Patient–practitioner–remedy (PPR) entanglement Part 4

Entelechy Regained? Further Musings on a Quantised Gyroscopic Metaphor for the Vital Force in Health and Dis-Ease

Background: Many complementary and alternative medicine modalities consider the vital force (Vf) an organism’s source of health and healing, Hahnemann’s notion of the Vf having similarities with quantum systems. Thus, the Vf is only indirectly observable via expressed symptoms: a quantum property is only indirectly observable via its observed experimental effects. Objective: To develop further a quantised gyroscopic metaphor of the Vf in which dis-ease slows axial rotation, causing the Vf to precess (i.e., express symptoms). The curative remedy accelerates axial rotation, throwing off the dis-ease, so precession (and symptom expression) cease. Method: Using earlier wave functions depending solely on observed patient symptoms and changes to them, 6 further wave functions are generated, representing the Vf in various states of dis-ease and health. Results: All 6 Vf wave functions can be arranged on 6 of the 9 points of an enneagram, the other 3 representing the practitioner. Conclusion: Transformations between the 6 Vf states are readily visualised. They may also be divided into two groups separated by a therapeutic “event horizon,” the practitioner being the “arbiter” between them. Thus, they could represent non-reductive information states, suitable as starting points for understanding the influence of consciousness on the therapeutic process.

Genus Epidemicus: Are Notions of Entanglement Relevant to the Homeopathic Understanding of Epidemic Disease?

BACKGROUND

Patient-practitioner-remedy (PPR) entanglement postulates non-local triadic interaction between patient (Px), practitioner (Pr) and potentised medicine (Rx), resulting in the patient's journey to cure; the in-depth homeopathic interview is considered a major contributing factor in this process. Also, by modelling entelechy, a quantised gyroscopic analogue of the Vital Force (Vf) has been developed.

OBJECTIVE

To discover whether entanglement notions explain the mode of action of homeopathy during the treatment of epidemic diseases, when the individualising in-depth homeopathic interview is neither possible nor necessary.

METHOD

The current Vf wave equation applies specifically to the in-depth patient/practitioner consultation in chronic dis-ease. A generalised form of the Vf wave equation, an earlier hypothesis based on quantum field theory (QFT) and PPR entanglement were all re-investigated.

RESULTS

The generalised Vf wave equation was found applicable in 3 main conditions: acute self-limiting, chronic and epidemic dis-ease. In the latter, a single, coherent Vf epidemic 'wave function' covering all susceptible beings could be identified, which, after practitioner intervention, disappears. Analogies were drawn between groups of atoms in a p-doped semiconductor and a collection of susceptible beings in an epidemic. Here, genus epidemicus is likened to an 'n-type dopant', which forms a 'p-n junction' with the dis-ease. Using the QFT hypothesis/metaphor, genus epidemicus acts as a 'gauge field' restoring 'global invariance' to the symmetry-broken, symptom-expressing Vf, i.e., restoring health.

CONCLUSION

Entanglement hypotheses/metaphors may have application in the homeopathic therapeutic process beyond the one-to-one in-depth interview, and so are relevant to describing the mode of action of homeopathy during treatment of epidemic disease.

Models for the Study of Whole Systems

This article summarizes a network and complex systems science model for research on whole systems of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) such as homeopathy and traditional Chinese medicine. The holistic concepts of networks and nonlinear dynamical complex systems are well matched to the global and interactive perspectives of whole systems of CAM, whereas the reductionistic science model is well matched to the isolated local organ, cell, and molecular mechanistic perspectives of pharmaceutically based biomedicine. Whole systems of CAM are not drugs with specific actions. The diagnostic and therapeutic approaches of whole systems of CAM produce effects that involve global and patterned shifts across multiple subsystems of the person as a whole. For homeopathy, several characteristics of complex systems, including the probabilistic nature of attractor patterns, variable sensitivity of complex systems to initial conditions, and emergent behaviors in the evolution of a system in its full environmental context over time, could help account for the mixed basic science and controlled clinical trial research findings, in contrast with the consistently positive outcomes of observational studies in the literature. Application of theories and methods from complex systems and network science can open a new era of advances in understanding factors that lead to good versus poor individual global outcome patterns and to rational triage of patients to one type of care over another. The growing reliance on complex systems thinking and systems biology for cancer research affords a unique opportunity to bridge between the CAM and conventional medical worlds with some common language and conceptual models.

