Post by Admin - Joy Lucas on May 15, 2021 17:03:02 GMT
WHY WE SHOULD DO PROVINGS
It is obvious really because without provings we do not have homeopathy - it is the only way we can utilise symptom similarity, from proving data, to sick person, to eventual cure - all based on matching symptoms.
Please read the Organon for what Hahnemann wrote - the text below is from Julian Winston’s summary outline of the relevant chapters to read.
19-21: The need for provings (determine the nature of medicine)
19. Medicines cannot cure unless they can cause derangement
20. The power of medicines can be discovered only by their effects-- not by reason.
21. Symptoms of provings are the only way of learning their power. Pure experiment will reveal nothing. Remedies cure only because of their ability to alter human health by causing characteristic symptoms.
22-27: The principle of similars
22. The curative powers of medicines exist only because they can produce symptoms in the healthy and remove them from the sick. Medicines can be similar or opposite to the disease. Which to use is revealed by experience. [description of allopathic medicine]
23. But experience shows that anti-pathic drugs don't cure; the symptoms return with renewed intensity
24. Therefore homoeopathy is the system of choice.
25. This can be learned by pure experiment [not the kind of experiment which is conducted by the regular physician, which is like looking into a kaleidoscope] *
26. A weaker dynamic affliction is extinguished by a stronger IF it is similar in nature.
27. Curative powers depend upon the symptoms they produce being similar to the symptoms of the disease, but stronger.
Personally, I think every Homeopath should conduct a proving. I think it is their duty and should be of prime interest to anyone with a serious interest in homeopathy and with a view to practicing.
Provings are really simple to do. And can be fun and intriguing as well.
All you need are willing people. If you can only get one or two people willing to be provers, then so be it. But the proving will be more substantial with more provers.
As well as provers you need supervisors with relatively close contact. The job of the supervisor is to take the prover’s case, to make sure they are of a reasonable fit state of health. As this is quite rare you can take a broad stand on this as long as any ongoing personal symptoms are carefully noted and put into context - sometimes you get cured individual symptoms during a proving and that does have some value but this cannot be assumed that the same symptoms will be cured in another person - so they are not true proving symptoms.
The secondary job of the prover is to make sure all goes well; that the prover is taking the remedy and recording the symptoms diligently, so they need to communicate regularly. If there are any problems the supervisor is also there to help and resolve any difficult problems.
A main supervisor is also needed - one who will be collating all the data at the end of the proving.
Once a case has been taken the prover is provided with the remedy and instructions on how to take and then proceed.
Provings do not last more than a couple of weeks - sometimes longer or shorter.
The data is then passed onto the main supervisor who will compile the notes and pass those onto people in charge of repertories and materia medica.
It really is quite extraordinary how the symptoms evolve - some are truly strange, some become characteristic because all provers share them, some are common but all are valid.
The whole range of symptoms from Mind, Emotions and all Physical planes have to be recorded (including dreams). It might transpire that symptoms are recorded throughout the whole body and other times they show an affinity to specific organs - the fun part is that we just don't know what will transpire.
Because Homeopathy is utterly and totally dependent on provings, just imagine what it would be like to have ‘provings only’ repertories and materia medica. No toxic symptoms, no accidental curing symptoms, no guessed and assume symptoms, just accurate proving data. Our job would be so much easier if we were to know that every symptom in the repertories and materia medica were true proving symptoms. We would still need to know and understand the context by which those symptoms arise, for example, a delusion occurs only during a fever, but the accuracy would never be in doubt.
There are many remedies that homeopaths use that have still not been proved. And for those that have we should be re-proving them, why not? A modern update of Pulsatilla might reveal new insights. We need academies purely for homeopathic provings, not least to make sure we can cure as many people as possible.
So please try and conduct a proving - on yourself if necessary, just like Hahnemann did.
It is obvious really because without provings we do not have homeopathy - it is the only way we can utilise symptom similarity, from proving data, to sick person, to eventual cure - all based on matching symptoms.
Please read the Organon for what Hahnemann wrote - the text below is from Julian Winston’s summary outline of the relevant chapters to read.
19-21: The need for provings (determine the nature of medicine)
19. Medicines cannot cure unless they can cause derangement
20. The power of medicines can be discovered only by their effects-- not by reason.
21. Symptoms of provings are the only way of learning their power. Pure experiment will reveal nothing. Remedies cure only because of their ability to alter human health by causing characteristic symptoms.
22-27: The principle of similars
22. The curative powers of medicines exist only because they can produce symptoms in the healthy and remove them from the sick. Medicines can be similar or opposite to the disease. Which to use is revealed by experience. [description of allopathic medicine]
23. But experience shows that anti-pathic drugs don't cure; the symptoms return with renewed intensity
24. Therefore homoeopathy is the system of choice.
25. This can be learned by pure experiment [not the kind of experiment which is conducted by the regular physician, which is like looking into a kaleidoscope] *
26. A weaker dynamic affliction is extinguished by a stronger IF it is similar in nature.
27. Curative powers depend upon the symptoms they produce being similar to the symptoms of the disease, but stronger.
Personally, I think every Homeopath should conduct a proving. I think it is their duty and should be of prime interest to anyone with a serious interest in homeopathy and with a view to practicing.
Provings are really simple to do. And can be fun and intriguing as well.
All you need are willing people. If you can only get one or two people willing to be provers, then so be it. But the proving will be more substantial with more provers.
As well as provers you need supervisors with relatively close contact. The job of the supervisor is to take the prover’s case, to make sure they are of a reasonable fit state of health. As this is quite rare you can take a broad stand on this as long as any ongoing personal symptoms are carefully noted and put into context - sometimes you get cured individual symptoms during a proving and that does have some value but this cannot be assumed that the same symptoms will be cured in another person - so they are not true proving symptoms.
The secondary job of the prover is to make sure all goes well; that the prover is taking the remedy and recording the symptoms diligently, so they need to communicate regularly. If there are any problems the supervisor is also there to help and resolve any difficult problems.
A main supervisor is also needed - one who will be collating all the data at the end of the proving.
Once a case has been taken the prover is provided with the remedy and instructions on how to take and then proceed.
Provings do not last more than a couple of weeks - sometimes longer or shorter.
The data is then passed onto the main supervisor who will compile the notes and pass those onto people in charge of repertories and materia medica.
It really is quite extraordinary how the symptoms evolve - some are truly strange, some become characteristic because all provers share them, some are common but all are valid.
The whole range of symptoms from Mind, Emotions and all Physical planes have to be recorded (including dreams). It might transpire that symptoms are recorded throughout the whole body and other times they show an affinity to specific organs - the fun part is that we just don't know what will transpire.
Because Homeopathy is utterly and totally dependent on provings, just imagine what it would be like to have ‘provings only’ repertories and materia medica. No toxic symptoms, no accidental curing symptoms, no guessed and assume symptoms, just accurate proving data. Our job would be so much easier if we were to know that every symptom in the repertories and materia medica were true proving symptoms. We would still need to know and understand the context by which those symptoms arise, for example, a delusion occurs only during a fever, but the accuracy would never be in doubt.
There are many remedies that homeopaths use that have still not been proved. And for those that have we should be re-proving them, why not? A modern update of Pulsatilla might reveal new insights. We need academies purely for homeopathic provings, not least to make sure we can cure as many people as possible.
So please try and conduct a proving - on yourself if necessary, just like Hahnemann did.