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WHAT ABOUT THE POTENCY?
(a comprehensive guide to
homeopathic potency and
dosage)
BY ·
Michelle Shine
FOOD FOR THOUGHT PUBLICATIONS
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Food For lhought Publications
Room 6. Concorde House.
Grenville Place.
London NW7 3SA.
Published by Food For Thought Publications
2004
©Michelle Shine 2004
Michelle Shine asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this worl<
ISBN 0-9547033-0-8
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddies Ltd, King's Lynn. Norfolk
All rights reserved. No port of this publication mi:Jy be reproduced. stored in a retrieval system of
transmitted in any form or by any means. electronic. mechanical. photocopying or otherwise. without the
prior permission of the publishers.
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Book design by Ruth Kaye
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FOREWORD
This ambitious book shines a light on a relatively neglected area of
homeopathic methodology - potency. It provides a beautiful
opportunity to peruse this fascinating subject at length, to immerse
oneself in a long and thoughtful conversation about potency, for that is
how this lovely book is offered - as a discussion based on many years
of one homeopath's clinical experience. The subject ripples out into a
larger homeopathic pool with interviews with well respected
homeopaths who share their insights and experience.
We are a community that loves books- that loves to write, one that
has been writing abundantly for nearly two hundred years. It is strange
then, that we don't have any books dedicated to potency. Thi:; brave
book is the first on the subject and it is both frank and pragmatic. How
generous of Michelle Shine to allow us such an extensive look into the
workings of her mind and her practice.
I wish I had had this book when I started out on my homeopathic
journeys in the early 1980s, stumbling over potency and even falling flat
on my face at times. My teacher was a fearless prescriber, giving 1O Ms
-often a different 10M- at every visit. I remember giving Phosphorus
1OM to a patient with irritable bowel syndrome, migraines, depression
and chronic fatigue amongst many other symptoms. I gave a 1OM
because I was confident in my remedy - it fit his totality of symptoms
including keynotes in every area, aetiology. and mental and emotional
symptoms. I gave a 1OM because I had inherited a certain fearlessness
from my teacher. My patient had a horrible aggravation. For over a
month he suffered a great deal. OK, so he was cured, but at what
price? I felt terrible -terrible about learning the hard way to first do no
harm.
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I remember studying with many fine teachers, learning many different
methods over the years. Learning to start with a 200c from the Greeks,
from George Vithoulkas and Vassilis Ghegas, and 'topping it up' with a
6c or 12c - or using the lower potencies to mitigate the worst effects of
an aggravation. In the end there were too many aggravations for me
to be entirely happy with this method.
I learnt to repeat low potencies from Francisco Eizyaga - stepping up
three centesimal doses at a time. Instead of leaping from 6c to 30c.
going to 9c ·and then 12c and so on. This was quite remarkable with
deep seated, long term, chronic cases. Sensitive patients w~re
vulnerable to developing proving symptoms rather quickly and
needed careful monitoring. I learnt to put a 30c in a dropper bottle
and plus it. Patients loved to repeat their remedy and some could not
be persuaded to stop on improvement. Again proving symptoms
occurred.
I remember learning about the LMs from John Morgan of Helios
Pharmacy. I especially remember the confusion and wonder that they
brought into my life: finding the rituals of preparation both attractive
and a complete drag; finding that two granules instead of one in the
stock bottle caused aggravations. Having that literally blow my tiny
little mind. I'm sitting here blinking in disbelief as I write this but I know it
to be true because I was able to repeat it- both with myself and with a
couple of willing patients. It made me wonder about all our
measurements with all of our potencies. It made me wonder a great
deal about the science of homeopathy.
What About the Potency? is full of wonder. There is something on every
page "'- a challenge, a question. a rumination - to encourage the
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reader to stop and think. This is a rare gift in the written word. I wish I'd
had the author's thoughtful reflections to help me in my early years in
practice. Michelle Shine's honesty about her own process is a breath of
fresh air in a community searching for certainties. It is a bold book -
examining doubts and presenting failed cases in equal measure - as
well as successes of course. Thank goodness!
The cases along with the deliberations of the prescriber present a
riveting gestalt of this homeopath's evolution over time. The author's
delightful conversational style makes this a book that is hard to put
down .. What About the Potency? leaves virtually no potency stone
unturned. It is a must-read for every student dazed or confused by the
whole subject, as well as any practitioner who wants a springboard for
reflecting on their own process with potency.
Miranda Castro FSHom, Fort Lauderdale, Florida -October 2004
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To know the unknown, one has to know the
known properly.
B.K.S. Iyengar
Astadala Yogamala- Vol2
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the
men of old; seek what they sought.
Matsuo Basho, Japanese Poet
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FOR ALL MY PATIENTS,
WITHOUT WHOM
THIS BOOK COULD NEVER
HAVE BEEN WRITTEN.
