(To read Part 1 of the Interview, click here: Homeopathy recognizes the individual)

What do you think makes some people believe in natural medicine and homeopathy, while others just would never even want to try it?

It’s hard to tell.  Some people already find it easy to accept new concepts.  In the beginning, I thought maybe that comes from their level of education.  But I realized that that’s not the case.

For example, a couple of years ago, I had a patient.  She asked me to see her husband.  He’s a professor.

He had some insomnia case and lots of stress at work.  So she convinced him, after many years of bugging him, to come here and to give me a chance (smiles).

He came in and he asked me, “So, Vladmir, how does this work?”

And I tried to explain it to him. But what do you say?  Meridians? Chakras? How can someone believe in meridians and chakras if they are very scientific in their thinking?  He wanted scientific proof that he could see, but it doesn’t work that way.

That must have been hard.

Well, for him it was hard. And for me, it was very hard, because we don’t have scientific proof. So I understood why he wouldn’t believe it.  I tried my best to explain it to him.  And eventually, he told me “Vlad, I am sorry, if you don’t have proof, I can’t accept that. It must not exist.”  So, we just shook hands, and I never saw him again (smiles).

But a couple of months later, I get a janitor from the same university come in to my clinic.

She never heard about homeopathy.  But she said, I really don’t even care how it works (smiles).  My sister got better with it so I want to try it.

Haha! That’s brilliant! (laughs)  

And I had a German lady come in a couple of weeks ago. She is 89 years old.

She came in, absolutely familiar with homeopathy. She said that when she was a little girl, in Germany, her parents always used to take her to a homeopath.

She never had any drugs. All throughout her childhood, she was taken to a homeopath. So she knew very well what homeopathy was.  And she came in to get medicine without any doubt about how or whether it would work.  So here, her experience as a child helped her to accept it.  I think it’s all about experiences.

You have experiences and you believe it. You trust it.

Yes, it is interesting how even one experience can change your whole perspective on things. 

(Smiles) Sometimes, I think maybe having a lot of scientific knowledge prevents us from accepting OTHER things, which have to do more with going by our feelings.

That’s how humans work.  That’s why people could be skeptical about homeopathy. Because they may have never heard about it, and you can’t prove it in a more scientific way.  But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Yes. I never really thought about it that way.

It’s like if somebody would come and ask me, “Vlad, prove to me that love is real, that it actually exists.” How can I prove it?

We know that people get chemicals about each other and start to feel and need each other. They cannot sleep and they think all the time about each other. What is this?   We can have a blood test. The blood test comes out normal, an x-ray or MRI of the brain would show nothing. But it’s present. Everybody knows it because everybody has similar experiences of emotions from it.   You can’t diagnose a broken heart unless you see the person get into real depression.  But some sadness is there, and no blood test would show that.  But those energies are present. And we are familiar with them.  We accept them because we have experiences of them.

Interesting comparison.

This makes me think of when I’ve heard people who don’t believe in homeopathy claim that it is just placebo.  But, then I think, well,… you know the saying, if the shoe fits, wear it?

Yes.

Well, I like to say, if the placebo works, I’ll take it. Because I would rather take it than drugs that have side effects that will harm my body over time.

Absolutely (smiles).

I just find that interesting. Some people are against it because they think it’s not real. But if it’s not real, but it works, …

Well, let’s go back to my analogy about love again. Some people say love is not real. But we do so much for love. And we feel so much. It can change our lives for the better or worse. In the worst case, people mess up their relationships and get divorced.  In the best case, love can change our lives forever.

So who cares if it’s real or not real?  It makes you feel things that have a huge impact on your life.

Good point. What a great analogy. (smiles)

I do believe homeopathy is real. But let’s work from the other side and let’s pretend I didn’t believe it was real. If I see that so many people feel better from it, that’s worth it enough. Because that saves them from experiencing heavy side effects, and helps them to heal emotional situations, and helps them to feel better. And if that only comes from their belief system, fantastic!

I totally agree.  Belief is an interesting thing.  This makes me think of a story your son told me awhile back. He said that when you were practising medicine in your home town, you helped someone heal through homeopathy and Chinese medicine. And that opened up more belief, or at least a kind of acceptance, from others of your natural medicine practises at that time.  Could you share a little bit about this story?

When I was still working as an MD, one of the chief doctors had a daughter who was very sick with an autoimmune condition. Her father, of course, tried to get the best doctors to help her.  But they all said that there was nothing much that they could do.  They just prescribed symptomatic drugs to her that they said she would have to take for the rest of her life.

He knew I was interested in homeopathy and that it was safe to use, because basically homeopathy is just memory of plants.  It can’t do anything damaging to you like some prescription drugs can do.  So he asked me if I would be interested in working with his daughter.  He didn’t necessarily believe in it at the time. But he just said, “We have tried everything else, so there is nothing to lose anyway.”

What was your response? 

