Meditative Provings 1

MEDITATIVE PROVINGS Sumrio

Meditative Provings.....................................................................................................................................1 Sumrio............................................................................................................................................................1 What are Meditation Provings and Dream Provings?...............................................................................1 MEDITATIVE PROVINGS A FORM OF GNOSIS...............................................................................1 Meditative Provings, ed. By Madeline Evans..........................................................................................5 Apis mellifica - A Paracelsan Meditative Proving...................................................................................9 WHAT ARE MEDITATION PROVINGS AND DREAM PROVINGS? In a meditation "proving" the prover hold a vial of the remedy and meditates upon the substance and then reports his/her "images." in a dream "proving" the prover is given the remedy (or sometimes just puts it under their pillow) and reports the content of their dreams for that night or a few nights. Meditation provings have been around a long time. Until Jeremy Sherr did a proving of adamas (Diamond), the only proving information about diamond was developed by Berhardt Fincke in an "Inductive Proving" when he had some very sensitive people hold a diamond or a 5M potency and then report their sensations-- this was in 1898. MEDITATIVE PROVINGS A FORM OF GNOSIS By C.Wansbrough published in Prometheus Unbound Vol.3 No 1 Autumn 1996 The pursuit of meaning is undoubtedly the hallmark of the human mind. Such a quest covers all aspects of the human condition and spirals in an ever increasing fashion towards knowledge. Knowledge in turn takes us beyond the particular towards the general, clarifying the workings of reality and allowing us in turn to fuel our desire for power and the domination of our cosmos. B. Lancaster draws a wonderful parallel between types of knowledge and the story in Genesis of the first brothers Cain and Abel.' The character of each relates to the derivation of his name: Cain from the Hebrew root Kana, to acquire, Abel from Hevel, meaning vapour or breath. These brothers portray, in archetypal language, the two options available to the human mind in its quest to know the world'........the first of these two options is the kind of knowledge which involves separation from the object ; knowing the object as a 'thing' to be acquired, controlled and manipulated. It involves an active grasping of the object in terms of familiar frames of reference. The second kind of knowledge is arrived at by fusion with object, knowing it from the inside. This involves a more passive reception of the object's qualities which defy analysis along familiar lines.' (1)The physicist Eddington made a clear distinction between these two form of knowing, calling the former symbolic and the latter intimate knowledge. While many authors may well have drawn similar distinctions, there is a certain amount of agreement on the distinguishing characteristics. The first mode is 'dualistic, ego enhancing and proceeds through conceptualisation: the second is direct and associated with a lowering of ego boundaries-- even feeling ourselves fuse with the object'.(2) Cain therefore comes to characterise very much the former mode, motivated by the desire to acquire and to distinguish clearly his own territory, and his relation to all objects. While Abel, signifying breath may imply the possibility of a direct ,unsullied contact with the world. Moreover these dissimilar modes which clearly divides the scientist from the mystic, have found to be not, merely a question of speculation, but to be based on distinct neurological functions of our right and left brain hemispheres. It has become clearly established through much research, especially with the Split Brain experiments done on epileptics in the 1960's, that the left hemisphere has been found to be predominantly involved with analytic processes, especially with the production of speech and appears to process input in a sequential manner. The right hemisphere, on the other

