Evolution of Homeopathy

by Dr. Paramesh Banerji

Dr. Samuel Hahnemann and the Beginning of Homeopathy

Homeopathy was invented by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann almost 200 years ago. It is a branch of Science and that is how he invented it and he himself made five different versions of Homeopathy. Repealing the previous ones, he made modifications and he reached to the point where there were five different versions of homeopathy, all done within his own lifetime. He was a very progressive-minded person and, therefore, he could invent something like homeopathy, but ever since homeopathy has become quite static. It remained quite static barring very small changes that happened in the following, let's say, 100 years.

Early Pioneers of Homeopathy: Their Contributions and their Restrictions

There were some early pioneers of Homeopathy who had their independent styles, but those were minor modifications keeping the fundamentals more or less intact. However, these needed to change because homeopathy is not a portrait. It is, therefore, a dynamic branch of Science. It needs to evolve to match the changes in circumstances of the medical landscape.

"It (Homeopathy) needs to evolve to match the changes in circumstances of the medical landscape."

The Birth of Practical Homeopathy: Dr. Pareshnath Banerji and his Charitable Clinic

Homeopathy was properly applied in the real practical world of a busy clinic serving hundreds of prescriptions a day for the first time in the world by my grandfather Dr. Pareshnath Banerji when he set up his first charitable clinic in 1918 and it was in a very small village where he set up his clinic with a total population of only 300 people, but very soon that clinic became busy serving hundreds of prescriptions a day served by a group of Homeopaths whom he trained. That was in a way the birth of practical homeopathy where it could be applied to the real masses and served to deal with different kinds of health problems of people.

Departure from Traditional Homeopathy: Specific Medicines for Specific Conditions

It was a departure from the traditional Homeopathy which required a huge/lengthy case-taking to elicit all the symptoms that a patient suffered from and then choose one similimum that means one medicine that could match the largest number of symptoms from all the medicines of the Materia Medica. There was a fundamental change that my grandfather did was to identify specific medicines for specific conditions. So, in an outdoor patient environment when a patient reported with a problem, immediately the medicine could be selected and given and, obviously, the proof that these worked was in the numbers that started growing, the numbers in that small village started growing, patients from all over the country started pouring into that small village to avail the treatment because of the efficacy that these prescriptions demonstrated.

"The proof that these (changes) worked was in the numbers that started growing, the numbers in that small village started growing. Patients from all over the country started pouring into that small village.."

Why does Classical Homeopathy fail in certain circumstances?

There were hundreds of Homeopaths around the country and there are hundreds of thousands of Homeopaths around India today, but there is a difference, of course, in the efficacy of the treatment that is delivered. The efficacy has happened or the increase in efficacy has been achieved exclusively by virtue of extensive clinical research, particularly trying to understand why classical Homeopathy fails in certain circumstances. So, that is what the focus of the treatment was. According to classical Homeopathy, this should have been the selection of medicine, but when it is applied it is not working as often as we would like it to. So, the research was on failures leading to this rudimentary process of selecting medicines based on specific conditions. In that process, lots of other considerations were also brought in and this would be the identification of specific potencies along with the medicine.

"The increase in efficacy has been achieved exclusively by virtue of extensive clinical research, particularly trying to understand why classical Homeopathy fails in certain circumstances."

Our Concept and how it is different from the General Concept of Homeopathy

The concept of Homeopathy in general is that the smaller the potency, the weaker it is. The higher the potency, it becomes stronger. Fundamental change was made to this concept by my grandfather and it became a specific medicine with a specific potency for a specific condition.

"It (Fundamental Change) became a specific medicine with a specific potency for a specific condition."

