Thanks for your help with my case. I had a couple of questions about successions:

1)In order to do this right, how small of a bottle of water do I use?

2)If the potency goes up every time I shake the bottle, then why would I ever need to move to a higher potency? (ie. move from 12C to 15C). If I had to move to 15C, for example, then at least initially, wouldn't I be reverting to a lower potency then 12C with lots of succussions?

I will definately try the succussions approach...just curious about these questions. Thanks.

Almost forgot...is it essential that the bottle be kept in the fridge?

ng,
The amount of water a pellet is disolved in is insignificant, just as the number of pellets is insignificant... when you dose, whether you use a drop or a cup is insignificant...Succussion is what increases the potency...the reason you may go up in potency is because succussing the same container only makes small changes to the potency...it requires dilution and succussion to significantly change the potency.....

HOWEVER, if you are dosing with LM's , the amount of substance and succussions becomes significant.

Denise

Dear Ng,

Go to "Call Me Sam"'s thread, page 4, and read a post near the end where I quoted from para. 247 of the Organon wherein Hahnemann explains why succussions are necessary if you plan to take repeated doses of a remedy. As Denise says, any size bottle, even a small spring water bottle with some of the water poured out (not full), with one-three pellets dropped in, is fine. Pound into your opposite palm 5-10 times(succuss) before each dose, in order to keep the case moving, prevent a "proving" and to prevent antidoting the previous dose, which is to say, the remedy's positive effect that it's had so far.

You can keep it refrigerated to keep it out of the light, which I think is bad for the remedies.

Snoopy

Dear ng,

Each pellet of a remedy is a quantum of energy. Hahnemann is quite specific, you only need one poppy-sized pellet to make up a dose.

It was an American homoeopath, James Kent, who believed that immaterial energy was not quantifiable, that is, it didn't matter whether you took one pellet or a whole bottle of pellets you still only got one dose of the energy of the remedy. Kent was influenced in this regard by his Swedenborgian faith.

I would advise against the practice of pouring several pellets into a medicinal solution. This can adversely affect someone with a hypersensitive constitution because it makes a stronger dose. One pellet only is necessary, why use more?

In his earlier days Hahnemann used to administer the dose as a dry pellet. There is nothing wrong with this method but the rules for repetition of the dose are rather limited.

Hahnemann later changed his posology methods and began dissolving the pellet in water. Each time he repeated the dose he would dissolve another pellet in another glass of water. He found this method still had its limitations.

His final method was the split-dose or the divided dose. This means you dissolve one pellet in a 4oz or 6oz or 8oz bottle. You succuss the bottle each time before you take a dose. In this way you are only taking the one pellet, but the dose is being modified each time.

In order to move to a higher potency there must be dilution and succussion at the ratios of the potency involved. Succussion alone, or dilution alone, does NOT move the remedy to a higher potency. But you must modify the dose each time in some way when you repeat a dose. Modifying the dose serves to actively change the remedy within the same potency level.

It is not necessary to jump to higher potencies with each new dose (it really depends on the individual case). Sometimes merely MODIFYING the dose of the same potency is all that is required to keep the case progressing.

To modify a dose you can increase the number of succussions, increase the number of teaspoon or tablespoon doses, or take the dose more frequently. Conversely if the dose is too strong, you can decrease all or any of the above. I am generally opposed to the "fill up a bottle, throw in a few pills, succuss 10 times, and take a mouthful" method. It is haphazard.

