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A New Synthesis : Please continue from page 73
..smaller units. And in between the particles of what we call matter
runs a flood of radiation : energy poured out of each sun, reabsorbed by matter, reradiated, and thus bandied back and forth
within the transparent regions of space. Matter and radiation interact. Each has characteristics of the other —
wave as well as particle characteristics. Logic and facts induce, us to believe that this physical system (which we call
Universe) is the reflection of a profounder, unperceived reality, This fundament, this matrix, generates all perceptible phenomena,
gives them form and characteristics, reabsorbs them, and then pushes them forth again. In themselves, perceptible phenomena
have no ultimate meaning.
And on one of the bodies of space appeared Life. We on earth are the descendants of primitive
living creatures. We strain the mateiial world through our substance, retaining the elements necessary for existence
and letting the others pass outwards. But throughout the physical flux that maintains us we preserve our consciousness and
our individuality. We possess the memory of our own activities. We possess the unwitting memory of our species,
so that each generation reproduces the past , sometimes with a subtle change which we call mutations. And we jealously
preserve the memory of life itself — the quality by which we are separated from a lifeless environment.
Yet, living
beings are themselves composed matter , of atoms, electrons, protons, which bud out of the mother matrix. The matrix waves,
silent, rapid, too subtle for our sense, vibrate together to form the material of living creatures as well as of lifeless
things. In the matrix lie all the patterns of creation. That is why organic development on earth is not random but parallels
inorganic history. Evolution is not only the adaptations of life : it is an expression of the matrix, which generates
concurrently and harmoniously the physical world and its indwelling life.
And because life is self-conscious and
perceptive, it catches glimpses behind the curtain separating the physical stage from the invisible matrix. It is aware of
strange...
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contradictions and inexplicable events which have the false appearance
of autonomy, whereas they are the produce of the mother matrix. Life, because of consciousness, sometimes escapes into
the timeless, boundless matrix. Then it suddenly beholds creation stripped of fiction. It perceives that there is no beginning
or end ; no past, present or future; no immutable laws of physics which fetter the soma and its resident life.
Such revelations
of the matrix are at the basis of all miracles. They probably underlie extrasensory phenomena. They enable living creatures
to circumvent physical limitations. They may somehow be related to the unknown energies found in living creatures and
in minerals. And, for all their rarity and briefness, these revelations constitute our only glimpses of reality. All other
appearances are illusions.
11. Medical Aspects.
It will be seen that life is maintained and directed by a unified
effort on the part of each organism. This effort may be composed of a great many separate activities, but together they have
a single purpose — the well-being of the individual ; and, ultimately, the well-being of the species and of all living
creature . Not only does life respond to the relatively gross and obvious stimuli of the physical world ,it also responds
to agents so delicate that no means of studying them exist today except through biological reactions. The plane on which
all these intangible effects take place in life involve: the very depths of being. They occur below the level of consciousness.
They saturate every aspect of life, the physical, the psychological, the dynamic. And by reacting to the manifold agents
of the physical world, these effects impart to life the essential information by which life subconsciously adjusts itself
to the environment and to situations. These effects represent, indeed, the profoundest sort of wisdom;for they
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..directly touch reality, regardless of whether the
organism possesses or lacks intelligence. By means of these responses
occur the various migrations, the untold adaptations of life, the hunches, intuitions, prophecies, the miraculous healings
of which little is known except that they happen.
But medicine has neglected this phase of life. It has overlooked the
fact that life, in its unconscious efforts, holds the most powerful weapon for the struggle to live successfully. Instead
of studying these obscure reactions and seeking to apply them to the art of cure, medicine has instead seized the obvious
effects, the chemical, physical, electrical and pathological aspects of life. Unfortunately, these are all end-products or
else they are secondary to more ultimate phenomena. The true art of healing should be based not on the coarse activities associated
with life but on the underlying, motivating life agencies themselves. These are essentially dynamic and intangible
to present scientific instruments although they are doubtless susceptible of eventual mechanical detection.
In this
essay we have reviewed present knowledge concerning the dynamics of life and the deep physiological reactions which are the
physical expressions of living beings. The art of the dowser, the occurrence of the abdominal and other reflexes, the enhanced
and inhibited activity of enzymes, the rapid healing resulting from faith-cure, are physiological effects. Prior
to these are the energies detected by such instruments as the Enanometer, the obscure dynamic factors stimulating the faith-cure,
the unknown exchanges involved in telepathy and clairvoyance, the unexplained faculties resulting in the ability to foretell
the future. In some fashion, all these intangible aspects are linked together. As they constitute our closest linkage v/ith
reality, they should be studied by physicians seeking to find the surest therapy. When properly used, these methods cure promptly,
safely and lastingly. But much remains to be discovered.
The material in this essay gives the basis on which
the therapy of tomorrow will be built.
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THINGS TO DO.
1. Retrospect.
We have now covered, in the previous two essays, ground which can
be considered basic in the field. In the first section we recorded the fact, together with the proofs, that in a series of
dilutions in the ratio of one to a hundred, up to the 30th or higher, the effect of the solute on the solvent continued long
after the disappearance of the last solute molecule ,somewhere in the neighbourhood of the 10th centesimal potency (1 x 10-2°).
