India trip February 2006

GC: You have travelled to teach homeopathy in several other countries - You have lectured extensively in Europe, Australia, US and Canada, and we know you have also helped orphans in Kenya, Tsunami victims in Sri Lanka, students in China and India and most recently Europe. (Did I miss any?) Most homeopaths know that homeopathy is already quite established in India, so I would expect it would be quite a different experience than China. How was your time in India?

In India

Dr. Luc: Very hard work since I was on 14 different places in about 4 weeks and distances are great. The very positive: great reception everywhere. The young teachers and students were very enthusiastic about what I had to offer and as usual the senior ones pretend they already know everything I had to say. Alas their actions in the clinic contradict the facts of course. The level of homeopathy is somewhat better than in the other countries you mentioned of course but still I would call it mediocre and the level has to increase in order to even having a bigger impact in their health system. At least

they are in a very favorable position since the government supports homeopathy and the facilities are quite good everywhere. To my surprise very FEW allopathic doctors turned into becoming homeopaths. The homeopathic student receives first a 4 year diploma -BHMS- and then has the option to get a Homeopathic MD, an additional two years study. So time enough spent in school but that does not always translate into excellent education. Homeopathy still plays second fiddle to allopathy, as it is more prestigious to be an allopathic doctor. The unfortunate consequence is that many female homeopathic students are only there since they could not get into allopathic medical school and at least getting a "doctor's" degree increases their chance on a better marriage. So the majority of these students never get into practice after their schooling. But if anything, in my opinion, India with improvement in their teaching, is best positioned to have a greater impact in homeopathy.

GC: It has been said that in India, a doctor is either allopathic, homeopathic or ayurvedic. Did you get a feeling for the relative proportions of these different systems of medicine? Do you see any place in healing for the dietary, herbal and detoxification techniques of Ayurveda? Have you been impressed by any ayurvedic physicians?

Dr. Luc: I can't honestly answer your question of Ayurveda medicine in India or Sri Lanka where they are both popular modalities as I have never been able to see the results or be with a practitioner on consult. Certainly allopathic medicine comes on the first place: there is this tendency in China and India that once a person has money, he needs to do allopathic medicine. Money has not bought any brains as you see.

GC:What is the meaning of the red marking between your eyebrows and the lighter colored marking above that in some of the India pictures?  The garland of gold colored flowers around your neck?

Dr. Luc: It is the custom in India that when you received as "an honorable guest" which I was that they put these flowers around your neck when they meet you for the first time. And at the same time you get the red between your eyes, the third eye. It is all to honor the special guest.

Europe trip 2006

GC: Having got your medical license originally in Belgium, and having practiced there several years, do you feel a special connection with the people there when you go back to teach? 

Dr. Luc:  I don't believe in "the grass greener on the other side." Yes I got my medical license in Belgium and of course I have family living there which makes me see them more often than I otherwise could. But I feel at home in the rest of the world, not necessarily Belgium.  

In Belgium

GC: What impressed you most about the students in Belgium? 

Dr. Luc: In Belgium, in order to practice legally, students are allopathically trained doctors. Knowing how few allopaths convert to homeopaths, I do feel a special connection with them as I know how much ridicule they have they suffer from colleagues, how hard the work is as a homeopath and how they are cast aside by their colleagues. True Hahnemannian suffering that we allopathic physicians, turned into homeopaths all have to live through.  

In Belgium

GC: Does having come back to your "roots" after teaching successfully several years around the world impart a kind of authenticity to your knowledge among students there?   Dr. Luc: There is not much difference regarding knowledge I see in Belgium and the rest of the world. There is always that overriding "new" stuff, from neo-gurus, not based on the Organon, promising easy results that is slowly undermining the quality of homeopathy everywhere. While these "new gurus" enjoy temporary success and especially financial success, the authenticity and ground principles of homeopathy are simply forgotten. And because results in the real practice are  poor, homeopaths leave the profession, claiming they cannot make a living with it. If you cure, you make a living! In fact people will swarm to your office! GC: Would you ever like to live in Europe again?  Why?  Which country do you consider your home now? Dr. Luc: Living back in Europe? No, only maybe in Spain or S. France  to retire and play tennis. Of course there are other attractive points: quick traveling between countries, and

therefore being able to teach in many different cultures and enjoy the people. I do miss practicing different languages and the different foods offered! 

