HOW DOES HOMEOPATHY WORK? - Homeopathic Research, Physical, Clinical Research

By Brian R. Connelly

http://home.attbi.com/~brc17

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Cluster mixtures can generate many different isomeric forms: for example, a cluster of 21 molecules can exist as one of 18 different geometric isomers or represent 18 unique ‘bits’ of information. To illustrate the subtle ways in which a molecule can exist in different unique identities, Fig.1 (above) shows two isomeric forms for a icosahedral type cluster having 280 water molecules.

If each isomer represents one item of information, and if they turn out to be the bio-active species in homeopathy, then millions of different information ‘bits’ can carried in a mixture of isomeric water clusters.

Interestingly, alcohol forms clusters with water also (Wisniewski, 2001) although one author (Yui, 2000) , using mass spectrometry, claims some mutual destruction of cluster ions (not neutral clusters). Being an associative liquid, i.e. having hydrogen-bonds between molecules, one is not surprised that alcohol can form its very own clusters, but note that alcohol is never entirely anhydrous: 95% v/v ethanol is usually the purest one can get for remedy preparation.

Later, it will be seen that the presence of alcohol actually favorable to the moderation of succussion energy (by increasing vapour pressure), which means that succussion is not inherently destructive but , on balance, creates the water clusters that represent the remedy.

So, if it is given that the water clusters are the moieties that carry remedy information, what is the role of succussion and dilution in their preparation?

It's actually quite easy to create cavitation conditions by succussion. If you crack your knuckles, the popping noise you hear is cavitation. Similarly, rapping a remedy vial on the spine of your repertory creates cavitation, demonstrated by the small bubbles you often see.

The imploding cavity (about 150 microns in diameter) is captured in a high-speed flash photomicrograph, where the implosion heats the vapor inside the cavity to 5,500 degrees Celsius (plasma conditions). Since this cavity formed near a solid surface, the implosion is asymmetric, expelling a jet of liquid toward the surface of the container at roughly 400 kilometers per hour. Both the heat and the jet’s kinetic energy contribute to a unique chemical environment in the liquid.

Similarly, in industrial applications, mechanical cavitation (succussion) can also generate plasma conditions which usually tend to destroy molecules. A plasma is a gas-like state where molecules can be disrupted to an atomic and/or ionic state. The plasma constituents can also reform into different molecular arrangements, particularly on liquid or solid surfaces.

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. In Fig. 3, below, a typical water cluster size-concentration distribution spectrum is shown for distilled water.

The creation of a potentized remedy finds a parallel in the semiconductor industry where a pure germanium crystal is impregnated or “doped” with a tiny amount of impurity, which entirely changes the germanium crystal properties and makes it a semiconductor.

In similar fashion, each remedy starting-tincture (or triturate) is theorized as “doping” an alcohol/water mix to create a spectrum of different sized and shaped water clusters, such a spectrum being unique to that starting remedy material.

At the same time , the "doped" water cluster mix engages in a series of chemical reactions of its own where each water cluster is exchanging energy and water molecules with its neighbors, until a mix of stable sizes is developed and a characteristic “mass spectrum” of cluster sizes is obtained which, again, is expressive of the fundamental nature of the starting remedy.

chemical/physical conditions. Having reagent feedstock (fresh dilution water) in

product (specific water clusters), just as a catalyst might also facilitate this “forward” process. Some reactions could also be autocatalytic, that is, the products (i.e. clusters) themselves speed up the process.

When the cavitation energy of succussion is applied, all the reactions in the cluster mix are accelerated until the entire solution approaches a stable spectrum.

Note that, in order be self-consistent, different methods of preparation use differing “standard” numbers of succussions. According to our cluster theory, however, different degrees of succussion results in different degrees of approach to a final stable state and hence differences in observed efficacy for a given “potency”. (Thus the Jenichen remedies of the nineteenth century may have been “preferred” because a large amount of succussion energy was applied throughout remedy preparation.)

Now let’s look again at the role of dilution when the next stage of potency is being prepared:

As you add fresh water, you are restoring the original stoichometric "excess" of this reagent and “driving forward” all the creative (and competing) reactions that form clusters. This time, however, note that the starting conditions have changed……. now there is much less starting “doping” material and, second, we have starting clusters that were not there in the first preparation stage.

This changes the cluster spectrum and narrows it towards a different preferred configuration. Just like distilling alcohol, this dilution/succussion process is the

typical “fractionation” process of separating and concentrating components in a mixture. Fractionation is well known in other processes, e.g. freeze–drying of coffee.

Figure 4. Concentration(Dose) and Cluster Size Distribution as a Function of Potency.

Now, in the simplest example, suppose that each unique water cluster carries the information corresponding to a unique remedy symptom. (In fact, several isomers/cluster types may be necessary to represent a symptom). Then Fig. 4 (above) shows that the remedy mixture becomes more symptom-specific (narrower range) when the potency is raised and represents a higher concentration in the mix (greater height) of those specific clusters.

This may accord with your own clinical experience of ‘going high’ and why lower potencies and more frequent dosing may be better in acute cases if you are not sure of the exact remedy to prescribe.

A corollary of this model is that, at lower potencies, the symptom ‘picture’ of two (or more) remedies appear to overlap. Figure 5 (below) illustrates how this may be so. Thus either remedy A or B may “cure” symptom 2.

With further succussion and dilution of each of the remedies, as shown in Fig. 6 (below), Remedy A may be the only one that “cures” Symptom 1 whereas Remedy B may only “cure” Symptom 3. With the narrowing of each remedy spectrum as potency is raised, neither has now much effect on Symptom 2.

Besides explaining the Banerjis’ experience (above), this model theory explains Borland’s observation that:

“It is sometimes said that certain drugs are effective in high potency and certain drugs only effective in low. I do not think this is so. The reason certain medicines have been found effective more commonly in low potency turns on the point of general similarity. Most of the drugs which are use exclusively in low potencies have not been fully proved; we have no knowledge of their finer differentiating points, we only have a knowledge of their broader effects. So when you use one of the these drugs in a higher potency you cannot accurately match the finer differentiating symptoms of the case. The higher you go, the more accurate the prescribing must be; in low potency a general similarity is enough to give an effect.” (Borland, 1939)