A bird's eye view of modern homeopathy
Homeopathy has again become a most lively science. In the last 20 years, many innovative thinkers and practitioners have come forward, and some eminent figures contributed new systematic pathways. Our ever-growing materia medica has become a jungle. Every blessed detail gets added, but nothing gets removed, and road maps were lacking. The repertories get bigger and bigger. The polychrests are over-represented and have overgrown the so-called "small remedies", which are often not sufficiently proved. One of the main tasks of today is to create a simple and systematic order based on reason and verified by clinical experience. Such systems can be found in the periodic table for the elements and minerals, in the botanical systems for the plants, and in zoology and behavioural science for the animal remedies. Truth is truth, wherever we may find it. Why not incorporate the truths of science? The question is how to translate these existing systems into homeopathic terms. Once the key for the translation is found, it must be validated by the acid test of good results in homeopathic application. Only successful cases can tell the truth from mere theory.
The ideas presented here have more or less stood the test of the clinic. The following essay focuses on those new ideas, which have proved successful in our own clinical experience in hundreds of good cases. We run a joint homeopathic medical clinic in Kandern, South Germany, since 1983. This essay is partly contained in the foreword of a new German edition of Hahnemann's Organon, a reprint of the original German 6th edition by Narayana Verlag.

Light and shadow in modern homeopathy
Classical homeopathy and the new methods: 20 stormy years have passed since we founded our homeopathic medical clinic in Kandern. Since then, homeopathy has undergone a great development comparable to the high tide of this wonderful science in America at the turning of the century in 1880 - 1920. After a depression during the great two world wars of the 20th century and decades of stagnation, we experience a thrilling new thriving of homeopathy in Europe and India. Some revolutionary concepts have been introduced. As a reaction to these, many conservative homeopaths have turned their backs on innovations and taken shelter on the safe grounds of well-established ways they like to call classical homeopathy. Some others even would like to get rid of all new ideas, if they cannot find them in the Organon.
But Hahnemann himself was quite different. He followed an evolutionary development and changed his Organon from edition to edition according to the growing experience. Evolution of theory and practice went hand in hand with him. He was one of the best scientists and physicians in world history. Basically an inspired genius, he was careful enough to verify his thoughts thoroughly in practice before he would publish them. Only when experience supported what he intuitively understood did he publish it. He was also flexible enough to discard ideas he had formerly taken for granted, if clinical experience would not support them. He proceeded like a true scientist. He used the method of rational thinking and verification in practice and applied it to physical as well as metaphysical subjects with success. His concept of vital force, although 200 years old, is still far ahead of so-called modern science. The tempting victory of technical success as an expression of a one-sided materialistic view seems to be too seductive to accept the living reality of an invisible vital force. With supreme mental insight, Hahnemann went on developing his discovery of homeopathy throughout his life, introducing new things and discarding old ones. As a core idea, he kept the law of similarity between the sick patient (who discloses the necessary information by mental and physical symptoms) and the remedy picture: this similarity is the key to the curative remedy. This is the real pivot around which the whole of homeopathy revolves. The potentizing of remedies underwent changes until his death. The proving of remedies on healthy people was kept unchanged, but he was never too precise about how he did it himself.
This all goes to prove that Hahnemann himself was quite different from what we call a classical homeopath. He even changed established methods that he formerly introduced with success, like the introduction of Q-potencies and the trituration of fresh plants, when he found something better. The very motto he wrote on the front page of his Organon was "aude sapere", which means "be brave and think for yourself". As such it does not claim to be a closed dogmatic system after which there can be nothing new. Every free man or woman has the right to use the intellect as far and as good as possible without having to follow a dogma or big names blindly. But then he has to take responsibility for the consequences also.
