How Homeopathy Found Me

Hello!

I would like to tell you a little bit about myself, a little about how Homeopathy found me, and a little about my view of Homeopathy.

Why a little?

Because, as we know already, ladies and gentlemen, a little can do SO much.

Well. I’m 5 foot!!

That’s not tall but I’ve managed to have a career in retailing, have a baby, get divorced, learn to play Celtic Harp, make a career change into Homeopathy and find a lovely new partner.

So, what was my introduction to Homeopathy?

I had a baby. And he had an attack of the croup. I boiled the kettle, rubbed Vick on his chest, nothing worked, he wheezed and wheezed and I felt powerless and helpless.

A few weeks later I was in Boots and picked up a leaflet about Homeopathy. It said that Homeopathic remedies were safe for children of all ages and adults too and I read that a remedy called ‘Aconite’ was good for croup.

I bought a bottle of Boots Aconite 6c and put it in the kitchen cupboard…………

And forgot about it.

A few weeks later, my baby boy, now 18 months old, woke me up at about 3am. He was crying and distressed, wheezing and panicky. I then remembered the Aconite I’d bought. I had no idea how to give it to him, (he didn’t have teeth) but in the heat of the moment I opted to crush one tablet between 2 spoons and popped the dust onto his tongue………………and waited to see what would happen.

In less than 5 minutes, his panicking stopped, his breathing calmed down and then the wheezing stopped too.

WOW! I thought, this is interesting. Must be something to this Homeopathy.

That was it.

I was already on my path. It wasn’t a linear process but I started at my local library & read everything they had. The first book was ‘Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy’ by Kent. Heavy stuff! What was this Pod-ophy-llum he went on about……..or Lyco-podium?

My interest just grew.

So, here I am after 5 years of training, 11 years of being in private practice. Having completed 7 provings and everyone I do- I go WOW! Just like I did the first time. They’ve just had one 6c and all these symptoms come out! How did it do that??

So that’s how Homeopathy found me.

A little idea can go a long way. And in the same way, even though we’ve had a bashing in the press, we’re still here. Even though there are some people intent on silencing us and our profession- we still prescribe.

Clients still want to be treated as humans-not as disease labels; the eczema patient or the person with ME, or the long-name-hard-to-pronounce but we’ll find it in Black’s Medical Dictionary.

We treat people. Not diseases: Mrs. Black and Mr. White and sometimes Ms Grey in-between…

A little at a time.

We don’t need banners or flashing lights or white coats, just friendly smiles and deep interest in how their symptoms make them feel.

Our small contributions, our little doses make big changes to people’s lives everyday. When the going gets tough I re-read what Hahnemann said in :

Aphorism 11 footnote:

“ The smallest dose of a medicine dynamised in the best manner (where-in, after committed calculation, only so little material can be found that its smallness cannot be thought of or grasped, even by the best mathematical brain) gives out, in the appropriate disease case, more curative energy by far than large doses of the same medicinal substance.”

There are big things that can be done with Homeopathy but we need to do it a little at a time- and I’m volunteering to help that process and steer us towards a healthy, successful Homeopathic future.

A little at a time.

Ignatia and How to Heal a Broken Heart

Ignatia

And

How to Heal a Broken Heart

Mary English DSH

Sometimes a complaint is more than meets the eye, and symptoms and general unwellness can date back to a negative occurrence. This is what we call the aetiology of symptoms or more simply ‘never-been-well-since’.

How little help a Dr can offer for a broken-heart and how much Homeopathy can offer is not comparable. Apart from tranquillisers or anti-depressants your local GP is restricted in his ability to help heal the most common complaint for men and women. When a relationship ends, the world seems to end too and a few doses of this tried and trusted remedy will ensure you’re back to your old-self and all the anxiety has dissipated.

If I had to take one remedy to a desert island, Ignatia would be my unhesitating choice. I have seen more improvements in patients from this one remedy than any other baring Arnica.

A few years ago I was treating a client who recommended a friend to me. I made a home-visit as she was too unwell to leave the house and her energy was seriously down.

18 months previously a relationship had ended.

