COMPARISONS TO OTHER DISCIPLINES

This section will attempt to survey the question of the relationships of remedies, with an attempt to come to a working hypothesis.

Starting with a definition of ‘relationship’ from a dictionary, I will firstly look at the allopathic attempts to relate their drugs, and to look at their concepts of disease.

I will then examine attempts by non-homeopathic researchers to group homeopathic remedies and their associated phenomena. By looking at the different conceptual understanding and theoretical perspectives and examining their viewpoints, I hope to begin to ask the questions of similarity of pattern.

I will then attempt to look at Hahnemann’s views on this subject and review the attempts of early homeopaths to relate and group the remedies.

I will then describe how we actually relate the remedies today in modern homeopathic practice, and to try and elicit the rationale behind this.

DEFINITION

What exactly is meant by the term ‘relationship’? The Chamber’s Student Dictionary states ‘To ally by connection or kindred – a way in which one thing is connected with another – the state or mode of being related’.

ALLOPATHIC RELATIONSHIP

Allopathy classifies drugs in accordance with some major physiological effect or usage, for example, vaso motor depressors or stimulants, emetics, hypnotics or cathartics to name but a few. (1) Hahnemann quotes Dioscorides 17 centuries ago, quoting a very similar list (2), and he points out that these general descriptions of the general virtues of drugs does not turn out to be true anyway.

When drugs are introduced into the human body, those substances in their crude form act differently from their alleged therapeutic value, and that this action cannot be controlled or predicted. Also, these classifications can lead to more confusion that clarity, as diagnostic labels multiply under the microscope – reflecting Hahnemann’s ‘many headed hydra’ – psora.

Though certain symptoms seem to cluster around a statistical average pattern which can, in their extreme form, be labelled more or less clearly as a certain disease, it is often the case that diagnoses are intelligent ‘guesstimates’ based upon the main emergent pattern of symptoms. Some disease expressions look like measles for example, but they could be german measles, an allergic reaction, or the beginnings of toxaemia or meningitis or any number of other problems.

Sankaran quoted Kent’s Lesser Writings and Gerald Reaven (25) in his May 1988 seminar, stated that there is no such thing as a disease, only a ‘species’ of a certain symptoms picture. Each person has their own individual expression and reaction to treatment and outcome.

Differential diagnosis is the skill of the allopathic practitioner, and it seems that in allopathy, relationships are between diseases themselves, or between viruses or bacteria, which are seen as the cause of disease. Since allopathy depends upon knowing the diagnosis, and allopathic drugs are designed to treat different diagnoses, and since this is often quite difficult to determine empirically, then relationships between allopathic drugs are differently assessed.

Allopathy does not attempt to clarify what the drug ‘picture’ is in the first instance, although it does attempt some match of symptoms to disease symptoms under the philosophy that ‘opposites suppress’. Allopathy means ‘different’ so it looks for drugs which do different things to the body in disease.

The main approach in allopathy is to look at what the body does, mostly from a chemical model, and then to attempt to interfere with this process. Illness is thus sometimes regarded as a chemical malfunction.

Looking for drugs that excite function in cases of under functioning glands, or matching a drug which dries up secretions when the body produces too much, is the main strategy here. For example, if someone has an ulcer, allopathy sees this as over production of acid in the stomach, and looking at this process in minute biochemical detail, a drug is ‘designed’ to block the ‘wrong’ action in the body, in this case the excess acid secretions in the body.

H2 blockers like cimetidine, are targeted upon the H2 receptors in the stomach that control the histamine responses. The drug then interferes with the production of acid, ameliorating the ulcer. Also, antibiotics are used on the bacteria that are ‘invading’ the host, and other allopathic drugs actually don’t address the ‘malfunction’ within the body, but attempt to redress the consequences.

For example, the use of diuretics in heart failure or digoxin to reduce atrial fibrulation by slowing the conduction in the ventricles of the heart.

The allopathic drugs are based upon families of molecules, with the side chains of those molecules enabling the production of many, similar drugs, related by a molecular core, which is identical in each derivative. For example, the early antibiotics were all related to the penicillin molecule, and they all shared the same molecular pattern.

When the designers tried to alter the core molecule, they managed to develop penicillamine, from which the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were derived. However, these new drugs no longer acted as antibiotics, and have found a different medical use in rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory states.

The other point that should be mentioned here, is that the interaction of different drugs can cause a competitive action in the body between the different drugs. Allopathic drugs are rarely given in their family groups, if you are allergic to penicillin, you would not be given another drug from that group.

So, it can be seen that different drugs from different family groups may well act antagonistically to each other, especially if there is a similarity in their action, but especially in drugs that have antagonistic effects to each other within the body. This is also the case in drugs known for producing side effects anyway. Drugs antagonise normally because of the nature of their action, or because they can alter the uptake of substances within the body due to different binding to protein, or the induction of liver enzymes.

This interaction has to be carefully considered by the doctor in the management of the case.

In homeopathy, we also see antagonistic reactions. Causticum and phosphorus are very similar, and can be difficult to differentiate in choosing the remedy. Also, apis and rhus tox and many other remedies can look so similar, that it takes some skill to get the right remedy.

However, if the wrong remedy is chosen, or similar remedies are given immediately following one another, nasty aggravations can be encountered. This issue will be taken up in more detail in the last section of this discussion.

In allopathic drugs, adverse effects are also encountered when the first drug has one effect, but the second drug, or the third drug has a limited, or altered action because of the other drugs administered. These effects are ‘not easily predicted’ (3) and the severity of the effect varies from patient to patient. ‘Drugs with a small therapeutic ratio and those which require careful control of dosage are most often involved.’ (3)

LOOK AT ATTEMPTS TO RELATE THE PHENOMENA BY OTHER RESEARCHERS

One of the issues, which has made it very difficult for orthodox thinkers to grasp homoeopathy, is the concept of the vital force. A unifying field that permeates and imbues material life with energy and health, but which, when limited or blocked, can affect the material well being of the body.

However, this concept is not new and it is not unique to homeopathy. This idea has been written about by many thinkers in other fields, medical and philosophical in the past and in the present.

If we are to try and ascertain how the vital force passes through matter and how it ebbs and flows in health and disease; and how the remedy patterns relate to one another as they mirror these effects and reflect them to us as remedy pictures, then we will have to broaden our perspectives and look at these other theories of the unifying field of Nature.

A PURE MATHEMATICS PERSPECTIVE

Catastrophe Theory may well help us to understand how the unifying field of vital force actually behaves. Developed by a mathematician, it is used to look at the changes in the behaviour of systems, ‘the collapse of a bridge or the downfall of an empire. But it also deals with changes as quiet as the dancing of sunlight on the bottom of a pool of water and as subtle as the transition from waking to sleep’. (12)

These theories are controversial even in mathematics, which has always seen change as slow, smooth and evolutionary. But Nature has catastrophic changes too ‘… the abrupt bursting of a bubble’ or the sudden shift of thought when we get a bright idea!

Catastrophe Theory was developed by a pure mathematician, Professor Thom, to study these sudden events when he was pondering on the order of Nature.

Newton’s calculus enables us to deal with continuous change, and this model of the Universe has molded our thinking for two hundred years. It has allowed us to predict undiscovered planets and to feel certain about the Universe. However, the twentieth century has gone well beyond Newton with the discovery of sudden and discontinuous change in the sub molecular level; electrons have obviously never read Newton!

Professor Thom interestingly believed that though our quantative grasp of magnitude must not be relinquished, our qualitative grasp of form and geometric order goes much deeper ‘the provision of some kind of picture, at least to the mind’s eye, is of primary importance’ (12a).

The four fundamental forces science does know about, gravity, electromagnetism and the two forces within the atomic nucleus are ‘mysterious’. Physicists ‘..at best hope for a unifying theory to combine the four mysteries into one’.

Einstein frequently visualised forces as ‘hills’ and ‘valleys’ on a map of space-time. Thom sought to extend our intuitions of form ‘to see that processed and events have a shape of their own’.

Thom believed that we have to grasp the Universe’s ceaseless pattern of evolution and destruction of forms. (12b). He developed a topographical representation of this theory, a sort of three-dimensional graph, plus a mathematical formulae to express his ideas. Also, he included in his thinking, the expression of continuity of forms of Nature. The branches of a tree, a river delta, a nerve axon and dendrites and the cracks in a wall. (12c)

These ‘recurrent identifiable elements’ have what Thom calls ‘structural stability’ (12d). His goal is to describe the origins of forms, and to do this he has developed a mathematical language. Averages and probabilities founder in attempts to describe life as we see it. Calculus is ‘well behaved’ and ‘obliging’; reality is not.

However, in all aspects of probability and statistical analysis, the appreciation of pattern is fundamental. ‘Something that is not random’ (26) underlies all concepts that require order and determinism for them to have any meaning at all. Science has tried to define a ‘detailed control mechanism’ (12e) perhaps located in the genes, ‘but the gap between those first gene products and such complicated end results’ this is the sensitive spot’.

Thom is more interested in their qualitative stability even under quantative variation. What is striking is the stability, the homeostasis or ecological stability of repeating forms. Thom extends this notion of stability to inorganic systems as well. (12f) Based upon internal mathematical consistency, Thom sees Catastrophe Theory generating new forms from other sets of forms, allowing qualitative predictions. (12g) He sees it as a language, mathematically correct.

This theory is currently being explored in the social sciences and mathematicians are using Catastrophe Theory to draw graphs to illustrate the difference between sense and nonsense in mathematics. (12h)

Thom identified seven qualitatively different types of discontinuity (passing through non equilibrium states) with his new theory, but he states that there are also an infinite number of ways for such a system to change continuously (staying at or near equilibrium). There are other conceivable ways for the system to change discontinuously, but they are unstable and do not contain recurrent identifiable elements. These unstable discontinuous events are only likely to happen once only.

The ‘surprising seven’ catastrophic events Thom calls by the colourful names of swallowtail, fold, cusp, butterfly, hyperbolic, umbilic and parabolic. (12g)

The stacastic process, which is part of the Law of Large Numbers, depends upon the reliability of large numbers of events, each one based upon the previous event in a cause and effect chain. The pattern emerges with repetition of events and then we can see the pattern within the pattern. Thus pattern is the repetition of events – one implies the other.

The unified field of the vital force and the way this field behaves as it passes through matter must surely occupy our minds from now on.

CHINESE MEDICINE

In their book Bioenergentic Medicine East and West: acupuncture and homoeopathy (7) the authors look at the vital force, or Chi and Chinese medical energies. In comparing the patterns in the energy within the body, they found a correlation between homeopathic remedies and universal patterns of disharmony corresponding to Chinese patterns of disharmony in disease. (7a)Fourteen remedies were identified which broadly represented the main disharmony patterns in Chinese medicine

(NB: the final draft list of McCrae’s remedies is in the PREVIOUS RESEARCH SECTION)

[The reason why McCrae grouped each of his twelve groups, was due to a definite and specific recording on his emanometer for each group. His own preliminary studies stated that patient's in groups 3 and 12 have never been identified. Most people seem to come from groups 1, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10.

McCrae also stated that group 2s, if discovered, were usually female and related to group 6 (or rarely group 4). However, this needs expansion, which unfortunately McCrae has not given us. Aurum males, for example, are not so rare; hyoscymus is surely a common childhood remedy today in both sexes, and lachesis males are seen. Group 6 contains no remedy related to aurum in any way according to Sankaran's Clinical Relationships (8). Neither has group 4, with the exception of calc cab.

How or if these choices of remedies can be fitted onto McCrae's research is not immediately apparent. The 1-6-10 group does not appear, nor does the 5-11-8-4 group. However, it would be too simplistic to attempt any comparisons here on a simple glance at his list, and any speculation must be left to further research in the future.]

Returning to the Chinese comparison, the authors themselves warn, ‘any blending of these two systems must be approached with caution, even scepticism’ (7b) However, they say that the match between remedy pictures is so striking, as each remedy is a clear depiction of a Chinese medical disharmony ‘indeed, these homeopathic remedy pictures could be used to teach students about Chinese energetics’. (7c) The authors also restate the fact that ‘the patterns of disharmony’ are universal, they hold true for all people of every race throughout the course of history’. (7d)

What is also interesting from this book is the discovery that much current research going on today is clearly based upon Boyd and Abram’s work, using machines to provide diagnosis and treatment.

A German doctor Rheinhold Voll, has been using electronic devices for several decades to diagnose and treat, but also to test vitamins, herbs, drugs and homeopathic remedies; even using the machine to test different homeopathic remedies to select a remedy for treatment. According to which remedy balances the reading on the machine, they determine the remedy to prescribe. (7e)

A Swedish academic Dr Nordenstrom, researching radionics is also working in this area (7f). Dr Vogel who worked for IBM is also identifying homeopathic remedies with ‘high technology instrumentation’ (7g). Dr Burr at Yale University has studied the vital force of living organisms for thirty years with a voltmeter, and Dr Ravitz is continuing this work to look at excess of energy and extreme imbalances in the body in schizophrenia.

In fact the book quotes a fascinating catalogue of distinguished academics using various machines to study the vital force and homeopathic remedies from 1930 to the current day. However, as they are not necessarily looking at the relationship between remedies, so much as trying to prove the existence of the vital force, we will have to leave them, in anticipation of further developments in this debate.

I recently had a mail out about the Quantum QXCI machine that is being used to diagnose and scan the body for illness, deficiency, contamination and pathology (www.quantum-healthworks.com) March 2001. It is fascinating to discover that Boyd, Abrams and McCrae did actually stimulate an incredible variety of research. Indeed, they actually fit into a long line of thinkers who have been studying the vital force since the beginning of time.

ASTROLOGICAL COMPARISONS

Dr Stearns linked the twelve principle mineral salts of Dr Schussler to the twelve types of people McCrae identified using his emanometer. (1a)In 1873, Schussler developed a method which he called Biochemics from the Greek word ‘like’ (bios) and chemistry. (9) This classically simple method is based upon the fact that certain mineral salts were vitally important to a healthy body function and Schussler defined twelve basic salts without which, we couldn’t survive.

Though the tissue salts are basically dietary supplements, they are prepared in homeopathic potencies, usually 6x. This makes it a little difficult to ascertain their action. Are they simply adding back to the body trace elements of substances the body is deficient in, or are they acting homeopathically?

If Biochemics is a branch of homeopathy (9a), and Schussler claimed that the choice of tissue salt is based upon a symptoms picture, then we must assume that they act in a homeopathic manner. They are indeed, all used as homeopathic remedies, but they would be prescribed on a much broader picture match by homeopaths, including mental and emotional symptoms. Schussler however, did not believe that the tissue salts were to be classically prescribed in this way, but homeopaths do use them in both ways today.

