Holistic and Homeopathic Medicine

The term holism comes from the Greek word holos, meaning “whole.” It was conceptualized by the South African statesman and biologist Jan Christiaan Smuts in his book Holism and Evolution (1926) as a way of viewing and describing living things, including human beings, as entities more than and different from the aggregate of their parts. The term holistic (or wholistic) is being used more frequently in all human endeavors, particularly since the 1970s. The increasing fragmentation and microspecialization in every branch of knowledge, resulting in narrower perspectives, has led to holism being considered the desired alternative.

Although the term holism came to be used since the 20th century, the conceptualization of holistic medicine is credited to Edgar Cayce (1877–1945). A child of paranormal qualities, Cayce puzzled ...