A Closer Look at the LM’s and Remedies in Water My article in last month’s ezine, “Frequently Asked Questions” has sparked a lot of mail. Jessica, especially, had a lot of questions. Again we see resistance to the idea that the remedy should be taken in water
A Closer Look at the LM’s and Remedies in Water
My article in last month’s ezine, “Frequently Asked Questions” has sparked a lot of mail. Jessica, especially, had a lot of questions. Again we see resistance to the idea that the remedy should be taken in water and succussed (“succussed” means pounding the bottle into your opposite palm several times) before each dose.
Scholarly reader, Jessica, challenged me to show her where in the Organon it says to put the remedy in water. (Jessica’s comments are in Itlaics and my comments below are in black):
“I have been scanning The Organon. I did not notice where Hahnemann suggested giving a remedy in water. I noticed he writes that even a remedy given in water can be given too much. Could you clear me up on this?”–Jessica.
Sixth Edition Organon by Samuel Hahnemann
§ 246
Every perceptibly progressive and strikingly increasing amelioration during treatment is a condition which, as long as it lasts, completely precludes every repetition of the administration of any medicine whatsoever, because all the good the medicine taken continues to effect is now hastening towards its completion.
If you see a striking improvement, stop the remedy.
This is not infrequently the case in acute diseases
Especially in acutes, if you see a striking improvement after you’ve given a remedy, stop taking it.
, but in more chronic diseases, on the other hand, a single dose of an appropriately selected homoeopathic remedy will at times complete even with but slowly progressive improvement and give the help which such a remedy in such a case can accomplish naturally within 40, 50, 60, 100 days.
Even in chronic cases, stop the remedy if you see a striking improvement. Improvement is generally seen in one to three months in chronic cases.
This is, however, but rarely the case; and besides, it must be a matter of great importance to the physician as well as to the patient that were it possible, this period should be diminished to one-half, one-quarter, and even still less, so that a much more rapid cure might be obtained.
However, it ought to be possible to move the case along much, much faster than this!
And this may be very happily affected,
And happily, I–Hahnemann–have found a way to do this!
as recent and oft-repeated observations have taught me under the following conditions: firstly, if the medicine selected with the utmost care was perfectly homoeopathic;
First, select the right remedy.
secondly, if it is highly potentized, dissolved in water
Secondly, put the remedy in water!
and given in proper small dose
We all know that Hahnemann’s motto was “The Minimum Dose”. People can argue over what this means, but when you look at the 6th Organon in its totality, it’s clear that Hahnemann was trying to make a statement about aggravations: he didn’t like them and he had found a way to avoid them as much as possible; he was referring to “his perfect system” that he invented, the LM potencies! The 6th edition Organon, Hahnemann’s famous work, is dedicated to the LM potencies and getting us to try them.
Paragraph 253, footnote:
“The signs of improvement in the emotions and mind can be expected immediately after the medicine ONLY IF THE DOSE WAS SMALL ENOUGH (I.E. AS SMALL AS POSSIBLE) [Hahnemann's emphasis]; an unnecessarily larger dose, even of the most homeopathically appropriate remedy…acts too violently and initially disturbs the mind and emotions too strongly and too long….”
What is Hahnemann talking about here? He is describing an aggravation. Does it matter what might have caused it? Would he have looked kindly on it if it were caused by a 3X rather than a 10M? Or by a mother tincture or a crude drug? He didn’t like medical violence, period! He didn’t like medicine that caused harm; this is what his whole career was all about, remember? We all know what causes these aggravations: 1. Too high a potency in a sensitive patient. 2. Too low a potency. 3. Unnecessary repetitions. 4. Crude drugging of toxic substances.
He created his LM’s in an attempt to speed up the cure in as gentle a way as possible. One drop of substance in 50,000 drops of water, that’s the LM ratio. He says these potencies are powerful, but gentle. They work fast, the cure is sped up remarkably. But, you must start with the lowest dilutions, he says. “From old prejudices these persons abhor the smallest doses of the lowest dilutions….”, he says. In other words, there is a prejudice against starting low–e.g., LM/1. Everyone wants to hit the homerun, hit the ball out of the park the first time at bat! “We’ll show this disease who’s boss, let’s not waste any time! Let’s start the case with the highest potency!” Ouch! No, he says. The lowest dilutions, going up gradually, one step at a time, and you really will witness, according to him, “the rapid and gentle cure–the physician’s highest calling”.
