Conventional science has a difficult time explaining homeopathic medicine due to its lack of material substance, which takes place in the process of potenization.  Since conventional science cannot explain how homeopathy works, they conclude it is merely a placebo.  In my opinion, you could never doubt homeopathic medicine and its effectiveness once you have participated in a homeopathic proving.

In our second year of studies, each student became a proving supervisor.  We supervised a volunteer who was given a homeopathic remedy.  The study was a triple-blind study with no placebo pellets.  This meant, the volunteer, supervisor and master supervisor were unaware of what homeopathic remedy was used.  Each volunteer was given the same homeopathic remedy but of different potencies.  The volunteers and supervisors were not allowed to interact with other volunteers or supervisors.  For 30 days, the volunteers journaled and the supervisors were in daily contact with the volunteers to journal their experience also.  At the end of the thirty days, all participants came together.   It was absolutely amazing to hear the similarities the volunteers had experienced, from physical symptoms to emotional and mental expressions.  But the most amazing aspect remains. After months of correlating the information, and then being told of the homeopathic remedy, to witness the same physical symptoms and emotional and mental expressions, from a proving that first took place by Hahnemann himself, the Father of Homeopathy who died in 1843. How could that be a placebo?  The volunteers did not come with a set of symptoms to rid themselves of; they were healthy volunteers who experienced similar physical, emotional and mental expressions after taking the homeopathic remedy.  In fact, homeopathic double-blind studies took place forty to fifty years prior to any conventional science double-blind studies occurred.

Keep in mind the above concept of a proving: when healthy volunteers come together unaware of what the homeopathic remedy they will be taking.  Now let us think of conventional science and their research. It has certain formulas they have to follow for a research project.  One type is called a clinical research trial. But you have to keep in mind when a volunteer participates in a conventional science project they know the scope of research that is being done.  Why do they know, because they are sick with that health challenge, that is why they will be given an “experimental drug” or placebo and be chosen to be part of the research. So does that not narrow down the scope and could put a placebo effect in their subconscious?  Why I bring this point up is homeopathic medicine has been ridiculed for years that it is merely a placebo.  What is a placebo?   “A substance containing no medicine and prescribed to reinforce a patient’s expectation of getting well or used as a control in a clinical research trial to determine the effectiveness of a potential new drug.”(1)

Clinical Research is multifaceted and composed of several elements, “human clinical research as: 1) patient-oriented research. Research conducted with human subjects (or on material of human origin such as tissues, specimens and cognitive phenomena) for which an investigator directly interacts with human subjects. Excluded from this definition are in-vitro studies that utilize human tissues that cannot be linked to a living individual.  Patient-oriented research includes: a) mechanisms of human disease, b) therapeutic interventions, c) clinical trials, or d) development of new technologies.  2) Epidemiologic and behavioural studies, 3) Outcomes research and health services research.(2)

As far as clinical research goes, a proving of a homeopathic remedy qualifies as clinical research.  A proving is human clinical research, patient-oriented research, conducted with human subjects and the investigator (supervisor) directly interacts with human subject.  In fact, as a homeopathic proving includes patient-oriented research, including mechanisms of human disease or physical issues, therapeutic intervention or emotional/mental issues and development of new technologies. This also includes point two and three respectively, behavioral studies and outcome research.  So the issue regarding homeopathic medicine can not be about a proving since the above mentioned clearly shows the similarities with conventional science clinical research and homeopathic proving being clinical research.

So the issue has to be with the homeopathic medicine itself!

Let us refer back to the definition of clinical research and two words that are in brackets, cognitive phenomena. The definition of cognitive phenomena, “1) The mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning and judgment. 2) That which comes to be known, as through perception, reasoning, or intuition; knowledge.”(3).  How do you measure awareness, perception, reasoning, judgment and intuition?  I don’t think you can.  So why can conventional science use cognitive phenomena as a valid concept for clinical research, yet homeopathic medicine is questioned due to the fact that conventional medicine cannot measure the substance.

Homeopathic medicine is based on the reasoning that like cures like, not just in physical symptomology, but on mental and emotional symptomology as well.  With every proving, a physical, mental and emotional picture is documented.  Thus if a patient exhibits the same physical, mental and emotional aspects that a healthy prover exhibited, he/she should find relief (we can’t say cure) because like cures like.

