Well here’s a toddy ta dee ta: I’ve decided to become the first student so named of quantum psychiatry. And by way of it something of a practitioner.

Ah, I can hear the breathless words now:
“Montresor, Montresor, what is this I here about quantum psychiatry?”

I kept to my studies, did not look up, to finish the sentence I was penning.

“Oh,” he said, “the Amontillado was better quaffed than what you vouched safe for, but after spending such a long time behind the wall you masonried me in for . . as a joke, yes Montresor? well, I must say, I went a little bug-ga-da, and have NOT been the same since.”

I did not look up, but as I kept to my writing, I threw him small boon, to let him know I was listening: “What took you so long?”
“What took me so long?” he said, like a distant echo from a far off land. “Well, I had to dig my way out with a folding knife, just in time to learn that you have proved homeopathy . . and now this!  Yes, yes, I think I could use the benefit of . . what is it they say? Quantum psychiatry? Oh but la, please do tell, Montresor, please please! I must know more.”

There was a breathless moment as I carefully placed my quill in its golden quiver, and pushed my reminisces aside; pinched the bridge of my nose, digging thumb tip and forefinger into the nasal corners of my eyes, then lifting my brow in mock surprise, opened them wide to stretch them, and turned my head, and peered over my spectacles at the once fat jolly chuff, now an poorly animated emaciation, who had been pleading into my left ear, (a bit deaf) and tugging at my jerkin.
“Fortunato,” I cried, my fist coming down on the arm of the chair “you dug yourself out with your folding knife? Didn’t you find the door at the southern end of the Immurement?”
“Door?” he said, befuddled. “Door? What door?” He pronounced it achingly and sat inn the companion chair at the sside of my rolltop. “Oh no,” he said, clasping his head with both hands.
“Yes,” I said, “it leads directly to the kitchen, where I left you a glass of cold milk and a roast beef sandwiche!”

He hung his head and cried. Actually the milk had been tepid and sour, and the sandwich nothing but hot mustard on stale bread, but it’s the thought that counts.
“Oh well,” I said, “at least you found the chains soft enough. Eh?”

“Oh but Montresor,” he said, renewing his pleas, “tell me of the quantum psychiatry! What is it, how does it work?”

“Well,” I said, getting comfy again. “It’s a bit of alchemy. The use of succussed high dilutes, as used in homeopathy, to affect human behavior. For the good of Mankind, of course.”
I smiled at hnim and nodded. He looked back at me in astonishment, as if I was some kind of wizard.

“Now,” I said, not knowing what else to say, “how might I help you, Fortunato? Why shouldn’t you be my first victim . . I mean client? Client!”

“I seem to be suffering from clausterphobia,” he said, as if taking inventory. Then he rememmbered what happened

“All the doctors,” he said, “all they want to do is get me hooked on their patented petro chemical synthesis, palliate my symptoms and line their pockets with my ducats!”

“Well,” I said, “we can’t blame them for that, now can we Fortunato? They only do what they know how to do and express their ignorance, and one certainly can understand their need to make a living at it.”

I rose from my chair and took him by the hand to a couch, sat him down, and with with my hand made an application of bioenergetic Anthropomorphic Field Transmission (AFT) and a few mesmeric passes, quieted him enough for him to lie back and enter into a trance.

“Allow me to enter your mind,” I said. ”Let us walk together down an imaginary path. Springtime. What do you notice? A flower, a bird? Where are?

“The Chateau!” he said happily. “In the garden. Oh a beautfiul day.”

“See the beautiful little blue flowers flower?” I said.

“Yes, yes . .” he said eagerly.

“Monkshood! Don’t touch them!” I said. “Most poisonous.”

“Oh my,” he rejected. “I don’t suppose . . hmm, once when I was a child I became very sick afterneating a blue flower . . Montresor!”

