To Avalon: Yes, succussing raises the potency so you don't develop a tolerance or cause a proving or antidote the previous dose. There's no "ceiling" or time limit on keeping the bottle, just add alcohol if you're worried about purity or germs, etc. You can keep the bottle in the refrigerator--I do. Hitting your thigh with the bottle? I haven't heard of that one. It really doesn't hurt tapping the bottom of the bottle on your opposite palm--especially if you're using one of those 2 or 4 oz. amber bottles that you can now buy at most health food stores; they're such little things.

RDS: You raise an interesting point: can a remedy bottle be reused to "house" a different potency of the same remedy: no. The original remedy is always in there forever. You'd have to boil the bottle; but then, I don't know for how long, so I never do it.

Everything you said about how to prepare a water potency and take it is correct. NOW, this is the important thing: when the bottle gets near the bottom, JUST FILL IT BACK UP. That way, you don't lose any of the succussions you've put into it. It's no longer a 30C, as it started out. Maybe now it's a 31C, who knows; the point is, you don't go back to square-one. You fill the bottle back up with water and keep on going until that particular potency is just no longer working and you have to go up to a 200C or whatever.

I have never found the refrigerator or the plastic bottle to be a problem.

I have to echo the advice of Helena: It seems unlikely that a homeopath would prescribe a 30C twice a day for more than 3 or 4 days. Always you're looking to adjust your remedy according to your response to it. If you're starting to feel better, take less often. If there's a striking improvement, stop altogether and wait for the improvement to slow down before repeating. If you're getting an aggravation, again, stop the remedy and wait and see if an improvement follows. If it does, redose when the improvement slows down, but take less often. If there's no improvement when the aggravation wears off, it's probably the wrong remedy, or possibly the potency was too high, and you might try again with a lower potency.

It's hard to believe that someone actually had Helena taking the same remedy/same potency for 4 or 5 months without warning her to stop if she got worse. Well, one more horror story to add to our collection!

Snoopy

Yes well, we actually have the delusion that people with no or little prior understanding of homoeopathy can differentiate between a homoeopathic aggravation, a dissimilar aggravation, and an accessory symptom. Well it's not really all that surprising, a good deal of homoeopaths have difficulty too! This happens when we have a laconic attitude to prescribing that goes along the lines of...Oh just give Rx 6C a try and see what happens, 10 succussions, 2 or 3 times a day, stop when you start to feel better, or stop if you start getting better but you're actually feeling worse because that's an aggravation, or that symptom is a return of an old symptom - have you ever had a head cold or a bad period in your life before? Yes, well that's what it is then, Oh you feel like **** ? Sorry you must've taken too many doses. Take this new Remedy and if that doesn't work try X, Y or Z. Yes, good old mechanistic standard dosing, no individualization, no sensitivity scale, no worries. NOT!

Dear Snoopy,

It's what happened to me more than a year ago and only now having started to study Homeopathy I understood what must have happened. What made me write this comment is the sentence in RDS's posting about keeping the remedy in 30 C for a month to be taken twice a day, so I just meant that such a potency should not be take that long.

As to what happened to me, maybe I was not that clear, but I took the remedy for 4 weeks in 12 C(that was in France), after which I stopped taking it, of course, and felt well in the beginning, but 4 MONTHS LATER I started having the symptoms again. Of course at the moment I did not connect this to having taken the remedy 4 months AGO. At that time I was already in Japan, I went to a different place, and got the same one - Mercury, to be particular, that's when I began to wonder and ponder about things.

But of course, in both cases it is true that no warned me about stopping the remedy if I felt worse, which did not apply because the aggravations happened not WHILE I was taking the remedy, but some time AFTER that.

THank you very much for your concern, though, it's very kind of you!

WIth very best wishes,

Helena Z.

Chris,
Do ya sometimes feel like yer bangin yer head against the wall?

__________________
"The significance of a fact is measured by the capacity of the observer."
Carroll Dunham

thump...thump...thu

...was that the thud of a little more succussion?

Dear friends,

I hope it was not my posting that have upset you? Maybe I'm just imagining things and the "homeopathic" treatment has nothing much to do with this, there are always enough of other influences to affect us.

By the way, Lisa, may I ask if you've tried to use Boenninghausen's Repertory to study the remedies, as is suggested in the Introduction to the book? And I could not figure out how to use the very last section, but I should ask Hans Weitbrecht about that, I believe...

In any case are we all not trying to do something to really help people even if sometimes they get some wrong treatment, I thnk Vithoulkas in his book stressed that any allopathic treatment would do much more harm than some wrong homeopathic treatment...

With very best wishes and thanks to everyone (not that I'm an active member, but I always enjoy the discussions so much!)

Helena Z.

Hi Helena,
You didn't upset anyone'. I'm not upset - and don't think anyone else is either .

No, I haven't done much with my Boenninghausen Repertory. As you know, our studies are focussed around Kent for now. I find it too mind-boggling to try to learn both at the same time. But, I understand some basics about the differences in the two methods - and so later, I will definitely delve into Boenninghausen and use it!

As for learning the remedies per the Introduction - I can't recall reading that particular recommendation there. When I get some time I'll go have a peek again -- it's probably a good method to learn MM!

Sincerely,
Lisa

__________________
"The significance of a fact is measured by the capacity of the observer."
Carroll Dunham

PS - Helena - as for your other remarks - I have never questioned anyone's intentions.

But, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

I just think that handing out a prescription carries a heavy responsibility with it. I'm finding lately, that cases/threads are harder for me to feel comfortable commenting on and participating. While I want to participate so I can learn, teeth, etc - I don't want to misinform anyone either. Well...that's my perspective where I am with my studies at the moment, etc....
Best wishes,
Lisa

__________________
"The significance of a fact is measured by the capacity of the observer."
Carroll Dunham

Helenaz,
the rubrics at the back of the Boenninghausen repertory are remedy relationships. There was some good information on how those can be used, on a previous thread which I can't now find, but maybe Ozzie can remember, as I think she contributed, as did Chris, Hans & others.
Good luck with the study.
Louise.