“Broken relationship, it knocked me side-ways, I carried on coping and I went through all sorts of emotions. In May I started to feel depressed, by mid June one day it affected me physically and my legs gave way. I was queasy and nauseous. I went to the Dr and he said it was a virus and to come back in a week. I was annoyed with him and chose another Dr. He did blood-tests but again, he said I was fine and nothing was wrong.

I’m tired, I have weak legs, a queasiness feeling and I’m sleepy. I’ve tried to understand it. I’m very tearful not really interested in anything. It must be depression, I don’t want anti-depressants and I’ve tried St John’s Wort. But I’m not feeling well physically.

I’m so tired and it feels like I’m going down a slippery slope. I had hopes and we talked about marriage. My hopes were bigger than I’d acknowledged. Now there is loss of hopes and loss of friendship. I’m too tired to walk. I forced myself recently and ended up with exhaustion.

It was a shock. I felt destroyed. Something died. Like a murder, I couldn’t believe it was happening. I couldn’t believe it. I felt so awful. He rang and said we needed to talk. I didn’t think anything of it. We went out for dinner. He was saying the words. I wasn’t hearing them. He didn’t see any future and it would be best to stop. I was crying. I couldn’t eat. He got the bill. I couldn’t believe it was happening. He said a lot of stuff.

I’m off my food. I’m weak physically. I’ve become nauseous. I’m burping, like its getting rid of the tension.

I’m normally really forward and happy on my own. I’m finding it really difficult not feeling well. I’d been on my own for 10 years, then he came in.”

2 days after her first dose of Ignatia 200c she said she was feeling a bit better.

She said she had a fear that something drastic would happen, like she’d have a heart attack and nobody would be there.

She really wanted to eat and felt better eating in company so she arranged to meet friends for lunch. She also had some other friends over to her house to start a book reading circle and found that really helpful too.

At her follow-up a month later she’d been out all day , was sighing less and was ‘thinking about all sorts of stuff’ (not about the boyfriend, which was a big improvement as that was all she could talk about at her first consultation)

When I first saw her she was too ill to leave the house to even do her food shopping and after 3 doses of Ignatia 200c over 2 months she improved so much she got a part-time job.

So, what is the story behind Ignatia?

It’s made from the Ignatius Bean that grows in China and the Philippine Islands. The tree it grows from was named after Saint Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Jesuit Order by some of his Spanish Fathers. The herbal use is as a tonic and stimulant similar in action to Nux Vomica and used for ‘heart trouble’ but it is a highly active and powerful poison.

The ripe, dried seeds are used to make the remedy which was proved in Hahnemann’s day and the provings revealed it was a ‘great nerve remedy’. So what would be poisonous in herbal medicine becomes healing in Homeopathy.

In the Materia Medica we see symptoms such as “the emotional element is uppermost” and “effects of grief and worry” and most importantly in my case above “Persons mentally and physically exhausted by long concentrated grief”.

On a more general level, there is sighing, refusing to eat and loss of appetite. The things you would expect if something traumatic and unhappy had affected you.

The heart symptoms are interesting because my mother, now in her late 80’s gets palpitations if something emotional happens like she hears some bad news and one dose of Ignatia 30c stops the palpitations in their tracks.

The heart symptoms for Ignatia are: “Palpitation, esp. at night, while engaged in deep thought, in morning in bed. Stitches in region of heart”.

The original medicinal properties of Ignatia are linked with its connection to heart symptoms and its Homeopathic application for emotional upsetments.

So if you feel despair at a relationship that has ended, or you are suffering from emotional shock and loss, remember Ignatia, the wonderful Homeopathic remedy that will help heal a broken heart.

References

Concordant Materia Medica, Frans Vermeulen, 1997, Emryss, Netherlands

A Physician’s Posy, Dr Dorothy Shepherd, 1993, Daniel Company Ltd

Tranquillisation : The Non Addictive Way, Phyllis Speight, 1990, Daniel Company Ltd

A Modern Herbal, Mrs Grieve, 1998, Tiger Books PLC.

What Happens in a Homeopathic Proving

What Happens in a Homeopathic Proving

Before Homeopathic remedies are released into general practice, they are trialed by healthy human volunteers. During a trial, each prover records their experiences of how they felt, what they did, what they thought, what they dreamt about and believed in journals.

