Direction of Cure

Direction of Cure
(From The Energetics of Traditional Western Herbalism , by Matthew Wood)
The Law of Direction of Cure

This principle was originally named and described by Constantine Hering, one of the chief students of Samuel
Hahnemann [the founder of Homeopathy]. Therefore it is also called “Hering's Law of Cure”. He observed
that when the organism was healing itself, symptoms moved from the more vital to the less vital organs.
They also moved from the top downwards which is, in another sense, from vital to less vital), and from inside
to outside. One of Hering's successors, Dr. James Tyler Kent called this “government from centre to
circumference”. We can easily see that the hypothalamus, as regulator of the balance between interior and
exterior, follows this law. In fact, all vital activities in the organism conform to this principle.
In disease, the organism protects the more vital organs, producing symptoms towards the exterior and
channels of elimination. In health it also acts in this direction as the disease is driven out. Only as the
disease deepens do symptoms and locations become more vital and deeper. This law can therefore be used to
monitor healing and disease. It also teaches that, as the organism gets better, the symptoms leave in a
reverse order to that in which they arrived.
The law of direction of cure was picked up by Dr. Lindlahr and recognized by some naturopaths and nature
healers. It was known to Dr. Christopher and is sometimes mentioned in herbal literature. Dr. Jensen (1979,
31-33) called it the "reversal process." Eva Graf and Lalitha Thomas, herbalists influenced by these writers,
also use this phrase.
The Law of the Healing Crisis

When the correct remedy has been given, the symptoms leave from interior to exterior, from vital to less
vital, and from top to bottom. As they come out they usually come to a “head.” There is a "healing crisis"
during which the disease is re-experienced in its full nature sometimes psychological, sometimes physical,
sometimes both. The homeopathic physicians called this the "aggravation." They did not think of it as a law
of healing, but it is. I lie idea of a "law of the healing crisis" goes all the way back to Hippocrates.
The Hippocratic physicians used a single method of healing no matter what the nature of the illness or the
constitution of' the patient. his technique is today called the “detoxification fast.” A person is placed on a
light diet that removes all foods causing an encumbrance on the self-healing ability of the organism. After a
while, the organism begins to “detoxify.” That is to say, digestive, metabolic, and eliminative channels that
were not working in the past begin to work again, causing an increase in tissue feeding and cleansing. The
result is a healing, crisis or detoxification. The body begins to send out all the stored up toxins that it has
not been able to eliminate. The sudden elimination causes a “crisis,” or the appearance of a disease.
Afterwards, the patient is cleansed and well, unless the discharges showed the Hippocratic physicians that
the internal cleansing was incomplete.
This principle mimics nature. Lindlahr observed that there was a “disease crisis” created when the disease
took command of the body. Instead of detoxification, there is toxification as the body loses the ability to
feed and cleanse itself appropriately. This is relived and released in the healing crisis.
The law of the healing crisis is observed when herbal and homeopathic substances are used. In homeopathy
it is often noted that the appropriate remedy causes an aggravation of the symptoms. In herbalism, there is
a tendency to use herbs to detoxify in a heavy-handed manner. Laxatives and liver stimulants are given to
fire up the channels of metabolism and elimination. In fact, what is more important is that the well-selected
herb or formula causes the body to react by cleansing itself.
Principles of Naturopathy Direction of Cure

Ultimately, the law of the healing crisis correlates with what today is called the “body memory”. There is no
true healing until the trauma remembered by the bodily intelligence is eliminated. This is encoded into the
body, resulting in the production of characteristic symptoms and discharges, until the body can relive the
trauma fully through the healing crisis and be released from its sleep of enchantment.
Sometimes the healing crisis will come when a person is not doing anything in particular to seek a cure. Dr.
Bernard Jensen makes a very insightful comment. “A crisis comes usually after you feel your best. It is the
will of nature. No doctor, no patient, no food, can bring a crisis on. It comes when your body is ready.”
However, he says that we can “earn” the crisis by hard work.
A similar event occurs just before a severe deterioration or death- A person suddenly feels better, as if
himself again. Then, a few days later he is sent to meet his maker.
 This law of Like Cures Like also holds true in allopathic medicine, although not recognised. For
example:
o Coffee is known to stimulate the nervous system producing wakefulness, yet in some
individuals or in shock scenarios it acts as a sedative; in homeopathy Coffea is generally used
as a remedy for insomnia.
o Ritalin, a drug used to calm hyperactive children, is an amphetamine-derivative drug with a

very similar chemistry (and effect) to ‘speed’!
 Homeopathic remedies are prepared by a two-step process of serial dilution accompanied by
dynamisation (vigorous shaking). In most potencies used no physical trace of the original substance
remains in the preparation. It is this last point that creates most of the controversy surrounding
Homeopathy – how can a remedy with no material substance in it possibly work?
 Hahnemann also coined the term “allopathy” – “other than the disease” – to signify the orthodox
philosophy of neutralising complaints with therapies opposite to the symptom. By the mid 1800s all
alternative medical groups had embraced Allopathy as the standard term for orthodox medicine.
 Hahnemann believed that ‘opposing’ the disease in this way actually suppresses the illness, driving it
deeper within the system and thereby weakening it further.
o For example, suppression of eczema with steroid creams often results in a greater likelihood
of asthma developing. Homeopaths often observe when treating asthma that after the
asthma is resolved and the person is feeling better on a general level, old eczema symptoms
that preceded it can reappear as part of the healing process.
 After years of careful observation he also came to the belief that suppression of illness via medical
drugs was a major cause of genetically inherited disease.
 Today Homeopathy is practised throughout the world. It is particularly popular in India, Germany,
France, Greece, the UK, the US, Belgium, Holland, South America, Russia and many other countries
such as Australia it is rapidly gaining in popularity.
 Homeopathy remains the most controversial of the complementary health care modalities. Its
strength lies in its methodical and scientific approach, empirical basis, over two hundred years of
continual use and refinement, and its consistent effectiveness in being able to cure, not just palliate,
disease. It is also one of the most difficult modalities to master.
Principles of Naturopathy Direction of Cure

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Direction of Cure

(From The Energetics of Traditional Western Herbalism , by Matthew Wood)

The Law of Direction of Cure

The Law of the Healing Crisis

Principles of Naturopathy Direction of Cure

o Ritalin, a drug used to calm hyperactive children, is an amphetamine-derivative drug with a

Principles of Naturopathy Direction of Cure

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