Materialism in Medicine by James Tyler Kent

Several paragraphs now to be read are scarcely more than a recapitulation of subject spoken of. In going over previous paragraphs I have introduced these points in advance, because it was natural to do so in connection with the subject in hand. I will therefore glance over them until we reach something new.

“In thirteenth paragraph Hahnemann says:

“Therefore disease (that does not come within the providence of manual surgery), considered, as it is by the allopathists, as a thing separate from the living whole, from the organism and its animating vital force, and hidden in the interior, be of ever so subtle a character, is an absurdity that could only be imagined by minds of a materialistic stamp, and has for thousands of years given to the prevailing system of medicine all those pernicious impulses that have made it a truly mischievous (non-healing) art.

The material notion referred to was that existing in the time of Hahnemann. Materialism is still growing. It seems impossible for the majority of men of the present day to perceive. Perception, that is, seeing with the understanding, seems to be entirely lost. The materialist refuses to believe anything that does not conform to the laws of time and space. It must be measured it must be weighted, it must occupy space, or he has no idea of it, and ill distinctly affirm that without this it is nothing and has no existence.

Everything beyond this is to the material mind poetical, dreamy, mysterious. So they look in vain in the material world for causes. You will never find a material entity as in any way causing anything. It has no causative power, no creative influence, no propelling influence. Causes or simple substance are, in the natural state, in motion, and cause motion in the bodies that they occupy; the natural state for simple substance is that of power, of mobility, of activity. The natural state of matter is rest, quietude, silence; it has no power to move unless acted upon. Like the dead man, whose tissues are at rest, it has no action of its own. But the simple substance dominates matter and animates it.

The two worlds, the world of motion of power, and the world of inertia, exist in one. There is a world of life and a world of dead matter. The realm of thought and the realm of matter are the realm of cause and the realm of result. Causes are invisible, results are visible. We see the actions of material substance, but the thinking man has only to reflect to see that these actions that are visible in material form are but result of the cause that exist in the form of simple substance which is invisible to the natural eye but visible to the spiritual eye or understanding.

The materialist cannot grasp this idea, he cannot think in this way. We have the grandest confirmation of these things in the wonderful action of our potencies in the varying degrees in which they operate upon man, from the lowest to the highest. You will discover in course of time that in a large number of chronic diseases our antipsorics will cause changes in the economy, curative or otherwise, in from five to seven different potencies,. In this you have the demonstration of degree of simple substance, and their relation to different planes in the interior of the economy.

$ 14. There is, in the interior of man, nothing morbid that is curable, and no invisible morbid alteration that is curable, which does not make itself known to the accurately observing physician by means of morbid signs and symptoms-an are arrangement in perfect conformity with the infinite goodness of the all-wise. Preserver of human life.

This we have already spoken of. Every curable disease is made known to the physician by signs and symptoms. Incurable diseases have few signs and symptoms, and by their absence the disease is often thus known to be incurable. By watching the patient gradually decline without any symptoms but those which are the common expressions for pathological condition, we see that the case is incurable and is going down to death.

All curable maladies, therefore, have signs and symptoms in order to make themselves known; their purposes is the shadows forth the disorderly condition of the vital force or interior of man, so that the physician may read it and understand its nature. This imaging forth when the human race is in a state of ignorance, or materialism, is like seeds sown upon stony ground; there is no man to understand them, to apprehend their meaning. The images of sickness are continually being formed, and only wait for a man intelligent enough to observe them, to understand their meaning to translate them, and it is possible for men, by the doctrines of Homoeopathy, to become wise and intelligent enough to be conversant with these signs.

In this paragraph we also see Hahnemann’s recognition of Divine Providence. It was the very recognition of providence that enabled Hahnemann to become a man, and being directed by Divine Providence enabled him to finally perceive the law. When his little ones were being hurled to death by strong drugs the first thought of Hahnemann was that Providence had not made these little ones to be destroyed by medicine; it seemed to him inconsistent that they should be made to take this miserable stuff. In all your experiences, if you live to be very old, you will find a very poor lot of Homoeopaths among those who do not recognize Divine Order. You will find among them false science, experimentation, but never any government of principle, no thought of purpose,. order or use.