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hand , was found to be responsible for certain spatial and musical abilities and to process information simultaneously and holistically.(3) It can be said that these two modes of knowing are woven into the very fabric of our being, and are a necessary feature in our pursuit for meaning. Such meaning is at the forefront of our minds, in the very act of perception. This activity cannot occur in the absence of sensation, but the sense data constitute only the 'raw material' from which our conscious awareness of objects is constructed. We may be in direct contact with a world of sensations, nevertheless our awareness of things is the end product, of a long and complex process, beginning with the sense data of light, sound etc. and ending finally with the brain interpreting the information it has received from the sense organs. According to Ornstein we do not perceive objective reality but, rather, our own construction of reality-- our sense organs gather information which the brain modifies and sorts and this 'heavily filtered input' is compared with memories, expectancies and so on, until our consciousness is constructed as a 'best guess' about reality. (4) William James, in a similar vein, maintains that ' the mind, in short, works on the data it receives much as the sculptor works on his block of stone'. In other words the brain actively organises the world, a new-born babe, has been shown to be actively pursuing that quest in maximising sensory input so as to generate meaning. In many studies of a new-borns visual system, it has been shown that the new-born, is not born with an ability to make sense of the world, but with a powerful motivation to seek out the means to make sense of the world. Such a quest for meaning begins here and may later on be carried on in adulthood, and though the emphasis may be different, the result ie that quest to perceive or make sense of the world still remains embedded within the fabric of our being. It might be, of interest, to further elaborate on the research in the field of perception, and to demonstrate clearly how the mechanisms involved in the construction of reality appear to converge into an act of perception. Nevertheless since this article hopes to show how both modes of knowing operate in our homeopathic provings, I would like to draw attention to a further distinction in how we perceive and evaluate meaning in our daily lives. TWO KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE We know from bitter experience, the problems of evaluating right and wrong, and though we have certainly invested much energy in creating a creditable framework of knowledge through science, this has now become fraught with its own misgivings in evaluating truth. The knowledge of the mystic and shaman, so called intimate knowledge has left the shallow graves of unacceptability to vie with the scientific paradigm as an equally acceptable form of knowledge. Instead of science solving that quest for meaning which is the unenviable desire of the human condition, its merciless pursuit of the truth, a necessary corollary to its methodology, has left us in a state of infinite uncertainty. Declared Whitehead ' the progress of science has now reached a turning point. The stable foundations of physics have broken up...the old foundations of scientific thought are becoming unintelligible. Time, space, matter, material, ether, electricity, mechanism, organism, configuration, structure, pattern, function, all require reinterpretation. What is the sense of talking about a mechanical explanation when you do not know what you mean by mechanics.' (5) We are imbued with a desire for meaning, which is our fundamental state of being, every act, every movement, every perception becomes construed as part of our own world view. Nevertheless this meaning can be construed in one of two ways, and an important distinction can be made between reliable knowledge and meaningful knowledge. In an interesting article by Henry H. Bauer (6), he argues that the most reliable knowledge is map-like in its content, and is knowledge of how something should be, or how things can be done. Such information carries little if any inherent human meaning. For example a map of the underground is a reliable operational guide for taking a journey by train, but it does not offer reasons for embarking on the journey. On the other hand he argues that the most meaningful knowledge is that which is story-like(archetypal) and teaches us about values or brings some sort of insight into our own condition. Moreover agreement about such story-like information can not be forced by demonstration since it remains an intimate part of that individual experiencing insight in his own unique manner. Such a dialectic between reliability and meaning leads to many intractable positions, instead of actually trying to analyse the content of the discussion in terms of these two polarities. This distinction forces us to consider our original division between two types of knowing in a slightly different light, as it becomes clear that neither purely symbolic(objective) nor purely intimate (subjective) knowledge is readily possible, but instead it is useful to look upon knowledge as an amalgam of these two sorts of extremes.