Dr George Carey took Dr Schussler’s work and compared his twelve tissue salts to the twelve astrological signs of the zodiac. Astrology has a conception of each individual representing a ‘consensus or aggregate of vibrations, a sum total of those present in nature at the time we come into birth’ (10)

This concept reflects the way that the vital force is expressed in some sort of configuration or pattern at birth.

The Chinese medical ‘patterns of disharmony’ is also a conceptual model of the pattern of disease, a variation of this birth chart scenario. Homeopathic remedies can also be said to represent patterns of energy, which we match to patterns of disease. The distinct energy definitions that McCrae identified on his emanometer are another representation of this energy configuration symbolism.

The twelve signs of the zodiac are said to be characteristically similar to the twelve basic tissue salts as follows:

(NB: the final draft of McCrae’s list is in the PREVIOUS RESEARCH SECTION)

The two distinct series McCrae proposed again is not seen (there is no remedy from group 1 or 11). Five remedies are from group 5, three from group 8, with one tissue salt/remedy represented from each of groups 4,6 and 10.

However, McCrae’s common groups 4,5,6,8 and 10 are represented, but not group 1.

McCrae’s typical group 1 remedy is sepia, his characteristic remedies for the other groups are

Chinese medicine identified a greater preponderance of group 8 remedies (5/14) and only one group 5 remedy. Carey’s system favours group 5 (5/12), with three remedies from group 8. We must leave future research to sort this out. I am sure that this project can do no more than to simply present the comparisons and to leave the rest for now.

Regarding Schussler and Carey, let us study some tissue salts and their astrological signs. Gemini is a symbol that most homeopaths would link to the remedy picture of mercury, or even to kali phos, the great homeopathic nerve tonic. Carey however, links kali mur to the ‘spinning mind’ (10a) the balancing of the positive and negative fluctuation of the mind seen in Gemini, according to Carey, kali mur stops this spinning.

The enlarged and swollen glands and fibres, the thickening blood and resultant fibrin disturbances are the biochemical effects of kali mur deficiency. Any iron deficiency thus resulting from this deficiency can be offset by the ‘squaring’ pisces salt, ferr phos. The affinity of the fibres and glands of the body, affected by kali mur, are directly affected by the Gemini field. Gemini has an affinity with the central nervous system, so does kali mur in this astrological perspective.

Boericke (11) tells us that kali mur is not homeopathically proven, so we do not have the full picture of this remedy. It certainly is well known for its physical signs in poor recovery and lapsing states. However, the mental picture is not so clear homeopathically speaking. The central nervous affinity is not brought out in the materia medica, indeed, none of the kalis are well represented in the repertories and work needs to be done in this area by homeopaths.

Scorpio, as the eighth sign, is related to the eighth division of the body containing the organs of procreation, the great ganglia at the base of the spine and the coccyx. (10b) This area includes the sciatic nerve and relates to five zodiac signs and it is a major centre. For this reason, no simplistic understanding or superficial survey can really do justice to this subject here. The scorpio state can result in sexual excess and self-abuse, which in astrological terms thus affects 5/12ths of the body and can result in stiffening of the limbs and paralysis and ageing.

Calc sulph is again poorly proven homeopathically. The picture we do have does not include any information on sexuality, although it does appear in some rubrics in Kent under physical signs, for example, extremities numbness, paralysis and stiffness in the lower limbs. We obviously need to do a proper proving of this remedy.

Sagittarius relates to the intellect and to the hips and the thighs and to healthy blood. (10c) The semi fluid cerebral substance is likened to a sea of glass, with the eyes as the window of the spirit. Silica is a component of glass, a quartz substance. Deficiency of silica leads to poor mental functioning and, as an electrical conductor, it is known to affect brain function.

The association of Jupiter with Sagittarius and then with silica does not immediately seem apparent. Silica’s are reputedly bashful and yielding, not a characteristic of Jupiter or Sagittarius! However, the esoteric associations discussed here are far removed from the commonly known sun sign types. The astrological associations of the balance of the intellect associated with Sagittarius and its link into silica lead to a relationship which may take a great deal of work to furnish us with our working framework for the relationship between remedies.

The added complications of astrological relationships and individualisations according to the birth chart, is a fascinating area for study, providing many in depth associations for the future. As out two disciplines continue to be studied, we may well find many correspondences that will be fruitful, but such a detailed study cannot be attempted here.

At the present time, we have the Circle as a useful model and tool for use in homeopathy. With the top of the circle representing heat, 12 midnight, fire, red, south, heart, and the bottom of the circle representing the lungs, 12 midday, north, cold, death, rebirth, black and white. We have the first axis in our model, which is clearly related to the astrological concepts.

The homeopathic remedies can be more or less fitted onto this circle model, and as a conceptual tool, it can be useful to explain the momentum happening in a particular case. Again, this area needs a great deal of research to provide cast iron bases for relating the remedies, and we need much more detailed information straight away about all our remedies to help us in our day to day practice.

EARLY ATTEMPTS TO RELATE THE REMEDIES BY HOMEOPATHS
HAHNEMANN’S THOUGHTS ON THE RELATIONSHIP ISSUE

Hahnemann’s theory of homeopathy helps us to determine a theoretical framework for disease, which allows us to understand the dynamics of the energy patterns in health and disease in the shapes of the remedy pictures. Underlying this, the miasms themselves, contribute a base note. Combined with Hering’s Law of Cure we are allowed a clear image of the workings of the dynamics of disease and health.

We are not simply limited to diagnosis, but to a clearly stated understanding of the relationship between the symptom picture and the remedy picture. A perfect match between the two, the true similimum is a clear concept, which enables comprehension of the processes involved in disease and in cure.

There have been many attempts to relate the action of the remedies in homeopathic thinking. It is an inherent belief that the remedies are related in some special way is implied by the many attempts to relate them. This may reflect a deep subjective feeling of the relatedness of all things. Disease and health are related to each other as the fluctuating patterns of the vital force peaks and troughs in its journey through matter

Many early homeopaths were chemists themselves, as Hahnemann was. Indeed homeopathy grew out of Hahnemann’s’ fascination with the natural order. Hahnemann says that it is: “…scarcely less foolish, to wit, the attempts, even of those of our own times, to guess the powers of medicines from their smell and taste…” (2a)

Hahnemann tells us that no amount of “technical torturing” (2c) of substances, a reference to chemistry’s separation of substances into basic elements, will tell us what healing power it is possessed of. He also warns us bout the Doctrine of Natures, as mentioned in the introduction to this paper. (2a)

We can thus only determine the action of a drug or remedy via its morbid phenomena and symptoms, and its relationship to the organism in health and in disease. This is demonstrated and explained by the fact that we obtain our remedy pictures via provings on healthy subjects. So we can see the alterations in the pattern of health by the introduction of certain substances into healthy people.

Hahnemann himself classified remedies according to their relationship to the miasms (1). Hahnemann also studied the remedies in natural groupings. In Hering’s preface to Hahnemann’s Chronic Diseases, Hering mentions that the oxides, the salts of ammonium, potassium, sodium, calcium, aluminium and magnesium are the most important of Hahnemann’s anti psoric remedies (5). However, Hahnemann did not value the metals so greatly as his first line of defense against psora.

The “dual action” (14) of the vital force is seen as creative in health and destructive in disease. Under the influence of the miasms, this fluctuation around equilibrium becomes unstable because the miasms affect the central balance, and thus affects the vital force’s ability to achieve equilibrium.

Hahnemann’s view of the miasms is central to his approach and thus the anti psoric remedies are fundamental remedy groupings. The energy patterns of the miasms are thus central disturbances in health. As the miasms are so stubborn and ancient and ingrained in the vital force, the symptom pictures of the miasms and the way they combine must obviously be a basis of a relationship between remedy groups. They are thus the strongest influences on the vital force, and so they will impose very strong and definite symptoms upon it.

Hahnemann also noticed that certain remedies are commonly indicated and follow other remedies well. Thus the idea of successive remedies was investigated. In the Organon (19) Hahnemann mentions that when two remedies contend in a case, due to their similarity, we need to decide very carefully between them and we may even need to give both remedies in succession, or even combined together as one remedy.

The overlap of similarity of symptoms thus gives us our real clue here to the relationships between remedies. If the vital force is a coherent field unifying all living things, then a continuum flowing into and out of this basic energy pattern is our model. The way this field behaves will be reflected in the many different remedy pictures. We assume that we have substances reflective of all possible states that the vital force can assume, contained within our materia medica’s.

If equilibrium is health, and oscillations reflect ill health above and below this equilibrium, with miasms affecting the vital force’s ability to achieve or maintain equilibrium, then we have a complete model. Psora, reflecting the first imprint upon the equilibrium would prevent this perfect state by causing a below par state. The resultant antagonistic reaction of the body trying to regain equilibrium, but unable to because of psora, would result in overshooting the mark – sycosis, or reacting away from the mark – syphilis.

We should also remember here that some remedies are called tri-miasmatic remedies, and are believed the cover more than one miasm, for example staphysagria and lachesis. Also there is the cancer miasm suggesting remedies like kali carb, conium and many others, and today there are suggestions of other miasms – radioactive miasm (rad brom?), possibly an AIDS miasm and an heavy metals miasm, abuse miasm (?) overlaying us from a poisoned environment, all of which are so theoretical at the moment that we can only guess where the future health of our species and the planet are going.

Homeopaths find this grouping of the remedies very useful in ever day practice and it has proved itself over the years. Many attempts have been made to study this area subsequently (15) and more work will no doubt be done in this area in the future.

No one has really added more than a comma to Hahnemann’s original writings in homeopathy in over two hundred years. As we understand the energy universe more and more in the future, no doubt we may be able to actually understand Hahnemann properly at last.

The various repertories list remedies under miasmatic categories, though there are no lists of multi-miasmatic or tubercular or cancer miasm remedies. It would be useful to compile these!

As yet, we have no real comprehension of the way the vital force acts in a unified field, incorporating individuals and matter, but we find these categories, and indeed all the systems and models we have identified so far are very useful to us in case management.

In homeopathic treatment, we need to keep track of what is happening in the vital force during treatment. We as yet have no universally agreed models here. Maybe this is a good thing as the whole concept is fluid in the first place. Maybe we just need to keep sight of equilibrium!

So we are continually trying to follow the ebbs and flows, peaks and troughs of the energy, trying to understand the movement and what it all means.

EARLY HOMEOPATHIC ATTEMPTS TO RELATE THE REMEDIES

In the 1920′s and 1930′s, homeopaths were looking at relationships from a historical perspective. They were empirical scientists, and they approached the material methodically. They looked at every point of interface and possible category of occurrence. They were very thorough! Farrington listed the remedies in positive and negative groups (1a) and Dr Grimmer added to this concept the idea of bipolar and neutral remedies (1a).

Farrington and Grimmer may well have been investigating a fascinating way of relating remedies to the pulses and ebbs of energy in the imbalances seen in disease. This avenue of thinking has also led to attempts to look at remedies in acute and chronic categories, long or short acting remedies and deep and surface remedies.

Hahnemann also divided the remedies into short and long acting remedies (4) (this latter category corresponding to his list of anti-psoric remedies) as did Farrington, Boenninghausen (20) and Hering (5). However, it is not a simple matter. Aconite and arnica are reputedly acute, brief acting remedies, but it is well known that both can act very deeply, indeed they can go back many years into an aetiological case. They may even prove to be constitutional in such cases.

So these classifications are only useful in certain theoretical assessments and for research purposes, but certainly cannot be definitive at all in the question of relationships.

Dr Scholta expounded upon the idea of relating remedies in acid or alkali groupings, relating this to the sympathetic and nervous systems in the body. He suggested that alkali remedies are always chilly < cold, and that acid remedies are always hot < heat (6). Kent’s repertory has lists of remedies generally aggravated by heat and cold on pages 1348 and in generalities on pages 1348 and 1365-1367.

This categorisation needs careful thought though, as some of the acids are chilly, e.g. nit ac and lac ac. However, flour ac is very hot as a rule and phos ac appears in both of the following rubrics: Heat, sensation of page 1366 Heat, vital lack of, page 1366 (18).

Boenninghausen also studied alkaloids, restating the importance of provings and how suspicious we must be about chemistry and signatures. (20a) Farrington studied the acids, dividing them into vegetable and mineral groups. (20b)

Boenninghausen’s lists of affinities of the sides of the body are also in Kent on pages 1425-1432. (18). These lists are very useful in differentiation and confirmation of the choice of remedy. They are also very useful in case management, as equilibrium or balance is seen as nearer to health than a preponderance of right or left sided symptoms. However, the information such categories contain does not help us to determine any relationships between remedies.

In an attempt to study Nature, we need to first look at the way Nature structures Herself. The Natural Groupings have been pondered on endlessly as a key to some base line understanding, a starting point.

Farrington has written a great deal on the family and class relationships of the Natural World. (16) Farrington explains that looking at the analysis of the drug itself is a good place to start. Also, a comparative view of the remedies is important as remedies impinge in their resemblances and separate in their differences. (16a) Farrington relates these groups initially according to their Grand Divisions in Nature, the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms. He also includes the nosodes as a group (16b).

This perspective does tell us that remedies share similarities and have overlaps in their action. Indeed, the whole repertory is a vast collection of relationships; each rubric gives us a group of remedies that share certain similar symptoms.

Clarke states that nothing in Nature is really unrelated to anything else, but that the remedies are inter related at the point of their therapeutic action. (23) Some remedies facilitate other remedies (compatibles or complements) while others spoil the action of the preceding remedy (incompatibles).

Dr Elizabeth Wright Hubbard tells us that the early homeopaths related remedies to each other to complete the cure. There are several classes of complementary relationships; sometimes the remedies are related via the close symptom picture, sometimes the relationship is due to their close occurrence when found in Nature.

She also looked at the relationship of chronic remedy pictures to the acute exacerbations, for example belladonna and calc carb or nat mur and bryonia. Dr Wright Hubbard points out also that a remedy can have more than one acute complement, for example nat mur can relate to bryonia, ignatia and apis in the acute. She also discusses the “series” relationship; for example sulphur, calc carb and lycopodium, stating that more research needs to be done in this area. (17b) Of incompatibles,

Dr Wright Hubbard explains that these are recorded incidents by other homeopaths where adverse reactions have been noted; for example causticum and phosphorus. However, we also know that occasionally these inimical remedies have been prescribed following each other with no ill effect! (8)

Kent believed that some remedies were inimical to each other in their acute sphere, and others only in their chronic sphere. (24)

Dr Wright Hubbard quotes a widely held belief that a remedy from all three Natural Kingdoms needs to be utilised in every cure (17b). She also suggests that as certain remedy groups all contain, for example sulphur or iodine, which may link them together, and that we need to study this area carefully in the future. (21)

Stramonium and pulsatilla can be seen to oscillate around a peak and can be flip states. Stramonium can link with cuprum with a picture of spasm. Lycopodium and pulsatilla can cleave together, and are often found in a husband and wife scenario. We often find similar remedies in the same family, so it can be seen that they do cluster together in their relationships in natural circumstances.

