How Do You Suffer?

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There is a woman in a spiritual community I participate in that seems to be in a constant state of suffering. Her large eyes openly plead for some kind of rescue. When any of us interact with her, we usually hear about her illnesses, her depression, her financial woes, and how it all began when a relationship ended over ten years ago.

Any kindhearted person would feel sympathy for such a person, and I initially spent a lot of time talking to her and offering support. However, over time and with repeated exposure, I began to feel the urge to avoid her; I found her constant clinging and complaining to be energetically draining. And I’ve noticed that others in the community have begun to pull away as well.

Ironically, this particular community is guided by the idea that each person creates a life that is molded by what they focus on, talk about, and believe. So perhaps this woman is our teacher. She is a living example of what happens when thoughts and words are constantly negative, hopeless, and self-limiting.

But I’ve also asked myself, is my increasingly negative reaction to this woman unfair and unloving? Aren’t there people in the world who endure suffering beyond their control? What about people living in war-torn countries? Victims of the Holocaust and other ethnic purges and massacres? What about the sick and dying? And what about those gray areas? Are addicts (including people suffering from the newer varieties like food, sex, and shopping) suffering from something completely beyond their control? What about the mentally ill?

Recently, I’ve been rereading the second half of Victor Frankl’s amazing and transformative book, Man’s Search for Meaning. The first half of the book recounts his experience of survival in the concentration camps of World War II. Rather than focusing on the horror, however, he describes how those few who survived tended to be individuals who found some form of meaning to sustain them — perhaps hope for reunion with a loved one, or in Frankl’s case, a desire to rewrite the manuscript he had just completed before his whole life was torn from him. As Frankl points out, having a purpose that provides meaning can help an individual to survive even the most dire illness or hardship. Will power may truly be the ultimate power.

The second half of Frankl’s book outlines a branch of psychotherapy that he created after the war — logotherapy. Instead of seeking pleasure (Freud’s take on the goal of humanity), Frankl believed that what makes us truly human is our perpetual quest for meaning. He says that meaning can be found in one of three ways: 1) through achievement or some form of action in the outer world, such as work, family, or service; 2) by learning and experiencing things; and 3) through suffering.

But, as Frankl emphasizes, not all suffering is created equal. To provide meaning, it has to be unavoidable suffering. If one’s suffering can be alleviated, then not doing so is merely a form of masochism.

Hence the gray areas. Is an addict actively and earnestly trying to do something in order to address their addiction, or are they merely wallowing in it or using it as an excuse? Those who do nothing to address their addiction tend to not win much sympathy from others.

The same can go for those suffering from mental illness. This is an area in which I have some personal experience. My brother has suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder almost his entire life, and he is probably on the autism spectrum too. Yes, he has suffered tremendously. What could have been a productive and successful life was destroyed by an illness that was not his fault. But the truth is, my brother also tends to use his problems as an excuse — often when he wants something or doesn’t want to do something.

Happily, there have been better times too. When my brother has truly made an effort, he has tended to do much better. These are the times when his lifelong suffering has found some kind of meaning. They are the times when my brother slowly grew in wisdom and dignity through his suffering. And the same thing happens when an addict seeks help and truly makes an effort in some meaningful way.

As Frankl points out in his book, even in the concentration camps, where inmates were stripped of every vestige of their humanity and lived in constant filth and hunger, often on the verge of death, there were those who somehow found meaning and dignity in their situation. These people underwent a personal transformation that sometimes enabled them to survive. But even if they didn’t survive, at least they died with greater dignity and served as an inspiration to others around them.

So how do you suffer? Do you complain endlessly to those around you? Do you make an earnest effort to alleviate your suffering? Do you try to find some meaning in your situation and try to at least learn and grow from it? Are you able to find a way to push beyond your suffering, maybe even create a vision of a better life (perhaps even use active consciousness to help shift your situation)? You may discover that how you handle your suffering can make all the difference — not only in your relationships with others, but also in the nature of the life you begin to experience without and within.

