Brief Detail about AIDS Nosode Proving & Protocol in School of Homoeopathy
THE PROVING OF THE AIDS NOSODE
The idea behind the proving arose from discussions between Dr Rajesh Shah and myself during a visit to Bombay. We both undertook provings, however he was only able to secure two volunteers. The proving was undertaken in 1988 using single doses in either the 30th or 200th centesimal potencies of the blood of a man who subsequently died of AIDS-related diseases. Results of the initial proving, mine with a student group of ten and his, as written with two, though portraying some symptom similarity, did not convey the ‘shape’ of the remedy. Therefore, some pillules were sent to Mariette Honig in Holland who carried out an exhaustive proving. The verified symptoms of these provings have been included in the extraction presented. However, the picture of the nosode emerged with flying colours when in 1994 we carried out two large group provings with students at The School of
Homeopathy. One group received 30c and the other 200c.
At the School we have carried out all our provings with unit doses. This stimulus, because it is amplified by the group and reawakened at monthly gatherings when experiences are recounted, is sufficient to produce significant and long-range effects.
During the course of the School weekend (Friday through to Sunday) we took stock of thoughts, dreams, sensations, feelings and external world events, using transcripts of tape recordings to ensure accuracy, and diaries kept by supervisors and provers. Audio recording spanned a period of three months, while some reports of cured symptoms continued to come in for the next two years.
School of Homeopathy
Proving procedures and guidelines for provers and supervisors:
On these experiments depends the exactitude of the whole medical art and the welfare of all future generations of mankind. Organon §122
The purpose of a proving is to ascertain the exact pathogenic effects of a remedy and so to learn the nature of its healing power. In the School setting it also allows us to better understand the homeopathic process and to find out more about ourselves.
The procedures for conducting a proving were laid out by
Hahnemann in § 105-145 of the Organon and on the whole there has been little
need to change them. They have been commented on and clarified by:
1 JT Kent Lectures on Homœopathic Philosophy Lecture XXVIII
2 Jeremy Sherr Dynamics and Methodology of Provings
3 Paul Herscu Provings.
The Protocols used by the School are based on the Organon and make use of codes and refinements suggested by Jeremy Sherr. The main differences have arisen from our observation of the particular dynamics of the group proving.
The group proving:
Having conducted regular annual provings at the School since 1993 certain particular features of a group proving have been noticed. These observations have caused us to modify the methodology to take account of them.
The proving of a remedy by members of a coherent group appears to cause an amplification of the effect of that remedy. There appears to be a teletherapeutic effect produced by the field generated by the assembled provers, their experiences being in resonance. The whole group is involved and those members who have not taken the remedy may be as affected as those that have. This means that the use of control provers who are given placebo is not possible as they are also likely to prove
the remedy. Because of the group’s field effect it also means there is
no need to repeat the dose if symptoms do not occur immediately.
Kent states that one or two members of a class of forty will make a proving from a 30th potency. Our experience has been that substantially more than half of the class will experience significant symptoms.
Provers therefore either take a single 30c dose, or, as in recent years, we have run up the proving potency in class immediately prior to taking it. So as to conceal the substance, we carry out potentisation in liquid dilutions.
The unit dose also ensures that primary and secondary proving effects do not get muddled up and confuse or worse still antidote each other, thus nullifying the proving.
Your role as a prover:
Your role as a prover is to allow your vital force to be affected by the remedy and to carefully observe the direction and extent of that effect through recording changes and symptoms with diligence and in
detail. Hahnemann says that a prover should be a lover of truth, temperate in all respects, of delicate feelings and one who can direct the most minute attention to her/his sensations. Naturally, you will
wish to give of your best. For this reason it is particularly important that you stay in regular communication with your supervisor as many details and subtelties may otherwise be lost.
Requirements to be a prover:
It is appropriate that you be healthy. In other words, your spirit, emotions, mind and body must be in what is for you a good enough and stable state of health. You should not be currently liable to
reocurrent acute episodes or suffering from severe degenerative chronic states. Only when there is a degree of flexibility in your vital force (health) will you experience worth while symptoms and clear yourself of them once the proving has come to an end.