In Holland

GC: With a common geography, climate, currency and at least one language some people on this side of the ocean might not be aware of differences between Holland and Belgium.  So many of our popular modern homeopathy books come from these two countries.  Is your teaching at the focus of homeopathic education in Holland, or, are you considered kind of a maverick outsider?   Dr. Luc: As mentioned before, nowadays everyone who teaches true Hahnemannian homeopathy and his advanced methods is considered a maverick. Of course this should not be the case. If anything, I aim my efforts at unifying homeopaths around the world, by FIRST teaching these advanced methods. If students and practitioners know these (and believe me in spite of what they say few do) then they can accept or reject the esoteric stuff that is blowing around. To my regret I see so many schools, including in the US, imitating methods that promise a "true understanding" of the patient, but are only well packaged PR stunts that eventually disappear.  

In Ireland

GC: It is common to think of homeopathy being very popular in Western Europe, as compared to the US.  How is the homeopathic establishment in Holland different from that in Belgium, in Ireland or in the US?  What is the quality of homeopathy like compared to the US? Dr. Luc: Homeopathy thrives more for the moment in Holland than Belgium although there is a split between lay homeopaths and allopathic MD homeopaths in Holland. Any split will not benefit homeopathy but here again the human ego plays a role. There is no joint love for homeopathy, only "we are better than you." Ireland has a few schools: there is no difference in a way quality wise throughout the world. Allopathy will always try to convince that homeopathy is bogus and therefore patients in need always go to allopaths. Unless homeopathy becomes a truly accepted specialty at a medical university, this will never change. And it will never happen: pharmaceutical companies fund too many studies in these schools. No chance for homeopathy!  GC: In what way do the questions you get differ between the different European countries?   

Dr. Luc: The questions I can pose throughout the world are ALWAYS the same because the basics are not taught. I can pose the following question worldwide and I have yet to get the exact answer once: "What do you say to your patient when you give an acute intercurrent? How often and when should he repeat this?" Not one person has given me the correct answer, yet Hahnemann has it outlined in the Organon. Yet most schools say they teach the Organon? If we can't answer a simple question like that, how do you think we do with management of chronic diseases, a far more difficult topic? Schools should take a hard look at the teachings. I am never impressed in how it looks on paper. I am more impressed with what the student after finishing the school has to say. GC: Do the ages of the students tend to be the same in the different countries? Dr. Luc: Ages are everywhere the same as well as gender: many more women than men (80-20%). Ages: with exception of India and S Africa, more to the older side. GC: What have you learned from your recent European tour, where did you learn it and who did you learn it from? Dr. Luc: I wish I could say I learned a lot in Europe, The only thing I learned is that true homeopathy is in danger to disappear as schools have less enrollment and the climate goes against homeopathy. Again unification of homeopaths around the world is necessary and obtaining good patient results is the only way of making great PR.  GC: I have heard it said that Nat-m is a more common remedy among people from England than from other countries.  Have you found that certain remedies are more needed in particular countries than other remedies?  Any examples?  Reasons?   Dr. Luc: These kinds of statements, "Nat-m is more needed there or there" are kind of flaky. Is grief only the property of Africa? Such statements only divert the homeopath from practicing individual therapy, our tenet. I even heard a homeopaths saying after hearing a proving of "chocolate," that she gave the next twenty patients in her office chocolate. Where do these delusions come from? I call it, "mesmerized, magnetized, easily."  

 Career steps to homeopathy GC: Looking back on your career highlights (from your website) I noticed that you were first using homeopathy 1975-1981 but apparently you didn't become totally committed to it at the beginning, since you subsequently worked with several other fields of knowledge, including acupuncture and neurology, before becoming focussed on homeopathy.  Why did it take you so long to become so committed to homeopathy?   Dr. Luc: I was very successfully in TCM as a practitioner for many years. When you have success one does not change was it not for my wandering Tubercular mind and the

love I have for study. In TCM I mastered studying about everything I could, in Homeopathy I have a lifelong learning process, something that appeals very much to my mind.

