The Quintessence of Homeopathic Remedies

Recensie

This book review is reprinted from Volume 23, Autumn 2010 edition, with permission from Homeopathic Links.

Reviewed by Francis Treuherz, United Kingdom

This is a fascinating book of provings. I have referred to the book from time to time since it was published in the hope that I could put it to practical use and present a case. That is the problem with so many new provings appearing, to recall the information, to be able to use it at all. It is to my mind essential that there is an open system for updating our software. At the time of writing I can only find the Sea Horse, Hippocampus kuda in my much-loved and used-every-day ReferenceWorksTM program. But the author generously invites repertory makers and colleagues to email her for the full symptom lists.

I hope for agreement that we stick to Latin rather than colloquial names. So here they are again: Crataegus oxycantha, Mangifera indica, Oxygenium, Hippocampus kuda, Python reticulatus and Corvus splendens.

Having got that off my chest: it really is an enjoyable read as there is such variety. Not only the repertory work, but there are also descriptions of the substance, the proving process, themes and cases. How proving organisers then manage to encounter and cure patients with their new remedies is as uncanny as the descriptions of the reasons described for what to prove in the first place. "They just happen".

The proving processes also vary. For example, with Hippocampus the author is investigating a statement from Hahnemann about sensitivity of skin to the administration of medicines so the participants in the proving make the remedy and hold the pills but do not take them. It is single blind. There are precedents in that Hering reports strange sensations felt when potentising Lyssin in 1833. All of this does leave us open to doubters. How do our provings show demonstrably ethical and reproducible research results? The answer is they do not. Creative attempts by leaders in our field have not stemmed the tide of idiosyncratic provings. They are created as individually as we treat our patients.

Yet the very idiosyncrasy is what makes this particular book such a joy to read. The author's affection, good humour and love for her work and her patients shine through. The Kali part of me striving to study systematic orderly provings is confounded when reading this book like a collection of racy short stories.

This book review is reprinted with the permission from the Summer 2009 Edition of The Homeopath.

Reviewed by Annette Gamblin

The author and 'Master Prover' Chetna Shukla is undoubtedly a passionate and dedicated individual, who sees the partaking in provings or homeopathic pathogenetic trials (HPT), as a near spiritual experience. Her approach to methodology therefore is very much based on feelings, rather than on existing protocols such as those based on the guidelines laid down by Hahnemann in the Organon 121 - 143, carved out into a modern applied form by Jeremy Sherr in his Methodology, further formulated into guidelines by the ICCH, ECCH, and the Society of Homeopaths here in the UK.

In her book she has brought six different "individualising examinations" along to share with us, having worked with groups of provers numbering from four to eight, some of whom took part in more than one proving. Participants were chosen 'knowing' that the qualities needed in provers were there, as they were all people of her acquaintance.

Shukla remarks on the almost mystical qualities of many of her decision-making processes, in that she lets the substance "attract" the provers and her descriptions of the processes involved often include expressions such as "feelings" or "things just happen". She underlines this by quoting an Indian mystic, who contrasts the scientist dissecting a rose in order to understand it, with the impossibility of sticking a label called 'beauty; on any of the bottles. Her aim is not to dissect, but to present an individual and unique image of each proving. She therefore leaves the translation of the proving symptoms into rubrics to others, as she feels that "every mind has its own perception and sensitivity attuned to its individuality".

Each remedy is presented with some information on the substance itself, a short list of themes, some statements by provers, some rubrics and a case to show clinical verification.

In the light of the current climate vociferously challenging us to focus more on our science than on our art, and to be more visibly accountable, one could criticise this book on many levels. I would have just thought it interesting to see a comparison with the provings that have already been carried out by others. However, I enjoyed reading this book as the account of a beautiful and simple intention - to share the joy of a very personal and direct experience of our art.