We related such high dilutions to phenomena already observed in physics and deduced from these relations the probable
physics of high potency activity.
In the second section, there was discussed the factor
of the general response of living things to environment : the response which enables birds and fishes, through an inherent
awareness, to find the locations favourable for propagation; and which enables the millions of insect species so to adjust
themselves to external conditions that their various methods of life on go on smoothly, including two life stages (the larval
and the adult)... so totally different in aspect that to the unlearned they would appear to be unrelated to each other. This
same autonomic factor in all life forms, including our own, maintains somatic integrity in normal situations and is responsible
for the repair of injuries, whether from mechanical and chemical factors or from the aggressive activities of bacterial
life forms. We strove to integrate the biological world with the immediate physical environment of the earth and then with
the remoter, but not less important, physical environment of the universe as a whole, and this integration we tried
to build from factual rather than then theoretical considerations. We showed that the evolution of life was not so much
a struggle with, as an adaptation to, the inorganic environment, and that the two must be considered together as a cooperating
system in which life modified the environment arid vice versa. We indicated the conclusions reached by modern physics
that
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..perceptible events are secondary issues from a fundamental matrix
of high frequency oscillations of a type undetectable by physical instruments, and we tried to link this concept with what
we already know concerning life, living functions, and the physical universe. We left open, furthermore, the door into the
vast unexplored region of the extrasensory, where
space-time restrictions are transcended, and suggested that perhaps clairvoyance
and allied faculties were excursions by living beings within the matrix itself.
In this section we shall show how the autonomic
activities of the body
can be utilised for finding drugs or other substances that stimulate the natural resistance
of the body in a specific manner. Homoeopathy gives us a hint of how to go about it because the "strange, peculiar and unusual
symptoms" that Hahneman stated as the only ones to be used for selecting a curative drug are all symptoms related to
the reactions in a patient that represent his specific autonomic response toward recovery. It is only that response which
brings about cure.
Much of the experimental background of the previous essays is specialised and technical, but certain
basic experiments are so simple that they can be repeated by any interested person. They are, incidentally, the
phenomena earliest observed in connection with this work; so they will carry a historical as well as a practical interest
Perhaps
it is prudent to say that by the simplicity of the experiments we refer to the fact that no special equipment is necessary,
only the senses of the observer. In practice, the observation of these effects requires keen perception, patience, and
the recognition of the fact that any experience taking place across the threshold of consciousness will present, at any single
trial, a blurred picture which can be brought to a focus only by repeated trials. Trie observations we are about to describe,
despite their simplicity, are on the borderline of deliberate perception and will, therefore, present certain difficulties
to the experimenter accustomed to clearcut results. But by trying several times the experimenter will find it possible
to repeat his results quite
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..consistently; so that the probability of accidental successes can be
statistically ruled out.Such statistical computations can be used as a good check on the reliability of results. Another check,
which can be applied later, is the clinical.
2. Tissue Tonus.
You have probably had the experience of tapping a wall; with the
knuckles or a felted hammer and hearing the tapping note becoming dull over a buried beam. You may have had the same experience
tapping a tabletop—the note is resonant all over the center of the table but becomes dull as you approach the edges,
which are less free to vibrate because they are attached to side-pieces, moulding, legs, etc. Very light tapping with a felted
object shows that the pitch remains about the same for the resonant and dull areas—-that is, the fundamental note is
unaltered. Heavier tapping, however, by eliciting more of the harmonics, gives the impression that the resonant areas
produce a note lower in pitch than the dull areas. Make this little demonstration for yourelf and be satisfied that you agree
with us.
The idea of applying this technique of tapping to the human body in diagnosis came to an Austrian physician in
the eighteenth century. As a boy, Auenbrugger had watched his father, an inn proprietor, determine the level of wine in casks
by tapping the walls of the cask. Above the wine level the note was low; below the wine level, it was high. Why could not
the method be used to locate collections of fluid in naturally resonant cavities like the lungs? Auenbrugger tried, succeeded,
and published his results in 1761. Ever since then, percussion has remained one of the reliable bedside tools of the physician.
But
percussion is ordinarily used to elicit densities within a cavity. It can also detect, if it is done lightly, variations
in the surface tenseness of, say, the abdominal wall. Tenseness gives a duller sound to percussion than does relaxation,
because the tenser tissue is less free to vibrate.
The latter type of interference with normal vibration is technically
called "damping." The loud pedal on pianos
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..works by lifting from the strings felt cushions which ordinarily
fall back on the strings immediately after the note has been struck, and these cushions are known as ''dampers." Without them,
all the notes struck would continue to sound together, resulting in an intolerable harmonic omelette ! A note which is damped
suffers no change of pitch provided the damping influence is not heavy enough to alter appreciably the tension of the
vibrating object; but because the same amount of energy is now required to keep the object vibrating against an obstacle (the
damping medium), the amplitude of the fundamental is decreased, some of the harmonics are reduced and others may be altogether
obliterated. When damping takes place, the result to the ear is most accurately expressed is a change in quality, but
there may also be the illusion of a change in pitch. In percussing over cavities like the lungs or a par
partly filled barrel, another factor must be considered : the existence of an air column with its own natural period. In such
cases, actual changes in pitch take place according to
the amount of fluid contained in the cavity, since the pitch is
directly related to the length of the enclosed air column. However, as this factor is of negligible importance to the
type
of percussion in which we are interested, we need do no more than mention it in passing.