Toward a topological description of the therapeutic process

INTRODUCTION

Two (2) quantum theoretically based metaphor/models have been proposed recently to describe the therapeutic process in homeopathy in terms of (1) a representation of the vital force (Vf) as a spinning quantized gyroscope, describable as a wave function; and (2) a form of nonorthodox quantum theoretical entanglement (called PPR entanglement) between the patient, practitioner, and remedy.

METHOD

Combining these two descriptions permits "normalization" of the Vf gyroscopic wave function. In this context, "normalization" refers to the probability of a patient's symptom totality being expressed and observable to the practitioner within a "therapeutic state space" that has mirror-like characteristics.

RESULTS

The Vf gyroscopic wave function contains a constant A related to this symptom totality and its expression. Normalization provides values for A at various stages of the patient's journey to cure, while at the same time suggesting a possible Möbius strip-like "topology" for the practitioner-derived "therapeutic state space."

CONCLUSIONS

Changes in the value of A on normalization indicate how expression of symptom totality varies at different stages of the patient's journey to cure, while suggesting a "topology" for the therapeutic process and how the practitioner could be affected by it.

Quasi-quantum phenomena: the key to understanding homeopathy

On the basis of the first- and second-order Gompertzian kinetics it has been proved that the crystallization and its reciprocal process of dissolution belong to the class of quasi-quantum non-local coherent phenomena. Hence, there exists a direct link to homeopathy: molecules of the remedy prepared in the process of dilution of the active substance are non-locally interconnected at-a-distance. The results obtained provide strong arguments justifying formulated ad hoc macroscopic versions of quantum non-locality, entanglement and coherence employed in interpretation of the homeopathic remedies activity and effectiveness. In particular they are consistent with the predictions of the weak quantum theory developed by Atmanspacher and coworkers.

A new geometrical description of entanglement and the curative homeopathic process

INTRODUCTION

The Memory of Water, a "local" explanation of homeopathy's efficacy, has been supplemented recently by complementary "nonlocal" hypotheses. One of these envisages "quantum macro-entanglement" among patient, practitioner, and remedy to form a "PPR" entangled state, from which the possibility of cure may manifest.

METHODS

Semiotic analysis affords a geometrical description of this entangled state as a patient-centered chiral tetrahedron. Its four corners depict three different types of symptoms (of the patient, the dis-ease, and the remedial substance) and the potentized remedy.

RESULTS

Reflecting this state in a practitioner-derived mirror-like "therapeutic state space" generates two notional patient-centered chiral tetrahedra: cure may be thought to arise from their patient-driven combination "through the looking glass" of the therapeutic state space, into one polyhedron called a stella octangula or stellated octahedron; in essence, a 3-dimensional Star of David.

CONCLUSIONS

The practitioner helps in forming these notional semiotic polyhedra, but the patient is at their epicenters (i.e., the practitioner facilitates but ultimately does not control the curative process).

Modern or post-modern? Local or non-local? A response to Leick

Most debates in science and the humanities that cannot be settled are not about truth, nor about data, but about beliefs and world views. Philippe Leick's comment on entanglement models of homeopathy are a good example. Because of this, no argument, however, convincing to some, will settle that debate. The only thing that can resolve it is a large cultural shift. My own ideas about non-local models, for a whole category of possibly similar events of which homeopathy is but one example.