The remedy must be in water, and you must succuss before each dose. How much water all depends on the sensitivity of the patient, but here are the standard instructions for preparing an LM prescription:
One pellet of LM/1 in a four-ounce bottle of water. Succuss the bottle 10 times. A teaspoon from the bottle is stirred into a four-ounce dosage cup of water. A teaspoon from the cup is taken as a dose. The rest of the cup is thrown away. When the LM/1 bottle is empty, one discards the bottle and starts anew with LM/2. The frequency of repetition depends on what is necessary to keep the case moving forward. Any striking improvement precludes further dosing; but, be prepared to resume if the case begins to relapse.
that experience has taught as the most suitable in definite intervals for the quickest accomplishment of the cure but with the precaution, that the degree of every dose deviate somewhat from the preceding
Never repeat the exact same dose twice! The way to deviate the dose is by shaking/ succussing/ stirring. You can’t change the dose of dry pellets.
and following in order that the vital principle
By “vital principle” he means the vitality, the vital force, the immune response, etc.
which is to be altered to a similar medicinal disease be not aroused to untoward reactions and revolt as is always the case1 with unmodified and especially rapidly repeated doses.
Frequently repeated doses of the exact same potency will arouse the body to untoward reactions.
1 What I said in the fifth edition of the organon, in a long note to this paragraph in order to prevent these undesirable reactions of the vital energy, was all the experience I then had justified. But during the last four or five years, however, all these difficulties are wholly solved by my new altered but perfected method. The same carefully selected medicine may now be given daily
i’ve devised a method–the LM potencies– whereby the same medicine or remedy can be given every day.
and for months, if necessary in this way, namely, after the lower degree of potency has been used for one or two weeks in the treatment of chronic disease, advance is made in the same way to higher degrees, (beginning according to the new dynamization method, taught herewith with the use of the lowest degrees).
Start with LM/1.
§ 247 Sixth Edition
It is impractical to repeat the same unchanged dose of a remedy once, not to mention its frequent repetition
when you have to repeat a remedy, don’t repeat the exact same potency.
(and at short intervals in order not to delay the cure). The vital principle does not accept such unchanged doses without resistance
the body rebels against repeated unchanged, unaltered doses.
, that is, without other symptoms of the medicine to manifest themselves
“Proving” symptoms–if you take repeated unaltered/unsuccussed/unstirred doses, you’ll cause a proving.
than those similar to the disease to be cured, because the former dose has already accomplished the expected change in the vital principle and a second dynamically wholly similar, unchanged dose of the same medicine no longer finds, therefore, the same conditions of the vital force. The patient may indeed be made sick in another way
You could make a person sick doing this.
by receiving other such unchanged doses, even sicker than he was, for now only those symptoms of the given remedy remain active which were not homoeopathic to the original disease, hence no step towards cure can follow, only a true aggravation of the condition of the patient. But if the succeeding dose is changed slightly every time, namely potentized somewhat higher
But if you change the potency to a higher degree each time you give a dose by succussing or shaking or stirring vigorously,
(§§ 269-270) then the vital principle may be altered without difficulty
you’ll be able to repeat the remedy with no problem.
by the same medicine (the sensation of natural disease diminishing) and thus the cure brought nearer.1
1 We ought not even with the best chosen homoeopathic medicine, for instance one pellet of the same potency that was beneficial at first, to let the patient have a second or third dose, taken dry.
Don’t repeat dry doses–meaning the pellets, as sweet and delicious as they may be!
In the same way, if the medicine was dissolved in water and the first dose proved beneficial, a second or third and even smaller dose from the bottle standing undisturbed,
Even if you’ve put the remedy in water, taking a second or third dose of the water “undisturbed”–meaning, without shaking or succussing or stirring, is just asking for trouble; it’s just as bad as repeating “dry” doses.
even in intervals of a few days, would prove no longer beneficial, even though the original preparation had been potentized with ten succussions or as I suggested later with but two succussions in order to obviate this disadvantage and this according to above reasons. But through modification of every dose in its dynamiztion degree, as I herewith teach, there exists no offence,
But if you “dynamize”–succuss–the bottle before each dose, there is no offence–nothing bad can happen.
even if the doses be repeated more frequently, even if the medicine be ever so highly potentized with ever so many succussions. It almost seems as if the best selected homoeopathic remedy could best extract the morbid disorder from the vital force and in chronic disease to extinguish the same only if applied in several different forms.
§ 248 Sixth Edition
For this purpose, we potentize anew the medicinal solution1 (with perhaps 8, 10, 12 succussions)
Succuss the bottle 8, 10, 12 times before each dose.
from which we give the patient one or (increasingly) several teaspoonful doses, in long lasting diseases daily or every second day, in acute diseases every two to six hours and in very urgent cases every hour or oftener.
In this way, a person with chronic disease gets a dose once a day or every other day. A person with an acute problem gets a dose every two to six hours or oftener if it’s really bad.
