Life Is Breathing

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earth-yin-yangMy husband Steve and I just recently returned from a trip to Sydney Australia, where we visited with our son Izaak. Izaak walks two miles each way to work each day, and he had us walking great distances in Sydney too. Indeed, we noticed that almost everyone there walks to where they need to go — and that the majority of Sydney’s inhabitants seem to be no more than 35 years old! Just as in San Francisco and, increasingly, many other cities around the world, young people are moving into the city centers. It may already be obvious to many, but this trip made me realize that my generation’s flight to the suburbs is over; a new age of urbanism is upon us.

As it turns out, periodic movement into and out of urban areas is a well-known phenomenon. Looked at over time, cities have a natural ebb and flow to them. I guess that’s not surprising — cycles are characteristic of all life. Movement and change is the nature of all healthy living things. Without that, living systems would take one way tickets to explosion or decline — death in either case.

Actually, that’s the meaning of the Yin/Yang symbol. Within the dark formative energies of Yin is a bright spot of impending Yang. And within the lightness and power of Yang is the inevitable withdrawal into the quiet of Yin. The cycles between Yin and Yang are inevitable and life-giving.

Reflecting upon the natural flow into and out of cities, I also realized that in many ways, cities are breathing — in and out, in and out. Indeed, if you look at things from a large enough perspective, almost everything in nature breathes in this way. Over the millions of years of life on Earth, the seas have risen and fallen. The glaciers have formed and receded and formed again. The mountains rise and then erode away, only to rise again if volcanic action returns. The stock market goes up and then down. The liberals and conservatives take their turns. Although some civilizations rise and then disappear, they are replaced by new ones. Living systems breathe as does each individual living thing.

Of course, not all changes are welcome to us. Most of us do not like to experience decline. And we must do what we can to mitigate the damage that we humans have done to disrupt or exacerbate the breathing systems of our beloved Earth.

But there is also a kind of solace and tranquility that can be found in accepting the natural flow of life. Things come and go. Fortunes rise and fall. I remember that my mother, a lifelong worrier, developed much more equanimity about things in her later years. Almost 95 years of life on Earth had taught her that, in the end, things somehow tend to work themselves out.

I must admit that I too tend to be a worrier and “striver.” And of course, one of the key messages in my book Active Consciousness is that each of us is a key player in the evolution and development of our world. We have more power than we realize!

But recently, my readings and meditations have also helped me develop a deeper level of Trust. While it certainly is in our nature as humans to struggle (indeed, struggle has helped us to survive), I have come to realize that it is also in our nature to gradually develop a wise knowing that some kind of deeper power is always at work. In other words, part of our job as co-creators is to trust that all is occurring as it should — indeed, as it must.

As I write in Active Consciousness, we must not only envision our future; we must also develop the ability to Let Go. Remember to breathe — in and out. And know that all of life is breathing too.

The Psychosoma — All Disease is Psycho-Somatic

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mindbodyIn Chapter 5 of my book Impossible Cure, I emphasize the fact that all disease is psycho-somatic in nature — that is, is reflected in our entire state being, which includes both our “soma” (our physical body), as well as our “psyche” — our emotions and mental state. In my second book, Active Consciousness, I suggest that there are even more components of our being, at even higher levels of the complete energy body.

Homeopathic medicine is one of several holistic medicines that understands this fact deeply; indeed, I believe that the psychosomatic nature of disease is more fundamental to homeopathy than it is to any other modality. Every true homeopath knows that the core vibratory state of our vital force — the state they are trying to match to that of a curative homeopathic remedy — can be detected in any one of many unlikely places: in quirks of behavior, food cravings, idiosyncratic physical aches and pains, and especially the patient’s unique emotional state. Almost all disease arises out of some kind of disturbance to the vital force, and more often than not, that disturbance is emotional, whether the patient consciously knows it or not.

