Vinton mccabe

Vinton McCabe

(Born, October 21, 1954, in Charleston, South Carolina)

Vinton McCabe is an author, educator and advocate of holistic healing, most especially of homeopathic medicine. He is the author of several books on the subject, including Let Like Cure Like (St Martin’s Press, 1996), which was released in paperback as Homeopathy, Healing and You (St Martin’s 1997); Household Homeopathy (Basic Health Publications, 2005) and his best-known work, Practical Homeopathy (St Martin’s Press, 2000). His most recent work, The Healing Enigma (Basic Health Publications, 2007), is a memoir of sorts, as it sums up McCabe’s more than a quarter century as a spokesman for the homeopathic community in the United States. On the back cover of that book, he is quoted as saying, “Western medicine is based upon the use of ever-stronger doses of allopathic drugs. And allopathic treatment with these drugs is the medical equivalent of running with scissors. It may seem like a good idea at the time, but is almost always ends in tears.”

He served as president of the Connecticut Homeopathic Association--a not-for-profit organization dedicated to making an education in homeopathy available to all interested individuals, lay person and medical professionals alike--for fifteen years, and was that organization’s chief educator. Throughout those years, he taught thousands of students and, perhaps more important, created a number of educational materials that formed the basis of study for other organizations throughout the United States, including the Hudson Valley School of Classical Homeopathy. As Connecticut is one of a handful of states in America to fully recognize the value of homeopathic medicine, McCabe’s impact on the philosophy and practice of homeopathy has extended far beyond his home state.

In addition to his work with the Connecticut Homeopathic Association, McCabe taught homeopathy on the staff of the Wainwright House in Rye, New York, for a number of years. He has also taught at the Learning Annex, the Open Center and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in New York City and at Omega Institute in upstate New York. In addition, he has traveled throughout the country speaking to groups on the subject of homeopathy.

He is also the co-author, with Dr. Marc Grossman, of a book on vision therapy called Greater Vision (McGraw-Hill, 2001). He became a trained vision therapist after he sought Grossman’s help in overcoming his own amblyopia. After completing his own therapy, he stayed on working with Dr. Grossman and ultimately paired with him in writing this seminal study of natural vision improvement.

Vinton McCabe is a controversial figure in the holistic community and speaks with a unique voice. He holds no medical degree and is admittedly largely self-taught on the subject of homeopathy. He loudly upholds the rights of lay homeopaths, openly declaring that some of the finest homeopaths he has known were not medical professionals and that a medical degree often restricts a practitioner’s understanding of homeopathy and his ability to use homeopathic remedies effectively. His educational programs often begin with a period of what he calls “unlearning”, as he feels that most Americans have been steeped in allopathic medical philosophy since the womb. And he resists what he calls the “homogenization of homeopathy”, which is the ever-more-common blending of homeopathy and allopathic medicine. McCabe also rails against the term “alternative medicine” in that he feels that the term marginalizes all the forms of medical treatment gathered together under that umbrella. He considers the term an insult in that it places homeopathy, along with acupuncture, herbal medicines and other forms of holistic medicine in a position in opposition to allopathic treatment, implying that allopathic medicine is “real” medicine and the others therefore are not.

Vinton McCabe received his B.A. from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1976. He stayed on after graduation to become a writer for the ministry, at first for Abundant Life magazine and the Daily Blessings devotional guide. He later became head writer for Oral Roberts and You, which was, at the time, the highest rated syndicated program in the world. McCabe often credits evangelist and faith healer Oral Roberts for having had an impact upon his present work and writing. While he has, over the years, broken with the evangelical Christian movement, largely because its political viewpoint is in direct opposition with his own, McCabe maintains a viewpoint that stresses the concept of healing over the more common goal of medical cure.

In addition to his contributions to holistic medicine, Vinton McCabe has worked as a journalist and a radio and television producer. He is an award-winning poet (The Dewar’s Young Artist Recognition Award in 1990), a produced playwright and a published novelist. The fact that he is a professional writer who became passionately involved with homeopathy, rather than a medical practitioner seeking to share insights concerning a specific homeopathic practice sets McCabe apart. He is known for his flamboyant style of writing and for the pop cultural references he brings to his work. He has, for example, referred to Samuel Hahnemann’s (the father of homeopathy) second wife Melanie, as the “Yoko Ono” of the homeopathic world. (Homeopathy, Healing & You, Page 63) Two of his books on homeopathy have been translated into Chinese, which has brought him a strong following throughout Asia. He has just completed his next book, entitled The Healing Bouquet. It is a study of The Bach Flower Remedies and stresses the importance of self-understanding and self-treatment in the healing process. It will be published in early 2008.

Vinton McCabe lives in Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Trivia:

Vinton McCabe was an English Literature major at Oral Roberts University, which he attended from 1972 to 1976. He was able to attend, in part, due to a scholarship from the University’s small drama department. There he met fellow student, Kathie Epstein, who later came to prominence as Kathie Lee Gifford.

In the late ‘70s, Vinton McCabe left the Oral Roberts Ministry and formed Kamikaze Theater. A low budget theater company, it performed in the basement of the garage of the Tulsa Arts and Humanities Council building, Harwelden. When he moved to Connecticut in 1980, he took Kamikaze Theater with him. In Connecticut, it was based in the Palace Theater in Norwalk. There he staged some of his own works, including Boy w/Toad Face and The Restaging of Everyman. Through Kamikaze Theater, McCabe met married actors Curt Bradford (Watrouse) and Terry Porter. The three soon became close friends. During a brief period of time in the early ‘80s, Vinton McCabe served as “manny” to the couple’s young son (who is now movie actor Jesse Bradford) in exchange for free rent of the couple’s studio apartment.

From the mid-‘80s until the early ‘90s, Vinton McCabe was a playwright member of the Westport Theater Artists Workshop in Westport, CT, along with such notable performers as Keir Dullea, Shirley Knight and Theodore Bickel. Through the workshop, McCabe wrote and produced his play Appassionata, which told the story of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and the “lost generation.” Appassionata was later produced in New York by the Phoenix Theater and the Ensemble Studio Theater.