Jay,

This is a very interesting question, and I hope it gets a lot of responses. Actually, homeopathy is more than just the pellets you buy in the blue tubes. It's an observation that many, including Hippocrates, have made: that "like cures like".

In The Organon, Hahnemann shows that this fact is observable in nature quite often. He points to a case of herpes that was cured when the patient contracted measles:

"But when measles meets a disease that is similar to it in its main symptom--the eruption--it will undeniably destroy and cure it homeopathically."
(para. 46)

He furthermore explains that "curing" by opposites
(allopathy) actually empowers the disease and worsens the case:

"All carefully conducted experimentation and research prove to us that persistent disease symptoms, far from being wiped out and destroyed by opposite medicinal symptoms, return instead with renewed intensity and evident aggravation after seeming for a short time to have improved." (para. 23)

Oh, this is so true! Have you ever burned your hand and placed it in cold water? What a relief, but what happens when you lift your hand out? Ouch! The burn is worse! Do you know what the Chinese chefs do when they burn their hand? They put it back over the fire! Yes, there is momentary pain, but then it's gone! This is homeopathy! It's not just the pills from the homeopathic pharmacy, it's
"like cures like".

Hahnemann made a systematic healing art out of this folklore.

Snoopy