“To be sure, a human being is a finite thing, and his freedom is restricted. It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward conditions… Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment.” — Victor Frankl

Positive News to Start Your Summer

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With all the doom and gloom around us, and in particular (as far as this newsletter is concerned) in the area of health freedom, I thought it might be nice to start off the summer with some bits of good news. Here’s a few that have come across my desktop lately…

Free homeopathy books and journals — Online!
The creators of the best online and free homeopathic journal Hpathy, Manish Bhatia and Alan Schmukler, have now made nearly 200 books and 450 historical journals absolutely free online as well. You can find it at Homeopathy Books Online.This homeopathy library will be continuously growing. Thanks Manish and Alan!

Maine Becomes the 11th State Where All Homeopaths Can Practice Legally!
Great news! On June 11, Maine passed into law LD 364, “An Act to Establish the Right to Practice Complementary and Alternative Health Care Act”. The new law will protect Maine citizen’s access to their many wonderful practitioners such as homeopaths, herbalists, traditional naturopaths, nutritional consultants, and many more, who are providing complementary and alternative health care. The bill was introduced by Senator Miramant on January 24, 2019 and will go into effect in October 2019.

A New Study Finds Homeopathy Effective for Insomnia
You can read about this study, published in 2019, here: Efficacy of individualized homeopathic treatment of insomnia: Double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

Join the NCH and Get Access to Useful Webinars
Did you know membership in the National Center for Homeopathy provides many benefits, including not only their magazine, Homeopathy Today, but also access to numerous webinars? For example, here are some upcoming webinars: Hahnemann, Hygiene, Obstacles to Cure, and Homeopathy, presented by Robert Frank, D.H.M., D.I.Hom., CNHP, on July 23, 2019; College Bound with Homeopathy, presented by Loretta Butehorn, Ph.D., CCH, on August 6, 2019; Bounce Back Kids, presented by Tanya Renner, CCH, RSHom(NA), NBC-HWC, on September 16, 2019; Homeopathy for Childhood Mental/Behavioral Health, presented by Dr. Jennifer Bahr, ND, on October 15, 2019; Resolving Patterns of Anxiety and Depression through Homeopathic Inquiry, presented by Dr. Kenneth Silvestri, on November 12, 2019; The Holistic Way of Life for Cats, presented by Madeleine Innocent, on December 3, 2019.

First Aid Remedy Tips on YouTube
Homeopath Dr. Lisa Samet provides some useful tips here. My own homeopath, Deborah Olenev, offers lots of additional advice and her own line of homeopathic first aid creams here.

The Search for Perfection

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What is it about us humans? We always want more. We are inherently prone to dissatisfaction and constantly yearn for something more “perfect” — the perfect mate, the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect body. Even those who live in gorgeous mansions by the sea fantasize about getting a more perfect garden or yacht.

Maybe our human tendency toward dissatisfaction has had a useful evolutionary purpose. If we were easily satisfied, we might not have had the motivation to push the limits of innovation, from finding better ways to cultivate food and build housing, to achieving a more just form of society. But just as with other emotional habits, the habit of always wanting or at least secretly yearning for more can also bring sadness and disappointment.

As I have gotten older, I have noticed that an expectation of perfection decreases with age and maturity. Some of it is just due to life experience. We discover that perfection is usually impossible. We may consciously decide to “settle for less” — but really, “settling” also hides within it a yearning for more.

No, what I mean is that with wisdom comes a realization that the constant quest for perfection is a trap, and that the love for and trust in what is can be a gift.

I’m not saying that we should be happy with horrible situations and not try to correct them. But rather than approaching life with dissatisfaction, we can assume an attitude of acceptance that simultaneously opens us up to more possibilities and often a more positive outcome. This attitude is also a more ideal position from which to envision and create — to exert what I have called active consciousness.

In my experience, a key to achieving this more productive state is to begin by looking within. In particular, our own personal perfectionism and dissatisfaction is usually rooted in a dissatisfaction with ourselves.

It’s amazing but true — if we begin to love and accept ourselves more, we also begin to love and accept others. If we have more compassion for ourselves, we have more compassion and forgiveness for others. And even if we (as an act of self-love) decide to remove ourselves from a particular situation, our ability to do so with an internal attitude of compassion and forgiveness enables us to move on to something new and better, rather than remaining mired in the past.

