The Importance of Symptoms (in Veterinary Homeopathy)

Our world is full of subtleties that are often overlooked in the rush of modern life.  Oftentimes we see what is most evident and believe that to be all there is – we miss the web of more subtle events and objects that accompany the obvious but are hidden to the casual observer.  We are satisfied that the easily observable is the extent of what is and we fail to look “behind the scenes”. In most parts of life this approach is sufficient – it allows us to function in the world without being mired in existential questions.

However, in medicine and in the appreciation of the disease process, I think this approach to life has led us far astray.   It has led us to see the obvious symptoms as the whole of the disease.  This has led to the conclusion that if we suppress the expression of symptoms, then we have taken care of the disease.

But let’s look behind the scenes for a minute.

The body, regardless of breed or species, is a complex phenomenon.  We can see, feel, touch, and measure the physical body but this is only part of the total being.  The subtle life force, that energy that separates the living from the dead, is not palpable or measurable but is none the less important to the being.  It is at the level of this energetic basis that we find the ebb and flow of life, the patterns that eventually ultimate onto the physical body, that eventually become physically tangible.  If these patterns are smooth and harmonious, the physical body reflects a positive state of health.  If the patterns are disrupted and chaotic, the physical body reflects an array of “dis-ease” symptoms.

Almost all of the traditional healing arts recognize this life force and its importance to health.  It is known as Chi, Ki, Prana, The Innate, and the Vital Force by the various disciplines of the healing arts.  

The life force is unrecognized in conventional medicine because it can not be measured in the laboratory or seen under the microscope.  Instead, in the Reductionist approach of conventional medicine, the functions of the life force are ascribed to random physiological and biochemical processes which are measurable.

The reason it is important to look behind the scenes of the symptom is that if we are treating at the level of the symptom, we are treating at the result and not the cause of the disease.  Disease is first and foremost a disruption of and a disharmony in the life force that manifests on the physical plane as the various symptoms of disease.  To treat curatively, to truly improve the health and vitality of the patient, we must treat at the level of cause – the disruption and disharmony of the life force.

In more practical terms, symptoms are nothing more than the language of the body describing the unseen and unmeasurable disharmony of the life force.  We need to take judgment out of the loop – symptoms are not good, symptoms are not bad, symptoms are simply the best language the body can use to tell us of its state of balance and harmony.

If we treat symptoms suppressively or palliatively without addressing their true cause, we are disallowing the body the true expression of its disease, its vent as it were, and are allowing the true disease, the disharmony of the life force, to continue unchecked.  This continued disharmony will be shown through increasing severity of symptoms as the life force wanes.  

Visit nearly any nursing home and you will see the long-term results of uncured disease that has been allowed to manifest and mature through the life of the individual.

True healing comes from restoring balance and harmony to the life force, not in artificially subduing symptoms.  It is here that Homeopathy excels.