He sat up, gripping himself, and said: “Montresor, do you suppose . . “

“Relax, my friend, lay back down,” I said. He did I  commanded. ”L:et us return to where we were before. The garden at the Chateau. What is that long thing lying on the ground?”

“I see a beautiful walking stick,” he said. “I must have it . .”

“No!” I said. “It is a snake! Crotalus horridus, the timber rattler. Do you hear its shaker, like maracas?”

“Maracas! Oh dear me, I rememeber now, I was bit once by a snake while in the Americas!” he said. I made a note under loquaciousness.

“Montressor,” he said, sitting up once again, holding himself and staring at me. “You are amazing! How did you know?”

“Now, now, dear Fortunato,” I said, “Unhand yourself. Lay yourself back back down. . . there, there, good now. Close your eyes. Now  tell me of your anamnesia . .”

He opened an eye. “My what?”

“Your anamnesia,” I said, “the past life remembered . .”

Both his eyes widened and glazed over: “The past life remembered . . I . .I . .”

“Your traumas, Fortunato,” I said. “The things that have hurt you, physical, emotional, mental, your fears, your life, Fortunato, your life . . “

“My life,” he mumbled, and sputtered, then like a gathering storm, spoke of the recent immurement, then of the unintended insults he had born all of his life, and the intended ones, too, the betrayals, the robberies, the beatings, and another (one I hadn’t heard about) immurement; and a duel; drunkeness; a disease contracted at a bawdy house; a jab from a physicians needle that left him feeling poorly ever since; the separation of his parents; a particularly unjust spanking; a near drowning; his first immurement (good God) and a difficult birth. I made another application of AFT and it set in and began to do its work: in a deeper trance he recounted trauma experienced while in the womb! His father’s misgivings at being a dad; his mother’s fright . . and then traumas from previous lives!

When I awoke he was snoring peacefully. I looked at my watch.

Late!

I jumped up and shook him awake. “Fortunato, Fortunato, your time is up!” I said.

“Wha? What?” he said, trying to sit up, rubbing his eyes.

“How much do I owe you?” he said.

“I’ll send you my bill, ” I said. “I must first go over my notes, and then when I am ready, I will determine which remedies you need from the chemist, and prepare a schedule for their taking.”

“Oh, very well, ” he said drowsily as he toddled to the door.

I helped him out into the street where his carriage was waiting.

“Don’t worry, Montresor, ” I said, “the chancre will soon leave you and the dementia will clear up.”

“All that?” he said as the dirver snapped his whip and the carriage lurched forward, throwing him back.

“All that, and more,” I said, yelling after him waving at the empty street.

I quickly turned and hurried back in to pour over my notes, refresing myself with the secret recording I had made of his answers, furiously scribbling notes, diving into repertories, examining keynotes, paging through materia medicas.
I found Kent most helpful, and Boericke and Tafel most often in concordance, filling in where Kent stumbles.

Then Chappell, and Bailey, Morrison of course, and I’d be nowhere without Griffith’s new Materia Medica.

Goldfish . . hmm. Black obsidian, Chalice Well. Berlin Wall.

Thymus gland! Ah yes! And Amethyst!

Then suddenly, it was done, my first nude, the masterwork with all its rights of of primogeniture, my first born.

And speaking of cardinals, first, of course, I had to coisder where in the week to start in with the chronoeopathy, and when. Do I risk it first in treatment, last or during?

Do we begin on Sunday with Aurum, or end on Sunday, and with what potency? Is Sunday the first day of the week? No! Begin on Monday,the day of relection, with Argentum and Silica, the Mirror Remedy. Let Fortunato see himself as he is . . intersperse the routine with the individulized, his birth remedies, his constitutionals, miasms, chronics and acutes, and the anamnesis, marching toward the Golden Hour, on the Day of Perfection . .  YES! The Grand Finale!