Now we do not all have the greatness of a Hahnemann. His independent approach in the hands of less skilled people gave rise to many an error by trying new things on their own. But that's how things go. Anxious natures tend to paint it black and already prophesy a second downfall of homeopathy because of the many wild speculations that we witness during the last years. But truth will prevail in the long run. Concocted theories will never stand the test of time and experience. Truth is always stronger. One must only keep in mind that truth stands for facts and not for fancy. Many of the old homeopathic books are still valid and find successful daily use since more than 200 years. Whereas some of the new provings are published without clinical proof, i.e. without successful cases to support the claimed ideas. Other new provings like the one of Bambus have been already verified many times. Many postulated symptoms of non-verified provings may be mere projections of unqualified provers. One single capable prover may reveal more features of a remedy than 50 random provers. This problem is also seen during the many group provings, which are so popular today.

Good cases as a criterion to find out the facts about remedies: Constantine Hering and his followers evaluated the symptoms of cured patients in order to bring light into the jungle of proving symptoms. Each proving symptom which could be verified by a cure in a patient was raised to a higher degree. According to the frequency of clinical validation of a symptom, many keynotes and main characteristics were found. This valuable method is quite scientific and needs no justification by hearsay or big names. It just asks for the effects of remedies in practice. Good cases are a very reliable measure of verification of provings. Sometimes they can also show more than a proving did. By comparing 2-3 good cases of a remedy one can sometimes understand the genius of a remedy even better than from many provings. But we still lack a generally accepted codex of good cases. Cured patients can sometimes also show new features of a remedy, which were not detected during the provings. Many clinical indications were found that way.

Who gave the main impulses?
George Vithoulkas is the man who initiated the worldwide rising of homeopathy during the 80ies. Quite like Kent in his lectures on materia medica, he understood the genius of many remedies and succeeded in presenting the host of symptoms in a nutshell. This was done in such a convincing simplicity, that everyone could imagine what the remedies really are and thus also memorize them. His followers called them "essences" and published an unauthorized booklet, which became a tremendous success. Only he who understands a sufficiently large number of remedies will be able to use them successfully in practice. The point is, the essences must be correct and as short and concise as possible without losing the characteristic issues. How else to remember 500-1000 remedies? Unfortunately, the memory of many homeopaths is so filled up with all possible details of 20-50 polychrests, that hundreds of so-called small remedies are overlooked. Why should we keep in mind 100 symptoms of Lycopodium and have no idea of Cicuta maculata or Dendroaspis polylepis? With 5-10 main features per remedy, instead of only one Lycopodium there would be space for at least 15 more equally important remedies by the same effort. The "essences" played a crucial role in this development. With these, Vithoulkas created a deep impression in the minds of many homeopaths, even if he became later afraid that he might have made things too easy and thus opened the doors for wild speculations. Most of the contemporary famous homeopaths came from his school on the Greek island of Alonnissos.

Jan Scholten: His new exposition of minerals and the soon following homeopathic key for the periodic table of elements was a main breakthrough for homeopathy. The ideas of this genius have proved correct in worldwide application as well as in our own clinical practice. These were verified so many times already that there is no more serious doubt about them. His basic work "Homeopathy and the Elements" shows the mineral remedies in a new natural order. Thereby we get many new possibilities for successful prescriptions. This work should have a place in every modern homeopathic practice. Even remedies so far unproved like Technetium and Scandium became predictable for homeopathic use by their very position in the periodic table. And they have been prescribed accordingly with clinical success even without the usual homeopathic proving. There are 7 "series" and 18 "stages". The "series" are the horizontal rows of the periodic table and are named after their main members. So there is an "iron series", a "silver series" and a "gold series" etc. Each series stands for a common theme in the development of life. The iron series has remedies like Calcium, Manganum, Cobaltum or Gallium and stands for problems with work, law and order, rules, regulations, in schools as well as in smaller communities, where everyone stills knows each other. The silver series contains elements like Ruthenium, Palladium or Cadmium and can be useful for diseases and difficulties of creative intellectuals, mediators and people of originality like artists or all sorts of people trying to convey ideas to others. The gold series furnishes remedies like Hafnium, Mercury or Thallium, and its sphere of use lies in problems with power, too much responsibility and generally in people of a heavy feeling. The 18 "stages" are the vertical columns of the periodic table and denote steps of development, which are common to all series. They seem to be a general principle of the development of self-confidence of the human mind in different levels and depict 18 archetypical stages of the rise and fall of the theme of each series. These start from the first steps of naïve beginning and trying (stage 1-3) to a phase of learning, mastering and conserving (stage 4-12) unto the decline of the series, ending in the experience of its loss (stage 13-18). In the traditional version of the periodic table, the stages are the groups of elements with the same electron configuration in the outer shell and similar chemical reactions.
