Does homeopathy work? The answer is no. How could it? Homeopathic medicines are too weak, too dilute, to have any potency for good or ill. Then why do they seem to work? Why do so many people swear by them? Because healing does take place. The healing is real, but not due to the medicines. People see a cause and effect relationship which is apparent, but illusory.

The body is a self-healing organism, if not interfered with. The beauty of homeopathy is that it is too weak to interfere, too weak to stop the body’s self-healing efforts. So the body is free to ignore the medicine and proceed to heal itself. The beauty of homeopathic medicines is not what they do but what they don’t do. They don’t interfere. They work by omission, not by commission.

Another benefit is deterring patients from seeking dangerous allopathic treatments. Sick people usually want to intervene, to do something, especially if their symptoms are unpleasant. If people feel they must intervene, homeopathy is a far better option than allopathy, because of what homeopathy does not do. It does not interfere.

So three cheers for homeopathy! It satisfies our emotional need to do something without actually doing something mischievous. Without doing anything at all, in fact.

"The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease."
---VOLTAIRE