The Math of Murder: The Homeopathic Repertorization of Jared Lee Loughner

The Math of Murder

by John Benneth, PG Hom. – London (Hons.)  

This is a part of a series of blogs on titled “The Homeopathic Repertorization of Jared Lee Loughner.” The eponym is suspected of murdering six people and wounding 18 others with a handgun in a suburban Tucson shopping mall in January 2011.

In a previous blog I suggested homeopathic remedies for the victims. In the last blog I began analyzing remedies that fit some of the reported symptoms, and continue to do so in this blog, with much greater difficulty, remedies for the suspected assailant that may have helped to avert the attack.

Of course I’m making assumptions about motive. We’re always making assumptions about motive, we can’t stop making assumptions about motive, even though it is not the primary business of the homeopathic protocol to make assumptions about motive.

The primary business of the protocol is the observation of unusual symptoms for the purpose of matching them with similar symptoms, symptoms that act as indicators to remedies. In this case the suspect presents some very unusual symptoms that demonstrate the process.

BTW, I’ve noticed that my readership has dropped off. It zoomed when I was pillaring PZ Myers. People really aren’t interested in anything more than the spectacle, the blood on the floor, are they?

Part of the mystery, I guess.

In the last blog I began repertorizing the case. In homeopathic parlance repertorization means aggregating symptoms from the materia medica, the references which list the symptoms assoicateded to various remedies. These symptoms are discovered in what are called provings, in which a specific remedy is administered to a group of healthy volunteers who record their mental and physical reactions to it.

What I’ve done then is to scour these reports looking for symptoms that are covered in the approximately 70,000 symptoms listed in various homeopathic references called materia medicas, cross indexed in what are called repertories.

I’ve taken reports of the suspect’s behavior from those who have known him to create the symptom list.

In a traditional homeopathic diagnosis this would be done in an interview with the subject, where his “remedy type” could be better assessed and the subject could state for himself his condition, and where the homeopath could make some direct observations.

Please note, however, that there is an aspect of the interview that is missing from mining the reprots as I have done in this case, and that is that outside observers can see things about the subject that the subject either doesn’t see himself or will not admit. I am also not there to skew the interview with my own observations, that is I cannot lead the interview towards some unintended goal that feeds my bias.  As a note to the practitioners, this is an interesting weakness of the homeopathic interview . . the prejudices of the inquisitor. If he thinks the subject is a real bastard, he may just try to dig a bastard remedy out of the patient. It is a challenge to the practitioner’s skill of inquisition to draw out the testimony of his client, like coaxing a shy animal from its hiding place.

The symptoms list, when combined with the indicated remedies, is done to create a matrix of 35 theoretical symptoms and 336 potential remedies . . in this case a long list of remedies from AIDS to Zingiber officinale. Remedies are graded on two qualities, the number of criteria the remedy addresses and the total value for the remedy after they are added up.

As an example, the first remedy listed alphabetically is AIDS. This remedy addresses six criteria out of the 35, 1.) repetition of thoughts, 2.) anxiety of conscience 3.) Insane delusions 4.) sleeplessness, 5.) desire to kill, and 6.) mind to kill.

What this does is to create a reversed repertory for the subject.

Every snake is a killer, and Lachesis mutata is the most prescribed snake remedy. Chappell refers to them as fascinating speakers. (It’s more likely to be radio talk show host Thom Hartmann’s remedy than Loughner’s.) It even probably fits me better than Laughner. Hypnotizers. Loquacious. All mouth. Their words can be poisonous. Words that kill. Lachesis types are usually wise as they are jealous. There is also an introverted Lachesis. They can be timid just a they can be aggressive predators.

The Bushmaster snake, from which Constantine Hering took the venom for the Lachesis remedy, was so fearsome that when the natives brought it to him, they fled before he could open the crate. It puts out more venom than any other known snake.

Hering opened the crate, and before it could strike, clonked it over the head. He then expressed the venom onto milk sugar to capture it for trituration and potentiation. In doing so he placed his thumb on the poison sack to express the venom, and woke up three days later.

Knowing what had happened, he asked his wife what his symptoms had been. “What did I say?” As they would be key observations as to the action of the remedy. From this episode Hering sustained a lifelong injury that crippled the use of his arm.  He eventually died suddenly of a heart attack, but not before he ha proved Lachesis and become the guiding light for American homeopathy.

Lachesis is a powerful remedy and we have much thanks to this student of Hahnemann for its discovery and use.

But is Lachesis Loughner’s key remedy? To see my repertorization of Lachesis for Loughner, see the previous blog. He could very well have enough of the qualities of Lachesis to indicate it’s use. For example he appears to have a primary interest in words and language, which is a trait of the remedy.

But before we jump to conclusions, let’s look at some other remedies.

Here is a remedy that is made from the Crack Willow, which coincidentally grows in Arizona in misshapen forms. In it we find seven matching symptoms.

LOUGHNER, Salix fragilis,strong>7,7

Dreams, lucid 1
Mind, anxiety of conscience, 1
Mind, delusions, flying, 1
Mind, delusions, insane, 1
Look fixed at one point staring
Mind, sadness when alone, 1
Sleeplessness, 1

Like Kali-br. close, but no desire to kill. Numbers are low, profile flat.

LOUGHNER, Arsenicum,strong> 9, 36
Made from Arsenic, the metal. Poison.

Poisoning from alcohol, 6
Mind, alone, 6
Mind, desire to kill, 2
Mind, sadness when alone, 6
Sleep, sleeplessness, 6
Violent, 1
He has to murder someone, 1
Desire to kill, 4
Kill, 4

Arsenicum has the highest values from nine criteria. Its major feature stems from physical insecurity. Arsenicum could be a good choice, although there are elements of the Ars. personality that doesn’t seem to fit Loughner, such as fastidiousness, taut sinewy body and bony facial features. Arsenicum is a common remedy and doesn’t seem to fit the act of a mass murderer. It lacks the sociopathy we’re looking for.

Now here’s an interesting remedy . .

Cladonia rangiferina, (Reindeer moss) 5,5
Themes: Survival, jealousy, money, suicidal feelings, heaviness in chest

Dreams, guns 1
Mind, anxiety of conscience 1
Look fixed on one point staring, 1
Sleep, sleeplessness, 1
Mind desire to kill, 1

Cladonia is the only remedy amongst hundreds that notes dreaming of guns. But I’m only guessing about guns. Maybe Loughner dreamt about the tooth fairy. I don’t know. It is only an assumption on my part. However, the fixed stare, sleeplessness, the issue of conscience and the desire to kill are compelling features of this remedy.