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But the dangers of reliability tends to mask its possible unacceptability whereupon individuals mistake a map for the territory of knowledge, leading to a loss of meaning and creative potential. Reliable knowledge in its map like accretions is only a symbolic notation that represents a part of the territory. The latter is the world process in its actuality, a dynamic state which can only be actively understood from a story-like perspective, and depicted in colourful and mythological narratives. Now there is nothing damaging about reliable map-like or symbolic knowledge, it is immensely value and has been indispensable to civilisation. ' But the problem comes as soon as we forget that the map is not the territory, as soon as we confuse our symbols of reality with reality itself.' (7) The physicist Sir James Jeans explains: 'As the new physics has shown, all earlier systems of physics, from the Newtonian mechanics down to the old quantum theory, fell into the error of identifying appearances with reality: they confined their attention to the walls of the cave, without even being conscious of a deeper reality beyond.' To approach such a 'deeper reality beyond' we have to discover the actuality of the territory from which all our maps are drawn, or to put in Eddington's phrase to pursue ' an intimate knowledge behind the symbols of science'. PROVINGS A FORM OF KNOWLEDGE The pursuit of homeopathy has been based on the language of provings, an ongoing dialogue between nature and the individual, which has resulted in an ever-increasing materia medica. Such a dialogue has tended to emphasise objectivity as a goal, extracting a pattern of symptoms that were map-like in their reliability, and story-like in their meaningfulness. The process of provings is a unique situation which brings together both intimate and symbolic knowledge, and produces a tireless dialectic between both modes of knowing. The original emphasis placed on a proving and the need to construct a pattern which can be fitted into repertory language, acts to stress its symbolic role and has tended to ignore its role as a possible and unique mode of exploring nature intimately. The intimate nature of this exploration represents the more shamanic aspects of the therapy, and has begun to be noted in its own right, recently, with the increasing emphasis on shorter provings, dream provings and the most recent addition, meditative provings. What is apparent, is that in any provings, invariably the best or only creditable prover, will be a sensitive, an individual whose sole ability is to be able to intimately explore the entire range of the remedy, from profound archetype to the merest symptom. This ability which is profoundly shamanistic in import remains the most singularly successful feature of a good proving. Such individuals also represent those who perhaps have a far better knowledge of the territory or have at least gained profound insights into the very fabric of our existence. In contrast to this individual, most of the provers may develop a few symptoms but will actually gain very little insight from the experience. Jeremy Sherr in his own book on Provings(8), makes an interesting comment on the nature of provings 'through experiencing the new artificial persona of a remedy we travel to inner places that we would never otherwise have encountered.......thus we learn as much about our internal landscape as any traveller would learn of the various countries he or she passes through'. He then quotes Hahnemann, a footnote to Para 141, 'Again by such noteworthy observations on himself he will be brought to understand his own sensations, the way he thinks and feels(the essence of all true wisdom: know thyself); furthermore -something no physician can dispense with - they make him an observer.' So that by doing a proving we can illuminate a hidden part of ourselves, and come to know ourselves in far more intimate detail. Such an illuminating comment from Hahnemann himself, alludes to a significant, though sadly neglected fact, that not only can a remedy act as a medicine, but also the very act of intimate gnosis that ensues from a proving dialogue, can further the very depths of self-knowledge. Hahnemann was probably a sensitive or became more sensitive through a series of provings, and was equally aware just how important the actual process of proving was. Nevertheless his desire to create a credible and objective medicine, and his need for scientific validity, shifted his own insights away from the enormous depth of knowledge that could be gained in a serial ongoing dialogue with nature in potency. Notwithstanding his overwhelming need to establish his medicine on a rational basis, the few words alluded

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to above about self-knowledge still had time to register, even though it is only found in a footnote to one of his paragraphs. The realisation that by creating a dialogue between himself and nature remained one possible mode of gaining self knowledge and even insight into the very workings of nature herself. Equally enlightening is another observation in the same footnote that implies that in the process of proving one becomes ' an observer' This can be possibly interpreted in the language of modern psychology, that in using his intimate mode of knowing, the individual was also lowering his ego boundaries and possibly learning to stand aside from his own construction of his supposed reality and allowing a more intimate appreciation of the remedy. MEDITATIVE PROVINGS The question I now wish to ask after the aforementioned discussion, is whether meditative provings have a role to play in homeopathy, and whether they represent a valid language. It is quite clear that if one is able to create a circle of homeopathic practitioners who meditate regularly at least once a month for at least a period of two years, one very important feature will emerge, that is an emerging state of resonance. This factor alone entrains the group to a certain level which seems to apparently enhance its sensitivity and enable it to finally act a single multi-organism, thereby reduce its ego boundaries and prove in an intimate fashion whatever remedy had been ingested. It is equally possible that in a meditative state the remedies will tend to not only be more accessible to our unconscious and therefore less prejudiced since we will not be in our normal ego states, but in a far less defined and therefore less prejudiced state to comment on or about the experiences being gone through. Furthermore the fact that a remedy has the ability to illuminate even our deepest aspects, possibly unexplored because of our own inability to enter into intimate contact with anything but our symbolic constructions of reality, renders such meditative provings a valid and even unique mode of exploring the territory of our own being. It possibly renders luminous, connections normally difficult to make, and can be compared to a rather unique and selfexperiential tool for self-development. A number of important features, can emerge in these provings, the first is, an ongoing sensitivity develops which in turn can enhance one's own empathic abilities. Such sensitivity also relies on an ability to step aside from one's normal ego boundaries and become more of an observer, thereby gaining more depth about the remedy. It also strangely enough seems to leave few after effects, and in my experience no prover of this type has yet reported any severe or ongoing symptoms from the experience of a meditative proving. Equally important in the ongoing process of monthly meditative provings, is just how illuminating different remedies have become, and how one can enrich the inner landscape of the self by the such a dialogue with nature. For it is an accepted fact of any perennial wisdom that the self is but a mirror of nature, and it is only through such an exchange that one can gain insight into the fabric of reality. It is no soliloquy that we engage in, but a veritable treasure trove of intimate knowledge, and only this form of proving could be said to truly create the shaman of the 21st century. It is by creating an ongoing sensitivity in this veritable manner, that one can open oneself up to limitless possibilities, as provings of this nature take on the aspects of a contemplative role. Observer and observed gain insights into each other, as the limits of our perceptual constructions fall away, and it becomes possible to explore in a creative fashion our inner selves, by comparing and contrasting the dynamics between remedy and observer. Such a shamanic experience becomes a poetry of intimacy, and in the Defense of Poetry Shelley captures the point with characteristic subtlety ' Poetry defeats the curse which binds us to be subjected to the accident of surrounding impressions.......It creates anew the universe, after it has been annihilated in our minds by the recurrence of impressions blunted by reiteration'.(9) It is this same poetical desire in the creative process that can be awoken and renewed with the process engendered in ongoing provings, for it remains a unique form of exploration that serves to illuminate the fundamental relationships between the various levels of reality, including the spirit, man and nature.
1. Mind, Brain and Human Potential by Brain Lancaster- Element Books 1991 2. Ibid above 3. Left Brain Right Brain by Freeman & Co- Springer Deutsch 1985 4. Psychology of Consciousness by R Ornstein -Penguin 2nd edition 1986 5. Science and the Free World by A.N. Whitehead - New York Free Press 1967 6. Two Kinds of Knowledge: Maps and Stories by Henry H. Bauer in Journal of Scientific Exploration Vol 9, No 2, 1995 7. The Spectrum of Consciousness by Ken Wilber- Quest Books 1993 8. The Dynamics and Methodology of Homeopathic Provings by J. Sherr- Dynamis Books 1994 9. In the Defense of Poetry by Percy Byshe Shelley - Works of Shelley Penguin 1988

