Homeopathy is an integral part of naturopathic education thus it is common for naturopathic doctors to specialize and utilize homeopathy. In the year 1990, three training programs in homeopathy and three naturopathic medical schools in the United States. By the year 1997, over 20 training programs and five naturopathic medical schools were already existent, proving that homeopathy is welcome again in the U.S. Training programs in homeopathy are usually three to four years to complete, for an extended weekend (three or four-day) courses met each month or every after months. The training includes detailed instructions about homeopathic philosophy, casetaking, case analysis, materia medica or the materials used in medicine, and repertory homeopathy, which refers to the lists of specific medicines prescribed. There are courses allowing unlicensed practitioner but generally requires the student to seek coursework in physiology, anatomy, and pathology as part of the prerequisite. Clinical trainings are not generally part of most homeopathic training programs; instead, observation of homeopathic casetaking is generally practiced. Most of these trainings are shown on documented videos wherein a student may be required to make his own analysis and treatment plan of a given case situation.

There is a great number of homeopathic practitioners and students that are unlicensed in any health profession. This is due to the fact that some training programs do not require health professional licenses as a prerequisite and provide these trainings to any individual with interest. Also, correspondence courses in homeopathy are offered in some countries, developed in England, offering only two-year programs. Mail-to-order programs are also available but are not highly respected and graduates are not readily allowed for licensing examinations not can they be able to obtain certifications from homeopathic bodies. Homeopathic certificates are given to graduates which includes certification for any graduate of a recognized school of homeopathy (North American Society of Homeopaths), for Mds, DOs, and DDSs (American Board of Homeotherapeautics), for NDs (Homeopathic Academy of Naturopathic Physicians), and for any licensed health professionals (Council on Homeopathic Certification).

Homeopaths consider man as an amalgam of a spiritual part and a material part; the material part consists of its body, the body systems, the tissues and the fluids that influence its functions, with the main system being the brain while the spiritual part consists of the intangible aspect of human life governing its full function and control permeating every cell of the body—without it, the body is lifeless. The spirit is the so-called “vital force” that also responsible for the individual’s nature and temperaments. In common knowledge, it is referred to as the “soul”, “aatma” in hindu philisophy, or “chi” in Chinese traditions. These two essential aspects of man cannot be separated. These differences are brought about by the factors that affects an individual. A simple situation would explain these differences in people. On a hot summer day, a group of people would gather on beaches—this is the similarity case; but on the same occasion, one person went to the beach for sunbathing, another for a cooler breeze, another one just to get a fresh glass of cold juice. This only shows that each person acts and reacts quite differently to a single common factor—the heat. The same also is needed for the remedy of diseases as every single person reacts quite differently to certain illnesses—thus a cold to an individual is treated quite differently to a cold of another individual.

This method of prescribing a cure or remedy sets homeopathy apart from conventional medicine wherein in contrary, all people having the same symptoms are treated with the same set of medicines or prescription drugs. A homeopath regards a disease as a disturbance of the “vital force”; in homeopathy, each person is regarded as a sum the symptoms he is suffering and his innermost feeling towards that disease. With the aim of understanding each person as an individual, a homeopath will looks for certain aspects that sets that individual apart others who are having the same symptoms.

At the present, homeopathy is experiencing a resurgence that has significantly risen since the beginning of this century. In fact, nearly all pharmacies sell homeopathic remedies and medicines in France today; homeopathy is a particularly well-known medicine principle in Russia, Switzerland, India, Mexico, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, England, and South America. Homeopathy is noted rising again in the United States, an article in the Washington Post stated that the number of physicians in the U.S. who specialize in homeopathy doubled from 1980 to 1982. This resurgence had also been documented by the National Center for Homeopathy in Virginia stating that Americans spent 230 million dollars on homeopathic remedies in 1996. It has also been said that sales are rising rapidly at about 12 – 15% each year. Presently, it is noted that approximately 3,000 other health professionals in the U.S. use homeopathic medicines. This includes the dentists, psychologists, acupuncturists, veterinarians, nurses, naturopaths, and chiropractors.