Ironically, by letting go of the expectation of perfection, we create an even more “perfect” world. And even if it remains the same old world, we are now able to realize more deeply just how perfect it already is.

Homeopathy Always Goes On

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There have been easy times and hard times for homeopathy since the beginning. Right off the bat, Hahnemann experienced both mockery and accolades. Eager young devotee doctors surrounded him and became his first provers of homeopathic medicines. At the same time, Hahnemann was repeatedly hounded out of town by the local apothecaries (pharmacies) because he manufactured his own medicines and didn’t use their wares (and also got better results). Sound familiar? As the saying goes, there is nothing new under the sun and history keeps repeating itself.

And so homeopathy always goes on. Why? Because it works and can even sometimes work miracles. It is affordable. But I believe that the real reason is that homeopathy is based on a fundamental, immutable truth. Unlike medical fads that come and go and are often proven harmful in the end, homeopathy’s Law of Similars presents us with an unshakeable and eternal law of nature, much like the laws of physics. Even if we don’t make use of this healing principle, it remains there to be rediscovered and used.

Of course, the application of the Law of Similars isn’t always easy. The practice of homeopathy is an art. There is a saying: homeopathy never fails, but a homeopath can. I might add to this that sometimes the physical body is beyond repair; after all, we all die in the end. The mysteries of the body are immense and ultimately, perhaps unknowable. Even the most perfect homeopath cannot always discern the way to the best remedy, potency, and dosing. But as I always say, there is hope with homeopathy. That gives us great comfort and is also the reason why no matter what happens, this medical art will always spring up anew. You can’t keep the truth hidden forever. And people will always need to be healed.

In April, homeopaths around the world celebrated Homeopathy Awareness Week, always timed to begin on Hahnemann’s birthday on April 10. This year, many people flocked to Washington, DC to lobby congressional leaders not to change existing FDA rules (which have worked fine for many years) that would impede the free access of homeopathic remedies to the public. This effort was organized by the amazing new organization, Americans for Homeopathy Choice. I encourage you to join me in supporting their efforts to protect access to homeopathy.

There are many other organizations in the USA and around the world that merit your support as well. These include the National Center for Homeopathy (I was on the board for many years), Homeopaths Without Borders, Homeopathy for Health in Africa, Research in Homeopathy, and health freedom efforts nationally or in your state.

Of course, there are even more organizations than these. Choose your favorites, get involved, spread the word about homeopathy. That’s why I wrote Impossible Cure and why I continue to write these newsletters and answer emails that are sent to me. I will forever be grateful for the blessing of homeopathy in my life.

And perhaps most important — keep the faith! Your positive intentions and beliefs do make a difference. Homeopathy has always and will always go on.

No Worries

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My son Izaak has been living in Australia for several years now. One Australian phrase that I love is “No Worries, Mate!” I remember waiting in a huge line to check in for a flight there in 2002. Over the loudspeaker they announced “No worries, everyone! Relax!” Can you imagine that announcement in an American airport, with all of its dire warnings about yellow or orange alerts? I hope Australia can hold on to that feeling.

“No Worries” is especially comforting to me because I’ve struggled with disaster thinking my entire life. When I let my mind do its normal meandering, I often find it concocting the most horrific and worrisome scenarios. It probably began in childhood, when I would sit in bed and plan out how I’d escape down a gutter outside my bedroom window if the house caught on fire. My worrisome ways were likely fueled by an isolated and difficult childhood punctuated by occasional violence and frequent family deaths. I often wonder how I came out of it all with an inherently cheerful, optimistic, and determined personality. Or maybe my childhood actually fostered this resilience.

Nevertheless, my habitual tendency toward disaster thinking remains. I worry unnecessarily about my kids, upcoming travel (which I simultaneously look forward to), and more. I’m an expert at concocting the worst possible scenarios. As a Jew, I can always fall back onto thoughts about concentration camps or other forms of torture. And when I get any kind of health worry — even a cut on my finger — the medical knowledge I possess enables my mind to inevitably worm its way to death: what if I get MRSA?!

