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FOREWORD
The years 1880 to 1920 saw the rise of Homoeopathy with its symptomatic
approach, and the succeeding years witnessed its. decline with the impact of modern pathologic approach.- A renaissance of
Homoeopathy became necessary and the task was undertaken and accomplished by the late Dr. Guy Beckley Stearns. In an obituary,
Dr. William Gutman, President of the Foundation, for Homoeopathic Research, Inc., New York, said of Dr. Stearns as follows
:
"He was the first who tried to prove experimentally the effect of high potencies through animal experiments, using guinea
pigs and fruitflies.
"When Abrams reported his findings concerning body reactions and their evaluation, Stearns became
immensely interested in this field. He recognised that such reactions could have nothing to do with electronics, but must
be reflex-reactions transmitted through the autonomic system. The body reflexes aroused his interest. Again, he was the first
to introduce tiie scientific development of these new1 conceptions, as expressed by the work of Boyd in Glasgow, into American
homoeopathy. He was the first to use Boyd's emanometer in this country '(America). As an outgrowth of all these endeavours,
he established the Foundation for Homoeopathic Research for a systematic study of all reactions of the autonomous system toward
potencies.
" Finally, in a book, A New Synthesis, written together with-Edgar D. Evia, he gave a summary of his medical,
biological, and philosophical conceptions. It contains a great number of most interesting facts and a comprehensive philosophy
of important aspects of homoeopathy and general biology-pointing far into the future. "
A New Synthesis appeared serially
in The Journal of the American Institute of Homeopatfiy from March to June, 1942, and we are taking the liberty of republishing
it, along with The Physical Basis of Homeopathy by the same authors, which appeared in the February 1942 issue of the Journal,
as it is of permanent interest to the homoeopathic world.
Roy & Company 10th April, 1960
First Reprint ,1982
First Reprint ,1982
CONTENTS
Page
Foreword iii
The Physical
Basis of Homoeopathy 1 - 20
References 20
A New Synthesis
1 The Birth
of the Universe 23
2 Purposeful Life 24
3 The Birth of Life 26
4
The Adjustments of Life 28
5 Dowsing 33
6 The Work of Abrams 39
7
Boyd and the Dynamis 45
8 The Dynamis and Parapsychology 61
9 Physics and Creation
65
10 Summary 73
11 Medical Aspects 75
Things to Do
1
Retrospect 77
2 Tissue Tonus 79
3 Other Reflexes 88
4 Conclusion
91
References 97
Index 100
The Physical Basis
of Homeopathy
( page 19 -20 )
For the first time , we are able to rise
above Hahnemann's purposely-vague phrase," spirit-like ".We are beginning to graduate from a qualitative to a quantitative
study. And the potency problem, no longer an abstraction, enters the domain of physics. It is now time to devote our consideration
to the biological aspects of potent activity. This ground will be covered in a second essay. The physical and biological commentaries
should,however, not be separated in the mind. They belong together.
A New Synthesis
1. The birth of the
Universe
( Page 24 )
"...the earth, even developed what would
have been thought impossible by one observing the initial universal state of density and heat : Life. Somehow, life appeared
on earth. It is there yet. And as this life looks out toward the heavens, it perceives that the universe is still flying
apart as the result of that original explosion billions of years ago. All that exists today possesses its present characteristics
because of the structure of the universe, and this structure in turn goes back to, forces and potentialities that were imprisoned
within the hot, dense substance before the explosion. Even the life which peers out and speculates on its past and its
future lay dormant in the primeval stuff.
The Primordial Harmonic Template
of the Universe
" Everything is determined, the beginning
as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for insects as well as for the stars. Human
beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper."
- Albert Einstein
1.
The Birth of the Universe.
In order to understand he significance
of life, it is necessary to go back even before the origin of life to the birth of he universe. This birth, and the subsequent
story, have been reconstructed in the following way :
Once, the universe occupied but a fraction of its present volume.
Since its substance was inconceivably condensed, the temperature was higher than anything possible today even at
the hearts of stars (for temperature and density in these cases vary together). There were no stars. The universal stuff
spread out uniform and undifferentiated. Whatever its unknown activities , it held potentially all that has since developed
from it.
Then, this dense hot substance suddenly exploded, hurling the fragments of the universe radially outward. The
explosion caused the material of the universe to expand ; hence the density rapidly became lower. And, following an immutable
law, at once the temperature started to slide down. But the dropping temperature produced a further consequence : the
material of the universe, still in the process of explosion and thinning rapidly out, began to assume the properties of a
gas approximately as we understand a gas today. And in this thinning gas cores separated out. The gas clumped around the cores,
leaving cnlarging empty spaces between the clumps. These were the earnest stars, extremely hot and enormously big. By now
the explosion had been going on for billions of years. And as the universe was actually exploding during all this activity,
the distance between stars naturally increased — an expanding universe — and the temperature kept lowering
and the substance of each star grew denser. All of these stars were in motion, about their axes and in relation to one mother,
due to kinetic energy acquired as a consequence of explosion.1 And when conditions were favourable, some of these stars
threw oft fiery tentacles that encircled them, condensed and became planets. One of these planets,
23
the earth, even developed what would have been thought impossible by one observing
the initial universal state of density and heat : Life. Somehow, life appear on earth. It is there yet.
And as this life
locks out toward the heaven, it perceives that the universe is still flying apart as the result of that original explosion
billions of years ago. All that exists today possesses its present characteristics because of the structure of the universe
and this structure in turn goes back to forces and potentialities that were imprisoned within the hot, dense substance before
the explosion. Even the life which peers out and speculates on its past and its future lay dormant in the primeval stuff .
2. Purposeful Life.
One thing is certain life is no mere incident in geological history.