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MEDITATIVE PROVINGS, ED. BY MADELINE EVANS The Rose Press, York 2000. Reviewed by Peter Fraser When publishing new provings there is always a trade off between the quality of the publication and the price that will have to be charged. Madeline Evans has opted strongly for quality; this is an attractive clothbound book with a thread-sewn binding and decent paper. The consequence of this is a high price that may be beyond many homeopaths. On the other hand the book contains more than fifty remedies and so they do come in at well below a pound a remedy. Meditative provings are a contentious subject. They are exactly the sort of thing that causes George Vithoulkas apoplexy and for conventional science and medicine they are evidence that homeopathy is away with the fairies. However, the evidence is clear that the meditative process is important in ascertaining the true nature of a remedy. This has been shown by the way in which information from meditative provings and from meditations within conventional Hahnemannian provings informs and expands the information that has been discovered through traditional methods. Meditation within a proving tends to give the images and feelings that tie the proving together and open up its essence. These are also available through proving dreams but there they tend to be less pure and are much harder to separate from the prover's own issues and concerns. The information gained by the pharmacist running up the remedy can also be very useful, as is the effect on members of a group proving who do not actually take the remedy. It is important to the integrity of homeopathy that we recognize, lay out the evidence clearly, and then acknowledge all that we can discover about our art. If the evidence suggests that meditative provings are useful then we must acknowledge this and defend them vigorously. However, it is also vital that we are absolutely clear and open about how our information comes about, we must be rigorous in our method. This is not to please or convince conventional scientists but so that we know what we are doing and can judge objectively the reliance we place on our information. My major complaint about these meditative provings and this book in particular is the lack of clarity and information about the process. Only in a few cases is the origin of the remedies and its means of preparation detailed. in many cases it is impossible to tell which of the remedies used were prepared in the conventional way and which were flower or gem essences. This is certainly important to me as I have found essences to be much more one-dimensional than remedies. I do occasionally use them palliatively but maintain an awareness of the dangers of suppression. Madeline Evans states of jade: 'Will not work well if broken down in homeopathic form. Works best in gem essence or potentized gem essence.' This absolute statement defies two hundred years of experience and philosophy, yet she offers no evidence for it at all. Even more seriously, up to that point there was no indication as to whether she had been discussing the remedy or the essence. The provings were conducted by four different groups, one of which consisted entirely of female provers. Yet which group conducted which proving is not indicated. This might be important, for instance a lack of masculine energy in a remedy might be because it was proved by an all female group rather than because it was intrinsically missing from the remedy. Most of these provings have been published already in Prometheus. Some of the original articles have been significantly cut to fit within the book's format. Much of the general and mythological information found in the originals has been discarded and, as the author acknowledges, 'the poetic metaphors have largely been chopped away in the interest of succinctness.' This is unfortunate as these are the most useful and reliable products of meditative provings, they are what bring the cruder symptoms together to create a complete picture. A number of the remedies have been proved in other ways by other groups, Lac humanum is an interesting example. As well as the proving described here there is a full published proving by Houghton and Halahan and an extensive seminar proving by Rajan Sankaran which is included in his Provings. The Houghton and Halahan proving gave many clear symptoms but did not reveal enough to see where the essence of the remedy lay. The seminar proving not only brought up quite similar physical and mental symptoms but also revealed some of the disease out of which these symptoms come, particularly a conflict of will between doing and not doing, work and play, spirit and body, the individual and the group or family and even between being and not being. The meditative proving confirms many of the issues and the physical affinities and expands the conflict of will to include those between past and present and masculine and feminine. The three provings amplify each other and together they give an excellent understanding of the remedy.