My course was clear. On Monday I would administer the Mirror Remedy with Q potencies . . start with the brain, the organ of the mind! . . I must take copious notes . .  and usher in a New Age of medicine! to that end, finally, as it inevitably must come, with medica sine materia, ultimtely non material medicine, the healer who works with his mind alone !

It’s been a while since I’ve submitted anything here for an updoozal, so I’d like to first thank everyone who has supported me with their readership, and special kudos tothose who have deemed to grace my little blog with a comment, and that includes even the scoffers, because they keep me diving back into the literature to meet their objections; but I’d like to especially thank Dr. Sharma at the Hahnemann College in London for his invitation to me to speak on the science of homeopathy at the upcoming World Homeopathic Congress in London this coming April. I’m saving my allowance and I certainly look forward to it and hope I can make a reasonable showing in a clean suit, at least.
But the most important part is that it was such an inspiration to me that I have hoisted a new website, scienceofhomeopathy.com, dedicated to the subject as stated, which means featuring the work of so many people in bringing this wonderful science to fruition with clinical, physical, in vitro, and in vivo studies that prove the efficacy of it. I hope that anyone who has any questions about homeopathy will give it a looksee.
love to all,
John

Prologue- I’ve made the Skeptic Challenge as a response to the Psychic Challenge. I trust you’ll see its failings.The following is a transcript of “The Skeptic Challenge” video on Youtube, with additional annotations.  Commentary is being edited for publication in a future blog to follow. 

INTRODUCTION

My name is John Benneth and I will pay one thousand dollars to any person who can demonstrate, under conditions similar to James “the Amazing” Randi’s Psychic Challenge, that the Psychic Challenge is a valid offer for proof of psychic powers, the paranormal, the supernatural, homeopathy or anything else but Mr. Randi’s own illusions. Such demonstration must take place under the following rules and limitations which are in essence identical to those of the Psychic Challenge. Applicants or anyone offering proof must agree, that in believing that the Psychic Challenge is the quintessential acid test for claims of the paranormal, they must also believe that their own claims can withstand reciprocity and be tested by the same rules, conditions, limitations demands of the Psychic Challenge, and that this, The Skeptic Challenge, is the quintessential acid test of atheism.

If you hold the Psychic Challenge out to be a common standard for judging the paranormal, then you must agree then that the conditions are universal, logical and held in common, in the public domain, without copyright, not patentable or proprietary, like the code duello, to be used by anyone and everyone when examining an unusual claim or answering a challenge. It is understood then, that in responding to this, the Skeptic challenge, you believe the terms for the Psychic Challenge, which you are seeking to validate, derive from common logic and are definitive of the best known method’s by which to determine the truth of a claim. Therefore, you must believe that similar rules and limitations must apply in establishing the truth of any claim, including those made by the Psychic Challenge itself,  herein that Mr. Randi has one million dollars to award for evidence of those things he challenges.

Put plainly and simply, I, John Benneth and one thousand dollars say that Mr. Randi does not have one million dollars for proof of claims of the paranormal or anything else but his own illusions.Listen carefully to what I have to say, and if you possess an open, clear and objective mind, by the end of this video you too will agree with me and millions of others that the Psychic Challenge is a hoax.   

Once again, although the award is smaller, and the challenge is made by me, except for slight changes in wording where needed to maintain the relevance of the charge, the rules for the Skeptic Challenge are the same as they are for the Psychic Challenge.

THE RULES: 

Rule Number One: According to Randi this is the first and the most important of the limitations, conditions and rules for establishing a claim. The prospective applicant, hereafter referred to as you, and I must agree, what constitutes proof for the validity of the Psychic Challenge, the limits of the proposed demonstration (so far as time, location and other variables are concerned) and what will constitute both a positive and a negative result.

Rule # 2 I will only accept an actual agreed upon performance of proof. Anecdotal accounts will not be accepted or considered to be potential proof.  Unless they can show qualified and independent disposition of funds, records such as bank statements will not be accepted or even considered.