Tonus is a universal characteristic
of living things. Both White and Abrams (see previous essay) have shown us how to utilise this factor for diagnosis and for
selecting curative measures. Through a finer technique, Wm. E. Boyd of Glasgow adapted his approach to homeopathy, Boyd's
instrument, the Emahometer, offers the most scientific utilisation of the autonomic approach.
In section 5 of the prev ious essay we saw that dowsing is possible because of a reflex weakening of the muscles of the
dowser when he passes through a dowsing field. The muscular reflex is doubtless general, as shown by certain sensitives who
react to a dowsing field by a feeling of fatigue or heaviness, the result of a decrease in the muscle tonus.
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We saw also that a great many other
agents exist which are capable of influencing muscle tonus : for instance, the presence of other persons; of plants;
of drugs, especially potentised drugs; and also of specimens of secretions from human beings in electrical circuit with the
person demonstrating the reaction (the "subject"). All these phenomena resemble one another in that an individual's muscle
tonus is reflexly changed by the presence of energy of various types.
Such muscle effects can be objectivised by kinesthetic
methods : that is, by forcing the subject to perform work requiring uniform effort. The change in tonus then manifests
to the subject as a corresponding change in the effort he must apply to that work. This is the method of dowsing, where the
operator separates the forks of the dowsing rod. Another method seeks directly to show variations in the tenseness of muscle
tissue, and the simplest of these techniques involves percussion, where the quality of the note is related to the degree
of tenseness present in the tissue under percussion.
All such changes in muscle tonus, being reflex, have their origin
in a stimulation of the autonomic nervous system. If we remember that the autonomic seems to be a kind of physiologic
coordinator and superintendent, not only maintaining the routine of the body but controlling its reaction to abnormal
conditions like disease, we realise that by approaching the autmomic in the right way its great powers may be deliberately
used to the advantage of its possessor. In fact, we showed in the previous essay a number of techniques developed to help
the autonomic guide the body back to health in cases of illness. We now propose to describe two or three of these methods
in sufficient detail for any interested investigator to try, as their ultimate goal, will enable anyone to find a patient's
simillimum by means of the patient's own reactions. Having already laid the physical and biological grounds, 'let us consider
the percussion'technique as applied to the abdomen and to the lung apex.
For best results, percussion should be performed
with a sharp wrist movement similar to the staccato attack on the piano The pleximeter finger (usually the middle finger)
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is pressed firmly against the area to be percussed, and the strokes fall
continuously on the terminal joint of the finger. The percussing finger should be permitted to rebound the moment after it
has struck; otherwise it will damp the note and the effect, which is itself a damping, will not be apparent. Good practice
for developing the percussion technique is to let the hand hang lirmp from the wrist, and then to shake the whole forearm,
letting the hand flounder from side to side— to be applied, of course, to the percussing, not the pleximetcr, hand.
You
are now ready to take a subject for experiment. Stand him facing North. Percuss the upper chest at the exact point where the
note is between flatness and resonance. While you percuss continuously, have the subject pivot on his heel towards the West,
turning slowly. It is best if you follow him around rather than just reach towards him, as by keeping the same position relative
to him you will be less apt to vary the percussion as a result of his movement. Notice that when he faces approximately West
there is a slight change in the quality of the note. If he continues to turn beyond West the note goes back to its original
quality, but as soon as he returns to the West position the changed note recurs.
This experiment should be performed a
number of times. To test yourself, blindfold both the subject and yourself. Confuse yourselves by turning yourselves
around several times. Then try to find West by detecting the change in note.
Although a third person can hear the effect
quite clearly from the opposite side of the room, it must be remembered that the continuous change in position between1 him
and the rotating subject would make it very difficult for him to be sure of the effect.
You should also be cautioned against
the fact that the walls of the room reflect sound waves and that the far might be in the exact position to pick them up and
mistake them for a change in note when the subject happens to be facing West. This test is properly made on an open field
or a
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..housetop where there are no neighbouring reflecting surfaces. Here
also the effect will be found to take place, showing that it has no relation to the confined space of a room.
A variation
of this experiment can be made on the bared
abdomen of the subject. The subject should stand (not facing West) on a sheet
of non-magnetic metal which is grounded, or grounded wires should be wrapped about his ankles. If you now percuss lightly
over his whole abdomen while he faces away from West, you will observe several dull areas, with resonant areas in between,
or perhaps the whole abdomen may be uniformly dull. The subject then faces West, with his hands hanging at the sides. Percussion
over the abdomen now reveals uniform resonance : the dull areas have disappeared. You will remember, from the preceding article,
that this is the position in which both Abrams and Boyd stationed their subjects when working with tuned circuits. Since
the abdominal effects are a dulling of the note, if the whole abdomen is resonant to begin with the dull areas can be much
more easily distinguished.
A few persons seem wholly incapable of hearing this change in note. Although some persons have
difficulty at first, most appear suddenly to sense what to look for, after which detection of the effect comes fairly easy.
