Where did Hahnemann’s ideas come from?

Denise and Alastair explore the scientific and philosophical traditions surrounding the development of homeopathy, including alchemy, chemistry, metallurgy, medicine-making, and the work of figures such as Paracelsus, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton.

They also challenge the familiar story that potentization began with remedies being shaken in a horse-drawn carriage and discuss how Hahnemann deliberately refined both the principles and pharmacy of homeopathy over time.

The conversation concludes with why understanding this history matters when defining homeopathy, supporting safety, and establishing professional standards today.

Mentioned in this episode:
AIH Consensus Definition of Homeopathy: advancehomeopathy.org/what-is-homeopathy

Strange Rare Peculiar is a weekly podcast with Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray of the Institute for the Advancement of Homeopathy and the Academy of Homeopathy Education.

This season, we’re focusing on truth — what it means to Aude Sapere (“dare to know”) in homeopathy today. From Hahnemann’s original insights to the realities of modern practice, research, and education, Denise and Alastair bring over 50 years of experience to conversations that challenge assumptions and invite curiosity.

🎧 If you’re ready to look deeper — beyond trends, beyond opinion — join the conversation and rediscover what homeopathy truly is.

Explore more:

• Study homeopathy professionally → academyofhomeopathyeducation.com

• Access affordable, virtual homeopathy care → homeopathyhelpnow.com

• Support the future of homeopathy → advancehomeopathy.org

• Join the practitioner-generated research network (PGRN) → advancehomeopathy.org/pgrn

How should nosodes be used within the principles of homeopathy? Denise and Alastair examine the original use of bowel nosodes, Paterson’s warning about repetition, and the difference between individualized prescribing and routine protocols.

They also explore homeoprophylaxis, epidemic prescribing, and whether fixed nosode schedules remain consistent with a dynamic, individualized system of medicine.

Mentioned in this episode:

Paterson, John. "The Bowel Nosodes." British Homoeopathic Journal 40, no. 3 (July 1950): 153–162.
DOI: 10.1016/S0007-0785(50)80005-4. Presented to the Rhodanienne Homoeopathic Society at the meeting of the International Homoeopathic League Council, Lyons, August 1949.

Strange Rare Peculiar is a weekly podcast with Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray of the Institute for the Advancement of Homeopathy and the Academy of Homeopathy Education.

This season, we’re focusing on truth — what it means to Aude Sapere (“dare to know”) in homeopathy today. From Hahnemann’s original insights to the realities of modern practice, research, and education, Denise and Alastair bring over 50 years of experience to conversations that challenge assumptions and invite curiosity.

🎧 If you’re ready to look deeper — beyond trends, beyond opinion — join the conversation and rediscover what homeopathy truly is.

Explore more:

• Study homeopathy professionally → academyofhomeopathyeducation.com

• Access affordable, virtual homeopathy care → homeopathyhelpnow.com

• Support the future of homeopathy → advancehomeopathy.org

• Join the practitioner-generated research network (PGRN) → advancehomeopathy.org/pgrn

Homeopathy is not just about using potentized substances.

Drawing on what they are seeing in the clinic and their research into the history and education of homeopathy, Denise and Alastair ask what happens when the remedy becomes the center—and the system meant to guide its use is lost.

Mentioned in this episode:

Episode 100: Homeopathy Mythbusters: Did Hahnemann Use More Than One Remedy at a Time?

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1q0P9mKQ19zqQPKk59yBz2?si=kyPaVJoGRDi8l6DEF0rnig

📚 Comfort Care Practitioner Course

Dates: July 22nd and July 29th

Host: Denise Straiges 

Focus: Homeopathy hospice and bedside supportive care for end-of-life

Registration: https://academyofhomeopathyeducation.com/comfort-care-course/

🎙️ Inside AHE: Clinic, Community, and Student Life

Date: July 22 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time

An event is for prospective students who are considering professional training and want a clearer sense of what it’s really like to learn at AHE.