The early atmosphere, for instance, had quite a different constitution from today's. It had no free oxygen, only the oxygen
which had combined chemically with the minerals of the earth's surface. It probably had little free nitrogen. But it abounded
in carbon monoxide and held also some prussic acid — two deadly poisons. The seas of the times readily absorbed these
two poisonous substances. Yet it is in the sea that life is thought to have originated.2 And
it is the early dominance of plant life for hundreds of million of years, breathing in carbon and exhaling oxygen, that gave
to the atmosphere a carbon-oxygen balance capable of sustaining animal life. The composition of today's air is largely the
work of life. Planets like Venus, whose atmosphere is devoid of oxygen but heavy with carbon, probably do not support any
but vegetable life, if they support life at all. Such work as this, on a scale to rival the vast construction: of nature,
can be no mere incident.
The iron deposits of the Mesabi range around Lake Superior are the work of one of the oldest
life forms, the autotrophic bacteria Leptothrix. This early life obtained its energy by oxidising iron; other forms oxidized
nitrogen,
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sulphur, manganese, ammonia.
For millions of years Leptothrix lived, perished, and sank to the bottom of the impoverished seas of the time,
depositing its minute particle of iron. A huge accumulation of iron was thus built up ,after the fashion of coral reef
, which represent the skeletal remains of untold billions of sedimented calcareous creatures. Eventually the bottom
of the sea, bearing its burden of iron as laid down by Leptothrix, was heaved up by geologic convulsions. The seabed became
an uplifted range high above water, the Mesabi range of today, one or the richest of known iron seams. In this manner have
living organisms deeply scarred the face of the earth . Today that iron is mined, distributed, converted into structures
and implements by means of which further changes are wrought on the earth's topography.4 But
what of the incalculable influence of the plant kingdom, apart from its effect on the constitution of
the atmosphereGreen
things bind the soil, preventing. erosion. Tracts of forest tend to attract clouds and provide natural reservoirs for rain.6 The occurrence of rain deeply affects the weather, which is one of the most important of the agents in the
erosion of both rocks1, and soil. Minerals are washed down to the sea by rain, and the mineral composition of the
sea changes over a period of ages. The levelling of mountain ranges by the tireless effort of weather alters the equilibrium
of the earth's crust, which actually floats on the denser but plastic substance of the core. This crust seeks a new equilibrium,
and the result is the raising of new mountain, ranges, the alteration of continental outlines and the redistribution of the
seas. Plants naturally are not a prime agency in these processes, but they have played an important role in helping
to determine geological topography. AIthough weather will determine what sort of plant growth is able to survive
in any locality, the establishment of that growth helps thereafter to maintain the beneficent climatic conditions and their
particular action on Soil and Rock.
Far from being incidental, life has actually helped to mould the physical configuration
of the earth. For in the
25
accumulated generations of
living creatures are unbelievable power and perseverance.
3. The Birth of Life.
The life which has evolved on earth is peculiarly adjusted to its organic
environment. This adjustment is an accompaniment of the somatic functions and takes place as spontaneously and unconsciously
as physiological functions. It is natural for living creatures to be guided by responses whose mechanism is not obviously
related to coarse, physical environment, just as the tangible phenomena of matter and radiation are related together
by the properties of an invisible, " empty," but encompassing space. The early results of such adjustment were the steps in
the evolution of life from crude bacteria like the autotrophic Leptothrix. After eons of autotrophic domination,life
took a step forward, and the earliest blue-green Algae scummed over the marginal waters. Further experiment led the Algae
to develop chlorophyll — and, in the person
of true, green Algae, appeared the beginnings of the oldest, most widespread
and versatile of living creatures, the green plants. But ages passed during which this moiling
of early life was confined
to the sea, while the coast stretched desolate, sterile, Aiming with painted rock like today 's Grand Canyon.
Then
the early life differentiated itself. Part experimented with locomotion, gaining the independence conferred by motion and
the ability to search after food in remote places where food was not at hand. In this manner appeared aquatic animals.
Henceforth, 1ife developed along two major lines : the vegetable, rooted and motionless, working with chlorophyll to manufacture
its living substance out of sunlight, water and carbon ; and the animal line, which invented organs of locomotion and sacrificed,
in exchange, the gift of chlorophyll.
Animlals also invented red blood, which is their substitute for
chlorophyll. Nowhere is the ingeniousness of
26
life more evident than here. The basic chlorophyll molecule holds a magnesium
atom which controls the oxidation of foodstuffs and the accompanying release of energy. In red blood, this basic chlorophyll
molecule reappears with only one change : the magnesium oxidizer is replaced by an iron oxidizer. Some animals, like the horseshoe
crab, have invented blue blood, in which copper is the oxidizer instead of iron or magnesium. But the basic molecule of all
bloods (green, red, blue), called hematin, is one in structure arid differs only in the metal atom acting as oxidizer.
Life is not only specific in its adjustments: it is resourceful,, inventive, and can achieve deep changes by what appear
to be small physical modifications. And in all probability the first of all bloods, chlorophyll, will also be the last to
persist when the world is old and dying.
Both plants and animals eventually invaded the dry, barren land. Soon the earth's
surface teemed with countless creatures that had adapted themselves to new conditions. The constant process of adaptation
resulted in a steadv increase in the complexity of life forms, but the general goal of this complexity was a true economy
of function. The same feats could be accomplished more easily, more smoothly. We know, looking backwards, how smooth,
comparatively, is the operation of the human body, the pinnacle of past: biological evolution along certain lines. It
has lost chlorophyll, still possessed by plants ; it no longer enjoys immortality, which the single-celled creatures still
bear ; it suffers spiritual agonies of which other creatures seem to be incapable ; it is weaker than most comparable wild
beasts. Yet these sacrifices have been made in order to gain advantages otherwise unattainable. Man thinks, constructs
tools and changes the surface of the earth. He analyzes his position now, the story of past creation and its probabilities
in the future. He moralizes. In some way, these achievements represent an economy, and increased efficiency of the energy
exchanges involved in life, over the condition of early living creatures.
The progress of evolution is one aspect of the
adjustment of life to its organic environment
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4. The Adjustments of Life.