Anti-aging: homeopathy, diet, the shadow, exercise

GC: In alternative medicine today, "anti-aging medicine" is very big. At the same time, I have noticed that at least one doctor, Dr. Weil, does not subscribe to that concept, but does believe in "healthy aging". Do you see homeopathy as offering the possibility of stopping or reversing aging, or, do you see it as a way to minimize the inevitable, undesirable events during healthy aging?

Dr. Luc: In homeopathy we don't talk about anti-aging but when you think about this question, that sounds more like extending life without supplying the quality to it, a more important issue. Personally I don't care to become a hundred years old kept "alive" on ten different drugs with side effects. In reality even for the issue of longevity homeopathy IS far ahead of everyone simply because we can apply the miasmatic therapy which is the equivalent of allopathic genetics except that allopathy is nowhere yet with it when it comes to therapeutic good effects in any case. The present population is weighed down by the ever-increased miasmatic load from the allopathic suppressive acts and ever increasing vaccinations. We might live longer this way but the quality decreases enormously and "mixed" diseases are the norm now. Do we call this a success? Longevity is coupled to the constitution and the miasmatic load you received from your parents. in TCM we call it, what "quality" ESSENCE did you receive from your parents? Just one factor, AGE of the parents and the physical/emotional state the parents were in at the moment of conception plays a role. As a parent you can give the best Essence to your child in the age of 28-35 for a woman and 32-40 for a man. Tells you something not to force Nature with fertility drugs beyond these age {or any age at that anyway}. And then of course if you want to extend not only the length but also the quality of life, human beings would do well to investigate their shadow side and eradicate "justified" negative emotions like anger, irritability, jealousy and the likes. And I haven't even mentioned a sensible diet, a problem in the USA where 60% of the population is overweight.

GC: So, your response to the challenges of aging would be: sensible diet, homeopathy for the miasmatic load, shadow side investigations for negative emotions, and would you add anything else, like an exercise program?

Dr. Luc: All those facets indeed are important, but hierarchy in importance would be first the miasmatic load. As an exercise buff I obviously believe in adhering to an exercise program one likes to do. Too many exercise bikes and machines catch dust in numerous American homes because they did not like that particular exercise anyway. In that case, get a dog and walk! Cheaper and more meaningful.

GC: There are so many diets out there. Could you be a little more specific as to what you mean by a sensible diet?

Dr. Luc: The definition of a sensible diet is probably the most difficult to determine. First there is NO universal diet as we are all different. The obvious fatty, greasy foods, coffee, sugar and overload of CBH are to be eliminated or restricted. If you would one person let you guide in your diet it is the TCM practitioner who can temporarily adjust your diet in relation to the organ that is out of balance. When it comes to dietary measures in you would think they still are in the Middle Ages.

GC: How does a person know where to start? Or does one start with everything at the same time?

Dr. Luc: As many of the above measures should be started at the same time. A remedy cannot work by itself if life style is neglected, and if emotions are refused to be acknowledged. The better you address this "package" the more chance on longevity you have. See my articles on how I tie in diet and exercise to Aphorism 74 and 77.

Book: Achieving and Maintaining the Simillimum

GC: Your most recent book, Achieving and Maintaining the Simillium is the most detailed explanation of the various editions of the Organon and how to actually manage chronic diseases with homeopathy. Have you had any further insights into this topic, which you would like to have included in that book, or does that book remain as complete today as when you finished it? Another way of asking this question is, do you expect any major revisions or additions to the book?

Dr. Luc: I think this book will be a breakthrough in the homeopathic world. Sometimes it even is the "secret" book in schools since the professor does not want to use it for fear of exposing himself that he did not know this. (Homeopaths are no better than other people when it comes to playing politics) But students tell me they study feverishly at home. Management always will remain management. But I keep on asking myself many more questions than you pose me here and follow successes and failures everywhere. This allowed me to get a uniform answer for the burning question of uniformity in the homeopathic society regarding the topic of potency selection. It will definitely unify homeopaths around the world and more importantly, the patients will get the benefit from it. Do I expect more fine tuning of this book? I hope so as I ever look for more accurate answers-call it my editions of the Organon.......