Registration: https://academyofhomeopathyeducation.com/events/

Strange Rare Peculiar is a weekly podcast with Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray of the Institute for the Advancement of Homeopathy and the Academy of Homeopathy Education.

This season, we’re focusing on truth — what it means to Aude Sapere (“dare to know”) in homeopathy today. From Hahnemann’s original insights to the realities of modern practice, research, and education, Denise and Alastair bring over 50 years of experience to conversations that challenge assumptions and invite curiosity.

🎧 If you’re ready to look deeper — beyond trends, beyond opinion — join the conversation and rediscover what homeopathy truly is.

Explore more:

• Study homeopathy professionally → academyofhomeopathyeducation.com

• Access affordable, virtual homeopathy care → homeopathyhelpnow.com

• Support the future of homeopathy → advancehomeopathy.org

• Join the practitioner-generated research network (PGRN) → advancehomeopathy.org/pgrn

In this episode of the SRP Podcast, hosts Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray dive deep into one of homeopathy's most misunderstood concepts: what does real healing actually look like—and what should clients truly expect when working with a homeopath?

From Hahnemann's original writings to modern practice debates, they unpack the difference between gradual health restoration and quick-fix protocols that can overwhelm the vital force.

Whether you're a practicing homeopath, a student, or someone considering working with a homeopath, this conversation will reshape how you think about outcomes in homeopathy.

Episode Highlights

✔️ What Does "Cure" Really Mean?
Exploring Hahnemann's definition from the footnote to Aphorism 1 and why the word carries more complexity than popular marketing suggests.

✔️ Acute vs. Chronic: Different Expectations
Why healing trajectories differ dramatically between short-term conditions and long-standing chronic disease patterns.

✔️ The Vital Force Does the Work
Understanding how remedies function as keys rather than force—and why gentle intervention beats bombardment every time.

✔️ Case Study: An Eight-Year Healing Journey
A detailed look at one young man's path from multiple diagnoses (EOC, Crohn's, PANDAS) to improved health—complete with acute flares that signaled progress, not regression.

✔️ "Fake Homeopathy" vs. Hahnemannian Practice
How to identify simplified protocol homeopathy practices vs. rigorous, principle-based treatment—including warnings about excessive nosode protocols and "detox" regimens.

✔️ Miasmatic Disease in Context
Why Hahnemann's thinking evolved from syphilis observations to the broader concept of chronic miasms—and what that means for modern practitioners.

✔️ Mansplain Corner
Light-hearted but pointed discussion about online discourse, unsolicited expertise, and the responsibility that comes with public homeopathic education.

Mentioned in this Episode:

🎙️ Live Q&A: Becoming a Homeopath
Date: July 8th at 7:00 PM Eastern Time
Topic: Questions about studying homeopathy, what to look for in schools, and career paths
Registration: https://academyofhomeopathyeducation.com/events/

📚 Comfort Care Practitioner Course
Dates: July 22nd and July 29th
Host: Denise Straiges

Focus: Homeopathy hospice and bedside supportive care for end-of-life
Registration: https://academyofhomeopathyeducation.com/comfort-care-course/

Strange Rare Peculiar is a weekly podcast with Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray of the Institute for the Advancement of Homeopathy and the Academy of Homeopathy Education.This season, we’re focusing on truth — what it means to Aude Sapere (“dare to know”) in homeopathy today. From Hahnemann’s original insights to the realities of modern practice, research, and education, Denise and Alastair bring over 50 years of experience to conversations that challenge assumptions and invite curiosity.🎧 If you’re ready to look deeper — beyond trends, beyond opinion — join the conversation and rediscover what homeopathy truly is.Explore more:

• Study homeopathy professionally → academyofhomeopathyeducation.com

• Access affordable, virtual homeopathy care → homeopathyhelpnow.com

• Support the future of homeopathy → advancehomeopathy.org

• Join the practitioner-generated research network (PGRN) → advancehomeopathy.org/pgrn

Choosing the remedy is only one part of homeopathic practice. What happens next may be even more important.