In the Natural world we see anemone (pulsatilla) growing in mossy (lycopodium) ground.

FARRINGTON defined five relations of the remedies:

FAMILY RELATIONSHIP

“When drugs belong to the same family they must of necessity have a similar action.” (16a) However the actions of these remedies are so close, they may not follow one another well and they may not antidote one another, for example ignatia and nux vomica.

CONCORDANT REMEDIES have similarity of action, but they do not originate from the same family, and we find that they do follow one another well in prescribing.

COMPLEMENTARY remedies will pick up and complete the cure that the other remedy begins but cannot complete. (22) These remedies may be from the same family in Nature or from completely different groups (16b)

ANTIDOTAL REMEDIES. These remedies do not stop the action of the previous remedy but modify the effects.

INIMICAL REMEDIES. Farrington simply states this category. He doesn’t offer any explanation here.

SANKARAN (Snr) has also studied this area. His main categories are:

COMPLEMENTARY REMEDIES. These remedies continue or complete the action of the previous remedy. This may be due to the limited sphere of action of the previous remedy, or that the first remedy fails to do the whole work. Interestingly, Sankaran mentions that complementary remedies may also be antidotal, and that this apparent paradox is explained by the fact that some antidotal remedies will antidote or correct the undesired effect of the first remedy and yet continue the beneficial reaction.

REMEDIES WHICH FOLLOW WELL. These are remedies that have been noted over the years to follow one another well. No explanation as to why is offered here.

INCOMPATIBLE REMEDIES. These remedies seem to have a “lack of harmony” with each other and do not follow each other well. Sankaran quotes Nash who did not necessarily believe in this inimical reaction, and who would use causticum after phosphorus if he found them indicated with no apparent ill effect. However, these remedies are rarely indicated after one another. Gibson Miller, quoting Kent, says that some remedies are inimical to each other in the acute sphere and others nimica1 only in the chronic sphere.

ANTIDOTAL REMEDIES. Sankaran says that we should choose our antidote by matching the symptom picture as we would when choosing the remedy initially. He also gives some good advice from Old who says that high potencies antidote low potencies and vice versa. Boger believed that the best antidote is a very high potency of the same remedy.

SARKAR also identifies five main categories. In his “Clinical Relationships of Drugs with their Modalities” (17) B. K. Sarkar explains that as people suffer from “disease conditions” rather than finite “diseases”, homeopathy needs to use more than one drug to effect relief. Indeed a whole series of remedies are often administered in sequence to parallel the different stages of natural disease. Thus we need to study the inter relationships for clinical purposes.

Sarkar states that the relationships that stand out are:

COMPLEMENTARY. These are remedies which complete the action of the previous remedy. This is because cases are complicated and due to succession of disease and to previous allopathic drug use and suppressive factors, we have to untangle many knots one by one, maybe with a series of remedies. He identifies three classes of complementary remedies:
Class One Remedies are related due to their being members of the same Natural Group, and remedies which share an identical chemica1 constituent. Sarkar also lists here remedies that are only similar in their symptom pictures, but these remedies are CONCORDANT in essence.
Class Two Remedies are acute complements of chronic remedies, for example belladonna and calc carb. Again these are really CONCORDANT remedies.
Class Three Remedies are “series” remedies, for example sulphur – calc – lyc. Again these are really CONCORDANT remedies.

CONCORDANT REMEDIES. These remedies have a marked similarity in action, although they belong to different Natural groups. Sarkar states the belief here that every cure must include a remedy from every Natural Group. These remedies may also follow one another well. Sarkar says that this group includes COMPLEMENTARY remedies and REMEDIES WHICH FOLLOW WELL.

ANTIDOTAL REMEDIES. These remedies resemble one another but they antidote the previous remedy.

INIMICAL REMEDIES. These remedies resemble one another, but they spoil the action of the previous remedy.

INCOMPATIBLE REMEDIES. These remedies are related to one another by their Natural Group, but the do not follow one another, and they do not antidote one another. This seems to be similar to Farrington’s belief that these remedies are too close, but they are also defined in the complementary group, as Sankaran pointed out.

COMPILATION OF ABOVE LISTSSo we appear to have similar ideas but in slightly different groups stated by each homeopath.

In an attempt to sort out the confusion, I have outlined below a preliminary list of a table for the relationship of remedies:

COMPLEMENTARY REMEDIES. Remedies which complete the action of the previous remedy: class one remedies related via their correspondence in Nature or via some shared chemical constituent. NB: it will be important to check that the remedy does not also appear in the. INCOMPATIBLE or ANTIDIDOTAL list.

COLLATERAL REMEDIES. These remedies are similar in their symptom picture, but they are not related in any way, as are complements. They may be possible alternatives to the originally chosen remedy. Class 1 an acute of a chronic remedy. Class 2 a “series” remedy.

REMEDIES WHICH FOLLOW WELL. Many homeopaths over the years have devoted so much time and work to note down these similarities that it would be a great omission from any list of the relationship of remedies. These remedies will be COMPLIMENTARY or COLLATERAL remedies.

INCOMPATIBLE REMEDIES. (This section includes INIMICAL remedies). Similar to class one COMPLEMENTS, these remedies are so similar that they can react against the previous remedy. They may SPOIL the action of the previous remedy BUT THEY MAY GO ON TO CURE.

ANTIDOTAL REMEDIES. Similar to Class 1 COMPLEMENTS, or to INCOMPATIBLE remedies. These remedies may STOP the action of the previous remedy BUT THEY MAY GO ON TO CURE.

So any remedy can be complementary and inimical or antidotal. Also, any remedy can be a collateral and an inimical or antidotal, but not at any one time. This does not give us any great accuracy or predictability. It is only after the event that we can see the relationship – it is the event that describes the relationship. It is only by noticing patterns of remedies that cure in sequences or in combination that we can say about them that there exists a relationship. It is the repetition of events that allows the relationship to be seen.

Thus our relationship of remedies tables allows us to benefit from the combined expertise and observation of homeopaths over the years. They by no means preclude other remedy pictures coming up, but they can guide us in our prescribing. This allows us to antidote adverse affects; complement the action of our previous remedy, and to steer clear of inimical reactions.

However, the rule of only prescribing on what we see in the symptom picture will always remain paramount, and it will also follow the patterns of universal energy reflected in the person we are prescribing for.

REFERENCES TO PREVIOUS PHILOSOPHY

1.
1. Homeopathic Recorder 1929: pages 641-644 ‘Classification of Remedies’ Guy Beckley Stearns.
2. ibid page 641.
2.
1. Materia Medica Pure Vol 2, page 5.
2. ibid page 10.
3. Materia Medica Pure Vol 1, page 12.
3. British National Formulary No. 16 1988 page 432.
4. Samuel Hahnemann: His Life and Work Vol 11, page 161
Richard Haehl B Jain Pubs.
5. Hering’s preface to Hahnemann’s Chronic Diseases The Homeopath Journal Autumn 1987 Vol 7, no: 1.
6. Homeopathic Recorder 1928: pages 341-342
‘The Classification of the Homeopathic Materia Medica into Sympathetic and Vagus Remedies’ Dr Scholta (Review of an article originally printed in Leipziger Pupulare Zeitschrift Fur Homoeopathie Leipzig 1928.
7.
1. Bioenergetic Medicines East and West; Accupunture and Homeopathy Clark A Manning and Louis J Vanrenen North Atlantic Books ISBN 555643 017 5.
2. ibid page 171.
3. ibid page 230.
4. ibid page 176.
5. ibid page 177.
6. ibid page 233.
7. ibid page 54.
8. ibid page 49.
9. ibid pages 14-15.
8. The Clinical Relationship of Homeopathic Remedies Dr P Sankaran The Homeopathic Medical Publishers 1984.
9.
1. Biochemical Tissue Salts; A Natural Way to Prevent and Cure Illness. Dr Andrew Stanway Thorsons Publishing Group ISBN 0 7225 1156 6.
2. ibid page 17.
10.
1. The Zodiac and the Salts of Salvation: Homeopathic Remedies for the Sign Types page 7. George W Carey and Inez Perry Samuel Weiser Inc ISBN 0 87728 708 2.
2. ibid page 00.
3. ibid page 215.
4. ibid pages 238-259.
11. The Homeopathic Materia Medica Lecture on Kali Mur page 373 William Boericke B Jain Pubs ISBN 81 7021 003 8.
12.
1. Catastrophe Theory: a revolutionary new way of understanding how things change, page 9 Alexander Woodcock and Monte Davis Pelican Books ISBN 0 14 02 2250 2.
2. ibid page 13.
3. ibid page 15.
4. ibid page 16.
5. ibid page 17.
6. ibid page 19.
7. ibid page 20.
8. ibid page 160,
9. ibid page 162.
10. ibid pages 52-68.
13. Chronic Miasms Psora and Psuedo Psora J H Allen page 91.

14. British Homeopathic Journal 1952: 130-139 Llew R Twentyman ‘Miasms and Archetypes’

15. Drug Relationships Calvin B Knerr B Jain Pubs ISBN 81 7021 065 8.
16. Clinical Materia Medica E A Farrington B Jain Pubs ISBN 81 7021 029 1.
2. ibid page 23.
3. ibid page 24.
17.
1. Clinical Relationships of Drugs with their Modalities pages 6-7 B K Sarkar 1971 B Jain Pubs
2. ibid pages 8, 9 and 10.
3. ibid page 9.
18. Repertory of the Homeopathic Materia Medica J T Kent Homeopathic Book Service ISBN 869975 006.
19. The Organon of Medicine 1690170 Samuel Hahnemann |B Jain Pubs ISBN 81 7021 085 2.
20.
1. The Lesser Writings of CMF Boenninghausen, page 52, compiled by T L Bradford B Jain Pubs Concerning the Duration of Action (Reprinted from Allg Hom Ziet Vol 57, page 81)
2. ibid pages 90-94 The Vegetable Alkaloids (reprinted from Allg Hom Ziet Vol 57, page 81).
3. Lesser Writings with Therapeutic Hints, pages 67-74, E A Farrington B Jain Pubs.
21. Homeopathy as Art and Science, pages 321-323 Elizabeth Wright Hubbard Beaconsfield Pubs Ltd ISBN 0 906584 26 4.
22. Comparative Value of Symptoms in the Selection of the Remedy, page 20 R Gibson Miller B Jain Pubs.
23. A Clinical Repertory to the Dictionary of the Materia Medica page xi, J H Clarke B Jain Pubs ISBN 81 7021 066 6.
24. A Synopsis of Homeopathic Philosophy, page 22 R Gibson Miller revised and enlarged by J T Kent B Jain Pubs (quoted from Med. Adv. Jan 9 1895)
25. Rajan Sankaran Seminar 7th May 1988.
26. Subtle Energy, pages 260-261 John Davidson C W Daniel & Co Ltd ISBN 0 85207 184 1.

Hahnemann warned us about using the Doctrine of Signatures to determine a causal relationship between the substance and the remedy (1). He was ridiculing the false pictures of the medicinal effects of remedies previously obtained this way and advocating the practice of proving a remedy to find its exact medicinal action.

Dr Douglas Gibson claimed that this correspondence cannot be dismissed, despite Hahnemann’s warning, ‘Those correspondences are sufficiently numerous and striking to deserve a mention’(2).

Of course, proving a remedy to obtain its medicinal picture cannot be compared with the theoretical assumption that comparisons are to be found between the action of a drug and the appearance of its natural form. Before we had Hahnemann to show us the way, the Doctrine of Signatures was the only clue anyone had to the action of a remedy, and this has been used to great effect for centuries.

The question of the relationships between remedies and their natural substance, and between remedies themselves, has occupied many, as we grapple to understand the complexities of homeopathy and the natural world. Somehow, our instincts tell us that things are related to each other, but how does this really tell us anything useful?

It may be at the end of the day, that we discover that everything is everything else, but at the moment, things are seemingly separate, but they contain differences and similarities. It seems only natural that attempts to link compare and contrast these differences and similarities will be made.

Many theorists have attempted to identify the underlying thematic connection between the remedy and the substance. There have also been many attempts to group remedies into different families and to try and sort out a relationship between and within family groups.

So far, no one really seems to have a definitive statement to make. Some homeopaths do not believe in the relationships of remedies and prescribe with no reference to them at all! Other homeopaths always pay attention to the relationships of the next remedy to the previous remedy, and they would not dream of giving a remedy without taking the relationships into account.

Hahnemann states that the undertaking to arrange diseases into certain fixed classifications may seem plausible, but that if these classifications are arbitrary ‘without reflecting that nature is immutable, whatever false notions men may form of her’(2a), then we should not be surprised if the classifications are found to be meaningless.

Although Hahnemann was talking about disease groupings, we should perhaps take heed to his point about arbitrary groupings of natural phenomena. As with pathology, it may be a similar maze.

However, the idea persists! If the signature of the remedy is always consistent, and we can always spot each remedy via its symptom picture; and if the disease is an alteration of a normal pattern of health, then there may be threads of Ariadne running through our labyrinth to help us in our search.

Hahnemann’s example of strict and careful observation can be our only rule of thumb here. ‘Poetic fancy, fantastic wit and speculation, must for the time being be suspended, and all over strained reasoning, forced interpretation and tendency to explain away things must be suppressed. The duty of the observer is only to take notice of the phenomena and their course’ (2b).

Hahnemann found the first relationship – that some drugs previously used to cure diseases, do produce symptoms similar to those of the diseases for which they had been successfully used, for example china (cinchona officinalis).

Today, we explain homeopathy as a matching of the patient’s symptom picture to the remedy picture, not specifically related to any pathology or disease label.

However, the principle has merely been extended and not changed.

Constitutional types are often referred to in materia medicas, and relationships between certain remedies and certain personality types, especially amongst the polycrests, are a valuable aid to learning and prescribing. However, as Dr Foubister points out (agreeing with Hahnemann’s warning here) there may be attendant dangers in trying to force people into ‘types’. (3).

Vithoulkas comments upon the characteristic ‘mood’ of nations and he also mentions characteristic influences of the workplace or life style upon the ‘type’ (4).

Social class will also have an effect, but somehow, it is not environmental factors that mould the character that interests so much. It is the actual essence of the personality that reacts with the environment that fascinates. It is always the character that does not conform to the mould that stands out.

It seems that the more complicated and exact the ‘types’, the more people take great joy in jumping straight out of them.

Whitmont’s ideas of form and pattern are a more modern attempt to look at constitutional types. He claims right from the outset a ‘new view of existence helping us conceive how psyche and soma, man and earth function as different aspects of one integrated field’. (5) ‘Chemistry and mechanics could no longer be considered the fundamental regulators. Form, images – as archetypal, autonomous, indeed transcendental patterns prior to and playing, with substance, directing the life force and hence biochemistry, physiology and psychology – would prove to be the basic regulators’. (5a)

Whitmont claimed that concepts of thinking in symbolic patterns are barely beginning today (which may be true) and was totally absent in Hahnemann’s day (which may not be – after all Hahnemann was a Mason).