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Having participated in and edited Penny Stirling's proving of Crack Willow (Salix fragilis). I found the information on that remedy very interesting and entirely in keeping with what we had learned from the full proving. The perceptions from the meditative proving were concerned with the same issues and affinities and reading the two together undoubtedly gives a fuller and more complete picture of the remedy. Having an interest in the new remedies and fairly direct experience of many of them 1, like Madeline Evans, believe that there is a new and different state of health and disease that has developed over the last fifty years and that we need new remedies and new informa tion about old remedies if we are going to be equipped to treat the diseases that our patients are presenting. This book includes a lot of very useful information about remedies that are likely to be important in the coming years. However, I find the underlying philosophy behind this work extremely disturbing. There is an increasing move in homeopathy towards a more 'scientific', but really more allopathic, approach to homeopathy. Pretty well all the London schools are moving rapidly into this conventional model with a stress on degrees, allopathic medical science and a therapeutic or superficial understanding of disease and of remedies. The few strongholds of classical homeopathy that integrate science and spirit are now found in out-of-the-way places like Devon, Derbyshire and Wales. There is, however, also a movement towards another type of practice, one in which intuition is all- important and reason is derided or ignored. The Guild of Homeopaths is one of the groups that most strongly espouses this approach. Ironically this way of thinking leads to many of the same patterns and problems that are generated by the allopathic approach. These patterns can be clearly seen in this book. One of the overriding principles of homeopathy is that of holism, the treatment of the patient rather than the disease, and the taking of the disease picture as an integral and indivisible whole, the totality of symptoms. Allopathic medicine chooses the medicine for the disease, not the person, and that is also the approach suggested by this book, where diseases and pathologies are listed in the remedies rather than the characteristics of the remedy that apply across countless different diseases. Not only is Moonstone' probably the only remedy so far to combat Mad Cow Disease', but the exact way in which it must be used is spelled out as it would be in a pharmaceutical textbook. Polypharmacy and the combination of remedies are another manifestation of a non-holistic approach. Throughout the book specific combinations are advocated. We are told that' The different vibration of the new remedies makes it possible for them to be combined without affecting each other harmfully.' However, we are given no evidence or philosophical reason for why this should be so; rather we are expected to discard homeopathic philosophy and experience because we are told to. Surely the reason for proving new remedies is because the old ones do not cover all aspects of new disease pictures and we want single remedies that will work instead of having to alternate between partially indicated remedies. The acceptance of combining remedies also causes confusion in the provings. In the Okoubaka proving a Wheat remedy was taken at the same time. It is therefore impossible to tell whether the symptoms listed are really Okoubaka ones or come from the Wheat, especially as some relate to wheat allergies. Holism requires an individualisation of symptoms, a search for what is characteristic. This book, like allopathy, advocates the reverse and tends towards generalization. Holly 'will control haemorrhage of any kind'. Oak 'dispels all negative forces on every level'. jade 'can be used like a homeopathic tranquilliser'. Lac humanum' should be given to all patients who have not been breastfed'. In some cases generality becomes universality. Lotus 'will bring peace and forgiveness to all humanity' and it, like Caesium and other remedies, should be 'put into the water supply'. To me this seems to come from the same arrogance and ignorance that drives allopaths to put fluorides in the water. Hahnemann is clear that only perceptible signs and symptoms constitute the disease. This is why symptoms are always firmly grounded in the present and we prescribe on what we can perceive. In this book there is an emphasis on what the remedy does curatively rather than what it does symptomatically. This leads to prescriptions that are based on what the practitioner decides is best for the patient. This is an allopathic approach that imposes the practitioner's idea of what should happen and disempowers the vital force. The blurring of difference between what a remedy does symptomatically and what it does therapeutically is particularly dangerous in provings where there can be a temptation to make value judgements and from them see symptoms as curative when they might not be. Thus if a serious person becomes less serious this is often seen as curative and so the remedy is one for serious people. In fact the remedy has caused the person to become more frivolous and so it is a remedy for frivolous people. In conventional provings at least we have