In this episode of Strange, Rare & Peculiar, Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray continue the conversation from case analysis into case management: how a homeopath evaluates the action of a remedy after it has been given.

Was that reaction an aggravation? A proving symptom? A return of an old symptom? A sign that the dose needs to be adjusted? Or a reason to retake the case?

This episode asks some of the most important clinical questions in homeopathy: How do we know what the remedy is doing? How do we manage chronic cases over time? And what happens when multiple remedies, repeated potencies, nosodes, sarcodes, and “clearing” protocols make it impossible to know what actually happened?

Denise and Alastair also discuss why single-remedy homeopathy is not just a philosophical preference, but a practical foundation for safety, observation, and clear clinical decision-making. When too many interventions are layered together, the homeopath may lose the very thing needed to manage the case: the ability to evaluate the remedy response.

They also touch on remedy reactions, aggravations, the difference between homeopathy and isopathy, the ethics of prescribing based on disease names, and common myths around menthol, camphor, coffee, and antidoting.

Mentioned in this episode

Homeopathy and Integrative Wellness
Denise’s free four-part series explores the relationship between homeopathy, integrative wellness, and supportive practices such as movement, mindfulness, and reflective practice.
Register here: https://academyofhomeopathyeducation.com/homeopathy-integrative-wellness/

Comfort Care Practitioner Course
Denise is teaching the Comfort Care Practitioner Course again this summer for homeopaths interested in palliative, hospice, and end-of-life care.
Register here: https://academyofhomeopathyeducation.com/comfort-care-course/

Homeopathy Help Now
If you are looking for homeopathic care, visit Homeopathy Help Now for acute, chronic, complex, and comfort care services.
Learn more: https://homeopathyhelpnow.com

Institute for the Advancement of Homeopathy
Learn more about the Institute’s work in access to care, outcomes research, education, scholarships, and the historical research library.
Visit: https://advancehomeopathy.org

Strange, Rare & Peculiar is a weekly podcast with Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray of the Institute for the Advancement of Homeopathy and the Academy of Homeopathy Education.This season, we’re focusing on truth — what it means to Aude Sapere (“dare to know”) in homeopathy today. From Hahnemann’s original insights to the realities of modern practice, research, and education, Denise and Alastair bring over 50 years of experience to conversations that challenge assumptions and invite curiosity.🎧 If you’re ready to look deeper — beyond trends, beyond opinion — join the conversation and rediscover what homeopathy truly is.Explore more:• Study homeopathy professionally → academyofhomeopathyeducation.com• Access affordable, virtual homeopathy care → homeopathyhelpnow.com• Support the future of homeopathy → advancehomeopathy.org• Join the practitioner-generated research network (PGRN) → advancehomeopathy.org/pgrn

How does a homeopath move from case taking to a remedy recommendation? In this episode, Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray explore the complexities of homeopathy case analysis and why there is no single method, shortcut, protocol, or formula that works for every case.

They discuss the many ways to look at a case — including totality, mapping, organ affinity, physical generals, symptom constellations, miasms, polarity, keynotes, and the clinical judgment required to know which lens fits. This conversation is about what happens between case taking and remedy selection, and why careful analysis is essential to the practice of classical homeopathy.

They also answer listeners’ questions about how to describe homeopathy accurately and legally, whether homeopaths should participate in provings, and which materia medica and repertories are best for students and newer practitioners.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Give the Gift of Homeopathy Auction — supporting the HHN Care Grant Program.
• AHE Open House: Inside AHE — Training, Clinic, and Student Life — June 24 at 7 pm Eastern.
• Homeopathy & Integrative Wellness Free Webinar Series with Denise Straiges.
• Academy of Homeopathy Education Events Page
• Homeopathy Help Network — request care or learn more about accessible homeopathy services.
• HHN Care Grant Program

Strange, Rare & Peculiar is a weekly podcast with Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray of the Institute for the Advancement of Homeopathy and the Academy of Homeopathy Education.

