Dear Elaine, These are good questions that deserve well thought out answers.
Why would a 30 times dilution of one part in 10 (1 part remedy plus 9 parts of 88%water, 12% alcohol) be either desirable or necessary? (As I understand it the 12% alcohol is used to "stabilize" the dilutions at each step along the way, though Glen could say. I don't use alcohol in my dilutions.) As you say the dilution factor is immense and any organisms present in the original would be diluted long past recovery. And if there is a pattern transfer from one dilution to the next, why isn't one or two dilutions sufficient? Why go to ten or twenty or, for heaven's sake, thirty (which is way beyond even an Avogadro's number)? And if some impurity was being removed, why wouldn't the pattern of the impurity be transfered along with everything else? Of course you are right that someone long ago has already asked these questions. And they (she) went to great lengths to satisfactorily answer them. I don't know how many people have pursued such answers, but Lily Kolisko, who was something of a student of Rudolf Steiner's, made up potencies from 1x to 30x and in several cases all the way to 60x of all the various so-called BD preps. She used these on small batches of virtually identical wheat kernals to sprout them and measure their root and leaf growth as compared to plain water controls. She then plotted the results on graphs. The results of this incredibly meticulous work showed that there was a cyclical up and down or stimulative/suppressive effect on the growth of the wheat seeds as one progressed through the series of potencies. Effects built up over a few potencies to a maximum stimulation (growth considerably more than the control) and then fell off over the next few potencies until a minimum (growth considerably less than the control) occurred and then cycled back up to a new maximum and down to a new minimum, etc. (Her published research can be found in the book AGRICULTURE OF TOMORROW, which you may have to do a used book search for.) Why? Well, it seems clear we are working with wave patterns. They surely must be three or more dimensional, but in their simplest representation we can imagine them to be two dimensional waves such as we are familiar with if we graph a sine wave. Homeopathy is called homeopathy precisely because medicines are used that as closely as possible mimic the symptoms of the disease. Arsenicum Album (white arsenic or arsenic trioxide), for example, produces symptoms that are virtually identical to what occurs in cases of ptomaine poisoning. Now you wouldn't go giving someone with acute ptomaine poisoning a spoonful of white arsenic. Rather you give them Arsenicum Album 30c (30 dilutions of one part in 100) and interestingly enough immediate relief is the common experience. Theory has it that 30c white arsenic cancels out the ptomaine reaction because, though it is a virtually identical pattern, it is 180 degrees out of PHASE with the wave pattern of the ptomaine reaction. You know, if you have two identical waves and their phase relationship is a perfect match, crest is on top of crest and trough on top of trough, the wave pattern is reinforced and the amplitude of the waves increases ( usually doubles). But if they are 180 degrees out of phase they cancel each other out and amplitude goes flat, the wave patterns cancel each other because crest is on top of trough and their sum in terms of amplitude is zero. It seems pretty clear that the dilution process changes the phase relationship of the wave pattern. That was seemingly obvious from Kolisko's work and all the graphs she generated. Homeopaths often choose a potency by dowsing (commonly with a pendulum) to select the appropriate potency. One potency may stimulate, where another may suppress. Usually in our agricultural work we are trying to establish a pattern that either is not there or is not very strong. So we are trying to stimulate. But that isn't always the case. In the correction of imbalances sometimes it is a good idea to tone down a process that is too rampant. There is more to it than this, of course. For example, low x potencies often are used for chronic conditions, while mid-range c potencies often are used as acute remedies. John E. W. Keely in his study of sympathetic vibratory physics identified and differentiated basic vibrations and their harmonics according to amplitude, velocity, mode, sympathy, number and periodicity. So wave patterns (or more properly vortex patterns) can be fairly complex. To a large degree we are fumbling around in the dark, but there's been quite a bit of map making and we do know quite a few things that work. The process of serial dilution and succussion is pretty tedious and prone to error. All those little bottles are a nightmare to file away and keep track of, and it can get expensive if you do a lot of it. Which is why I want to show you my Malcolm Rae instrument where each remedy is reduced to a pattern card and the instrument is made so you can turn the dial on a variable resistor and dial virtually any potency you might concievably need. The instrument reads the card and creates the chosen potency in the well, imposing it on whatever receptive medium is placed there in the well. There is one card per remedy from which any potency can be made. A file of 1,000 or 2,000 remedies takes up very little space and is a low cost, reliable way of making the chosen potency every time. Glen is diluting and succussing and using alcohol to ensure stability. I admire his energy, dedication and perseverance. I take a little simpler route. Actually I think it yields better results. Hopefully this is beginning to make more sense. Let me know your thinking. Best wishes, Hugh Lovel >Glen - I hope you can make the time to answer Elaine's questions _Allan > >> > Elaine >>> How do you explain the success of potentised BD preps as fungal or pest >>> protection when they are firstly in 12% alcohol and diluted to 10X 30??? >>> >>> Whats doing it? >>> >>> Glen Atkinson >> >>Hi Glen - It would be interesting to know just what is going on from an >>organism point of view with this kind of prep. But, again, first principles. >> >>A 12% alcohol solution - which I assume to be 12 ml of alcohol in 100 ml of >>water - is 120 ppm, a fairly hefty dose of alcohol for most organisms. That >>will kill many organisms in the solution, but not all things. It will select >>for certain species of bacteria mainly. The dilution factor is immense. >>There wouldn't be enough alcohol left to worry about. The organisms would >>long since be diluted beyond recovery point. >> >>If I understand this right, and IF you can show that these preps actually >>have >>an impact on organism activity, it suggests the kind of thing Hugh Lovell >>talks about. That there is something in the suspension that imposes an >>energy >>pattern on the material, that is transfered with each step, instantly >>patterning all of that material in the new suspension, which is then >>transfered to the next step. Why is it that one dilution does not prove >>adequate? If the patterning was going to happen, why doesn't it work to use >>the first or second dilution, instead of going through to the 30th? What is >>the benefit of diluting that many times? >> >>Is it that some - hum - impurity has to be removed? But then why isn't the >>impurity in the water still there after 30 dilution steps? Clearly I haven't >>read enough, because I would imagine someone has asked these questions >>before. But it might be easier for me if you could just explain to me, >>instead of me having to wade through the rather long-winded, and >>not-to-the-point books and papers I've tried to read. >> >>Sorry to be short on time, but in the words of nearly every business owner I >>know, no one's paying me for this..... >> >>Elaine Ingham
