Homeopathy is a non-Western oriented medical paradigm meaning that it does not ascribe to or follow the 350 year old Cartesian scientific-philosophical idea that the mind and body are separate entities, and must by this idea be treated as such. Western medicine is based on such a model and therefore does not inherently use all the mind/body/spirit cues for treatment , whereas this is the foundation of homeopathic treatment.

Homeopathy is a 200-year-old scientific medical system developed by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, a German born medical practitioner and innovator of his time. He was a healer by nature and profession and had become discouraged by the barbaric medical practices used and widely held as “standard practice” of the day. Hahnemann began looking for new methods to cure his patients of their symptoms without using bloodletting or leeches. After years of experimenting with dilutions of different natural substances and a rigorous study of alchemy, Chinese medicine and Indian ayurveda, he developed a system whereby the energetically produced essences of substances found in nature could be diluted and then made harmless enough not to be toxic, and potent enough to cure the very symptoms these plants or elements would produce, if given in their molecular, undiluted form to any healthy individual.

The work of Hahnemann was similar to that of Dr. Jenner , whose concept of vaccination was developed around the same time period. A small amount of the disease is injected to produce antibodies against the same disease and boosts the body's immune system against the particular disease entity. Hahnemann's idea was much subtler though, because he diluted the disease byproduct, plant or element to a point beyond Avogadro's number (no molecular evidence of diluent in the solution.) The phrase “like cures like” describes the idea of a