What symptoms a remedy can produce, in a healthy volunteer, is then an indicator of what it may cure in someone suffering from that symptom.

For instance. If you never suffer from headaches and during a proving you develop a hammering migraine, then we know that the remedy has an affinity with headaches.

The Origins of Provings

When Hahnemann the originator of Homeopathy took repeated doses of Cinchona Bark (Cortex Peruvianus), after translating a medical text-book, to find out why it cured malaria, he discovered:

“I became languid and drowsy; then my heart began to palpitate; my pulse became quick and hard; an intolerable anxiety and trembling; prostration in all limbs; pulsation in the head; redness of cheeks; thirst. Briefly, these were all the symptoms usually associated with intermittent fever and they all made their appearance.”

He had accidentally discovered the major principle of Homeopathy, that ‘like cures like”.

Provings Today

The journals the provers keep are then analysed by the master prover/s. They are then carefully graded, sifted through and analysed then added to the ‘Materia Medica’, (the Homeopathic listing of remedies), written-up and published. The symptoms are also converted into ‘rubrics’ and added to the Reportory (the book of symptoms).

There are now over 2,000 Homeopathic remedies that have all gone through a similar rigorous process. Some provings only involve a few people. Some have larger amounts of volunteers. I have conducted 6 provings to date. They are time consuming, frustrating, amazing and wonderful experiences and they also need devotion and focus. Most colleges now expect 3^rd year students to take part in a proving so they can experience first -hand what it actually feels like to sample a new substance and have it do strange, weird and wonderful things to your body and your mind. This is a collective encounter and knowing that your whole college-year is going through the same feelings as yourself is in some ways more comforting than doing it all on your own.

Provings can vary considerably in their format and while one proving might be classified as analytical and logical another might be considered more poetic or creative. I aim for the more creative side of provings because what fascinates me is how there is always one prover who ‘speaks’ the remedy. They touch-in completely with its source, its function, it expression.

The Homeopathic Proving of Aquae-Sulis the Roman Bath Spa Water

This prover recorded these images after allowing the energies of the remedy to ‘take her over’ during a meditation after taking one dose of the remedy. She succumbed to the feelings rather than fighting them.

Prover 9

Day One

9am Took Remedy

9.20am – Meditate – “Image of green, tall grass as if I am inside a swamp-breeze blowing the grass above my head. As if I am very small-looking up to this grass and the sky beyond. My Guide took me up and we looked down on tall grass stretching out below us, some bulrushes in there as well. Water-small streams running through.

Now set me down in a deep dark forest-makes me think of rainforest. Very wet, I’m still small, some branches, things seem huge. I could be frightened but I feel secure at the moment. It’s warm & damp. This forest, the grass has been here forever, since the planet began.

Stepped into a swampy hole, sucked down. Mouth, ears, eyes filled with swamp. Hands above my head, travelling very fast down a channel of light, feet first. Deep into the earth, into its core.

Hit rock with a bump. I’m me, but more elemental than who I was, more the essence of me, part of a shaft of light. (Feel tired, heavy-the meditation).

Rock is cold, dark like jet, jagged, glistens in the light. Rocky landscape, no sky but light enough for me to see. Textures important-smooth rock, sharp, jagged rough not easy to walk so I sit in one place. No sound, sulphur smell-volcanic? I slip into a crevasse and become part of the rock- shaky, shard, brittle, easily broken up………

Stepping back from meditation now.”

9.53am

As she relates how she feels after taking the remedy, she is ‘sucked down’ to the source of where the Bath Spa Water comes from and even notes a smell of sulphur. The Roman Bath Spa Water smells of sulphur as it contains 1015 mg per litre of Sulphate.

Bath Spa water rises at 46° Celsius, the temperature of a hot bath, and contains 43 minerals. The water comes out of the ground at a point where a geological fault (the Pennyquick fault) fractures impermeable strata above the water bearing rocks, allowing it to rise up from great depth.

This proving ran along-side a proving of the same substance in New Jersey in the US.

