Page 15 - Winter 24-25

regularly conducts Provings, knows how difficult it is to have a large number of courageous volunteers available. Those who normally take high potencies indiscriminately on a daily basis are strangely hard to persuade to participate - suddenly they become afraid of homeopathic remedies.
Over time, every candidate learns to pay closer attention to themselves, and this is the main gain for them. We get to know the provers better as the number of provings they take increases and we can distinguish their own issues from those of the remedy.
Until then, we should be aware of possible mis- interpretation by scrutinising the relevance of each symptom – more about this later in the chapter on evaluation.
It is certainly desirable that the provers are as inhomogeneous in age and sex as possible. They should either be questioned daily or asked to make written notes several times a day.
I have experienced several times that examinees could no longer remember after
4 weeks what they themselves had experienced and described as a completely new behaviour pattern.
Ingestion versus contact proving
A Proving should also be tailored to the individuality of each prover and proving substance.
The levels of sensitivity are so diverse, that it is not advisable to force the test substance, potency and frequency of use. The prover should have the opportunity to first test their sensitivity to the test substance through
direct external contact and decide for themself, whether to take it or not. This could happen by being placed in the trouser pocket, hung around the neck, put under the pillow or held in the hand.
There are provers who can hardly notice any symptoms even with frequent intake of high potencies and there are many who experience the symptoms of a remedy on all levels (physical, emotional, mental, dreams) through mere contact without intake (compare Organon §§135 ff.).
Dream proving
A pure dream proving is a form of contact proving. It has the advantage of taking only 1 - 3 nights and thus making an idea of a remedy possible in a short time. The disadvantage of this type of proving is already mentioned in the name. Direct observations of physical symptoms
or emotional states are in the minority.
On the one hand, dreams have the advantage of not being consciously controlled, but naturally harbour the danger of misinterpretation. Many provers find it difficult to remember the exact details and feelings of dreams. It is necessary to understand the subject of the dream so that it can be recognised in the patient, who does not usually dream the same
dream.
The transfer of dream images into mental and emotional rubrics, needs sufficient experience of the proving supervisor and this way can be a quick way to the goal.
13
continued on p10