What is a Homeopathic Proving

 

“ If man thinks of the totality as constituted of independent fragments, then that is how his mind will tend to operate, but if he can include everything coherently and harmoniously in an overall whole that is undivided, unbroken, and without a border then his mind will tend to move in a similar way, and from this will flow an orderly action within the whole. ”
David Bohm

Homoeopathic proving is the process in which new remedies are discovered for use in homoeopathic treatment. Provings involve provers, 'healthy' individuals taking a newly prepared homoeopathic remedy. A prover, under the sway of the remedy, is believed to exhibit symptoms that reflect the properties of the substance. The symptoms experienced by provers are collectively analysed to build the foundations of a new remedy picture.

The process of proving has been credited to the founder of homoeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann. During his life Hahnemann proved at least a hundred different remedies and built the basis of the Materia Medica that is used today. During the hundred and fifty years since, some two and a half thousand remedies have been added, some through rigorous provings, others through noting the effects of accidental poisonings. Some homoeopaths feel that there are now more medicines than we need and that new provings are a waste of time; others feel that there are still many important medicines to be discovered and that old remedies need to be reproved both to clarify their symptoms and to bring them into focus in the light of the changes in society over two hundred years.

Hahnemann was, among his many skills, what we would call today a research scientist and the provings that he conducted were of a very high standard. Sadly not all those that followed him were as scrupulous and many very poor provings were conducted over the years. Over the last twenty years there has been enormous growth in professional homoeopathy all over the world but especially in Europe. Provings have now become much more common and the way in which they are conducted is much more rigorous than it was just a few years ago.

A major force in this change has been the homoeopath Jeremy Sherr. Not only has he given us valuable pictures of remedies such as Chocolate, Hydrogen and Scorpion, but he developed and published a protocol for the conduct of provings that is rigorous and based on the work of Hahnemann.
Provings should be conducted on healthy individuals; however, very few people would claim to be a hundred per cent healthy and this is one of the many areas where compromises have to be made. No proving is perfect, but if it is well conducted the imperfections are above board and can be taken into account when it is interpreted. Most of the provings done today are done by student homoeopaths, just as they were in Hahnemann's time.

When Hahnemann began proving remedies he worked primarily on the poisonous substances that were then used as medicines. These included minerals such as Sulphur, Gold and Mercury, and plants such as Cinchona, Deadly Nightshade and Monkshood. After a while he discovered that there are many substances that are thought to be harmless but which, when potentized, were found to cause symptoms in provers and to cure those same symptoms in patients. Common table salt and the Calcium carbonate found in oyster shells are examples of these substances which have become some of the most fundamental and powerful remedies used by homoeopaths.
Insusbstantial things, such as magnetism, were also potentized and proved. It is often not realised that only a few years ago a medical student's basic equipment consisted of a stethoscope, a blood pressure gauge and an electronic magnetic field generator. Constantine Hering, one of Hahnemann's students, discovered the powerful venom of the Bushmaster snake in the Amazon jungle. He accidentally absorbed some through a cut and so conducted the first proving of Lachesis. The Bee and the Tarantula spider also became valuable remedies.
There is now a well-developed protocol for how substances are used. Minerals and chemicals are used in their purest form. Either the whole of a plant or its most active part is tinctured in alcohol and water. Insects are used whole, which creates problems for vegetarian and vegans when the remedies Apis (bee), Tarantula or Scorpion are indicated. Reptiles are represented by their venoms. Mammals are represented by their milks. This started with dog's milk, which was a folk remedy for Diptheria and which, when proved, was shown to be a valuable remedy. Bird remedies are made from a feather and/or a drop of blood.

Alternative medicine is often criticised by conventional scientists as completely unscientific. Homoeopathy, since the time of Hahnemann, has been based on the clear, scientific collection of evidence, and the best homoeopathy continues to be so.

 

Provings pre-requisites

The pre-requisites for the prover, drug & the physician are the following:

the PROVER:

- Must be healthy physically and mentally
- Should be honest, lover of truth that he can narrate symptoms exactly
- Should have the capacity to express symptoms in exact manner
- Should be keen observer
- Should be introspective that can look within himself
- Should be conscientious

 

the DRUG or SUBSTANCE:

- Must be pure
- Must be genuine
- Must be of known origin
- Should be full of energy
- Indigenous drug procured fresh juice should be mixed with alcohol then should be given
- Exotic drug should be procured fresh, made into tincture of dry powder, to be taken with equal volume of water
- Gum and resin, salts should be dissolved in water then to be given
- Medicines obtained in dry form are made into powder should mixed with hot water and taken as infusion



the PROVING DIRECTOR:
- Should be unprejuidiced
- Should give full attention to the prover
- Should trust his prover
- Should be Circumspective
- Should have the capacity of proper judgement
- Should have clear knowledge about narcotic, alternating action, idiocyncrasy, surrogate

 

Hahnemann established experimental human pharmacology by Proving Drugs  on healthy human beings, obtained data on the pure effects of drugs which he recorded in his ‘Chronic Diseases’ and in the ‘Materia Medica Pura’. He arranged all the datas according to a scheme of locations and presented in a systematic manner. He ensured complete objectivity by faithful recording the effects as experienced by the provers, retaining their language as far as possible. In his introductory remarks his personal comments and observations have been recorded separately. Even today his directions are rigidly adhered to in the Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia. 