"Torque-like" action of remedies and diseases on the vital force and their consequences for homeopathic treatment

INTRODUCTION

Within the developing theoretical context of quantum macroentanglement, a mathematical model of the Vital Force (Vf) has recently been formulated. It describes the Vf in terms of a hypothetical gyroscope with quantized angular momentum. This enables the Vf's state of health to be represented in terms of a "wave function" derived solely from secondary symptom observables produced in response to disease or homeopathic remedies. So far, this approach has illustrated the biphasal action of remedies, resonance phenomena arising out of homeopathic provings, and aspects of the therapeutic encounter.

METHOD

In this paper, the effects of a therapeutic remedy and disease states on the gyroscopic angular momentum characteristics of the Vf were investigated by mathematical manipulation the Vf "wave function."

RESULTS

The formulation of the Vf in terms of a quantized gyroscope permits disease to be represented as a braking "torque" decreasing the Vf's angular momentum, causing it to "precess" (i.e., express symptoms). The therapeutic remedy, however, provides an accelerating "torque," increasing the Vf's angular momentum and decreasing precession (i.e., reducing symptom expression).

CONCLUSIONS

According to this model, symptom expression corresponds to precession of the Vf "gyroscope." Conversely, complete removal of symptoms is equivalent to cessation of Vf "precession." However, if overprescribed or given in unsuitable potency, the curative remedy (which may also be formulated as a wave function but this time derived solely from changes in Vf secondary symptom observables) may cause the Vf to express proving symptoms. Thus, with only observation of symptoms and changes in them to indicate, indirectly, the state of a patient's Vf, the safest treatment strategy might be for the practitioner to proceed via gradual removal of the symptoms. This is congruent with Hahnemann's later development and use of the LM potencies, as described in his final 6th edition of The organon.

Journeys in the country of the blind: entanglement theory and the effects of blinding on trials of homeopathy and homeopathic provings

The idea of quantum entanglement is borrowed from physics and developed into an algebraic argument to explain how double-blinding randomized controlled trials could lead to failure to provide unequivocal evidence for the efficacy of homeopathy, and inability to distinguish proving and placebo groups in homeopathic pathogenic trials. By analogy with the famous double-slit experiment of quantum physics, and more modern notions of quantum information processing, these failings are understood as blinding causing information loss resulting from a kind of quantum superposition between the remedy and placebo.

Is homeopathy possible?

As a therapeutic intervention, homeopathy is the target of increased scepticism because in the main, its remedies are diluted and succussed (potentized) out of material existence. This puts homeopathy seemingly at odds with the paradigm of conventional science, in particular, that atoms and molecules are the fundamental building blocks of all matter. Accordingly, homeopathy cannot work, so that any reported beneficial effects must, at best, be due to the placebo effect. The purpose of this article is to challenge that conclusion and to suggest that there may well be conventional science-based explanations of how homeopathy could be possible. Homeopathy's key principles are first described. Then the double-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT), the chief means by which homeopathic remedies and prescribing are tested, is shown to be based on a linear reductionism that is too blunt an instrument with which to test the efficacy of complex interventions such as homeopathy The memory of water hypothesis, as a mechanism for how potentized remedies might work, is reviewed, along with some evidence for its existence. A possible rationale for the water memory effect is proposed in terms of a dynamic 'ordering' of water's constantly switching network of intermolecular hydrogen bonds, induced by the manufacturing process of homeopathic remedies. This could lead to a long-range molecular 'coherence' between trillions of mobile water molecules. However, the water memory effect is an essentially pharmacological explanation of homeopathy's putative efficacy. It is pointed out that healing also entails an interaction between consenting beings. From this point of view, an explanation of any therapeutic procedure should include an attempt to describe the nature of the patient-practitioner interaction. From this perspective, a quantum theoretical treatment of the therapeutic process, involving a form of macro-entanglement between patient, practitioner and remedy (PPR), is advanced as another possible explanation of the homeopathy's efficacy. This shows that the reason double-blind RCTs deliver at best only equivocal results on homeopathy's efficacy is because it effectively breaks the PPR entangled state. A comparison is made between the entanglement-breaking effect of double-blind RCTs and the wave-function 'collapsing' effect of observation in orthodox quantum theory. The article concludes by suggesting that the memory of water and PPR entanglement are not competing but most likely complementary hypotheses, and that both are probably required in order to provide a complete description of the homeopathic process. While awaiting experimental evidence of these hypotheses, it is suggested that observations of clinical outcomes would be superior to RCTs for further testing homeopathy's efficacy.

