GNM for Beginners: Where to Start and What to Learn First

In short: The easiest way into German New Medicine (GNM) is to learn its ideas in the order you can notice them in your own life, not the order a textbook lists them.

1. The conflict shock, the unexpected moment GNM says starts every program.
2. The two phases, conflict-active and then healing.
3. The healing crisis at the turning point of the healing phase.
4. Tracks, GNM's explanation for symptoms that keep coming back.
5. Handedness, which GNM uses to read which side of the body responds.
6. The germ layers, the map behind every organ.
7. Reading one symptom with all six together.

Timing comes first because you can observe it without any anatomy. The map comes later, once you know what you're using it for.

Most people meet German New Medicine through one symptom. A friend mentions it, or a search for a rash or a sore throat turns up a page about "conflicts" and "healing phases," and suddenly there's a whole vocabulary to absorb: DHS, SBS, sympathicotonia, germ layers, Hamer foci. It is easy to stall at that point, either by trying to memorise a chart before the logic makes sense or by reading case stories with nothing to hang them on.

This page is the starting point for ChatGNM's beginner series. It sets out what to learn first, what each idea lets you notice, and where to read about it now. If you want the full overview of what GNM is and where it came from, read our plain-English guide to German New Medicine alongside this one. If you want books and courses, our GNM books and resources guide covers what to read, in what order. This page is about the order of the ideas themselves.

Why Learn GNM in This Order?

GNM rests on five biological laws, and the obvious move is to learn them as numbered: first law, second law, and so on. That works as a reference, but for a newcomer it front-loads the hardest material. The third law, the embryonic germ layers, asks you to think about brainstems and endoderm before you've seen a single program play out.

The order on this page follows a simpler rule: learn what you can observe before what you have to look up. You can notice when a shock caught you off guard, and when a symptom showed up relative to it, with no knowledge of anatomy at all. Those two ideas already let you ask GNM's central question about your own experience. The rest of the framework then answers the puzzles that timing alone can't: why a symptom flared at an odd moment, why it keeps returning, why it is on one side, why one tissue swells while another thins.

Step	Idea	The question it helps you ask	Read now
1	The conflict shock (DHS)	Did something catch me completely off guard?	Glossary: DHS
2	The two phases	Did the symptom start during the stress, or after it eased?	Glossary: two-phase pattern
3	The healing crisis	Why did it get sharply worse just as I was improving?	Glossary: epileptoid crisis
4	Tracks	What was around me when it first hit, and is it back?	Glossary: tracks
5	Handedness	Which side is affected, and who was the conflict about?	Glossary: biological laterality
6	Germ layers	Which tissue is this, and what does that tissue respond to?	Glossary: germ layers
7	Reading a symptom	How do the six fit together for one symptom?	A–Z symptom index

Each step gets its own walkthrough in this series as it is published, and this page will link each one as it goes live.

Step 1: The Conflict Shock

Everything in GNM starts with one moment. Dr. Hamer called it the DHS (Dirk Hamer Syndrome) and defined it in his 1981 habilitation thesis as a severe, highly acute, dramatic and isolating shock that catches a person unprepared and off guard. The word that matters for a beginner is unexpected. In Hamer's account, earlier psychosomatic research missed this because it looked for long-standing problems, such as childhood tensions or slow-building strain, and he set those apart as psychological conflicts rather than biological ones.

What this lets you notice: the difference between a hard season and a moment that knocked the wind out of you. A stressful year at work is not, in GNM's terms, a DHS. The phone call on a Tuesday morning that you never saw coming might be. Our guide to biological conflicts covers the conflict types in depth, and the pillar guide sets out the four qualities GNM looks for.

Step 2: The Two Phases

Once a program starts, GNM says it runs in two phases: a conflict-active phase, a stress state that lasts as long as the conflict is unresolved, and then, once it resolves, a healing phase. Hamer is explicit that the second phase is conditional. It comes only if the conflict resolves; otherwise the person stays in the active phase, which GNM calls a hanging conflict.

This is the single most useful idea for a beginner, because it changes what you look for. In GNM's reading, many of the symptoms people notice most, such as swelling, fever, fatigue and pain, belong to the healing phase, after the conflict has already eased. So the question shifts from "what was stressing me when this started?" to "what had just stopped stressing me?" The two-phase pattern entry gives the definition, and the second law section of our five-laws guide explains how the phases feel day to day.

Step 3: The Healing Crisis

The healing phase isn't a smooth slope. Hamer describes a brief swing back into the stress state at its midpoint, which he called the epileptic or epileptoid crisis. In his model, every program that reaches healing passes through one, and then moves into the second half of repair.

What this lets you notice: a symptom that suddenly peaks just as you thought you were through the worst of it. GNM reads that peak as the turning point of repair, not as the start of something new. It is also the idea most worth understanding before you go further, because GNM itself describes some crises as intense. The epileptoid crisis entry covers the definition.