But a few never succeed in overcoming the initial difficulty, and the reason for this is not always obvious as some of these
persons have more than ordinarily good ears. One would think musicians especially qualified as detectors. However, an initial
difficulty experienced by musicians is that they listen for a variation in pitch instead of a difference in tonal quality,
and the effect eludes them. Once they understand what to look for they are often more skilful at detecting the effect than
the average person.
The best general recommendation is not to concentrate heavily-—to hear, rather than to listen.
Excessive concentration tends to bewilder, and one wonders whether the change in note was really heard or imagined. Relax,
and accept what comes. A semi-detached attitude of mind is good, as Boyd recommends. And do not be discouraged by the fragility
of the effect. Any critical adjustment depending on..
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..sensory perception is tedious and has a relatively large tolerable
error . You probably know how difficult it can be to focus the camera image on a groundglass or to secure the point
of best reception on a radio set tuning in a station with a broad condenser spread. The percussion effect is much fainter
than any of these, and correspondingly difficult.
Having assured yourself that you detect the effect accurately, try
the following interesting test: Percuss the subject near the the lung apex, as described above. Then direct a friend
to approach slowly from a distance of twelve or fifteen feet.The latter must approach slowly or the effect
may
be lost. When he is two or threefrom the subject being percussed, there is a distinct change of note. Repeat the test, and
the change will occur when the subject and your friend are the same distance apart as in the first test. Now substitute another
friend for the first, and he will probably
cause the change in note at a slightly different distance.Occasionally the effect
takes place with the two persons as far apart as ten feet, as happened once between a man and woman. We do not know what actually
takes place in this effect, but evidently some sort of a radiant interchange excites
a reflex in the subject, and the reflex
is manifested by percussion; no physical contact occurs between the subject and what we may here call the agent. We are
reminded of the aura with which metaphysicists have long surrounded every human being. Whatever the nature of this radiant
envelope or the claims that have been made for it in the past, we may be sure that it is a physical phenomenon which someday
will be explained and understood . Evidence of a negative nature would indicate that this envelope is quite different
from any possible electrostatic field surrounding the living body. Let us ask before turning to another topic whether the
effect-at-a-distance between two persons is responsible for the involuntary attraction or antipathy we so often feel for persons
we meet for the first time. And let us also wonder how many other agents excite reflexes within us, with physiological consequences
of which we know nothing and which we describe in terms of " free will", " Volition " and the like. But here we can do little
more than speculate.
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You are now ready to apply the percussion technique
to its most practical use—the selection of an appropriate medicine for a patient. And bear in mind that you are using
the patient's own reactions; that it is the patient who selects the remedy through the wisdom of his autonomic, and that such
a selection is more accurate than any you could make with all the customary resources of knowledge. The key is in knowing
the language of the patient—in knowing how to interpret certain of his reactions.
Once more, the technique is percussion
at the lung apex. You will need an assistant to stand ten or fifteen feet away and handle the remedies. Just as in the "aura"
experiment there was a radiant interchange between the subject and the person approaching him, so here there is an interchange
between a radiant, or energetic factor in the patient and a similar factor- emanated by drugs. The drug energies, as we explaineded
in the previous essay, pass readily through glass and cork, as light shines through glass; so the drugs are left in their
vials. You will find that the patient at first responds to several drugs from the group tested ; if these are then retested,
most of them produce no further effect, and of the remaining few that do, one always produces a stronger and more persistent
reaction than the others.
Percuss continuously, as already described, with the patient seated facing West. Your assistant
picks up a single drug vial and takes about two seconds to lift it over his head as high as he can reach. You will notice
two things : the moment he touches the vial, the percussion note becomes dull. As a matter of fact, if he reaches slowly for
the vial, the patient's note becomes dull when the assistant's hand is a few inches away from the vial. The assistant then
raises the vial, and at different heights for the various remedies the note becomes resonant again. All drugs producing this
double effect of dullness and then resonance should be discarded. A few drugs however, once they have produced dullness,
continue to maintain it no matter how high over his head the assistant1 raises the vial. These drugs should be set aside for
retesting. When the original group of drugs has been gone through, all those maintaining dullness..
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..are tested once more. The second time only a|few will cause the
reaction.
These few are then differentiated in the following manner. The assistant, holding one vial at a time between
his fingers, and being careful not to close his hand around the vial*, walks back from his position, increasing the distance
between himself and the patient, At a certain distance you will observe that the note becomes resonant. This is referred to
as the distance at which that drug "holds," and different drugs "hold" at widely varying distances. All the drugs maintaining
dullness at close range are checked for their distance ratings. The drug holding at the greatest distance is the best of the
group tested, and in order to be a simillimum this distance should be at least 75 to 100 feet, and more. Indoors it is virtually
impossible to draw this far away from the patient in a straight line, but fortunately the energies in question —
emanated by the drug and by the patient — appear to go easily through brick, stone or plaster partitions. Hence, the
interposition of wails need not disconcert you. The point is to get as far from the patient as possible.
In view of the
imponderable nature of a high potency this phenomenon is one of the most remarkable observed, as the patient's dull note has
been maintained by the right drug in potencies over the 1000th centesimal at a distance of 200 feet. For practical purposes,
the distance may be much reduced by grounding the assistant by means of a flexible lead, or by attaching the drug vial to
the end of a stick three or four feet long, as the effect of the assistant in contact with the drug seems to be to increase
the carrying power of the latter.
