| Part 3 - Dynamic Resonance
Dr. Hahnemann's system is based on the understanding of the dynamic
nature of health and disease, which means that there is an animating
essence which is the effective actor in both. All matter, as well
as substance (and substance is not matter, as in "the substance
of his message") contains an essence, a essential something
that is its very nature. This is often referred to as the "genius"
of the thing. Hahnemann used the term genius at one point to refer
to the Dynamis or Living Principle, so that we can connect the essence
of life with its dynamic inner content. This is what makes Hahnemann
a member of the Dynamic System of Thought and not a vitalist. Hahnemann
also used the term wesen to refer to this essence, or inner nature
in the case of human beings, medicines and disease.
Thus, the core of his system of remediation involves the profound
understanding that health and disease are based on a dynamic resonance
between the inner living content or wesen of different
things. It is only the wesen of a disease agent that can
directly affect the generative power and engender disease, and it
is only the generative power that can become impregnated by another
disease wesen. The disease wesen affects the human wesen,
or Dynamis, through its generative power and this then produces
a new disease inside the human wesen, which weakens the
generative power. Some diseases are self-limiting, but others are
more protracted in nature and can become chronic, and then also
degenerative (we'll have more to say later about Hahnemann's comprehensive
nosology).
The similar resonance of the medicinal wesen with the
disease wesen results in the annihilation of the disease.
Thus, the medicine does not support the efforts of the
body to get rid of the disease (which is the role of various regimenal
support measures on the basis of the law of opposites and involving
the sustentive power) but instead directly destroys it.
This becomes important later in understanding that the similar medicine
treats the disease, and not the patient (except in the
indirect sense).
Glossary Contribution 3
Wesen: the inner essence, nature or genius of something;
the dynamic aspect of a thing that has the power to affect other
wesen. It is the disease wesen (whether natural, artificial or spiritual)
that affects the human wesen and is the basis both for disease and
for remediation (using artificial disease wesens according to the
law of similar resonance).
Disease: an inimical wesen that is capable of affecting
the generative power of the human wesen and engendering a new disease
wesen.
Medicine: an artificial disease wesen that can be used safely
according to the law of similar resonance to destroy a disease wesen,
through its equal ability to affect the generative power wherein
the disease is lodged. The medicine has the power to penetrate the
generative power at all times in all individuals, whereas the disease
has only the power to engender where there is a predisposition.
The process of creating the medicine involves dynamization and potentization
(more on this later)
# # #
Rudi Verspoor is Dean and Chair Department of Philosophy
Hahnemann College for Heilkunst, Ottawa. He served as the Director
of the British Institute of Homeopathy Canada from 1993 to early
2001 and helped to found and is still active in the National United
Professional Association of Trained Homeopaths (NUPATH) and the
Canadian/International Heilkunst Association (C/IHA).
Part of his time is spent advising the Canadian government on health-care
policy and in working for greater acceptance of and access to homeopathy.
His publications include:
Homeopathy Renewed, A Sequential Approach to the Treatment of
Chronic Illness (with Patty Smith);
A Time for Healing; Homeopathy Re-examined: Beyond the Classical
Paradigm (with Steven Decker);
The Dynamic Legacy: Hahnemann from Homeopathy to Heilkunst
(with Steven Decker).
Visit his website at http://www.heilkunst.com/ |