Thus in chronic diseases, every correctly chosen homoeopathic medicine, even those whose action is of long duration, may be repeated daily for months with ever increasing success. If the solution is used up (in seven to fifteen days) it is necessary to add to the next solution of the same medicine if still indicated one or (though rarely) several pellets of a higher potency
When your bottle is empty, start a new bottle with the next higher potency.
with which we continue so long as the patient experiences continued improvement without encountering one or another complaint that he never had before in his life. For if this happens, if the balance of the disease appears in a group of altered symptoms then another, one more homoeopathically related medicine must be chosen in place of the last and administered in the same repeated doses,
If new symptoms have arisen, change the remedy.
mindful, however, of modifying the solution of every dose
Don’t forget to succuss the bottle before each dose.
with thorough vigorous succussions, thus changing its degree of potency and increasing it somewhat. On the other hand, should there appear during almost daily repetition of the well indicated homoeopathic remedy, towards the end of the treatment of a chronic disease, so-called (§ 161) homoeopathic aggravations by which the balance of the morbid symptoms seem to again increase somewhat (the medicinal disease, similar to the original, now alone persistently manifests itself).
At the end of treatment, you may notice proving symptoms.
The doses in that case must then be reduced still further and repeated in longer intervals and possibly stopped several days, in order to see if the convalescence need no further medicinal aid.
So, stop the remedy or at least take less often.
The apparent symptoms (Schein – Symptome) caused by the excess of the homoeopathic medicine will soon disappear and leave undisturbed health in its wake. If only a small vial say a dram of dilute alcohol is used in the treatment, in which is contained and dissolved through succussion one globule of the medicine which is to be used by olfaction every two, three or four days, this also must be thoroughly succussed eight to ten times before each olfaction.
Even if you’re taking the remedy by sniffing it, it still has to be in water, with alcohol added and succussed before each dose.
“Elaine, you say don’t use the same disposable bottle twice for 2 remedies because the remedy “sticks” to the bottle, how do you know the first remedy is not washed off enough to allow the second one to work.”–Jessica
Because many times I’ve told people who thought they had run out of their remedy to, “Just refill the bottle, succuss 40 times, and the remedy is back– you’re back in business!” and it’s true, the remedy is back, much to their surprise!
One time, in a sad situation, a friend who had been having bad “proving” symptoms for months finally antidoted the offending remedy; but then, because the antidote had been in a real glass instead of a disposable cup, JUST WASHING THE GLASS caused her to be re-medicated! Which, of course, meant that when the glass was refilled with water, it became a “remedy” again and she received it through her pores. Obviously she was very sensitive to this remedy, most of us can’t be so easily medicated, but it can happen.
So, I always say, use disposable cups, plastic bottles, so no one else will ever have to drink out of a bottle or glass you’ve used for a remedy.
“My parents often told me to repeat the remedy, same potency, when it works.”
Right, repeat the remedy–when it has worn off or is starting to wear off. But if the remedy is working and you repeat the exact same potency, you run a strong risk of antidoting it and losing the improvement you’ve gained; in fact, you might relapse right back to square one. After all, when we want to antidote a remedy, this is what we do: repeat the remedy in the exact same potency.
*********************
And now, a few more clarifications before we go: What happens when people can’t get LM’s? They are more expensive than the C potencies, and they are often unavailable. In these cases, I use a lower potency, like a 6C, 9C or a 12C, and I treat it as if it were an LM–putting it in a four-ounce bottle of water, succussing before each dose, adding a capful to a dosage cup, stirring, and then a sip from the cup is a dose. I tell the client to order all the lower potencies–the 15C, the 18C, the 21C; granted, not every pharmacy sells these, but http://www.hahnemannlabs.com/ does, for example. I find that in this way, the results are often the same as with LM’s.
In acute prescribing, here is where the high C potencies really shine! A 200C will often knock out whatever acute may have knocked you for a loop! But, if you gave a 200C and it’s not working, don’t repeat it, if it was right, it would have worked. The exception would be an acute so severe, even 200C won’t touch it, such as a coma from a snake bite. For this you might need a 10M–another way of saying “10,000C”.
Another reader, Samantha, asked me if pellets need to dissolve, lamenting that they rarely do so in a timely fashion. No, the pellets do not need to dissolve! Drop them in water and the water is medicated and ready to go!
I should also add that it is rarely necessary to take more than one pellet, whether you’re taking it dry or dropping it in water. Everytime you take more than one, you’re just ensuring that you will be needing to replace your remedy a lot sooner than should be necessary. In preparing an LM bottle, Hahnemann literally wants just one pellet to be dropped in! This can be rather tedious, since the #10 pellets that are mandated for LM pharmacy are the smallest pellets made, but, that’s what he wants!
As for people who are buying LM’s in liquid bottles? I have no idea what this is all about. It certainly is not in the Organon, and I have a feeling that what people are buying in these cases is the “liquid stock bottle”, one drop of which is supposed to be dropped on 1500 #10 pellets, so that when you drop your single pellet into your 4-ounce bottle of water, you are actually medicating with a fraction of a drop, do you see that?
So, if you are using a drop from a liquid LM bottle to medicate a 4 oz. bottle of water, your solution is actually over a thousand times stronger than Hahnemann intended! To make LM’s correctly, you should order the pellets, not the liquid.
Elaine Lewis