Rule #3 I will consult competent counsel when expert evaluation of the claim is required. I have no interest in theories or explanations of what constitutes validity for the Psychic Challenge; if you attempt to provide me with that kind of garbage, it will be denied, dismissed and thrown away.

Rule #4 You as a prospective applicant must agree that photographs, recorded, or written,  and material collected as a result of contact with me about the Skeptic Challenge, the application and records of inquiries belong to me and may be used by me for my pleasure unless otherwise agreed upon and stipulated.

Rule #5 After an agreement is reached/ on what constitutes proof, no part of it can be changed in any way without agreement by John Benneth – in writing.

Rule #6 If you are too far away or I don’t have the time, you will be required to reveal your evidence in a location that can be attended by my representative. This preliminary investigation is to determine if you are likely to have the proof needed  to perform as promised, using our agreed protocol. To date, no applicant has passed this preliminary investigation, and this has eliminated the need for a formal investigation. There is no limit on the number of times you may re-apply, but re-application can take place only after a year has passed since the completion of the preliminary investigation.

Rule #7 Your expenses such as transportation, accommodation, materials, assistants, and/or all other costs for any persons or procedures incurred in pursuit of the reward, are the sole responsibility of you the applicant. I will not bear any of the costs.

#8 When entering into this challenge, as far as this may be done by established legal statutes, in applying for the Skeptic Challenge you must surrender any and all rights to legal action against me, and/or against any persons peripherally involved. This applies to injury, accident, physical damage, emotional suffering, financial loss, professional loss, or damage of any kind. However, this rule in no way affects the awarding of the prize, once it is properly won in accord with the agreed upon protocol.

#9 At the formal investigation, in advance, an independent person will be placed in charge of a personal check from John Benneth for one percent of the award, same as in the Psychic Challenge. In this case that would be ten whole dollars.  In the event that the claimant is successful under the agreed-upon terms and conditions, that check shall be immediately surrendered to the claimant, and within ten days, I will pay to the claimant the remainder of the reward, for a total of $1,000. One thousand dollars in cash is held at this time in the form of a personal check made out by me as assurance of the prize funds. Validation of this money and its current status may be obtained by contacting John Benneth through Bandershot on Youtube or this website, johnbenneth.wordpress.com.

A note by me here. I have seen what is claimed to be a bank statement that is offered as proof of the Psychic Challenge. After Randi qualified me as an applicant I called Goldman Sachs, the investment firm touted as holding the account, and I talked to Naomi Shapiro, who Randi claimed was the account manager for the Psychic Challenge. Ms Shapiro could not me tell anything about it, much less validate it. It was soon after that that Mr. Randi complained that Goldman Sachs’s attorney called him and ordered him to stop using their name on his website. Randi’s evidence of proof of the Psychic Challenges is currently NOT on Randi’s website, but on a website that features magic tricks.  The validity he claims is now relegated to a small dark corner of the Internet, on a website entitled “magicandillusion.com.”  So please don’t bother offering a bank statement from Goldman Sachs or an invitation to call Naomi Shapiro as proof. It’s already been checked out and found to be false. The psychic challenge is just an illusion constructed by a failed magician who has a long history of miscalculating his tricks and becoming victimized by them. After spending his early years in a body cast, he has had to be rescued from the outside after being locked in a safe, let out of jail or handcuffs. The Psychic Challenge is not the first time one his illusions has turned on him, having had to be saved from drowning, suffocation, a noose and burning, cut out of a straight jacket & untied from a tree.
#10: Copies of the Skeptic Challenge application are available free of charge to any qualified person who requests it, or it can be downloaded from the Internet, at Bandershot.com or my blog johnbenneth dot wordpress dot com.

# 11: This offer is made by me on the behalf of NO other person or organization. Although others may become involved in the examination of your claim and may add their reward money to the total offered, I, John Benneth will manage the challenge. As in the Psychic Chlalenge I will not entertain any demand that the thousand dollars be deposited in escrow, displayed in cash, or otherwise produced in advance of the test being performed.

