Chapter 10 - How are Homeopathy Medicines Prepared? What are Homeopathic potencies?

To answer these questions, I will take you into the process of discovery of the methods of preparation of homeopathy medicines. When Dr. Hahnemann established the 'Law of Similia', he started prescribing the medicines he had tested. He used to give crude, material doses as was the norm those days. For e.g.., If a patient came with symptoms of malaria resembling the symptom picture produced by china bark, the patient would be given the crude extract of the china bark (cinchona) as a medicine. Dr. Hahnemann observed that these crude medicines, although acted curatively, produced lot of unnecessary side effects. He also realized that many substances, which are poisonous in nature, can alter the human state of health, but can not be used in crude form. For e.g.., When a person ingests some arsenic, the person suffers from severe vomiting and watery diarrhea. But arsenic being a poison could not be used on the law of similars for similar cases of cholera. To reduce these undue limitations, Dr. Hahnemann started to reduce the dose of drugs. He would take 1 part of medicine, mix it with 9 or 99 parts of alcohol or water or sugar of milk and would shake it or grind it. While experimenting with this process, he soon realized that the medicines prepared in this way were acting better than the crude medicines. With every successive dilution, he found that the medicines were acting better and more deeply. Exactly when and how Dr. Hahnemann stumbled upon this method of drug preparation is not known. This discovery has become one of the most controversial discovery of medical science ever. Now a days, medicines are prepared in two basic scales of dilution - decimal and centesimal. In decimal scale, the medicine is diluted in a ratio of 1:9 in every successive preparation (potency) (1X, 2X, 3X, 4X...and so on). In centesimal scale, the medicine is diluted in a ratio of 1:99 in every potency (1C, 2C, 3C, 4C..and so on). The medicines are strongly shaken after every dilution (there is a specific method for shaking). The controversy starts here because after 24th decimal dilution (24X potency) and after 12th centesimal dilution (12C potency), the medicine gets so diluted that even 1 molecule of the original drug substance can not be traced in the medicine(!!!!! the Avogadro's number is crossed)). Yet the medicines work! and work better than the lower potencies. This is a big scientific puzzle. Our current concepts of physics and chemistry are not able to explain what is left in these medicines at such dilution that works curatively. A 12C is considered a low potency by homeopaths. Homeopaths frequently use potencies as high as 30C, 200C, 1000C, 10000C and beyond. The current hypothesis is that the method of shaking somehow transfers the 'electromagnetic signature' of the drug substance to the diluting vehicle. What this signature is and how it gets transferred should be left as work for physicists. What is important for the patient and the homeopath is that the medicines work and work very effectively. It has been clinically verified millions of times. Very soon, you yourself will start appreciating the power of small doses of homeopathy.