The late Edward “Chris” Whitmont, a psychiatrist and student of Jung as well as an esteemed homeopathic thinker and author of Psyche and Substance, understood and wrote about the psychosomatic nature of all disease. As he pointed out, the homeopathic materia medica is a veritable encyclopedia of possible human psychosomatic states, whose emotional/mental/physical symptom patterns were elicited through remedy provings and through clinical experiences over the past 200 years.

Whitmont also related the curative action of the truly homeopathic remedy to Jung’s concept of synchronicity, a subject that I also discuss at length in my book Active Consciousness and in my articles about consciousness. As Jung and Whitmont point out, it is no accident that a watch may stop at the instant its owner dies, or that a person’s disease pattern reflects the symbolism of the substance that can cure them. That’s the synchronistic nature of our universe.

I recently had an experience that drove the importance of the psychosoma home to me. Starting with an emotional upset in January, I gradually developed issues with my lower back. By early February, they had intensified to become sciatica in my right leg. Eventually I even began to use a cane to walk. It was time for intervention! Luckily, I had several trusty tools available to me. One of them, of course, was homeopathy. I made an appointment with my homeopath and got some immediate relief from the prescribed remedy. After a relapse a few days later, however, I took another dose — causing a big enough aggravation that it forced me, finally, to penetrate the emotional origins of my pain more deeply.

I knew all along that the root of my pain was likely emotional, but I had also convinced myself that there were also physical co-factors at play. Nevertheless, I finally turned inward and faced what was going on. My second helpful tool was a book that had cured me of all back pain over twenty years ago — John Sarno’s Mind Over Back Pain.

Armed with the updated version of Sarno’s book — now called Healing Back Pain — I sat down, read it over the course of a few days, writing down every single thing that was bugging me, and acknowledging that my back pain was really psychologically and not physically-based. I had some emotional conversations with family members too. Et voila! — my pain was diminished by at least 90% over the course of just a 3-4 days. I’m working on the rest now, taking Sarno’s advice that every ache or pain I experience is really a signal for me to “think psychological not physical.”

Sarno is a medical doctor who has worked in rehabilitative medicine for over sixty years. His experience has shown that at least 80% — and probably more — of back pain in the USA is due to psychological factors, not physical, even when X-rays and MRIs and other doctors say otherwise. His method of treatment — based on simply providing the patient with knowledge and awareness — has cured thousands of people with much more longstanding, severe, and supposedly “physically-based” back pain than mine.

His ideas have also cured many other problems rooted in the emotions, including eczema, asthma, heart palpitation and arrhythmia, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal problems such as heartburn and irritable bowel, fibromyalgia, and more. All of these people’s problems weren’t “in their heads” — they were physically and even lab-tested as real. But their root was in psychological factors, not physical. As a result, taking meds or having surgery was ultimately just palliative or suppressive and did not address the root. The tendency of allopathy to treat disease using suppression or palliation is something that homeopaths and experienced homeopathic patients know all about!

I have no doubt that Sarno, who at base is an allopath and believes most alternative health modalities are placebo, would say the same of homeopathy. Yet even Sarno says that the hallmark of a placebo cure is that it doesn’t last — something that is not true of a good homeopathic cure. We who really know homeopathy know that it truly cures because it too gets at the root, which includes the psychological. Indeed, remedies are very often chosen based primarily on the emotional and mental symptoms, even for physical diseases. I tell the story of one such case — my own! — in Impossible Cure. In that case, I suffered from an intransigent month-long bronchitis that did not yield to any remedy until it was finally cured when I realized that the bronchitis was triggered by a fright and then took Aconite.

Luckily for me and my back, a homeopathic aggravation finally led me to do the emotional work needed to heal. That is one way in which homeopathy can heal us, and it underscores a key point. We must participate in our healing. It is often not enough to take a pill or a remedy and sit back and wait. If we are to truly heal we must address all aspects of our being — our diets, our environment, our relationships, our behaviors, and our various habitual patterns, be they physical, mental, or emotional. An inspirational article that touches on this subject, was written by my own homeopath, Deborah Olenev.

