Dear Bach,

Actually, it's Hahnemann in The Organon who says repeatedly that it is inappropriate to cause an aggravation in chronic disease and he says that
too strong an impression on the vital force, either through potency or unnecessary repetition,
could darn near kill somebody, and we saw that with Shirl who wrote in about her husband, fearing he might be dying from the Arsenicum 1M he had been aggravating from for over a month.

Having said that, high potencies are really quite appropriate in acutes and emergencies, which are often very intense and causing much agony, and so to match that energy with an intense potency is quite appropriate; and so, 30C and 200C are fine for your average acute. As Shirley said, if you start too high, you'll run out of potencies at some point.

For instance, if a flu is going to respond to Gelsemium 30C, and it often does, it's good to get the most out of this potency before moving up; for instance, your first dose might be Gels. 30 dry; half an hour later, Gels. 30 in water, half an hour later, Gels. 30 with 10 sucussions. At this point the patient may feel better, so the next dose may come 1 or 2 hours later.

At some point, it may be necessary to go up to 200 if the 30's have stopped working, and a 1M may even be needed at some point. I find that if I'm needing to go past 1M and find ultimately that I'm using a 50M, I've probably got the wrong remedy. I usually stop at that point and say, "Wait a minute, what's going on here!" and I'll switch over to what might be a complementary remedy in a 30C, and it will work perfectly. This doesn't mean that in something really severe, like a heart attack or a snake bite, that a 10M might not be a good idea.

You ask how high up I tend to go in an average chronic case. The case is usually cured before reaching 30C. I know how to prescribe LM's but the C potencies in water work just as well and are easier to explain to people and easier for people to get.

It's not just that people don't suffer with this kind of prescribing, it's also that this constant fear of antidoting and having to give rules to follow so you don't antidote is obviated: no coffee, etc.--and the patients will lie and tell you they're not drinking coffee, as Miranda Castro found out. So, people prescribing high potencies in chronic disease have a worry that their case is going to be spoiled by some antidoting factor, and I never have that worry because if the last dose is antidoted, the patient's going to take another dose soon, so it's not a concern.

Also, I can treat acutes without worry. If a patient gets an injury while on chronic treatment, or has periodic acutes, like menstrual cramps or migraines or asthma attacks or panic attacks, I can say, "I want you to take this Nat-mur 9C twice a day, and when your cramps start, stop the nat-mur and take this Mag-phos. 30C for the cramps, and when you feel better, go back on the Nat-mur.

So, you have a lot of flexibility in helping people here. It's not unusual for high potency prescribers to become furious if a patient proclaims proudly, "Guess what, I woke up with an awful headache this morning and I treated it myself with Nux Vomica 30C!" "You did what? Don't ever do that again!"

With low potency prescribing, you can actually encourage this kind of independence. I always say to patients,
"Listen, you've got to have a first aid kit and an acute prescribing book so you can take care of yourself in acutes and emergencies."

You ask, What if you knew someone wouldn't aggravate, what potency would you use? Well, in chronic disease, I would be concerned about over-shooting a person's vibration. I can always go up. I think David explained once, you can have the wrong remedy, but if it's close, in the ballpark, as it were, it will work in a 6C three times a day, but not in a 200C. Also, when you're working with children, who tend to be very vital, it's more appropriate to start the case with a high potency.

Even a high potency prescriber has to ask, "How debilitated is this patient? What shape is his energy in? Is he hypersensitive? Does he have multiple allergies? Is he on numerous allopathic drugs which may antidote a high potency? Even a high potency prescriber knows when he or she should drop down low; and a low potency prescriber has to evaluate if the patient is HYPOsensitive, under-responsive, not allergic, not on medications, very vital, no pathologies and hence able to take higher potencies, so both schools of thought have to make the appropriate evaluations.

The bottom line is, I just REALLY don't want to hurt anybody! And, it's not good for the profession to think that it has to hurt people before they can get better, it's just not true.

Snoopy