Skip to main content

Paracelsus on Health

But what is meant by health? This we must try to understand. Ordinarily, if we ask a physician what the definition of health is, he will only say that health is the absence of sickness. But this is a negative definition. It is unfortunate that we must define health in terms of illness. Health is a positive thing, a positive state; illness is negative. Health is our nature; illness is an attack on nature. So it is very strange that we must define health in terms of illness. To define the host in terms of the guest is very strange.

Health coexists with us; illness comes occasionally.

Health accompanies us at birth; illness is a superficial phenomenon. But if we ask a physician to define health, he can only say that health is present when illness is absent.
Paracelsus used to say that this interpretation is wrong -- the concept of health needs to be positively defined. But how can we reach a positive definition, an interpretation of the concept of health that will be creative?


Paracelsus used to say: "Until the state of your inner harmony is known, you can at best only be released from your illness -- because your inner harmony is the source of your health. But when you are released from one illness you will immediately get another, because nothing has been done about your inner harmony. Your inner harmony has to be supported."

Who was Paracelsus?


Paracelsus, born Theophrastus von Hohenheim, was a Swiss physician, alchemist, and astrologer of the German Renaissance. He was a pioneer in several aspects of the "medical revolution" of the Renaissance, emphasizing the value of observation in combination with received wisdom. Wikipedia


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fr. Britto Joseph S.J. - Empowering Health Care

Meet my first Guru who reignited my latent passion in nature consonant medicine. Fr. M. Britto Joseph s.j. a Jesuit Priest, belonging to the Madurai Province, is credited with evangelizing and proselytizing Naturopathy and Homoeopathy in India. Affordable and safe health-care has always been a need and it still continues to be a necessity for the majority of the population (middle-class and rural) in India, a country where  major share of one’s earning is spent on housing and food, savings are meager, often liquidated by medical and hospitalization expenses.  Families often end up in huge debt.   A country that enjoys a rich heritage medicine system in the form of Ayurveda and Naturopathy is today a victim of lifestyle diseases that is only burdening the existing inadequate health-care facilities in India.   It is against this background we can come to appreciate the value of Fr. Britto’s mission. Fr. Britto has done a yeoman service through his mission to make people

Aditya Homoeopathic Hospital- World's first homeopathic hospital admitting emergency, acute & life threatening cases

One weekend in October 2012, I was invited by Dr Amarsinha Nikam , M.D. Homoeopath to experience the joy of homoeopathy at his 100 bed Aditya HomoeopathicHospital and Healing Centre , Pimpri, Pune. By the end of the day, I had to qualify his quote ‘the joy of homoeopathy’ with the word ‘sublime’. This visit led to a close friendship and deeper understanding and learning the great science and art of cure - homoeopathy. What followed was an internship of over 2 years where I had the opportunity to sit alongside Dr Nikam every Saturday-Sunday and takedown detailed case history and witness his approach to prescribing. Like a true guru, he gave it all. At the consultation table, he allowed his interns to suggest their remedy along with the reasons. He would then give us his choice and express this thought process and validate it by referring it to the materia medica. Here is a doctor who dared to start a homoeopathic hospital that not just treats emergencies but ‘Critical Emerg

Homoeopathic Posology through the eyes of Dr. S.P. Koppikar

This post brings out two important segments on the –one potency selection and the other repetition. The summary is based entirely on Dr Koppikar’s book “Clinical Experience of 70 Years in Homoeopathy”. What he says is not mere theorizing but comes as a result of ‘diligent’ experience; an experience of 70 years is definitely taking serious note of… It would have been easier to scan and upload the pages but then it would be unjust to the labour of the author.  The bold markings are my emphasis.  Brackets and italics are my words. 1.      In the chapter ‘How I learnt About Doses’ a.      He talks about Anaphylaxis or Allergic Shock as a result of a single dose (unchanged) repeated on the 10th day. When his own case met with disaster he then avoided repeating the dose early. b.     He then refers to Dr. Margaret Tyler who used to give 1M potency daily for 4 days and stop, with good effect. c.      The opposite action of high and low potencies – he narrates his verified experien