It is true, an excellent homeopathic remedy can sometimes do the entire job, and what a miraculous blessing it is when that happens! In other cases, however, a good remedy provides a key that unlocks the door to a process that we must then actively pursue. In such cases, the remedy guides and nudges us along, but we must participate in our own cures. Healing, and indeed, the unfolding of our lives in general, is ultimately a cooperative ballet of energy, inspiration, and action.

Breaking Down the Fourth Wall

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stageAll the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.” -Shakespeare

Anyone remotely familiar with Shakespeare knows that he sometimes employed the use of a commentator or “observer” in his plays, who periodically remarked, often satirically, on the action. Unlike a mere narrator, however, this type of character speaks essentially as a member of the audience, openly acknowledging that, yes, this is a play. In theater, this device is called “breaking the fourth wall,” with the idea that the stage has three walls (two sides, one back), with the fourth being the imaginary wall between the players and the audience. Wikipedia describes it as follows:

“The fourth wall is the imaginary “wall” at the front of the stage… through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play…. Speaking directly to or otherwise acknowledging the audience through a camera in a film or television program, or through this imaginary wall in a play, is referred to as “breaking the fourth wall” and is considered a technique of meta-fiction, as it penetrates the boundaries normally set up by works of fiction.”

Recently, while attending a meditation workshop with my teachers Gary Sherman and Ellen Miller (whose work I discuss at length in Active Consciousness), I realized that the process of gaining awareness and accessing the internal observer Self is much like breaking down the fourth wall of our minds. Our constant mental jabber, our “stories” and narratives, are much like a play or movie in which we are the actors. Most of the time, we are very much swept up into our personal screenplays and stage dramas.

But just as a play or movie is the creation of a writer, actors, and director, we need to remember that in reality, we are fashioning our own lives. Gaining awareness, getting in contact with our Inner Observer — essentially getting into alignment with our Inner Self — is much like realizing that, yes, this is a “play”, this is a “story”, that we are creating. We are engaged in it, but in truth, we are separate from it.

Breaking down your fourth wall will also enable you to more easily ask yourself questions like: What is this plot teaching me? What lessons are each of the characters in my “play” wrestling with and learning? How can they engage within one another in a more beneficial way? As the Sufis say, the goal is to “Be in the world, but not of the world.” Yes, be a player on the stage of your life, but also know that you are much more than that and that something much deeper is going on.

Breaking down the fourth wall of the fiction of your mind can also enable you to be more light-hearted and trusting, knowing that not only may there be a grander purpose or “plot” at work, but that you are simultaneously a co-creator, director, and producer of the action. If all the world is a stage, then each of us can help to create a wonderful and joyous play, one from which we all learn, grow, and benefit. Let’s put some “play”-fulness back into the play of our lives!

New Research Continues to Prove the Power and Efficacy of Homeopathy

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Doctors Studying Data on ComputerTired of hearing “there is no scientific proof” for homeopathy? I know I am! Despite this seemingly never-ending chorus of misinformation, more and more studies continue to pour in that prove homeopathy works. Most of them are being conducted in India and Europe, where homeopathy is much more accepted.

Studies that should be especially convincing to our skeptical friends are those conducted on lab animals and even in-vitro tissue samples. Some studies have also been conducted on plants! Can skeptics seriously believe that cancer cells, lab rats, and plants are subject to the placebo effect?

One particularly excellent source of information about homeopathic studies is the ever-growing database being accumulated by Saurav Arora on Audesapere.in. By the way, “Aude Sapere” is the opening epigraph of the Organon, Hahnemann’s treatise on the homeopathic system, still the seminal work on homeopathy to this day. “Aude Sapere” means “Dare To Know” — as true a challenge to today’s skeptics of homeopathy as it was back to Hahnemann’s medical colleagues in the early 1800’s!

