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Volume 13: Number 2: Article 10
Magic of Signs: A Nonlocal Interpretation of Homeopathy
Harald Walach, University of Freiburg, Department of Environmental
Medicine, University Hospital, D-79106, Freiburg, Germany
Among homeopaths the common idea about a working hypothesis for homeopathic
effects seems to be that during the potentization process, "information"
or "energy" is being preserved or even enhanced in homeopathic remedies.
The organism is said to be able to pick up this information, which in
turn will stimulate the organism into a self-healing response. According
to this view, the decisive element of homeopathic therapy is the remedy
which locally contains and conveys this information. I question this
view for empirical and theoretical reasons. Empirical research has shown
a repetitive pattern in fundamental and clinical research alike: There
are many anomalies in high-dilution research and clinical homeopathic
trials which will set any observing researcher thinking. No single paradigm
has proved stable enough in order to produce repeatable results independent
of the researcher. I conclude that the database is too weak and contradictory
to substantiate a local interpretation of homeopathy, in which the remedy
is endowed with causal-information irrespective of content. I propose
a non-local interpretation to understand the anomalies along the lines
of Jung's notion of synchronicity and make some predictions following
this analysis.
Keywords: homeopathy, archetypes, synchronicity, signs, magic, semiotics
FULL TEXT:
Magic of Signs: A Nonlocal Interpretation of Homeopathy
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