It is difficult to see how comparisons of Hahnemann with Copernicus and Galileo, except on historical terms can be made, as Hahnemann’s thinking seems to have been in advance of even the quantum physics of our age, even though his terminology was not modern.

We can clearly see in homeopathy, as we analyse our cases, that the symbolism of the physical level is reflected in the mental and emotional levels too. The Doctrine of Signatures in, for example a bryonia case, is quite clear. The essence of the plant is seen in the essence of the patient.

Thus the concept of thinking in symbolic patterns is not so new in homeopathy, thanks to Hahnemann.

However, what Whitmont is referring to here, by alluding to the New Physics, is the concept that the sub atomic realm reflects into the material world in a symbolic ‘condensation’ of an ‘unknowable’ reality. (5a)

Our material reality, of chance and cause and effect, ignores so much. Or maybe it is just an eddy of thought that the Western World got stuck in? The Chinese word for physics is Wu Li ‘patterns of organic energy’ (6). Wu means matter or energy, it also means ‘my way’ and ‘nonsense’ and ‘I clutch my ideas’ and ‘enlightenment’. (6a) ‘Most people believe that physicists are explaining the world. Some physicists even believe that, but the Wu Li masters know that they are dancing with it’. (6b)

The New Physics incorporates Newtonian physics (which remains valid but only within certain limits), but it operates only on the subatomic realm – the realm of our potentised homeopathic remedies?

The hypothesis that potentisation releases energy from matter is claimed by Hahnemann in the Organon 270, when he talks of the ‘spirit like’ medicinal powers released by the mechanical preparation of remedies. ‘There ensues such a great and hitherto unknown and undreamt of change, by the development and liberation of the dynamic powers of the medicinal substance so treated, as to excite astonishment’. (2c)

In 1928, Guy Berkley Stearns wrote: ‘Many of the deepest philosophers, both experimental and abstract, have conceived the ultimate form of matter to be in the field of pure energy and believe that, under certain conditions, matter can be transformed into energy, and energy transformed into matter’. (7)

The Newtonian Universe is predictable and mechanistic. In the Quantum Universe it is not possible, even in principle, to know the present! Probabilities are all we can rely on! (6c) Also, we are not passive observers of reality any more, we actually create it!

Thus our reality is what we choose to make it! (6d)

So, do we choose to see relationships?

Do we create them when they are not really there?

Would the Universe operate quite happily without them?

Can we thus assume that we are gods?

The mechanistic universe is unfeeling and impersonal. Science has previously striven to observe with absolute objectivity and empirical disregard. Indeed, this is what Hahnemann did too, but he, like the discoverers of the new physics did not seem to discover the cold, impersonal universe they expected.

The new physics makes it quite clear that this objectivity is prejudices (6e) and completely illusionary.

The dancing Wu Li masters quote Carl Gustav Jung ‘The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside as fate’. (6e)

Thus, the second relationship is that which is the reflected externalisation of the state of thought currently held, and physics (i.e. Wu Li ‘patterns of organic energy’) is simply the study of the structure of consciousness. (6f).

REFERENCES FOR MODERN PHILOSOPHY

1. Material Medica Pura Vol 1, page 10 Samuel Hahnemann B Jain Pubs
2. 1. Studies of Homoeopathic Remedies page iv Dr Douglas Gibson Beaconsfield Pubs Ltd ISBN 0 906584 17 5
   2. Materia Medica Pura Vol 2, page 25
   3. Materia Medica Pura Vol 2, page 40
   4. Materia Medica Pura Vol 2, page 43
3. Tutorials on Homoeopathy, page 14 Dr Donald Foubister Beaconsfield Pubs Ltd ISBN 0 906584 25 6
4. The Science of Homoeopathy, pages 17-18 George Vithoulkas B Jain Pubs
5. 1. Psyche and Substance, page 7 Edward Whitmont North Atlantic Books ISBN 0 913028 66 5
   2. ibid page 8
6. 1. The Dancing Wu Li Masters, page 31 Gary Zukav Fontana Collins ISBN 0 00 636058 0
   2. ibid, page 33
   3. ibid, page 35
   4. ibid, page 52
   5. ibid, page 54
   6. ibid, page 55
   7. ibid, page 56
7. The Homoeopathic Recorder 1928, pages 669-681 ‘Studies in High Dilutions’ Guy Beckley Stearns

The Philosopher’s Stone, the Hermetic androgene or pure energy? The elixir vitae, aqua vita or vital force is a concept familiar to homeopaths, a sexless concept, a god/dess head which has had so many names throughout the ages, it is now quite difficult to grasp the concept behind it all.

The alchemists used all these names and many more; to guide mystics in the know and to hide these ideas from the dangerous ignorant. The Church and the Inquisition were extremely dangerous!

The alchemists did not have the benefit of agreed scientific concepts or terminology. Today, we can all agree on the general meaning behind scientific ideas, even if we do not understand the terminology or the science. However, in the middle ages no one had been allowed to examine such ideas since the classical age.

So they described and discussed ideas and concepts in odd ways; for example the liquid menstruum or dragon, which means the sexless vital force, half man, half female, defined by colours, yellow for the sun (male) and blue for the mood (female); or expressed in terms of classical god heads, for example Apollo terrorizing Juno, which is in effect the same thing expressed in a different way.

Of course mystics would have understood these convoluted descriptions. The dangerous ignorant would be suspicious, but couldn’t prove anything.

The Alchemists were the inheritors of the ancient mysteries. Metalworking goes back a very long way and was always linked to mysteries, religious rites, pagan of course. When mixing metals, cooper gives way to iron and so on; amalgams and new alloys – chemical weddings, so to speak – when you take two things and make a third – conjunctions, pregnancies, conceptions, nourishment…

The early alchemists believed that all metals came originally from mixing sulphur and mercury – gold and silver in colour – and if you use them to make alloys – well you end up with more than you started with. It must have all seemed so… well religious… so mystical. They could create something new – a power only given to a god head. They could destroy something and resurrect it as something else.

The image of the phoenix comes from the ashes of creation and destruction. The elixir of life, the philosopher’s stone, the virgin, the child…

Once you slip into the mind set of these alchemical ancestors and start to understand their classical world view and their use of metaphor, you can get glimpses of their knowledge. Whereas today we use language deliberately designed to describe scientific process, something they didn’t have access to back then.

What they did have was a rich pantheon of gods and goddeses which had described the world for millenia, and variously understood by the educated. In fact, you could say that all that has changed since those times is the language, and they invented the language we still use today: calcination, distillation, sublimation, solution, putrefaction, transmutation, metamorphosis etc.

The alchemists also used simile: urine, dragon’s milk, chaos, toad, vitriol, adder, lion, dismembering a man with a sword, marriage, monsters etc. Remember, every age has its mystical secrets and these have never been for the uneducated masses.

Roger Bacon said he was researching the quinta essencia, the conjoining menstruum, the Hermetic stream. He was seeking the union of fire and water because the Greeks said it could not be done. For a Franciscan friar, it was allowed for him to do what the ancients could not because this proved how superior Christianity was.

It was all the excuse he needed to study Aristotle, mix silver and gold (read lunar (moon) and sol (sun)) or water and fire – all these things refer to the same thing. He ended up with alcohol! Well is this a union of fire and water? Roger Bacon would have said that this was part of the Great Work, and it is no surprise to me that Google could only come up with this Masonic article today as the only remaining use of that term.

The Emerald Table had recently appeared in the West and was most certainly considered ‘forbidden knowledge’, but Roger Bacon may well have heard mumblings.

The myths surrounding it are endless, for example, that Alexander took it from the Tomb of Hermes, another mystic analogy as gods did not have tombs because they were immortal, so this means ‘ancient knowledge’ to those ‘in the know’.

Another myth says Sarah the wife of Abraham took it from the tomb of Hermes, a mystical reference to the Egyptians and through them to the Arabs, because Sarah was supposed to be a Priestess of a classical cult, definitely ‘forbidden knowledge’.

The Emerald Table was purported to be the concealed form of the Philosopher’s Stone, and to describe the Great Work. Many thought it came from Egypt and so it was treasured because so little was known about the Egyptians and so much was surmised.

Others thought it came from ancient Syria or other places outside the Christian world, more metaphors for the lost classical world and well beyond the remit of the Church.

The Emerald Table was referred to by many hidden names to keep discussion of it safe, so it became the Tabula Smaragdina or the Philosopher’s Stone or the Unity of All Things or the Combination of Earth, Air and Water or the Sealed Vessel or the Glory of the Whole World.

Mystics knew what it meant, but the dangerous ignorant could only writhe in suspicion. When Paracelsus added salt to mercury and sulphur, the mystics knew what he meant!

In the early 15th century, matter and mind had no rigid distinction, they were simple continuous aspects of the Great Process leading towards refinement and perfection, or mists, smokes, exhalations, air, ether, spirits, soul, spiritual beings. The Greek word Ourboros means simply ‘one is all’. Mystics knew what it meant.

So when mystics talk of metals born from mercury, they mean the spirit; from sulphur, the soul; from salt, the body. These were known as the three serpents. The liquid menstruum was the sea and the two fishes were the spirit and the soul. This is obviously code.

Mercury is a liquid metal volatile unchanged by fire, so it is fire and water, the spirit or phlegma. Sulphur is inflammable and volatile, so it is air and fire, the soul or fat. Salt is non inflammable and found in the ashes, the body or ash. As the alchemists would say ‘old sins have long shadows’.

Mystics knew that pure matter abides in nature. They knew the ancients knew about magic elixirs or magic stones. They knew the ancients knew how to regenerate the body and the soul.

One wonders if the alchemists must have heard about mummification? It must have driven people crazy with curiosity. The Great Work or preparing the stone, a guest, labourers in the fire – hints of the process of sending the pharaoh into the stars?

The alchemists talk about ‘heavy shining powder’, a ‘strong and pleasant odour’ and the ‘power of projection’. They say red transmutes into gold and white transmutes into silver, all code, all of it! We can only wonder about it now.

Laurence Gardner has written a book called the Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark which attempts a more modern analysis. The 17th Century philosopher Eiranaeus Philalethes who was a Royal Society Fellow, said “nothing but gold digested to its highest degree of purity… called a stone by virtue of its fixed nature… gold, more pure than the purest… but its appearance is that of a very fine powder.”

Nicholas Flamel described “It is a fine powder of gold, which is the Philosopher’s Stone.” (With thanks to James Rollins Map of Bones).

The Crusaders discovered things in the 11th century, many went native never to return home, but ideas and knowledge travels along trade routes as well as wine and silks. By the time this information reached the West, it would have to be in code.

The alchemists called themselves the ‘sons of Hermes’ and the mystics understood. ‘The philosopher’s Stone is known to all but it is esteemed vile’. it is easy to understand this now.

The Hermetic vessel was an egg, it contained gold and transmutes Sophic sulphur (yellow) and silver (white) into Sophic mercury – all sealed with a flame and submitted to the Great Work with the addition of Sophic salt. Sophia was the ancient goddess of wisdom, now prescribed, and divine classical goddesses were definitely forbidden by the Church! She became Athene instead.

Multiplication enhances the process. This incubator is hermetically sealed and heated by fire and guarded by the sons of Hermes. The chick that arises from this egg will conquer iron and fire. ‘Nothing may hinder your desires more than ignorance of the heat of your fires’. Hephaestus is lame and has a wooden leg. We can almost get it.

The alchemists suggested twelve stages in the process of the Great Work because of the twelve signs of the zodiac (even though there is a thirteen sign zodiac, this presumably had to be Christianised as well).

Seven metals, seven planets, seven days, the Philosopher’s month lasted forty days, of which Saturn (blackness) lasted from the 40th to the 19th day. We can almost get the code. The Great Work starts in the zodiac sign of the archer with the moon in the ram, ending under the conjunctive influence of the sun and the moon in the lion. Black, white, citrine and red. Watch for the rainbow colours of the peacock’s tail. We can almost get it.

The alchemists trawled the forbidden knowledge of the classical world. Pythagoras linked number, music and harmony in his ‘harmony of the spheres’, so harmonious chemical, physical, astrological elements had to be accompanied by music and be free from sin. ‘Vile their secrets with rustic speech’ people said.

Count Michael Maier had to be extremely careful. He played with the four elements from god, fire, air, water and earth, the three principles from nature sulphur, salt and mercury and the two seeds from the metals, masculine (sol or gold) and feminine (white or silver). This was the tincture, one fruit from art. The symbols used for these fundamentals were thought to be Chaldean in origin.

So far we have this table:
Sun = gold
Moon = silver
Mars = iron
Mercury = quicksilver
Saturn = lead
Jupiter = tin
Venus = copper
Plus the salts of these metals – silver nitrate, copper sulphate, lead acetate, ferrous sulphate etc. So we get the Red King (gold, suplhur), the Stone (white, blue), the Queen (silver, mercury), the Grey Wolf (antimony sulphide and the Black Crow (putrefied or mortified matter) etc.

The Riddle of the Stone, or vitriol acrostic is a code devised to keep all this secret. Its invention was associated with the Emerald Table. Basil Valentine puts it thus ‘Visit the inward parts of the Earth, by rectifying thou shalt find the hidden stone’. This code now shows the conjunction of sol and lunar under astrological influences, and becomes the ‘holy grail’ symbols of physical and pure life.

The bath or fountain is code for the liquid menstruum and it contains five lions on the stairs of Solomon or five metals from one root or the sun and moon (king and queen in the bath), on the marriage bed, in the garden with the tree and the apples of the Hesperides.

The code diversifies into Abraham who was the king who killed a great multitude of little infants and put the blood into a great vessel while the mothers wept. The sun and the moon came to bathe in the vessel (Herod). Such were the convolutions, twisting and turnings it had to endure.

Note that anti Jewish twist designed to keep the Church happy, but the mystics knew what it meant.

Basil Valentine also mentions twelve keys, ‘the door to the most ancient stone of our ancestors and the most secret fountain of health’. He goes on, ‘take a fierce grey wolf and feed him the body of a king and burn him entirely to ashes in a great fire three times’. This translates as antimony sulphide and lead will unite with all the metals except gold. In other words, the white woman is married to the red man. When all the colours of the world have shown themselves, this is a configuration (a union).

Flamel continues: ‘the dragon and the snake, a virgin swallowed up by serpents. A cross where the serpent was crucified. The serpents issue from many fair fountains’. Bablylon becomes the symbol of the sun god, a serpent that ruled over the realms of everlasting sorrow. The Stone is the one rejected by Soloman and the builders of the Temple. Does this refer to the ‘mysteries of the future resurrection, the day of judgement, the coming of Jesus’? Or is it just more code?

