Hahnemann Advance Method
Hahnemann Advance Method
Hahnemann Advance Method
During the last 10 years of his life, Hahnemann was trying to find a way to speed up the process
of cure with homeopathy while at the same time minimizing the sometimes uncomfortable
homeopathic aggravations, or intensification of symptoms, which were typical of homeopathy
at that point with the 4th edition methods of giving remedies in dry doses.
Although Hahnemann’s personal practice grew immensely beyond the stage of the 4th edition
Organon, homeopathy as a whole did not. Most practitioners today are still practicing by the
rules laid down in 1828-1829. This is more than strange, as the next 14 years of Hahnemann's
career were the most productive of his life, and in these years Hahnemann developed the
Advanced Methods, as he was constantly searching for a way to improve in his methods.
There are six editions of the Organon. The Organon is the masterwork in which Samuel
Hahnemann laid out both the theoretical framework and practical application of homeopathy,
still employed today. The Advanced Methods of the 5th and 6th edition of the Organon are
artistic methods that must be individualized to the patient, with no preconceived schedules or
protocols. The homeopath needs to remain flexible and alert, as the daily dose may be correct
in one case, while a dose a week or a month is sufficient for other cases. Just as the totality of
the individual is important to each case, so is the individuality of remedy management of
utmost importance to bringing a patient to cure.
As Hahnemann evolved in his methodology in the 5th and 6th edition of the Organon with
putting the remedies in water, he found it to be gentler for the patient, and could almost
entirely avoid the homeopathic aggravations for the patient associated with the 4th edition
method of prescribing. He also found that liquid solutions had a stronger effect on the vital
force (or chi) of the patient (this is the life force that is individual to each person, and this vital
force works relentlessly to protect against negative influences/triggers that can cause dis-ease
in the mind and body). Not only that, he discovered that the process of cure was speeded up so
that it only took one-quarter or one-third as long.
Unfortunately, Hahnemann died while the manuscript of the 6th edition (which outlined the LM
potency) was at the printer; and the manuscript was lost for nearly 100 years. It was discovered
in an attic in Germany between the two World Wars. By the time the 6th edition became widely
available, the practice of homeopathy was well-established. Homeopaths were reluctant to
abandon the method they already knew. Thus the 6th edition with the LM potency* and
method is still minimally unknown by many Homeopathic school and practitioners, except in
India.
For further reading on LM potencies (in addition to the classic masterwork, the Organon itself)
please see Dr. Luc's Human Condition Critical and Musculoskeletal Diseases
Rima Handley's A Homeopathic Love Story and In Search of the Later Hahnemann provide an
excellent description of Hahnemann's later years and practice, of interest to the layperson and
professional alike.
*LM and Q are the Roman numerals for the 1 in 50,000 dilution of the first step in the process
of making these potencies.