The use of medicinally acive substances, especially drugs such as cannabis, cause symptoms which might be mistaken for proving symptoms. It is best that they be avoided, especially if you are unfamiliar with their effects.
It is important that you are in homeopathic treatment with an experienced prescriber. “A proving properly conducted will improve the health of anybody; it will help turn things into order.” (Kent) The
proving will often bring to the surface, and leave behind, issues that are yours rather than of the proving. You will wish these to be responded to by your prescriber in the context of your ongoing
treatment. Your prescriber, responding to your state and symptoms, is also there to assist you shake off any residual and unwanted proving effects, should they occur.
The proving is likely to provide numerous insights, and it might provoke questions about the process of case taking and treatment. It is therefore appropriate that you have an experienced practitioner in
place to whom such questions can be taken. In the event of proving related queries being unanswered, the proving co-ordinators are there to offer advice and guidance for you, your practitioner and your supervisor.
The role of supervision:
The role of your supervisor is to assist you in examining the symptoms you experience and to make sure that every useful detail is recorded.
They make sure that you are clear about the exact nature of your symptoms. This is done without making conjectures or asking leading questions.
The process involved in proving supervision is a mirror of the process involved in therapeutic case taking. Furthermore, your supervisor will have a clinical supervisor with whom personal questions and general insights about the process can be discussed. The clinical supervisor may, in turn seek council with the proving co-ordinators.
Instructions for provers:
It is important that you study the proving process and notice how provings look in their finished state. An understanding of the proving process can be found in § 105 - 145 of the Organon and Kent’s 28th
Lecture on Philosophy. Examples of classic provings are best looked at in T. F.Allen's Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica. This is the largest collection of symptoms all of which are proving symptoms (hence the Pure). It and many other classic texts can be seen on line at Homeopathy International www.homeoint.org. Many modern provings have been published. Some are available on line. The best index of them is at the Homeopathy Home Page www.homeopathyhome.com. Click on Reference and then on Provings.
In the period leading up to the proving it is important that you book in to see your regular homeopathic prescriber. It is not expected that you receive a remedy at this time. Rather, the function of this
consultation is to establish your ‘base-line state’ as a reference point from which changing symptoms may be understood.
The pre-proving diary:
Start keeping a diary a month before the proving begins. Keep this up for at least two weeks. This establishes the habit, familiarises you with the typing lay-out, and gives you a chance to note your base-line state. You should go through this with your supervisor at least twice before the proving starts. It may happen that you experience some new symptoms, not part of your familiar, base-line, state. Just note these down in the normal way – they may be precursers of the proving which are sensed by you through precognitive (etheric) routes.
We suggest that you purchase a wallet sized book for this specific purpose. Diary entries are best typed up daily and communicated by e-mail. Alternatively, you can Fax or snail-mail them on a weekly
• Note down carefully any symptoms that arise on a daily basis, starting with the date and at what time of the day or night they occurred and whether they are old or new. (See next page for notes on
how to type up your report). This should be done as carefully as possible while the symptoms are still fresh in your mind.
• On a daily basis run a check through your body zones to ensure that
you have observed and recorded all your symptoms. Write about what you
have thought and how you have felt.
• It is a good idea to keep your diary, pencil and a torch by your bedside in order to note down dreams as and when they arise, because like morning mist they are apt to evaporates in sunlight.
• Also keep a record of occurrences; anything which is out of the ordinary is a symptom. Your partner, family and friends can also inform and elucidate.
• Be as precise as possible, writing your symptoms in your own language (not repertory language of rubrics, please) in an accurate, detailed and concise manner. Use general terms such as, ‘partner’, ‘daughter’, ‘son’, ‘town’ rather than proper names. You might find it useful to use opposing pages in your diary, noting symptom specifics on one page and ‘event’ texts on the opposite page.
• Do write on alternate lines, as this allows space to add further comments, for instance, arising from discussions with your supervisor.
Notes on how to type up your report If you have easy access to a computer, it is best that you type up your proving notes on a daily basis. If you do not have ready access to a computer, try and type them up or have them typed up as regularly as possible.
The symptoms should be typed up in the following form exactly. This will allow for the easy and accurate processing of the information.
