Homoeopathy Explained

Homoeopathy is one of those topics that really drives some people crazy because it seems impossible. We've seen so much vitriol poured out over homoeopathy, it makes us wonder why people feel so threatened by it. Stop reading about it and just try it for yourself. It's cheap, noninvasive, painless, and there are no side effects.

However, for the intellectually minded, let's take a closer look.

There are two main steps to creating a homoeopathic remedy, and these are repeated over and over again -- dilution and sucussion.

  1. Dilution is done by mixing one drop of a substance with either 10 or 100 drops of purified water.
  2. Sucussion is certain way to shake the bottle containing the diluted remedy. It involves holding the container in one hand and tapping it on the opposite hand in a brisk up-down motion. One tap is one sucussion. Normally a remedy will be sucussed 100 times before it is diluted again.

After about 12 dilutions and sucussions, there is not a single molecule of the original substance in the remedy. Many more dilutions and sucussions can be carried out on the same remedy, and each time this is repeated, the remedy gets a bit stronger.

Here are the main objections, which I will address one at a time:

  1. If there’s nothing physical left in the remedy, it must be placebo.
  2. Homoeopaths claim that the reason the remedies have an effect is because the water holds a memory (or energetic imprint) of the substance that was once in it. How can water possibly have a memory?
  3. If water has a memory, then why doesn't it contain an effect from every substance it has ever come in contact with?
  4. Homoeopathy is based on the law of minimum dose, which means that the more you dilute a substance, the stronger it gets. For most people, this is all they know of homoeopathy and therefore they discount it, claiming it's all placebo.
  5. How can a homoeopathic remedy have the opposite effect of the original substance? For example, sometimes a remedy made from coffee is used for insomnia.
  6. Why do two or more people with the same diagnosis need different homoeopathic remedies? Shouldn't a remedy always work for everyone with a particular problem?
  7. How do we know it's not placebo?

So let me attempt to explain these issues.

Issue 1 – Nothing physical therefore placebo

If all we do to create a remedy is serial dilutions and sucussions, how can it possibly have any effect? Nothing physical remains. And we all know that we need something physical to have a physical effect, right?

Not so fast! Radiation is not strictly physical, yet we all use radios, TVs, mobile phones, microwave ovens, magnets, computers and they obviously work. Is it such a stretch of the imagination to think that what is left in the homeopathic remedy is some form of wave pattern?

Issue 2 – Memory of water

How can a wave pattern be maintained in water?

A physicist named C. W. Smith (and colleagues) has investigated this phenomenon and found a rational, scientific explanation for how water can hold a pattern. I will quote from James Oschmann:

Smith and colleagues have published such a mechanism in which the hydrogen bonds hold water molecules together in a helical structure that acts as a solenoid. A magnetic flux would induce a current flow through the helix, which would regenerate the magnetic flux. Once this metastable state is achieved, current flows and resonances would persist after the original magnetic flux was removed. [Oschmann, J, PhD, 2003. Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance. Elsevier, Philadelphia PA USA. Page 212.]

 For a much simpler view of this effect in action, see the work of Dr. Masaru Emoto, here.

Issue 3 – Infinite memory

And so to the next question -- If water has a memory, then why doesn't it contain an effect from every substance it has ever come in contact with?

Homoeopathic remedies are made under very strictly controlled conditions. The water used is distilled for maximum purification. Sucussion is a particular method of causing impact to the diluted water (not haphazardly the way the ocean might wash the waves up against the rocks).

Using newly developed infrared analytical methods, there has been considerable study of molecular clusters in a variety of liquids. Some of this research, using FT-ICR spectra (Jongma, 1998) confirms the existence of stable molecule clusters in water using technologies involving surface impact. [Connelly, Brian R, 2009. “How does Homeopathy work? http://hpathy.com/homeopathy-scientific-research/how-does-homeopathy-work/]

Sucussion creates a condition called cavitation. Cavitation is demonstrated by the small bubbles you see when you sucuss a fluid.

Using FT-ICR spectroscopy, (Jongma 1998) showed that the cavitation is moderated by dissolved air or alcohol, so that the lower attenuated cavitation energy actually creates quite large stable clusters in water. [Connelly, Brian R, 2009. “How does Homeopathy work? http://hpathy.com/homeopathy-scientific-research/how-does-homeopathy-work/]

The clusters of water take different forms (isomers), and this may be the mechanism by which the information is stored in the water.