Like Stramonium, another classic violence remedy is Anarcardium

Anarcardium 7, 18
Themes: Good versus evil, alienated, hard and cruel
Speaks nonsense, 4
Shamelessness, lewd, 3
Mind, desire to kill 1
Mind, somnambulism, 2
Sleeplessness, 1
Violent, 4
Mind desire to kill, 1
Kill, 1

Although Anarcardium types have a murderous aggressiveness, they often lack the confidence to attack. According to Chappell the Anac. temperament comes from being beaten by the father at home. I had a girlfriend once who I pegged as an Anacardium. Interesting girl. There’s usually an element of hard work involved, and then if the child fails, it’s possible they then turn to picking on others and become gang leaders. Anacardium looks like a possibility for Mr. Loughner.

The next remedy has even more compelling possibilities.

Hyoscamus niger, 14, 66

Themes: Erotic psychosis
Disappointed love, 6
Alone, 6
Sadness when alone, 0
Sleeplessness, 6
Frightful fancies, 0
Shameless lewd nudity, 6
Shameless exposes the person, 6
Confused speech, 4
Speaks nonsense, 6
Look fixed on one point staring, 1
Desire to kill, 6
Somnambulism, 1
Tries to kill people, 6
Kill, 6

Hyoscyamus Niger (A. Gladstone Clarke.)

1. Acute mania ; patient, talkative, quarrelsome, gen. lascivious, exposes the person, etc. ; in the between state, suspicious depression ; fears solitude, poison, plots. Ailments from jealousy, unfortunate love, mental emotions.
2. Delirium during course of acute diseases ; temperature not markedly high ; restless, picks bedclothes, etc. ; beclouded senses ; staring eyes ; dry tongue, etc. ; involuntary urine and faeces ; stands midway between Belladonna and Stramonium, lacking cerebral congestion of former and fierce, raging mania of latter. Delirium tremens.
3. Spasmodic affections without consciousness ; every muscle twitches from eye to toes ; opisthotonos ; convulsions, of children from fright, worms ; of pregnant or parturient women.
4. Nervous coughs ; teasing, dry, spasmodic, sitting up (Drosera) ; night, using voice, eating, drinking.
5. Insomnia in irritable, excitable subjects ; from business difficulties or other nervous excitement ; drowsy yet restless ; in children, with twitchings and startings from fright.

HYOS: “Entire loss of consciousness; sees persons who are not, and have not been present; loss of sight and hearing.” (Nash)

Hyoscamus is the remedy for exhibitionists, and Loughner did something that was noted for an exhibitionist. He took a picture of himself, they say, holding a gun and wearing red underwear.

But even Hyoscamus seems to pale before the next remedy, the remedy of the terrorist.

READ MY NEXT BLOG to find out what that remedy is: A Homeopathic Remedy for Terrorists.

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Glenn Beck and the desire to kill

 The Homeopathic Repertorization of Jared Lee Loughner

by John Benneth, PG Hom. – London (Hons.)

“Learn to keep the ideal of Homeopathy in mind, and think rationally; in order to do that you will have to rid yourselves of a tremendous amount of inheritance.” (Kent)

February 2, 2011

Reports have it he was a trouble maker. He liked to start trouble for the sake of starting trouble.

Here’s how I have analyzed his case. I’ve taken reported symptoms that seem to me to be relevant and recorded the remedies indicated by those symptoms. Of course not being able to directly interview Mr. Loughner I am making some guesses about what I assume some of his symptoms to be. Others are reported. This most likely is not an accuate portrayal of a complex case, but it illustrates how a homeopath works.

First off, read the reports of how erratically and manic Loughner was acting, and then take a look at his mug shot. He’s looking directly into the camera and he’s smiling. Any good homeopath is going to see inappropriate smiling as a tip off to one remedy . .  Belladonna is the Deadly Nightshade.

That would be the first administration. But as we go deeper into the case, other things pop up, and Belladonna is not a remedy for repetition, unless you want to put your client in the loony bin. Repeated doses of Belladonna can aggravate, severely. I know of one homeopath who prescribed repeated doses of Belladonna to a patient who he assessed as having a Belladonna constitutional profile. It worked at first an then the man had a relaapse.The guy ended up in a psychiatric ward. The homeopath, an M.D. who often bring their allopathic tendencies with them into homeopathy, ascribed the man’s relapse into madness as a result of failing to take enough Belladonna.

“Belladonna is a remedy that takes hold of the system with great violence. It is especially suitable to plethoric, vigorous individual, and intellectual people brainy people have complaints coming on suddenly, providing they are in a substantial state of health, and are reasonably plethoric and vascular.” (Kent)

This is a rough business to be in. Not for crybabies or little kids, or adults who are riding on nothing more than an education in internal medicine sponsored by Pfizer. You have to really bear down on these this materia medica and know its insides and outs.

 Belladonna is not suitable for those numerous recurrent complaints, even though the single attack should be mitigated with Bell. Take any of these attacks; whether they are convulsions or headaches, or congestion of the brain, they are running down and become excitable, take on congestive attacks of the head, go right to bed, and roll the head.You treat those with    Belladonna.; the attack is relieved. Take notice, I start out by saying this is only one of a series. You may not know it. This may be the first one.You reduce that one, and when that same exposure comes again, that same attack comes back; but Belladaonna does less this time than it did before. After two or three attacks Bell. will do no more and you are worse off this time than you were before.When it has broken the first one the physician should see that this is one of a series, and that Belladonna is not suitable. Often it is a case that needs Calc., I say often, not always.” (Kent)So after that first dose of Belladonna, 10M, where do we go? The biggest problem in medicine is abandoning the patient after the first treatment. We have to stay with him with an assertive protocol if need be.Sometimes though, one dose of a remedy is enough to trigger a reaction.Let’s look at some more information about Mr. Loughner:

In high school Loughner was “very sweet, caring and kind, had no interest in drugs or alcohol, and had a big interest in music,” his girlfriend said.. “He didn’t start acting differently until after we had been broken up.”

Mind, love, ailments, from disappointed: Ant-c. Aur. Calc-p. Caust. Cimic. Coff. Hell. HYOS. IGN. Kali-c. Lach. NAT-M. Nux-m. Nux-v. PH-AC. Sep. Staph. Tarent.

The Loughners were very private, neighbors said. “They’re like a mountain man. They want to be alone,” said a neighbor.

Mind, alone: Aeth. Agar. Ant-t. APIS ARS. Asaf. Bell. Bism. Bov. Bufo Calc. Camph. Carc. Cedr. Clem. CON. DROS. Elaps FL-AC. Gels. HEP. HYOS. Kali-br. KALI-C. Lach. Lil-t. LYC. MERC. Mez. Nat-c. Nat-m. Ph-ac. PHOS. Plb. Ran-b. Sep. Sil. Stann. STRAM. Tarent. Zinc.

