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Some of our finest [ about ] Approved Articles Developed Articles (over 900) "Knowledge is the true organ of sight, not the eyes." —From the Panchatantra (Indian literature) Article of the Week [ about ] Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a system of alternative medicine. The term derives from the Greek hómoios (similar) and páthos (suffering). The underlying concept of homeopathy is "like cures like" and is based on "the principle of similars", which asserts that substances known to cause particular symptoms can also, in low and specially prepared doses, help to cure diseases that cause similar symptoms. Some principles of homeopathy have been utilized in various forms in various medical systems for thouands of years in many diverse cultures, but they were first methodically set out by a German physician, Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843), who observed that a medicine sometimes evoked symptoms similar to those of the illness for which it was prescribed. Related maxims such as the "Law of similars" are common in anthropological literature. [more...] New Draft of the Week [ about ] Across a wide range of cultures some common themes recur, among them sympathetic magic. It attempts to use a symbol of some notable event to cause the full power of that event to manifest itself, most notably as seen in cargo cults. Classic examples of cargo cults, although they had been observed much earlier, played out in Melanesia during the Second World War: natives would see desirable "cargo" come out of an airplane, or, perhaps in a more modest fashion, cold beer from a refrigerator. They would subsequently construct wooden replicas of airplanes or refrigerators, hoping that, with the right invocation, they would then open their own door and find the same precious cargo. Where the goal of the cargo cult is to invoke and create, another aspect of sympathetic magic is to protect and control. In a healing rite from Jewish mysticism, a person who wanted bleeding to stop would sit under a drain, as others poured water over him, all saying a formula that predicted that as the water flow stopped, so would the blood flow cease.[more...]