Simple test for powers of potentised substances

[Soroush Ebrahimi]

http://homeopathyplus.com.au/you-too-ca ... omeopathy/
You Too Can Test Homeopathy
For those who still doubt … here’s a simple little ‘homeopathy’ experiment to check if potentisation really does have an effect.

Grab some common green bean seeds and divide them into two groups. In the first group (your control group) water them as per normal. In the second group, your test group, water them as well but only after adding 5 drops of potentised table salt (Nat-m 6C) per 50 ml. As happened in the following research, you should see the beans from your test group grow more quickly and profusely than the control group even though a 6C potency is indistinguishable from plain water.

And where can you get the Nat-m 6C? It is easy to buy from most homeopathic pharmacies or you can make your own – its simple. Just follow the instructions found in one of the below links.

(For the purpose of this experiment, you won’t need a ‘mother tincture’ or alcohol as per the instructions. Just add approximately 1 part of common table salt to 99 parts of water. Potentisation is quite flexible so measures don’t have to be exact for an effect to take place).

So, for the price of a few beans you too can test homeopathy.

(Green beans are not the only plants you can experiment with – any plant can be affected by a homeopathic potency as Darwin himself discovered. Just Google for the growing list of homeopathic research with other plants.)
Links to More Information
Bean growth research: A pilot study of the influence of Natrum muriaticum 6cH and 30cH in a standardized culture of Phaseolus vulgaris L.

Potentisation instructions: Three Scales of Potency

Darwin’s story and homeopathic plant experiments: The Surprising Story of Charles Darwin and His Homeopathic Doctor
Regards

Soroush

[Veronique Bouan]

Well I would do four groups ; water, potentized plain water, salted water, potentized salt water.

I may do that with my grandchildren this summer.
2013/4/26 >

[Shannon Nelson]

Nice, thanks!! I will offer this to some folks, who will not actually do it, but at least the ball will be in their court.

Shannon

[John Harvey]

When I saw this subject line, I hoped that we might have something useful here.

To show that ultrapotencies -- potencies containing only the diluent (water–alcohol solution), not the original medicinal substance -- affect plant growth will require a test that compares ultrapotencies with the diluent (water or water–alcohol solution). The test proposed here does not do that: a 6c potency of Nat. mur. contains roughly one nanogram of salt per kilogram of water.
If the person who wrote this commentary on the study imagines that a nanogram of salt per kilogram of water is the same as no salt per kilogram of water, it doesn't mean that genuine skeptics will too. The important potential of the experiment as performed was to show that the 30c potency affected plant growth.

Unfortunately, the study fails to show much effect from the 30c. It appeared to cause strongest growth to begin with but failed steadily thereafter. Whilst that could be due to some kind of interference, the readiest explanation may be the inadequate methodology in taking measurements of plant growth, which was to select, each week, an individual plant from the batch of similar plants, divide its dried mass by its leaf area, and treat the resulting figure as being comparable with the figure similarly obtained for an entirely different plant a week earlier or later.

The study does appear to show some effect from the 6c, and at first glance that effect appears to parallel the course of the NaCl 5% solution: a path of NaCl intoxication (which, given that the 6c contains salt, may not be a complete surprise). Of course, that too may reflect nothing more than the differences between individual plants.

To my mind, the experiment was a complete waste of time, demonstrating nothing but lack of scientific rigour. The purpose of using a number of plants together is to average out random variations; the experimenters lost that value when they instead chose an individual plant. A far more reliable experiment -- and one you can do at home if you're inclined -- would be to use two batches in identical (lighting, electric fields, etc.) conditions except for water versus potency; harvest both entire batches at the end of a predetermined period; and weigh each batch together. Even a simple comparison of the average height of each batch will serve as some kind of measure. To make it relevant to the question of ultrapotencies, the potency will have to be at least a 23x or 12c. Then we might have something to show for our trouble.

Cheers --

John