Homeopathic education in America and other countries

GC: In November, 2004, regarding homeopathic education, you wrote,". . .Homeopathy must follow the lead of the acupuncture schools . . . . . I am afraid that the struggle will remain and that the idea of creating a 4 year homeopathic school in this country that is part of the Medical Board of Assurance will remain a pipe dream. It has been tried many times before, but for many different reasons always remained unsuccessful. Such schools can only be created in poor countries like India and South Africa, or in future countries where there is a large segment of dirt poor people.". For some time now, Dr. Todd Rowe and others have been involved in the creation of a new full time 4 year homeopathic

medical school, the American Medical College of Homeopathy, where roughly half of the training is medically focused and half is homeopathically focused. According to their website, the AMCH "is licensed through the post secondary board of education here in Arizona. The school is provisionally accredited through the Council for Homeopathic Education (not recognized by the State of Arizona). AMCH is a candidate for federal accreditation through the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS)." Do you feel any more optimistic about homeopathic education in America after these developments?

Dr. Luc: At first this sounds indeed like improvement but I hold my breath. So far in States like Nevada where there is a Homeopathic Board linked to allopathy the homeopathy is terrible. And the recognition is not fully through at all, the recognition by the Council of Homeopathic Education is meaningless.

GC: You sound quite skeptical. Why would a poor country be more supportive of homeopathy than a wealthier country?

Dr. Luc: Why is a poor country more supportive of homeopathy? Fairly simple to answer for any honest person. Pharmaceutical companies are not interested selling their drugs where people work for a dollar a day. They see the futility of this and they rather sell their drugs to the nouveau riche in these countries. As I said before, tragically, once they have money, people flock to buy the expensive allopathic drugs. "Expensive" must mean better, no???

Teaching at the Renaissance Institute

GC: Again in November 2004 you indicated that your school, the Renaissance Institute, focuses on the methods of finding the simillimum and case management, without examinations or diplomas and leaves the medical sciences and licensure to other institutions. Is this a fair assessment of the instruction at RI, or could you complete the picture for us?

Dr. Luc: Yes fair assessment and since last year I will only do advanced courses three times a year, each seminar each 4 days. My students and those who studied AMS and Hahnemann Revisited are allowed. I will not do for the moment a first through third year. There are so many practitioners out there who graduated from other programs and have no confidence practicing. So I am more interested in helping them. We are still a long way here in the US from producing good homeopaths and I doubt that it will change shortly. One needs schools like in India or England somewhat but of course, homeopathy is more officially accepted. As long as this does not happen here, homeopathy is more dabbled in by lay people than practiced seriously.

What to find out about a homeopathy school

GC: What questions should a prospective student ask when he/she is trying to decide which homeopathic school to attend?

Dr. Luc: The problem is worldwide: advanced methods of Hahnemann are almost never taught, management is badly or hardly taught... What can we expect when the teachers refuse stubbornly to change...I get enough emails of students complaining about it and of course very often they don't know there is a better way. Then they stumble on my books, challenge their teachers who in turn try to keep me away from their school...but the truth always prevails and I am not losing my sleep over it. I am just saddened that their patients suffer needlessly.

Homeopathy beyond Hahnemann?

GC: What about the schools that say, "We believe that homeopathy did not stop developing when Hahnemann passed away. Accordingly, we have built on his methods and have developed more successful prescribing and management techniques".

Dr. Luc: I heard this a million times and most of the time this is the greatest excuse for those to throw out all the principles of homeopathy. I hear these false arguments, "We live in modern times with horrible diseases, so we need new remedies, new methods...Bogus! If they built on Hahnemann's methods as you said it would be OK but this is not the case. Here is my question to these new gurus: Where did you see a mistake in the 6th edition of the Organon, in what aphorism? Please explain. Second: tell me about anything you discovered personally that is worth to be put in a 7th edition of the Organon? I am still waiting for the first answer. And before you claim anything, check with Hahnemann. He probably tried it already (and I don't mean baseless, inaccurate allopathic homeopathic methods.)

GC: In all your teaching and writing, is there nothing new that you have added to go beyond Hahnemann's work?