The explanation of these effects is not known with certainty. However, it is possible
that the assistant who handles the drugs acts as a variable condenser, the condensing effect diminishing as he raises
his arm over his
* Because living tissues tend to block the radiation
of drug energies. The assistant should carry the vials in such a way that his body will not be interposed between drug and
patient.
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...head in much the same way as a variable air condenser diminishes
in capacity as the plates are opened. When the assistant picks up a drug his condenser system works at maximum
efficiency and the patient reacts by a steady dullness of the percussion note, which disappears as the assistant
raises his arm and reduces his effectiveness as a condenser. Then the carrying power of the drug is insufficient
to bridge the distance to the patient, and the latter ceases to respond, as shown by a return of the note to resonance. However,
a good drug will hold the patient even when the assistant's condenser effect is at minimum — i.e., when the latter holds
the drug high over his head. Such drugs must be tested for the distance at which they hold. Although this explanation is hardly
more than presumptive, it helps to rationalise the phenomena and make them intellectually acceptable.
One of the authors
well remembers his first test with this technique. A friend was subject to annual hay fever towards the end of August, and
for two years the attacks were aborted by a single dose of gelsemium each time. The symptom picture was classically gelsemium.
However, the third year the symptoms returned identical, but gelsemiuni failed to help, and symptomatically no other drug
seemed indicated. Because of the good past response to gelsemium, which is in the sixth group of Boyd's classification,
the Group 6 remedies were tested on the patient by the technique just described. Cocculus held better than any other drug,
and one dose in the 200th not only cleared up the hay fever in 48 hours but put the patient in better health than he had enjoyed
for several months. This shows what can be done by a beginner with the reflexes if he is patient, attentive, and confident
in his observations. It shows also the usefulness of the Boyd classification as a..
* In the case of an electrical condenser, variations of capacity alter its resonance
characteristics — i.e., place it in resonance with waves of different frequencies whereas the person holding a
drug does not appear to act in the capacity of a tuner but merely as a builder-up of the whole effect. So that the analogy
with a condenser here given must be very tentatively accepted.
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general indication of the drug group from which to select the appropriate
remedy for a patient whose classification is known.*
3. Other Reflexes.
Another of the easy reactions to observe is that of the pupils. The
primary purpose of the pupils appears to be to regulate the amount of light that reaches the retina.They are responsive also
to the emotions, contracting in anger, dilating in fear, and are probably, excepting in sleep, constantly in some state of
change. They dilate from pleasure and, appropriately, they will dilate in the presence of a curative remedy. The poets have
recognised the responsiveness of the pupils by the expression: " The eyes are the mirror of the soul."
Here
are the rules that must be followed in utilizing the pupil reflex : The patient should sit in a room that is not too light
and face the dark side of the room. It is better that he face west. His hands should rest easily on his thighs, with the feet
slightly separated.The operator should sit in front of him, holding a shaded hand-light. The operator can be also the one
to handle the remedies, but it is better to have an assistant. When ready, the patient should be directed to gaze toward a
far corner of the room, with relaxed attention so that his eyes will be focussed for distance. Now, the operator, holding
the lamp not higher than his waist, suddenly turns it upward so that the light shines into the patient's eyes, The pupils
will immediately contract and then, in a second or two, will dilate slightly and come to rest. At this insiant, the assistant
should in a single quick movement bring the remedy close to the patient. It is better for the assistant to be behind the patient,
otherwise the patient's attention to the movement will cause a reflex of the pupils and they will dilate.
If the operator is working alone, he will observe
* See section 7 of the preceding essay for
a full discussion of the Boyd classification and its significance.
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...that the patient's pupils will dilate when the first two or three
remedies are brought close to him, If that occurs, these will have to be retested later. Once this technique is under
way, the pupils will. react only to certain remedies. These must be noted, and after the whole series has been tested they
should be retested a few times. On a retest, certain ones will gradually drop out, but the one that is nearest to the
simillimun will cause the reaction for a large number of repetitions. When using this technique, a large enough number of
remedies should be used to ensure at least two or three remedies that are related to the patient's condition. One who knows
his homoeopathic materia medica can select a comparatively small group. If the exact simillimun is in that group, the effect
will be very definite and persistent.
The heart responds to the nearness of a curative remedy, and its response is easily
detected if the remedy be a simillimum. The effect can be observed with the fluoroscopy, but of course one could never
use the fluoroscope for testing because irreparable damage would result from the long exposure to the x- ray thatt would be
necessary. The pulse, as would be expected, will show the effect. The position of the patient is the same as for the pupil
test. The physician feels the pulse preferably at the wrist. The asistant should be located behind the patient, with
the remedies to be tested scattered handily on a table. When all is ready, he picks up one of the vials and immediately,
with a quick swing, approaches it within a few inches of the patient. The vial can be held there for a few seconds,
then replaced on the table. The physician observes the pulse and also counts it, having previously ascertained what is the
normal pulse at the time. The heart will respond to the remedy to which the patient is sensitive, usually by a sudden change
in the first pulsation followed by a hesitation and then a slightly different rhythm. If the heart fequency during the control
period is found to be too rapid,the remedy will cause it to slow down a few beats ; if the frequency is too slow, it will
be increased.
