Homeopathy in the context of "Pseudoscience"

Royal Samuel Copeland (November 7, 1868 – June 17, 1938) was an American academic, homeopathic physician, and politician. He held elected offices in both Michigan (as a Republican) and New York (as a Democrat), and served as a United States senator from New York from 1923 to 1938.

Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann (/ˈhɑːnəmən/ HAH-nə-mən, German: [ˈzaːmueːl ˈhaːnəman]; 10 April 1755 – 2 July 1843) was a German physician, best known for creating the pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine called homeopathy.

In homeopathy, homeopathic dilution (known by practitioners as "dynamisation" or "potentisation") is a process in which a substance is diluted with alcohol or distilled water and then vigorously shaken in a process called "succussion". Insoluble solids, such as quartz and oyster shell, are diluted by grinding them with lactose (trituration). The founder of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843), asserted that the process of succussion activated the "vital energy" of the diluted substance, and that successive dilutions increased the "potency" of the preparation, although other strands of homeopathy (such as Schuessler's) disagreed.

The concept is pseudoscience because, at commonly used dilutions, no molecules of the original material are likely to remain. Therefore high homeopathic dilutions must be distinguished from low dilutions where there can be an overlap with herbal medicine.

Edgar Cayce (/ˈkeɪsiː/; March 18, 1877 – January 3, 1945) was an American clairvoyant who reported and chronicled an ability to diagnose diseases and recommend treatments for ailments while asleep. During thousands of transcribed sessions, Cayce would answer questions on a variety of subjects, such as healing, reincarnation, dreams, the afterlife, past lives, nutrition, Atlantis, and future events. Cayce described himself as a devout Christian and denied being a Spiritualist or communicating with spirits. Cayce is regarded as a founder of the New Age movement and a principal source of many of the movement's characteristic beliefs.

As a clairvoyant, Cayce collaborated with a variety of individuals, including osteopath Al Layne, homeopath Wesley Ketchum, printer Arthur Lammers, and Wall Street broker Morton Blumenthal. In 1931, Cayce founded a non-profit organization, the Association for Research and Enlightenment. In 1942, a popular and highly sympathetic biography of Cayce titled There is a River was published by journalist Thomas Sugrue.

Naturopathy, or naturopathic medicine, is a form of alternative medicine. A wide array of practices branded as "natural", "non-invasive", or promoting "self-healing" are employed by its practitioners, who are known as naturopaths. These treatments range from the pseudoscientific and thoroughly discredited, such as homeopathy, to the widely accepted, such as certain forms of psychotherapy. The ideology and methods of naturopathy are based on vitalism and folk medicine rather than evidence-based medicine, although practitioners may use techniques supported by evidence. The ethics of naturopathy have been called into question by medical professionals and its practice has been characterized as quackery.

Naturopathic practitioners commonly encourage alternative treatments that are rejected by conventional medicine, including resistance to surgery or vaccines for some patients. The diagnoses made by naturopaths often have no basis in science and are often not accepted by mainstream medicine.