Huge news. Four homeopathic remedies were tested in vitro on human breast cancer cell lines. The remedies caused delayed growth and cell death ("apoptosis") in the cancer cells. According to the authors the study demonstrates "biological activity of these natural products when presented at ultra-diluted doses", i.e., that the homeopathic principle works.
Click here for the full abstract.
Because of the rate of dilution in homeopathic remedies, which sometimes means that not a single molecule of the active ingredient remains in the solution, homeopathy can almost be considered an energy therapy: what ostensibly makes it work is the energy signature of the active ingredient which is retained in the medium in which it was "succussed" (= energetically shaken, the means of potentiating homeopathic remedies).
Critics may scoff, but there is now other evidence of strange effects at play in our brave new world. For instance, a recent study has shown that placebos work even when people know they are taking a placebo. And Dr. Bernie Siegel tells a strange tale of a radiologist colleague who found that the radioactive isotope had been removed from his radiation machine during repairs and not replaced: for a full month this man radiated cancer patients with a machine that in effect had no "active ingredient". And yet his patients' tumours shrank and they had the same side effects as if they had received real radiation. What was at work here? The placebo effect, i.e., that his patients believed they were being radiated? Or the "homeopathy effect," i.e., that the machine retained the memory of its purpose?
Cue the Twilight Zone music.
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4 comments:
Whoa! Maybe the radiation machine had a morphic field! Kind of like a "residual haunting," when something intense or repetitive happens in a location, and seems to be played out like a tape recording there forever after.
I wonder whether the effect would have diminished over time.
Fascinating stuff, Judith! The story about the radiologist reminds of radionics. Initially radionic researchers developed a lot of electrical machines which were thought to emit healing radio waves of some sort. These actually were not complicated machines and just contained some basic electrical components. Later some radionic experimenters determined that it was primarily the operator of the machine who was doing the healing. The machine was not necessary for the healing and did not have to be used. That doesn't mean that the machine is not a useful tool for the operator to focus their healing energies and that there may indeed be a machine operator interaction.
I have long thought that the tool (tarot, hazel twigs) was not really essential for the psi effect. That the psi came from the human consciousness involved, but that this is psychologically threatening, and it's more comfortable to think the tool has the power. But, the way you're saying it now, Eric, is making me realize that the tool could, indeed, sometimes amplify a weak effect of consciousness, make it more tangible, and give the person confidence. Thanks!
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