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Control group with placebo intake
Some of the volunteers in my Proving of ‘lac-suinum’ (pig's milk) were participants in a weekend seminar on homeopathy. Participation in the trial was voluntary and 5 took the pig's milk in potency C12 on the first day of the course. The next day, 9 out of 11 participants of the seminar reported on their dreams. To everyone's astonishment, there was a dominant dream theme, that was new to all the dreamers: houses, rooms, spaces crowded with people. Obviously, the fact that the remedy had been in the room or in the aura of the ‘real’ provers was enough to trigger the Proving in the others. Some physical and emotional symptoms also corresponded.
I repeatedly observed something similar during other remedy provings. Children or babies of the examinees reacted very clearly with the symptoms of the remedy (angry, sleepless, endlessly fit in the evening ...). From this I concluded that the observation of a control group only makes sense if there is no contact with the test group.
Recording the symptoms of the provers before they actually start taking the proving substance, makes a lot of sense to me in order to train the prover in self-observation as most of the provers are unaware about their actual symptoms, feelings, dreams, problems and modalities.
It seems questionable to me if the additional effort evolving in analysing the control Placebo intake period, is worth- while if a Proving trail is carried out in a meaningful way.
Implementation and evaluation
This is probably the most controversial and important chapter of any Proving and deserves detailed consideration.
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Any form of standardisation facilitates evaluation and comparability. I give each test person a kind of test protocol in column form, which ensures that the date, daily events, dreams, and observations of state of mind can be allocated.
Which changes are caused by the proving substance?
Even if Hahnemann writes in the Organon §138 that every change in the state of mind that occurs during the proving intake is related to this remedy, he makes this dependent on the conditions that are difficult to fulfil today (see §124 -127): healthy, capable of expression, willing to observe, undisturbed and the ability to concentrate on one's own observation.
How can you protect from making mistakes?
The most time-consuming way is to take a complete medical history of each prover directly before the Proving. This is almost only possible if only a few volunteers are assigned to a supervisor.
As this is not possible for me, the prover is asked the prover to identify each symptom during the documentation with a sign (e.g. ‘b’ for known) if a symptom has already occurred in the past. In such a case, I talk to the person about the symptom and only include it in the Proving Evaluation if no explainable connection can be found for the occurrence or if it has occurred in several provers (cf. §138).
It seems particularly important to me to find out something about actual events in everyday life during the examination that could explain changes of the moods and dream themes. If one dreams of shopping during the run-
Most provers find it particularly difficult to record their thoughts and feelings.
up to Christmas, or of travelling while preparing for a holiday, this does not necessarily have anything to do with the remedy.
But if, as in my peacock butterfly and other butterfly Remedy pictures, the subject of travelling and shopping comes up very often, then it is certainly a special subject (note: the book ‘Sieben Schmetterlinge’ was published some years ago by K.-J. Müller).
In case the way of dealing with the real situation in life or in the dream is inexplicable and new for the prover, this makes it an important symptom of the proving remedy. The most ideal form of AMP monitoring is a daily interview with each prover to record symptoms. For some provers, a conversation about the trail seems essential to learn about the observations on an emotional and sexual level. The latter in particular are often missing, as a pleasant experience (e.g. unusually strong erotic feelings) is not considered important and an unpleasant one (e.g. obscene thoughts) is concealed out of shame.
Most provers find it particularly difficult to record their thoughts and feelings. It is therefore important to emphasise the importance of these things during the preliminary explication.
Precautions
It is important to advise the provers to inform those around them, that any emotional changes and reactions