Dr. Luc: I certainly have invented nothing new beyond Hahnemann. The only thing I do is add other disciplines like TCM and Psychology of Jung, unknown to Hahnemann in my teachings as these modalities fit perfectly in the science of homeopathy.

Key points of Hahnemann's teaching

GC: Please indicate the key features of Hahnemann's advanced methods to which you hold fast and which have convinced you that those methods do not need to be changed.

Dr. Luc: The key points in advanced Hahnemannian methods: First: All remedies should be administered in water, in acute and chronic cases! Second: please follow A246 in which Hahnemann tells us to repeat the remedy WHILE the patient is improving instead of being stuck in the 4th edition Wait and Watch. It is unbelievable that practitioners everywhere for 90% practice according to the 4th edition. And if you start with the 5th and 6th edition: imitate Hahnemann well, don't think you are smarter than him

A day in the life of Dr. Luc

GC: One customer told me that he was having difficulty contacting you. I replied that you receive and answer over 50 emails each day and gave him your email address. Having seen over 200,000 patients and taught all over the world, are you still seeing patients? Can you give us an idea of how you would spend your time during a typical week while you are here in the United States?

Dr. Luc: I get one hundred emails every day and answer all of them immediately. I am not seeing patients in USA, only the poor in Third World countries. In the US: walk my dog 6 am, work till noon {preparing seminars, writing my latest book and making a LDS module for Radar}, go swimming 30 minute lap 4 times a week; study again from 2.30 pm till 5pm then tennis for 90 minutes...Walk the dog...and enjoy one hour history channel, Animal planet , Court TV or sports on TV.. of course I start my day with 30 minutes Yoga and play once a week a soccer match. I have to try to figure out to have not to sleep and eat, would that no be wonderful!!

GC: Why would you not see patients in the USA, but only the poor in Third World countries?

Dr. Luc: I have seen patients for 30 years in modern countries. I just want to see now patients without the nuisance of paperwork and insurance. Of course I would never see anyone that cannot be followed by a local practitioner and I see the patients with the practitioner if possible. I am not like some others charging fees everywhere and never see the patient again or have no responsibility afterwards anymore. I think that is totally unfair towards patients and is only done by money hungry people.

LDS Module for Radar software ready this year

GC: What is an LDS module?

Dr. Luc: An LDS module: I work with Archibel (Radar) to develop a Luc De Schepper module, which is a computer program to help the practitioner finding the simillimum using three different methods I teach in class. It will be ready by end of this year!

Is your homeopath a good one? Important Question!

GC: How can a patient recognize a good homeopath? After having a consultation, how can the patient know if the homeopath is doing a good job?

Dr. Luc: I love that question! I've just written an article about it. To read it, click here to open a new window to my website.

Carl Jung - an unconscious homeopath

GC:  I have learned that your next major book is called Beyond Jung and will be available in 1-2 years. In November 2004, you suggested to the student "treat yourself first by looking at what Jung called your "shadow side." You would be surprised that you

can find your simillimum there! !" And before that you commented that your favorite non-homeopathic books included "all the books of Carl Jung! They brought me immense joy and education in introspection of the human shadow side, as well as my own." You closed a previous interview with the thought, "There are many masters we can learn from. One of the people I most admire is Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist. He practiced as an unconscious homeopath, applying the same principles and guidelines! I wished he had our tools, the homeopathic remedies. But I am grateful to him for his dedication and great insight in the human psyche. For me, he is another true genius like Hahnemann!" Many people think of the 'collective unconscious' when they think of Jung - cross cultural archetypes and the like - but we don't normally connect Jung with homeopathy. Please expand on how your book goes 'beyond Jung'. Can you give an example of how Jung would 'practice as an unconscious homeopath'?.

Dr. Luc: I learned much from Jung. I am convinced the better psychologist you are the better homeopath you will be! But Jung could have helped people so much more if he knew homeopathy rather than the Occidental TCM world thanks to his mistress Toni Wolf. We can go beyond Jung thanks to the remedies and the miasmatic theory. So often Jung is exasperated in his clinical cases, works long years to make a change in his patients and we shorten this time so much. My new book I consider to be my best work: 800 pages so far but at least one year away from publication with all the other work I have. But Jung certainly was ahead of his time stressing individuality; he uses terms such as peculiar -our A153! and terms "Like cures like." I already mention this in my chapter on Dreams in the periodic Table Book I wrote. But the new book will not only contain more about dreams but especially will be of great importance by using the core delusion of the polychrests and showing how these remedies compensate in their miasmatic phases. A great way to really understand every remedy till its greatest details since everything is based on the greatest old provings rather than speculations...

