An interview with Louis Klein, rshom (na) An interview with Louis Klein, rshom (na) (Rowan Jackson) Lou

Klein is one of the best known and loved teachers of homeopathy in North America !is many years of clinical e"perience, deep mastery of #ateria #edica, and solid, hands$ on approach to case analysis combine to make him an e"traordinary resource for students of all levels %his interview with Lou Klein took place in Los An&eles, November, '(() where he was teachin& his #aster *linician *lass A!+ ,o, Lou, how did it all be&inKlein+ #y first course was with .ana /llman, probably 00 years a&o 1 read Kent2s Lectures on !omeopathic 3hilosophy 4very time 1 would read it , well, it 5ust resonated with me 1 went back to 6ancouver and started studyin& on my own, while 1 was workin& with a #edical .octor named .avid 7herin& 1 eventually attended many seminars with 7eor&e 6ithoulkas %he first seminar 1 ever attended of his, the other students, who were all # . s, insisted that 1 be tested by 7eor&e because till then his seminars had all been # . only 1 passed, and since then he has kept it open A!+ 8hen did you study with 6ithoulkasKlein+ %he early 9:2s, 1 think 1 consider 7eor&e 6ithoulkas my first real teacher ;rom the be&innin& 1 had a real affinity for !omeopathy and then there was a period in my development when 1 had some <uestions about my ability to practice, as well as about !omeopathy in &eneral 1 think every practitioner needs to &o throu&h that As a result of &oin& throu&h that process of doubt, my !omeopathy chan&ed <uite dramatically, and 1 became deeply committed 1 feel that to do homeopathy you have to have a commitment and it has to be very deep =ou can2t be on the fence %hat2s one of the reasons 12ve made it an important point to treat other homeopaths 1 know that the only way you can practice is if you2ve had some &ood successful treatment yourself, which has had a profound effect 1f you haven2t, if your perspective is limited to your havin& had remedies that have only worked acutely, then ultimately, that will be all you will look for in terms of results for other people, or feel you are capable of treatin& honestly A!+ >r feel that the capacity of !omeopathy is limited, which would be a tra&edy Klein+ !omeopathy is sufferin& as a result of that 1 really feel that !omeopathy is lan&uishin& because there is a belief with some teachers that !omeopathy works only to a very limited point, to treat disease, and then the person has to do mainly spiritual work, which 1 think is true to a de&ree? but the limitations of !omeopathy are very hi&h in their minds, and they pass this alon& to their students, or try to &et them en&a&ed in their @spiritual@ pursuit A!+ 8hy is that - .o you see !omeopathy as a callin& with a very hi&h barKlein+ 1 think for now it is 1 don2t see it that way in 0: years, if all &oes well A!+ 8hat2s &oin& to make the chan&eKlein+ 8ell, that was one of my &oals in startin& the school, to create master clinicians? people who will feel capable, with an ability to access the breadth of !omeopathic #ateria #edica !omeopathy has been stuck in a A: polychrest mode !istorically, what happened was that people studied with 7eor&e, and because of the demand, turned around and became teachers themselves, within a month or two? or, people started schools who had practiced !omeopathy very sporadically and briefly 8hat happens then is that these people teach other people without havin& had the real clinical e"perience to

effectively do that ,o then we2ve &ot a mediocre profession, all standin& around flappin& their hands, wonderin& why it isn2t workin& A!+ And the &ood newsKlein+ 8hat 1 see is a bi& shift in the last three or four years where there are a lot of very &ood clinicians startin& to teach %his will chan&e the way !omeopathy is perceived, as well as chan&e the pool to select teachers and courses from %here are a lot of teachers who are still back in a retro&rade mode, relyin& on B:$A: polychrests, and that2s it %hey accuse people who are interested in usin& a &reat variety of remedies or new remedies, as bein& non$classical, or non$!ahnemanian, or whatever, and as a &roup, 1 believe they want !omeopathy to remain very static, not &row, not develop, because it suits the institutes they2ve created %here2s a sort of institutional aspect of !omeopathy #y feelin& is that in order for it to develop, we need to incorporate a lot more remedies #y vision is that our current #ateria #edica will be one percent of the #ateria #edica available in 0: years A!