Effects of potentised substances on growth kinetics of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe

BACKGROUND

Homeopathic potencies are used as specific remedies in complementary medicine. Since the mode of action is unknown, the presumed specificity is discussed controversially.

OBJECTIVE

This study investigated the effects of potentised substances on two yeast species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe, in a stable and reliable test system with systematic negative controls.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Yeast cells were cultivated in either potentised substances or water controls in microplates and their growth kinetics were measured photometrically. Water control runs were performed repeatedly to investigate the stability of the experimental set-up (systematic negative controls).

RESULTS

4 out of 14 screened substances seem to have affected the growth curve parameters slope or yield. Out of these substances, azoxystrobin and phosphorus were chosen for 8 further replication experiments, which partly confirmed the results of the screening. On the average of all experiments, azoxystrobin affected the slope of the growth curve of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (p < 0.05), and phosphorus affected the slope of the growth curve of Schizosaccharomyces pombe (p < 0.05). No effects were seen in the water control runs. In addition, significant interactions between treatment with potentised substances and experiment number were observed in all experiments with potentised substances (p < 0.01), but not in the water control runs.

CONCLUSIONS

Both yeast species reacted to certain potentised substances by changing their growth kinetics. However, the interactions found point to additional factors of still unknown nature, that modulate the effects of potentised substances. This stable test system with yeasts may be suitable for further studies regarding the efficacy of homeopathic potencies.

Towards a New Model of the Homeopathic Process Based on Quantum Field Theory

BACKGROUND

Quantum theory's notions of non-locality and entanglement have previously informed attempts to model the therapeutic process. Of these, Weak Quantum Theory (WQT) and Patient- Practitioner-Remedy (PPR) entanglement are developing into mathematically- based models of homeopathy.

OBJECTIVE

The present study attempted to identify fundamental concepts within quantum field theory (QFT) that could be used to broaden the scope of PPR entanglement models, prior to constructing a more rigorous mathematical treatment.

METHODS

In QFT, particles and forces are considered as fully interacting relativistic quantum matter and force fields, respectively. These interactions are visualized graphically as spacetime Feynman diagrams. Further, these interacting field systems can have ground states with broken symmetry; the so-called Higgs field being responsible for this symmetry breaking. In the new model, patient, practitioner and remedy are imagined as fully interacting quantum-like fields; patients and practitioners in terms of quantum matter-type fields, and remedies and diseases as quantum interaction-type fields.

RESULTS

Disease manifestation by the Vital Force (Vf) could be an event similar to spontaneous symmetry breaking in QFT: the curative remedy acting to restore the broken symmetry of the Vf field. Entanglement between patient, practitioner, and remedy might be representable as Feynman-like diagrams.

CONCLUSION

QFT demonstrates that quantum properties can be physical without being observable. Thus, an underlying similarity in discourse could exist between homeopathy and quantum theory which could be useful for modelling the homeopathic process. This preliminary investigation also suggested that key elements of previous quantum models of the homeopathic process, may become unified within this new QFT-type approach.