Evolution was itself assisted by certain specific adjustments of living
things ; for instance the migrations of various creatures. Everyone is famiiliar with.the arrival of birds in the spring to
our northern, countryside, their noisy and joyful life throughout the summer and their departure in the fall when the
leaves are turning russet and gold — in some cases, so early in the season, that the country is still warm and
green and the food plentiful. These bird flights range from travel between neighbouring counties to the 11,000 mile span,
performed twice yearly, of the Arctic Tern, and the 500 mile nonstop journey of the little hummingbird; across the Gulf of
Mexico.
No one knows the origin of the migratory instinct in birds. Generally, the flights seem related to seasonal changes
that influence food abundance, comfort, and the
sexual life ; but certain details are inconsistent, like the departure
southwards of some species as early as July, before the climate changes or food becomes scarcer. The wayfinding of birds
also remains inexplicable. Topographical signposts might assist the species which fly over the
land by day -- since
the eyesight of birds is exceptional -but what about the species that travel by night or across hundreds of miles of ocean
?
As remarkable as are bird migrations, the long journeys undertaken, by eels to their breeding places are in
some respects even more astonishing since there can be no physical milestones, no familiar topography in the depths of
the sea by which these creatures are guided. Yet the voyage of the eels is unerring along a route established through
ages of repetition. For long, nothing was known about the breeding habits of eels ; only fully developed eels could be seen
in the rivers of Europe and America. Where did they spawn ? What was the location of the newborn creature ? Why were spawning
grounds never discovered even in the waters where the developed eel was most abundant ? At length the weird truth
was discovered.
28
Seized by the urge to reproduce, the European eels pour out of the mouths
of their rivers by the millions and swim out into the Atlantic. During the journey, their generative
organs swell and reach maturity. For months the eels swim, without guide-posts, except: a deep sense of orientation
which we cannot yet explain in terms of physiology or physics. Finally, they reach a
region near the Bermudas ; and the northern boundaries of the Sargasso Sea. Here the spawning takes place.
Billions of eggs are fertilized which develop into the eel fry. What happens to the parents after the orgy of
reproduction is not known. They disappear. And the young eels, after a long period of growth, return to Europe,
aided by the strong currents of the Gulf Stream. In their millions they reinvade the rivers
and estuaries left by their parents. But one day they will mature ; they will become restless for
the deeper waters of the Atlantic ; and they too, fired by the generative instinct, will seek the same regions near the Sargasso
I where they were spawned. The American eel swims to a spawning ground close to that of its European cousin,
but its journey is only one fourth to one fifth as long.10 The eel, as well as the bird, is in some manner
polarized to its environment. Some think the faculty in birds is related to the earth's magnetic field ;
and the fact that pigeons released near powerful radio stations are
confused and find it difficult to orient themselves is adduced in support. Other evidence
indicates that the explanation may be less obvious. For one thing, terrestrial lines of force change their direction
over short periods and criss-cross many times the longer routes of birds and eels. Migratory
creatures must take their bearings on a constant rather than a shifting factor. Whatever the tropism, whether to magnetic
lines of force or other directional agents, it requires a physiologic mechanism which may be the involunitary muscle fibers.
It is evident that no ordinary sensory faculty is involved. The polarisation no doubt arises from the deepest aspects of being
And such migrations are found amongst numerous other creatures : whales,
29
turtles, lemmings, certain
insects, and salmon and shad, and eared seals.
In addition to this type of orientation, which regulates the
food, the periods of the sexual life, and adjustments to climatic changes, there exist many other types, through which
animals are guided., The cat, dog and horse are frequently able to find their way back home from great distances over paths
they have never taken before. A bee transported, half a mile from its hive in a covered box will, upon its release, regain
its hive — it must find its own hive as it would be torn to pieces by the infuriated bees of a strange colony. Man himself
is occasionally gifted with a " sense of direction " to guide him where the ordinary fellow would be lost, and it is interesting
that this gift occurs most commonly amongst people in intimate contact with nature, like the American Indians.
Certain
of the awarenesses underlying orientation are so sensitive and developed that the activities of the creature appear to
us to be highly intelligent. The intelligence displayed seems to be different from the deliberate, conscious rationalization
of human beings. The social insects are the outstanding examples of this class. Fabre has immortalized the indefatigable ingenuity
of the ant. More recently, however, entomologists like Marais have shown that the termite is equally ingenious.11
Each termite is subordinated to the exigencies of the whole colony,
exactly as individual cells of the human body, despite their separate existence, work for the good of the whole being. The
termitary is revealed as a complex organization undergoing constant maintenance and repair at the hands of the constituent
"cells," the termites proper, which likewise protect the colony against invasion. And the total effort is integrated and made
" conscious ", as it were, by the queen termite sitting in her chamber in the depths of the termitary, which she can never
leave : just as the human brain distributes its orders from the dark cavern of the skull. If the queen is destroyed, the colony
is at once smitten by confusion and finally chaos ; and unless another queen is soon found to take her place, the
30
community disintegrates. Some species of termites orient their structures
with respect to the compass points, recalling the mysterious insect, the telephore, which always faces west during the mating
season. It is extraordinary that the work of the termitary is undertaken by utterly blind termites—they have no visual
organs — whose instructions are issued by a queen possessed of sight but unable to make use of it from her buried, central
prison. Yet in some fashion these insects are perfectly oriented to their environment and can meet the problems arising from
it.
Beebe describes the extraordinary instinctive behaviour of the turtles on a lone Pacific island hundreds of miles from
any other land, with a small beach on one side and the rest of the island mountainous. He went to the beach one evening, when
the turtles were laying their eggs. With lighted lantern, he observed one enormous mother turtle during her egg laying session.
She appeared to be entirely oblivious to him, as her front part was evidently asleep while, with her hind legs, she scooped
out a deep round hole in the sand, each foot alternating with the other in a circular movement that scooped out the sand.
