The high art of LM / Q potencies - Do not prescribe when not necessary

[Cl.Mennel]

Dear Listees,

the wonderful thing with LMs or Q-potencies (Organon § 270) is that you
can dose them more precisely and more subtle; Samuel Hahnemann himself
wrote in his 6th edition of the Organon that you can treat a patient
with severe illnesses more carefully and gentle (Organon § 247). The
dosis is not given at once and then acts, but given in small
proportions.

Normally you would start of with LM 1 or a slightly higher potency (such
as LM3, LM 6 at the most) and you take the LM diluted in water once or
twice or more often, as it is described in Organon § 248. There you get
a great range of variables to be altered according to the patient and
the state of her/his life force and his/her presentation of symptoms.

1st dilution
According to Hahnemann every dose of LM should be diluted at least once
in about 60 ml water,
the dosis can be one to three globuli. The more golbuli the stronger.
This bottle with this dilution is succussed 8 to 12 times by patient
before taking it.
You can vary the number of how many time a patient sucusses it. The
more you succuss it, the stronger and the more immatrial it will be.

2nd dilution
Then the patient adds one or two spoons of that succussed dilution to a
glass of water (normally 60 ml).
You can vary the size and number of spoons the patient adds to the
water. The more spoons the stronger and the faster acting it will be.
The patient stirs this dilution with a non-metal spoon or stick about
10-30 times. The more it is stirred, the stronger and the more dynamic
the remedy will be.
Then the patient takes a spoon full.
You can vary the size and number of the spoons.
You can vary how often (daily to weekly) the patient takes it at
variable time of the day (mind the organic clock).

even more dilutions
As Hahnemann states in § 248 Organon, if the patient is very sensitive
or weak you can prescribe a 3rd or a 4th dilution to be taken.

Proceeding
Then you proceed from one LM to the next. from LM1 to LM2 to LM 3.
You vary the time a patient sticks to one LM. The average time is 7-15
days.
Since a patient him/herself sucusses the first dilution of an LM daily
(or less often), from dose to dose the remedy gets slightly stronger,
and by this the patient is prepared for the higher LM. Thus by
succussing the first dilution of LM1 daily the patent gradually is
prepared to take the first dilution of LM2.
Mostly once the bottle of 60 ml is used up, it is time for the next
first dilution the one higher potency, but there are cases and periods
in the course of a case where or when you procceed faster, and those
where you give another first dilution of the same potency, maybe a bit
stronger (2 globuli instead of one - or switching from a 3rd to a 2nd
dilution). If you find the right time and dose the patient will hardly
notice that she/he has passed to a higher potency.

Changing the remedy
As Hahnemann said, if the rest of the illness presents itself in a group
of altered symptoms, presenting the picture of a new remedy, you have
got to choose the new remedy using th methods mentioned above.

(I had an elderly lady doing very fine on Thuja being at LM 9 after
nine! month - a very, very slow sycotic case - who, amazingly, suddenly
developed the picture of Medorrhinum, I had difficulties in trusting my
eyes and ears. Well, I switched to that new remedy - which was good,
because in the last hot summer, when many elderly people died due to the
heat in Europe, this lady had no troubles at all. When the summer was
over and the climate got cooler, the picture of Thuja reappeared, and
Thuja did its job well again.)

With this amazing number of variables to be altered you can find and
prescribe the almost absolutely fitting dose for a patient.
Thus you can prevent the "Erstverschlimmerung" first reaction.
The high art of LMs or Qs is to get that sublte feeling from experience,
intuition and knowlegde so that there none but positive reaction to a
remedy.

I prefer LMs in chronic cases, for elderly ladies and gentlemen, for
patients that are on conventional medicines which cannot be stopped
abruptely (heart medication, pain killers etc.) Then, while the LMs get
higher the conventional stuff can be weaned off. The greatest
difficulty, even greater than the dosing of LMs, is to find a
conventional physician willing to cooperate.

To give Q or and LM potencies without using the possibility of dilution
(that is to say to give just the gobuli in dry form) would mean to lose
this unique form of adapting the dosis to the patient and the symptoms
he presents.

If you succeed in finding a dosis adapted to the patient and the
symptoms she/he presents, she/he won't experience any negative first
reactions.

It's important to keep in mind that any negative reaction to a correct
remedy is mostly an indication that the dosis was not fitting precisely.
This is true for C potencies as well - the correct dosage minimizes the
first reactions. If you choose a C30 istead of a C200 - or vice versa -
the patient will feel it bitterly.

All the best and good luck
Claudia