The treatment of disease using medicines whose effects are different from those of the disease being treated and which have no relationship to the disease symptoms. Allopathy is based on the principle of contraria contrariis, or the Law of Opposites, as opposed to homeopathy, which is based on similia similibus curentur, or ‘like cures like’.


A lack of ease. Simply, an illness or sickness. According to Hahnemann, disease is a dereangement of the vital force (that dynamic force or quality which enlivens us).

Dynamization (potentization)

The homeopathic process of serially diluting the remedy and succussing (shaking) it with each dilution.

Holistic or Holism

An understanding based on the doctrine that the individual or situation must be viewed as a whole (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually).

Classical Unicist Homeopath

A homeopath who prescribes homeopathic remedies in the classical way: one remedy at a time, usually in high potency. This single remedy is the closest similimum to the presenting global state at that time.

Law of Similars

similia similibus curantur from Latin or ‘like cures like’. Any drug which is capable of producing morbid symptoms in the healthy will remove similar symptoms occuring as an expression of disease

Materia Medica

The branch of medical science which studies the origin and preparation of drugs, their doses, and their mode of administration; also, the drugs themselves. In homeopathy, a reference work listing remedies and their therapeutic actions.


Hahnemann’s Organon of Medicine is often referred to as simply ‘The Organon’. Hahnemann’s Organon went through six editions. The Organon sets down the fundamental principles of homeopathy.

Potentization (*see Dynamization)


The homeopathic process of determining the medicinal/curative properties of a substance. This process involves the administration of substances in crude form or in potency to healthy human subjects in order to observe and record symptoms.


As opposed to a drug or medicine, the homeopathic remedy does just that: it remedies a situation, causing symptoms (which are expression of dis-ease) to go away, leaving in their wake a more healthy funcitoning individual.


The homeopathic repertory is an index/library of symptoms derived from the materia medica and clinical/toxicological data.


The most similar remedy corresponding to a case. The remedy that most closely corresponds to the totality of symptoms, and when found, is always curative.

Vital Force

The vital force is a unique principle distinct from chemcial or physical phenomenon. It is the energy which maintains life in the individual. It is unique from person to person. In the Organon Hahnemann states, “…the Spirit-like Dynamis that animates the material body, rules with unbounded sway and retains all the parts of the organism in admirable, harmonious, vital operation, as regards both sensations and functions, so that our indwelling, reason gifted mind can freely employ this living healthy instrument for the higher powers of our existence.”



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