I love this next one. This is what Randi requires, so by terms of the Psychic Challenge, it must be the standard of truth. Whereas Randi inistss on an “academic”, since the Skeptic Challenge is in essence a challenge of atheism, I have replaced the witnessing of special powers by an “academic”  with the witnessing of a skeptic’s special powers of validation by a Christian Science practitioner.

Rule #12: This offer is NOT open to just anyone. Before being considered as an applicant, you must satisfy two conditions. First, you must have a “media presence,” which means you have been published, written about, or are known to the media in regard to your claimed abilities or powers to validate the Psychic Challenge. You can established this by producing articles, videos, books, or other published material that specifically addresses your claim. Second, you must produce at least one signed document from a Christian Science practitioner who has witnessed, predicted or divined your power or ability of Psychic Challenge validation.

#13: National origin, gender, age, race, and educational background are not factors for acceptance.

#14: This prize will continue to be offered until it is awarded or until the Psychic Challenge dies. Should the Psychic Challenge still be offered and the Skeptic Challenge remain uncollected at the time of my death , the administration of the prize will pass into other hands, and it is intended that it continue with the full force of my mandate as if I was GOVERNING FROM THE GRAVE. I added that. This next part, rule #15, Randi puts in all caps, so I will too and use fewer words.

Rule #15: YOU MUST AGREE WITH ME WHAT WILL DEMONSTRATE PROOF FOR THE PSYCHIC CHALLENGE.

#16: A notarized form found at Bandershot.com or on my blog at johnbenneth.wordpress.com must be accompanied by a brief, two-paragraph description of your demonstration. Upon a protocol being developed, that description may be extended.  (pause)

Please do not burden me with theories, philosophical observations, jokes, insults, previous examples, anecdotal evidence or other comments. I am only interested in an actual demonstration of proof for the Psychic Challenge. Oh yes.

An additional note here: There will be no special rules, exceptions, conditions, standards, or favors granted to you without my consent in advance. If you refuse to agree to meet the rules as outlined here, you will not be considered here to have ever been an applicant. Complete agreement with these rules will be the ONLY way for you to graduate from “applicant” to “claimant.”By signing, notarizing and submitting the printed form, you signify agreement with all of the above rules. Be advised that you should conduct proper and secure tests of your own to determine whether your abilities or claims are actually valid.This application will be signed by John Benneth and returned to the applicant by mail after a test protocol has been mutually agreed upon, and a test date and location have been determined.
IMPORTANT: Only claims that can be verified by evidence under proper observing conditions will be accepted. Also, John Benneth will NOT accept claims of anonymous donors such as ”Richard Adams, III,” the existence of bank accounts or negotiable bonds in Randi’s name at Goldman Sachs, the validity of Naomi Shapiro, unilateral conditions, Atheism, debunking, ghostbusting, MacArthur Genius awards, causing disbelief in God, peer review, or the gold standard of science as proof that James “the Amazing” Randi has a million dollars for proof  of the paranormal. John Benneth will also NOT accept evidence that is likely to cause injury of any sort to Randi or anyone else, such as web pages, temper tantrums, withholding of air, food or water, or the use of illicit materials, drugs, or dangerous devices, or evidence that is meant to insult, defame, discredit or intimidate. Write to me with your preliminary evidence at Bandershot on Youtube.com, and if it passes as having potential validity, I will send you a mailing address to which you can send your application form.Once again, the conditions for this, the Skeptic Challenge, mimic and mock the conditions, terms, rules and limitations held forth in the Psychic Challenge. Compare them and you will see that there is no substantial difference.If you once believed the Psychic Challenge to be the gold standard for questioning the paranormal, then the Skeptic Challenge must now be the gold standard for testing Atheism. Are not the words psychic, paranormal and supernatural merely secular terms for Man’s spiritual abilities? Does anyone but an atheist not belive that God is the greatest paranormalist of them all?

