Homeopathy is rooted in natural healing traditions from around the world, including Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine as well as herbal traditions from many countries; yet it also harkens to modern physics. It stands poised to become a leading form of medicine of the twenty-first century.

A gentle, deeply-healing system of medicine founded by the visionary genius Samuel Hahnemann in the early 19th century, homeopathy uses healing substances so dilute that they do not cause the side effects of conventional pharmaceuticals. And unlike pharmaceuticals, which suppress symptoms that later recur (often on a deeper level), homeopathy cures from the inside out. It removes the underlying emotional or mental stress of chronic disease first, then moves the illness out of the body.

Homeopathy treats the whole person-emotional, mental and spiritual as well as physical. The well-chosen homeopathic remedy can bring about a profound sense of well-being before it even begins to cure the symptoms. And the search for the right remedy for a chronic disease begins with an inquiry into the emotional or mental trauma that might have triggered it.

Founded on unfailing scientific laws, homeopathy has stood the test of time for nearly 200 years. It is a form of energy medicine, working with the body's own healing energy to strengthen it, using remedies that are safe, non-toxic and individualized to the patient.

Advantages of homeopathy over conventional drugs:

• inexpensive: doses cost pennies per day
• no side effects or adverse reactions
• no habituation (i.e. no need to keep increasing the dose)
• no possibility of addiction or withdrawal
• no reports to the FDA of harm from homeopathic remedies
• once it works, you don't need to stay on it for the rest of your life
• well-suited to hypersensitive people who tend to react to drugs
• supports the immune system
• "side benefits" instead of side effects: other aspects of your health get better at the same time
• healing on the mental, emotional and behavioral level
• the current financial crisis in our health care and health insurance system could be solved by using inexpensive homeopathic remedies as a first line of treatment.

How can it work if there's nothing in it?

There is "something in it": information! Think of a remedy as a tiny computer chip. You could store a whole book on a computer chip, right? A homeopathic remedy is a way of storing and transmitting information to your body's healing energy (Vital Force). It teaches the Vital Force a better way to deal with something that has made it go out of kilter or off balance. Then the Vital Force can let go of the symptoms it has created to redress the balance - and you feel better, naturally.

Think of the homeopath as a piano tuner and the conventional doctor as a carpenter. Most of the time, a piano can be tuned without needing any sawing or hammering. Maybe once in a while the piano has been damaged in such a way that it needs to be repaired by the carpenter before being retuned. In the same way, many health conditions can be addressed with the "retuning" of a homeopathic remedy. Sometimes - like if you've been in a car accident or if you've broken a bone - there's no substitute for surgery (the "carpenter").

The Service-Plants homeopathy line of products

These are being developed by an international team of homeopaths led by Begabati Lennihan, RN, CCH.