Saurav Arora’s Database of Scientific Publications in Homeopathy includes subcategories like:
* Fundamental Research (lab studies of various kinds)
* Clinical Research
* Veterinary
* Agro
* Survey studies
and more. Each of the cited papers is accompanied by a link to the paper itself.

Here are just two recent examples I picked out at random from the Fundamental Research category on the site:

▪ Antimalarial potential of China 30 and Chelidonium 30 in combination therapy against lethal rodent malaria parasite: Plasmodium berghei. This study published in the May 2013 issue of the Journal of Complementary Integrative Medicine demonstrated that the use of a combination of two remedies was just as effective as standard therapy against malaria on lab mice, with even greater prophylactic abilities against malaria than the standard allopathic drug therapy!

*Calcarea carbonica induces apoptosis in cancer cells in p53-dependent manner via an immuno-modulatory circuit. In this study, published in the September 2013 issue of BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the remedy Calcarea Carbonica was used in a trial on a particular strain of cancer cells, both in live mice and on the cells themselves. Interestingly, the remedy was effective against cancer in the mice, but not so on the cells themselves, prompting the researchers to investigate whether the remedy was, instead, triggering an immune response in the mice that then killed their cancer. This conclusion was then borne out by the researchers and an immune-response mechanism was even determined.

Imagine the significance of these two studies if they were taken more seriously. Effective non-toxic therapies against malaria and cancer! Just the fact that an agent had been found that triggered an immune-based response toward fighting cancer should be headlines. Please check out and support the AudeSapere research database and spread the word about it!

Another great and readable source of research information is the series of homeopathic research articles being contributed by Australian naturopath and homeopath Robert Medhurst to the excellent online homeopathic journal, The Hpathy Newsletter. Check out Medhurst’s 13th installment in his series of homeopathic research summaries.

By the way, to check out all of Hpathy’s past research articles, use this link. On that page you can find all of Medhurst’s research survey articles and more.

I could go on and on.

Suffice it to say, the scientific proof that homeopathy is safe and highly effective grows each day. The skeptics need only open their eyes and look. Aude Sapere!

A New Year’s Experiment: Let Go of Assumptions

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tree-branchesLately, instead of writing my Active Consciousness articles to a fixed deadline, I try to wait until inspiration hits me and trust that it will. For me it happened this morning.

I woke up thinking about the fact that it was already January 6 and I had no idea what to write about for my January newsletter. After breakfast, as I usually do, I sat still for a moment and contemplated what I felt guided to do, and I sensed the urge to do some reading in a book I’ve been enjoying lately, The Trust Frequency by Andrew Cameron Bailey and Constance Baxter Marlow. While doing so, I came upon this passage:

“Our awareness is profoundly conditioned by our assumptions, by our core beliefs concerning the nature of reality. The nature of our assumptions and their vibratory rate or frequency has a huge effect on the state of our consciousness, creating a filter through which all of our perceptions and experiences are channeled.”

This passage instantly triggered the memory of a dream I had last night. In my dream, I was talking to a child who was telling me that they saw spirits and other beings walking around them all the time. I asked whether they had to do something special to see this and what it was like. They said, it was just like seeing normally, you just had to stop blocking your perception of it. In other words, instead of doing something, you needed to remove any assumptions about what you could and couldn’t perceive. You needed to be completely open to it.

In the December issue of the Active Consciousness Newsletter, I talked about my idea of the Original Self — the person you were born to be, before all the stories, burdens, and assumptions of life and family and culture were layered on you. Reflecting upon my dream, I realized that this Original Self innately possesses a mode of perception free from assumptions. A very young child, for example, looks out at the world and simply sees all that is there, without filters.

Can you recapture this aspect of your Original Self? Try it as an experiment the next time you meditate. As described in my book Active Consciousness, settle first using “Feet. Seat. Back” and then leave your eyes open while meditating. Just be open, without filters, seeing perhaps as an infant would. Not only is this relaxing, but you may start to perceive a much more open and energetic reality around you. It may even feel a bit dizzying!

