Animal
Mind, Human Voices:
Provings
of Eight New Animal Remedies
HERRICK, Nancy.
Foreword by Roger Morrison, M.D.
I did not much believe in modern provings. I was under the impression that the current remedies, if we just knew how to use them, sufficed to cure any patient. And so it was, without much enthusiasm, that I agreed to participate in Nancy Herrick's proving: Lac delphinum. I must admit, I was not at first impressed with the mental, emotional, dream symptoms which developed. What truly impressed me, concrete creature that I am, was that eight people associated with the proving developed pain in the big toe. This humble symptom was the narrow doorway through which my mind entered a new world.
Over the following years, I became an increasingly enthusiastic observer and frequent proving subject. I watched the hundreds of hours of careful study, labor, and integrity which Nancy Herrick brought to each of these provings. Huge volumes of raw data had to be logged and verified with the individual provers. Rather than simply present the raw data, Nancy was convinced that, with deep reflection and study on the exact words of the provers, she would be able to uncover the basic feeling of each remedy. She then delineated this feeling for each remedy in her "Themes" section and exemplified each theme with the words of the provers.
Fears have been expressed (also by myself) that the attempt to synthesize a theme could slant the data of a proving. I have finally come to the conclusion that this rationalist way of thinking is grounded in allopathic research models. The homeopathic method, however, is based upon faith in the prover's (and proving master's) perceptions. Though the importance of the inner state has been disputed, by Hughes and others, homeopathic thought has always been essentially phenomenological. That is, it starts with the premise that inner phenomena have an equal (or sometimes greater) validity to external, measurable events. Certainly this license - to use one's own experience as a means of divining truth - can be (and in some recent provings has been) abused. This leads to results which match the proving master's expectations rather than the substance's true nature. Thus, homeopathy is always dependent upon Hahnemann's "unprejudiced observer." The test of whether a proving is unprejudiced - as with, for example, an espoused "essence" of a remedy - is in its clinical applicability.
Nancy Herrick wrestled with these issues and finally expressed to me her conviction that it is possible for the proving master to act as a vehicle for the meaning of the proving. And so, in many hours of reflection, she has tried to live the inner state of each remedy through and with her provers and to report that state accurately and vividly. The proof that Nancy's methods are reliable and "unprejudiced" is that virtually all of these new remedies are now in use by practitioners and have effected deep cures.
So several years and a complete conversion later, I marvel at the knowledge unfolded in these animal provings. I had accepted the possibility that, for example, a dream of dolphins or swimming might occur during the proving of Lac delphinum. What I did not expect was that the proving would bring out the deepest dilemmas, fears, joys - that is to say the very life of the species - of the animal being proved. For example, the proving of the gray wolf brought out the feeling of imminent death, revealing, shockingly, the inner life of a species on the verge of extinction. Another example is the frustrated, enslaved feeling which came in the proving of Lac equinum - the milk from a noble creature broken to the will of man. In short, each of these provings is a window into the inner life of the animal.
One of the most startling realizations stimulated by these provings is that some of the foremost symptoms which occurred characterize the relationship of the proved species to man. For example, the light and happy feeling in the butterfly proving parallels our instinctive reactions to this living ephemera. In contrast, the feeling of violence and butchering reported during the proving of Lac loxodonta reflects the slaughter of these creatures for their ivory. It appears that our behavior and feelings towards an animal species is integral to the homeopathic use of the substance.
One final realization occurred during these provings: It seems highly likely that human treatment of our cousin species will be reflected in our own pathology. Can we drive the wolf into annihilation without a serious consequence to our own consciousness? Could it be that the rapidly accelerating incidence of deep phobias, anxiety, and depression found in our culture is in part due to our behavior toward the earth? Or, more concretely, can a man whip a dog without tainting or shriveling his own soul?
And so these provings show once again the power of the homeopathic process to reveal the nature of life. May we use this power and these provings as a prism to see inside ourselves, and through seeing, heal.