I started studying homeopathy, in my mid-twenties.
The idea came to me, one summer.
And I'd already changed career, three times, since I left university.
And so, I was very strict with myself, and said, that I wasn't allowed to study homeopathy, this year.
But if I still wanted to next year, ha ha, I would.
And I did still want to the next year.
So, I bought all the books on the reading list.
Read them all, still liked it, so I enrolled in a course in Devon.
And, it was very, interesting.
Both as, a healing method.
I've had homeopathy, and, um, other people I know had had some, and I, i_ it seemed to work.
Um, I wouldn't say that I was, kind of, a real total believer.
But, I was prepared to give it a go.
And, um, I was interested in... being taught it really.
Mm, because I was curious.
Um, but I found it also particularly interesting to study.
Because you view_ because it's a holistic therapy, and, you view a patient as a whole person.
And then you match them with a whole image of a remedy.
It's a, uh, a great training in s- sort of some pattern recognition, in psychology, and in events in the world.
Which is very useful, for, fiction writing, and just amusing yourself in all sorts of ways.
Going, 'mm, that's like that.
Oo...'In fact, when I was, kind of_ towards the end of my training, uh, I would_ I was rather inclined to categorise everybody on that, all the time.
At the back of my head I was going, 'mm, a bit of a (xx xx), hmm.
'
Ha ha, and it was probably very annoying for all my friends.
Um, it was great fun to study.
But, I just wasn't quite convinced enough, of...
The, the truth of it, to sit someone down and take money from them, for my consultation.
I do prescribe for my friends.
And I do prescribe for myself, now.
But I couldn't actually make a business out of it.
I just_ I wasn't_ st_ there's was_ there's a level of confidence when you take money from people, that I didn't have.
So, i, I haven't carried on with it in that way.
But, I seem to have cured my brother's, um, permanent hay fever.
He had it all year round.
Um, and I reckoned, you know_ I mean it was_ it's pretty disabling to be, constantly, streaming eyes and streaming nose.
And none of the, um, sort of antihistamines he took seemed to really help.
And that's fixed.
And I'll reckon that's a worthwhile use of two thousand pounds, as well as having some fun studying interesting stuff.