From the alchemists we get terms still in use today. ‘The black night of the soul’ means the ‘black stage within the Hermetic vase’, in other words, keep boiling it until the black crow appears! The white is the ‘morning light of a new intelligence’ or Sophia again. Red becomes the ‘contemplative life of love’ as Hephaestus or Vulcan presides over the labourers of the fire as they esteem Athene, goddess of Wisdom, or Sophia again.

The Great Work is likened to the Labours of Hercules or to Penelope weaving her tapestry all day only to unravel every night.

In 1612 Ben Johnson’s play The Alchemist, he writes ‘Was not all the knowledge of the Egyptians writ in mystic symbols? Speak not the Scriptures oft in parables? Are not the choicest fables of the poets that were the fountains and first springs of wisdom wrapped in perpetual allegories?’

The code is constantly refined. The earth is now a grotesque female figure suckling an infant with a she wolf at her feet suckling a she goat also suckling (Romulus and Remus – or Jupiter). Saturn (old father time) is given a stone to eat instead of his new born son Jupiter, an ‘unorthodox diet’ (ala Herod sipping at the vessel filled with blood).

The alchemists were nonetheless learning, gold is given a number, 192, devised by numerology, very close to its actual atomic weight. The four corners (winds, spirits, angels, rivers in paradise etc) become a tetrahedron or ‘quadrivalent’ carbon.

Numerology becomes the main stay of the alchemical code. Pythagoras (music) and Hermes (patron of music) and Athene (goddess of wisdom = maths) now accompany alchemy everywhere. The Pentagram becomes the badge of Pythagoras (number 5), and sacred music ‘disperses sadness’.

Fugues (style of writing music) now have three voices, the third voice becomes the apple in the path and the three voices also represent the Stone, the philosopher and the obstacles in the way. The labour in the fire produces results, Libavius explains the preparation of sugar candy and alcohol. Basil Valentine describes antimony, reported to be the very first monograph on a chemical element.

The alchemists go on to describe distillation, solution, putrefaction, extraction, calcinations, reverberation, sublimation, fixation, separation, reduction, coagulation, tincture etc. Not bad for a load of code gobbledygook!

Paracelsus wanted to study medicince and forget god. He condemned herbalism and Galen and Avicenna and burnt their books. He was eventually expelled from Basle university and branded an opium eater. However, Basil Valentine backed him up and they worked together on antimony.

Paracelsus was very cross that Galen and Avicenna did not ‘even trouble to enquire in what way the medicines they prescribe are prepared’ and ‘Antimony has hidden within it a wonderful medicine’ but that it must be ‘freed of its poison by our spagyric art…’

And so Paracelsus gave birth to modern pharmacy and the alchemists gave birth to modern chemistry.

Johannes Baptista van Helmont ditched Artistotle in favour of Thales because he sought the primordial principle in water and not in the four elements as Aristotle had. Here we can see the disjunction between the theological allegories of the code and the state of understanding of these 16th century protoscientists.

Luther had freed scholars in Protestant Europe from the terrors of the Inquisition and they no longer need to fear them or learn the code. So they cast about looking for other classical traditions, not understanding the earlier struggle.

Chemistry in Protestant Europe becomes a chair at many universities and much work is done. Interest in mysticism and alchemy is becoming rather blase and though the Philosopher’s Stone and items of the code are still mentioned, the disconnect is gaining momentum.

Soon no one will understand it at all.

There are many important chemists in this period that I could mention. However, this story is now taken up in my first essay, a history of Chemistry for the Homeopath, and I do not intend to repeat myself, as I am sure you will all be glad to hear!

However, before I end this essay, of course there is a deeper, spiritual, even religious aspect to alchemy (Al khame – the science that overcomes blackness/ignorance), which is essentially female (Sophia) through the divine menstruum, designated with a circle with a dot in the centre (all seeing eye) and a triangle with a dot in the centre (doorway to the light). In the Song of Soloman 1:5 it is described as ‘black but beautiful’ (intelligence – not colour of skin), associated with the monthly female essence, the Lady of Life.

Female bloodlines have always been associated with ‘the sacred bloodline’ and with ‘serpents of the night’. It has long been known in mystic literature that Jehovah had a consort (Asherah the exiled queen) and a son (Baal) and a daughter (Anath). This female godhead was represented by the chalice (womb) and called by a conglomerate term, the Shekhinah (Holy Spirit/Ghost, originally Tiamat the Dragon or wisdom (Sophia)), the Dragon or the Serpent.

To make matters worse, the original female queen of heaven, Lilith, was defined in Sumerian texts as the ‘tree of knowledge’, the Holy Spirit/ghost, which was always female, now referred to as the ‘lost bride’ and also an ‘exiled queen’. Knowledge of any of this stuff would get you burnt by the Inquisition, now wonder alchemy went underground!

So it is not at all suprising that the Roman Church and the Jehovah fearing Jews had long ago demonised the sacred female and the serpent!

Anyway, all they had were mistranslations of both the Old and New Testaments, whether this was through ignorance or design, it was life threatening in the extreme to go against orthodoxy.

The errors in the Bible became concrete, the non canonical texts however, remained proliferate in underground mystic and secret societies as they had been for millenia anyway.

The Islamic world preserved a great deal more that the forgotten Greek and Roman classical knowledge, they also preserved ancient Egyptian, Babylonian and even Sumerian knowledge, not all of which was mistranslated, and so this corpus of knowledge incorprotates the closest transmission of information from the ancient world which fed directly into the west via the secret societies.

Of course, archaeologists have now dug up the original Sumerian and Babylonian libraries, and today we can see the complete record for ourselves.

However, throughout the last two thousand years, alchemy was our only source for this knowledge in the West. Even today, these ancient libraries are contentious, just like the Dead Sea Scrolls are contentious.

It is still dangerous to contradict orthodoxy, but today this is commonly done anyway. This secret, alchemical knowledge is constantly flooding out into modern thinking, as the Davinci Code demonstrates. Feminists and radical thinkers have known this stuff for ages. The maternal bloodline, the female menstruum, has always been understood in secret.

It is fascinating that Jewish and Islamic tradition of halal (bloodless meat) contradicts so with Christian tradition of ingestion of blood (albeit via the Eucharist). This implies knowledge one way or the other about Sangreal, the Royal or Sacred blood in ancient times.

It is fascinating that Dragons are always female. Our language reflects more than we know, for example flower (she who flows), scarlet women (sacred priestess), ritual (red gold/black gold), secret (secretions), truth (ritu – redness/blackness), amen (hidden), word (logos/serpent), harlot (sacred woman), whores (hores – believed ones), kundalini (serpent) – there are so many more examples.

The keen intuitive knowledge of the subtle mind and the implied association with death (blackness – generation/genesis in the womb/tomb) as the route to higher knowledge is self explanatory. In essence (essene – secret/mystic physician) this is direct connection with the divine (theurgy) and all of the oestoteric teachings that result.

Most definitely, this knowledge had to be kept hidden and symbolically coded. Ultimately, this is the meaning of the transmutation of base metal into gold, of the Philosopher’s Stone, and of the Great Work. It is a thread that connects us to the ancient world of Sophia itself, back to a time when Dragons ruled the world and gods walked with us in the garden.

No wonder the Church doesn’t want us to know this stuff!

Developments in chemical analysis over the last few decades has opened up the molecular world to us in exquisite detail.

Rapid methods now exist for the synthesis of proteins from animo acids and the radioactively labelled antibodies they contain. The cellular constituents can be measured to the billionth of a gram. The job of the cell membrane is to move materials into and out of the cell, conduct messages, perform vital functions, provide energy, and to protect the cell against toxins. Membrane chemistry is therefore a major field of study.

The biochemistry of disease is also of great interest to the modern chemist. Inherited disease is seen to involve defective enzymes from inborn errors of metabolism from defective genes. Changes in a single molecule in the DNA of one chromosome can result in the substitution of a single amino acid, out of many hundreds in a protein, resulting in a life threatening malfunction.

The human immune system has two major mechanisms:
1. Special cells called leukocytes
and macrophages.

2. Antibodies
A great deal of research is ongoing to determine the biological properties of the antibodies and which antigens will combine with them.

Hormones are also of great interest. These chemicals are secreted directly into the blood stream by endocrine glands under the influence of neurotransmitters released by the hypothalamus. The neurotransmitters are ‘received’ by the pituitary and causes the release of hormones from the pituitary, which then travel around the blood to activate or depress the activity of the glands in the endocrine system. Once the hormones are received by the endocrine glands, the glands then initiate metabolic changes that can easily be detected by modern pathology laboratories.

Many diseases can now be recognised by their biochemical signature, for example cancer appears to result from changes in the nucleic acids which add or subtract portions of DNA molecules, and result in parts called proto oncogenes which then break off from their chromosome, alter themselves chemically and react with certain virus’ called retroviruses.

Genetic engineering then concerns itself with altering the gene sequences to correct these perceived deficiencies and the rest is going to be history!

So now we come to the geochemistry of the Earth and the biochemistry of the living things upon it.

Since the 19^th century, chemistry had advanced sufficiently for detailed analysis to begin in earnest. Of course, our ancestors have delved deep into the Earth since the dawn of time, emerging with flints, shells, precious metals, gems and minerals, red ochre, white chalk and black charcoal. These were the original paints, the original decorations and the earliest commerce.

We know that the Earth is separated into three distinct layers:

• The core, extending out from the centre of the planet to about half way to the surface, is primarily composed of iron.
• The mantle, which takes up most of the rest of the Earth, and is composed of iron, magnesium, silicon and oxygen.
• We live on the thin outer crust, a richly composed and variable layer full of compounds, sodium, potassium, aluminum, silicon and oxygen to name but a few. This layer also contains water and atmospheric gases.

It is assumed that the Earth was molten in the past and that centrifugal spinning over vast time epochs and cooling have caused these layers to form.

The Earth is always changing. Volcanoes erupt ejecta from the mantle, which then slowly descends back below the crust in an unceasing movement of birth, decay, melting and solidifying, constantly evolving and always changing. Chemical processes are forever on the go. Granite is comprised of sodium, potassium, aluminum and silicon, and is cooled molten rock formed in the mantle and forced upwards. Basalt is richer in iron and magnesium, and comprises most of the ocean floor, formed by lava flows under the sea. The continents are islands of silicon rich foam or spume thrown up by the blast furnace which is the underlying circulating flow of the mantle, constantly recirculating and recombining the elements of our planet.

The water and gasses were originally ejected from the Earth’s interior early in its life cycle. Over time, the seas reached a balance with the revolving cycle of the minerals, as what the oceans gained in marine sediments from weathering found equilibrium with the depositions of marine sediments. This has allowed the composition of the sea to remain constant for aeons. The gasses however have varied mightily over the life span of the Earth, with vast amounts of carbon dioxide becoming locked up as a result of the development of living organisms. The actions of ultraviolet light from the sun, lightening strikes, the heat from molten lava and the chemical effects of weather have resulted in the air we have today, but gasses are volatile and can change dramatically, unlike seawater.

Weathering on the surface changes the minerals into clays, the sodium, potassium and calcium dissolving out and washing into the oceans. The more resistant minerals such as quartz (silicon dioxide) are worn down to form grains of sand. The clays and the sands combine to form soil, moved and deposited by water and rain to form sedimentary layers, which then harden into sedimentary rock. If this sedimentary rock is subject to high pressure and temperature, it will become metamorphic rock. All of these various rocks become recombined in the constant churning action of the mantle, forming new granites which rise again to the surface to get weathered all over again. Over geological time spans, the light minerals, compounds of silicon, sodium, potassium and aluminum are added to the continents, and the heavy minerals rich in iron and magnesium are resolved into the mantle.

Photosynthesis from plants converts carbon dioxide and binds it, releasing oxygen. The oxygen results in the oxidation of rocks and minerals. Cherts are formed from sea shells and skeletons, mostly comprised of silica. Chalks and limestones are formed from billions of billions of dead skeletons, coal is formed from billions and billions of dead trees. Natural gas, oil and petroleum are formed from the soft parts of billions and billions of dead animals and dead people decaying in restricted environments deep underground. Living organisms influence the chemistry of rocks and minerals as bacteria eat their way into the fabric of our Earth, changing it all over again.

We know that elements operate according to mathematical principles, see the history essay in this section on Homeopathy and Chemistry, but don’t ask me to explain them! Chemistry I will tackle but maths is not my subject, sorry!

The minor elements partly follow the major elements and partly separate from them. This is how ore deposits and crystals form. Geochemistry studies how this happens. Each element crystalises or forms ore, each to its nature. The movement of water as it cools and rises to the surface results in the formation of veins and disseminated stratas in these ores. Isotopes of each element also separate out, providing information on the origins and the history of rocks and minerals by leaving a pattern of radioactive decay. This is the basis of dating, so useful for studying geology, archaeology and details of the birth of the solar system in general, as well of that of the Earth and its constituent parts.

Every element deposit leaves traces upon the Earth which can be detected according to the soils and vegetation covering them. Weathering patterns are different according to the concentrations of elements in different areas, and as such make prospecting easier, if you know what to look for. These are the trace elements which are vitally important in human and animal well being. Vegetation is a clear indicator of toxic trace elements, for example mercury in the soil. Selenium and fluorine are essential for life in trace amounts but toxic in larger concentrations. Deficiencies or excesses of trace elements can have enormous effect for life in all its forms.

Now we must return to the developments of chemistry and where we are today. Chemists group the elements into families, much as we do with our remedies.

The metals

The metallic salts

The hydrides

The halides

The oxyacids

The alloys

The inert gasses

The Halogens which are so highly reactive, they are not found free in nature but only in compounds with other elements.

The Periodic Table is the result of all that research and forms a comprehensive list to date.

For organic forms, biochemistry is of fundamental importance. Chemists ditched ‘vitalism’ or the ‘vital force’ in the 19^th century when Wohler synthesized urea, a substance known to be made only by living organisms. However, Pasteur still believed that non living matter could not give rise to the spontaneous generation of life, a form of vitalism. However, eventually Buchner won the day by proving that glucose could be fermented by a non living process in the laboratory, and the case against the vital force was closed as far as science was concerned. The door open, Sumner proved that all enzymes are simply proteins.

When the study of isotopes became a reality, individual substances in all living tissue could now be tagged and followed through all their transforms in the body. Scientists could watch in fascination as individual atoms or molecules incorporated into other forms and all the interactions could be studied. So most, if not all of the major pathways of metabolism can now be followed, including the biochemical sequences all the way through the many ‘cycles’ of the living organism. Chemists know that proteins are polymers of amino acids linked together by peptide bonds.

Chromatography (see history of chemistry essay) allowed chemists to determine different proteins, for example milk and insulin proteins and they could then determine their three dimensional configurations. Pauling proved the helical structure of proteins, showing how enzymes work. Avery showed that the nucleic acid called DNA was responsible for heritable changes in all living organisms, and that it was contained in chromosomes.