Of course, I’m not alone. Today, everyone’s tendency toward disaster thinking has been exacerbated by the ever present media that informs and alarms us about every possible health woe and worry, let alone the ubiquitous political media constantly washing over us.

Luckily, I’ve become increasingly aware of these kinds of thoughts. They are much less subconscious than they used to be. For example, I’m now able to laugh at my ability to convert any health woe into a death sentence — thanks to my husband who reminds me and laughs with me. That usually stops those kinds of thoughts in their tracks.

Recently, I have begun attending services at a nearby Center for Spiritual Living. The community follows the spiritual science message of teachers like Neville Goddard and Ernest Holmes, who emphasized how our thoughts create our reality. And so I’ve begun to work even more diligently on my disaster thinking tendencies. (Luckily, my life has actually been wonderful and quite luck-filled, despite my worries — perhaps thanks to my innately optimistic nature!)

One thing that I’ve learned is that constant worrying and fretting has no purpose. We may think it prepares us for the future, but any required thought-preparations really take much less time than we spend on worrying. Write down your ideas or preparations and then put them aside. Remember that worry and fretting just helps negative outcomes to manifest! (I also discuss this point in my book Active Consciousness). It also inhibits positive action or response, fosters unhappiness within you and those around you, and even contributes to physical disease.

For four years before my mom died in 2010, she experienced increasingly poor health and I knew she could die unexpectedly. I often found myself thinking “What would I do if Mom died tomorrow?” and would plan out the scenario in my mind. A good friend gave me some excellent advice: “Your mom will only die once. But you’re living her death a thousand times!” The moral of this story is this: Have confidence that when the time comes, you will respond to any crisis in the best way you can. Nothing more is required.

Here are some more tips I’ve tried to put into practice:

▪ When you notice a thought you’d like to stop dwelling on, say out loud: STOP! (You’ll be surprised how well this works.)
▪Replace your worry by imagining the BEST possible scenario or outcome.
▪Focus your mind on the good in your life with gratitude.

I hope this is useful and hopeful information for all of you. We live in a time of great trepidation about the future. But constantly “freaking out” — a state many people are caught in — serves no one and likely makes things worse.

I know I’ve written this message before. But it may be the most important message for our times. Remember that the world can turn on a dime. Small things — including small positive things you do in your own life — can ripple out in unexpected ways and cause huge changes. Anything can happen.

As we enter spring and the flowers and plants emerge from the Earth, use your consciousness to help good things to happen! Your thoughts and beliefs are the seeds of our collective future.

There Is Hope With Homeopathy

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This has been a difficult newsletter to approach and write. The past month has been full of worrisome news for those of us in the world of alternative medicine, especially folks in the autism community with concerns about forced vaccination.

Every alternative medicine newsletter I’ve read lately is awash in panic about a possible federal expansion of powers to remove all state vaccine exemptions for everyone, not just school children. Efforts are afoot (once again, led by legislators from my own state of California — which initiated the forced vaccination trend in the USA with the passage of SB277 in 2015) to impose media censorship on any “anti-vaccine” information. Facebook has begun to block information. Amazon has already removed some books focused on autism recovery. Frankly, I am worried that they will also remove my own book Impossible Cure, despite the fact that it touches only lightly on the vaccine issue, which wasn’t strongly in my consciousness at the time I wrote it. (NOTE: As of now, my book is still on Amazon.)

Couple all of this with recent efforts by the FDA to gradually remove our access to homeopathic remedies. It is very hard not to believe that these developments, fueled by the power of Big Pharma (which now exceeds that of the military-industrial complex and has bought politicians of every political stripe), is part of some grand plot to decimate our collective health and reduce the population, or at least to subjugate all of us mentally and physically. I applaud the bravery of people like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his Children’s Health Defense organization or Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, with her recent statement about the erosion of our basic civil liberties.

Putting aside the most sinister motives, there is legitimate reason for panic in the allopathic world. The overuse of vaccines has been a colossal mistake and perhaps even they know it, or at least are beginning to realize it. I wrote about this in an article I wrote a couple of years ago. Just as with the debacle of overused antibiotics, the desperation of those in the know is well-founded. An increasingly small number of people, born before 1958, still have true immunity to the childhood diseases. That leaves a growing population of inherently unhealthy and unprotected people. Unfortunately, the only tool known by the Big-Pharma machine is to impose more suppression: more antibiotics, more vaccines and forced vaccination. Pity them, for they blind themselves to the knowledge of any other way.