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The variations may be four, six or eight beats to the minute. With practice,
one gradually learns quickly to observe these variations. You will note that this technique requires a physician's skill or
at least some one who is familiar with pulse-taking, while the pupil-reactions can be observed by anyone.
Another method
for utilising the reactions, is the effect which occurs in the skin. Here again it is better for the patient to be facing
west. His abdomen should be bare. The operator strokes the abdomen with a dielectric rod, such as glass, rubber, bakelite,
etc. The assistant can be close by with the remedies to be tested. These can be selected by means of the repertory, or one
can use a large number indiscriminately, but the smaller the number tested at one time, the more definite are the reactions
all the way through. The operator very lightly strokes the abdomen in various areas around the navel. The assistant now picks
up a remedy and brings it close to the body. If the remedy is a good one or closely related to the patient, you will observe
that the rod causes a "clinging" sensation as it is stroked over the skin. On the start, a single area should be used, such
as one immediately below the navel or at one side of it. If the remedy is in any way related to the patient, the rod will
feel as though it was slightly retarded. In order to observe this best, it must be held horizontally by one end and the other
end should be gentlly stroked downward. All remedies that cause this first reaction should then be tested in various
other areas of the abdomen. The best remedy will cause the largest number of areas to respond. In this way, the group is gradually
whittled down, until there wil be a comparatively small group to retest over the areas. The remedy that appears best can be
rechecked on the pupils. If it is good, it will cause marked dilatation. In other words, the remedy that is a similar is capable
of producing a large variety of reactions which take place all at the same time. This unitary response is what we should
expect from a mechanism that integrates physiological activity.
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4. Conclusion.
To the average physician, the reflexes provide a way out for those
difficult cases not reached by intuitive prescribing. The outstanding instance of this is, to our knowledge, a pupil
test made on Dr Stearns at a time when he had been given up as lost by the best Homcepathic preservers in America. He suffered
from myocardial disease, and, with two brief initermissions, his course was steadily downwards. He was unable to walk more
than a few steps without suffering much pain. He decided to apply the pupil reflex to his own case. Two laymen, after preliminary
training, observed the effects. Each day 100 drugs were tested ; all those producing the reflex were set aside and added to
the next day's batch until a total of 1200 drugs had been tested over a period of 12 days. On the 13th day, all drugs that
had worked their way to this point were retested and compared. Morphine acetate came through the best and was taken by Dr
Stearns. Improvement was slow but proceeded uninterruptedly from that time. The two remedies later prescribed, Ruta and
Rhus tox., all figured high in the original test.
But perhaps the most significant point to be made in connection
with this test is the fact that it was conducted entirely by two laymen. One manipulated the vials ; both watched the pupils
for the reaction. What laymen could do in this instance can surely be duplicated by physicians.
Again, that master of homoeopathy,
the late Dr C. M. Boger, once cited to us an experience of his. One of his patients had failed to respond to his best efforts.
He decided to use the pulse reflex as his guide. He went through the arduous process day after day, testing as many remedies
as time permitted. The remedy which gave the best reaction had no proving, and we have forgotten what it was but it started
the patient on the road back. Later, the symptom picture cleared so that a remedy could be selected according to the old intuitive
method, and the patient made a full recovery.
91
Dr Samuel P. Sobel of New York knowing nothing of the
various reflex responses to drugs already known, rediscovered them by independent research and discovered many new reactions.
His interest was aroused by a test made on himself by Dr Stearns. In this instance, Dr Stearns utilised the rod technique
described above. The drug giving the largest number of abdominal reactions was Rhus tox. 30. Dr Sobel was suffering from facial
paralysis as a consequence of influenza of the meningeal type. For several years he had been afflicted in addition with
rectal fistula. Immediately after taking the Rhus tox., Sobel felt tingling in the paralysed parts. He improved steadily
; the paralysis disappeared ; and after a few months the fistula healed. No wonder that his experience stimulated his interest.
This is the type of interest that is needed in the work, and which we hope to arouse by this series of essays
The
reflexes represent the closest approach to the patient. Another approach is the symptomatology, which is likewise an expression
of autonomic reaction. But the symptoms are frequently clouded in their transmission into speech — the expressions of
the patient can be deceiving , and intuitive prescribing is largely limited to what the patient conveys to the doctor. The
reflexes need no translation ; they need only be observed. Where, by the old method, a drug is clearly indicated by symptoms,
all of the reflexes will be found to react on test. Where the indications are obscure, a drug can nevertheless be found
which will stimulate the reflexes.
In the previous essay we showed how exact was Boyd's Emanometer in measuring the dynamis
of the patient and balancing it against the dynamis of the appropriate drug. Carefully made tests on the Emanometer indicate
the same remedy that is indicated by the reflexes. This shows that both techniques are directed at the same mechanism
We
have had two interesting confirmations of this recently. The first case was an overweight myocardial patient. One remedy was
worked out on the Emanometer and another by an enitrely different technique." Then on
92
the patient's pulse were tested five potencies of each of these drugs
and four potencies of a third drug not related to the case. The vials were individually wrapped in tissue-paper marked from
1 to 14, and the pulse test was performed without anyone being aware of the order in which the vials were manipulated. The
patient sat relaxed in an easy-chair. The operator counted the pulse for 30 seconds out of each minute as a control ; then
the remedy was brought up to the patient and the count noted for the balance of the minute. In this case, the pulse was faster
than normal, and certain vials slowed it down. At the end of the test, these were unwrapped and found to be the five potencies
of Anacardium orient., the remedy worked out on the Emanometer. The potencies of the two other drugs produced negligible or
no effects. On a retest, the 50m of Anac. slowed the pulse most. This remedy was then given, with good clinical response.