A classmate reported that in 2006 Loughner had alcohol poisoning:

Poisoning from alcohol: ARS. Aur. Bell. Berb. Calc-ar. CARB-V. Chin. Croto-t. Cupr. Ferr. Lach. Led. Merc. Nat-c. Nux-v. Sulph

Notice that Belladonna is once again indicated here. The problem that I have with “alcohol poisoning” is that it’s a clinical distinction. It matches a remedy to a presumed cause, not a symptom. That’s not how we homeopaths operate. We look for symptoms to guide us to the remedy, not causes. It’s a major distinction in homeopathic treatment that a lot of people don’t ever get over. So I don’t trust clinical distinctions without collateral support. And I think its an interesting consideration, and it wouldn’t be listed in my rep if it didn’t have some meaning. But never trust a remedy from clinical use alone. If you think clinical shit works, go get some more chemo the next time you get cancer. Then see what your symptoms are. That’s “clinical” thinking.

I assume that he had an obsession with guns and dreamed about them. But this is only a presumption.

Dreams, guns: Clad-r.

Clad-r is Cladonia rangferina, Reindeer moss, from the Artic. It is a plant that survives in a high stress environment. And the proving of Clad-r orbits around a deep sense of insecurity.

Loughner was a reported Cannabis addict who quit after he had failed a military pee test. Anyone who has had a history of Cannabis abuse has a predilection to violence when getting off the drug. This has been a noted feature of cannabis poisoning I found in an old psychiatry text, and its been my confirming observation of it as well. When potheads don’t get their weed they can become crybabies and start acting out. This particular distinction probably flies udner the radar because of its ubiquitous use.

Anybody who has smoked marijuana and is presenting symptoms of Cann. poisoning should be treated for it homeopathically with a high dilute of Cann.- ind, Loughner included.

What compels me to list guns as dreaming is that the gun is perhaps the most featured item in the entertainment world, a form of lucid dreaming. If you’re without a reasonable plot line in your drama, then find a gun and give it to someone who’s insane, and then you have an interesting story. Gunfire is the most prevalent feature in the media, both news and fiction.

I like these one remedy symptoms, especially when they’re unusual remedies, like Clad-r. None of the old repertories list it, and so its indication has not been proven by years of use, but by a more recent preoving.

However, I’m taking liberties here. One indication from one assumed criterion isn’t enough to decide on a remedy unless it’s a highly unusual symptom remedy and there‘s nothing else that important. It doesn’t help unless it repeats. And I’m only assuming that he’s dreaming about guns. Maybe he dreams about lemon pie. I don’t know. This is only theoretical. I’m weighing presumptions against unknown facts that can only be ascertained by talking to the subject. I’m not getting any physical symptoms from this, which are extremely good at locating a remedy, especially unusual physical symptoms and feelings that can only be directly reported by the subject..

So naturally we are interested in other symptoms associated with Clad-r.

Loughner implied he suffered from insomnia:

He writes,

“All humans are in need of sleep.

“Jared Loughner is a human.

“Hence, Jared Loughner is in need of sleep.”

Sleep, sleeplessness: Abies-n. Abrot. Absin. Acon-c. ACON. Aesc. Aeth. Agar. Agn. AIDS Alco-s. All-c. Aloe Alum. Alumn. Am-br. Am-c. Am-m. AMBR. Ammc. Anac. Ang. Ant-c. Ant-t. Anthr. Apis Apoc. Aran. ARG-N. ARG. Arn. Ars-i. ARS. Arum-t. Arund. Asaf. Asar. Asc-t. Atro. Aur-m. AUR. Aven. Bac. Bapt. Bar-c. Bar-m. Bell-p. BELL. Benz-ac. Benz. Berb. Bism-ox. BOR. Bov. Brach. Brom. BRY. Bufo Bufo-s. CACT. Cadm-s. Cahin. Calad. Calc-ar. Calc-br. CALC-P. Calc-s. CALC. CAMPH. Cann-i. Cann-s. Canth. CAPS. Carb-an. CARB-V. CARC. Carl. Caust. Cedr. CHAM. CHEL. Chin-ar. Chin-s. CHIN. Chlol. Cic. Cimic. Cina Cinnb. CIT-A. Clad-r. Clem. Cob. Coc-c. Coca COCC. COFF. Colch. Colchicin. Coloc. Com. CON. Cop. Cor-r. Corn. Crot-h. Croto-t. Cupr-s. Cupr. CYCL. Cygnus-b. Cypr. Daph. Dig. Dios. Dirc. Dor. Dream. Dros. Dulc. Elaps Ery-a. Eug. Eup-pur. Euph. Euphr. Eupi. Fago. Falco-p. Ferr-ar. Ferr-i. Ferr-m. Ferr-p. Ferr. Fl-ac. Form. Gamb. GELS. Gent-c. Gent-l. Glon. Gran. Graph. Grat. Guai. Ham. Hell. HEP. Herin. Hura Hydr. HYOS. Hyosin. Hyper. Ign. Iod. Ip. Iris Iris-t. Jab. Jac-c. Jal. Jatr. Jug-c. Jug-r. KALI-AR. Kali-bi. Kali-br. KALI-C. Kali-cy. Kali-i. Kali-n. Kali-p. Kali-s. Kalm. Kreos. Lac-ac. Lac-c. LACH. Lachn. Lact. Laur. Lec. LED. Lept. Lil-t. LSD. LYC. Lycps. Lyss. MAG-C. MAG-M. Mag-s. Manc. Mang. Med. Meph. MERC-C. Merc-cy. Merc-i-f. Merc-i-r. Merc-s. MERC. Merl. Mez. Mill. Morph. Mosch. Mur-ac. Myris. Naja NAT-AR. NAT-C. NAT-M. Nat-p. Nat-s. Nicc. NIT-AC. Nux-m. NUX-V. Ol-an. Ol-j. Olnd. OP. Ox-ac. Pall. Par. Passi. Paull-p. Petr. PH-AC. Phel. PHOS. Phys. Phyt. PIC-AC. Pip-m. Plan. Plat. PLB. Posit. Prun. PSOR. Ptel. PULS. Pyrog. Ran-b. Ran-s. Raph. Rat. Rhod. RHUS-T. Rhus-v. Rumx. Ruta Sabad. Sabin. Salx-f. Samb. Sang. Sanic. Sapin. Sarr. Sars. Scut. SEC. Sel. Senec. Seneg. Senn. SEP. SIL. Sin-n. Sol-t-ae. Spig. Spong. Squil. STANN. STAPH. Stict. STRAM. Stront-c. Stry. Sul-ac. SULPH. Sumb. Syph. Tab. Tarax. Tarent. Tax. Tela Tell. Ter. Teucr. Thea Ther. THUJ. Til. Trom. Tub. Uran-n. Valer. VERAT. Verb. Vesp. Vinc. Viol-o. Viol-t. Vip. Zinc-o. Zinc-p. Zinc. Zing.