Hahnemann was not in the strictest sense the discoverer of the law, for Hippocrates said that diseases might be either by opposites or similars, but Hahnemann discovered this by pure experimentation and the following out of strict order After reading it up he found corroboration of the principles he had discovered, and he followed along the line, growing wiser and stronger, until he formulated the code which is so simple and yet so complete. Very few are able to read the Organon at first and see anything in it but words, and yet the oldest practitioner of pure Homoeopathy finds nothing in it to change and the older he grows and becomes more active in work the more he depends upon it and the more consistent it becomes. Although I have been teaching the Organon for many years I never go over it without discovering same new thought in harmony with the general teaching. The continued study of the Organon brings a deeper and deeper understanding of it, because it is true.

In the 15th paragraph another thought comes up which still further shows the unit of government which we have dwelt upon so much in past lectures. Everything that flows from a a center must be considered in connection with that center. Man in his healthy state is but the result of the normal activities of a unit, and he must be considered as a unit. In other words, his healthy vital force is the result of action from Center.

On the otherhand, when man becomes diseased in his disordered or diseased state he is still a unit and has to be considered collectively. It is not to be considered that his physiological action produce his morbid actions, but that his morbid actions so completely dominate him that he is one morbid state. This is again illustrated when he is dominated by the action of a drug (when a drug instead of a disease possesses him), then we see a morbid state, but it is still a unit of action.

There are three different subjects forming a union of study, the study of man in his natural state, the study of man in his sick state from natural disorder, and the study of man in his sick state from artificial disorder. Each remedy must be studied as a unit first and then those units may be compared. To intermingle comparative Materia Medica without a full knowledge of units is a mistake.

This I have found out by experience in my earlier teaching. I have taught much comparative Materia Medica, thinking that a wise course to pursue, but have since abandoned that plan and now study each remedy as a unit, just as I advise the study of each disease as a unit. When one remedy is fully mastered, or one disease is fully mastered, then you are ready to compare. First of all think of measles as measles, and whooping cough as whooping cough, and, have been observed in sycosis and all those that have been observed in psora.

You are then prepared to enter the study of the Materia Medica and see the relationship of some remedies to the acute miasms and the relationship of other remedies to the chronic miasmas, You will see particularly the image of measles in some remedies, the image of whooping cough in others, and the image of psora, syphilis and sycosis in others. Then you are ready to proceed with what may be called individualization, because these are the most general, and from these we go into particulars and then into comparison. This is the classical way to proceed, and when it is followed the physician becomes wise and intelligent and can apply the Materia Medica with wonderful precision. Such was Hahnemann’s method.

 

LECTURES ON HOMOEOPATHIC PHILOSOPHY BY JAMES TYLER KENT –

The old school of Allopathy considered about `sickness’ and `medicine’ in a particular way.



– The sphere of sickness was limited to the physical level. Only tissue changes were seen and considered.

– The source of sickness, process of sickness, the nature of sickness and the concept of real health were not studied.

– Only the result of sickness was felt with fingers, seen with eyes and observed by sense through instruments.

– The meaning of restoration of health was confined to relief in the ailments of particular organs where they appeared. – Drugs were used in crude forms to remove the ailments.



– The system was based entirely on experience. Decisions were made on opinions of individuals at different times and concensus of opinions or hypothesis.

– Pathological findings formed the basis of the diagnosis.

– The internal of man–his mental and emotional aspects were not considered.

– Symptoms–the language of sickness, at the levels of mind, emotion and body were not studied.



– Every pathological result had its corresponding bacteria.

– Doctrine of Vital Force had no place for them.

– Prime importance was given to the organs of man, and not to the man himself which constituted of body mind and emotions.