Each prover was given a number between 1 and 12 and is the only way to identify them afterwards.Confidentiality was paramount. Things can 'come up' during a proving that volunteers don't want to share. Talking it through with the supervisor and verbalising it, can ensure that only relevant symptoms are published. Keeping a journal can be tedious. Having to write everything you do and feel for weeks on end can seem tedious but the more the provers can record, the more we will understand the healing potential of a new substance.

We don't tell the provers what the substance is until after the proving finishes.This is to ensure we don’t influence their mental state and make them ‘imagine’ symptoms.As they have no idea what the substance is, they can just assume that everything they feel is because of the remedy. However, humans are complex beings and during a proving will justify a symptom that has arisen maybe by saying; “I feel tired because I stayed-up late” forgetting that they’ve had a new remedy. This is where the supervisors help the provers process their feelings and their symptoms.

This prover kept writing that she wasn’t feeling different and nothing was happening:

Prover 10

Day one

Lots of trouble with the house and a flooded garage-lots of phone calls-I can think of a better way to spend an evening but it did not really affect my mood.

So, even though she thinks nothing is happening, ( as her mood wasn’t affected) she’s taken a remedy made from water and her garage floods!!

This one has a realisation about Homeopathy. He’s not a Homeopath, he’s a lecturer in Science at a further education college:

Prover 11

Day 9

Dreams- still a lot, and detailed-holiday near beach: sudden solar eclipse (unpredicted)-yet I wasn’t ‘fazed’ by this.

Day 15

I’d like to learn more about “the memory of water” and how Homeopathy might work. But analysis is not the answer!

The proving commenced on Monday 23rd January 2007. The provers were asked to take the remedy at 9am. Before the proving started Usha, Mabel and myself 'took the cases' of all the provers. This was a 'before' analysis, then we could see, if during the proving, anything changed.We asked them their best time of day, their likes and dislikes, weather, food, sleep and most important, Dreams.

Dreams from an Aquae-Sulis Prover

Prover 9

Day 4

This is based on my concern for a great niece. The dream is set in her house and in the sea. There is contamination in the sea. The great niece collects water in a plastic container and continues to fiddle with it in the house- I didn’t recognise her but her Mum was there. The great niece develops sores on her arms and she is taken to hospital with smallpox. Her mother is told to clean the house, wash everything. I can’t keep awake so occupy a room to sleep. In the early hours, the doctor + other people bring their car with the niece into the entrance hall and have to wait as I have to clean the room I am in-very dusty, messy. In the midst of this, my father goes out, stays out all night and returns to sleep in the early hours.

Day 10

In charge of a school having to organise a day of events. Events happen, everything goes smoothly, I have nothing to do. I give a speech which no one can hardly hear, but those who do think it’s good. A happy contented dream! Needed to find a toilet in the dream.

Day 24

Very mixed with images + people from the day before + unknown + family. The main feeling was getting ready for the wrong thing, in the wrong clothes which kept unravelling + no-one seemed to be able to help, basically not being ready. I needed to wash my hair + in the dream someone gave me a shampoo which made my hair fall out-public place like a swimming pool.

Other Provings

It’s amazing how things change for a prover as the proving progresses.For instance, in the Homeopathic proving of Naufragium Helvetia (Shipwreck) prover number 7 recorded:

P7: 'Tues 30th Oct I woke in the night for a wee.'
'Thurs 31st Oct I woke up in the night for a wee.'
'Fri 1st Nov I woke up in the night for a wee.
'Sat 2nd Nov Took 5th and final pill before bed last night. I woke up in the night for a wee.'

..........after he'd finished the pills this didn't happen again.

In the Homeopathic proving of Ruina Castellum (Old Wardour Castle) prover number 2 recorded:

Prover 2

Day 5
I didn't want to eat much when I got home. I seem to have lost my appetite lately. I also don't want to drink coffee. I can't seem to finish a whole cup. I want to eat light foods like salads or vegetables. We have hardly any food in the house because I haven't been bothered to buy any.

This is why we talk to provers before the proving starts, so we can establish 'who they are', because as the proving goes on, they become more influenced by the remedy.

Anti-dote.