Loughner implies that he is sleepwalking.

“Sleepwalking

“If I define sleepwalking then sleepwalking is the act or state of walking, eating, or performing other motor acts while asleep, of which one is unaware upon awakening.

“I define sleepwalking.

“Thus sleepwalking is the act or state of walking, eating, or performing other motor acts while asleep, of which one is unaware upon awakening.

“I’m a sleepwalker — who turns off the alarm clock.

“All conscience dreaming at this moment is asleep.”

Mind, somnambulism: ACON. Aeth. Agar. Alum. Anac. Ant-c. Art-v. Bell. BRY. Camph. Cic. Croc. Crot-h. CYCL. Dict. Hyos. Ign. Kali-br. Kali-c. Kali-p. Kali-s. Kalm. Lach. Luna Lyc. M-arct. M-art. Meph. Mosch. NAT-M. OP. Petr. PHOS. Plat. Rheum Rumx. Sep. Sil. Spig. SPONG. Stann. Stram. Sulph. Teucr. Verat. ZINC.

There’s Kali bromatum (Kali-br.) again

Loughner makes an interesting and revealing statement about “conscience dreaming.” According to dream analysis, to dream that your conscience censures you for deceiving some one, denotes that you will be tempted to commit wrong and should be constantly on your guard . .

Mind, anxiety, conscience, anxiety of: Agath-a. AIDS Clad-r. Dream. Falco-p. Herin. Lava-f. LSD. Posit. Salx-f.

Loughner writes that his focus was on lucid dreaming.

Dreams, lucid: Salx-f.

Salix fragilis is another unusual remedy. Salx-f is the Crack Willow. It is a gnarled plant, at night taking on the twisted shapes of staggering and bent shapes, in the dark suddenly mistaken for human, or something grotesque.

A friend of his said Loughner thought he could fly.

Mind, delusions, flying: Asar. Camph. Cann-i. Cygnus-b. Falco-p. Jug-r. Lach. LSD. Oena. Op. Salx-f.

Friends said he would grab his crotch:

Mind, gestures, hands, grasping, genitals, at during spasms: Sec. Stram.

He posed in red bikini underwear with gun

Mind, phenomena, shameless, lewd, nudity: Anac. Bufo Camph. Cann-s. Canth. Hell. HYOS. Merc-c. Murx. Nux-m. Nux-v. Op. Phos. Phyt. Plat. Sabin. STRAM. VERAT.

Mind, delusions, reality has fragmented: LSD.

He writes about “conscience dreaming.”

Mind, anxiety of conscience: Agath-a. AIDS, Clad-r. Dream. Falco-p. Herin. Lava-f. LSD. Posit. Salx-f.

Interesting . . There’s Cladonia rangferina and Salix fragilis again.

Mind, delusions about violence: Kali-br.

Mind, kill, desire to: Agar. AIDS Anac. Ars-i. Ars. Bell. Calc. Camph. Chin. Clad-r. Cupr. Cur. HEP. HYOS. Iod. Lach. Lyss. Merc. Nux-v. Op. Petr. Phos. Plat. Posit. Sec. Sil. Stram. Syph. Thea

Mind, delusions, about to commit a crime: Kali-br.

“He had an intense stare, but he usually didn’t stare at other people,” said Kent Slinker, who taught an “Intro to Logic” class attended by Loughner. “He would have a focused stare some place else in the room, and almost as if he was viewing another scene or intensely thinking about something.”

Mind, delirium, look fixed on one point staring: Art-v. Bov. Camph. Canth. CIC. Clad-r. COCC. Cupr. Dream. Herin. Hyos. Ign. Posit. Ran-b. Ruta Salx-f. Squil. STRAM.

As a student at Aztec Middle College in Tucson, Arizona, Loughner was prone to sudden outbursts in class, teachers said. Loughner often spoke out of turn and asked questions unrelated to the class topic, leading Slinker to assume the student had Tourette Syndrome

Loughner spoke excitedly about becoming a writer and told an indecipherable story about an angel talking to a reporter after the end of the world.

Mind, speech, strange: Aether Cham. Gall-ac.

He’d ask “incoherent” questions and make inappropriate comments.

Mind, speech, incoherent: Absin. Aether Agar. Alco-s. Amyg-am. Anac. Arg-n. Ars. Bapt. Bell. BRY. Cact. Calad. Camph. CANN-I. Cham. Chel. Chlol. Crot-h. Cub. Cupr. Cycl. Dulc. Falco-p. Gels. Hep. Hydr-ac. HYOS. Ign. Kali-bi. Kali-br. Kali-c. Kali-p. LACH. Merc-c. Merc. Morph. Nux-m. Op. Par. Ph-ac. PHOS. Plb. RHUS-T. STRAM. Sulph. Tanac. Vip. Visc. Zinc.

Mind, speech, confused: Bell. Bry. Calc. Cann-s. Caust. Cham. Crot-c. Crot-h. Gels. Hyos. Lach. LSD. Lyc. Med. Mosch. Nat-m. Nux-m. Sec. Stram. Thuj.

Loughner writes,

“Terrorist

“If I define terrorist then a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon.

“I define terrorist.

“Thus, a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon.

“If you call me a terrorist then the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad hominem.

“You call me a terrorist.

“Thus, the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad hominem.”

“Terror” is used a dozen times here.

Mind, fancies, frightful: Merc. OP. STRAM.

Mind, rage, kill people, tries to: Hep. HYOS. Sec. Stram.

Repertorization is like a horse race. I catch myself to be betting on a particular remedy and then as it draws back and another begins to take over, I still want the old favorite to win.

When first cross indexing one remedy, Kali bromatum raised its head above the others, mainly because it is the only remedy indicated by two unusual but seemingly significant symptoms (delusions of about to commit a crime and delusions of violence), another unusual symptom (somnambulism); indicated also by sleeplessness; the desire to kill, and, as is evident in his writing, repeating not just words, but entire sentences.

That should be enough to give us a rich field of potential remedies to consider.

Subject, remedy, number of criteria (symptoms or clinical diagnoses), value

LOUGHNER, BELLADONNA, 11, 24

Poisoning from alcohol, 1

Alone, 1

Sardonic smiling,1

Somnambulism, 1

Confused speech

Speaks nonsense, 4

Sleeplessness, 6

Delusions, murder, 4

Violent, 6

Desire to kill, 1

Kill, 1

LOUGHNER, KALI BROMATUM, 9, 15

Themes: Unconscious, Amnesic aphasia, Divine vengeance, believes her child is dead, epilepsy, Puerperal mania (Clarke)

Alone, 4

Repeating words, 1

Speaks nonsense, 1

Insane delusions, 1

Sleeplessness: 4

Somnambulism: 4

Delusions about violence:1

Delusions about murder, 1

Delusions of being about to commit a crime: 1

Missing: desire to kill, and simply the symptom described in the MM as “Mind, kill.”