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the opportunity to look at the original symptom and make our own judgement as to what it means. In these meditative provings we are not told how the information came about. It is impossible to tell if during the meditation people became more serious (which I would regard as an excellent indicator), if serious people became less so (an unreliable indicator which probably indicates the reverse) or if it was revealed to the meditators that it was a remedy for serious people (an interesting but not necessarily reliable indicator). Not only does this type of prescribing imply a prejudice about what should happen to patients, but the book contains all sorts of prejudicial value judgements. Rather than listing greed or avarice as symptoms, the phrases 'too materialistic' and 'too acquisitive' are used. jade ,can be used for those who are too poker-faced and too serious'. The practitioner seems to be making a moral judgement as to when a behaviour is too much, when it transgresses the practitioner's idea of what should be and so becomes sinful. This is very different from deciding when something prevents the patient from freely employing the material body for the higher purposes of our existence, that is, the thing is pathological. The normal homeopathic practise is to use observational, descriptive terms such as' mannish' and 'effeminate'. In this book judgmental terms are often used: 'men who are wimps, women who are too masculine'. The attitude to homosexuality expressed here is also clearly judgmental and denies the individuality of the patient's personal experience. Gender diversity becomes gender confusion and is identified as a physical pathology. 'Homosexuality is ... a state which represents a lack of balance and a state of confusion. 'The author's claim that these statements are outside morality values and come with love only make them patronizing and more judgmental. The thing that I find most worrying about the attitude to practice expressed in this book is a refusal to take responsibility. Statements made are ipso facto true and do not need to be examined let alone supported by evidence or philosophy. There is a vain and unreasonable belief that the practitioner is always right. 'Remedies will adapt to what is needed by the individual. "If we use homeopathy with love and an open heart, we cannot give any wrong remedies or do anything harmful.' if anything does go wrong then it must be the patient's fault, for 'anyone who experiences this kind of prescribing has attracted it and has asked for it at a soul level.' There is much useful and important information to be found in this work, but it is to be found within a framework of thought and practice that cannot be reconciled with the classical tradition of homeopathy. Meditative Provings Madeline Evans Second opinion by Jerome Whitney Systematic structured meditative provings represent one of a growing number of cutting-edge technologies that are being explored and researched. In so doing, they are actively contributing to the growing remedy chest of homeopathy. As with any new methodology, meditative provings have evoked strong reactions from traditionalists just as did the introduction of Kentian constitutional prescribing into England in 1903. From those strong responses both positive and negative, it is evident that the topic of meditative provings needs to be placed in perspective before a meaningful review of Meditative Provings may be achieved. During the early years of homeopathy, Hahnemann, Hering, et al were potentising and prescribing remedies which had yet to be formally proved. Many times the proving came later or was an accidental poisoning, as in the case of Lachesis. in fact a significant number of traditional remedies in the materia medica have yet to be proved. Instead much of what we know has come to us from the curative qualities of substances which were learned from repeated positive clinical experience. Further, many remedies have been introduced into the materia medica as a result of their known effects from traditional herbal and folk medicine usage. Rhus tox and Hamamelis are examples of remedies that went from herbal usage to potentised remedies and clinical results prior to being formally proved. Another means of sourcing potential remedies for homeopathic prescribing was and is the use of the associative metaphoric tool: sign, signature, and resonance, drawing again from practices of the herbal and folk traditions. It is important to keep these realities regarding the evolution of the materia medica in mind when addressing the issues and methodology of the meditative proving approach and its role in contemporary homeopathy. Homeopathy is an empirical medical science. The ultimate test is: Does the remedy bring about cure? The