This season, we’re focusing on truth — what it means to Aude Sapere (“dare to know”) in homeopathy today. From Hahnemann’s original insights to the realities of modern practice, research, and education, Denise and Alastair bring over 50 years of experience to conversations that challenge assumptions and invite curiosity.

🎧 If you’re ready to look deeper — beyond trends, beyond opinion — join the conversation and rediscover what homeopathy truly is.

Explore more:

• Study homeopathy professionally → academyofhomeopathyeducation.com

• Access affordable, virtual homeopathy care → homeopathyhelpnow.com

• Support the future of homeopathy → advancehomeopathy.org

• Join the practitioner-generated research network (PGRN) → advancehomeopathy.org/hohm-pgrn

Homeopathy has become a bit like a game of telephone.

A system of medicine grounded in clear principles — similars, totality, the single remedy, the minimum dose, and careful observation of response — has often been reduced to “take this remedy for that symptom,” or stretched to include any protocol, combination, detox, or nosode-based approach that uses potentized substances.

In this episode, Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray ask what homeopathy actually is — and what it is not. They trace how the definition has shifted over time, from Hahnemann’s original principles through later debates in education, pathology, germ theory, and modern prescribing trends.

The question is not whether people can use homeopathic medicines in different ways. The question is whether all of those uses should be called homeopathy.

For students, practitioners, and serious home prescribers, this conversation is an invitation to go back to first principles — and to ask whether the word homeopathy still means the medicine Hahnemann gave us.

AHE is currently enrolling for fall. Find details and registration links for these and other upcoming events at AHE.online.

• June 16 @ 7 pm EST: Homeopathy & Integrative Wellness Session 1 with Denise Straiges (Free 4-session webinar series)

• June 17 @ 7 pm EST: Your Path to Becoming a Professional Homeopath: A Live Q&A for Future Practitioners

• June 24 @ 7 pm EST: Inside AHE: Training Clinic and Student Life-An Open House for Future Homeoapaths

Have a question you’d like Denise and Alastair to answer in a future episode? Leave us a comment!

Strange, Rare & Peculiar is a weekly podcast with Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray of the Institute for the Advancement of Homeopathy and the Academy of Homeopathy Education.

This season, we’re focusing on truth — what it means to Aude Sapere (“dare to know”) in homeopathy today. From Hahnemann’s original insights to the realities of modern practice, research, and education, Denise and Alastair bring over 50 years of experience to conversations that challenge assumptions and invite curiosity.

🎧 If you’re ready to look deeper — beyond trends, beyond opinion — join the conversation and rediscover what homeopathy truly is.

Explore more:

• Study homeopathy professionally → academyofhomeopathyeducation.com

• Access affordable, virtual homeopathy care → homeopathyhelpnow.com

• Support the future of homeopathy → advancehomeopathy.org

• Join the practitioner-generated research network (PGRN) → advancehomeopathy.org/hohm-pgrn

How do we know what a homeopathic remedy actually does?

That question takes Denise and Alastair into one of the things that truly sets homeopathy apart: provings.

In this episode, they talk about how remedy knowledge is gathered, why Hahnemann insisted that it come through experience — not “mere intellectual exertion” — and why the paper trail behind our materia medica matters. They also look at what happens when that trail gets muddy: incomplete provings, speculative remedy pictures, intellectual shortcuts, and remedies being used or sold without clear proving information.

The conversation moves from Causticum and Hahnemann’s own proving symptoms to Langhammer, Scholten’s periodic table work, nosodes, isopathy, and the modern temptation to simplify what was never meant to be simplistic.

If you’ve ever wondered where remedy pictures come from — or how to think more critically about what’s in the materia medica — this episode is for you.

Strange, Rare & Peculiar is a weekly podcast with Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray of the Institute for the Advancement of Homeopathy and the Academy of Homeopathy Education.This season, we’re focusing on truth — what it means to Aude Sapere (“dare to know”) in homeopathy today.

