What is Heilkunst?

A little background

People often ask me what Heilkunst is, because it’s not a commonly known name even in the natural medicine field. Heilkunst is the complete system of medicine developed by the German medical doctor Samuel Hahnemann, in the first half of the 19th century. It means “the art of remediation,” and this includes healing and curing, both. I’ll discuss the important distinction between the two, because those words have specific meanings.

Dr. Hahnemann has become known as the founder of Homeopathy, yet homeopathic medicine is a very small part of what he actually taught. It’s only been in the past 10-15 years that certain German and medical scholars have brought his original writing to light in a way that it has never been fully understood before.

This new look at Dr. Hahnemann’s comprehensive system of medicine completely revolutionizes the practice of homeopathic medicine, putting it into a whole new context. We now have a map of the territory needed to cover, a system of principles that can be applied in any case, for any medical condition.

Heilkunst is not just another therapeutic approach to add to the confusing array of choices in the natural medicine field. Based on principles of nature that can be invoked in reproducible ways, we now have a truly scientific medical system that frees us from the false duality we faced before - allopathic medicine on the one side vs. natural medicine on the other.

Allopathic medicine vs. natural medicine

The allopathic model is reductionist, evidence-based medicine which amounts to trial and error, which we know has a dismal success rate with the kinds of complex, chronic conditions that fill doctors’ offices in modern times. So we go over to natural medicine, and we find the allopathic model again, using a multitude of “natural” techniques which seem more gentle - but are those practitioners really getting better results? Are we really seeing people become truly well with either of those paradigms? Most people seem to think that the best they can expect is to manage their symptoms as well as possible.

Heilkunst is about cure. The word cure has become politically incorrect, but it has more meaning than ever right now. Allopathic medicine tries to make symptoms go away, thinking that the symptom is the cause not the effect of a deeper issue, and it uses suppressive drugs which drive the problem deeper into the system.

At least the outward symptom goes away, sometimes, but the real roots of the disease are now even more deeply entrenched. Natural medicine generally uses less toxic methods, but it also usually has the same aim to get rid of symptoms, leaving the root of the problem to find a new avenue of expression, and more symptoms later on.

But no one is looking at all this from a higher view to see what’s really going on. The symptom you have, say a headache, is like an echo. The disturbance that’s causing it is like the person calling out across a canyon. But we’re over on the other side of the canyon, trying to make the echo go away, far from its source - whether the method is toxic or non-toxic, we’re still not reaching the real origin of the disturbance.

Symptoms vs. disease

What Heilkunst can do is to identify all these disturbances that are creating echos within you - whether they are causing overt symptoms or not. We all have sustained traumas in our lives - emotional and physical, injuries, vaccinations, surgeries, and these actually remain lodged within our life force as disease. We also have inherited predispositions to many diseases, in addition to deep fears and false beliefs, all energetic impingements blocking our life energy and expressing in all manner of symptoms.

Depending on our susceptibility and the strength of the constitution, we can shore up our vital forces and get through all this without too much in the way of debilitating disease. But all that strengthening and balancing can’t actually remove the disease impingements. Symptoms are simply the effects, not causes, so treating an inflamed liver or a swollen joint is just killing the messenger.

Healing (Regimen) vs. Curing (Medicine)

Even when we seem to be able to manage the few symptoms and function in life pretty well, those diseases don’t disappear. This is one of the key insights that Dr. Hahnemann has gifted us with - We have a life force which is where healing and curing take place.. yet this life force has TWO distinct sides.

One is the “wisdom of the body” that heals. All the natural healing methods work on this side - nutrition, herbs, acupunture - they all work to move energy around, balance various elements, and shore up this life force, according to the natural “Law of Opposites.” This is the realm of Regimen.

There we use the various natural healing methods which work on that principle. This means that we would use diet, nutrition, exercise, hydration, herbs, etc., to fill a deficiency or remove an excess of something - it’s about balance and strengthening, boosting the immune system, etc., and it’s all good.

But that’s only half the equation, which is why all those natural healing methods don’t go as far as we need to go.

The other side of the life force is the creative side, which Hahnemann called the “Generative” side - this is where the disturbances which we call disease are lodged, and no amount of “healing” can dislodge them. It’s rather like a pregnancy - no amount of nutrition, herbs, exercise, acupuncture or energy healing can change that.

Disease can only be cured by using medicines (remedies) given according to the “Law of Similars,” which is the curative law of nature, and at the proper time and in the proper dose. Remedies given in this way act on the creative side of our life force to destroy the disturbance there. This is the realm of Medicine - not allopathic medicine but truly curative medicine.

No amount of adding or subtracting anything - no amount of boosting or strengthening anything can remove a disease that has lodged in the generative side of the life force.

This means that to cure disease proper, we need to give remedies that are capable of destroying disease on this generative side of the life force, and which have a similar resonance to the disease itself. Hahnemann taught the methods for doing this effectively and safely, in his complete system of medicine known as Heilkunst.
The curative remedy is a bit like a Trojan horse, which is accepted into enemy territory because it appears similar enough to their own forces. Then it can do its work to overcome the enemy.

More on Healing vs. Curing

Most people have many such diseases to be cured - this is not the abstract concept of disease created by allopathic medicine, but the understanding of disease as an actual impingement on this creative side of our life force, which can be clearly identified. Heilkunst gives us true diagnosis (knowing the cause) so that we are fully conscious of what we’re treating and what law of nature we need to invoke to effect a cure.

Now, we’ve come to believe in a vague idea of what “healing” means, and that it should be gentle. We know that there’s something wrong with the aggressive approach of allopathic medicine, where we see much harm resulting. But what does gentleness mean?