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CONTENTS
PART ONE
PAGE
1. INTRODUCTION 10
2. WHAT IS HOMEOPATHIC POTENCY? 13
3. DOES POTENCY REALLY MATTER? 14
4. STARTING OUT 16
5. REFLECTING ON THE EARLY YEARS 18
6. CASE ONE 19
7. CASE TWO 23
8. CASE THREE 25
9. SUPERFICIALITY 28
JO. THE CONSTITUTIONAL REMEDY versus PRESCRIBING FOR THE DISEASE 30
J J. CASE FOUR 31
12. CASE FIVE 36
13. CASE SIX 40
J4 . CASE SEVEN 45
J 5. ORGAN SPECIFIC REMEDIES AND TISSUE SALTS 48
J 6. EXPERIMENTING WITH LMS 49
17. CASE EIGHT 51
J8 . CASE NINE 57
J 9. CASE TEN 59
20. CASE ELEVEN 61
21. HIGHER POTENCIES 64
22. PLUSSING REMEDIES 66
23. POTENCY AND REMEDY 67
24. POTENCY AND SUPPRESSION 69
25. POTENCY AND TROUBLESHOOTING 71
26. CASE TWELVE 71
27. STRANGE DISCOVERIES WITH POTENCY 80
28. CASE THIRTEEN 80
29. CASE FOURTEEN 83
30. CASE FIFTEEN 84
31. CASE SIXTEEN 88
32. STRANGE DISCOVERIES WITH AGGRAVATIONS 91
33. CASE SEVENTEEN 91
34. CASE EIGHTEEN 95
35. READING AGGRAVATIONS 99
36. CASE NINETEEN 100
37. SO IS AN AGGRAVATION REALLY NECESSARY? i04
38. POTENCY AND CASE TAKING 105
39. POTENCY, DOSAGE AND THE PRACTITIONER 106
40. POTENCY AND THE CASE ITSELF 107
4f. POTENCY AND ALLOPATHIC MEDICATION 108
42. NOT REALLY ABOUT POTENCY 109
43. ENERGY 110
44. POTENCY AND PATHOLOGY 112
45. TOXICITY 114
46. POTENCY AND HEALTH 115
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47. ASCENDING POTENCIES 117
48. DESCENDING POTENCIES . 118
49. POTENCY, DOSAGE AND A CUTES 119
SO. POTENCY, DOSAGE AND MAINTAINING CAUSES 121
Sl. POTENCY, DOSAGE AND ANnDOnNG 122
52. POTENCY AND AGE 124
53. POTENCY AND THE ENERGY OF THE PERSON 124
54. POTENCY AND HYPERSENSITIVITY 125
55. POTENCY AND PSYCHOSIS 126
56. HYPERACTIVITY AND ADD AND ADHD 127
57. POTENCY AND THE HEALING PROCESS 128
58. DOSAGE AND SPEED 129
59. CHANGING POTENCY 130
60. DOSAGE 131
61. DEPTHS AND LAYERS 134
62. POTE~CY AND THE 'WHAT I'VE GOT IN STOCK' METHOD 135
63. POTENCY, DOSAGE AND PROPHYLACTICS 136
64. QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE 139·145
PART TWO
THE INTERVIEWS
1. ANTHONY BICKLEY 148
2. JOHN MORGAN 154
3. MIKE BRIDGER 160
4. ROBIN LOGAN 166
5. IAN WATSON 173
6. FRANCiS TREUHERZ 182
7. ROGER SAVAGE 193
8. NANCY HERRICK 199
9. JEREMY SHERR 205
10 . ALIZE TIMMERMAN 216
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INTRODUCTION
1w ould like to share with you my inspiration for writing this book. I have
been in practice now for almost ten years and it has been my good
fortune to have built up a very busy practice. I see between twenty
and thirty patients a week, and together--with -!coking after my family,
{three children, husband, cat, hamster and home), it has been a
challenge for me to find space to devote to this project.
Experience is a wonderful teacher. Experience tog~ther with the
guidance of other long standing and enlightened homeopaths has
taught me how to sharpen my case taking skills. to understand the
information I have collected, and most importantly, how to find an
appropriate remedy.
I feel! have, very quietly, just arrived in a comfortable place, where I
can say that I am a competent homeopath and health practitioner.
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Advice on potency. however. has been difficult to come by, and my
experience on the subject has required a lot of meditation in order to
arrive at a workable level of knowledge and understanding.
In the past. often feeling intellectually unequipped, I would resort to
dowsing for a choice of potency. and although this method proved to
be fairly efficient, it left me ignorant of the understanding that I craved.
Please do not get me wrong. Do not think that at this juncture I purport
to have found the last word on the subject. On the contrary, although
my explorations have taken me further down the road of discovery,
there is still a whole universe of knowledge yet to be claimed.
It is for this reason that I have divided this work into two parts. The first
half refers to my professional experiences and conclusions about
potency and dosage. The second part is a series of interviews with ten
amazing homeopaths. who all work in different ways due to their
independent findings and conclusions.
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My desire, therefore. is to bring this area of homeopathy to the table.
and in doing so. report some interesting and valuable information. This
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