Potentization and the Law of Similars

Summary

As continually testified in the practice of homeopathy, there is an inextricable relationship between the law of similars and potentization. When administered in an untreated state, toxic substances will have a toxic affect on patients, regardless of whether their symptom complex corresponds with that of the particular poison. Similarly, after potentization, the denatured substance retains its healing properties only when administered according to the law of similars. When the simile principle is disregarded, the altered substance is completely ineffective. This paper draws on the alchemical notion of sickness and healing for a theoretical framework with which to understand the relationship between the law of similars and the process of potentization. Demonstrating the way in which the alchemical insights that Paracelsus carried into his medical practice illuminate the efficacy of homeopathy, this paper exposes the hermetic influences of Hahnemann's “discovery” of potentization.

Key words

Potentization - Law of similars - Resonance - Alchemy

1 Edward Whitmont, The Alchemy of Healing (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1993) p. 1 - 2.

2 Ibid., p. 4.

3 Lionel Milgrom, “Is Homeopathy Possible?”, The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, vol V (Sep 2006) p. 212.

4 Ibid., p. 212.

5 Jane Cicchetti, Dreams, Symbols, & Homeopathy; Archetypal Dimensions of Healing (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2003), p. 24.

6 Edward Whitmont, Psyche and Substance (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1991) p. 6 - 7.

7 Whitmont, The Alchemy of Healing, p. 6.

8 Ibid., p. 6.

9 Ibid., p. 10.

10 Samuel Hahnemann, Hahnemann's Organon of Medicine, 1997, 19 Dec. 2006 <http://www.homeopathyhome.com/reference/organon/organon.html>.

11 Whitmont, The Alchemy of Healing, p. 8.

12 Ibid., p. 8 - 9.

13 Chicchetti, Dreams, Symbols, & Homeopathy, p. 22.

14 Ibid., p. 22.

15 Whitmont, The Alchemy of Healing, p. 5.

16 Peter Morrell, “Hahnemann's Debt to Alchemy,” Articles on Homeopathy, Oct. 1999, 19 Dec 2006 <http://homeoint.org/morrell/articles/pm_alchem.htm>.

17 Walter Pagel, Paracelsus; An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance; 2nd Revised Edition (Basel: National Library of Medicine, 1982) p. 146.

18 Ibid., p. 52.

19 Ibid., p. 138.

20 Jolande Jacobi, ed. Paracelsus; Selected Writings (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 1979 p. 96.

21 Ibid., p. 89 - 90.

22 Ibid., p. 93.

23 Ibid., p. 141.

24 Ibid., p. 84.

25 Ibid., p. 144.

26 Ibid., p. 76 - 7.

27 Whitmont, The Alchemy of Healing, p. 49.

28 Ibid., p. 127.

29 Ibid., p. 139.

30 Jacobi, Paracelsus, p. 84.