At the end of the proving on Sunday 12th Feb 2007 the Aquae-Sulis proving finished. We asked the provers to take an anti-dote of Sulphur 1m before bed.They didn't have to take it as some provers have liked remedies so much that they didn't want to change things. If they experienced this, then they skippped the antidote, but for those who wanted to go back to the 'way they were', they took the anti-dote, then recorded their last feelings before bed and on Monday 13th 2007 posted their completed journals to us.

I would like to thank the volunteers very much for their help also Usha Pearce RSHom and Mabel Smith RSHom who supervised this proving.Only Usha and I knew what the substance was.

The remedy was sourced from a sample of water from the Roman Baths and potentised to 30c and 200c at Helios Pharmacy in Tunbridge Wells and the full proving can be read on my website http://www.maryenglish.co.uk/aquae-sulis.html

www.maryenglish.co.uk and where there are links to my other provings.

How a Homeopathic Proving Works

One of the foundations of Homeopathic philosophy is the experience of the remedy, expressed through the person taking it. We don't know how humans/people are going to be healed by a remedy until we discover what the remedy brings out in them in a healthy state.

How a Homeopathic proving works.

“Provings are the pillars upon which homeopathic practice stands. Without accurate provings all prescribing indications are bound to be vague guesses at best, and pure fiction at worst. There is no other way to predict the effect of any given substance as a remedy with any degree of accuracy, and the use of signature, toxicology or fancy ideas cannot approximate the precise knowledge gained by a thorough proving.” 1

Stage One

Substance is obtained.

Proving substance is sent to Helios or Ainsworths and made into remedy.

The only person at the pharmacy who knows what the remedy substance is will be the person who actually makes it, sometimes they don't know either.

Numbered remedy bottles are sent to master prover and allocated to each prover.

One will be placebo.

No-one will know which one is placebo, only pharmacist.

Supervisors and volunteers (provers) also don't know what substance is.

Stage Two

Gather together a number of people, minimum 10.

Appoint supervisors to each volunteer.

Ask provers to commence keeping a journal before the proving starts.

Supervisors interview each prover and ascertains certain characteristics. Food likes, weather preference, feelings, current situation, best time of day, previous illnesses, previous medical history, current medication, energy levels, hates, likes, dreams etc.

Supervisors continue to keep in contact with provers during the proving and phone them regularly to have them ‘feed-back’ how they are feeling.

Stage Three

Substance is posted to each prover.

They are given a time and a date to take first dose of substance.

Proving commences.

Provers write in journals everything that happens to them over the proving weeks.

Supervisors are on call to help provers understand their feelings and ensure they are supported through-out the proving.

Most of the provers won't know the other provers, so they don't exchange ideas or compare notes. This is a solitary process of working with what feelings/symptoms are produced during the proving weeks.

Stage Four : “Entering the dragons den”.

Dreams are recorded, feelings noted, symptoms written down, weather conditions noted, family upsetments, arguements, emotions, etc.

After 3 weeks generally provers have reached a place of being 'inside' the feeling of the remedy. Now they don't know what is the remedy and what is 'self'.

More questioning happens. ‘Why me?', 'Why this?', 'Why now?'. This is a very self-reflective process and demands a lot of the provers. It might not be an enjoyable process and the supervisors are there to support the provers on their 'journey'.

The remedy begins to 'take shape'. Supervisors meet with master prover and discuss 'what is coming-up' for the provers and themselves.

Proving finishes, provers complete their journals, and post/give them to master prover or supervisor.

Stage Five Conclusion

Provers and supervisors are told what the remedy was/is.

Supervisors and master prover collate notes.

Provers journals are written onto computer and symptoms compared to the 'before' picture of the provers.

Editing, collating, symptom differentiating, discussion, symptoms weighting.

Proving is 'written-up' and published for peer debate.

Remedy is available at the pharmacy.

Symptoms are then converted into Repertory language.

This is the most time-consuming aspect of a proving as the words the provers used have to be converted into succinct, short key-words. Such as: 'Head, pain, worse from heat' and submitted to editors of the Repertory.

1. For further information please see : The Dynamics and Methodology of Homeopathic Provings, Jeremy Sherr, 1994, Dynamis Books, Malvern, UK

©Mary English DSH