At the same time, the walls of the hole were kept from sliding in by moisture sprayed out from inside her — and this
moisture, Beebe felt certain, was not urine. In other words, her rear section was busy carrying on a function of great complexity,
motivated entirely by instinct, while the other end was oblivious to everything. Beebe points out how remarkable is this behaviour
in the light of the fact that no turtle can turn sufficiently to have the slightest idea of what its hind quarters look like
; yet, with its rear flippers, it scoops out a perfect circular hole. And, the hole filled, the mother wandered away
into the sea and the first waves of the rising tide washed the sand smooth. Another turtle had a large piece missing from
one of its digging flippers ; the other flipper filed in the breach by doing more than its half of the work ; so that
the finished hole was as smooth and circular as those of the other turtles.
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This, Beebe thought, looked like more than just mechanical compensation.12
But no doubt the
most extraordinary of specific orientations appear in
man. Indefinitely, they manifest as the various moral, religious
and esthetic perceptions. Concretely, they manifest as strange awarenesses for which man evidently does not employ his
usual sensory faculties. These awarenesses have been strongly impugned ever since science assumed its present role of
importance in modern thought. Telepathy, clairvoyance, foresight, psychometry, dowsing, have constantly
enjoyed a repute at large which has been questioned by science. Perhaps
this is due principally to the fact that until recently science has not evolved
a methodology suitable to the study of these awarenesses. Hence,
great credit is due to Prof. J. B Rhine13 for his long series of carefully controlled experiments
with telepathy and clairvoyance, a long enough series to permit of serious statistical evaluation. He has found in his work
that the chance ratio can be significantly exceeded. On the basis of this alone it would be necessary to
accept these awarenesses, called by him extrasensory, as a reality. Hence to the various
electrical, mechanical and chemical aspects of the human being objective science is now obliged to add another aspect,
intangible, obscure, difficult to control and elicit; but nevertheless real —the extrasensory aspect.
More will be said of this later. For the present it is mentioned as a faculty for subconscious
orientation in man comparable to the orientations in animals already described. All life
seems to share in common something of this faculty.As yet, the mechanism of these biological phenomena eludes us. Whether
it be the journey of the eels ; or the migratory flight of birds ; or the community labors of the termites under the leadership
of their queen ; or the restless forebodings of our domesticated animals like the dog and the horse ; or the unerring instinct
directing certain digger wasps where to sting the tarantula to paralyze it so that it may be stored away, living but immovable,
as food for the wasp
larvae ; or the obscure efforts at adaptation which
32
have developed some 10,000 000 insect species or whether it be the extrasensory
faculties amongst men, we knew little about the facts except that they occur and are difficult to fit into a strictly mechanistic
description of creation. They do show, however, that living behaviour is not haphazard. Having developed out of the earth,
life nevertheless remains a part of it. We are struck by the essential oneness of geologic and biologic development, a harmony
between the two which enables living creatures to keep in touch with the inorganic world that supports them. Similarly the
earth is united with the larger universe in which it hangs. The whole betrays the purpose-fulness of a single organism
and vice versa.
Iife is peculiarly tailored to its environment. Living creatures over the earth like a well-fitted garment,
not like a drape thrown carelessly about it. Again and again life is related to the inanimate earth by a host of instincts
and unconscious awarenesses. Here is a profound mystery of nature which we must strive to clarify.
5. Dowsing.
Although these biological awarenesses to environment manifest variously, they
represent an integrated activity of all life : the apparent multiplicity results from the many conditions to which life must
adapt itself. If we examine one of these awarenesses we are soon struck by the unity underlying them all.
A
curious faculty evidently not dependent on sensory perception is Dowsing. Dowsing has been practised for centuries. Some dowsers
appear to have been remarkably successful, and still are, whereas others were doubtless imposters. Early dowsers believed
that the divining rod, carried in the hand over a subterranean watercourse, dipped and wobbled of its own accord to indicate
the. presence of water. The lack of scientific method soon surrounded the art of dowsing with mystery . Much the same bewilderment
has accreted about other obscure faculties such as telepathy, clairvoyance, prophecy; but the latter were in
33
general hard to assess by direct
comparison with facts, whereas a good dowser could always be vindicated by digging and unearthing water .Yet the efforts
of the best dowsers were not sufficient to offset the discredit smeared on the art by charlatans.
For centuries men inquired
seriously : What makes the divining rod act ? With the advent of science the question was reformulated : Is there anything
at all in dowsing, or does the whole thing rise out of the psyche of the dowser, with no more than a chance relation
to reality ?
Recently two British scientists, J. C. Maby and T. B. Franklin, have finally solved the problem. They have
established the scientific foundation of dowsing,13 just as Newton laid the foundation of optics
and gravitation, Dalton of the atomic theory, Darwin of evolution, Minkowski and Einstein of what has become the new
non-Euclidean concepts of space and time, J. B. Rhine of telepathy, clairvoyance and other extrasensory faculties ; and
so on. But the importance of this study of dowsing is enhanced by its relation to other phenomena, thus far not integrated,
upon which it throws extraordinary light. Hence, it is necessary to examine the conclusions of these two Britishers, one a
physiologist and the other a mathematical physicist.
Dowsing10 is the art of taking in
the hands a stick, preferably forked, and walking slowly over ground in search of subterranean watercourses and other
objects. When the dowser passes, for instance, over water, the stick, or divining rod, is supposed to dip, gyrate; and in
extreme cases leap out of the hands. Even amateurs handling the rod agree on the sensation of the rod's moving of its
own accord without any conscious manipulation. Maby and Franklin made hundreds of tests with professional dowsers* and
with laymen who had had no previous experience, and they agreed on this point. It is important to note that these tests
were "blind" — that is, the location of known subterranean water was not revealed until after the dowser had given his
reaction. This of course was done to avoid suggestion. At least in the case
34
of expert dowsers, the results were extraordinarily accurate and far exceeding
any conceivable chance figure. It was also possible in these investigations to go over the dowser's ground with special mechanical
detectors sensitive to the rays responsible for the dowsing effect, and the. dowser's results were amply confirmed. A great
many variables entered into the work : time of day, orientation of dowser with respect to the underground object, whether,
physiological state of the dowser himself. However, in general the reality of the dowsing effect was proved.
