Positive Health Online

The homeopathic method of preparation, known as potentization, converts unpleasant and dangerous substances into harmless, wholesome remedies.

B elladonna (Atropa belladonna) is often cited as an example of this. Belladonna, commonly known as deadly nightshade, grows in the hedgerows with clusters of glistening berries, attractive, but poisonous, and sometimes eaten by mistake. There would be a quick reaction; the skin flushes red, the pupils are dilated the temperature is very high, there are violent, throbbing headaches, bodily twitching and convulsions. If a patient with such symptoms consults a homoeopath, despite the fact that they have been nowhere near deadly nightshade, and may be suffering from influenza, pneumonia, or any other disease, Belladonna would be the chosen remedy.

Not all homoeopathic remedies are poisonous in their natural state, though some are very strange. Pathological substances, considered revolting in the ordinary way, such as scabs or pus, or the sputum from diseased lungs, can be converted by homoeopathic preparation into remedies which heal the illnesses from which they derive, or other conditions that mimic them. The resulting remedies are odourless, tasteless and pleasant to take.

When Dr Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843) discovered methods that transform the character of substances, there was no scientific theory to explain what was happening, but now current scientific thinking allows that at a certain point of development or pressure, matter can change its properties and behaviour. This opens the way to new theories to explain what has been observed to happen.

Of course, many people, then and now, turn a blind eye to phenomena which can be observed but not explained, and try to deny their existence.

A very ancient idea is found in some of the new work, that is, ‘genius loci’ or the spirit of a place. Most of us are aware that we feel different in different places, indoors or outdoors, for example: in a lift, in a cathedral, in a factory, in a room we like, in a hospital waiting room, or in differing outdoor locations, mountains, farmlands or moors.

I was once mystifyingly wretched and sleepless in a ground-floor room in an Oxford college. Admittedly it had been left in a sordid condition by the former occupant, but it seemed a better explanation when I discovered that it was only yards from the spot where Ridley and Latimer had been burnt at the stake.

Again, who would want to live in a house where a murder had been committed?

Sensitive people, including dowsers, say that they can feel the particular quality of a place. Horses and dogs have been known to show distress at locations of former atrocities.

Such reactions are unexplained and yet modern scientific theory is hinting at an explanation. Matter is now
described, not just as substance but as, essentially, substance in motion.

Does this open the way to a theory of vibration as setting the characteristics of whatever we encounter in this existence? Can we say that the change in homoeopathic material from raw state to potency, and the atmosphere of places, can both be thought of in terms of vibration?

Some people think so, and they are homoeopathically preparing remedies from soil or dust from special locations.

The use of special locations as a source of material for potentization into remedies is now being explored, places which have been the site of intense human hopes and fears are being used, current examples being the potentization of dust and debris from the remains of the Berlin Wall and the war-torn town of Sarajevo.

Some serious ethical questions arise here. If material is obtained from sacred sites or places where terrible events have taken place the propriety of removing such samples may come into question. Whether soil or ambient dust may be considered part of the site remains to be discussed; what is in no doubt is that all such material places an obligation on whoever receives it. The material must be treated sacramentally, and handled with the greatest respect at all stages of preparation and distribution.

If the recipient cannot carry out the potentization themselves only a person of faultless reputation should be entrusted with the task. Attempts to make a financial profit out of such materials would be deplorable, and would be totally outside the spirit in which such remedies are being introduced.

Once prepared the substances last indefinitely and only minute amounts are needed, so that, once the initial expenses of preparation, preservation and distribution have been met only a minimal charge should be made for such substances.

Remedies from sources proposed here may, when proved, be appropriate for the survivors of disasters or traumatic experiences, or for the relatives of those lost. They may also be found to bring relief to cases of inherited, historical or vicarious suffering on conscious or unconscious levels as these come to the point of recognition in the therapeutic process.