Remember that the right drug tends always to normalise any abnormality of the pulse.
A similar test, also utilising the
pulse effect, was made a week later on another patient whose remedy as worked out on the Emanometer was Cadmium valerianate.
The pulse showed maximum reaction to this drug as against a drug chosen by another, less exact method.
Of course, tests
like these take much time. The pulse tests consumed an average of an hour apiece and the Emanometer tests two hours apiece.
We mention this not to discourage but to orient those who wish to do research in this field. We wish them to know about the
difficulties to be encountered. Even if in the beginning you get only an occasional positive result, let that spur you on
to perfecting the technique. Remember that inconsistencies are usually due to errors in applying the technique rather
than to inherent deficiencies in the technique itself. Our purpose is not to establish a new system of medicine but to open
up an approach that leads to exact prescribing in accord with Hippocrates' dictum : Try to help your patients. At least, do
them no harm.
A potency is, in one sense, a mimicry of the original crude drug. However, the process
of dilution has intro-
93
duced certain changes ; so that the activity of a potency and of crude
material are not identical — they are only similar. In a previous essay we showed evidence suggesting that the
activity of a potency beyond the point where solute molecules have been washed out is due to the transmission of a large-scale
molecular pattern or "set" from one stage of dilution to another, and that potency activity is associated with this "set."
Such a molecular patterning appears to involve three-dimensional mimicry of certain molecular characteristics of the solute
crude substance
This ability to mimic something else reappears with much versatility in living things, and our experiment
with the reflexes point out certain mimicries that were unknown. It is not astonishing to find that such mimicry as takes
place in a potentised drug, which is really dead material, should also take place with greater ease, detail, and fullness
in living things, which are the most labile of material systems.
Indeed, the mosaic of dull areas on, say, the Emanometer
subject's abdomen is the representation ol the patient's pathology and, in addition, a real duplication of dull areas that
may be found on the patient himself. Thus one living being mimics another when both are in the correct relationship to each
other. But a living being also imitates a drug, under certain conditions ! Boyd has shown (section 7 of previous essay)
that when a specific drug is taken by a patient, his saliva may continue to show the presence of that drug for months, and
that it is possible for the patient, by drinking exclusively from a standard glass which does not get a chance to dry out,
to dose himself
over and over by coming repeatedly in contact with his own saliva as deposited on the glass. This may sound
fanciful to an allopath or to a homoeopath with allopathic leanings ; but the masters of homoeopathy have always known that
there are things about the activity of their potencies which are different from the usual. In the last case mentioned, the
patient's body is, in a sense, converted into a potency of the drug taken ; and the mechanics of this process may resemble
that of an actual potentised drug.
94
But biological mimicry goes even further. Perhaps in the sense to which
we now refer, " mimicry " becomes too restricted in meaning. We should say, then, that living creatures show an astonishing
adjustment to one another and to the inorganic world and that this adjustment frequently reveals itself as an effort
at actual physical imitation on the part of living things. The subject, in experiments involving the reflexes, is
imitative in a literal sense.But what about a bird migration ? Here the imitation is largely figurative, without ever losing
a fundamental reality.For when you see a cloud of birds swarming southwards,or when geese flap by in their V-formation seeking
for warmer climates, remember that those creatures are adjusting themselves to agencies arising from the earth. These
agencies
stretch over the earth in definite patterns, just as the lines of force of a magnet spread out between the north and south
poles. And the migrating birds follow the patterns of these agencies. Here is the effort of a small creature to conform, to
an influence that covers hundreds of miles.
The bird cannot expand its body ; but it can fly. It soars into the air, filled
with the thrilling call of warm lands,rich in food. It is joined by thousands of its kind. Together, they strike out
southwards, not knowing that they are following a terrestial influence from which they can never be free. In their flight
from north to south, they follow the direction this influence. Their flight is a tracing of that direction. So are all migratory
travels, whether they take place in air, sea, or,on land. The living creature in seeking to adjust itself to a complex of
inorganic influences performs a sort of mimicry of that influence by means of which the influence, otherwise invisible, is
pointed out. In this sense, at least, we find scientific justification for the old philosophical contention that the macrocosm
can be contained in the microcosm. The reflexes are only the first step in applying autonomic functions to therapeutic
purposes. Instead of arbitrarily interfering with defence processes by chemical means, such as are used by chemotherapists
we are stimulating the same body forces normally involved in the maintenance
95
of health and in the reactions against disease. There are authentic cases for almost every disease of spontaneous cure. Hence,
the body is potentially capable of curing itself, although the right stimulus is often absent and unknown.The potentised drug
specific to a patient mobilises his curative reactions, and the reflexes afford only one means of observing drug specificity.
Doubtless, there are other means. Better techniques will be discovered, techniques easier to control, directer in their relation
to the physiological mechanism, and less susceptible of error. Towards this goal all physicians and investigators should
labor. Never forget that however useful to you at present is a knowledge of the reflexes, that knowledge is but a stepping
stone to higher therapeutic levels.