I can’t pretend to offer much comfort to young parents who want to protect the health of their children. I can’t pretend to not be afraid for myself and my family.

But what I can offer to you is this: There is hope with homeopathy, along with other alternative means of healing. That’s why it’s important that we support organizations that work for our freedom to access homeopathy and remedies. In the meantime, in case authorities render our access to remedies more difficult, I recommend stocking up now, including nosodes, which will likely be harder to get in the future. Do it. The good news is that your remedies will last indefinitely, no matter what the labels say, if they are stored properly. Build your knowledge of how to use them. Homeopathy may not be easy or perfect, but it provides hope. It can bolster your immune system so that you become more resilient to whatever is unleashed upon you (including forced vaccination) and help you to recover if you do fall ill.

Over the past few weeks, both my husband and I have been working through this year’s difficult flu. I hadn’t been sick in a few years. My husband never gets acutes; I haven’t seen him this sick in our 38 years together except for a couple of bouts of food poisoning. Unfortunately, we fell ill during a two-week vacation to Hawaii, which we ended up spending holed up inside. Luckily, I had remedies with me (I never travel without them). Gelsemium did the trick for Steve. Initially Phosphorus and later Bryonia has done the trick for me, though I’m still recovering. This flu has been a sobering learning experience, but I know that I am now stronger because of it. My immune system has been exercised. Homeopathy came to the rescue, even if the process took a while.

I’ll conclude with this. Homeopathy teaches us that suppression is never the answer. It may be a necessary stopgap measure at times, but it is never curative. Likewise, the suppression of information is never the answer. The suppression of access to healing tools is never the answer. Forcing suppression upon others is never the answer. Yes, there may be difficult times ahead. But sometimes things have to get much worse before people wake up and take action.

Let’s try to have faith. And let’s remember that there is always hope with homeopathy.

Why Is It So Hard to Love Ourselves?

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Valentine’s Day is only days away. Why not make a commitment now to start developing a loving relationship with the most important person in your life? YOU.

Do you scoff at this idea? Do you think it’s egotistic or morally repugnant to focus on loving yourself? Know that loving yourself is not about selfish egotism or narcissism. It’s about a deep and knowing love for who you are, as you are. The truth is, narcissists are actually people who loathe themselves and compensate for this internal feeling by becoming selfish bullies.

It’s a truism but it’s true: if you don’t love yourself, you can’t truly love another. The love you can feel will be that much more limited, not just for your family and significant others, but for the world. Don’t believe me? Do a little experiment. Work seriously on loving yourself for a few weeks and find out how much more you start loving others.

Maybe you are saying, “Of course I love myself!” But are you sure? Try doing this: pick up a mirror, look deep into your eyes, smile, and sincerely and with all the heart you can muster say, “I love you. I really really love you.”

How do you feel? Is it awkward? Do you cry a little? Can you even bring yourself to do it? And how do you feel about beginning each day by doing this? If you have any qualms about it or think it’s silly, it’s time to get to work. And even if you don’t, know that incorporating this simple little exercise into your life will change it for the better.

Why is it so hard to love yourself, anyway? Societal messages are one explanation, but more important are childhood experiences. Within you are carried every criticism, every “should” imposed on you, parental neglect or abuse (both physical and mental), and a host of other reasons for feeling bad about yourself. It is also the natural inclination of any child to blame themselves for whatever is going amiss in the family, whether it be discord or misfortune. We may forget about it all as we grow older and learn to cover it up with busy-ness, but it still lies buried deep within. It is stored in our memories and often within our bodies as aches and pains and dis-ease.

But these memories are just thoughts and feelings about yourself. They can be changed. They are habits of being, and just like any habit, they can be broken. You just have to make an effort.

