Excerpts from Science of Homeopathy - By Master EK

It is the patient who is important

and not at all the disease.

Study the trend of things

under which he has become a patient.

It is foolish to believe that there exists something like a disease different from the changes that occur in the behaviour of the various levels of the constitution. 

The changes that occur in a patient are of two types:

Changes in behaviour

Changes in the parts of the body.

Changes in behaviour include two parts : 

The behaviour of the vital force

The behaviour of one’s own nature.

The behaviour of the vital force is the pulsation that causes respiration, circulation, heart-beat, digestion, assimilation, alimentation, elimination, etc. 

One’s own nature includes the type of  thinking, understanding others,  

reading, writing,analysing, sorting out, allocating, liking and disliking, It also includes the functions of the senses. The capacity to understand and interpret also comes under this.

Health is the natural state of affairs

asunderstood through all these activities, while distortion indicates an unhealthy condition of things.

To select a remedy. It is the

distortions in the vital functionsand

the changes in the psychological set up and temperament that are most  

important to understand the state of the patient and select the remedy. This is because that energy and 

consciousness are nearer to man, the indweller than thephysical body,  

which is only a vehicle, the outermost vehicle.

The disturbances in the functions of the senses, mind andunderstanding give us a clear idea of the disease, while the changes in the physical body make us understand the resultsof the disease.  

All such disturbances, whether they be on themental, vital or physical planes, indicate that there is something wrong in the constitution. Hence they are called symptoms.

The mental and the vital symptoms are more important to notice than the physical symptoms. 

The mental and the vital symptoms

decide the totality of the symptoms that points out the drug, which bears  similarity to the totality. Vital symptoms are disturbances in vital functions.They include what the Homoeopath calls modalities, generalities and sensations. When these symptoms are considered along with the mental symptoms, we get the totality of symptoms for that patient. This procedure individualises the study of the case and gives a direct clue to the right selection of the drug. When we learn the dosage and its repetition, we can make a complete cure of the disease and restore the patient to health, provided it is not too late. When the drug rectifies the constitution the symptoms disappear automatically since they find so need to indicate the diseased condition.

There are only two purposes

that symptoms serve.The one is to

forewarn that something is going

wrong in theconstitution, thereby

indicating that there is something wrong with our habits of food, work, rest and sex. The second purpose is to present a totality of symptoms and to indicatethe required remedy  

according to the Law of Similars.

Suppressing symptoms comes under palliation and each successful attemptto palliate give room to a considerable increase of the disease, and adds to its incurability. It is only in the last stages of a hopeless case that symptoms can be palliated to give a peaceful end. In all other cases pain-killing amounts to life killing.

When the vital force is distorted, then it is called the diseased state. Such a vital force works to the destruction of the constitution. The  vital force which hither to has been protecting the constitution begins to work out the destruction of the constitution, when distorted.

It is the duty of a wise physician to educate people as to how to keep up the natural condition of the  vital force. He should inculcate the customs and habits of food, rest, sleep, work and sex among people. Medication is only a measure that is useful when health is disturbed.

Health is your attitude towards life

and not at all the procedure to use

medicine. The distortion caused by

some external force upon your

constitution is what is called disease. It produces symptoms to indicate the diseased state and also indicate the remedy. What is to be cured is the distortion of the vital body. It is the  cause that produces symptoms. When this cause is removed, the symptoms disappear. When all the symptoms automatically disappear, you need not make a clinical investigation to find out if there is disease.

Medicinal substances are those

substances that possess the power to distort the function of the vital  

force of a healthy constitution (in fact they are poisons). Disease cause also possesses such a power. The vital force that is diseasedis distorted. The vital force that is exposed to a medicinal substance is also distorted. Then it  produces symptoms. A medicinal substance causes the healthy constitution produce a group of symptoms that are always characteristic of that medicinal substance. That group of symptoms is called the totality of symptoms of that particular medicine. When the symptoms produced in a patient are similar to the symptoms produced in a  

healthy man by a medicinal substance, then that medicine cures that patient. This is because those 

symptoms indicate the fight of the vital force against something undesirable.

Observation tells you that no two diseases can exist in a constitution at a time. Only one diseased state exists though the sufferings are many. When a disease producing similar symptoms  attacks the already diseased constitution and when it is stronger than the existing cause, then it drives the existing disease and takes hold of the constitution. Now you can use the  

medicinal substance to produce an

artificialdisease, stronger than the

existing disease and capable of

producing similar symptoms. Then

the original disease disappears and

the artificial disease takes hold of

the constitution. If you take care to

administer the medicine in a very

minute dose, it rouses the vital

force and gets automatically

eliminated by it.The magic of minimum dose eliminates the existing disease and gets eliminated in no time. What is left behind is a health-restored constitution. This is the core of the Law of Similars, the Gospel of Hahnemann. 

Can diseases be permanently

cured by treatmen taccording to the

Law of Similars? Yes. But you should

be able to understand the nature of

obstacles on the way to cure and how to eliminate them. Irregularities in  behaviour withfood, drink, sleep, rest,  work, sex and social transactions are the prime factors that drive the  constitution into diseased condition. You have not only to medicate the patient according to the Law of Similars, but also to eliminate the irregularities 

of diet and habits. Otherwise the

patient will be cured again and again

only to fall sick as many times.

Sleeplessness,overeating, malnutrition, living in dirty  

environment and psychological shocks due to unhappy incidents in life, are all the causes that disturb the health basically. They are also the causes that work as obstacles when a medicine is restoring the health of a patient. As far as possible the daily routine should be regularised. There should be an  

equilibrium between rest and work as well as the skill to have a selective  

wayof working. 

Situations that kindle anger,malice, hatred, fearand suspicion should be avoided. To this end one should keep active in the positive lines.

The consistency of your health

depends upon yourbirth and heredity. Accordingly you have to make  

alterations in your ways of living. You have to select and reject yourfood, drink,  environment and the programming of  the dayaccording to your constitution  and its resistance. One whowants to  have a permanent cure should have no  compromise.

The same diet never holds good to all. The same pair of shoes, however, beautiful and luxurious, cannot suit all pairs of feet.