Let us caution you once more that all of the reflex responses to drugs are delicate
and elusive. Inconsistencies will appear to crop up, but they are not inconsistencies at all. A living thing is not like an
inanimate apparatus. It is constantly varying in its responses to external conditions. If the effect is to be produced at
all, just the right person and just the right drug must be brought together. Moreover, the ability of the operator to
concentrate uniformly throughout a test is limited because of fatigue. Usually the impaired attention due to fatigue is present
before the operator is conscious of fatigue, but if you notice that results begin to be inconsistent, at once suspect fatigue
in yourself or in the patient's, reflexes. As soon as you have satisfactorily detected the effect you will feel like a person
who has studied a foreign language for a while and who suddenly finds himself able to understand conversations that had no
meaning for him before. That fugitive, difficult change in note will become a very real effect, something that you can manipulate
at will. And if you relate the effect to the autonomic of the patient, to the response mechanism which gives us the symptomatology
of illness and underlies all body efforts at cure, you will realise how wonderful is this new tool. All of. the effects here
described revolve about an energy of unknown nature. That energy is emanated by
96
drugs and by living creatures. In some ways, it represents the patterning
or formative factor underlying the physical configuration. By its ability to influence living reflexes, the energy manifests
to our senses. It can be tuned in by the proper circuit, but in addition to that circuit a living reflex is needed to detect
the energy. No direct detector has yet been devised, although the most delicate electrical instruments of all types have
been applied to the problem. The goal of all present research is a mechanical detector of those energies, a detector which
will operate without the need for him an intervention. When this goal is realised, the energies will be subjugated in much
the same manner as are wireless, waves today. But we are still far from that stage. Much research remains to be done ; many
minds must be interested to approach the phenomena from different angles. In addition to consuming time, such research
consumes money. And in the long run, that institution will advance furthest which has the best heads and the soundest financial
backing. Some day a person with vision will turn over an endowment to research in this field. That event will constitute an
opportunity for the endower and for the group receiving the endowment. It will bring closer the goal which seems so. far today
— the mechanical detection of drug and body energies.
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Pfeilfer, E.: Biodynamic Farming and Gardening,1938; 98.
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Marais, Eugene : The Soul of the, White Ant, 1931
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Abrams, Albert : New Concepts in Diagnosis and Treatment, 1916, passim.
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: Journ. Electr mk Med.,May, 1940, 3-10 ; Nov., ,1940, 11-17, July, 1939, 11-15
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White, George Starr : A Lecture Course io Physicians, 1918, Lectures I and II.
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the Relation oj) Certain Electro-Physical Phenomena to Homoeopathy : With Special Reference to the Work oj Dr. Abrams, oj
Sun Francisco (1922, reprint) ; The Relationship of Certain Electro-Physical Phenomena to Homccjpaihy {Second Report), with
Special Jlejerence to the Emanom&ter (1923, reprint) ; The Boyd Emanometer Research and the Related Physical Phenomena
(1925, reprint) ; The Emanometer Research and Homoeopathy (1928, reprint) ; The Emanometer and Disease (193^, reprint).
All articles originally appeared in The British Homoeopathic Journal, excepting the ,1928 paper, which was read before the
International Homoeopathic Congress in London,1927.
Horder, Sir Thomas and others : A Preliminary Communication Concerning
the scientific Reaction of Abrams with Special Rejerence to the Emanometcter Technique of Boyd, 1925,
McCrae, Wm. Ritchie:
Potency Activity Especially in Relation to Chronic Conditions, Brit. Hon. Journ, XXVJ, April, 1926, 107.
Stromberg, G.
: The Soul of the Universe, 1940, chaps. VI, VI]I, IX.
Stearns, G. B.: Body-Reflexes as a Means of Selecting A Remedy,
Horn. Rec, XLVII, Nov., 1932 781; G. B. Stearns and s Edgar D. Evia, The Approach to Realty, Horn. Rec,., part I, LV, Nov.,
1S40, 3; part II, LVI, March, 1941, >9 ; part III, LVJ, May, 1941, 196; see especially parts II ajnd III.
Persson, W.
M. : The Principl- of Catalysis in Biochemistry and Homoeopathy, Joum. Am, Inst. Horn. XXIII, Nov., 1930, ,1055-89.
Boyd,
Wm. E. : The Action of Microdoses of Mercuric Chloride on Diastase, Brit, Horn. Journ., XXXI, Feb., 1941,528.
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Rhine, J. B.: Extra-Sensor Percebtion, 1935 ; especially chaps.
I-
III, IX, X, XHI, XV.
Dunne, J. W. : The New hnmmtality, 1939 ; An Experiment With Time.
Smuts, J. C. : Holism
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Dampier-Whetham, W. C. P. : A History oj Science, 1930, 412-16.
Gray, G. W. : Nm World
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Schroedinger, E. : Collected Papers on Wove Mechanics, ,1929.
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de Broglie, L. :Matter and Light,The New
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Bridgman, P, W. : The Lore of Modern Physics, 1927, chap. II.
Bridgman,
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Carrel,Alexis :Man,theunknown, 1985 ;147-50.
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