All potential applicants to the Skeptic Challenge must have watched the Youtube video. Thank you for watching and good luck.

Copyright John Benneth, 2007

Stop the murder. End the killing. Do the right thing. I’m sorry to say it, but Bush and Cheney have to now be impeached and charged with crimes against humanity. Why? Well, because it is the only way the world’s going to trust the U.S. government again. Yeah, I know, it’s a drag and would be traumatic and embarassing for everyone involved, but this is the only way I know to suggest so as the world knows that Americans are serious about doing the right thing again.

George and Dick wouldn’t really mind. Deep down inside they want to do the right thing too. And right now, by simply going along with the program, this is the best contribution they can make. And if they don’t fight it, why shouldn’t we be forgiving? Let the healing start at the top, from the inside out, from the highest command and most important offices to the lowest and the least, from the last occurence of crime to the first. Everything gets settled and the meek get their birthright.

Makes a lot of sense and carries with it the wisdom of the ages.

And speaking of again, how about if Americans start acting like human beings . . . again? Good idea. Remember what that was like? Remember when Americans were the good guys? Remember how good it felt? Everybody loving everybody else?

The Benneth plan is then, after Geroge and Dick are safely behind bars, under the leadership of President Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Harry Reid, for the U.S. to pull back over the horizon, turn the stinking mess over to the U.N. and start paying reparations and making friends again with world.

So mote it be. What else really is there to do?

How about a real energy policy with hydrogen hi-ways, bio-fuels, solar, wind and geo power? How about a public works program, a return to the Moon, a trip to Mars? How about a national health plan? How about working on ways so as Americans can feel safe in their homes and communities again? How about better education? How about finding safe and productive ways to empty the prisons of non-violent offenders? How about rebuilding the economy and the middle class?

See? Look at all the challenging, fun and productive things there are for Americans to do within their lifetimes, much more worthwhile than killing and maiming people and blowing things up on the other side of the Earth.

Americans, come together and say it together: “Let’s leave a legacy. Give peace a chance. Let’s show the world that we can recognize a mistake and correct it quickly. Let’s show them we’re still the greatest country on Earth . . . or at least within the top ten or twenty.”

 Okay? Really, all it takes on your part as an American is a simple change of mind if you’re in disagreement, having the courage to admit you were duped. You were doing the best you could with the information you had. Nobody can blame you in the end. You were scared. But now you know the truth, and now you can do the right thing, by letting these words sharpen your focus  or just by changing your mind.

Hey, maybe if we stop being so materialistic, blaming, hurting and killing each other,  and learn to share, we can all come out winners . . . again!

God bless you all,

your friend, your best friend, your only friend, 

John Benneth

PS: Don’t send money, just send love!

THE CURSE OF HAMMURABI 

The Hanging of Saddam Hussein

and

Anglo-American Influence on the Rule of Law in Iraq

by John Benneth

The following 3800 year old inscription, called The Code of Hammurabi was found on a stone monument  originally from Iraq. I’ve edited it for comprehension and brevity. In addition to a preface, epilogue and the following warning, or curse, it lists over 200 laws, which it is claims covers every conceivable conflict between the Iraqi people of its day, and for generations to follow.  The Code of Hammurabi is one of the oldest  (if not the oldest) and most complete records of law known in the world today. 

Hammurabi, the protecting king of Iraq am I. 

The great gods have called me in order to declare justice in the land, to settle all disputes, and heal all injuries, set up these my precious words, written upon my memorial stone, before the image of me, as king of righteousness.

Let the oppressed, read the inscription. The inscription will explain his case to him; he will find out what is just:

When he reads the record, let him pray with full heart to Marduk, my lord, and Zarpanit, my lady; him shall be put to death.  The Code of Hammurabi