Of course, it’s not just about seeing. Letting go of assumptions can alter and expand your perceptions and understanding on all levels. Not that assumptions are innately bad. Assumptions help us to navigate the world and aid us in being more efficient while doing so. For example, how could we drive without the assumption that most people will follow the rules of traffic? But occasionally letting go of assumptions can be a freeing exercise that expands and energizes you.

As you enter this new year of 2014, try playing with this idea — letting go of some of your assumptions about what your year will be like. Be open to anything! In the conceptual language of Active Consciousness, expand the possible futures emanating from your choice points and widen your scope of possibilities! This will both enliven you and fundamentally change the year that you can and will ultimately create.

Get the New Year Off to a Good Start With Some Homeopathic Inspirations!

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eye1. Probably my favorite homeopathic video for 2013 has to be an amazing re-imagining of “American Pie” with lyrics and images recalling the wondrous history of homeopathy. Entitiled Homeo Pie, it was put together by Robert Cassard and homeopath Bara Waters and can be found on Bara Waters’ site. It’s long (as is American Pie, of course!), but stick with it. I guarantee you will be bopping and inspired by the end!

2. On a more somber but also inspirational note is Gary Null’s latest movie about the dangers of vaccination, Silent Epidemic: The Untold Story of Vaccines. This is totally worth a viewing. One of the researchers featured in it is a friend of mine and supporter of the homeopathic approach, immunology researcher Dr. Tetyana Obukhanych.

Lots of wonderful work is being done in Africa with homeopathy. I personally have three favorite projects that I support with my charitable dollars.

3. First is the clinic being run by famed homeopathic teacher, Jeremy Sherr, and his wife Camilla in Tanzania. Most of their clients are HIV/AIDS patients and they have done wonders helping them with classical homeopathy. Check out their video newsletter and see some short but mind-blowing cases.

4. Another important homeopathic outpost in Africa is the work of Peter Chappell and Harry Van der Zee at the Amma Resonance Healing Foundation (ARHF) with AIDS/HIV patients. Peter’s mysteriously effective and easy to use PC remedies have brought miraculous healing to many. ARHF also has made available (for free!) a download on trauma treatment.

5. Finally, I also support of the work of my friend Adjoa Margaret Stack in her yearly malaria clinics in Ghana.

6. This one is rather cool. Some celebrity fans of homeopathy in the UK have gotten tattoos of their favorite homeopathic remedy sources!

7. Also on the celebrity front, we have our intrepid homeopathic writer Dana Ullman always bringing us surprising news about famous folk who love homeopathy. This year I enjoyed his articles about the reclusive J.D. Salinger and President Abraham Lincoln.

8. Homeopathy makes it to Time Square on December 30, 2013.

Enjoy!

New Interview Videos!

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timeisartAs mentioned in previous posts, a new film is in production that will feature Amy and her ideas, especially as they pertain to consciousness and synchronicity.  Entitled Time Is Art, the filmmakers created short interview videos as promotions for the movie.  You can see two interviews of Amy here:

The Original Self

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childbubbleIn past issues of the Active Consciousness Newsletter, as well as in Active Consciousness, I have written about different components or aspects of one’s self. These include:

* the Inner or Higher Self
* the Basic Self (a concept from Hawaiian shamanism)
* the Middle Self — the thinking/rational mind (also identified in Hawaiian shamanism)
* the “mundane” self or ego/personality complex.

In this article I will discuss a new aspect of the self that I have been exploring lately — the Original Self. I haven’t come up with references to anything like it anywhere (write to me if you know of any!), but I have found that connecting with this part of my self can be extremely helpful. I thought you might as well.

Think of the Original Self as the normal, ordinary You as you were originally born. Unlike the Higher or even Basic Selves that are accessed through meditation or at least through some concerted effort to reach a deeper state of awareness, the Original Self is much easier to find. It is that sense of self that you possessed before all the stories of family and culture were laid on top of you. It is your original personality in this life.