I think we should all question the efficacy of conventional science! I do not say that lightly but with much of its own evidence.  Oxycodone has just been taken off the market because of its highly addictive nature. Hormone Replacement Therapy was marketed as helping reduce heart attacks but caused cancer. Listen to a commercial and hear all the side effects of the drug they are advertising; read the warnings listed when you pick up a prescription.  Yet these were all deemed ok for human consumption and conventional science approved them. Why? Because they could measure the substance in the pill?  What about all the things they did not or could not measure in the clinical research but clearly came out years later, many as a mortality rate.  In an article titled, Is this Fraud Too Big For 60 Minutes? Dr. Mercola writes about the “exposure and subsequent concern over medical research fraud is on the rise”.(4)

Is homeopathy possible?  What about results. Would plan, hard results constitute success for homeopathy? Peter Fraser wrote an article on The Proving of Homeopathic Remedies.(5) On the second page of nine he shows microscopic photography of blood of a prover before taking the AIDS remedy and two days after taking the remedy.  You can see how the blood has drastically changed. He writes, “In fact, proving clearly showed that the effect of remedies can be felt by people who have not taken the remedy but who are in touch with its energy”.  In 2007, in Cuba 2.5 million people were given a homeopathic nosode prophylaxis.(6) Yes 2.5 million people in one area of Cuba.  The results, ten infections only, zero deaths from leptospirosis after August 2007. What you need to understand is that prior to 2007 the whole country was vaccinated for leptospirosis.  Even though the country was vaccinated, mortality and illness rates were still substantial.  Furthermore, the cost of vaccinating that area was $3 million dollars US. Whereas the homeopathic prophylaxis was about $200,000.  But, in my opinion the most amazing proof that homeopathy is possible is the work of Dr. P & P Banerji.  In 2003 they had a paper on brain tumours accepted by the International Journal of Encology.(*) They also went through a rigorous review in the 1990’s with the National Cancer Institute regarding a best case series program with their work on lung cancer. The National Cancer Institute has been working with the Government of India to do international research studies.(7)  Also Dr.  A.U. Ramakrishnam and Catherine R. Coulter who wrote A Homeopathic Approach to Cancer.(8)  Again, all documented clinical cases using homeopathic medicine backed up with CT scans, x-rays, blood work and other diagnostic equipment.  He has over thirty years of clinical data showing the effectiveness of homeopathic medicine.

Organizations like Canadian Interdisciplinary Network for Complementary & Alternative Medicine Research (INCAM) for which I have been a member of “for years” has now taken an interest in homeopathic research.(9)

In the book New Directions in Homeopathic Research, advice from an interdisciplinary conference new HPT methodology showed clear-cut results with two well-known homeopathic remedies and placebo.(10)  The placebo group had non-specific symptoms; the two well know remedies had specific symptoms for each remedy.  Furthermore, the book outlines many other research projects.

One of the most thought- provoking talks I have heard recently is by Dr. Bruce Lipton: Where Mind Meets Matter.(11) In it, he discusses Quantum physicals, a concept that has been around since the early twentieth century.  Let me rephrase that, not a concept but rather a proven science/study about energy and matter.  Quantum comes from the Latin meaning of “how much” and refers to units of matter and energy that are predicted and observed in quantum physics.  A key point is, “even space and time, which appear to be extremely continuous, have smallest possible values.”(12) Smallest possible values, this sounds like homeopathic medicine to me.(13) Another definition of quantum physics is as follows: “a branch of science that deals with discrete, indivisible units of energy called quanta as described by the Quantum Theory.”  There are five main ideas represented in Quantum Theory: 1.Energy is not continuous, but comes in small but discrete units; 2. The elementary particles behave both like particles and like waves; 3. The movement of these particles is inherently random; 4. It is physically impossible to know both the position and the momentum of a particle at the same time; the more precisely one is known, the less precise the measurement of the other is; and 5. The atomic world is nothing like the world we live in.(14)

Carbon has the atomic mass of 12.011, and hydrogen has the atomic mass of 1.0079.(15)  Our bodies use carbon and hydrogen on a regular basis.  Therefore, our bodies are energy because quantum physics is about energy and matter.

Homeopathic medicine is energy. If the body is energy and homeopathic medicine is energy and like cures like then this sounds like a perfect match to me. Thus homeopathy is possible!

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