GC: I understand the similarities between the way Jung practiced and homeopathy, but did the therapies he used actually produce, when given in larger amounts, the symptoms they cured in the amounts he used on his patients? If so, do you have an example?

Dr. Luc: Jung night have been an unconscious homeopath but the tools he had were limited: painting, drawing, and dream analysis were his main tools and cannot be asserted in amounts except maybe the endless hours of analysis. True difficult diseases like many neuroses and sometimes schizophrenia could have been resolved successfully faster if he had known homeopathy.

What's important about the remedy . . . proving? . . . cures? . . . family? . . . how it is given?

GC: Can you comment on the relative importance of each of these factors in proper homeopathic treatment: A. Known effects of the remedy on healthy people. (especially provings) B. Known effects of the remedy on sick people. (especially cures) C. Intrinsic characteristics of the remedy itself, without administration. (family, kingdom,

periodic table group, color, shape etc). D. How remedy is administered. (posology, bedside manner, placebo effect etc).

Dr. Luc: A. and B are answered by Hahnemann in Chronic Diseases and By Hering in his foreword in his book Analytical Repertory of Symptoms of the Mind:  They both say very strongly to make a GREAT distinction between symptoms proved and symptoms cured -the latter through clinical cases. They both pound on it NOT to mix these two indiscriminately and tell us that symptoms proven are FAR MORE important than symptoms cured. If we use them both we must mention this. And now in present times often remedies are presented with clinically successful cases without proper provings. I think about all those Scholten NEW remedies...Hahnemann would turn his back on it just like homeopaths in the past turned their back on Kent when he painted pictures of remedies at his desk. And something is missing terrible in these provings; they write these dreams and yet they do not know what they mean. We have only explored half of the human being -our conscious world and have totally forgotten the unconscious of which dreams are the messengers! "Recurrent dreams" are important homeopaths say; my question to the homeopaths is: What are you doing with them? How are you using them as a tool to find the simillimum? Watch for my upcoming book!

The posology and potency selection: homeopaths love to fight over it and 90 percent is stuck in the 4th edition. Sounds like politicians! We ought to stop doing politics and learn these advanced methods: no one has to fight anymore and more importantly our patients will be cured and homeopathy will advance. At least my allopathic colleagues, even if it is wrong what they are doing, are following the same model. they do not understand our fighting! And yes a homeopath like any other healer has to reach the patient first through the heart and then through the head!

Use of periodic table with no provings and no cures

GC: I note that you have written a book on the Periodic Table. If a rare element's medicinal properties are unknown, that is, it has no provings and no cures, do you attach any significance at all to its placement in the periodic table? If so, how would you use this information? Would you experiment with the remedy on your patients?

Dr. Luc: I attach NO value to speculations regarding the properties of elements that have not been proven yet. An occasional "successful" clinical case is not a proof and Hahnemann and Hering warn us "not to mix proven symptoms with clinical symptoms; it only leads to confusion!" If I had to prove it I would do it first on myself, my wife, my dog, my children and if they are open to it, my students! Not my patients! Already in 1828 Hahnemann in Chronic Diseases warns us that it is "not the amount of proven remedies that stopped him from curing cases but rather the non application of his miasmatic theory."  Maybe we should see how many of the proven remedies we truly know and do we need to prove all twenty million species of butterflies before we can become competent homeopaths?

Use of periodic table with no provings and many cures

GC: Same question, an element never proven, but in this case it has produced many cures, and the cured symptoms are common to other elements in its column of the periodic table. Would you experiment with this remedy on your patients?

Dr. Luc: And when it comes to "cures", I hate to say it as I sound skeptical again. But out of experience in my teachings, so many suppressive acts and partial cures are identified with a total cure. And still Hahnemann and Hering insist on valid provings rather than cured cases!