If we want to renovate our house, we know that there has to be some degree of disruption, and it’s not always going to be pleasant. But we know that the job is getting done, and we’re not just covering over the symptoms but actually eliminating the cause of the dry rot or whatever the root problem was. There has to be some destruction in the process, but only of what truly needs to be removed in order to begin rebuilding. Heilkunst treatment takes us through this renovation process with the least disruption possible.

This is what Heilkunst provides - truly causative medicine that removes the root disturbances (curing) while supporting the rebuilding process (healing).

Never before have we had such an integrated, rational approach to medicine. We’ve had hit-or-miss approaches - nutrition, herbalism, radical diets - we’ve all heard testimonials for their seeming succes. But do we know whether a method will do the same for us or someone else? And do we know that what caused the lupus or the allergies or the cancer is completely removed, that it won’t just reappear in another form a few years later? Do we know that we’ve cured the real causes, and not just temporarily relieved symptoms?

I think we need to take a good hard look at the results we’ve been getting with natural healing. The methods are all valuable, but we’re not getting the best leverage, because we’re not looking at that other side of the equation - curing disease.

When we step into this new system of curing disease, then all the natural healing methods can fit into place. They can be brought in according to principle, within their proper jurisdiction. It’s like prosecuting a crime - if we keep taking the case to the wrong court, no matter how powerful our methods may be, we can’t win the case. But once we understand the proper jurisdictions for the case, we can bring in the appropriate methods and finally get the results we’re looking for.

It’s not the efficacy of a particular method itself, but the rational system that knows how and when to apply the methods, that we need to understand how to use. And that’s the higher vantage point we have with Heilkunst.

Heilkunst treatment

Heilkunst has a certain structure and format for diagnosing and treating the diseases and imbalances which have blocked your full potential on all levels of your being - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. But it can never be a mechanical process imposed on the patient - the practitioner has to honor the true laws of nature, although manipulating them in order to speed up and facilitate the process.

But the process can only go “with the grain” of the individual’s true nature. So although the map of the territory is known, this is only a guideline, and the life force of the individual will ultimately determine the real course of treatment.

When you start treatment with a Heilkunst practitioner, you are asked to provide a list of all the traumatic events that occurred in your life, from birth to the present time. Even if you feel you’ve made peace with those experiences, the energetic impingement remains until the curative law (the law of similars) in invoked by giving the specific remedies indicated.

Natural law allows for the cure of these disturbances in reverse order, so you’ll be treated for the most recent one first, going backward in time. There’s no need to revisit the pain of the experience, but your life energy which was blocked due to that trauma will be reintegrated into yourself. Emotional processing may be part of this process, more or less so depending on the person’s inclinations. A piece at a time, what was lost is regained.

You’ll also be treated for any acute problems you might be currently having. You’ll be counseled in Regimen (diet, nutrition, sleep, water intake, exercise, etc), to support the Healing process. Your constitution will be supported with remedies to help you meet the challenges of this renovation process more easily. You’ll be treated for the inherited predispositions, which are the root cause of many chronic diseases. Even if they are latent right now, any trauma could trigger them at any time and cause chronic disease, so it’s a great idea to remove all of those!

Then the realms of our deep fears and false beliefs are addressed, through remedies as well as “therapeutic education” to help people process the deep positive changes they’re going through. Healing and curing is what we want, of course, but a big part of the process is to create new meaning in our lives.

The task of total remediation is not simply to take away ills and have people go back to their lives unchanged. This is a deeply transformative process, which requires our depeening in understanding of who we are and what our purpose is for being here. It requires guidance beyond simply taking remedies, and the Heilkunst practitioner has the skill and depth of understanding to provide that, in a completely individual way for each person.

Now we can bring Regimen and Medicine together in a way that understands ther interrelationship as a polar pair like Yin and Yang, but beyond the limits of any ancient system of medicine. We had Regimen in the natural health field, without a true medicine. We had a false medicine in the conventional medical field, which had harmful effects and didn’t really cure. Dr. Hahnemann has shown us that we can have true and full remediation - Healing and Curing together and completely, expanding as far as our full purpose in this life takes us, and that is Heilkunst.

Nuts and bolts

The remedies will be used to strip away the layers of diseases, and others will be given to support and balance the healing process at the same time.

Treatment includes to a large degree the use of remedies which are generally thought of as “homeopathic remedies.” But homeopathy refers to the basis on which a remedy is prescribed, and Heilkunst uses remedies in other ways besides homeopathically, when called for.

But to a large degree, the remedies used are the highly diluted and potentized substances that are commonly known as “homeopathic.” They have been proven safe and effective by Dr. Hahnemann’s extensive study, and in the 250 years since.

Patients can continue using any doctor-prescribed drugs as long as they need to, without interfering with the Heilkunst treatment, although in most cases treatment will help people get off the drugs in time.

And by the same token, Heilkunst treatment doesn’t interfere with any allopathic treatments the person may choose to undergo, although with Heilkunst treatment many of those options will become unnecessary, depending on the particular case.

If you don’t live near a Heilkunst practitioner, phone consults can be done very easily, and the remedies sent by mail. Treatment is no less effective this way, and even though you’re not seen in person, the treatment is completely individualized.

The main clinic for Heilkunst treatment is the international Hahnemann Center for Heilkunst, located in Ottawa, Canada. Their website is www.homeopathy.com/clinic

The “New Patient Information” on that website will give you more information about Heilkunst and how to get started.

For more advanced articles on Heilkunst, see www.heilkunst.com