Why is this so important? How can it help you in practical ways? Well, if you’ve read my book Active Consciousness and are interested in becoming a person who can actively create his or her future, know that working on loving yourself will help you remove many of the blocks that inhibit your progress. As the Huna wisdom teaches, prayers sent to the High Self can be blocked by the subconscious self doubts and self-limiting beliefs of the Basic Self. For example, if deep down inside you fear or feel undeserving of achieving your conscious desires, all of your efforts to achieve them will bear weak fruit. But when you “prep the soil” first by working on loving yourself, you help to remove these blocks.

Author Anita Moorjani, whose book Dying to Be Me describes her near-death experience from terminal cancer and her miraculous and quick recovery after she returned, says that her discovery in the afterlife was this: self love is the key. She says that our mission here on Earth is to learn to love ourselves completely and to let our light shine as brightly as it can. I’m slowly learning that she is right.

I am currently working on Louise Hay’s course, Learning to Love Yourself. Already I feel a difference in my life. Although this online offering is free in its current form, I decided to buy it. Much to my amazement, my husband Steve is now doing the course too. I hope my children will too.

Steve and I are in our 60s. Most people will never do this kind of work. They simply accept that they must go through life in anger, resentment, guilt, and fear, never suspecting that a bit of self-love might be the answer. I figure, better late than never for me and Steve. I hope that many of you, who are much younger, can begin now to change your lives for the better! Give yourself the best Valentine gift you can possibly imagine: learn to love yourself.

Why Am I So Confident About Homeopathy? It Works! Here’s Some More Scientific Proof Too

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Just this week I got an email from someone who has begun to read Impossible Cure. (Actually, he’s listening to the audio book — something many of you might also be interested in.) He asked me how I could be so confident about homeopathy, given all the naysayers, quackbusters, and negative media about it. My answer went something like this:

First, I know from personal experience that homeopathy works and is extremely powerful. It isn’t a panacea and sometimes I need to use other healing modalities too (I’m currently writing a new book that, among other topics, focuses on many of the self-healing methods I’ve learned), but homeopathy is my family’s first “go to,” and has been for almost 25 years. So it doesn’t matter what anybody says. My only fear is that as I get older, I’ll be forced into the allopathic machine. I hope not!

Second, I know so many brilliant people who use homeopathy, are homeopaths, or are supporters of homeopathy. The people who put down homeopathy, in my experience, either really know nothing about it and just regurgitate what the media says, or are so limited and threatened that they’re afraid to really learn anything about it. (By the way, it’s not just the media but also most politicians that are bought-and-sold by Big Pharma.) The reason the media and other attacks have escalated in recent years (in my opinion) is that the science is beginning to verify the effects of ultradilutions, including ultradilutions of allopathic drugs and products. If this phenomenon becomes widely accepted, it would absolutely destroy the pharmaceutical industry because medicines would essentially cost nothing. That is why Big Pharma would spend any amount of money and do anything to protect its power. And that means trying to discredit homeopathy.

Last month I promised some pointers to more studies that buttress what I’m saying. The media wants to keep this information from you, and that’s why it’s important to stay aware and share it. Who knows, maybe you’ll even convince your doctor that homeopathy is not “mere placebo”!

First, here are three places online to look for pointers to lots of research studies.
1) The most comprehensive and up-to-date is probably Saurav Arora’s site, researchinhomeopathy.org.
2) The National Center for Homeopathy — which you should all join and support — provides a nice link to “quotable research”. Some of the items below are derived from their monthly newsletters.
3) Our intrepid homeopathic author, Dana Ullman, also makes available an ever-growing database of homeopathic research and guide to treatment, in his eBook Evidence Based Homeopathic Family Medicine.

Now a smattering of studies:

Recent Lab-Based and Basic Research

Hot off the press (courtesy of Dana) — a new lab-based study that appeared in leading journal Nature in September 2018.
This study tested various potencies of Rhus toxicodendron (also called Rhus tox) in the treatment of neuropathy in rats. This study showed that the various potencies of Rhus tox (2X, 4X, 6X, 8X, 12X, 24X, and 30X) had significant and even sometimes substantially significant effects on various immunological markers as well as in various pain-relieving tests. Not only did this homeopathic medicine have remarkably beneficial effects as compared with a placebo, it was found to be as effective as a leading conventional drug, called Gabapentin, and was considerably safer than this conventional drug!