+ 8owC Klein+ ,o that in 0: years we will have very well proven, not week$end provin& or poorly proven, but e"cellent provin&s of twenty thousand remedies *an you ima&ine8hat it would re<uire is that we would have to use a computer, the information would have to be computeriDed A!+ 8hy wouldn2t it beKlein+ Eecause there are people out there who tell their students not to use a computer for the first two years, because they had to use the books, so their students have to &o that way as well A!+ %he old medical school model Klein+ 4"actly, but 1 don2t see that as true 12ve seen some of my students who started with computers doin& e"cellent homeopathy A!+ 1t cuts to the chase 8hat new remedies have you provenKlein+ *urrently, we2ve done the e"tractions for !elodrilus, the 4arthworm, as well as *arboneum Eio"y&enisatum, *arbon .io"ide 4arthworms are bein& used in medical research for nerve &rowth and lowerin& blood pressure %he other provin& 12m doin&, which is the most challen&in&, is the Erown Recluse ,pider %he spider is very prolific in North America with a very bad bite, the symptoms of which are similar to NecrotiDin& ;asciitis A number of the provers became suicidal durin& the provin& 1t was <uite intense and 1 believe it will be a very important remedy A!+ %ell me more Klein+ A lot of the provers had been in provin&s before, some with unpleasant e"periences as re&ards to follow$up, losin& friends durin& the provin&, connections with people broken, thin&s like that As a result of that we looked at the !elsinki !uman 4"perimentation Accord and drafted an a&reement that each prover, supervisor and master prover si&ns in order to participate 8hat it says is that no matter what happens we2re still &oin& to be friends, that this is a freely entered into e"periment 1t2s worked out phenomenally well %here will be a book published as a result of the provin&s with the proceeds &oin& to !omeopathic charities, like !omeopaths 8ithout Eorders 1 would like to see provin&s published more re&ularly, as well as bein& more affordable

A!+ 1t2s a reflection of you, Lou =our care, &ood intentions and balance 1 think it2s all a reflection of who &ets the ball rollin& 8hat other substances mi&ht you be interested in, without &ivin& too much awayKlein+ 1 would like to prove more of the elements and see whether Jan ,cholten2s work holds up in provin&s >ne of the reasons 1 proved 4arthworm is that we tend to choose a lot of substances that are venomous or bi&, like 4a&le, for provin&s, when the ma5ority of people tend to feel like wormsC ,o, 12d like to prove more soft$sided creatures, puttin& the 4arthworm in the same cate&ory as >leum Jecorus, the *od, and Lac .olphinum A!+ !ow do we know when a provin& has been well orchestrated, what about an appreciation of standardsKlein+ 1 don2t believe in week$end provin&s 1 believe that every provin& should be done properly, both for the safety and benefit of the prover as well as for the reliability, and effectiveness of the information 1 think on some level every provin& has some redemptive <ualities =ou asked earlier why !omeopathy is so hard 1 think part of that problem lies in the provin&s 8hen we do a half provin&, we &et half the information that2s really necessary to &et a full picture of the remedy 8hen you do a provin& over a week end or F$B days, you may only &et the primary symptoms of the remedy, you won2t &et any secondary or reciprocal symptoms %hen what happens is that you have to work out the reciprocal side throu&h clinical application, knowled&e and con5ecture 8hat has happened in the past is that a lot of the old provin&s were poisonin&s or the provin&s were done so poorly that we only have a very one$sided picture of the remedy 3art of what 12ve had to teach and learn myself is how to access the part of the provin& that is not that apparent A!+ !ow do you do thatKlein+ 1t2s a bit complicated Actually, by understandin&, throu&h the >r&anon, the process of a provin&, you can apply that process to the patient, as well as study the #ateria #edica A!