How To Understand Likes Are Cured By Likes
What Is Similia Similibus Curantur and Likes Are Cured by Likes
The term ‘similia similibus curantur, is often used in homeopathy. Loosely translated it means ‘likes are cured by likes.’ This might seem a strange idea. Especially, as it seems the opposite of how we understand medicines normally work. Most of us know that it is important not to exceed the recommended dose when taking pharmaceutical medicines. In the worse situation it can harm you. Take paracetamol, for instance, which is used as a pain killer. It can be helpful at the correct dose but take too much and it can cause acute liver failure1. A rather serious effect and one to be avoided! So, in homeopathy minute doses are used to restore the body to heath.
The Law Of Similars
Using a substance in minute doses in this way really relates to one fundamental aspect of homeopathy, the Law of Similars. There are two ideas to consider here. Firstly, a substance can make a healthy person produce symptoms. The symptoms produced may be positive ones as well as adverse. Secondly, the same substance may remove these symptoms in a person who is sick. So, the Law of Similars is where a substance that may cause symptoms in healthy persons may be used to treat the same symptoms in a sick person.
Confused? Let’s look at some examples.
Coffee Cruda - Coffee
When we feel tired, we often drink coffee to keep us going. Too much and you might feel your heart racing, you may have sweaty hands, or your over-active mind prevents you from sleeping.
The remedy coffee crude may be one to choose if you are experiencing some of these symptoms. This is especially true if coffee is not the cause of your symptoms.
Allium Ceps - Onion
Most of us experience watering stinging eyes and a runny nose when we are preparing onions for cooking. Likewise, when you have hay fever or a cold you may have the same sort of symptoms.
It’s no surprise in homeopathy, therefore, that the remedy allium ceps, the red onion, may be helpful.
Conclusion
To sum up, homeopathy uses minute doses of a particular substance to help with the healing process. The choice of the medicine is based on the symptoms that are produced when it is given to a healthy person. This is the Law of Similars which is an important aspect of homeopathy. The use of a substance that on the one hand provokes symptoms but that can also promote healing is why the term ‘similia similibus curantur’ is often used, or, likes are cured by likes.