Extensive Clinical Research and Observations behind the Change

This is a fundamental change brought about by clinical research and observations in the thousands, it was not based on one or two or ten or fifteen. It was thousands of observations that led to these conclusions and not only just hypothetical conclusions, but verification of the conclusions that was drawn. So, we have suddenly a situation where in a medicine called Bryonia Alba, it's not that Bryonia 6 is weaker than Bryonia 200. Bryonia 6 is a different medicine than Bryonia 200. So, this completely changes the actual fundamentals of medicine selection in Homeopathy.

"It was thousands of observations that led to these conclusions and not only just hypothetical conclusions, but verification of the conclusions that was drawn."

"This completely changes the actual fundamentals of medicine selection in Homeopathy."

The Beginning of Modern Homeopathy

Bryonia 6 is used for Diarrhea and Bryonia 200 for constipation. That different! So it is no longer, "this is weaker and that is stronger.." Bryonia 6 is a completely different medicine to Bryonia 200. This is just one example of hundreds and hundreds of observations and, therefore, conclusions and inclusion of these conclusions in the treatment process that was adopted. So this is the beginning of the evolution of, what I call, "Modern Homeopathy". This is a departure from some of the concepts of classical Homeopathy to another version, shall we say and say that this is, "Modern Homeopathy", the beginnings of Modern Homeopathy.

"This is just one example of hundreds and hundreds of observations."

What cannot be Produced, cannot be Cured.

The process continued to evolve under my grandfather for several decades and, under my father, Dr. Parimal Banerji, for again four decades at least, maybe five and, I of course, am carrying on this process of evolution for the last twenty-odd years. This is really important because we really cannot be stuck in time with a Subject of Science, particularly medicine such as Homeopathy. The evolution under my father was carrying forward the ideas that were initially proposed and verified by my grandfather and then into a domain where the groups of symptoms were identified to be occurring together. So what my father proposed was that the fundamentals of Homeopathy was "what can be produced, can be cured" and, therefore, the reverse is also

true. "What cannot be produced, cannot be cured." Which means, the symptoms that have not occurred together or have not started together, obviously, cannot be reversed together also. Just like, let's say, the same person, obviously, did not have constipation and loose motion, in the example of Bryonia that I just gave. So here, obviously, there are a group of symptoms which always occur together, so if there is a totality of symptoms in a person, then there are multiple disease influences that have affected the person at different times, at different levels and that has led to the totality of symptoms, that means there are small groups of symptoms which always occur together and that need to be reversed separately. They cannot be arbitrarily clubbed and we cannot, therefore, arbitrarily club these symptoms and try to find a medicine that can reverse all of them together because they did not occur together. This is one of the several innovations. I'm just trying to summarize and I'm going to say that this is one of the important steps that was taken in the evolution where they were multiple groups of symptoms in the person.

"We really cannot be stuck in time with a Subject of Science, particularly medicine such as Homeopathy."

"The symptoms that have not occurred together or have not started together, obviously, cannot be reversed together also."

Addressing the Finite Groups of Symptoms Separately

The other aspect of the evolution or contribution to the Evolution of the Homeopathy by my father is the recognition of finite groups of people just like finite groups of symptoms that always occur together in a person which needs to be neutralized separately using Homeopathic medicines. Let's say, if you see ten people, all ten of them are individuals, they are all different, but if you expand that group, if you have thousand people, if all of them are subjected to the same disease influence, then you will be able to see patterns emerging. So they are not individuals as finger-prints, but there are patterns that will emerge when these are seen in the bigger context, in the sufficiently big statistical context you'll be able to easily identify these patterns and when you find them patterns then, of course, they are of the same constitutional reaction-ability, that means, the reaction to the disease influence on "A" person was similar or same as several others under the same disease influence. So, these patterns can emerge and that is another consideration that it is possible, therefore, to create some standard methods of treatment which can be replicated with the same degree of efficacy if you are able to recognize these patterns or these constitutional Reaction-abilities.

"If you see ten people, all ten of them are individuals, they are all different, but if you expand that group, if you have thousand people, if all of them are subjected to the same disease influence, then you will be able to see patterns emerging."