From Hahnemann’s original insights to the realities of modern practice, research, and education, Denise and Alastair bring over 50 years of experience to conversations that challenge assumptions and invite curiosity.

🎧 If you’re ready to look deeper — beyond trends, beyond opinion — join the conversation and rediscover what homeopathy truly is.

Explore more:

• Study homeopathy professionally → ⁠academyofhomeopathyeducation.com⁠

• Access affordable, virtual homeopathy care → ⁠homeopathyhelpnow.com⁠

• Support the future of homeopathy → ⁠advancehomeopathy.org

⁠• Join the practitioner-generated research network (PGRN) → ⁠advancehomeopathy.org/hohm-pgrn

In Episode 118 of Strange, Rare & Peculiar, Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray begin with a question from the AHE teaching clinic, which opens into a discussion of Hahnemann’s evolving understanding of chronic disease, the “1816 problem,” and why relapsing chronic conditions required him to ask deeper questions about disease, miasms, and cure.

In this episode:

• Why medical language still matters in homeopathy
• Disease names, homeopathic diagnosis, and individualization
• The “1816 problem” and Hahnemann’s Chronic Diseases
• Psora, miasms, and the classification of disease
• Flexner-era confusion and the loss of homeopathic clarity
• Listener comments on "homeopathy snobs" and the availability of OTC remedies

Strange, Rare & Peculiar is a weekly podcast with Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray of the Institute for the Advancement of Homeopathy and the Academy of Homeopathy Education.

This season, we’re focusing on truth — what it means to Aude Sapere (“dare to know”) in homeopathy today.

From Hahnemann’s original insights to the realities of modern practice, research, and education, Denise and Alastair bring over 50 years of experience to conversations that challenge assumptions and invite curiosity.

🎧 If you’re ready to look deeper — beyond trends, beyond opinion — join the conversation and rediscover what homeopathy truly is.

Explore more:

• Study homeopathy professionally → ⁠academyofhomeopathyeducation.com⁠

• Access affordable, virtual homeopathy care → ⁠homeopathyhelpnow.com⁠

• Support the future of homeopathy → ⁠advancehomeopathy.org⁠

• Join the practitioner-generated research network (PGRN) → ⁠advancehomeopathy.org/hohm-pgrn

In Episode 117 of Strange, Rare, and Peculiar, Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray answer listener questions about what happens when homeopathic principles meet real-life complexity.

They take on polypharmacy in emergency situations, veterinary homeopathy with traumatized rescue dogs, and the harder question many people quietly carry: What if I’ve tried homeopathy—and nothing changed?

Get your Organon out for this one. Denise and Alastair discuss Aphorisms 148 and 260, exploring what Hahnemann had to say about the labor of true homeopathic practice, obstacles to cure, and why homeopathy asks for more than shortcuts.

In this episode:

• When, if ever, more than one remedy makes sense
• Homeopathy for animals in acute stress
• Why “nothing happened” may not always mean nothing happened
• Obstacles to cure and case management
• Hahnemann, roasted pigeons, and the work homeopathy requires

Strange, Rare & Peculiar is a weekly podcast with Denise Straiges and Alastair Gray of the Institute for the Advancement of Homeopathy and the Academy of Homeopathy Education.

This season, we’re focusing on truth — what it means to Aude Sapere (“dare to know”) in homeopathy today. From Hahnemann’s original insights to the realities of modern practice, research, and education, Denise and Alastair bring over 50 years of experience to conversations that challenge assumptions and invite curiosity.

🎧 If you’re ready to look deeper — beyond trends, beyond opinion — join the conversation and rediscover what homeopathy truly is.

Explore more:

• Study homeopathy professionally → academyofhomeopathyeducation.com

• Access affordable, virtual homeopathy care → homeopathyhelpnow.com

• Support the future of homeopathy → advancehomeopathy.org

• Join the practitioner-generated research network (PGRN) → advancehomeopathy.org/hohm-pgrn