Step 4: Tracks

Tracks are GNM's answer to "why does this keep coming back?" In Hamer's account, the moment of the shock is recorded along with its surroundings: the people there, the place, a smell, a sound, a colour. Meeting one of those again later can restart the whole conflict, which he called a relapse. He explained the name with a railway image:

"The image is that from such a siding, one always joins the whole track. Hence the name track." (Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer, Habilitationsverfahren (1981), p. 52, translated from the German)

What this lets you notice: patterns in when a recurring symptom returns. A rash that flares at one relative's house, or a stomach that reacts to one particular food, becomes a clue to look back for the first time it happened. The tracks entry has the definition, and our guide to biological conflicts covers how GNM approaches finding them.

Step 5: Handedness

GNM holds that biological handedness is set in the brain before birth and stays the same for life, and that it decides which side of the body a given conflict shows on. The test Hamer gives is simple: clap as you would at the theatre, and the hand on top is your leading hand. He adds that many people who think of themselves as right-handed were retrained as children, so the clapping test can surprise you.

What this lets you notice: why GNM asks who a conflict was about, not only what it was. For many tissues, GNM reads one side as relating to a mother or child and the other to a partner or other people, with the pattern reversed for left-handers. The biological laterality entry explains the rule, and the Scientific Chart guide shows how laterality appears on the chart.

Step 6: The Germ Layers

Only now does the anatomy come in. GNM organises every tissue by the embryonic layer it grew from, and each layer is linked to a brain region and a type of conflict theme. Hamer's own summary of the logic is that the oldest parts of the brain carry the most archaic conflicts, about taking in food, breathing and survival, while the newer parts run more complex programs, about territory, contact and identity.

What this lets you notice: why two symptoms that look alike can mean different things in GNM. A tissue that adds cells under stress and one that loses cells under stress follow opposite patterns, so the same word, "swelling" or "lump," can belong to different phases. The germ layers entry gives the plain version, the third law section goes deeper, and the Scientific Chart guide shows the full map.

Step 7: Reading One Symptom

The last step puts the six ideas together for a single symptom. In practice, a GNM reading asks a sequence of questions: which tissue is involved, what that tissue responds to, which phase the timing points to, whether the side fits the handedness, and whether a track might be keeping it going. That is a way of exploring the framework, not a diagnosis, and GNM itself treats the person as the only one who can say how a moment was actually experienced.

To see how GNM reads specific symptoms, our A–Z symptom index and our A–Z of emotional causes of illness give the tissue, the conflict theme and the phase for common symptoms, each linking to its full guide.

What Can Beginners Leave for Later?

Two parts of GNM are worth deliberately postponing.

• Constellations. GNM's account of two conflicts active at once in opposite halves of the brain, which it links to changes in mood and behaviour, assumes you already know how single programs and handedness work. Read about it once steps 1 to 6 feel familiar.
• Reading brain scans. Hamer's method of locating ring formations on CT scans is the most specialised part of the framework. You don't need it to follow how GNM reads a symptom.

It also helps to hold the ideas lightly while you learn. GNM is not a system for assigning blame, and a symptom read through it is a question about timing and experience, not a verdict about what you did wrong.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I learn first in German New Medicine?

Start with the conflict shock (the DHS) and the two phases. Together they let you ask GNM's central question about your own experience: what caught you off guard, and did the symptom appear during that stress or after it eased? Everything else in the framework builds on those two ideas.

Do I need a medical or biology background to learn GNM?

No. The first five steps on this page need no anatomy at all, only attention to timing, circumstances and which side of the body is affected. The germ layers and the Scientific Chart introduce some biology, but GNM resources explain the terms as they go, and the glossary gives short definitions.

Can I start with my own symptom instead of the theory?

Yes, and many people do. Look your symptom up in the A–Z symptom index, then come back to the steps here whenever a term in that guide is unfamiliar. Starting from a symptom works well as long as you return to the two phases, because that is what tells you how GNM reads the timing.

Why does GNM focus so much on timing?

Because in GNM's model, a symptom's meaning depends on its phase. The same tissue behaves differently during the conflict-active phase and during healing, so knowing when a symptom appeared relative to a shock, and to its resolution, is what lets the framework read it at all.

How is this different from the five biological laws?

The five biological laws are GNM's rules, numbered as Hamer set them out. This page puts the same ideas in learning order: the observable ones first, the anatomical ones later. Steps 1 and 2 come from the first two laws, step 6 is the third law, and tracks, the healing crisis and handedness are details within those laws.

Is there an easy way to practise?

Pick one past symptom you remember well and walk it through steps 1, 2 and 4: when did it start, what had just happened or just eased, and has it come back in similar circumstances? ChatGNM can walk you through the same questions in a guided conversation.

Key Takeaways

• Learn GNM in the order you can observe it: the conflict shock and the two phases first, the germ-layer map later.
• In GNM, a DHS is an unexpected, isolating shock, not a long period of stress.
• The two-phase idea shifts the question from "what was stressing me?" to "what had just eased?"
• The healing crisis, tracks and handedness explain sudden peaks, recurrences and which side responds.
• Constellations and brain-scan reading can wait until the basics feel familiar.

Sources

• Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer — Habilitationsverfahren (1981): the definition of the DHS, the two-phase law and tracks
• Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer — Mein Studentenmädchen – Die urarchaische Zaubermelodie (2nd ed., 2014): the course of a program, tracks and the clapping test