Call for Unity of Homeopaths-an appeal letter from Dr Rajan Sankaran

My Dear Friends and Fellow Homeopaths,

In the last few weeks, I (with my colleague Aditya Kasariyans) shared my initial experiences of treating Covid 19 cases in Iran. We gave the cases we worked on, our analysis, and the results with these cases. We suggested Camphora as a possible remedy based on the symptoms and signs presented by many patients. As many of them seem to have improved very well, I suggested that Camphor as a possible genus epidemicus. We have followed up these cases carefully and in a majority of them, the improvement continues to hold.

We felt it was important to share this experience with colleagues and to share our suggestions as early as possible, so that the community can use that information and build upon it. I did my best to share what I believe to be true and genuine. We can definitely disagree, but respectfully, giving good reasons.
With more experiences coming in from other parts of the world from other practitioners, we can build a useful dataset for treating Covid-19 patients worldwide.

I have read some letters to the profession regarding our work, which are said to come from Prof George Vithoulkas where he has strongly criticized the suggestion of Camphor. His writing that Camphor was suggested by misinterpreting Hahnemann’s Materia Medica Pura is not true at all. It was based on treated cases which have been well documented.

Prof Vithoulkas is a very respected person and has been a teacher to many including me. I always look upon him with respect and gratitude. His words and his experiences are very valuable. I always read what he writes and give it my full consideration.

I feel the criticism, though always welcome, comes without reading the closing of the article carefully. We had written:

“Based on these findings I suggest Camphor as a possible genus epidemicus and to use it as a treatment and prophylactic.

The medicine I suggest is not a substitute to taking all possible precautions and in case of any symptoms to get tested and take the treatment recommended by your doctor.

Further investigation is needed to evaluate the effects on more cases and whether other remedies too may be indicated. I invite the experiences of my valued colleagues. Also we should try to set up controlled clinical trials through official channels. I strongly urge my fellow homeopaths to try to make this happen.

One also needs to be open to the fact that some of the patients will continue to have their own symptoms in the epidemic and may respond better to their individual remedies .”

I must also state that I have tried very hard to get a scientific clinical trial for homeopathy. I have approached the highest authorities in the AYUSH ministry and The Central Council of Research in Homeopathy. We wanted to have access to hospitalized cases and independently observe the pattern, if any, by taking cases individually. The CCRH has a protocol for a randomized double blind study and this could help homeopathy a lot as compared reporting to individual or series of cases without a control group. I am hoping that someone in Homeopathy will be permitted to do this study in India or in any other part of the world.

I would like to say that this is a time which is like a great equalizer. The infection treats the prince and the pauper the same way. This very thought should bring us all together and take us to a higher plane of functioning, one that is beyond our egos, one that is beyond blaming each other, one that brings us all together for a common cause.

Many valued colleagues have shared their experiences on various forums. Many of them continue to communicate with me. These include Paul Herscu, Jan Scholten, Massimo Mangialavori, Heiner Frei, Annette Sneevliet, Jayesh Shah, Andreas Holling, Manuel Mateu among others. I really deeply appreciate the spirit and intention and the mutual respect with which they share their experiences. The idea is to come together and evolve a consensus so that we could help more people.

I am very open to the idea that there may be a different Genus Epidemicus in each location, or there is no GE at all, especially in milder cases and people need different remedies, or ( esp in milder cases ) one may need their original ( constitutional) remedy. Some colleagues suggest that there could be different remedies for different stages of the disease. We should keep an open mind and discuss.

In any case , I think it is time to pool our experiences, to take stock of the situation and see if we can come to a consensus and to speak in one voice. Even if we have differences, we should learn to trust the experiences of each other and to respect others’ thoughts. And may I suggest this continue even after this crisis? Can we allow ourselves to use this point in time to really come together?

One suggestion I have is to have a closed-door ( zoom ) meeting of the leaders of the profession from across the world. There is a lot of confusion and different individual voices in the public domain. It is time to come together and discuss and then share our findings with other colleagues. I suggest someone neutral take a lead in this and organise this meeting.

At the same time, if there is a central forum where homoeopaths can write their experiences with cases, this will be very useful.

Let us dissolve our differences and come together and rise to the occasion at this vital hour with trust, with respect , with unity, with love .

With Love and prayers for us and for the planet.

Rajan Sankaran