Law of Similars

The Greek physician and teacher Hippocrates (4th century B.C.) is generally regarded as the father of modern medicine. His methods went against the general thinking of the time and he was aware of two ways of healing the way of Similars and the way of Opposites. He emphasised the importance of accurate observation of the patient, saying: ‘I would rather know what kind of person has a disease, than what kind of disease a person has’.

The way of Opposites is well-known to all of us from conventional medicine: If you have a pain you are given a painkiller, if you have constipation you are given laxatives, and so on. The way of Similars is rather different: a substance is given which, in a healthy person, would produce the same set of symptoms as those of which the patient complains. This is the basic law of homeopathy: similia similibus curentur – ‘let likes be cured with like’. Based on this premise, the first homeopathic principle states that any substance that can make you ill can also cure you – anything that is capable of producing symptoms of disease in a healthy person can cure those symptoms in a sick person.