• What is common and different between Nature Cure, Naturopathy and Orthopathy? Briefly how did Orthopathy evolve in the West and then in India?  

First article in this series by Anuradha was  Origin of Naturopathy and Nascent Concepts

Introduction

There is a tendency for people to often misunderstand or confuse Orthopathy or the Science of Natural Hygiene with Naturopathy. It is a more radical concept that neither respects disease as an entity, nor advocates depending on anything external to the body’s own healing mechanism for cures, not even natural herbs.

While gleaning through the historical milestones of Naturopathy, I deliberately left out  American physician and writer Isaac Jennings (1788-1874). He is, in fact, the original grand patriarch, who has influenced every individual practising the health precepts in each of these traditions: Naturopathy, Nature Cure, and Orthopathy.

Even before Vincenz Priessnitz   (1799-1851) and Sebastian Kneipp (1821–1897) came up with hydrotherapy as a curative, or John Scheels (1867-1932) coined the term ‘Naturopathy’, Jennings was delving deeper into the mysteries of life and health through logical understanding. He created an amazing corpus of original work that helped create the strong edifice of Nature healing concepts across continents over the next 200 years.

Orthopathy and Naturopathy are parallel streams emerging from a similar philosophical concept. However, Orthopathy is a more radical concept and does not advocate depending on anything external to the body’s own healing mechanism; not even natural herbs. It is a more evolved and refined concept than Naturopathy and Nature cure, and is a word used interchangeably with Natural Hygiene.

The philosophical foundations of Orthopathy were based on the idea that-

a. Disease is not an enemy, but the body's attempt to detoxify;

b. Healing comes through removal of cause, not ‘curing’ disease;

c. Body heals itself if unburdened only through natural processes.

Deviations in basic principles of the three allied movements

Historical Perspective & Evolution

The term Orthopathy was first used by Jennings as the “do-nothing cure.” After receiving his M.D. from the Yale School of Medicine, Dr Jennings practiced orthodox medicine—primarily bloodletting and use of common drugs—for nearly 15 years. It is recorded that his disillusionment with drugs came about during his care of a young woman suffering from typhus fever. Faced with the possibility of her imminent death, he took a bold step; he ceased her medication and instead administered water from a pure spring. The results were remarkable: the patient’s condition began to improve, and she soon made a full recovery.

This powerful case became a turning point for Dr. Jennings. Observing that the traditional medical practices he was trained in did not lead to the recovery or progress of his patients, he totally abandoned conventional practices and use of drugs in 1822. This pivotal moment marks the true beginning of Orthopathy.

In his 1867 book The Tree of Life or Human Degeneracy, Jennings explained Orthopathy from the terms orthos (right, true, erect); and pathos (affection), saying, “Nature is always upright—moving in the right direction”. 

Jennings’ teachings were based on his observation that there are vital laws of life. He said that disease is a unit and, in its various forms (fever, inflammation, coughs, etc.), is entirely faithful to the laws of life. He theorised: Medication cannot aid this; it relies solely upon placing the body in the best possible condition for the innate healing processes to happen. He allowed his patients to get well purely on rest, fasting, pure air, vegetarian diet, and other hygienic factors. 

Dr Jennings’ objective was also to evolve the Orthopathic principles and outline general rules of practice. His book, The Philosophy of Human Life, is unique in the kind of medical cases discussed (covering scarlet fever, cholera, typhus fever, whooping cough, consumption, etc.) and the stories shared of how patients healed without using drugs well over 150 years ago!

Independent of Jennings’ ground-breaking natural health concepts, German nutritionist Louis Kuhne (1835-1901), arrived at similar conclusions. Kuhne is like a bridge that spans almost a century of influence from the conceptualisation of Naturopathy to the final emergence of Orthopathy.

At age 20, Kuhne experienced severe violent pains in the lungs and head due to stomach cancer and lung complaints. His struggles and experimentations upon himself led him to discoveries and conclusions that would later guide generations around the world. Kuhne’s deep understanding about health matters cut through the 19^th century Europe and Americas, and firmly rooted them in the Indian subcontinent at the awakening of the 20^th century.

Unity of cause, disease and cure

Kuhne introduced the concept of accumulated foreign matter (anything that did not belong to the body) as being responsible for the formation of diseased tissues. Cooked foods, in his view, were less optimal: “… all foods which we have to change by cooking, smoking, spicing, salting, pickling, and putting in vinegar, lose in digestibility, and as regards vitality, are far inferior to food in its natural condition.” 

He discovered that disease manifests in many ways but the underlying cause for them all is one. Similarly, just as there was one cause for disease, there was one cure. He called it “unity of disease” and “unity of cure”. This simplified concept of disease and cure had at its core immensely valuable tenets that actually worked very well clinically.