I said, sure, I can try. But I also said that I can’t promise anything.  Because in many cases it works, and in some cases it doesn’t, especially with people with very serious conditions.  It’s not like a miracle, I told him. Just so that he was aware of this.

The daughter was open to trying homeopathy. She was young- only 35 or 36 years old. And the other medications and pain killers were making her queasy. So I started to work with her.

And what kind of changes did you see?

In six or seven months, we started to see a difference. She started to be more positive. Her mood got better.  Then in another maybe three to six months, she started to feel much better overall.  I can’t say we cured her of the autoimmune disease.  But she felt fifty percent better. She started to go back to exercise, she went back to university, her interests came back.  Overall, as a person, she started to feel like she was on a different level.

After that, her father, the head of that medical clinic where I was working, told me that if I wanted to use homeopathy on my patients, I had his permission.

What a great story.  Another example of how someone’s experience can change their belief system.

You mentioned how with some serious conditions, homeopathy might not work.  Is there a certain point where if there is so much going on in a person’s body that natural medicine is not going to help anymore?

Absolutely. Homeopathy, acupuncture, herbology, aromatherapy, Tai Chi Therapy and Reiki all have limits.

You can only help so much using these methods. But it depends on how much energy and ability to respond the patient’s system has.

If I would cut you one time, a normal system would probably heal that cut in three days.  If you have diabetes, high blood pressure, are on blood thinners, and a number of other drugs, maybe that cut would take your body seven days to heal.

And if I would make a hundred cuts on you, if you had all of those health issues, your system probably would never heal because you would never have the energy for it.  That all has to do with the patient’s ability to respond.

What is this energy or ability to respond?

Your response is your vitality. That’s your chi energy according to Chinese Medicine. It is your Pranic Energy according to Ayurvedic Medicine or Reiki Therapy. That’s the internal energy which is able to heal itself from the application or treatment that is used on that person.

But if your system is already exhausted, if you are already chronically sick, if you already have the decompensation of your vitalities, the changes and healing won’t happen.  And sometimes, it can even make your situation worse.  Because the system tries to make that move, using the last energy that it has, and then you get aggravation of your disease.  And everybody then says, “See, I told you never to go do acupuncture. Never to go for Reiki,” and they blame it on the treatment.

Oh, I see. It’s unfortunate that people wrongly fault the treatment for this.

Yes, because it’s not that natural medicine is the problem. It is just very important for all of us who practise acupuncture and natural medicine to see the limits. To know what you can do, and how much you can help, and when you can’t help anymore.  And be sure to tell your patients about that. If someone, of course, has better levels of health and stabilities, then you have better chances to help them heal. With someone who has so many chronic conditions, often, there is nothing much we can do.

Some people get disappointed when I tell them sorry, we can’t help.  If you would have come twenty years ago, we would try and would have been able to get results. But now we can’t.  And they get upset about this.  But I just know that it won’t work.

Yes, I’d rather have an honest opinion, than have someone try it just for the sake of trying and make it worse.

Yes. Exactly.

Well, I am so grateful to the friend who told me about you ten years ago.  You and the acupuncture and homeopathy you practise have been such an integral part of my healing.

I will never forget this one day when I came to see you years ago, and I walked into your office, and you asked me, “Are you still dancing?”

And I said, “Yes”.

And you said, “Okay, good. That means that we are off to a good start.” (smile)

What are your thoughts on dance and movement?

We have so many practices of physical movements. You have simple exercise, you have running, you have meditation techniques such as Tai Chi which include physical movements. Dance is part of those physical movements.  And they all involve the movement of energy.

When you dance, you just dance- you go with the influence of the music, and you go with your emotions, you let your body move. When you have better techniques, you have better movements, you have better satisfaction. But even if you have bad techniques, you still enjoy it anyway.  You forget about things that have happened.  You don’t think about the debts you need to pay or any other worries. You just move with the energy and with everybody else.

Yes. It is definitely great therapy.

And not just physically. Even if you’re really not flexible and you have rheumatoid arthritis, for example, dancing can make you happy. Because suddenly you realize you’re not excluded from the group.   You’re not a handicap.  You’re able. Yes, maybe you don’t do it that well. Maybe you don’t know HOW to do it.  Maybe your joints are not flexible anymore.  But you’re a part of the energy of it all.  And that can be enough to make you even two degrees happier than you were before.  That’s already treatment that can make a difference- psychological treatment.

I love how you recognize this.

Of course. Because even aromatherapy, for example, and the practice of dance are not that different. They are both about energy.  On the one hand, you get energy from the plants.  On the other hand, when you dance, you get energy from movement and enjoyment. And if it is group dance, you also get energy from the group.

Besides taking in energy, you also CREATE energy when you dance. This you incorporate with the music.  But that’s all hidden in the practice and the enjoyment of it all.

So what does this mean and why is it important? Dance, exercise, and meditation movements are healing because they are all about letting your energy be free.

Beautiful. Perfectly put for Dance Me Free! (smiles)