So now we are deep into biochemical research 21^st century. This is fascinating, but not illuminating for this current project: What Can Homeopaths Learn From Chemistry? I will therefore end this essay here and return to DNA at a later date when I blog about the Gengraphic Project.

Watch the blogs

I wasn’t studying homeopathy for very long before I realised I had to learn a bit of chemistry! I was frustrated that I kept coming to the end of my knowledge. Unfortunately, they didn’t teach chemistry to Secondary Modern schoolchildren. They never taught us any of our history either, see the history blogs!

I have always been fascinated by the relationship of homeopathic remedies, but when Rajan Sankaran introduced the periodic table into the discussion, well that was that! I had to learn chemistry! Sankaran’s introduction of the periodic table seems to be leading us inexorably into the beginnings of real research into homeopathy. The battle with chemical pollution, the effects on the populations and flora and fauna of the Earth, and the increasing use of inorganic medications is leading inexorably to some sort of armagedon, forcing homeopathy to become increasingly complex. We hastily adopt modern compounds into our prescribing, such as atropine, DPT, agent orange, sulphonamides, sheep dip, petrochemicals and plutonium to name but a few, to keep up with the chemistry of our time.

Homeopaths have always observed relationships between homeopathic remedies, but this has not been based on chemistry, but on the doctrine of signatures, or based on observance with little or no scientific underpinning (see Relationships of Remedies project on these web pages). This is a historic understanding, which nonetheless is based on observing the real world and so will reflect the underlying chemistry. Homeopathy is a science originally based completely on observation, but we also allow for phenomena which no science is going to allow, for example the vital force, astral and etheric forces, the soul or super consciousness, the connectedness of all things and wholism – radically different from the newly emerging scientific doctrines. This has allowed us a continuum of practice in a world where science fragments existence, and as such this has been a real strength for us.

It has always fascinated me that simply by giving the indicated remedies, we nevertheless prescribe in related remedy sequences, but occasionally, complex relationships, or completely unrelated remedies present themselves into the middle of a case. With all the increasing pollution, we have had to become complex and adroit. Though the organic remedies from the early days of homeopathy remain our mainstays, our route back to health if you like, we can no longer practice with a handful of polycrests and the basic constitutional and miasmatic remedies, as of yore.

So we must all become more complex as we realise just how much we have to understand virus’, bacteria, parasites and chemical agents to enable us to remove blocks to health. More and more clients consult with complex problems and histories, never observed or even imagined by our homeopathic predecessors. More and more I want to ask Hahneman’s advice. More and more I want to ask him if he could have predicted this, and what would he do if he were in my shoes? More and more I wish he was still here, despite his unfortunate personality, he would know what to do, wouldn’t he?

The frustration I had is that I simply did not know what I was prescribing. I gave out nit ac, for example, but what is it? (I have a wonderful case at the moment that responded to nit ac, in essence the constitutional remedy in the case, only to find out that my client was doing her PHd in nitric acid). I may know the full remedy picture of nitric acid, but what is it? Does it matter that I’m not sure if arsenicum is a metal or a mineral as long as I know when to prescribe it? Does it matter that I don’t know what an alkaloid poison actually is if I can spot lachesis at one hundred paces across a crowded room? Does it matter if I understand that hellebore is a complex compound?

Well it has always bothered me quite a bit. Of course you can be a perfect homeopath if you don’t have a chemistry PHd, but what price curiousness? We use provings of poisonings all the time without twitching a hair. But what if the properties and relationships of the chemicals is essential knowledge? Toxicology and the chemistry that underpins it becomes increasingly relevant to me now.

I think of Alan Titchmarsh a lot lately. What would he say of the soil? We homeopaths are always talking about the soil, by which we mean the fabric and ancestry of the body. Of course Alan does not care if his beautiful plants are alkaloid or complex as long as they grow healthily and happily. However, as a gardener, he knows quite a bit about acid and alkali. I suspect he knows quite a bit about geology of different gardens too, and all that stuff about underlying substrata and mineral composition and what it all means for growing certain types of plants. Well, his ‘clients’ don’t pick up their roots and run around all over the place, do they? The plant hunters do though, don’t they? Gardeners have learnt to grow plants from all over the world and keep them healthy. They know how to alter their soil to keep their ‘clients’ health. We have much in common thee and I. What price curiosity? Huh? Can we find significant knowledge in chemistry to help us in homeopathy?

So what is chemistry?

Chemistry is the physical science that deals with the composition, structure and properties of substances and the transformations they undergo. Chemistry surmises that all matter is comprised of atoms, known as elements, which combine to form molecules and compounds, held together by chemical bonds, primarily electrostatic forces, which react by breaking or recombining to form different molecules and compounds under different conditions.

Organic chemistry deals with compounds derived from living organisms. Inorganic chemistry deals with compounds derived from everything else. Biochemistry, physical chemistry, analytical chemistry etc are all subdivisions of these two basic divisions. Astrochemistry concentrates on interstellar matter, geochemistry concentrates on earth bound matter, and nuclear chemistry deals with transformations of the atomic nucleus. There are literally hundreds of different types of chemistry nowadays, but this basic rule always holds sway, except and including types of chemistry that deal with alchemical combinations and transforms of organic and inorganic chemistry, of which see more later!

Chemistry is a precise laboratory science concerning mass, volume and temperature changes, all measured by instruments that determine chemical properties precisely. Such structural analysis uses light, heat, magnetic field, radiation, radio and x-rays and lasers. Chromatography is used to separate complex compounds. Spectroscopy is used to analyse elements into their constituent parts..

Let’s get some history:

Fire and cooking are the most obvious early discoveries in chemistry, and metal working and pottery, dyes and perfumes are also basic chemical transforms. Many civilisations discovered galss making, and the Romans invented concrete, so the interest for discovery was intense throughout history. Technology = success!

Heraclitus in the 6^th century BCE is recognised as understanding that there is a universal phenomena, a logos; and Aristotle in the 4^th century BCE is credited with postulating the four basic humours of such universal, or primeval matter, as well as being the determiner of Western intellectual thinking. Anaxagoras and Empedocles postulated that this matter was comprised of ‘very small seeds’, and from this Leucippus deduced that all matter coalesced out of ‘indivisible atoms moving rapidly and at random in a void’. Unfortunately, we do not know what insights the Egyptians may have had because the library of Alexandra was burned, but I assume the Greeks knew something about the Egyptians. The Chinese were also very advanced and this knowledge may have been available on the Indian subcontinent. If we can learn to translate ancient mythic structure into knowledge instead of religion we would understand a lot more of the world view of our ancestors from around the world.

The Arabs knew about sodium hydroxide and ammonium chloride in the 8^th century, their golden age lasted until the 11^th century, when European alchemists took over. In Europe, centuries of alchemical studies follow, and these brave scholars identified most of the basic substances and some of their interactions. Centuries of medicines (most lost but being rediscovered) identify the uses of many complex compounds. reaching a pinnacle with Paracelcus in the 16^th century. He introduced the use of substances into medicine with deliberation. We know something about medicine in the Middle Ages before Paracelsus, who is crdited with the innovation of medicine because he introduces a modern form of scientific method. Egyptian papyrus exist detailing medical treatments, and I am sure examples from India and China also exist. Indigenous tribes from the rainforest and other pasts of the world who knew how to treat pathology with sophisticated medicinal substances and our own stone age, bronze age and iron age ancestors must have known how to keep people alive, or else we would not have survived. Life may have been nasty, brutal and short, but maybe they knew more than we give them credit for, huh? I am always of the opinion that our ancestors must have been pretty smart, and that the modern drug and chemical industry still has a lot to learn. Humility is not a bad place to start, and so we shall give them credit here ’cause no one else will!

In the 17^th century, Libavius published the first methodical chemical textbook, and Stahl proposed a unified theory of combustion and rusting (calcinations).

In the 18^th century, gases were studied in more depth, using equipment that was not previously available for this purpose, making such study possible for the first time. Joseph Black discovered carbon dioxide in 1756, Carl Scheele and Joseph Priestly discovered oxygen in 1974 using the new equipment called the pneumatic trough.

The Rennaissance liberated research founded on the work of all those early alchemists. Frenchman Antione Laurent Lavoisier born on 8.5.1743 did not discover any new substances or devise any new preparations, but he did write a book on the subject which modernized chemical theory. His Elements of Chemistry was published in 1790 and earned him the name of the founder of modern chemistry, and this was because he placed chemistry on a quantitative basis, assigning each element a number such that this number or any integral multiple of it represented the weight in which the element combined (sorry about the math!). As such he married chemistry and mathematics. His big experiment was to prove that oxygen in the air is involved in combustion, rusting and respiration and his basic principles are still in use today. He also worked on the properties of gypsum and plaster of paris and on establishing a metric system of weights and measures. He also did work on street lighting, tax collection and banking, the administration of the Royal gunpowder and French agricultural resources, but he ended up on the guillotine during the French Revolution nonetheless. Such were the trials of early chemists. I suppose it was better than burning!

In the 19^th century, John Dalton assumed that each element was composed of atoms which have a characteristic weight and that chemical reactions resulted from the reshuffling of the atoms. However, he could not prove it. Chemistry speeds up here, as the use of electric currents to break up compounds catapaults research, such that the alkali metals, alkali earth minerals, silicon and the halogens were isolated and studied. Michael Faraday proved that the amount of current necessary to liberate an equivalent weight of an element was the same for all the elements, which quickly led to formulations of negatively and positively charged molecules and concepts of atomic weight. More maths revealed that weights were precisely determined, the integer came to be known as the Valence, and a table of atomic weights was drawn up by Jakob Berzelius.

The First International Chemical Congress was held in 1860 where Avogadro mathematics (the same ones we refer to at the 30c potency!) proved that equal volumes of gasses at the same temperature and pressure contain the same number of molecules, allowing Dmitry Mendeleyez and Lothar Meyer to create the Periodic Table in 1871. This table allowed people to predict other, undiscovered elements, which were quickly identified and then the inert gases were added, helium, argon and neon.

The explosion of knowledge continued, chains and rings based on valency hooks and the number of chemical bonds each element possessed became known as the valency of the element. Valency theory led onto the structural theory of organic chemistry, and by 1874 this was extended into three dimensions and then applied to complex compounds and new methods of synthesis for new industries. Developments in physics combined with the developments in chemistry resulting in spectroscopy. Gasses could now be analysed by passing electricity through them, molten solids and liquids soon became open books. New technologies were developed to study radiation and isotopes, elements consisting of different atomic weights, seen as patterns of wave lenths lines under the spectroscope, revealing more complexities. Maths again explained the simple mathematical relationships in the visible spectrum, extreme ultra violet and infrared. One formula linked everything together!

In 1913 Neils Bohr proposed Atomic Theory, and quantum numbers explained the orbits in the atom. Wave motion and wave mechanics took us all into the 20^th century and Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive elements. Radioactivity and Ernest Rutherford produced the first artificial tansmutation of elements, bring us full circle with the alchemists. Fission and antimatter extended the Periodic Table and the modern age born. (Apologies to the many scientists not mentioned here!)

WWII accelerated science to new heights with the atomic bomb, rare earths and modern electronics and new industries, and today, developments are a whirlwind of new discoveries and the second valence bond and other theories link inorganic and organic chemistry together, allowing theory to postulate even stranger substances and their uses. I will stop here, as we don’t need to do a PHd in the subject, do we? My son Laurie www.wildfalcon.com has just dropped ‘Atomic Spectra‘ by T P Softley on my desk. Softly, softly and thank you very much!

Then the explosion in medicine:

1939 sulphonomides first used against pneumonia.

1944 Penicillin first used against meningitis. It was soon discovered this had no effect against TB meningitis, and TB began to get stronger.

1947 Streptomycin was introduced for those cases where penicillin didn’t work.

1949 Polio vaccination introduced.

The bread and butter of general medical practice was gone! Magic! The explosion of these early antibiotics changed the course of history, and it all happened so quickly! Post WWII, a universal programme of antibiotics and vaccination began, and it is still going strong today. However, scientists are learning the hard way that they are not the panacea they promised to be. Animals are no longer force fed antibiotics due to health problems in humans. No doubt they will continue to learn what Hahneman knew all those years ago, that you have to individuate to each case.

Alan Titchmarch could tell them, couldn’t he? You just can’t plant cyclamens in full sunshine because they will die. In similar fashion you cannot apply the same treatment across the globe on everybody. Maybe one day they will learn?

Today the chemical industry has emerged from its renaissance and discovered DNA and genetics. We d not know what wonders await us, but my hunch is that they will become greener and less crazy as law suits shut down some of the weirdest abuses of chemicals and of vaccinations. Any way, they have better toys to play with now, don’t they?

In defence of the chemistry industry, you cannot stop the invention of the baked bean can, now can you? All those alchemists throughout history beavering away. You have to admire their tenacity and their curiosity, especially as many of them lived in fear of the Inquisition and quite a few of them got burnt at the stake for their troubles. I happen to admire Isaac Newton and our long tradition of alchemy. It is not the chemists or the desire for knowledge that annoys me, it is the usual greed and corruption and love of money that does it every time!!

The chemical industry provides us with pretty much everything we have, use or require to live in our civilisation. This industry will continue to expand and explore the universe and continue to provide us with anything and everything we will need to survive for the future, whether that will be by developing new science or rediscovering old knowledge. Green fuels are just one example of this. New drugs are another! This is still a very new industry and will have to go through all of the stages of knowledge until it learns some wisdom! Love it or hate it, we cannot live without it.

]]> http://avilian.co.uk/2008/08/a-history-of-chemistry-for-the-homeopath/feed/ 0 http://avilian.co.uk/2008/08/potency-dilution-succussion-and-the-minimum-dose/ http://avilian.co.uk/2008/08/potency-dilution-succussion-and-the-minimum-dose/#comments Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:40:25 +0000 Sue http://avilian.co.uk/?p=43

Homeopathic remedies are transformed from the material form by dilution, succussion and potency. Potency can be high or low – or in between!

Hahnemann discovered potency when he first began to dilute the medicines he was using. He began to dilute the medicines because he found that they cased significant side effects, for example using mercury in its raw form to cure syphillis. Most patients suffered very badly from the cure, they even died from the cure! Hahnemann was the first person to enquire just how small a dose of medicine could you admnister and still achieve cure? He found the answer was infinitesimal!