Second,
Maby and Franklin found that subterranean water, as well as other objects like! clay beds, actually gave off radiation possessing
a characteristic field pattern.17 To this held the divining rod reacted. By prolonged work with
dowsers and mechanical (electrical) devices, the field patterns were determined for horizontal, and vertical extension.
Thus it appeared that an object of limited length with respect to width gave off radiation that surrounded it concentrically
like standing waves, and the dowser approaching the object passed through alternate areas of effect and no-effect (positive
and negative phases). Elongated objects such as streams or underground pipelines were followed on each side by similar
alternating bands of standing waves running parallel to the length. Other field characteristics were discovered which need
not be mentioned here, excepting one : Under certain conditions the alternating positive and negative bands reversed with
respect to each other, the positive becoming negative, and vice versa. A change in the dowser's orientation also produced
this shift, which is described as a polar reversal.
Thus the basic contention of dowsers was scientifically substantiated
: That the presence of an invisible, underground object could be detected by the reactions of a divining rod held
in the hand.
But exactly how did the reaction occur ?
In the first place, Maby and Franklin found that the dowsing reaction,
is not a function of the divining rod but of the dowser's muscles. As they point out, this had been correctly surmised by
Kircher as long ago as 1641,
35
but their credit is in irrefutably
proving this to be the correct explanation. Briefly : A dowser holding the rod before him brings into play certain muscles
whose tension depends on the position of the grasp and on the amount of strength employed in maintaining the separation of
the arms of a forked rod. This muscle tension is kept uniform by the dowser as he prospects across a field. The nature
of the radiation involved in dowsing is such that it lessens muscle tonus as at least one of its physiological effects. Hence,
when the dowser enters the radiation field, his muscle tonus is lowered-i.e., his muscular strength is actually weakened.
His attempt to maintain the position of his arms and the rod causes him to exert more strength and results in the apparent
slipping and swaying of the rod. And as his physiological response to the dowsing radiation and his efforts at adjustment
are entirely subconscious, he erroneously attributes the gyrations to the rod itself, not realizing that all the rod does
is make visible his own physiological reaction. This was amply proved by the numerous tests in which the rod was carried
by mechanical means over the positive dowsing areas, but with negative results : whereas the same rod held by a good
dowser invariably dipped to indicate the reaction.
Careful study disclosed that the dowsing rays were dual in character,
consisting of swift corpuscles on the one hand and of genuine radiation of a Hertzian nature on the other.19 The latter manifested
the effects always associated with wave phenomena : interference, refraction, polarization, etc. In general the Hertzian
rays were found to be the most important in dowsing. Since they possessed great penetration, they produced strong effects
far away from the source ; whereas the corpuscular rays, active at close quarters, had weak penetration in air (in common
with most corpuscular rays excepting cosmic rays) and became negligible at relatively close distances to the source. And,
finally, the weight of evidence suggested strongly that all types of dowsing radiation might be secondary emissions of material
under the impact of cosmic rays. It was thus found that any body of water or
36
metallic object might be a powerful source of corpuscular
or Hertzian rays
emitted under the primary stimulation of cosmic rays, and that the whole subject of dowsing radiation was thus extended from
its natural occurrence in the countryside, into the city, where man, building his civilisation of metals, has placed innumerable
potential sources of'dowsing radiation.
Since the dowsing effect is a physiological reflex and since it evidently takes
place whether a person is aware of it or not (like the circulation of the blood, digestion, endocrine secretion and other
profound bodily functions), the question naturally arises : What is the effect on health of dowsing rays, which may
exist in innumerable localities, in town or country, wherever there are subterranean watercourses, metal veins and objects,
etc. ? Can any correlation be made between the incidence of illness and such localities ?
Here also Maby and Franklin's
evidence is extremely important.20 In general, they find that cancer, rheumatism, arthitis, colds, asthma, tuberculosis,
certain gastric complaints, are exacerbated and when the patient lives over sources of dowsing rays, and that probably
these diseases are awakened in cases where predisposition happens to exist .The actual physiology involved is the increased
tissue ionization caused by the impact of dowsing rays. Short exposure and temporary ionization may prove stimulating rather
than harmful ; but prolonged exposure, as in the case of persons living over positive dowsing areas, produces sufficient
ionization to result in chemical effects that precipitate disease. Comparable are the effects of high frequency radiation
like X-ray, radium, ultra-violet, in which cases the intensity cf tissue ionization increases with the frequency.
Much evidence exists that sensitive
* Sir Wm. Bragg has shown that metals exposed to X-radiation of mixed fr
quencies emit secondary radiation of a frequency characteristic for each metal; and the basis of X-rays is the ability of
metals to emit secondarily under the impact of a swift electronic stream. These familiar instances are merely adduced
to substantiate the theoretical explanation of dowsing rays.
37
persons sleep badly over streams
or mineral veins, and that even the metal springs or frames of a bed may give rise to radiation fields which disturb the sleeper
and, in some cases, over prolonged exposures, make him ill (since he is close enough to the source to feel not only the long
range Hertzian rays but also the corpuscular rays). In Germany; experiments conducted with mice showed that the incidence
of cancer was greatly increased when the animals were exposed either to natural dowsing fields or to fields artificially produced
by a Hertzian oscillator.
Hence the medical importance of dowsing fields can
not be over-estimated. Nor can the philosophical
impor
tance. For everyone passes through such fields constant-
ly, and, as already explained, the fields occur unexpectedly
as
the result of secondary radiation of metals, which
figure so prominently in our civilized life. It seems that
as we
walk about, our bodies are unceasingly responding,
below the threshold of consciousness, to a multitude of
dynamic factors.