Paramesh Banerji Advanced Homeopathy Protocol

The third-leg of evolution that has happened over the past twenty-odd years under me and my team has been to take full advantage of the developments in modern medicine knowledge about diseases and diagnostic tools that have evolved to enable us to measure the disease velocity and also the parameters that indicate the state of the diseases. This is the aim of our treatment. The aim of our research is to create treatment processes that are independent of any one person's ability, independent of the skills of any one person because these are disease-specific treatment processes that are replicable and they are significantly less subjective than earlier versions of Homeopathy, where the emphasis was all about the symptoms. Here, in this version of Homeopathy which is called "Paramesh Banerji Advanced Homeopathy Protocol", we have specific disease- oriented processes which include not just the medicines that are to be used, but also the way the case-taking is to be done for that, the treatment strategy that needs to be adopted, the treatment response strategy that needs to be focused upon and, of course, the support system that needs to be provided to enable us to treat complex and, sometimes, critical disease states.

"These are disease-specific treatment processes that are replicable and they are significantly less subjective than earlier versions of Homeopathy. ."

Dr. Paramesh Banerji's Disease-specific Treatment Processes

So, it is a significant step forward which relies less on symptoms and subjectivity and more on objective evaluation of the patient's condition using tools that are machine dependent. So, these would be like blood test reports, these would be ultra-sound, CT Scan, MRI reports and now even Pet CT Scan reports. The change is very very systematic. The change is not arbitrary, it has got a pattern and it has got a deliberate understanding of the disease process at a very fine granular level. For example, let's say, a person reports with stomach pain. The question to be asked is, is the pain radiating to the back? If yes, then there is a reasonable chance that there is a possibility of this being a pain of Pancreatitis. Immediately, there are certain other questions that need to be asked. Are you having weight loss? What else are you having? Have you ever had an ultra-sound of your upper abdomen? Have you had a Blood Test which includes liver function test, particularly Serum Amylase and Lipase? So these are the case-taking approaches that are automatically selected by anyone addressing such a case in our Telemedicine Center or clinic. So, this is very much process driven. We would be doing these investigations, we are going to take note of the current parameters that these investigations give us and when we want to do a treatment response assessment, we would not only ask about the Pancreatitis pain attacks, we are also going to rely on Serum Amylase and Lipase values, the body weight parameter as well. This is very important because if we are not going to follow some parameters such as blood reports, it will be very difficult for us to do a proper treatment response assessment and these are significant departure from classical Homeopathy. Why? Because there is no mention of Serum Amylase and Lipase in any of the Homeopathic books from 150 years ago. These did not exist then, these have been incorporated into the treatment process that we have created under "Paramesh Banerji Advanced Homeopathy Protocol" that my team implements.

"The change is not arbitrary, it has got a pattern and it has got a deliberate understanding of the disease process at a very fine granular level."

"There is no mention of Serum Amylase and Lipase in any of the Homeopathic books from 150 years ago. These did not exist then, these have been incorporated into the treatment process that we have created under "Paramesh Banerji Advanced Homeopathy Protocol" that my team implements."

Dr. P. Banerji Telemedicine Center

Please remember that this departure from subjectivity enables us to also implement treatments for complex and critical diseases where subjectivity cannot be the only source of gauging what is the treatment response we are able to elicit by implementing our treatment and because our treatment is less subjective-oriented and is more dependent on reports, we are also able to implement these treatments on Telemedicine which is a very important development. So, we basically have a healthcare for the connected planet. Today, we are able to reach any person in the world by phone or email and, also recently, by video to enable us to project our expertise to patients wherever they are in the world. And, because our treatment response is guided by the findings of the reports, we are able to remain on track about the patient's conditions even with limited communication with the patient himself or herself.

"We basically have a healthcare for the connected planet." ... "Today, we are able to reach any person in the world by phone or email and, also recently, by video to enable us to project our expertise to patients wherever they are in the world."