Hahnemann knew the medicine must be similar, but stronger than the dis-ease. This is why mercury was used to cure syphillis, because raw mercury caused symptoms just like syphillis. Hahnemann found that he could reduce the dose of mercury, and reduce it and reduce it and reduce it…. he was trying not to poison his patient. He diluted and diluted the mercury and diluted it… and he found it still cured the patient. However, no matter how much he diluted the mercury, it still caused side effects. He spent the rest of his life trying to remove the side effects of medication, but it is not possible to remove a dam without getting drenched in the consequent release. Dis-ease is like a dam, and when the energy is released, the resultant unleashed aggravation as the body restores health is inescapable. There is a great deal of fear around aggravations, because no one wants any worsening of symptoms. However, unleashed suppression can only result in a worsening of symptoms until the dam burst clears. It is part of common belief that “things often get worse befor they get better”, but Hahnemann never accepted this. Today, though we understand this better, modern homeopaths don’t like aggravations either, and the “art” of homeopathy as opposed to the “practice” of homeopathy is still the pinnacle of homeopathic practice that we all strive for. Today, we try and drain the water before we remove the dam, but in truth, this is still quite a difficult trick to achieve. Today, homeopaths will go to great lengths to avoid an aggravation, but they do still occur, eg. a cold after taking a remedy, so we always warn people about this possibility.

Hahnemann tells us that if mental and general symptoms improve, but specific physical symptoms improve, then cure is on the way. It particular symptoms get better, but mental and general symptoms worsen, we have chosen the wrong remedy and we must start again! The Law of Cure and the Heirarchy of Symptoms guide us through the maze of symptoms to cure. It is also vital to assess the constitutional strength of the person, the strength of individual organs and the strength of the vital force. All these factors go into the choosing of potency, method and remedy. This is not a game or an academic hobby when you are dealing with dis-ease and people’s lives. I was told it takes forty years to learn the “Art” of homeopathy!Hahnemann first invented dilution and then he discovered sucussion – this is the art of shaking the diluted remedy – which increases the potency or strength of the remedy. He began by diluting the medicinal substance, and obviously once you dilute something, you shake the bottle! He understood that this shaking activated the medicine, hereinafter called a remedy.Over time, homeopaths have studied this Art obsessively. Some homeopaths are low potency prescribers, preferring remedies diluted up to 30 to 200 times. Other homeopaths prefer high potencies, remedies diluted and successed many times, up to 1000 or 10,000 times, even higher – LM potencies can be diluted and succussed hundreds of thousands of times. We are all trying to achieve what Hahnemann sought so long to achieve. To heal without aggravations.

Hahnemann used the 30th dilution in his later life, but mostly he confined himself to low potencies. Later in his life, he began to experiment to LM potencies, but his widow was very much afraid that people would condemn him for this “weirdness”, so she hid the 6th edition of his Organon to protect his reputation. It was only rediscovered after the Iron Curtain finally came down. Meanwhile, Dunham and Boenhausen discovered the 30th and the 200th dilution. Kent never got to know about high potencies, so he used rythym to set up the harmonic scale of potencies, which is the most commonly used method today. This method uses 6th dilution, 30th dilution, 200th dilution, 1000th dilution, 10,000 dilution, 100,000 and 1000,000 dilutions.

There is much we still do not know avout potency and the treatment of disease, so many different methods have sprung up in homeopathy today, with practitioners choosing their method depending upon the type of homeopathic college they attended, or their own personal preference. As a rule of thumb, the folowing guidelines are all used at some point during treatment:

• the more internal the dis-ease, the higher the potency
• the further back in the person’s time line you wish to influence, the higher the potency
• if you are tyring to heal the mind or the spirit, use higher potencies
• make sure you match the potency to the strength of the vital force
• the clearer the remedy picture, this higher the potency
• the lower the potency, the less accurate the remedy match
• patients will have a succeptibility to certain potencies which work best for them
• once you find the correct remedy, give it while slowly ascending the harmonic scale
• go up in potency in one remedy, but do not then suddenly use a lower potency of the same remedy
• different potencies have different “flavours” eg. 30th, 1000th and 100,000th are reputed to be gentle, whereas 200th potency can ‘kick’ and so it is most efficatious in acute states.
• different remedies work best at individual potencies and a little can go a long way, whereas some remedies need to be used in high potencies and often
• always give nosodes high… or low… (opinions differ)
• there are always furious disagreements about potencies amongst homeopaths
• low potencies are not necessarily gentle
• the right remedy will work despite the potency
• the centesimal scale (1 part in 100 dilution more dilution than succussion) and the harmonic scale is preferred in England and America and the decimal scale (1 part in 10 dilution – more succussion than dilution) is preferred in Europe. The LM (1 part in 50,000 or even more extreme dilutions with little succussion) is still mostly an experimental method, though some homeopaths do use this method exclusively
• if an organ is weak, use low potencies and use organ supports, or just use organ supports instead of remedies at all to begin with
• if the vital force is weak, use low potencies or use emotional, mental and spiritual support to strengthen the person alongside the remedy
• if the constitution is weak, use low potencies and diet and herbal tinctures to nourish the person alongside the remedy.

LM Potencies

Specified in the 6th edition of the Organon, LMs are reputedly the most gentle method of administering homeopathy. However, they cannot bypass aggravations altogether – these tend to occur right at the end of treatment when the person is stronger and close to cure, but they can then be very strong indeed. This may be preferrable to aggravations at the beginning of treatment when the person is less able to cope with them or understand them.

Instead of giving a single dose in either the centesimal or decimal scale and then waiting for the reaction from the vital force, the LM method allows the homeopath to repeat doses and to very slightly adjust the potency with every dose. This is reputedly quicker, gentler and more effective.

LM1 = 1:50,000 dilution succussed once

LM2 = 2:unlimited dilution succussed twice

LM3 = 3:unlimited dilution succussed thrice

etc up to LM 30 or above – there is no limit!

From the LM1 bottle (100mls of water to one granule of LM 1,2,3) take one teaspoonful of the liquid from the bottle and mix in one glass of water. This is the first dose. The second dose requires you to shake the bottle several times before you take another teaspoonful into another glass of water. The third dose requires that you shake the bottle…etc. This dosing can be done hourly, 2-3 hourly or daily, or every three days, or every seven days, or at any inteval the homeopath determines during the analysis of the case. In acute dis-ease, this may even be every five minutes for a short period of time, or every fifteen minutes for a short period of time.

For very sensitive persons, LMs can be diluted further, eg. the first dose into a glass of water, the second dose taken from the first glass of water into a second glass of water or a third glass of water etc. The person can then take one teaspoonful of the 3rd, or even 4th or 5th glass of water etc.

The remaining water from the glasses should be thrown away after the dose has been taken. It is possible to pour the water from the glass directly onto skin lesions, for example.

If any aggravation does occur, then it is best to wait until the symptom picture clears before any subsequent dose is taken. If the person aggravates again, the use the 2nd or 3rd or 4th glass method for sensitive patients described above. Keep diluting the remedy until you get amelioration of symptoms only. (Don’t panic about the fact you are diluting the remedy hundreds of thousands of times! If you get aggravations, then the remedy is still potent!)

Once you find the dilution suitable to you, with a steady amelioration of symptoms, then work right the way through the first bottle of LM1 this way. When this bottle is finished, proceed to bottle LM2 to continue to match the rise in potency caused by shaking the LM1 bottle every time you took a dose. The only reason to stop is if the symptom picture changes into another remedy. If it does not, then you can proced right through to LM30 or beyond if needs be. People do tend to go straight into another remedy, but not everybody. Your homeopath will match the remedy picture to your symptom picture. A similar sequence can occur with low potencies in the centesimal scale. Some homeopaths consider that the first bottle is a “singe dose” given over a very long period of time – a collective dose. You may be given a LM harminic scale – LM 1, 3, 6, 9 etc.

You may be asked to try a spoonful straight from the bottle. The reason homeopaths like the LM method is its infinite variety and flexibility! LM potencies are very good for very sensitive persons, and also in chronic conditions, if there is steroid suppression in the case, or pathology, or your homeopath considers centesimal or decimal low potencies “too crude and material”, or if there is a drug layer, or a lot of suppression in your case.

Hahnemann refined the LM method from 1784 to 1833 over six editions of the Organon. He spent a lifetime trying to avoid aggravations, experimenting with 1 granule of the remedy in one bottle to seven granules and every different combination. In 1827, Hahnemann found that a dose of the remedy drosera succussed twenty times could be too strong for a child with whooping cough, wereas one dose of drosera 30c succussed twice was very gentle. He discovered that carrying the bottle of LM potency around in your pocket or handbag will shake the potency to a much stronger dose and cause aggravations. He discovered that a ten fold succussion is too stimulating but not as effective. The double shake of the bottle was weaker but more penetrating and gentler, more accomodating and easier on the vital force. The 6th edition of the Organon maintains that machine made remedies are too violent, but who is going to succuss up to 5000,000 times by hand without a machine nowadays? One granule or tablet is not the same as two granules or tablets taken together, as this is still just one dose. It is complicated and Hahnemann worked on this all his life! Subsequently, many homeopaths have spent lifetimes working on this. Homeopaths still argue about it today!

Hahnemann had problems with the centesimal scale and his 5th edition is full of warnings about repeating the dose too frequently. He was so frustrated with having to wait before he could repeat the dose, he went on to work with LMs. He was impatient with repetition of doses and potency selection. His writings are fascinating because of the fine obsessional detail of observation he put into each stage. Who today would work in such a painstaking manner?Hahnemann gave all his remedies in liquid form towards the end of his life. He never gave up in his quest to eliminate aggravations. He was also experimenting with letting the person simply smell the liquid remedy, hoping that olfaction woiuld prove a better method! This can be a very good way of giving a remedy in some cases. If you wonder sometimes why your homeopath is messing around like this, Hahnemann’s obsessive experimentation may well be the cause. All homeopaths have to read this detailed research when they train and it can leave an indelible mark!

Hanemann came to understand that you can never give a dose so small it will have not effect! Each dilution has a different effect and some homeopaths become fascinated with this experimentation and become extremely good at it.

Other homeopaths will find contentment with the harmonic scale and become very clever with it.

Other homeopaths will prefer to use combination remedies, which are commonly used in Europe where they are taught the decimal scale and other techniques. They do all seem to work very well, it simply boils down the the method the homeopath feels best able to manipulate. It would be wrong to say there is a right or a wrong way to use potency, dilution and succussion.

It is confusing when homeopaths argue so much about it, but it is our hobby and our fascination, so please forgive us!

We have such an amazing legacy to live up to.

Hippocrates first coined this term, which basically means taint or fault. Today it is defined as “a noxious substance from an imponderable origin.”

This is an ancient explaination of contagion, long before bacteria and microscopes were invented or discovered. Our ancestors knew that something noxious was at work, though they thought it was the air or the water. Hahnemann considering this, believed that infectious diseases in the blood were probably the cause, and he immediately began to potentise mercury, the standard treatment for syphillis at the time, and he found this most efficatious. The material form of mercury poisoned more patients than it cured at the time. Hence the need for potentisation.

Because Dutch naturalist van Leeuwenhoek had invented the microscope in the 18th century, Hahnemann had a scientific basis on which to base his theories. He considered succeptibility of the host constitution to be very important. He also suspected that skin eruptions were being caused by microscopic animacules, and he proposed miams as a theory to explain this, though the debate raged on around him as other people rushed for an explaination of dis-ease. Hahnemann strode through the debate to redefine the term miasm to mean “constitutional derangements caused by parasitic infections.”

Hahnemann separated out acute, self limiting dis-ease from chronic dis-ease. He redefined the term miasm again, so that today, homeopaths define the term as “the effects of microrganisms on the vital force, including the symptoms that are transmitted to the folowing generations.” So, miasms are chronic conditions capable of producing degnerative dis-ease which lead the organism towards immuno deficiency disorders. Miasms are a permenent alteration of the vital force for the worse. They are the basis of all chronic dis-ease and all acute dis-ease. This inheritance spreads like a contagion into all the different states of dis-ease.

Hahnemann noted that each of the chorinic dis-eases have three phases, primary, latent and tertiary. The effects of these illness passed easily from one generation to another by inheritance, which causes a predisposition to certain dis-eases in the next or successive generation. He called the three chronic diseases psora (the itch), sycosis (gonorrhoea or the fig wart dis-ease) and syphillis (the chancre). When he publised his theory, the presence of “germs” was not understood or accepted, so he had another fight on his hands! Even today, doctors understand congenital syphillis well enough, but they will not accept or understand the miasmatic process or their inherited constitutional syndromes.Later in his life, Hahnemann subdivided psora into true psora (the itch) and pseudo psora (tubercle dis-ease or tuberculosis). He noted that some psoric conditions did not depend upon skin eruptions to develop, but that this pseudo form still had three stages, primary, latent and tertiary. All of these dis-eases could be acquired through primary infection or through inheritance.

In the Organon, Hahnemann mentions three classifications of long lasting disease, continual stress (due to maintaining causes), infectious maisms (today this group now includes harmful chemicals and drugs released into the environment in their many thousands of forms – toxic maism, plus radioactive miasm – the mix of the toxic and the radiation miasms = cancer miasm and now AIDS miasm? and heavy metal miasms? from the nuclear industry) and drug toxicity (ideopathic or caused by poor treatment directly administered to the person). In the worse case scenario, we are all affected by all of the miasms!