So just to repeat -- only under certain conditions can information be stored in the water. An analogy might be the difference between using a camera to take a random photograph versus using a laser to create a hologram. A hologram stores a lot more information than a photograph since it is 3 dimensional, but it can only be done under strictly controlled conditions.

Issue 4 – Dilution makes it stronger

How can a substance get stronger the more it is diluted?

The answer has to do with coherence. Coherence is a word that describes organisation. The light from a laser is more coherent than the light from a light globe. The sound produced by a professional violinist is a lot more coherent than that produced by an amateur, or someone totally untrained. In the same way, when the homoeopathic remedy is repeatedly diluted and sucussed, the pattern in the water becomes increasingly coherent.

This has been proven by using spectroscopy. Again, quoting from Oschmann:

Spectroscopy is the main method used by physicists, chemists, and even astrophysicists to study the structure of matter of all kinds. When energy is applied to atoms or molecules, they vibrate and produce luminescence or radiation. Spectroscopists study these radiations to determine the precise structure of matter that is too small or far away to be examined directly.

 As you can see from these spectroscopic photos of a homeopathic remedy at different dilutions (called potencies), something has changed in the substance, even after not one molecule of the original substance remains. Each potency displays a different degree of coherence, clearly seen by observing the white star-like pattern in the centre of each image.

 

Issue 5 – Opposite effect

Now we get to the sticky question of how a remedy can have the opposite effect to the original substance. Homoeopathy uses the principle of “like cures like”, which seems counterintuitive. How can I cure insomnia by taking diluted coffee?

In order to answer this I will use the example of noise-cancelling headphones (as sold by Sony ® or Bose ®). If you’ve ever switched these headphones on and put them over your ears, you will have experienced a blissful silence. When you play music through the headphones, it sounds clear because it is not competing with background noise.

These headphones work by the principle of “like cures like”. They contain a microphone on the outside of the headphone, which picks up the background noise of the surroundings – electrical hums, background chatter, mechanical sounds such as air conditioners, etc. A computer within the headphones analyses this noise and produces a phase inverted mirror image of the background sounds and feeds this into the headphone. This cancels the noise and you hear silence.

 

 

I suggest that this is what homoeopathic remedies do, too. The process of creating the remedy causes the original substance’s information to be imprinted on the water as a mirror image. This then has a cancelling effect on the symptoms normally produced by the original undiluted substance.

Issue 6 – Different strokes for different folks

Why do two or more people with the same diagnosis need different homoeopathic remedies? Shouldn't a remedy always work for everyone with a particular problem?

These questions presuppose that we are all identical, that we get ill in the same way, and that a diagnosis is a sacrosanct pronouncement of the real situation within the body. None of these premises are true for health. It is a very individual thing.

For example, I know many people who get a runny nose and weepy red eyes when they have hayfever. I know many other people who get a blocked nose and a headache as their version of hayfever. So which is right? Both, of course. It’s an individual reaction, even though the medical diagnosis is still called hayfever.

Homoeopathy relies on the complete symptom combination of a person, in order to match the symptoms (as with the noise-cancelling headphones).

This is why clinical trials of homoeopathy can be misleading. If a trial assumes that all participants are identical (which can never be the case), then they will attempt to use the same remedy for everyone. A particular remedy will only work on those people whose totality of symptoms is matched and phase-inverted by the information (energy signature) in the remedy.

Issue 7 – Placebo?

How do we know it’s not placebo? The easiest way to know is to test homoeopathic remedies on infants, plants and animals. These subjects are incapable of having a placebo effect, since they have no emotional investment in the process. As always with homoeopathy, you must match the remedy to the symptoms, or there will be no effect. However, there’s no harm in trying a few remedies until you find the one that fits for you or your test subject.

Here are some web sites where people discuss their results with homoeopathy and plants:

http://www.homeoplant.com/index.php

http://www.considera.org/hrxintro.html

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/homoeopathy_for_plants.php

And here is a link to an overview of the successes homoeopathy has achieved in the past. You won't read about these in mainstream medical reports, but they're well documented nevertheless.

http://www.naturalnews.com/035030_homeopathy_infectious_disease_medicine.html 

 

The Swiss government has recently completed the largest study of homeopathy ever undertaken. The conclusion: homeopathy works and is safe. Click here for a summary and click here for the abstract of the study.

 

One of the greatest features of homoeopathy is that the remedies are very inexpensive. It costs little to experiment, and you will be well repaid by the success you achieve.