothing to do with homeopathy, at least as I understand it.

I recommend that you read/listen to the second half of Chapter 6 — the section on “Intuitive or Energy-Reading Machine Prescribing.” Also, reading Chapter 8 will help you understand what a classical homeopathic process is like.

In my experience, no machine can select a remedy for you, nor can AK or dowsing, etc. I wish it were that simple!

No, the remedy selection must be based on the individual symptoms of the person — not hair analysis, not their “vibrational reading”, etc. The homeopath must sit and talk to the patient (or parent) at length, observe the patient, learn all about their mental, behavioral, physical, and emotional symptoms. The homeopath then uses this information to select a set of “rubrics” or key symptoms to research.  Each of these symptoms is associated with relevant remedies.  The remedies that best match most of the symptoms overall will then be analyzed. One will be selected based on the best judgment of the homeopath. Sometimes a good classical homeopath may use intuitive means at this point to aid them in selecting from a small set of possible remedies. But in general the best way to choose a remedy is based on analysis and experience.

Of course, sometimes the homeopath selects the wrong remedy, or the wrong dose of the remedy.  It can be trial and error. It is a process that takes time and working together as a team — homeopath and patient. This is especially true in autism treatment which is quite challenging.

In addition, a classical homeopath will never give you a “concoction of remedies”. This was another red flag in your description.  A classical homeopath might suggest alternating two or three remedies, but even that is pretty rare (though, I gather, it is becoming more common among homeopaths that treat autistic children).

How soon should you see results?  Ideally, you should see at least some kind of subtle changes within a month. These might be better sleep, digestion, mood, eye-contact, social awareness, etc. Keeping a diary can be helpful — often the changes are gradual and you forget what your child was like only a month before.

Someday, perhaps, homeopathic remedies may be selectable based on machines that “read your field”. From what I know, that day has not yet come. The fact that some practitioners get results in this way, or from remedy concoctions, is a testimony to the inherent power of remedies. Often, however, this type of prescribing does not have lasting effects. In other cases the patient may be overdosed by too many different remedies in too high potencies, yielding nothing but confusion in the case.

I hope this is useful to you and others!