Another article by Dana, about a July 2018 basic-research conference in the UK, featuring several world-renowned scientists, that was entitled New Horizons in Water Science — The Evidence for Homeopathy?.

Clinical Studies

A new research study about autism and homeopathy by Dr. Rajalakshmi in India.

Efficacy of homeopathy in livestock (courtesy of the NCH) Homeopathy is widely used for livestock, especially in order to reduce the use of antibiotics. A comprehensive literature review has been conducted to assess the efficacy of homeopathy in cattle, pigs and poultry. Only peer-reviewed publications dealing with homeopathic remedies were included. Search results revealed a total number of 52 trials performed within 48 publications fulfilling the predefined criteria. Twenty-eight trials were in favor of homeopathy, with 26 trials showing a significantly higher efficacy in comparison to a control group. Peer-reviewed publications from 1981 to 2014 Vet Rec. 2016; 179(24): 628, Doehring et al

Chronic primary insomnia (courtesy of the NCH) Researchers from South Africa’s Durban University of Technology focused on determining the effects of constitutional homeopathic treatment for insomnia, when compared to a placebo control. Thirty subjects diagnosed with primary insomnia were randomly assigned to Homeopathy or placebo. An analysis of the outcomes showed that sleep duration and sleep quality improved significantly under homeopathic treatment, when compared to using the placebo control. Efficacy of homeopathic simillimum 2010, 99, 1, 63-8 Naudé et al

Homeopathic treatment of patients with chronic low back pain (courtesy of the NCH) Researchers from Charité University Medical Center in Berlin, Germany, evaluated 129 adults suffering from medically diagnosed chronic low back pain for an average duration of 9.6 years. They were treated by homeopathic physicians who prescribed according to their individual symptoms. Their progress was followed for 2 years. On analysis of the symptom severity and quality of life, changes demonstrated a marked and sustained improvement. In addition, the use of homeopathic remedies were associated with a significant decline in the use of conventional treatment and health services. A prospective observational study with 2 years’ follow-up. Clin J Pain. 2009, 25, 4, 334-9. Witt CM, et al.

Effect of homeopathy on chronic tension-type headache (courtesy of the NCH) Headache frequency and intensity was lower in the homeopathy group than in controls. Compared with usual care, patients randomized to homeopathy used 35% less medication (P = 0.001) and had 45% fewer visits to general practitioners (P = 0.0001). J Headache Pain. 2013; 14(Suppl 1): P56. Sharma et al

It’s Time to Turn Off the Trump Channel

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I know that I’m kind of going against the message of this article by even using the “T” word in its title. But the title’s message is so important. It’s the end of the year, a time for reflection. Soon we greet a new year, a time for change. Decide now to free yourself and turn to a new channel.

Don’t worry. You won’t miss a thing except a never-ending background stream of anxiety, anger, and fear. And you will know what’s going on. You won’t be able to escape it unless you live off grid and never talk to anyone. You will find that any tidbit that passes you by isn’t very important for you to know.

You will now have time to think and talk about new things. You’ll also have some new space in your heart and mind (once it is freed from all that anxiety, anger, and fear) to actually do something that helps others. You will become happier and healthier and you’ll sleep better.

I recently read this quote by C.S.Lewis, written after World War II. It could have been written today:

“One mustn’t assume burdens that God does not lay upon us. It is one of the evils of rapid diffusion of news that the sorrows of all the world come to us every morning. I think each village was meant to feel pity for its own sick and poor whom it can help and I doubt if it is the duty of any private person to fix his mind on ills which he cannot help. (This may even become an escape from the works of charity we really can do to those we know). A great many people… do now seem to think that the mere state of being worried is in itself meritorious. I don’t think it is. We must, if it so happens, give our lives for others: but even while we’re doing it, I think we’re meant to enjoy Our Lord and, in Him, our friends, our food, our sleep, our jokes, and the birds’ song and the frosty sunrise….It is very dark: but there’s usually light enough for the next step or so.”

At this darkest time of year, let us dwell on the light. Remember that a constant focus on worry, anxiety, anger, and fear just brings more negativity into our world. It actually feeds what you are trying to resist.

