By: Frans Vermeulen

Homeopathy is based on facts, not on theory. Homeopathy is generally believed to be a science, though many understand it as science bridged to the arts. This article explores the the age-old question of objectivity versus subjectivity. In this in-depth, historical exploration, Vermeulen asks penetrating questions testing the foundations of the science of homeopathy. After all the greatest enemy of any science is a closed mind.

By: Peter Fraser

The way that we have historically come to an understanding of a remedy’s picture is not as well-known as it should be. It is important to appreciate how remedy pictures are arrived at since the ways that have been used in the past are the same ways that are available to us now. We need to know the process, not only so that we can follow it in working with remedies that have not yet been assimilated into the secondary materia medicas, but also so that we can understand the limits of our knowledge about all remedies, new and old.

It is often thought that the information we find in the materia medicas has come only from detailed and well conducted Hahnemannian provings of potentized remedies, but this is not so. Only a small proportion of information comes this way. Many of the provings were either toxicological reports of the crude substance or were conducted by an individual or a very small group, often over a very short time. Much of the information comes not even from provings at all but from traditional or experimental usage and all of it is tempered greatly by clinical experience.

Knowledge is only truly useful when we also know its extent, its accuracy and the limitations and uncertainties of the information.

By: Richard Pitt

In deciding how to present proving material, a proving coordinator is forced to make certain decisions. The main issue is to decide how much to structure, organize and schematize the data created. The two main methods used are to create a broad schema based on the same structure as the repertory and put all the data chosen of all the provers into the requisite fields. The second method is to list all the data of each prover separately, giving the reader a feel of the unique “whole” effect of each prover. Some provings utilize both methods.

By: Calvin B. Knerr, M.D.

Excerpts by: Premananda Childs

As homeopaths we are familiar with the life of Hahnemann, but our knowledge of Constantine Hering may often be limited to his proving of Lachesis and the picture of him on his couch where he studied and slept in his library. Although Hering and Hahnemann never met, the two remained very close through correspondence, and the torch was undoubtedly passed on to Hering, who in turn spread Hahnemann’s “new medicine” most dynamically.

Calvin Knerr, Hering’s son-in-law, is most known for completing the ten volumes of “The Guiding Symptoms”. Hering died while literally working on the third volume, and Knerr was left with the responsibility to finish the work. Following this Knerr published the “Life of Hering”, providing insights into the life of one of homeopathies great masters. This article provides fascinating insights into the life and times of Constantine Hering.