Perhaps a certain measure of such res-
ponse is all in the day's work for most individuals ; but
when exposure and,
hence, reaction are prolonged the
body may be unable to adjust itself — for instance, to re
pair the effects
of excess tissue ionization as rapidly as
they occur. And the weakest point then breaks down ; the
specific character
of the illness perhaps depending upen the
constitutional idiosyncrasy.
The phenomena of dowsing emerge as a marvellous
instance of the biological adjustments already pointed out. It is also possible that whereas man with his conscious, reasoning
mind is unable to tab the reactions at their source and without circuitous techniques, animals, on the other hand, free from
inhibitions, are doubtless more directly guided by reactions of this type. The migration and other extraordinary habits of
wild life may have their origin in obscure dynamic stimuli to which the animal is amenable.
We may logically assume that
local geographical areas give forth a characteristic dynamic pattern which the autonomic of animals recognizes and use as
guides in
38
the various migrations.
Larger areas may integrate into still more general dynamic patterns. So that it is suggestive to picture an army of migrating
wildlife as a vast autonomic organism responding to and following the dynamic impulses arising from the earth, much as
an airplane feels along the length of a radio beam. This assumption is certainly safer than to suppose birds, for instance,
in their farflung flights, able to utilize for orientation the shifting patterns of the earth's magnetic fields, which streams
in so many directions over different points of the earth's surface. The fact that birds sometimes fly at great altitudes would
not remove them from the influence of rays of the dowsing class which Maby and Franklin have shown to extend upwards with
no apparent decrease in intensity. And we have seen how wide-spread are the source capable of stimulating these biological
reactions.
This is the picture drawn — and established as an unsuspected reality — by Maby and Franklin. Their
work is a classic. It ties together many fields hitherto uncoordinated as will be shown below.
6. The Work of Abrams.
The type of physiological reaction involved in dowsing, and so long regarded
with superstition and incredulity is evidently widespread in nature, both amongst animal and men. It has taken the ingenuity
of man to exteriorize, through such devices as the divining rod, imperceptible processes going on within him. As has
been seen , Maby and Franklin have securely founded the science of dowsing (as against the art). Another approach to physiological
reflexes of the dowsing type has been made by a few physicians seeking to elucidate certain obscure dynamic body effects,
not immediately linked to usual electrical effects like the psycho-galvanic reflex, other variations in skin potential,
and, more recently, the evidence of the electrocardiograph, and the electroencephalograph. But the medical approach tangled
up with considerations of ethics, orthodoxy and charlatanism, has had a stiffer—though
39
briefer—struggle than the evolution of dowsing to its present accepted
status. The bestknown medical exponent was, of course, Albert Abrams, who devised the "magic box " of still notorious odor.
Nevertheless, much has happened since Abrams' experiments (which began, around the outbreak of World War I ) to show that,
despite his mistakes and what seemed like uncontrollable commercialism, he had stumbled on profoundly significant biological
and physical phenomena.
What Abrams labored to prove was that the living human body could be utilized as the detector for
certain radiations emitted by biological material as well by inorganic substances. The biological radiations of human
beings tended to conform to certain patterns during health. Disease at once changed these patterns and it was by observing
these departures from normal that Abrams developed a system of diagnosis independent of the usual pathological findings. Abrams
maintained that specific energies were emitted by different diseases, and that the presence of the abnormal energy
could be detected long before the appearance of tissue pathology or even dysfunction. He maintained also that the correction
of theses energy derangements removed the cause of disease, and that secondary effects such as pathology, infective agents
,etc would then disappear, since they could only thrive where the soil was propitious for them — i.e., in tissue suffering
from dynamic disturbances.21 Unfortunately, Abrams pushed his claims beyond the point where his
technique was able to support them. The investigation of the AMA, undertaken by The\ Scientific American, failed to obtain
reliable and consistent evidence from the Abrams proponents. The work was branded as fraudulent and has had to struggle
ever since against this stigma.
Actually, Abrams was right in many of his observations, as Maby and Franklin justly
concede ;22 but many of his interpretations of fact betray a runaway imagination and a
loose application of the physical principles then known.
As a " detector " for the energies Abrams used a human being in
good health (the " subject ") ; just as dowsing rays are detected by an operator holding the divining
40
rod. But whereas the dowser utilizes
a generalized reflex which he chooses to exteriorize by means of the hands,— a convenient and controllable method,—Abrams'
subject demonstrated a selective, localized reflex that could be manifested only by a specific technique. When the subject
was connected (at the forehead) to different kinds of diseased tissue (i.e., to patients suffering from different diseases)
certain patches of the abdomen became "dull" under percussion as against the normal more resonant, abdominal note. Each
of these dull areas corresponded to a specific diseased state. Abrams soon found that a tuner could be interposed between
the patient and the subject, giving sharper areas and only one area at a time, provided of course the tuner was of the variable
type which could be adjusted to resonate to the periods of the ehfferent energies. As the subject was connected to the
apparatus at the forehead and stood on earthed metallic plates, he was, in effect, placed in an energy current which in its
passage to earth elicited the various selective abdominal reflexes ; much like the response of the dowser, with his generalized
reflex, to the field of dowsing rays. So that if we accept dowsing phenomena as factual there is nothing intrinsically
anomalous in the situation of Abrams' subject.
Th undoing of Abrams was the very apparatus he invented .Instead of deliberately
acknowledging inductance and capacity as the basis of all tuned circuit effects, he evolved the theory that his disease energies
could be tuned in by means of "ohms '': i.e. cancer energy would pass only through a 50 ohm coil, tuberculosis energy a 42
ohm coil, streptococcus 60 ohms, ard so on. He even wound his coils noninductively, considering this ample proof that his
concept was right, since he continued to get results. However, he ignored certain high frequency characteristics, perhaps
because he did not appreciate the fact that his energies were of extraordinarily high frequency indeed (as also, by the
way, are the dowsing Hertzian oscillations). A simple resistance in the path of a low frequency current has no appreciable
tuning eftect. But beyond a certain point, increase of frequency rapidly increases the inductive
41
effect of even a short length of straight wire. Moreover,
the resistance characteristics which he stated so simply differ for high frequences from
the resistance characteristics of low frequencies or direct currents, which tend to flow through the whole cross
section of the conductor, whereas high frequencies pass only alongs the surface; ("skin effect").