LOUGHNER, LACHESIS MUTATA, 11, 30

Themes: Sexual tension (Bailey)

Poisoning from alcohol, 2

Mind, alone, 2

Repeats the same thing, 1

Speech, confused, 4

Speaks nonsense, 4

Mind, delusions, flying, 1

Mind, desire to kill, 2

Somnambulism, 1

Sleeplessness, 6

Violent, 1

Kill, 4

Lachesis looks like a good remedy. It meets 11 of the criteria which have a total value of 11. However, motiveless mass murders are extreme, strange and rare acts, apparently motiveless murder sprees, acts of insanity. This one doesn’t seem to even be politically motivated as much as left wing pundits are trying to get everyone to believe (doesn’t excuse the right wing pundits for their hate speech).

Although I must say, Glenn Beck did instruct his viewers to shoot liberals in the head.

It is a are and extravagant pleasure for me to think that one man, such as Loughner, can hold the fate of an entire network in his words. All he has to do is say that on February 16 he was watching Glenn Beck on a broadcast of Fox News’ Fox & Friends when he was instructed repeatedly by Glenn Beck to “shoot him in the head, he’s the bad guy.” ANdhwat are they going to do? Have Sean Hannity apolgize for it?

One commenter on this video, “@BloodRedChorizo wrote “This is at least the sixth time I know of that Glenn Beck has issued a death threat. He’s joked about putting poison in Pelosi’s wine. He straight out said he would kill Michael Moore. Beck told Democrats like Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi had used progressive revolutionaries to gain power and that the only way to stop them would be to “shoot them in the head.” He said the only way to stop President Obama would be to “drive a stake through the heart.”

Here is the video clip of Beck instructing Loughner to “shoot them in the head,” them being Liberals like Gabrielle Giffords.

Maybe Hartmann was right. Maybe it was Beck who sent his lookalike over the edge with the subtext, “you’ll be a hero.“

Maybe Hartmann, Mike Malloy and Randi Rhodes are right. If so, then who are the suspected killers within the homeopathic materia medica?

Who would actually carry out Beck’s commands?

NEXT: The Math of Murder

“The Homeopathic Repertorization of Jared Lee Loughner” by John Benneth, PG Hom. – London (Hons.)

Homeopathic Triage

The Homeopathic Repertorization of Jared Lee Loughner blog series
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Previous post: Hot words, hard healing and talk radio
Author: John Benneth, PG Hom. – London (Hons.)

There are homeopathic treatments that could have been given to the attacker to have prevented this tragedy. Homeopathy offers help on an emotional level, as well as physical. If homeopathic treatment had proceeded the attack, it would not have happened.

The use of homeopathic treatment to successfully prevent the attack is more than just a speculation. It is a fact made known my centuries of observing reactions to our peculiar remedies.

The only way to track homeopathic effectiveness is to compare it with patients receiving allopathic treatment or no treatment at all, and this we have done, noted by some of the world’s finest medical doctors.

This is why we are hated so much. We shame conventional medicine.

The phone rang. I took it out of my pocket and looked at the number. One of my private investigator friends calling from Hawaii.

“Hey Big Haole from town,” I said, “what’s up? Still screwin’ the natives?”

“Shut up, “ he said. “I just read on the Internet that Loughner went to the same synagogue as Giffords. He knew that little girl, too. He also knew the mother. By report they all went there.”

“What?”

“Loughner marked “Jewish” under his religion on his Myspace page. The Giffords went to the same synagogue as the Loughners”

“Have you been watching Hawaii Five O again?” I said slowly.

“Loughner’s mother is Jewish. Her maiden name is Totman,” he said.

There could be some interesting connections there. But I don’t see their relevance. From a cursory examination, it looks like Jared Lee Loughner was suffering from alcohol poisoning, complicated by some other toxicity, such as lead poisoning . . Or something else . .

Something weird . .

I hung up the phone. The stooges of the allopathic pharmaceutical companies that prey upon those in their most desperate times of need will set up a howl and try to tear and rend me, but I say let them bark. Treating the offender now would be like closing the barn door after the horse is gone. However, closing the door is indeed an acknowledgement of what should have been done, and what can be done in the future to prevent another such horror.

The case of Jared Lee Loughner provides us with an excellent opportunity for homeopathic analysis, as he has exhibited peculiar symptoms, and from these symptoms we can extract a remedy that could have quelled his violent delusions and the actions that were succeeded by them.

It works on anything.

I will get to discussing Loughner’s symptoms soons. But first I would like to offer some suggestions for specialized care of the victims who survived the attack and similar care for the survivors of those who are no longer with us, things that can be done to help the victims in their healing and the survivors in their grief. There are effective remedies within our repertoire for the physical and emotional trauma from such an experience.

I love my country and I love my countrymen. All Americans are in need of help in a time of grief, and I want to help..

This isn’t meant to diagnose any particular case or give anyone medical advice. An advanced practitioner such as myself and a second opinion from another, such as Kaviraj, should be consulted directly with the assistance of attending medical doctors.

For the confusion that comes from an injury to the head I suggest that the attending physicians investigate Natrum sulphuricum in the lowest doses, starting at 6c and ascending to higher ones, 12c, 30c, 200c and then 10m, ceasing immediately once any progress along the way has been noted; this is a basic rule in homeopathy, that once a change has been noted, once there has been improvement or an aggravation of symptoms, stop administering the homeopathic remedy.

For stupefaction resulting from the head injury there are six remedies that doctors should consider: Arn. Cic. Con. Hell. Puls. Rhus-t.

For gunshot wounds, ARN. Euphr. Hyper. Nit-ac. Plb. Puls. Ruta., Sul-ac. Sulph. Symph.

The selection of these should be according to where the gunshot was received and how the patient is reacting to it.

Stramonium for the terror, Staphysagria for the suppressed rage from the assault.
But the two remedies that stand out above all others for Gabrielle Giffords are Arnica montana for the physical injury and pain, and Natrum Sulphuricum for the confusion and brain injury.

“Arnica may be said to be the traumatic par excellence. Trauma in all its varieties and effects, recent and remote, is met by Arnica as by no other single drug, and the provings bring out the appropriateness of the remedy in the symptoms it causes.” (Clarke). “Convulsions from injuries of the head.” (Kent).

For the grief, Ignatia Amara, any potency will do. Begin with the lowest first when administering more than one potency.