English physician and dietic reformer  Dr. Thomas Allinson (1858-1918) and British naturopath   Harry Benjamin (1896–1966) spread the Orthopathic movement in England. Allinson opposed the use of vaccines and drugs, and was a lifelong opponent of compulsory vaccination against smallpox. He wrote several books, including A System of Hygienic Medicine (1886) and How to avoid Vaccination (1888).

Benjamin rejected conventional medicine and opposed herbal remedies, saying that genuine naturopathy relies solely on internal purification, not external botanicals. His most influential work, Everybody’s Guide to Nature Cure (1936) saw 13 editions and over 50,000 copies in print by 1958.

There was a brief period when the Naturopathy movement overshadowed the more radical concepts of Orthopathy, before Herbert M Shelton (1895 – 1985) appeared on the American scene. He was an author, pacifist, vegan and naturopath converted to self-confessed hygienist, who saw himself as the champion of original natural hygiene ideas from the 1830s.

As a child, Shelton was intrigued to see his farm animals fast when they became sick, and he became a life-long supporter of fasting. He also recommended a limited period water fasting for some of his patients. He rescued many sufferers of alcoholism, appendicitis, asthma, colitis, kidney stones and pneumonia, whom modern medicine was unable to help. Initially calling it Orthopathy, he later popularised the term Natural Hygiene for further clarity.

In 1922, Shelton self-published his first book, An Introduction to Natural Hygiene and from 1934–1941, he authored a 7-volume work, The Hygienic System. In 1948, he founded the American Natural Hygiene Society (renamed National Health Association in 1998). He has left behind a huge corpus of literature and hundreds and thousands of firmly entrenched Natural Hygienists the world over as his legacy.

The Indian perspective

Interestingly, the Orthopathic concepts come closest to the Indian Yogic Sciences in its understanding of physical health and Prana. The ‘do-nothing cure’ approach is an oblique reference to ‘Divine Will’, where Nature or Shakti is the mover of Life.

The rise of Nature Cure in India started with Kuhne’s book, The New Science of Healing. It was translated by Venkat Chelapathi Sharma into Telugu in 1894. Such was its popularity that by 1904 it had also been translated into Hindi and Urdu by Krishna Swaroop.

Mahatama Gandhi was inspired by Kuhne, and Adolf Just’s book Return to Nature, and he further influenced several leaders of those times to support the natural health movement in the country. Dr Dinshaw Mehta, Vinoba Bhave, former PM Morarji Desai, Dr Khushi Ram Dilkhush, Dr Kulranjan Mukherjee, Dr Janaki Sharan Varma, and Dr Mahavir Prasad Poddar, amongst several others worked hard to spread the movement. They opened several Nature Cure Centres in the country and took the new science of health to the Indian villages.

Acharya Lakshmana Sarma, known as the Father of Nature Cure in India, became the greatest exponent of Natural Hygiene in India. Giving up his legal practice, he offered his life to the study and propagation of what he called the “Divine Science of Health” or “Life Natural”. He enriched the science by adding to it his own spiritual understanding, saying that “Man is a triple unity of body, mind and spirit, and each needs equal care and attention”.

Acharya Sharma’s legacy was continued by his foremost disciple, Acharya Seshadri Swaminathan, who gave 56 years of his life to the study, practice and teaching of the Science of Natural Hygiene. Both Acharyas remained lifelong true to the ‘Nature as Healer’ concepts of Orthopathy, rejecting everything external to the self being applied in the restorative process. Their teachings continue to inspire and benefit hundreds and thousands across India today. 

Recommended Readings

1. Orthopathy: The Natural Way to Health by Herbert Shelton

2. The Science and Fine Art of Fasting by Herbert Shelton

3. The Natural Hygiene Diet by Hereward Carrington

4. Return to Nature by Adolf Just

5. The True Healing Art by Russell Trall

6. A New View of Health and Disease by Isaac Jennings

7. Your Diet in Health and Disease (1931); Everybody’s Guide to Nature Cure (1936); & Commonsense Vegetarianism (1950) by Harry Benjamin

References & Reliable Sources:

1. National Health Association (https://www.healthscience.org)

2. PubMed or JAMA articles on fasting and self-healing

3. Historical archives on early American health reform

4. Scholarly papers on the 19th-century hygiene and vegetarian movements

5. Wikipedia.org

6. National Library of Medicine

7. Kuhne L. The New Science of Healing, Louis Kuhne Publisher, London, 1901; pp. 460. [Google Scholar]

Anuradha Vashisht is a Natural Health educationist who is promoting preventive health care through her HEALTH NECTAR initiative for more than two decades. She guides individuals to recover and enhance their health levels naturally, by adopting natural health care concepts and dietary changes. She studied under Acharya Seshadri Swaminathan, foremost and the most committed disciple of Acharya Lakshmana Sarma, known as Father of Nature Cure in India.

Anuradha can be contacted at reach.healthnectar@gmail.com