And the frequencies of Abrams' disease radiations are so high th:at the inductive effect of his resistance coils ( notwithstanding
their "noninductive winding ) becomes the cardinal tuning factor of the circuit, combined with the capacity effect of the
various circuit elements. Indeed,as was shown by Colson,23 the resistance of the| Abrams coils seriously
interferes with the weak energy currents, and the same inductive-capacity value obtained with coils
in which the resistance is deliberatel kept to a minimum at once sharpen the reactions by increasing the amount of energy
flowing in the circuit, make whole setup more selective, and remove other fallacies, inherent in the original
Abrams device—the derisively called " magic box." It is no wonder that consistent results could
not be obtained before serious investigators of the technique. The wonder is that despite his crudities
of technique , Abrams was able to discover so much that was fundamental and that has since been confirmed in other ways.
It is fair to mention at this point that perhaps the earliest scientific observation of the abdominal reflex
was made by Dr. George Starr White near the end of the last century.24 It is doubtless from White that Abrams obtain- ed the
clues leading to the discovery of disease energies and their detection by means of an instrumental tuner in conjunction
with a subject; but Abrams was not always unequivocal in stating his indebtedness to White.
White claimed to be able
to detect an aura about living creatures. The aura gave him a visual sensation of color, and the color changed according to
the emotional state of the individual as well as the state of his health. Soon White noticed that the aura " streamers " (as
he called them) were deflected in different directions according to whether the subject faced north; or south, and east
42
or west. As he was experimenting
at that time with vibrating air columns which he would play over his patient's body, he stumbled upon a curious phenomenon:
The sound of such an air column, having as one of its closed sides the abdomen of a person, gave a different note when
the
subject faced north or south from the note in the east or west positions — corresponding to White's observations
on the aura.
This appears to have been a basic phenomenon. It has been corroborated by many individuals in different ways.
For instance, Maby and Franklin (see last section) show that the kind of dowsing effect, and the field pattern of dowsing
rays, depend upon the orientation of the operator to the source of the rays and on the orientation of the latter to the magnetic
flux of the earth. Moreover, Abrams20 found that his subject, who was grounded, must always face
west for best elicitation of the abdominal reflexes under percussion, and for this observation he was indebted to White's
discovery concerning the change in note produce by orientation. The same conclusion as Abrams was reached somewhat later
by a very much more scientific investigator, Wm. E. Boyd of Glasgow (to whose work reference will shortly be made). When
we remember that all animal migrations—and they are widespread — depend on some unknown faculty of orientation,
it does not seem difficult to accept the orientation phenomenon of White.*There is no reason why a reflex change in the tissues
of the abdominal wall, showing under percussion as a change in note, should not occur as readily as the weakening of
nuscle tonus in a strong dowsing field. The full..
*Later more careful determinationss indicate that maximum abdominal
resonance does not occur exactly at the geographical or magnetic west. In New York City ,the actual point, is about 12 degrees
counterclockwise from the magnetic west; other regions of the country have been checked. This certainly frees the orientation
reflex from dependence on magnetic factors, and is further indication that animal migrations may be unrelated to
terrestrial magnetic lines of force. This problem is part of the research of the Foundation for Homoeopathic Research,
but much of the material is not yet ready for publication
43
importance of White's disovery will become more apparent
later in this essay.
Another of White's contributions is the discover y that colored light excites the abdominal reflex.
Specifically, he found that patients with profound toxemias did not give the orientation reflex. However, if they were exposed
to various colored lights, a color could be found which restored the reflex so long as the patient remained under exposure
to it. As the occurrence of the orientation reflex was a constant phenomenon in health but disappeared during disease,
he reasoned that the light restoring the reflex must have some sort of curative relation to the patient. In this he claims
to have been correct, for he has evolved a color therapy in which the reflex-restoration is the indicator of the color with
which to irradiate the patient therapeutically. When the patient is cured, he once again spontaneously gives the orientation
reflex. These original and, it must be confessed, astute observations were taken up with modification by Abrams, who insisted
that certain disease energies, tuned in and recorded by his instrument in conjunction with a "subject," could be enhanced
or dissipated by certain colors. But Abram use of color was in a different direction from White's, as was indeed natural,considering
the difference in technique.
White also appears to have been the first to conduct along a wire body energy
of the type Abrams made first famous and then notorious. But White was content merely
to show that the energy was capable of conduction, even over long distances, along a length of wet cord
or aluminum wire : he does not seem to have appreciated the existence of energy of varying frequency charcteristics
capable of analysis into its components by means of a tuned circuit. The conception of tuning and the elaboration
of diagnosis based wholly on such instrumental sittings belong to Abrams. They remain an
amazing discovery, despite the errors and the eventual vilification poured on the man.
From
these facts it is clear that living beings--at any rate, human beings — not only react
to all sorts of
44
external stimuli like dowsing rays , certain directional magnetic field of
the earth, and perhaps other influences, but they can react specifically to some sort of biological energy associated
with ill health. In fact, according to both White and Abrarms and verified by ourselves, the abdominal reflex
on percussion is also elicited by the presence of nearby persons. This means that every individual
is constantly experiencing unconscious activities of his physiology against the environment.
The concept of biological organism as a hermetically contained unit, giving out what it does not need and taking in to meet
its requirements, must be altered. Each organism is instead bathed in at least the physical effects of its milieu, just
as a jellyfish, while preserving its integrity as a creature, is permeated by the currents of seawater,with which,
in a sense, it is continuous. And since all objects give off radiation with a potential biological effect, radiation which
in the case of dowsing rays, for in tance, is able to penetrate great distances, the whole problem of migration
and other biological orientations becomes clearer. These radiations are like signposts, directions scattered over the earth.