One easy way to find your Original Self is to think back to when you truly and easily reflected it with ease. For most of us, this means going back to childhood, to a time before you developed fears and anxieties, before you took on the expectations of your family, religion, and culture. This is when you were truly your naked self, before you were burdened by outside information.

In my case, I have to go back to at least three or four years old. Even then, I know I was beginning to cover up my Original Self. For many of us, the Original Self might only be accessed through one’s earliest memories. When I contact this part of myself, I see that my Original Self was happy, curious, open, unburdened. Although embedded in a child’s body, there was also the sense that this Self was complete and non-childish.

For some of us, the Original Self might still have been dominant and unburdened in later childhood, especially if you had a happy home life. And how fortunate are those who can retain easy access to their Original Self even longer — some even manage to do so into adulthood! Usually, however, most people’s Original Self becomes increasingly covered up during the trials of puberty.

I have found that when I feel anxious or worried and recognize that I have unconsciously become overcome by “stories”, an easy way for me to regain balance is to simply bring up a memory of my Original Self. I remember that this is the true me. I find that I am filled with a sense that I am OK, I am enough. I also feel a greater trust in the universe, and that everything is working out as it should.

As we enter the holiday season, a time when people tend to easily be overcome by “stories” and external expectations, make a resolution that you will try to periodically return to your Original Self. You may find that by doing so, you regain your original childlike wonder and excitement about this time of year. Indeed, this wonder and joy is really what the Holiday Season is all about. A return to your Original Self can help you reclaim that.

Homeopathy — A Treasure Hidden in Plain Sight

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butterflyBeing a lover and advocate of homeopathy can sometimes be a frustrating occupation. You speak passionately and cajole, provide scientific proof and personal testimonial evidence. “Look! Look! This medicine possesses a miraculous power of healing! You need not suffer!” You write articles that show how even scientific studies prove that homeopathic remedies could drastically reduce the need for antibiotics for farm animals, save whole populations from virulent epidemics, or slash the health care costs that are destroying our nation. But even those who you think might listen will instead, with a polite grimace, say they “can’t go there.” Too controversial. Or too “out there.”

Much like the guru who tells all who care to listen, “Take off your blinders, joy is there for you each day, happiness can be achieved each moment,” you find that you are largely ignored. Even friends and family simply smile politely and implicitly say, “That’s nice you are so interested in that, but I’m not really believing what you say.”

There are a variety of sayings in homeopathic circles that summarize this conundrum. “You have to come to Homeopathy” or “Homeopathy is for those who deserve it.” But the fact is, Homeopathy truly is for everyone and can work for anyone, even your dog, cat, or houseplant. It’s just that most people are blind to it. People hear you but do not listen. They look but they do not see. Homeopathy is a treasure hidden in plain sight.

“Grokking” homeopathy is a lot like looking at the world through a slightly different lens. Just a twist of the focusing knob, just a slight turn of the head brings a whole new world into view. When you finally experience the healing powers of a remedy and in a striking way, and you really take it in, not pass it off, you can never see things in quite the same way again. It’s like realizing that you were once blind to a whole aspect of reality that is now so perfectly obvious.

Sure, the practice of Homeopathy is hard. The remedy jewels are everywhere, but it’s sometimes (but not always!) hard to pick just the right one and apply it in just the right way. The body is also mysterious and its path of healing is often unpredictable. The environment we live in and the things we do each day additionally make the healing process even more complicated. But the fact is, Homeopathy is there for us. As I always like to say, “There’s hope with homeopathy.”

At this time of year, as the days grow shorter and we fold within ourselves, it’s important to give thanks for the jewel of Homeopathy that is hidden in plain sight. Yes, do share it with others. Perhaps let them know about Impossible Cure, which has succeeded in opening many people’s eyes. But it is also worthwhile to simply give thanks. And do support homeopathic efforts and organizations when you can.