Aurum Metallicum for very severe cases of grief.
Aconite for acute shock of grief and loss.
Baptisia for exhaustion and all is wanted is sleep
Ignatia is the great grief remedy especially for those who are oversensitive, easily agitated when opposed and depressed. Sighs, expresses regrets with tears. Sadness is often hidden, reluctant to share or discuss pain, easily moved to laughter before becoming sad again.
Naja for acute sadness to the point of suicide, wants to die, palpitations, suffering is too much to take, tormented by inability to bring back the departed, are immediately excited by being held back or checked.
Natrum muriaticum for those who are tearful, depressed and worsened by consolation.
Natrum Sulphate for inability to cconcentrate, for those who don’t like to be spoken to and want to be left in solitude, depression is worse on waking, better towards evening..
Phosphoric

Please note and pass on.

Tucson has good homeopaths in her stay. Dr. Iris Bell, MD, at the University of Arizona in Tucson is one. Dr. Bell has provided us with two of the world’s best physical studies supporting homeopathy and the use of its remarkable albeit controversial remedies.

Now let’s get back to Jared Lee Loughner, a young white American male, approximately 22 years of age . .

NEXT: Glenn Beck, Jared Lee Loughner and the desire to kill

Please subscribe to this impotant series and follow the JBJ on Twitter. .

Hot words, hard healing and hate radio

Previous blog:  The Homeopathic Repertorization of Jared Lee Loughner- Intro

by John Benneth, PG Hom. – London (Hons.)

Don’t tell me you have ways of treating this within the allopathic model. You don’t. All you have in that allopathy jury rigging is no better than bubblegum, glue and duct tape.

10:10 AM on January 8, 2011 U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat representing Arizona’s 8th congressional district and 18 others were hit by gunfire in a sudden attack by a lone gunman in a Tucson area mall.

The attack occurred while she was holding an open meeting called “Congress on Your Corner” with members of her constituency at the Safeway supermarket parking lot in La Toscana Village, a shopping mall in Casa Adobes, Arizona, part of the Tucson metro area.

Giffords had set up a table outside the store which 20 to 30 people gathered around when 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner allegedly drew a 9mm Glock model 19 semi-automatic pistol with a 33-round magazine and shot Giffords in the temple of her head at point-blank range.

Loughner then reportedly turned on the stunned crowd and opened fire, shooting randomly, killing six and wounding eighteen others. Among the dead were John Roll, Arizona’s Chief Judge of the United States District Court, a nine-year old little girl and one of Rep. Gifford’s staff.

The first question of a stunned nation was why.

“Homeopathy is always helpful in schizophrenia; in certain states it is curative.”

Trevor Smith, The Homeopathic Treatment of Emotional Illnesses

Wednesday, January 12th, 2010 President Barack Obama gave a standing ovations speech at the Tucson memorial for the victims, where he announced that Gabrielle Giffords had opened her eyes for the first time since the shooting.

He said, “We must examine all the facts behind this tragedy. We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of violence in the future.”

The morning of the 13th I was lying in bed listening to liberal talk show radio host Thom Hartmann squabble a case for “stochastic terrorism.” Stochastic terrorism is using mass communications to stir up random lone wolves to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable.

Hillary Clinton wasn’t alone in saying heated rhetoric and radical ideology inspired the shooter. Assistant secretary of state for public affairs P.J. Crowley referred to the tragedy in a speech about the important role media plays in democracy, implying that Loughner’s actions came out of  “poor public discourse.”

I picked up the phone and called the show. I told the screener that I wanted to take Hartmann on regarding his claim that right-wing rhetoric motivated suspected Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner .

My name is John Benneth. I’m a homeopath.

I’ve been repertorizing Loughner’s case. In homeopathy repertorization is the use of a lexicon of symptoms and their corresponding remedies to select a proper remedy based on detailed observations of the patient’s symptoms and medical history.

I have tracked Loughner’s symptoms as criteria to profile him for a homeopathic remedy. The purpose of this is to give myself some insight into homeopathic remedies for whatever motivated the event. If I can find a remedy for Loughner, it will help me in finding remedies for other would-be mass murderers, and make a case for their trial and use.

I waited as Hartmann played commercials and took back-patting call after smarmy suck-up call . . agreeing with him, telling him what a genius he is, and played ,more commercials. Hartmann responded by ‘shouting down’ callers. He did a couple of interviews, cut short a handicapped woman asking for help, played some more commercials, accused the right wing of Mankind’s destruction, squired off some rants, played goose stepping bumper music, took a cigarette break, played more commercials, attacked Bush, hung up on some more callers, interrupted everyone with personal anecdotes, took a call from a gushing admirer, screamed at somebody to get to the point, played a commercial, read the news, gave an endorsement for Tick and Flea Spray, talked over everyone like a herd of bison, played hokey bumper music, told some more lies, did a commercial for rip off gold and then, finally, after I waiting a full hour ,when I was almost on my feet, Thom Hartmann took my call.

“John in Portland . .” he said.

I turned the radio down and got out of bed.

 “I have been looking for it but I find no evidence whatsoever right wing rhetoric motivated Loughner, ” I said.

“Can you name one liberal who was ever motivated to shoot a conservative politician?” he said, cutting me off. I couldn’t get an answer out in time before he had interrupted me again.

Here is what such a question, if answered, would have revealed.

John Wilkes Booth killed Republican president Lincoln; Charles Guiteau killed Republican president Garfield

Leon Frank Czolgosz killed Republican president McKinley

John Schrank shot Republican President Teddy Roosevelt; Samuel Byck tried to kill Republican president Nixon by crashing a commercial airliner into the White House

Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme tried to shoot Republican President Gerald Ford at point blank range with a Colt .45

Sara Jane Moore fired a revolver at Ford from 40 feet away

John Hinckley, Jr. tried to impress actress Jodie Foster by shooting Republican President Reagan and three others with exploding bullets

Sixteen men, who in the suspected employ of Saddam Hussein, smuggled a car bomb into Kuwait to kill Republican President Geo. H.W. Bush (41)

Robert Pickett fired shots at the White House while Republican President Geo W. Bush (43) was its occupant

On the morning of September 11th, 2001 (9/11) a van reportedly full of Arab looking men arrived at a resort where Bush 43 was staying saying had a “poolside” interview with him.

There have been more assassinations and assassination attempts, both real and suspected, on Republican presidents than Democratic. Out of the four US Presidents assassinated, only one was a Democrat, John F. Kennedy.

Out of 16 assassination attempts on 11 Presidents, 10 were on 6 Republicans. Teddy Roosevelt took a bullet, but insisted finishing his speech, and then refused to go to the hospital, and never did have it removed. Democrat Andrew Jackson beat his would be assassin down with his cane after the attacker’s two flintlock pistols misfired.

Assassinations and assassination attempts on members of Congress are even more rare. The alleged attack on Representative Giffords was only the fifth violent attack on a sitting member of Congress in US history. Giffords is only one of nine US legislators who have been the victim of such violence while representing constituents. Of the two Congressmen who died during violence, only one, Representative Leo Ryan, died as a result of an ambush.