Pearls of Wisdom from my teachers on miasms:

“The Syphillitic Miasm = decay/wrong thinking = wrong action! This miasm is concerned with rage, violence, anger and destruction, ulceration characterised by shiny, sharp edged craters, ulcerated cornea. Bloody discharges from the nose, hard tissue in deep layers, structural changes, hair falls out in bunches, attacks bones and teeth deform and decay (sometimes before the teeth come through the gums), bulging forehead, big head, classic blindness, destructiveness for no reason, mental illness, self condemnation, melancholia, suicide, alcoholism, hooliganism, dullness, heaviness, stupidity, disgust of life, could easily kill for no reason (?terrorism?), flat nose, worse from rest, sunset, sunrise, at night; hot blooded, worse from cold and heat and extremes of temperature, lots of sweat, no relief from skin discharges and worse from loss of body fluids, occipital headache at night, children bore heads into pillows and roll their heads, photophobia especially to artificial light, metallic taste in mouth, profuse salivation, copper coloured skin eruptions, bone pains, soft and brittle bones, tendency to abortion and lined to the TB miasm…..”
“The syphillitic miasm is characterised by a tendency to ulceration, secretiveness, saying “I am not myself”, intellectual breakdown, terrible memory, deep crushing headaches, prolific hair fall, offensive green discharges, saliva runs out of the mouth during sleep, aversion to meat, desires cold meals, acrid discharges, affections of the middle finger… Healthy syph miasm? – will climb Everest, go to the Moon, discover the atom ?create world peace?”
Ian Watson

“The TB miasm is characterised by obstinacy, they do the opposite of what they are told, destructive behaviour, negative feelings, hate of restriction, cosmopolitan, mentally expansive, willing to taste new foods (not children!), never content, urge to travel, angry when crossed, violent, quick tempered, wants their own way, tantrums, verbal rage, cursing, swearing, likes thunderstorms, hates to sit or stand still but like to lie about or lean on everything, feel really well in pregnancy but symptoms return after childbirth, hate tight things around the neck, enlarged adenoids and glands, eczema, screaming with nightmares, craves cold (water, ice cream, milk), vinegar, sweets, tasty, garlicky, spicey foods; likes being covered up, painful periods, acne on shoulders after teenage years, long eyelashes, quarrelsome with family, don’t like interruptions, like to wind people up, don’t know how to play well, make a nuisance of themselves, sensitive to heat and damp, rheumatoid arthritis, very creative at night, won’t go to sleep, hates getting up, vivid dreams and nightmares, sensitive and impulsive, long for open air, itching with no eruption, aggravated by undressing, spoon shaped fingernails, inner dissatisfaction.”
Giselle

“The psoric miasm = underfunctioning/wrong thinking. ?Working Class? Inhibition is prime indication of psora. Desires stimulants, sweets. Unwilling attitude to life, with sense of loss – a lost child but inquisitive. Latent psora reveals timidity, holding back, hidden personality with a predisposition to disease. Active psora reveals skin eruptions, slow healing, dissatisfaction, secrecy, moaning, alternating mental and physical states and a tendency to colds. Separation from unity is seen, a strange manifestation of existence. There is awareness of self, but a dislike of reality. The itching can be internal irritation, and underfunction, malfunction, disfunction is seen on all levels. Psora is the soil from which all the other miasms spring. It causes deficiency, debility, loss, lack of self worth, lack of flow. There may not be any structural pathology as seen in sycosis and syph miasms, but there will be a functional deficiency and an allergic hypersensitivity because the defence mechanism is disordered. Sensitivity and oversensitivity. Original sin?! Apathy, irritability, low in energy, hypo or hyper, appetite either excessive or gone, no concentration, cheerfully hysterical, slumped or irritable. Can have active, positive phases where they are happy to experience life, but no co-ordinated action. Latent psora could be considered healthy unless or until some existing cause comes along to flare it all up. Autumn and spring are the most stressful times. After flu, psora can flare up. Worse midnight onwards. Central bald spot on top of head, hair turns white in patches, hair lustless, hangs in tangles. Peculiar cravings in pregnancy. Emotional dreams/of fear, needs comfort and affection. stomach distention, flatulence, diarrhoea, alternates with constipation, diarrhoea from overeating, sensation of suffocation, dry, scaly skin, urinary retention, involuntary urging, urging on coughing and talking, impotence and sterility in males, one sided migraines, frontal, billious, every sort of worm infestation, night sweats. Healthy psora? – reliable, slow but sure.”
Amanda Bingley

“The sycotic Miasm = overproduction and overproliferation/wrong desire. ?Middle class? Extravert, excessive, overfunction, vaccinations do not take, pustules develop, neuralgias, iritis, erysipelas, impetigo, overgrowth of tissues, excess mental or physical activity, fish brine odour, sour body odour, sour stools, urethral discharges (thick whitish), warts, naevi, catarrh (babies can’t breathe and scream because of this), fibroid tumours, rose red capiliaries, transparent ears, dwarfism, cretinism, Downs Syndrome, lymphatic and metabolic disorders, weak memory, forgets names and dates (recent events) but remembers past easily, poor comprehension, slow learning, lacks patience, goes from one thing to another, forgets what they said, miss chunks out of speech, lack of connections, deceitful, liers, cruel, secretive, jealous, angry and quarrelsome, desire to harm others, anguish, involuntary urination, suspicious, paranoid, selfish, arrogant, avoids crowds, tendency towards insanity (one thought going on and on), sensation that something is moving inside the abdomen,, false pregnancy, gnawing entrails, spasmodic colic, appendicitis, peritonitis, better from lying on stomach, pressure to stomach, rubbing and stretching, worse eating, non stop vomiting in pregnancy, can’t eat breakfast, headaches worse lying down, early hours of the morning 3am, better exertion, asthma, ringworm, thick ridged nails, rheumatic pains, swollen tonsils, stiffness worse damp, feet too painful to walk on, painful rectum, bleeding piles, stools gush, forcible diarrhoea, pain when urinating, inflammation of kidneys, prostatitis, sexual problems, inflammation of ovaries and fallopian tubes, teething problems, babies quieten when rocked. Healthy sycosis? – planners, organisers, middle men, caring for the future.”
Dorothy Collins

“The sycotic miasm – wrong desire. Wiil attacks organs of the pelvis especially, and then progress to anaemia, cattarh and then rheumatism, even heart conditions. Shiny, waxy skin, fleshy, flabby, overweight. Attacks soft tissue. Worse sunrise to sunset, damp and wet weather, snow and cold. Better motion and rest, rubbing and stretching (opposite of psora). Vertigo on closing eyes, strange sensations, sense of detatchment, sensation of something horrible inside, past guilt, low self worth, wants to hide from others, lack of empathy, separation between what others see and what is going on inside them = deceit. Hair falls out in circular patches. Sensation they are fragile and will break.”
John Tomlinson

“Theory of miasms – is Victorian or earlier, based on religious stuff from Garden of Eden and Original Sin – what was in that apple!?”

“It is not just dis-ease! Without the miasms, we would have no individuality, personality or characteristics! However, miasms must be turned from negative to positive states.The itch in psora is anxiety about ugliness, so vanity leads to suppressive creams, leading to asthma, paralysis, consumption, masking a sense of being imperfect and no longer aceptible to other people, they live more in their imagination that in the real world, vivid imagination not actually manifested in real life, fears of death and failure, dark, strangers, monsters, gentle with huge flares of anger not directed at others, fear of school and work due to poor concentration, will cling to mum, tense and fearful and unable to take decisive action, shy = underfunction on all levels. Physically slow, easily exhausted, slow physical development development, emotionally easily upset. Not a destructive miasm in itself, causing mainly skin complaints, cold feet but they overheat easily, not adaptable. Innability to stand still, they would rather lie down, not strong, tendency to faint, lack of energy without real cause, billious, sun headache, severe migraines, eyes itch and burn, myopia, cataract, dim vision, oversensitive to all five senses, fear of disease and they are often correct, die slow worn out deaths, strong emotions fold them up, die of broken heart, craves peculiar, indigestible things, allergies, great problems at puberty. Worse midnight to miday, cold, better heat and discharges.”
Stella Berg

Constantine Hering founded this Law of Cure, which homeopaths use to negotiate around symptoms to determine how healthy or how ill the person actually is. We can use this law to monitor the healing process. It is in effect a route map back to health and an explaination of the course of the original dis-ease.

The Law of Cure states that during healing symptoms move:

• from the inside of the body outwards
• from the top of the body downwards
• symptoms dissapear in the reverse order of their original appearance
• symptoms move from more important organs to less important organs.

Obviously, in dis-ease, the reverse of the above Law applies. For example, eczema may become asthma as dis-ease progresses, and reversely as asthma heals, the original eczema may re-appear. For example, as mental and emotional symptoms improve, then original physical symptoms may re-appear.

Homeopaths may take some time to explain this process to you when we take the original case, and we will contiunue to explain this Law as healing occurs. People obviously just want to “get better” straight away, but in homeopathy, we see that the time to heal is roughly approximate to the time it took you to get ill in the first place, and this is because of the Law of Cure.

The more explaination the better, as this engages the rational mind. Fear and anxiety about dis-ease can make the rational mind fluctuate about in panic. A sound philosophical basis for healing is therefore paramount.

The vehemence of symptoms can be quite misleading. Depression is much feared, but it is not as worrisome as cancer – or a broken finger if you are a professional pianist!The body has a heirarchy of vital functions which the vital force will protect at all costs. Thus, your brain, liver and heart are most important. Your paired organs, kidneys and lungs are next most important. Your lymph nodes and glands are part of your immune system and also vital in the fight against dis-ease. Your stomach and digestive system, and your reproductive system are the next most vital, but you can function without these if you have too. Your fingers, toes and skin are of the least importance, so the vital force will prefer to throw disease out here first. Many dis-eases start with rashes and skin disturbance as the first line of defence. Arthritis can often first develop in fingers and toes as the vital force attempts to limit the damage from dis-ease.

The return of old symptoms is therefore very important in homeopathy, as we can clearly see the operation of the Law of Cure. Your homeopath will ask you “Have you ever had this symptom before?” New symptoms need carefull investigation because of the Law of Cure. What if you have had surgery to remove a part or an organ? Compensatory symptoms may occur elsewhere in the body, but there will be a similarity of occurence, for example in accupuncture, such compensatory symptoms occur at the other end of the meridan. There is always some order because the vital force has formative intelligence. It is often the case that people consult a homeopath and then get depressed. The question “is this your depression?” may well result in the answer that yes, the person has indeed felt this way before, but they believed they had overcome this. The return of old symptoms is methodical as the old symptom picture clears away in the reverse order of its appearance.

Kent’s Theory of Affinity suggests some assumptions – which can be of use – but only for hints at guidance. For example, that cancer of the breast is due to “lack of love going outwards” or “uterine dis-ease is due to “lack of love coming inwards”. These suggestions may or may not be of use, but many people will be aware of them, so they may be discussed.

In Paragraph 30 of The Organon, Hahnemann states that the right medicines cure and overcome natural dis-ease, thus is appears that the vital force is more affected by medicines than by natural dis-ease.

This is partly because we can regulate the dose of medicines to make sure they are stronger that the dis-ease state, but also because the weaker, more chronic dis-ease is unvanquishable unless some agent affects the vital force. So when something stronger and similar affects the dis-ease, wiping out the extant disorder, the vital force can bounce back to balance and harmonious operation.

In Paragraphs 260-266 of The Organon, Hahnemann maintains that many foodstuffs in their natural state have medicinal action. He calls these “obstacles to cure” which aggravate dis-ease states, or even cause disease through “errors of diet”. Removal of these obstacles to cure will greatly assist recovery. Hahnemann also points out that people often crave certain foods or conditions. These “voices of nature” must be listened to, as they will assist the vital force and indicate the correct remedy or medicine.

In dis-ease, the vital force, affected by miasms, is seemingly too weak to restore health and order. The right remedy or medicine will boost the vital force, enabling it to eliminate the disease and restore health and harmony.

In selecting a remedy, the homeopath is acting with intent to cure, whereas a person in a state of dis-ease is directionless in comparison. They may be eating foods which aggravate them, behaving in a manner which hinders them, and not aware of the way out of their dillema. Of course, dis-ease produces a mental and emotional state which is disordered, thus maintaining the dis-ease. We call this behaviour a “maintaining cause”.

In order to resore health, a single minded approach and a remedy which is chosen to be stronger by design than the existing dis-ease must be administered. However, the approach must be wholistic and include diet, behaviour and a remedy, thus ensuring that we alter the vital force more surely than a natural dis-ease agent.

Some natural diseases are very strong, and certainly overcome the vital force, altering the level of health most significantly. This might seem an exception to our rule above, but the right remedy will still work in a much more reliable fashion, not by chance, but again by design. People in a state of dis-ease cannot wait for this all to sort itself out by chance. People in this world can be extremely ill, very affected by natural dis-ease agents with significantly impaired health. It is very easy to be in a state of fear about dis-ease, and this can attribute a terrible power to the illnesses of this world. However, the right remedies and medicines do restore health and alter the vital force most significantly, breaking down the awesome reputation of natural dis-ease states and restoring health and optimism.

Vithoulkas uses the analogy of resonant frequencies to explain suceptibility. If two tuning forks resonate on the same note, they are in harmony. In health, harmony is order and the object of cure. Dis-ease is disharmony and causes symptoms of disharmony. The vital force reacts and fights back, expressing reactive symptoms designed to attract attention from the universe as it attempts to restore balance and harmony.

Vithoulkas proposes a model of vibrating frequencies in the healthy vital force which resists dis-ease – no succeptibility – an ideal state of perfect immune response – a model of perfect health. In reality, this is very rarely seen due to miasms, because we all contain individual succeptibility to dis-ease states. The influence of inherited miamsatic states and the impact of the environment alters our vibrations constantly as we interact with the world.

Vithoulkas says “The resultant vibration of such a complex organism is undobtedly highly complicated, changing from moment to moment, not only in frequency, but also in regularity of frequency, and in amplitude as well.”

Dis-ease states have their own “frequency”, and they will affect the resonance of the vital force. Healthy people can mostly resist these dis-ease states, but if the vital force cannot restore its healthy vibration rate, it will start to express symptoms in an attempt to balance itself, hoping to restore order. Also, existing succeptibilities will mean that the vital force is chronically in a state of disorder and expressing symptoms more or less constantly. Thus, it is easier for dis-ease states to gain entrance to, or affect the resonant frequency of the vital force.

By matching a remedy to the dis-ease, homeopaths are matching the vital force’s signals. So we try to assist the vital force to express itself, thereby strenghtening the frequency and the intensity of the vital force. We are “seconding” the vital force’s own attempts to vibrate at the preferred frequency and intensity. As symptoms are expressed by the vital force in an attempt to resore harmony and to overcome the dis-ease state, we are assisting the vital force in this rebalancing. When order is restored, the vital force is able to harmoniously vibrate, stronger now and more resistant to dis-ease states. The vital force is now able to maintain its own frequency against all odds and all comers. So succeptibility is satisfied, and we can see the cessation of cause as the vital force no longer needs to vibrate at the dis-ease frequency.

It is said that we catch the diseases we need. This is because we are succeptible to certain dis-ease states because they will help us to express a certain symptom picture in sufficient strength to restore our own individual resonant frequency. In other words, we need to develop immunity to this particular dis-ease state. This is how we develop our immune system. We must gain immunity from dis-ease states we are otherwise succeptible to. Children especially need to do this as they grow. Parents often report that children have improved overall in their health and development after childhood illnesses. Succeptibility has been satisfied and the vital force has been strengthened.

Homeopaths can see the same strengthening of immunity after administration of the right remedy. With homeopathic constitutional treatment, we see the elimination of miasmatic succeptibility and the enhancement of health and immunity to dis-ease states. Succeptibility is thus necessary for us to achieve eventual good health, a vibrant immune system and wellbeing. We should be looking for this cessation of succeptibility and the overall strengthening of immune systems in all of the peoples of the world. Utopia! Why not?

I got 83% for this essay in the 2nd year of my homeopathic college in 1989!

Pearls of Wisdom from my teachers on succeptibility:

“You can be succeptible to a beautiful painting as well as to illness! Reactive force is fundamental to life.”
“The body will discount whatever is not similar to it!”
Amanda Bingley

“A good holiday can allow you to release tensions dramatically away from normal so your level of succeptibility will increase = a stonking cold develops on the way home!”

“There is a strange lack of physical ilness in emotional and mental disturbance as stress will take up the centre of gravity and prevent acute physical illness.”

“Severe shock may cause us to jump from one level of succeptibility to another. You may have the strength to throw off the toxins from vaccines, but not enough to remove the suceptibility to the disease you were vaccinated against!”
John Tomlinson founder of Helios Pharmacy