The discovery of the homeopathic interpretation of the periodic table reminds us of the history of the periodic system itself. In 1871 Mendelejev, the founder of the periodic table, predicted the existence of a missing element, because there was an empty cross section in the table. He predicted even the chemical characteristics of the unknown element. This missing element was found in Germany in 1886 and thus called Germanium. It had exactly the postulated qualities. In later experiments it began to reveal its full physical potential as a semi-conductor. This was not predictable. Similarly, in homeopathy Germanium could be predicted in its basic therapeutic characteristics according to its position of stage 14 (dismissed, formal) in the iron series (work, task). Curative effects in patients verified these concepts, especially in people who suffered from the effects of being dismissed from their work and having to do only formal tasks, making them feel like empty shells. A good homeopathic proving by J. Sherr substantiated the knowledge about Germanium with physical symptoms and revealed more unforeseen characteristics. This is a good example how the understanding of remedies can grow. If homeopathy begins to work with such natural systems of science, along with new provings, its precision and range of remedies will grow immensely. At the same time, the host of new remedies will become easier to grasp by a general new systematic like the botanical families. Thus even with a larger number, the prescription of these remedies will become easier.

Rajan Sankaran gave homeopathy many original contributions like the situational materia medica (vivifying the genius of a remedy by a typical situation) and the concept of basic delusion (perceiving one's situation from an inappropriate angle and accordingly projecting one's own delusion on others) as a main cause of disease. These can facilitate the selection of remedies, and if diligently applied, increase the number of one's successful cases. His "Spirit of Homeopathy" is one of the landmarks of modern homeopathy. Sankaran recently applied his advanced definition of miasms unto the botanic system. His latest work "Insight into Plants" begins to open a new door for a rational classification and deeper understanding of all plant remedies. It is something like a periodic system for plants. Each botanical order and/or family stands for a "vital sensation" peculiar to each family. As an example, the plants of the rubiaceae family (coffea, china, ipecac etc) share the concept of mental over-stimulation, a lot of planning, too much creative activity and sleeplessness. If we see this concept as a main problem in a patient, we will think of the rubiaceae and choose one of its members according to the predominant miasm. The miasms are a peculiar way of reaction and modulate the so-called vital sensation. China feels over-stimulated and reacts with the characteristics of the malaria miasm: stuck and intermittently attacked. Coffea feels over-stimulated and reacts with the stereotype of the tubercular miasm: as if time runs out and hectic activity is needed.
It should be noted that Sankaran still applies the traditional botanical system of Linnaeus and Cronquist. There is a new botanical system of Judd, which is quickly gaining ground and seems to be the state-of-the-art version since the turn of the 21st century. Scholten uses this as a basis for his homeopathic research in plants. The difference between the two systems is not very great, and most plants keep to the same categories. Sankaran himself emphasizes the preliminary character of his new idea. If we keep this in mind and make our own experiments, we will contribute to come to the core and find out the facts.