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means by which the remedy became listed in the material medica is far less important than the curative result it achieves when prescribed to the patient. Meditative Provings is a materia medica compilation of 52 remedies which have been proved by the Guild of Homeopaths proving circles during the period 1992 to 1997. The mineral, vegetable, animal, human, and vibrational kingdoms are represented in this series. Examples of the range include: Moldavite, Sequoia, Earthworm, Medorrhinum americanum, and Rainbow. Many of the 52 remedies have previously been published in the semiannual journal of the Guild, Prometheus, since its first edition in June 1994. In addition clinical responses to the remedies and case histories demonstrating the practical considerations in prescribing them are a regular and vital section of each issue of the journal. The challenge in establishing a rubric structure for a materia medica based on the data from intensive meditative provings is that categories of remedy information are being gathered which do not appear in existing materia medicas. This means that Madeline Evans has, of necessity, had to introduce subtle energy categories in addition to those of traditional materia medicas. These include, as examples: essence, endocrine system, throat centre, connections, miasms, chakras, and many more. One might argue that Madeline has introduced too many categories. However it needs to be kept in mind that systematic meditative proving as a methodology is only ten years old. During that time the Guild's proving protocol has been modified and revised based on experience and practice. The work of the Guild is in the same situation as was homeopathy in the early years of the 1 9th century. The structure of the conventional materia materia medica that we all use today took well over one hundred years to evolve. There is no doubt that subsequent volumes of the Guild's provings will show a similar evolution. In order to judge and understand the headings category rationale utilised in Meditative Provings it is necessary to understand the working model of a human being that is being utilised in the Guild proving protocol. This includes not only the spirit, mind, emotion, and biochemical body categories but a classification of human subtle anatomy as well. In this model the vital force is seen to permeate and surround the body utilising the ductless endocrine glands and the energy centres (chakras) which surround them as communicating links between the spirit-will of the person and their dense biochemical body. With such a model and utilising traditional homeopathic understanding it can be seen that derangement of the invisible vital force can occur any where along the chain from the most abstract aspects of being to the most physical. The intent and attempt of the Guild is to provide, through meditative provings, remedy rubrics which address the various points and levels along that chain. Further, the intent of the work of the Guild is not to replace existing homeopathic materia medica data but rather to add a dimension to it that has not been systematically addressed up till now. It is evident that Meditative Provings may be used in two ways: i) It can be utilised by those who subscribe to the subtle anatomy model of a human being to treat the endocrine glands and subtle energy centres along with traditional mind-emotion-body rubric data, and ii) It may also and is being used by those who find specific symptom pictures for various mental and emotional issues which have not been adequately addressed by tradi- tional remedies. The test then for the value of Meditative Provings is: Does it provide for those who choose to use it, the goal intended by its author and the Guild? One does not expect a pioneering work to necessarily be a finished work. Refinement is the duty of those who follow the pioneers. What the Guild has done in both this work and its journal Prometheus is to submit to its peers and the homeopathic public for their application and verification in practice, a series of remedies which its members and students have found, where indicated, to produce results consistent in quality to that of traditional remedies. The Homeopath Winter 2001, Number 80

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APIS MELLIFICA - A PARACELSAN MEDITATIVE PROVING by Peter Morrell

Dream of Egypt, 1995 - Peter Morrell Some Paracelsan/Steinerian thoughts about Apis derived-received while observing bees working clover flowers in a field near Bristol most of the day on Sunday 7 July 1996. The basic ideas were obtained in the field and then extended, organised and fleshed-out through further contemplation as I remained under the influence of the experience for several days. In essence the method is to be with the remedy for some time letting it play in the mind and absorbing its properties, qualities and characteristics, remaining open and receptive to its presence while observing it neutrally and carefully.

Robert Thomas Cooper, M.D., M.A. (1844-1903) This work follows straight in the footsteps of Bach and Cooper in determining the therapeutic power of a remedy and in greatly expanding our understanding of the background to the more conventional physical provings. As with other 'meditative provings', a great deal more information about the innate nature of Apis is presented here than you will find in any materia medica. Yet it is still a very valid aspect of the remedy. Three overriding themes or archetypes seem to dominate the remedy - one is self versus the group, devotion, loyalty, loss of identity, identity only through the group and social conditioning, political structures, communes, etc; second is the domination through very strong attractions to daylight, continuous activity, travel, bright colours, scents, sweetness, etc; three is the theme of burrowing, chambers, tunnelling, compartments and dwellings.