Chris,
I have no dispute with the info you have provided , your directions on changing the consecutive doses within the same potency is how I was taught to use LM's....
As relates to 'C' potencies, my experience in using the remedies and the fact that the size of pellets remedies come in vary considerably seem to verify to me that quantity of substance is insignificant. In diluting remedies in water I have used one larger pellet as well as one poppy seed pellet and have not perceived a significant difference in ability to cure or in aggravation...I have seen the number of succussions make a tremendous difference in creating aggravation.
Most of my dosing is done in acute situations on animals who are presenting unmistakeable symptoms and their response cannot be influenced...they are always dosed in water dropped on the mucous membranes because that is the practical way to get it done, no effort is made to control the amount reaching the gums other than it needs to be at least a drop, sometimes it turns out to be a large amount... usually one dose of a correctly selected remedy does the job...I have a few that are prescribed for chronically and they are dosed in the same manner succesfully, in fact I have not seen a significant aggravation in any of the chronic cases.... my experience with my own dosing and the few humans I have treated has been the same, just my observation... Denise

It's true that you only need one pellet; but if you're not using the LM scale, the directions for which are very specific (one #10 pellet), and 2 pellets happen to accidently fall out of the bottle instead of one into the water bottle, this is not something to fear, and the prospect that someone could actually hurt themselves on such a water potency would be the overwhelming exception; but with a low potency, the patient would recover rather quickly anyway, and then you would adjust your dose to prevent further aggravations--that's a whole other topic.

Everything I've seen in the Organon--6th ed.--says you must succuss before each dose, even if only 2 succussions. See footnote "a." of para. 247.

Snoopy

Chris,
Thankyou for the food for thought...as I indicated before my human prescribing is much more limited than for animals, and of course the more experience you gain the more EXPERIENCE you gain...I will keep your experience in mind and maybe do some re-reading...
Denise

Chris, get a hold of yourself! Just to create some perspective here, no one at any time has ever written to this board to say, "The 6C I'm taking every day is causing a horrible aggravation, what should I do?"

But on the other hand, many letters, too numerous to count, have started with something like, "The 200C of (remedy) my homeopath told me to take every week is causing my hair to fall out, what should I do?" This, I submit to you, is the problem in homeopathic prescribing: "macho" homeopathy and a love affair with high potencies.

Why you persistently go after me, the only conservative prescriber on the board, who dares not to start every case with a 200C, and who has tried repeatedly to acquaint people with what the 6th ed. of the Organon is all about, is something I'll never understand; but I'm sure now that you're going to tell me that if you continue to take a 6C daily in unmodified doses, beyond the need for the remedy,
and without regard to aggravations, that even the lowly 6C can cause much harm. I know that. I try to tell people that. "Stop the remedy," I always say, "if you get worse."

Snoopy

Denise,

None of my remedy stock in Centesimal potencies are poppy-seed sized pellets. Still, for the last year and a half when I have prescribed them, I've measured out one pillule in a 4oz solution. Dosage from this solution depends on the individual situation.

The reason I standardize my posology to this extent is because (apart from following Hahnemann's example) it allows me to discern remedy reactions more accurately, especially in the same patient when they are repeating a dose. Please note I'm referring to on-going case management procedures in chronic cases. If the reactions are striking one way or another I can at least be sure it has nothing to do with the patient having been given a haphazard dose of the potency. The reaction comes down to the choice of remedy given.

This has proved to be a sound platform for me to work from.

My remedies come from 3 different pharmacies. I've observed differences between them when administered to the same patient. One pharmacy I just don't use anymore.

I agree with you that the nature of acute illness and the delivery of medicines must be tailored to the situation at hand - especially if you don't want to lose your hand. In my limited experience of treating animals - cats, dogs, caged birds, a flying fox (fruit bat), I've been more than satisfied with squirting a dropper of solution into the animal's mouth without undue attention to the amount.

Snoopy,

"...and the prospect that someone could actually hurt themselves on such a water potency would be the overwhelming exception."

How many one-off exceptions do you need to be responsible for before you take notice?
Do you operate a homoeopathic business?
Do you practise homoeopathy on people (apart from your family) away from this BB?
Do you have experience with sitting with people whom you have aggravated and explained to them why they have lost income because they're unable to attend work because of the aggravation you have caused to them from your indiscriminate prescribing?
Thank goodness these cases are the exceptions. Let's not add to their numbers.