The different potencies of these remedies are based on scale of dillution of the mother tincture; the decimal scale (x), and the centesimal scale(c). In between the stages of dillution, the diluted tincture is shaken vigorously. In medical terms, the vigorous shaking is also known as succussion. Based on the decimal scale, the dilution factor is 1:10 while on the centesimal scale, the dilution factor is 1:100. So in making a mixture of 1c potency, the mother tincture is added to 99 drops of the alcohol and/or water mixture and succussed. Additionally, to produce a 2c potency one drop of a 1c potent mixture is added to 99 drops of the alcohol and/or water mixture and then succussed. Therefore, the number of a homeopathic remedy is suggestive of how many times it has been diluted and succussed.

Homeopathic potencies are not simply highly diluted solutions though; they are made with careful scientific procedures involving consecutive dilutions and succussions. In fact, the dilutions are so extremely refined that it is likely that not even one microscopic molecule of the original substance can visibly be found on the final solution. So basically, a homeopathic medicine does not work by the value of the amount of the original substance but rather by something more refined. It is also said that the constant dilution and succussion of a homeopathic medicine exceeds Avogadro’s number of molecular concentration that it alters the original substance’s physical state to a point where its normal subatomic structure and telltale electromagnetic signature has actually been changed. There are a number of studies that proved this principle of medicine being as effective, if not more, as the traditional forms of medicine. The use of herbs and minerals should not mistaken with Homeopathy though, as a branch of herbalism as what is generally thought. The effects of these diluted medicines, as what homeopathic practitioners say, should not also be regarded with placebo effect as it is quite a different approach.

Another unique aspect of homeopathy is the way they treat the totality of the symptoms that is observed. Every individual experiences a cough in its own unique way and conventional medicine treats them as if they were all alike, registering a series of suppressive drugs to the patient—a cough suppressant, something to dry the mucus, etc. Homeopathy, on the other hand, looks for a single substance that will cause those symptoms to a healthy person. A cough characterized by being worse when breathing cold air and sounding like a deep bark, will be given a quite different remedy as compared to a person who suffers cough differently in other situations. All in all, both are characterized as coughs but they are different illnesses in the individual therefore must be administered in different homeopathic approaches.

Health is seen simply as the absence of disease; this is the conventional way of medical thinking. A person is healthy if there’s nothing wrong with his body. In homeopathy though, a healthy person is a person who is free of negatives on all levels—physicality, emotional and mental stability. So it is likely to say that a person who cannot walk is physically ill but on a more subtle level, a person who cannot sleep at night is equally guilty of illness. Homeopathy recognizes the person’s limitations and attempts to restore that person to health, through the use of the properly selected herbal medicines. The most important and most basic difference of this principle of medicine is the form of therapy. Conventional medicine aims to control the illness through the regular use of medical substances and compounds; if the prescription is not attained though, the person would likely to return to its ill state and there is a great amount of possibility that he won’t be cured at all. Homeopathy on the other hand, aims to “cure” or to completely restore the body to perfect health.

Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician is the founder of this system of medicine which is homeopathy. He developed the discipline of homepathy prior to or without regard to the principles of other forms of medicine such as biophysics, pharmacology, and pathology during his time. The discipline of homeopathy was developed as part of a reaction to the non-scientific and barbarous practices used by physicians during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The root of homeopathic principle is the belief that the body is ruled by a spiritual, animating force. In homeopathic doctrine, the cause of a disease is believed to have been caused by the disturbance of this vital or life force; this disturbances manifest themselves as symptoms of that disease. The law of susceptibility deals with the phenomenon of the diseases invading our body. This law states that a person’s negative state of mind would in turn, attract disease entities which they called miasms to enter and invade our body systems that will ultimately lead to the disease itself. Miasm or miasma are influences in the atmosphere or the environment that can be acquired acutely; or they can be congenital or latent, until some negative experience or the normal aging of a person triggers their appearance as a symptom and eventually leading to a disease.