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hierarchy organisation structure social class pyramidal structures social stratification division of labour (apportioning jobs to different individuals) social structure self vs society politics government bureaucracy communism community communal society power structures and hierarchies the flow of information and power cohesive forces strong attachment binding forces the hive the individual as slave the individual as robot surrender of individual needs to group needs domination by duty and group social conditioning heavily repressed (obliterated) deviance and individuality uniform behaviour and appearance strict regimentation tight adherence to social norms (normative convergence) deeply conventionalised (conformist) behaviour overly bothered by what others will think or say uncomfortable being or appearing even slightly different from others social camouflage social invisibility blending into the crowd safety in numbers safety of the crowd herding instinct sticking with your own kind

social restraint selflessness a life of service to others absence of individuality work ethic work as a form of social control autocracies oligarchies totalitarian governments company crowds swarming crowded railway stations crowded airports crowded football matches huge factories workers scurrying like ants production lines family life reproduction attraction/aversion to light attraction/aversion to crowds attraction/aversion to sun, flowers, bright colours, strong scents worse/better daytime worse/better alone worse/better in crowds - company worse/better working, being busy, occupied worse/better fresh air, cool air, outdoors, gentle touch better/relief at night the lonely self vs crowds (agoraphobia) reward and punishment reward and punishment by society, by the views of others, by social conditioning judgements of the crowd, the species, the social group touching affection feeling dejected (unloved and unwanted) alienation (must return to the group and the group norms) feeling wanted continuous unceasing activity all-consuming mission

mission and purpose unquestioning slavish devotion unquestioning duty following instructions sense of duty matriarchy the queen gathering around the queen life in the royal court loyalty blending into insanity sycophancy obsequiousness slave mentality domination by duty, devotion, loyalty, sense of purpose seriousness petty jealousies persistence undeviating overwhelming sense of serious and important purpose loyalty, devotion day-night rhythms daylight sunshine (Bell, Sol, Rhus) light (Phos) illumination (Phos) luminosity (Phos) glowing (Phos) candles (Phos) reflection fluorescence (Phos) need for communication transmitting of information between individuals systems of language language of touch and rhythm language of repetition language of dancing buzzing vibration rhythm repetition going back repeating things repeated visits return journeys returning home

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returning to the hive returning to the fields toing and froing on short journeys familiar territory the safe and familiar fields of flowers short visits trips excursions running errands out visiting making many calls out all day long out till sundown collecting things back-packs parcels carrying packages delivering things taking messages pockets bags pouches baskets unbearable restlessness overpowering restlessness all day long restless in daylight wants to travel (Lach) irresistible urge to be out and about, travelling, visiting (Lach) restful only in darkness, at night, after sundown insatiable travel urges (in daytime) cosmopolitan (Lach) better for travel (Lach) better for movement (Rhus) better for visits restless indoors (day) or outdoors (night) bustling busy strong attractions especially taste and fragrance lure of bliss bliss of taste bliss of scent and fragrance bliss of sweetness and scents ecstasy of tastes and sensations insatiable attractions (Phos)

restless and insatiable attraction to certain sensations sensuality (Phos) sensual attractions bright vivid colours, tastes, odours and sensations hexagons honeycombs wax smoothness oils lubrication fanning (Carbo veg) sweetness (Puls) nectar pollen royal jelly asexual drones orientation, position maps mental maps directions direction, position, territory apartments compartments multicompartmentalised structures and dwellings tower blocks hotels cellular structures and dwellings burrowing burrowing underground probing pushing drinking sucking regurgitating being fed feeding others brood chambers cells (small chambers) underground chambers tunnels tunnelling cities towns settlements communities sun's position

skies summertime symmetry, proportion bright colours yellowness golds, oranges black rich blues rich reds sting poison burning sensations stinging, prickling redness swellings blotches needles prickles piercing emptiness evacuation disembowelment Closely related remedies include Sol, Carbo-veg, Puls, Rhus, Belladonna, Lachesis, Phosphorus. References Griffiths, Colin, 1995, Berlin Wall, A Meditative Proving, Prometheus Unbound 1:2, pp24-30 Miles, Martin, 1995, Proving of Stonehenge Sol, Prometheus Unbounds 2:1, pp9-14 Whitney, Jerome, 1995, Why Meditative Provings?, SH London Wright, Jill, 1994, Chalcancite..., Prometheus Unbound 1:1, pp15-18