Miasms can be compared to stages: Sankaran's sequence of 10 miasms begins with diseases that have high hopes and little fatal character (acute, typhoid etc) and ends with hopeless and fatal forms of disease like leprosy and syphilis. So they share the same rise-and-fall idea of Scholten's 18 stages. Sankaran's miasms are based on the natural common reaction of large numbers of sick people sharing a common form of disease like malaria or tuberculosis. Stage 1 equals the acute miasm, stage 5 malaria miasm, stage 12 cancer miasm, stage 15 tuberculosis, 16 leprosy, 17 syphilitic miasm. Scholten suggested introducing more miasms like for example an atrophy miasm, because the clinical picture of atrophy is clearly depicted by his concept of stage 14 (drained, empty shell, lifeless mask). Sankaran's concept of miasms is a clinical approach and builds on Hahnemann's endeavour to classify the chronic diseases into some few basic forms. Whereas the stages are a more general approach even beyond medical concepts. They are a kind of psycho-mathematical system built on the basic facts of the periodic table. The periodic table is a universal systematic order of all elements of the material universe. One may speculate that this approach could be more universal than a clinical approach of forms of diseases. The stages depict the general principles of growth, sustained maintenance and decay, unto which everything is subject to. They start with doubt, gain confidence, and experience loss. Time will tell how specific the stages are compared to the classification of miasms. This is a thrilling quest, and it aptly compares in its importance for homeopathy to the historic discovery of the periodic table for chemistry or the development of the atom theory for physics.
Quite like Scholten's system of elements and minerals, Sankaran's homeo-botanical system enables us to predict the therapeutic range of a plant to some extent. This is a new way of rational prescribing and adds to the usual classical method. Indeed we saw several very good cases of remedies we would otherwise not have prescribed due to lack of proved symptoms like corydalis formosa (papaveraceae + syphilitic miasm or stage 17) and franciscea uniflora (Solanaceae + syphilitic miasm or stage 17). The present research focuses on the finding of concepts or sensations common for each botanical group and their modulation by miasms (Sankaran) or stages (Scholten). The same could be done with zoological groups for animals. Perhaps it is even easier to find a common concept for mammals, insects, snakes, spiders etc. With some of these animal groups this was done successfully. But the staging like in botany has not been done yet. We would expect a similar success of better prescriptions of animal remedies thereby also. This new chapter is still in its infancy.

Hugbald Volker Mueller discovered the color preference and handwriting of a patient as homeopathic symptoms of great depth. Especially the color preference is relatively easy to get and needs no elaborate anamnesis. It needs only confidence about its value on the part of the homeopath and the willing consent of the patient to dive deep into the colors. It is a symptom, which reflects a basic state of the vital force. So it is quite in line with Sankaran's new concepts of sensations or energy patterns, and it lies at the deepest level of symptoms. It is at the level of a simillimum. H. V. Müller detected these already around 1985. We cooperated with him closely since 1990. He used an old color system with several disadvantages and asked us in 1993 to publish a new color standard. This came to light only after his death, because several renowned publishers backed up after realizing the extremely high printing costs due to the desired color quality. The book "Colors in Homeopathy" was finally published by Narayana Verlag. There is a web page with a free printable list attributing more than 700 remedies to a specific color: www.narayana-verlag.de. Please find a few samples of the handwriting as a homeopathic symptom under Handwriting.
H. V. Mueller was one of the great but frequently misrepresented homeopaths of our time. He lived quite withdrawn in his last 10 years and devoted his full time to the development of his findings. His clinical work was immense. He worked indefatigably from dawn to dusk in his clinic in Cologne, treating thousands of patients. He had many very good cases, mostly with so-called small remedies, and he succeeded to define the color preference and handwriting of more than 400 remedies by the clinical method. We are sure that the depth of his findings will come to light in the future. The color preference may express the basic individual vibration of the vital force. Thus it can give us a proposition of a group of remedies, which are on the level of a true simillimum. Further, by the minute description of many cases, Mueller gave us a vivid image of many little known remedies. The color preference and the handwriting as additional symptoms have given us very good success in prescribing since 15 years. In many cases they even presented the decisive hint for the prescription of more than 700 different "new, old and forgotten remedies", and this even after different polychrests had been given with medium or meagre results. Since we began to use the color preference as an additional symptom in 1990, our success rate increased considerably. The same is true with all the concepts mentioned in this article. If you feel attracted by one or more of them, try the one you feel close to and apply it diligently, and we are sure you will get the benefit along with your patients.