Research on homeopathy: state of the art

In this paper, we review research on homeopathy from four perspectives, focusing on reviews and some landmark studies. These perspectives are laboratory studies, clinical trials, observational studies, and theoretical work. In laboratory models, numerous effects and anomalies have been reported. However, no single model has been sufficiently widely replicated. Instead, researchers have focused on ever-new models and experiments, leaving the picture of scattered anomalies without coherence. Basic research, trying to elucidate a purported difference between homeopathic remedies and control solutions has also produced some encouraging results, but again, series of independent replications are missing. While there are nearly 200 reports on clinical trials, few series have been conducted for single conditions. Some of these series document clinically useful effects and differences against placebo and some series do not. Observational research into uncontrolled homeopathic practice documents consistently strong therapeutic effects and sustained satisfaction in patients. We suggest that this scattered picture has to do with the fourth line of research: lack of a good theory. Some of the extant theoretical models are reviewed, including placebo, water structure, silica contamination, energy models, and entanglement models. It emerges that local models, suggesting some change in structure in the solvent, are far from convincing. The nonlocal models proposed would predict that it is impossible to nail down homeopathic effects with direct experimental testing and this places homeopathy in a scientific dilemma. We close with some suggestions for potentially fruitful research.

Entanglement, Knowledge, and Their Possible Effects on the Outcomes of Blinded Trials of Homeopathic Provings

INTRODUCTION

In two recent studies of double-blind placebo-controlled homeopathic provings, entanglement was reported to have occurred between verum and placebo arms of the trials. This contrasts directly with the entanglement-disrupting effects of blinding, recently proposed as the reason for the failure of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to demonstrate unequivocally the efficacy of homeopathy. It is proposed here that such entanglement between remedy and placebo during these double-blind placebo controlled provings is the direct result of the blinding process.

METHOD

A previously developed theoretical model of entanglement in homeopathy among patient, practitioner, and remedy (called PPR entanglement) was used in this investigation.

RESULTS

In agreement with the results from the proving studies, the model predicts that application of the double-blind RCT methodology to homeopathic provings leads to entanglement between both remedy and placebo arms of the trial.

CONCLUSIONS

These theoretical findings can be understood in terms of the act of blinding leading to loss of information because of quantum-like state superposition of the verum and placebo proving groups. This is compared to conclusions drawn from the well-known double-slit experiment of quantum physics, and quantum information processing. It leads to a suggestion for testing entanglement in homeopathic provings.

Patient-Practitioner-Remedy (PPR) entanglement, Part 8: 'Laser-like' action of the homeopathic therapeutic encounter as predicted by a gyroscopic metaphor for the vital force

BACKGROUND

A preliminary mathematical model for the Vital Force had been developed based on the idea of a metaphorical gyroscope, combined with earlier notions derived from Weak Quantum Theory (WQT) and Patient-Practitioner-Remedy (PPR) Entanglement. This combination generates a hypothetical 'wave function' as a description of the state of the Vital Force that is intimately related to the secondary symptom picture of the therapeutic remedy, and is capable of illustrating certain empirical observations of the homeopathic process, including the bi-phasal action of remedies and some of the results gained from provings.

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this present study was to further develop the idea of a Vital Force 'wave function' by generating insights into its mode of reaction to therapeutic intervention by a practitioner.

METHODS

In orthodox quantum theory, the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, in which a particle's wave function is operated upon by the Hamiltonian total energy operator, provides information concerning the temporal evolution of the wave function. By analogy, a secondary-symptom-dependent Vital Force equation is postulated in which the Vital Force 'wave function' is operated upon by a so-called 'homeopathic operator'.

RESULTS

By inserting the previously developed wave function for the Vital Force into the secondary-symptom-dependent Vital Force equation, another equation is generated mathematically reminiscent of longitudinal mode standing waves set up in the resonant cavity of a laser.

