Disease is a result of a morbific stimulus which resonates with the particular level of susceptibility [predisposition] of the organism.
The stimulus, or exciting, cause may be a microorganism, chemical, emotion, vaccination, etc., but without a strong susceptibility to the morbific agent, disease is not produced. That is, there must be a predisposition, or maintaining cause, in order for disease to result.
Susceptibility is the reaction of the organism to external and internal influences.
Among animals, each species develops peculiarities of its own which differentiate it from other species. These peculiarities allow it to adapt, to withstand certain influences, and to hold its own under adverse conditions, which would be fatal to other species. Conversely, certain animals are susceptible to a particular set of influences as much as they are adaptable to certain influences.
As with animals, each individual is unique, has inherited and developed their own peculiarities, and is accordingly susceptible in their own particular way.
One person may thrive on something that may not necessarily suit another.
We may see susceptibility to climatic conditions, infections, contagion in varying degrees too, but not all individuals will be susceptible to the same infection, climactic condition, etc.
The susceptibility will depend on the inherited peculiarities of that individual as well as upon the acute ailments, allopathic drugs, and vaccinations the person has come into contact with during their lifetime. We may see similar tendencies in families which exhibit susceptibility to certain types of diseases.
What exactly is susceptibility? Where does it originate? What purpose does it serve?
Susceptibility is the expression of a void within the individual. This void, or vacuum, attracts what it lacks and needs; and, it attracts to it things that are on the same vibrational plane as the needs in the body.
Action & Reaction
As Dr Herbert A Roberts, MD, the renowned homeopath, explained, “Susceptibility [is] primarily the reaction of the organism to external and internal influences. While we may point out striking illustrations of susceptibility in the vegetable kingdom, or among the lower animals, the best illustrations are to be found among those human beings with whom we come in contact. We see quite frequently the susceptibility to climatic conditions, as well as all other phases of environment. One person will thrive in a rigorous climate where another will become seriously ill; one will thrive in dampness to which another would succumb. Altitude affects some individuals kindly and some adversely. The seashore improves one individual’s condition while it makes another individual ill.
The power of assimilation and nutrition is one of the phases of susceptibility. One easily assimilates a certain kind of food while another finds the same food indigestible. “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.”
Human beings are susceptible to infection and contagion in varying degrees. One person will become infected in contact with diseased individuals while another will experience no ill-effects whatever. One person is made ill by noxious plants, while another can handle them with impunity. Certain people are capable of making a wonderful ‘proving’ of a drug, whereas others will show no reaction whatever.
“All these reactions have to do with susceptibility.”
In analysing susceptibility, we find it is largely an expression of a vacuum in the individual. This is illustrated by the desire for food. The vacuum attracts and pulls for the things most needed that are also on the same plane of vibration as the want in the body.
Childhood Diseases
We have inherited many tendencies from our ancestral heritage. If, for example, we look at childhood diseases, we see that these tendencies exhibit themselves in a child’s life through a number of childhood diseases, which are actually nothing more than an inward upheaval and the body’s attempt to surface and expel certain conditions. Childhood diseases are the body’s attempt at venting a correcting miasmatic [the infectious principle, or virus, which when taken into the organism may set up a specific disease] influences.
The child is susceptible to the particular contagious disease because of the strong susceptibility of the miasmatic influence which draws unto itself a disease that vibrates on the same plane, and accordingly has the capacity to correct the miasmatic ‘deficiency.’ The disease supplies what is missing in the vacuum and the child becomes immune. By attracting what Dr Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, called a ‘similar disease,’ the child’s body becomes cleared.
Childhood diseases, therefore, represent a lack of ability on the part of the child’s economy to create a similar state within the body that satisfy the susceptibility.
The homeopathic similimum, the remedy that is most suitable for a given set of symptoms, vibrating on the plane which meets the natural susceptibility, can satisfy this need, meet the susceptibility, and release the stasis.
Our susceptibility, therefore, is a vehicle through which we get rid of the sufferings plaguing us. It is important to respect and just as well important not to interfere with the susceptibility of an individual.
We, therefore, must look upon the injurious influences which cause illness — whether acute, or chronic — as positive influences, for it is in this way that the body can get rid of its inherited baggage and be cleared of illness.
