Evidence 1. Personal Testimony
Homeopathy has been practised for over 200 years, and it is now available to patients throughout the world. Many people, including myself, believe that it is an amazing medical therapy, and can give personal testimony to this.
Indeed, personal testimony, or empirical evidence, is one of the main reasons homeopathy has survived and prospered as a medical therapy. Homeopathy has never been subsidised in the UK, or in any other country. Its continued existence has depended largely on the testimony of homeopathy users: when homeopathy works people pass on their experience to others, who will in turn use it when they become ill.
My own experience began over 30 years ago. Conventional medicine had failed to deal with my painful gastric ulcers. When I discovered that the drugs GPs were giving me caused heart disease I refused to take them. However, this left me in considerable pain, especially after eating. So I was encouraged to see a homeopath. After a detailed interview I was given a remedy. As I drove home I knew something was happening to the pain. After a few weeks the pain was gone, entirely, and has never returned!
My experience is not unusual. Large numbers of people have recorded their personal experiences of homeopathy, and there is now an abundance of empirical evidence. These experiences have been recorded now for over 200 years. Dana Ullman, in his book "The Homeopathic Revolution: why famous people and cultural heroes choose homeopathy" (North Atlantic Books, Berkeley 2007), has researched and recorded a large number of famous personalities and celebrities who have used homeopathy. And like me, they have found it to be 'amazing'. Here are just a few from Ullman's book.
* Presidents of the USA, from Abraham Lincoln to Bill Clinton
* British Prime Ministers from Benjamin Disraeli to Tony Blair
* Celebrities from the entertainment world, from Sarah Bernhardt to Michael Caine to Priscilla Presley to Jennifer Aniston to Julia Sawalha
* Literary giants, from Longfellow, to Mark Twain, to Goethe, Dostoevsky and Chekhov, to Charles Dickens, to Barbara Cartland
* Musicians such as Beethoven, Chopin, Yehudi Menuhin, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney and Pete Townshend
* Artists such as van Gogh, Money, Renoir, and Gauguin
* Sports men such as David Beckham, Martina Navratilova, Boris Becker, and Jose Maria Olazabal.
Another useful source of useful information about how homeopathy has helped people through the years is Sue Young's website. She has done considerable research into the work and careers of well-known homeopaths, and has also undertaken important research into the history of homeopathic treatment over the years of many diseases.
There is also Sylvain Cazalet's website where there are a huge number of homeopathy cases written in French.