CONCLUSION

In the language of therapeutics, it is often said an essential part of the curative process is that practitioners act as 'mirrors' for their patients. Previous papers in this series have shown that this reflective practitioner activity is more than a poetic analogy. Borrowing from the mathematical formalism of quantum theory, with its ideas of entangled, coherent wave-functions as metaphors for the homeopathic process, this mirror-like activity can be seen to be an integral part of the curative therapeutic encounter. The preliminary theoretical investigation reported here develops the metaphor further by suggesting that the effect of this practitioner mirror-like activity on a patient's Vital Force during the therapeutic encounter, might be likened to the sequence of operations by which lasers function. The analogy seems compelling, as an essential feature of laser operation is the arrangement of parallel mirrors placed at both ends of the laser's resonant cavity.

Homeopathic proving symptoms: result of a local, non-local, or placebo process? A blinded, placebo-controlled pilot study

BACKGROUND

Homeopathic pathogenetic trials (HPTs) (provings) are the pillar of homeopathy. Symptoms experienced by healthy volunteers are used to find the correct medicine for therapy. It is unclear whether these symptoms are specific or due to placebo noise. Furthermore, it is uncertain whether proving effects, if present at all, are due to a local or non-local process

OBJECTIVES

To develop a test model which allows for testing if homeopathic proving symptoms are caused by placebo or causative mechanisms, and if these symptoms are due to local or non-local processes.

DESIGN

Randomised, blinded, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study, with 1-week baseline and 2-weeks proving period.

SUBJECTS

11 healthy volunteers from two different homeopathic schools. PROVING SUBSTANCE: An homeopathic medicine (Cantharis 30c), blindly chosen from 12 potential medicines, compared to placebo.

OUTCOME MEASURE

Number of symptoms typical for the medicine in the experimental and control group during baseline and proving period.

RESULTS

During baseline there was no difference in the number of typical or atypical symptoms in either group. During the proving period, both more typical symptoms for Cantharis (P= 0.03) and more atypical symptoms (P= 0.02) were observed compared to baseline. Between-group differences were not significant. Effect sizes for the difference between the proving and control group for typical symptoms was d=0.4, and for atypical symptoms d=0.6.

DISCUSSION

This proving model could be valuable in studying the validity of proving symptoms of homeopathic substances in healthy volunteers.

CONCLUSION

Homeopathic proving symptoms appear to be specific to the medicine and do not seem to be due to a local process. Since this was a pilot study using a small number of provers, rival hypotheses cannot be ruled out and the study needs replication.

CAM Modalities Can Stimulate Advances in Theoretical Biology

Most complementary medicine is distinguished by not being supported by underlying theory accepted by Western science. However, for those who accept their validity, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities offer clues to understanding physiology and medicine more deeply. Ayurveda and vibrational medicine are stimulating new approaches to biological regulation. The new biophysics can be integrated to yield a single consistent theory, which may well underly much of CAM-a true 'physics of physick'. The resulting theory seems to be a new, fundamental theory of health and etiology. It suggests that many CAM approaches to health care are scientifically in advance of those based on current Western biology. Such theories may well constitute the next steps in our scientific understanding of biology itself. If successfully developed, these ideas could result in a major paradigm shift in both biology and medicine, which will benefit all interested parties-consumers, health professionals, scientists, institutions and governments.

Patient-practitioner-remedy (PPR) entanglement. Part 5. Can homeopathic remedy reactions be outcomes of PPR entanglement?

The possibility that well-documented types of reaction to the prescribed homeopathic medicine may be outcomes of PPR entanglement is discussed within the context of a previously described model for homeopathy that incorporates GHZ three-particle entanglement and Weak Quantum Theory.

Patient-practitioner-remedy (PPR) entanglement. Part 6. Miasms revisited: non-linear quantum theory as a model for the homeopathic process

The possibility that non-linear quantum theory could be used to model PPR entanglement is discussed in relation to the treatment of miasms. In this model, miasms are imagined as disease entities behaving like solitary waves, or 'solitons' which, when trapped in a therapeutic state space, requiring equally soliton-like (miasmatic or high potency) remedies to effectively 'annihilate' them.