Hello Ian, we are so happy and intrigued to host your show this year! It does sound really interesting and so different!
Could you tell us more about yourself as well as your talk?
“I am a practising homeopath with over 30 years experience. I started the art and homeopathy movement in 2014. We have a web site www.artandhomeopathy.org The link between the two is obvious. Art is about individual expression and so is homeopathy. It is a therapy based on the idea that disease is not just a collection of symptoms but a picture of a sick person. We need to see that picture and find the remedy which best fits it to bring about cure. In the same way as a picture, or a poem, or a piece of music, or a creative dance, can all express what a person is about.”
How and when did you first see a link between art and soft medicine like homeopathy?
“Depends what you mean by soft medicine. But if you mean connected with people and not just about a medical model which is driven by using damaging drugs, then I have always seen that connection. Art is a form of human expression and as such tells us a lot about the artist, the subject and what needs to be looked at. If it’s illness which needs to be looked at then this has to be from the perspective of the sick person and not just the symptoms they have. They are just part of what the person is expressing about what needs to be cured. Art often reflects this about the society which produces it.”
How would you define an art and homeopathy movement?
“ Why art and homeopathy? It’s because homeopathy is about healing, because art is known to be healing and because art also is an expression of individuality and creativity. Homeopathy is individualised medicine which depends on hearing/sensing/observing all that a patient has to show about their suffering so that it can be cured. It relies on personal expression. Art is a way in which people can show their inner self and that is what we are looking for in homeopathy. It is the individual and not the disease we are interested in.”
In your description, you mentioned that homeopathy can be a “controversial science”, can you explain to us what you mean?
“The phrase I used was apparently controversial. It is not at all controversial in that it can cure people very effectively, safely and cheaply. The controversy is created by those who say it is not scientific. Well no it is not scientific according to a narrow approach of double blinded laboratory tests of drugs. Our science is based on clinical and experimental evidence, but the basic premise is always that individuals are individually sick in their own way and we need to find the individual cure, not the blanket use of drugs which are often not effective. It is a known fact that for example anti-depressent drugs are often no better than placebo effect. And they are very dangerous. Many young people on some of these drugs have developed suicidal tendencies.”
