I'm shouting but I can't hear you. Homeopathy vs the skeptics

With a flurry of excitement around homeopathy this week - yup we even had it trending on twitter at one point, at least in the London area. There homeopathy was the 3rd most discussed topic. Not, in my personal opinion, for the right reasons to be honest.

The Mail (that paper that barely anyone I know actually reads), ran with a headline of 'Homeopathy CAN cure Ebola'. Since it was a newspaper and attempting to sensationalise the situation I'd say it succeeded. Homeopathy CAN deal with many things, has been historically very effective with dealing with various serious epidemics and I think we as homeopaths all see many uncurable cases get better. But until we've done it, got the clinical cases then it's theory.

That isn't my main point, but brings me to it. The response on twitter was a resounding 'The Mail is wrong' message. For a start, my feeling was The Mail was being sarcastic but maybe I'm misreading it all. The virtual shouting, the rage, the passion against us as homeopaths, well that was strong.

Working with tools such as twitter, but also living in real life where everyone has their own opinions and they're not always the same as mine (I know!! Who'd have thought it?!) is an interesting place to be. What I've realised though is it's so rare anyone really listens. It's like we're all shouting out our version and we can't hear anyone else's. I keep drawing this card from my lovely shiny new Fifth Agreement cards:

And think there's perhaps a message there. Even if we disagree, to listen and truly hear is to respect. It may not change your views at all, may simply enhance and strengthen them, I'm not thinking we need to change our minds about anything.

I invite you, for this day, to listen to others without judgement and to open your heart to hearing opinions that differ from your own without the need to fight. Byron Katie talks of how defence is the first act of war and I'm inclined to agree. That intake of breath, that tension, high alert feeling when you're poised to fight back - for today how about we drop that? You don't need to but even for a few moments, I invite you to experiment with letting that go.

With love and light,

Em xx