The only other Congressman to die from intended violence was Jonathan Cilley of Maine, who died as a result of gunshot wounds suffered during a duel.

What makes the Giffords attack even more rare is that she is now the only Congress-woman ever attacked while in office.

The attack by Loughner on Giffords then is unique. Not necessarily in motive. Although Loughner’s writing is swashed with political rhetoric, it has the tone of what could be construed as insanity.
Court filings revealed handwritten notes apparently by Loughner saying he planned to assassinate Giffords. As of this writing there is not reported motive for the shooting. Loughner has remained silent.

Loughner previously met Giffords at a “Congress on your Corner” event in a Tucson mall on August 25, 2007, where he asked the congresswoman, “How do you know words mean anything?”

A voice message from Loughner to a friend just before the shooting stated that Loughner had a grudge against Giffords for failing to sufficiently answer a question sufficiently. What that question was is unknown at this time.

The first responses, like Hartmann’s, were that the media had made him do it. Clarence Dupnik of Pima County, Arizona implied a connection between hate speech and violence. He said, “When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous.” Dupnik finally said, that he had no evidence that the attack was a result of anything Loughner read or may have heard.

It sounded like Hartmann slapped the desk. “Okay, but can you name one liberal talk show host who engages in hate speech?”

“Mike Malloy! He’s always talking about how much he hates Republicans, heterosexual white men, Christians, Bush. And Randi Rhodes talks about Barbara Bush’s in a way that is pretty . . ”

Hartmann let out a moan and the phone went dead. Mike Malloy, for the record, was the one who coined the phrase “the Bush crime family.”

I turned the radio back up. Hartmann was blathering on about something Loughner had written about not liking the government.

I turned the radio off.

The only good thing I can say about Hartmann is that his show is ten times better than any right-wing radio talk show. At least it is not ALL lies. If Hartmann wasn’t such a megalomaniac I might well rank him the country’s second best political radio talk show host, right behind Randi Rhodes, a spot currently filled by the sardonic wit of Alan Colmes.

So much for hot talk and the facts. As an experienced and resourceful practitioner of homeopathy, I would like to help. I can examine the facts with a rare and peculiar eye that is distinctive of my doctrine. Getting this across through pseudo pharmaceutical mind control isn’t easy, even with liberals. Being that this is the world’s most read homeopathy blog, and I am America’s most prominent homeopath, bearing at this time the world’s only known honorary degree in homeopathy, it is my responsibility to comment on how homeopathy would treat such a situation as the Arizona tragedy.

I put my pants on, went downstairs and fixed myself a cup of the enemy, black espresso coffee made from freshly roasted Arabica coffee beans..

I gritted my teeth and took a sip.

Ahh.

NEXT : Homeopathic Triage
(To be notified of the next installment, please subscribe now to he John Benneth Journal)



FIRE PZ MYERS!

In light of evidence, University of Minnesota biology professor PZ Myer’s hate campaign against homeopathy just might backfire . 

 “High dilutions of histamine did indeed have biological effects.”

Professor Madeleine Ennis after replicating controversial experiment for homeopathy.

 

 One of the last  John Benneth Journal entries for 2010 , IN ONE YEAR,  has broken all previous viewership records and sparked more commentary and outrage amongst the pharmaceutical company stooges than any previous Journal entry, enlisting the usual fury and nasty responses.

Most notably is PZ Myers, an American biology professor and pharma stooge whose specialty is trashing homeopathic medicine at the University of Minnesota Morris (UMM).

His blog is Pharyngula. In 2006, it was the top-ranked blog written by a pseudo scientist.Myers has called IN ONE YEAR “nonsense.” Other commentary has been”mental straightjacket”and remarks too obscene to be reprinted here. 

It follows a posting by Myers of clips of my controversial video, “The Mechanism,” juxtaposed with scenes from Star Trek to characterize my supramolecular description of the homeopathic remedy as techno babble.
My name is John Benneth. I’m a homeopath.And this is story about biologists, three in particular, who have studied . . it.

It is fashionable with atheists and pseudo scientists like Myers to trash it and its research. It is a compulsion. They can’t help themselves. They have to do it, for it puts everything they hold dear at risk.

Trashing it is like a cheap magic trick, hawked as self working and E-Z-2-DO. It gives the trasher the feeling he’s accomplished something for himself under the guise of protecting society from what they characterize as ineffective medicine. But like the cheap magic trick, when it finally arrives in the mail, you realize it was misrepresented.

Pretty good trick . . on you.

PZ Myers, Pseudoscientist

Really what it is, it’s hate speech, using the same kind of tactics used against minorities by hate groups. It really shouldn’t have any place in academia, but pseudoscience has become the infrastructure of higher education.

What can they tell you that you can’t find out for yourself now through the Internet? It’s not really education, it’s fashion.

What Myers says has very little to do with science and more to do with the politics of self aggrandizement.

Look at the case against it: It’s full of general, vague, contextual accusations and insinuations. But try to find within this haystack of lies a needle of truth. It contains more errors of commission and omission than the invasion of Iraq. It doesn’t state its criteria or identify or it sources for verification. It always ends up being exactly what it complains of, and PZ Myers provides us with a wonderful sample of it.

He wastes our time with anecdotal evidence and fails to adequately explain the etiology of the phenomena. If its effects are psychogenic, where are his proofs for psychogenic? If it’s bunk, what mechanism has made it so popular, where is the proof for the reported action? It’s usually nothing more than a sloppy pudding of self contradicting anecdotes.

“EZ Pee Zee,” a pudding of lies.

Science will always turn against the pseudoscientist.

Read on and watch it slowly turn against Myers.

We have heard repeatedly, over and over again, from people like E-Z Pee Zee Puddin’ Myers, that homeopathy doesn‘t work, but when asked “how do you know?” the best they can come up with is that it doesn’t work because it shouldn’t work.

That’s it. That’s all there is to it. Nothing more! 

No evidence of biological action is ever admitted without first seeking fault by the homeoapthy hater. Any corroborating tests are conveniently ignored.

I seriously doubt EZ PZ Puddin’ Myers could sustain much of a real explanation of its effects, because somewhere along the way he would have to confront things he didn’t know and doesn’t want to know, because they begin to work against his foregone conclusions.

Criticism by pseudo scientists like Myers is never global. It is always localized against something, like homeopathy. The evidence con is always given greater play over the evidence pro. And it avoids addressing the evidence pro in specificity within the context of explicit criteria.

For instance, the most well known in vitro test for homeopathy is a test on white blood cells, the basophil degranulation test. It was done by renowned immunologist Jacques Benveniste after his criticism of it was challenged. An assistant had found that water exposed to an allergen via serial aqueous dilution, could provoke an in vitro response, as if the allergen were present.
This is called basophil degranulation.
Benveniste, like other investigators, was puzzled by the results. What appeared to be pure water was causing a biochemical reaction.