+ 8hat cues do you use from a patient to help you Dero in on a not well$described remedy or provin&Klein+ %hat2s a very comple" <uestion 1 spend two years e"plainin& in the course ;irst of all you need to have an in depth understandin& of what a provin& is from the >r&anon, then as a result of that understandin& you are able to read a provin& or information about a remedy with knowled&e about where it came from and how to apply it %he problem with not well$supervised provin&s is that the secondary, or reciprocal effects aren2t well$ recorded %hen it &ets back to the allopathic model that all these secondary symptoms are all in your head and they2re not part of the provin& A!+ 8hat do you see on the horiDon in the / , with !omeopathy and the medical establishmentKlein+ %he bi&&est threat, and possible benefit, to !omeopathy is that the ma5or pharmaceutical companies will start to manufacture !omeopathic remedies 8hen that happens !omeopathy will become very mainstream, and then we will probably see real !omeopathy versus those individuals who simply use a few remedies 8e will be seen as either very odd anomalies to a very popular medical form, or we2ll be seen as specialists >ne of the reasons 12m travelin& around the country and teachin& so intensively, tryin& to &et people up to speed, is because 1 feel that if we have a solid base of people practicin&

in terms of numbers, the chances of !omeopathy survivin& is much hi&her !omeopathy will be very popular, but the type of !omeopathy practiced will become A!+ Allopathy with a remedy Klein+ 4"cept the scale, we haven2t seen the scale A!+ Let2s &o back to your teachin& %ell me about your school Klein+ 3rior to startin& the school, 1 was &oin& around teachin& for other people, and 1 would &et frustrated because there wasn2t a sense of continuity 1 wanted to make a connection with people and have a lon& term process, and see people develop and chan&e 1 think it2s fun to see the pro&ress in other people A!+ =ou2re a nurturer Klein+ =eah, and 1 wanted to nurture other practitioners 8hen 1 was teachin& weekends, what 1 heard from most of the students was a kind of frustration, they were seein& a lot of different teachers, or they were comin& out of foundation schools with a lot of frustration and confusion about what they were doin& and why it wasn2t workin& all the time #y &oal is to clear that confusion 1t2s not that it2s &oin& to work every time, because 1 don2t &et '::G results, but we should &et better results than we are? and if people are honest, they will see that they need to shift their results 1 have an essential assumption that when 1 teach, it2s adult education? that 12m teachin& collea&ues, not students #y &oal is to make people more effective, independent practitioners, so they in themselves have the resources to resolve situations and cure people 1 don2t e"pect them to follow everythin& 1 do or say, but to find their own way As part of the course 1 do personal consultations with them 1t2s been an essential feature which distin&uishes it from other courses 1 like to be accessible A!+ =ou mentioned earlier that you went throu&h your own period of doubt *ould you &o into that a little for us =our e"ample mi&ht be helpful Klein+ 8hen 1 ori&inally started studyin&, 1 studied the small remedies in &reat depth 1 basically read Eoericke cover to cover because 1 heard that2s how 7eor&e 6ithoulkas be&an studyin& !omeopathy ,o, that2s what 1 did After a while, 1 was han&in& out with other students of 7eor&e, at his seminars and others, and basically, everyone was prescribin& the same remedies he had tau&ht 1t tended to be a &roup of about B: or H: remedies, and they became @the polychrests@ Now 1 see people writin& books on how they prescribe three or four hundred prescriptions of one remedy, which 1 find kind of remarkable 1t2s most likely that they are missin& remedies that are similar to that remedy, but are less well known 1 did this too, but what 1 was noticin& was that by prescribin& from a &roup of about B:$ H: remedies, you can do some &ood, but over the lon& run, you have to chan&e the remedy fre<uently, you have to &ive new remedies? some people weren2t &ettin& better, and for a lon& period of time 1 didn2t see a si&nificant chan&e in their overall health ,o, as a result of that, 1 looked at their cases and realiDed that there were much deeper$ actin& remedies that 1 was actually missin&, and 1 started focusin& on these remedies %hey are what 1 call @life history remedies@ A!+ !ow do they differ from a constitutional remedyKlein+ 1 think we need a new term for it, the reason bein& that @constitutional@ has the implication of bein& a polychrest All remedies treat the constitution, even an acute remedy %he @life history remedy@ is a remedy that &oes very deeply into the life history of the disease of the patient 8hat were looked at as constitutional remedies tended to be

