Hahnemann's Miasms are one of the most controversial theories in homeopathy. The original theory put forth by Hahnemann in the 1800s has been misinterpreted by many homeopaths for hundreds of years, with lots of authors adding or subtracting from Hahnemann's original theories, making a crazy mish-mash of ideas. Untangling the ideas and figuring out who said what and why is just impossible (at least for me!).

But Hahnemann laid out his theories in his book on the topic called Chronic Diseases. Here, I explain what Hahnemann meant in this book, and what his original theories were.

Whether or not you agree with the theories or use them in practice is entirely up to you (I don't use them much, but my thinking about practice has in fact changed dramatically after reading the book), but I think all homeopaths need to have a basic working idea of what Hahnemann meant, so that we can at least start to understand how we got to where we are today!