Will and understanding of man not studied and considered

HOMOEOPATHIC PHILOSOPHY
Dr. Hahnemann `proved’ the drugs on healthy enlightened human bodies. He found that the drugs affected the mind, the emotions and the body and the effects are expressed through symptoms and modalities. He also found that these drugs in potency are able to remove Similar Sickness appearing in human beings. He discovered an Universal Truth; a truth based on `science’ where opinions do not matter, experiences do not form basis; source of sickness, process of sickness and the nature of sickness is explored and the correct curative agent is found.

Dr. Kent has interpreted and explained the various aspects of Hahnemann’s “Organon of the Healing Art”. His lectures are so vivid that they mirror the fundamental laws of health and healing to the mankind at all levels of understanding. This book was written about 90 years ago-but still, the concepts hold true in the present times. He was an empirical Hahnemannian. He could not compromise with the deviation from principles and philosophy and we find his criticism sometimes sharp and bitter of `Pseudo-homoeopaths’.

KEYNOTES OF PHILOSOPHY
– Man is the will and the understating and the house which he lives in is his body.

– The organs are not the man. The man is prior to the organs.



– The order of sickness as well as the order of cure is from man to his organs. The real sick man is prior to the sick sick body.

– A man is sick prior to localization of disease. When we wait for localization, the results of disease have rendered the patient incurable.

– Symptoms are but the language of nature, talking out, as it were, and showing as clearly as the daylight, the internal nature of the sickman or woman.

– Crude drugs cannot heal the sick and that what changes they effect are not real but only apparent.

– Tissue changes are of the body and are the results of the disease, they are not the disease.

– The bacteria are results of the disease. The disease cause is more subtle.

– The remedy, which will produce on healthy man similar symptoms, is the master of the situation, is the necessary antidote, will overcome the sickness, restore the will and understanding to order and cure the patient.



– Man consists in what he thinks and what he loves and there is nothing else in man.

– The physician has to `perceive’ in the disease that which is to be cured, and that is through `totality of symptoms’. He has to perceive the nature of disease and the nature of the remedy.

– Experience has only a confirmatory place. It cannot take the place of science and truth.

– All true diseases of the economy flow from centre to circumference. All miasms are true diseases.

– The active cause is within, and the apparent cause of sickness is without. If a man has no deep miasmatic influence, outer causes will not affect him.

– Homoeopathy has two parts: the science of homoeopathy are the art of homoeopathy. One has to learn the art of homoeopathy to prepare himself for the application of the science of homoeopathy.

– Vital force is constructive and formative, and in its thing in the universe has its aura. Every star and planet has it. The remedy to be homoeopathic must be similar in quality and similar in action to the disease cause.

– As soon as the internal economy is deprived in any manner of its freedom, death is threatening; where freedom is lost, death is sure to follow.

– Potency should suit the varying susceptibility of sickman.



– Any more than just enough to supply the susceptibility is a surplus and is dangerous.

– Human race has been greatly disordered in the economy because of surplus drug taking.

– Primitive cause is not in the bacteria. Bacteria themselves have a cause to appear and survive.

– Over sensitive patients are actually poisoned by the inappropriate administration of potentized medicines.

– Their chronic miasms are complicated with chronic drugging and its effect upon the vital force.

– The physician who can only hold in his memory the symptoms of a disease or a remedy will never succeed as a homoeopath.

– The majority of such as call themselves homoeopaths at the present time, are perfectly incompetent to examine a patient, and therefore incompetent to examine homoeopathy.

– It is impossible to test homoeopathy without learning how to get the disease image so before the eyes that the homoeopathic remedy can be selected.

– At the present day, there is almost no such thing as an unprejudiced mind.



– Do not prescribe until you have found the remedy that is similar to the whole case, even although it is clear in your mind that one remedy may be more similar to one particular group of symptoms and another remedy to another group.

– It is unaccountable, therefore, that some of our homoeopathic practitioners make use of palliatives that are so detrimental to the patients.