As I have written before, in the December 2011 newsletter, Homeopathy is perhaps the most true spiritual medicine. It distills the essence of a substance in nature and gently connects it with our own essence. Like the slightest touch of a fairy’s wings or of a magic wand, the right remedy enables us to be suddenly freed and transformed. Sometimes we need frequent touches to be led along a path of discovery and recovery. But the fact is, it is there for us. We just need to see it, hear it, and feel it.

Antibiotics — Is There Another Way?

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The following article about the homeopathic alternative to antibiotics for farm animals appeared on Truthout.org on October 25, 2013.

Please visit the Truthout link and give it a thumbs up — and forward it within your social networks!

The news has been buzzing lately about a recent CDC report that confirms a link between the routine use of antibiotics for livestock and growing bacterial resistance. Surprisingly, about 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the United States are given in low prophylactic doses to farm animals in an effort to ward off rampant disease on our mega feedlots. If the CDC is right, this practice is causing people to die in increasing numbers from infections that simply won’t respond to treatment anymore. The bacteria have evolved and become resistant to our drugs as fast as we can develop them.

This outcome has been brewing and hinted at for years, but our dependence on antibiotics has been difficult to break. Naturally, doctors are loathe to deny an antibiotic prescription to a patient who is eager for one. But when it comes to treating our livestock, perhaps we should think twice, especially if the outcome is harming us.

But is there another way?

The answer is yes and it may surprise you. This solution is used with success by organic farmers all over the world and by some conventional feedlots in Europe. It was also the subject of a 1999 study that showed the method gets superior results over prophylactic antibiotics. The technique also won’t lead to bacterial resistance, because rather than killing bacteria, it increases the natural resistance of animals to disease.

In September 1999, Albrecht and Schutte published “Homeopathy Versus Antibiotics in Metaphylaxis of Infectious Diseases: A Clinical Study in Pig Fattening and Its Significance to Consumers” in Alternative Therapies. The study compared outcomes for four randomly assigned groups of pigs that were given placebo, homeopathic treatment, a standard blend of antibiotics and other conventional drugs in a routine low prophylactic dose, or conventional drugs in a high therapeutic dose. There were 1440 pigs involved in the study, which took place at an intensive livestock farm in Germany. The primary outcome measured was the incidence of respiratory disease, a common problem for pigs on such farms.

The results were both significant and startling: Homeopathic treatment was far superior to prophylactic doses of antibiotics in preventing respiratory disease. Prophylactic antibiotic treatment made it only 11 percent less likely (than placebo) that the pigs would become sick. But homeopathic remedies made it 40 percent less likely. When the antibiotics were raised to therapeutic levels, it became 70 percent less likely that the pigs would become diseased.

Clearly, it is impossible to keep animals medicated at high therapeutic levels of antibiotics all of the time. Even at lower prophylactic levels, the use of these drugs is becoming a societal health problem. This study showed that a form of medicine that many believe is mere placebo — and therefore unlikely to cause any effect in pigs — provides a much safer and more effective solution than prophylactic antibiotics.

Organic farmers worldwide already know this and have used homeopathic remedies successfully for many years. For example, in this report aired on New Zealand television, Tinneke Verkhade, a nurse and homeopath living in New Zealand, describes how she has taught hundreds of dairy farmers to use homeopathic medicines to help their herds, and how homeopathy is a primary tool used by organic farmers all over her country.

Perhaps even more surprising, homeopathy has also successfully treated confirmed cases of deadly antibiotic-resistant MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus). A paper published in the November/December 2009 issue of Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, reports one case study. You can see the healing process in this YouTube video. It was filmed by award-winning filmmaker Laurel Chiten as part of her development of a new film about homeopathy, Just One Drop.

Science and experience on organic farms have now shown that we do have a safe and effective alternative to antibiotics for our animals, and even for ourselves. The question is, will we follow the evidence and take a chance on this controversial option? Isn’t it at least worth a try?