In our Materia Medica, symptoms of many drugs have been recorded, based only on the symptoms of poisoning and not as the effects of drugs provings.  These toxicological symptoms may have their value but they should be kept apart as very often it is not advisable to take them into account in medical prescriptions.

The effects of medicines can be ascertained from different sources, including : 

- Proving on healthy human being  

- Toxicological studies in animals

- Clinical experiences

The human Drug-Proving could not be done to the extent of producing irreversible pathological changes. The pathological data owe their origin chiefly to clinical observations, supported by reports of accidental poisoning and a few animal provings that were conducted. Thus Homoeopathic Materia Medica is  essentially a record of human functional pathology.

It is known to all that certain substances which is inert in crude state, acquire remarkable powers to influence susceptibility when they are prepared as per direction in homoeopathic pharmacopoeia and administered according to definite plan as has done in well conducted provings.

It is also required to know the following:

Nature of the   Drug

      Susceptibility

Dose

Repetition

STRONG (Toxic, Poison, Narcotic)

LOW

Potentised form

Less Quantity

Stop at the onset of slightest action.

 MEDIUM

MODERATELY HIGH

Potentised

Moderate quantity

Repeat till the action starts. Should not repeat until reaction becomes statusquo.

 WEAK

 HIGHER

Frequent

Large, crude

Frequent repetition.

In a proving, a drug is administered till it meets the susceptibility and evoke the response. Further stimulation is then suspended, otherwise, clarity of response tends to get blurred. The specific capacity of the drug to affect health acts on the susceptibility in a prover to give rise to the final picture in a drug proving.  General experience indicates that a sensitive and gracile subject is extremely susceptible; where as, the coarse type requires repeated stimulations through the lower potencies. Not all provers manifest susceptibility to lower potency. Some of the finer indications have been obtained by provings conducted with the 30th potency and beyond. Inert substances require considerable release of energy through 30th potency and beyond before they affect susceptibility.

 

Essential knowledge in Drug Proving

Following are the knowledge essential for the purpose of Drug Proving :

 

PRECAUTIONS

RECORDING

DRUG IS SAID TO BE WELL PROVED

Should not over exert physically as well as mentally.

Should have no urgent business, this may district attention.

 Should do his daily routine works as previously.

 

It must be ADEQUATE, ACCURATE, COMPLETE.

 Physician must record the  information daily.

 In all cases primary actions are to be recorded except  narcotic drugs, here in narcotic drugs secondary action are to be recorded.

When :

No new symptoms occur even after repetition.

 Each symptom should be complete in order to its all elements.

Drug should be proved on the both sexes.

 It should be proved on different ages.

 

 In Homoeopathic Drug Provings on healthy subjects, volunteers (provers) receive the medicinally active substances over a definite period of time. All striking changes and symptoms affecting the body or psyche are than carefully recorded and evaluated and described in detail e.g. intensity of individual symptoms, their variation at different times of day, associated circumstances and modifying influences. All newly occurring symptoms, in this context, are taken as symptoms, which systematically collected to form the picture of the drug substances being proved.

 The details of physical and clinical examinations along with constitutional features (mental and physical attributes) are recorded in a ‘Pre-Trial Proforma’. This proforma is reserved throughout the period of proving and even after the trial is over, for reference, as and when required.

The purpose of provings is primarily to find the pictures of new remedies, or to deepen the understanding of old ones. There are, however, many important side effects. New remedies have helped many patients, who might never have been so deeply cured if remedies like Chocolate, Hydrogen and Scorpion had not been understood.
Also, it is strange how often fate puts people in a proving that helps them.

Provings are not always pleasant, some of the symptoms experienced can be painful or uncomfortable. It is important that provers have the support of the proving structure and of an experienced homoeopath. Sometimes the prover will become stuck in some part of the proving state and he will need another remedy, an antidote, to bring him out of it. However, almost all provers come out of the experienced unchanged, or more often, healthier, stronger and wiser.

Provings are also a powerful pedagogic tool. They help students to learn and understand the process through which the remedies they use came to be understood. They also help students to better understand what symptoms are and what they feel like. We all become so used to our own selves and our own symptoms that we do not see them clearly in ourselves or in our patients; a proving forces homoeopaths to look very closely at symptoms and so to understand what exactly a symptom is and what it means.

To get involved in a Drug Proving either as a prover or a supervisor, please contact us at research@visvitaliseducation.com

Next meeting about Drug Proving will take place Sunday, 21st February 2010 at ‘The Natural Healing Rooms’, Clonakilty, Co. Cork (Ireland). Next proving will begin in May 2010.