Instead, if you want to create something positive, you must feel and think positive thoughts. As I discuss in Active Consciousness, your world is created by your imagination, your thoughts, your beliefs. This is not pollyanna-ism or ostrich-head-in-the-sand-ism. It’s just the most effective way to get something new and positive accomplished.

How about trying it out as an experiment until New Year’s? Stop reading those Twitter feeds and Facebook posts. You know the ones. Talk to your loved ones. Meditate. Envision the coming year and what you’d like to experience in positive terms. Go outside and breathe. Take a walk. Love your Self. And have a joyous finale to 2018.

Homeopathic Reflections for Year’s End

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Last month I promised to provide a list of studies in this month’s newsletter. However, I decided that this would be a better way to begin 2019 — with new energy and information. December seems like a better time to sit back and reflect a bit.

All of us cannot help noticing that today’s world is facing an increase in polarities — the yin and yang between growing brightness and ominous darkness. Various philosophers and historians tell us that increases in polarity portend that a major shift is coming our way. I talk about this in my book Active Consciousness. Personally, I am excited and quite hopeful about these incoming shifts to our society and the evolving consciousness of humanity.

One of the polarities we are experiencing affects homeopathy. I alluded to this in last month’s newsletter. Crackdowns on access to homeopathy and other alternative health approaches and views are expanding. These attacks are, ultimately, all fueled by Big Pharma, which many people say has grown to be even more powerful than the military industrial complex. The fact that Big Pharma is investing such effort and money into all of these efforts indicates that they are feeling threatened. It means that, at some level, they see the writing on the wall and are getting desperate. This also means that now is not time for us to give up in despair; it’s time to knuckle down and redouble our efforts and enlarge our voices!

Here are some growing signs of darkness and light:

Darkness: The FDA is trying to slowly whittle away our access to homeopathic remedies.

Light: (Excerpted from the National Center for Homeopathy newsletter. The NCH is the largest homeopathic consumer-based organization in the US) — “NCH has experienced tremendous growth over the past year; we’ve seen a 283% increase in new individual members, 90% increase in Organizational membership, 900% increase in lifetime members and new Student memberships. NCH also experienced a 17.9% increase in new followers on social media especially related to advocacy efforts by NCH to create awareness around the draft guidance proposed by the FDA: Drug Products Labeled as Homeopathic Guidance for FDA Staff and Industry.”

Darkness: Major outlets of information are beginning to brand alternative medical views as “fake news” and block them. For example, Pinterest, a major social media platform with 250 million users, banned The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) and GreenMedInfo for posting natural health information, including research questioning vaccine safety. This is an extremely alarming trend. We already know that Wikipedia is a completely biased and untrustworthy information source on anything pertaining to alternative medicine, from homeopathy to chiropractic. (You can read an article I wrote about this all the way back in 2008.) Please do not support them! Unfortunately, even more important outlets for disseminating information, like Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook, might become banned to us.

Light: Many alternative organizations have begun to embrace homeopathy more wholeheartedly! Most notable is the Mercola Newsletter. This is the number one alternative health site on the entire web. They printed a review of my book Impossible Cure and an interview with me back in 2003, after my book first came out. This media was critical in making Impossible Cure a number one book about homeopathy worldwide. Nevertheless, Dr. Mercola was not really a big fan of homeopathy at the time. That seems to be changing now. For example, the Mercola Newsletter has recently been featuring articles by Dana Ullman, complete with an hour-long video interview with Dr. Mercola himself!

Let’s face it, the more the crackdowns happen, and the wider their net is cast — way beyond homeopathy — the more allies homeopathy gains. It’s an example of intersectionality. We are all being persecuted so we will all band together. And there is strength in numbers.

In the end, censorship will fail, especially as the conventional medical system continues to collapse around us. Information has a way of getting out. It may only take an epidemic outbreak or the expansion of antibiotic resistance, along with news that these problems are effectively addressed by homeopathy, to turn the tide. In fact, it is exactly these kinds of events that can cause a shift to happen! And it’s even secret sauce of homeopathy. A small dose at just the right time and place does the trick!