• Day, (01 is the day you took the remedy; 02 is the second day etc).
• Time (24 hour clock; if not specific an X).
• NS or OS, etc. (see next page for details of these abbreviations).
• The symptom written out as you would describe it (not in rubric speak).
01, X, NS, Woke three times in the night to pee. Felt frightened of the dark. There was an unspecific threat out there. Solar plexus felt tight, like a hand grasping and twisting.
03,13.30, NS, I had a terrible headache, it started after lunch and got worse when I went out. The pain was hot and throbbing, was in the right temple and extended into the right ear. My husband commented that the pupil of my right eye was dilated.
The layout (eg. 03,13.30, NS,) with the commas is important and you should try to follow it exactly, but the most important thing is that you are completely consistent.
Do not use any other abbreviations or symbols (use worse or better not < or >, etc.)
Do not use proper names, people should be referred to in generic terms: my husband, my mother, a friend, my dog, the cat, etc.
Do avoid mixing up symptoms which can be separated unless they link together, for instance, as concomitants do. If you can break symptom blocks up into discrete parts, this is helpful. Do discuss any queries with your supervisor.
Symptoms can be found in four areas. Sensations that are experienced by the senses, this includes pains, stiffness, etc. Feelings that are experienced by the emotions: fear, isolation, joy, etc. Thoughts that are experienced by the intellect: confusion, industriousness, etc.
Images that are found most clearly in dreams, fears and delusions but are also found in the way that we describe the other three areas.
When noting a proving symptom it should be examined and expanded upon in the same way as a patient's symptom would be. CLAMS is a useful mnemonic.
Concomitants: Any other symptoms that accompany the main symptom and have a relationship to it because: they appear together; they affect or worsen each other; or they have a common quality.
Location: The place that the symptom occurs. This includes the centre of the symptom's effect as well as extensions, where else it affects, and sidedness.
Aetiology: The things that cause the symptom to appear or the things that reignite a symptom after it has been lying relatively dormant.
Modalities: The things that make the symptoms better or worse. These can include weather, food and eating, exercise, rest, emotions, concentration, etc.
Sensation: The nature of the symptom, what it feels like, any metaphors that make its nature clearer, anything that would help a reader understand the precise nature of the symptom.
Another way of considering the symptom is to ask: What? Where? When? How? Why?
Each symptom should be classified using one of these codes:
NS New Symptom. One that you have never experienced before.
OS Old Symptom. A symptom you have experienced before but not for at least a year.
RS Recent Symptom. One you have experienced within the last year and it is returning.
AS Altered Symptom. One you have experienced before but which is slightly different. i.e one or more of the above CLAMS is changed.
IOS Intensified Old Symptom. An Old Symptom but one which you have never before experienced with the same degree of intensity.
CS Cured symptom. A very clear, usually physical, symptom that you had at the start of the proving and which has completely disappeared. A symptom, particularly an emotional one that constitutes a change of state, even if the change might be seen as healthy, does not necessarily constitute a cured symptom - elucidate with your supervisor.
The symptom is the change from your normal state. Your base state is assumed to be healthy and the change is away from the healthy norm and so morbid. When a timid prover becomes less so the symptom being expressed should be seen as something like ‘boldness’ rather than cured
It is expected that you contact your supervisor on a daily basis for the first two weeks. This can be gradually reduced as fewer new symptoms arise. The supervisor will help you make sure that you have
noted all your symptoms and help you to check and expand the details.
The most effective proving co-ordination, thanks to e-mail, is for you you cross-check your diaries with your supervisor on a daily basis. In this manner you will both keep synchronised in present time and you will be able to incorperate their comments as you go along.
If you are writing by hand and are not in regular e-mail corresponence with your supervisor, then you should make sure that your proving diary is complete and typed up once you feel the proving has run its course and is no longer producing useful symptoms. Your supervisor will then look over it and make sure that there is nothing missing from it. You will then add in anything that your supervisor noticed as long as you agree with it.