And living; creatures are guided by them, not consciously, but by the operation of hidden physiological activities.
7. Boyd and the Dynamis.
Left to itself, the work of Abrarms might easily have been forgotten. Whenever
his exponents attempted to demonstrate the technique, they ran into inconsistencies and contradictions. The same patient,
or the same blood specimen gave different diagnoses in the, hands of different operatators who were unacquainted with
the patient's clinical history. For this, technical crudity was the most responsible factor. A delicate effect was under detection
with crude, inadequate apparatus, and no effort was apparently made to isolate the phenomena themselves from sources
of interference. As has been mentioned, this led an AMA investigation and the eventual discrediting of
the whole movement
in America.
45
However, in Great Britain the problem was approached by a man who was
thoroughly grounded in physics, radio and electricity. This man was Dr.Wm.E. Boyd of Glasgow,25
whose work is as much a classic as the labors of Maby and Franklin described above.*
At once, Boyd recognized that a tuning
circuit for Abrams' energies must operate by virtue of its inductance and capacity effects instead of its resistance. He constructed
a variable inductance coil with continuous contact in place of the spaced taps of Abrams' tuner. Later, this
circuit was
refined and elaborated, becoming an instrument of precision called the Emanometer.
The instrument consisted
of three sections connected in series. First, the patient's specimen was inserted in a movable trolley whose distance
from a fixed receiving plate could be varied at will. A uniform opening in the specimen carriage allowed energy
to radiate across in airgap to the receiving plate. The distance to which the specimen could be withdrawn from the receiving
plate before the energy ceased to record gave the intensity of the energy under analysis. Drugs were inserted into a receptacle
so situated that the field of drug energy components occupied the same space as the field of the specimen : in this way the
two could interact. It was found that the glass vials were quite transparent to the drug energies, just as glass is transparent
to visible light, hence the drugs were amply protected from contamination or deterioration, the vial being merely inserted
into the apparatus. This part of the circuit measured energy strengths and allowed interference to take place between specimen
and drug components. Second, in series with the fixed plate of the air-gap were two parallel circuits. One arm consisted
of a variable induction coil in series with a variable condenser ; the other arm consisted of a single variable condenser
of
* Due credit
is given both Boyd and Abrams by these authors, who seem to recognize the close relationship of these various phenomena.
t
Detuning of the circuit a result of capacity effects resulting from changes
in the distance between the airgap plates was elmiuated by a special arrangement of the gap elements.
46
small value ; and a special switching arrangement
permitted these two arms to be connected in parallel after each had been separately tuned, giving a marked increase in selectivity.
The inductance was calibrated in millimeters of coil length, the condenser scales covered 180 degrees, each degree being further
subdivided into 60 minutes by means of a micrometer dial. It can be appreciated how discriminating was the arrangement.
This part of the circuit offered one means of tuning the energies. Thence a lead connected to the forehead of the subject,
who was the third and last circuit component. He functioned as detector, through the occurrence of the abdominal reflexes
under percussion, and in addition as a vernier tuner to the instrumental circuit by virtue of the fact that different
energies produced entirely distinct areas of abdominal dullness, thus confirming, in general, Abrams' findings in this
respect. The standard of detection was thus the reading of the inductance and capacity values plus the location of the
dull areas on the subject. The importance of the subject as auxiliary tuner can be estimated from the fact that the identical
Emanometer setting will sometimes permit several areas — representing distinct energy components — to record
on the abdomen ; without the subject they could scarcely be differentiated.
A further refinement of the Emanometer was
the shielding which Boyd early found to be necessary for excluding irrelevant and interfering factors. In its final form,
the shielding surrounded each circuit section — air-gap, tuner, and lead, from tuner to subject — and the subject
himself stood in a case of closely woven phosphor bronze mesh. All shielding was carefully earthed, as was the subject through
standing on he metallic floor of his cage.
A strong source of interference was found to arise from handling the vials of
drugs to be tested, or the patient's specimen, or insulated controls situated within the cage ,when the subject could be affected.
Such irrelevant energies compounded with the energies under study, leading to false results. To eliminate
such contamination,
47
Boyd found it necessary to sterilize the instrument with dry heat before use,
to prepare sterile vials for the drugs and never to handle then except with sterile forceps, and to collect the specimens
on sterile blotters of standardized absorption. These precautions, while increasing the difficulties of technique,
greatly added to the accuracy.
The general technical procedure was this : At the circuit input Boyd placed a specimen of
blood ; at the output he connected a health individual who stood on grounded metallic plates — the "subject."
Then he proceeded to observe the occurrence of the dull abdominal areas elicited on percussion. He found that when the subject
faced west, his abdomen became uniformly resonant to percussion, and that the dull areas could be easy defined
by contrast. Some of his areas agreed with Abrams'; but as Boyd's tuner was much more selective, the number of areas increased
greatly over those originally discovered by Abrams. There were interesting relationship, between certain areas and clinical
states. However, Boyd' s method never claimed to be diagnostic of disease, as did Abrams', but merely gave a picture of the
dynamic state of the patient without necessary reference to orthodox terminology. Nevertheless, Boyd discovered that
certain energies usually appeared in case of inflammation ; others were associated with infection ; others with proliferation
; some with respiratory condition ; digestive, nervous, genitourinary and other disturbances of organ-systems. There
was enough clinical correspondence to give him a general picture of the patient's condition from the type of energy detected
in the patient's blood.
The quantitative aspects of this research proved extraordinarily fascinating .A patient presenting
himself for treatment gave relatively high intensities (as measured on the Emanometer*) of the energies relevant to
this condition. The whole gamut of energies could be detected in any specimen, but their intensity—their
strength — was...
* It must be remembered that the units by which the energies are
identified and measured are purely arbitrary and refer exclusively to the
48
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