Healing the Soul: The Lives of Samuel Hahnemann and William Lilley

By David Lilley
2013, Saltire Books, Glasgow; hardback, 574 pages, £46.00
ISBN 9781908127051

Reviewed by Francis Treuherz

This is a fascinating book, described as if it is two books in one, the lives of Samuel
Hahnemann and William Lilley. In fact it is three books as it also exposes the exciting life
of the author, David Lilley. I was enthralled by the style and the focus. I hope that no one
is scared off by the emphasis on the soul, **semicolon not comma** whether the gentle
reader clings to any religious faith or none, this book is deeply satisfying and hard to put
down.

I thought I had read most of what there is to read about Hahnemann in English, but David
Lilley has not just studied the standard biographies of Hahnemann, by Bradford, Haehl
and Handley, he has created fresh interpretations of them. He displays wide erudition in
his exposés of Hahnemann’s own writings in the Chronic Diseases and more, and
contemporary critics like Dawkins and Ernst. Lilley’s style epitomises the title of one the
chapters, Of passion and potency, wherein he describes Hahnemann’s happy and fruitful
last years in Paris with Melanie, and the creation of his new LM scale. Hahnemann
perforce has been described as wielding a ‘warrior’s pen’, here emulated by David Lilley.

The second life is more difficult for me to appreciate. I have no understanding of the
concept of communing with the souls and hearing the voices of the dead. I pass by this
concept regularly in the Delusions section of the Mind chapter of the repertory. William
Lilley grew up in industrial Yorkshire and escaped from a humdrum life with spectacular
successes as a spiritual healer and then a homeopath. He communed with souls of the
deceased and healed the souls of the living. He was guided by the voice of a former
Indian physician as a benign and positive influence, which took him to London and South
Africa.

David Lilley was not just a bystander but also a participant. He studied medicine in South
Africa, homeopathy and osteopathy in London and returned to a successful career in
South Africa. He really does demonstrate a zest for healing his patients, teaching his
colleagues and now sharing his experiences as a benign healer of souls. I have read no
other book like this one about homeopathy. It is so revealing I even think that I could
name a suitable remedy for the author, but he is not sick; this is a health-giving tonic of a
book.

402 words plus titles.