A monthly meeting with the proving co-ordinators will be convened (on the occasion of School weekends) in order to amplify and comment upon the presented written material from your proving diary. Given your consent, these proceedings will be recorded on video tape and will be
viewed by your supervisiors on their school weekend. This literally, keeps them in the picture. These recordings may also be used for teaching purposes. (As your written proving reports will be anonymous, so the video tape is intended to show what you are willing and happy to publically share.)
It is important for the quality and credibility of the proving that you do not discuss the nature of your symptoms with other provers outside of School weekends.
During school weekends, however, it is expected that you will take notes as these will enhance your growing understanding of the proving – the many speaking as one. Towards the end of the proving it is hoped that you will write up an overview of your experience during the proving. You will also be asked for this as a School assignment.
The proving diary and overview should be saved as an rtf file (rich text format which is a ‘save as’ option in all word processor programs) and sent by e-mail or disk to the proving co-ordinator.
It is expected that you will consult your homeopathic prescriber who will be able to make use of the insights you have gained during the proving and can prescribe an antidote for any remaining symptoms.
Instructions for supervisors:
Before the proving starts it is advised that you speak with your homeopathic prescriber. This will help them respond to issues that could come up for you during the proving.
It is expected that you will be in contact with your prover at least twice before the proving starts. You will need to look at their pre-proving diary to run through their use of the typing lay-out. See back to, notes on how to type up your report. You should assist them with this if necessary, as some provers may have difficulty following the protocols. This will also allow you to gain an insight into the prover’s base-line state. It may happen that they experience some new symptoms, not part of their familiar, base-line, state. Just note these down in the normal way as they may be precursers of the proving which are sensed by them through precognitive routes. It is not expected that you take the prover’s homeopathic case as this could constitute an breach of a professional as well as personal boundary. The object here is to know where they are coming from in terms of their general health and life situation.
During the first two weeks of the proving it is expected that you will communicate with your prover on a daily basis. After that you can reduce contact gradually as symptoms decrease and you both become more aware of their nature. It is best that weekly contact be maintained until the proving has finally and completely ended. Obviously, these timings may vary.
As a good enough case receiver, you will allow your prover to describe their symptoms and keep notes of what you are told. This is done without making conjectures or asking leading questions. You should then assist them so that they Clarify, Verify and Enlarge upon the details of their symptoms. Make sure that what the prover has written clearly and accurately reflects what has happened. Make sure that all the details of the symptoms have been examined and expanded upon in the same way as a patient's symptom would be. Try to get to the core. Also, remember to ask for: Concomitants, Location, Aetiology, Modalities, Sensations.
Symptoms can be found in four areas: Sensations, Feelings, Thoughts, Images. You should run through each of these areas and run through the body from head to toe to make sure that the prover has not missed anything.
Dreams can be particularly difficult and it is best to make sure that not only the dominant imagery of the dream is clear but also that any sensations, thoughts or feelings that it contained or provoked are
recorded. If it is a recurrent dream (OS) make note of any changes or variations. The context of the dream should also be recorded because a dream may be specific to ongoing events. It is of special importance to note this should these events predate the proving. This is because the dream may have more to with these events than the proving.
As the proving is progressing, you will be communicating your impressions to your prover, encouraging them to incorperate your amplifications and clarifications of their proving experience. These inclusions should be in synch and current – it is best if you can work together regularly via phone and e-mail.
Once the proving has ended you should re-check your prover’s completed diary and point out anything that you have noted which is not in the diary.
At this time you could usefully write an overview of how you thought and felt your prover was being and acting during the proving – how it affected them. You could also note how it affected you. In an
assignment we ask you to send this to the proving co-ordinator within a month of the proving’s end. This overview is of particular value both to gain an understanding the proving itself, and to help you make a satisfactory closure.
The process of proving supervision is very similar to that of taking and managing a patient’s case. It is therefore a valuable learning experience which could usefully be amplified upon in discussion with
your clinical supervisor.
It is quite possible that you will ‘catch’ some of the symptoms of the proving. If you are strongly affected, to the extent that you become an important prover, then you should contact the proving co-ordinators.
You can also take these symptoms to your prescriber for whom they will be invaluable in gaining a deeper understanding of your case.
Your prescriber, with reference to the proving co-ordinators, can nullify residual and unwanted proving symptoms.