remedies like ,ulphur, which cover most situations the way people use it, like a catch$all remedy =ou mention the word 2e&otistical2 to someone and they think ,ulphur or 3latinum =ou mention 2introverted2, and they think Natrum #uriaticum %here are probably a thousand remedies for introversion, but for whatever reason we have, these remedies have became icons that stand for &eneral states and we prescribe them without searchin& for the real patholo&y of the patient A!+ 8hat led you to that understandin&Klein+ 1t2s my own standards that 1 have for myself in terms of !omeopathy and the standard 1 have for !omeopathy, which is very profound 1 still &et people snickerin& about small remedies, but 1 don2t think of them as small remedies, 1 think of them as remedies that we don2t have a lot of information about A!+ 8hen 7od created the world, !e didn2t make one thin& less important than another Klein+ =eah, and it2s this kind of pre5udice that has come about in !omeopathy as a result of individuals tryin& to make sense of !omeopathy by simplifyin& it A!+ ,o it2s about comfort Done rather than correct applicationKlein+ 1t2s much more comfortable to know fifty remedies, and feel confident in them, than to use these other remedies and actually look carefully at the results and compare them 1 know the kind of results 1 &et when 1 use those very deep actin& remedies is completely different then prescribin& ,ulphur and &ettin& an amelioration, which is only a partial result A!+ 1s there an approach you have when lookin& at a new patient2s caseKlein+ No, not so much %he point for me is fle"ibility %here are a lot of factors that come into play, especially when you2re prescribin& a lot of different remedies, so the main point for me is to remain very fle"ible 1 don2t &et ri&id about the patient 1f a patient says somethin& that tri&&ers a particular remedy thou&ht, 1 don2t necessarily &et committed to that remedy to the e"clusion of everythin& else %hat fle"ibility ultimately allows me to see the totality and have the remedy represent the totality in a very true way, as opposed to havin& my own one$sided view of the case 1f a person says they like snakes, and you think snake remedy, 1 consider that a pre5udice A lot of people will, throu&h a keynote, become committed to a remedy very soon in a case, then &o about provin& that it2s that remedy, instead of 5ust bein& open to possibilities, which mi&ht be more difficult A!+ !ow do you deal with politics in !omeopathyKlein+ %here are a number of choices we have >ne is to become more re&ulatory, and then what usually happens is the most political people float to the top and become the most powerful parts in that re&ulatory environment? not necessarily the &ood homeopaths %hat2s why 1 have this attitude that everyone simply practice and people will seek out those individuals who are doin& a &ood 5ob 1f you look at the re&ulations around the world, it doesn2t promote e"cellent prescribin&, it promotes safety for the public, which is very important, but not necessarily the &oal that we have 1 saw a lot of bad prescribin& out there and decided to teach, to take action in a positive way, rather than rail a&ainst people who are doin& poor homeopathy, or allopathic homeopathy 1 don2t see that as a solution A!+ 8hat2s this 1 hear about a bookKlein+ 12m tryin& to write a practical book, a @how to@ book of advanced !omeopathy A!+ 6ery needed 8hen will it be out-

Klein+ >h my, 12ve been workin& on it for about a year, 1 don2t know #y family is bi&&er now and 1 don2t have that much time 1n the last three days 1 saw H: or A: patients 8hen do 1 have the time to write a bookA!+ Let$alone travel and teach 8here will your ne"t sites beKlein+ 12m thinkin& of concentratin& the #aster *linician *ourse in 6ancouver 1t2s a beautiful world$class city with ine"pensive fli&hts from all over, and 1 think it would be fun to have it there 12m also considerin& one more in #innesota 8e2ll see A!+ 8ell, wherever you teach, 1 am &ainin& so much from your classes, 1 hope more and more people have the opportunity to attend them also %his interview has been fun, Lou, see you ne"t time