Benveniste reportedly did the test over 1,000 times.

After he published the results of his testing in Nature, a prestigious science magazine, (to the resounding explosion of the usual outrage) Nature sent a team to investigate Benveniste’s work. The team consisted of Sir John Maddox, the editor of Nature, James “the Amazing” Randi, a notorious illusionist with a large sum of money to lose if proven wrong, and a debunker by the name of Walter Stewart.

According to Dana Ullman, the experiment was first replicated three times for the Nature team without any blinding of the experimenters. These first three experiments performed for the team showed positive results.
The fourth experiment blinded the person doing the counting of the basophils, and the results of this experiment were also successful. But the Nature team deemed this test invalid, claiming that the blinded experimenter knew in advance which test group she was counting.

The Nature team then began to behave disruptively. The next three experiments blinded the person doing the counting and the person doing the pipetting. Randi performed magic tricks during a crucial part of the experiment, making it difficult for the experimenters to perform their work, while Stewart was acting so hysterically that he had to be asked several times to stop shouting by Maddox and Benveniste.

All three of these experiments did not show any difference between the active verum samples and the inert control group. The Nature team immediately deemed that there was no evidence that the microdoses have biological action and reported that the tests failed to show convincing results.

Benveniste had violated the laws of Nature!

What they didn’t report was that the results were just what one would expect if someone switched the active samples with the inert controls.

Some of the samples, coded inert, produced a reaction, whereas some of the samples coded as active were reported inert. A switch had been made.

Randi had sabotaged the test by mixing up the results!

When you’re finished reading here, watch the accompanying video at the end of this article and hear Benveniste describe what happened. And particularly note Maddox, the editor of Nature, confessing that he went to Benveniste’s lab for the sole purpose of discrediting his work as fraudulent.

Skeptics herald this as conclusive proof that homeopathy doesn’t work.

There are some more facts that EZ Pee Zee doesn’t tell you, because without additional information we may be easily led to an incorrect conclusion about in vitro testing for homeopathy . .

What Pee Zee doesn’t tell you is that the basophil degranulation test for homeopathy wasn’t invented by Jacques Benveniste. JB’s test was the fourth replication of it. There have been many replications of it since, most notably a multi centered one that included homeopathy skeptic Professor Madeleine Ennis of the Respiratory Medicine Research Group at The Queen’s University of Belfast.

Here is a mashup of Ennis reporting on the activation of human basophils by ultra-high dilutions of anti-IgE, dilutions of the type used in homeopathy.

ENNIS: “This could be an exceedingly short paper, since in my opinion, from a conventional scientific background, when there are no molecules of the active agent left in a solution there can not be any biological effects. However, a search in PubMed combining homeopathy with basophil revealed 15 items. Interestingly this did not include the now infamous article in Nature or the papers that attempted to repeat the work. Changing the search to homeopath and basophil increased the total to 21. Including phrases such as ‘high dilutions’ or ‘extremely low doses’ only resulted in 33 publications.

“Witt and co-workers used several different databases in their review and found a total of 75 publications and further evaluated 67 of them. One of their sources was the HomBRex database which specialises in basic research in homeopathy and as of February 2009 contained 1301 experiments in 997 original articles including 1172 biological studies. Using the CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) Database and putting in basophil resulted in 95 hits. The question of publication bias is also worth considering – is it easier to publish a paper with negative results or with positive results? Normally, trials or studies with negative results are difficult to publish. However, it is possible that the opposite is true for studies using ultrahigh dilutions.

“In 1988, Poitevin and colleagues published a paper in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology in 1988 which was a follow-up to an earlier paper which had reported that incubation of basophils with high dilutions of the homeopathic drug Apis mellifica was able to inhibit allergen-induced basophil degranulation. In this paper, they reported that very low concentrations of anti-IgE (ca. 10–100 molecules per well) activated basophils and that this was inhibited by very high dilutions of the preparations

“Overall, using the histamine degranulation assays, as standardized by Sainte-Laudy, it was found that histamine at both conventional pharmacological concentrations and at high dilutions inhibited allergen and anti-IgE induced basophil activation. Examining a range of dilutions from 5c to 59c, the response was periodic in form, with maxima at ca. 7c, 17c, 28c, 40c and 52c.”

“This work was pioneered by Sainte-Laudy and colleagues beginning in the 80s and continuing to the present day… I first heard about this work at the 1984 meeting of the European Histamine Research Society where Sainte-Laudy bravely presented his data to a crowd of extremely skeptical and rather hostile scientists and clinicians.

“Apart from the natural scientific objections to solutions containing essentially water having a biological effect, a number of other issues were raised:
(1) the biological validity of the test;
(2) the reproducibility of the phenomenon,’
(3) the subjectivity of cell counts and
(4) that the data nearly all came from the same laboratory. In answer to these points, at that time, this form of examining basophil activation was a recognized procedure. Sainte-Laudy had performed repeated experiments, indeed in a series of 6 experiments he repeated each measurement 16 times and got the same answer.

“In order to answer points (3) and (4), it was decided to perform a multi-centre European Trial and it is at that point that I ‘dipped my toes into the waters’ of homeopathic research. As an ardent sceptic, I was invited to take part in the trial, which involved one coordinating laboratory and laboratories performing the research. This study has been published.

“In brief, all the laboratories were trained in the basophil counting method, with the counts verified by Sainte-Laudy’s laboratory. The dilutions were made in 3 different laboratories and coded by the coordinator (histamine and water solutions made up identically from 15c–19c). All study materials were from the same source and shipped to the performing laboratories. The data were returned to the coordinator and then analysed by an independent biostatistician. When the results for the histamine solutions were compared to those for the water solutions, there was a small but statistically significant inhibition of basophil degranulation caused by the lowest concentration of anti-IgE used in 3 of the 4 laboratories. When all the data were combined together, there was a statistically significant inhibition for the histamine containing solutions. Thus this multi-centre
study indicated that high dilutions of histamine did indeed have biological effects.

“In the multi-centre trial described above, 3 of the laboratories independently examined the effects of high dilutions of histamine and to a varying degree all demonstrated inhibition of basophil activation with these dilutions. Flow cytometric is employed in most immunological laboratories and there have now been a series of independent laboratories investigating the phenomenon. These will be discussed in detail.”
Basophil models of homeopathy: a sceptical view, Madeleine Ennis, Respiratory Medicine Research Group, Centre for Infection and Immunity, Microbiology Building, The Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

The Witt review of in vitro tests for homeopathy carefully analyzed and scored all known biochemical testing, up until 2007. You don’t see the criteria employed by Witt being employed by those who conclude that homeopathy is merely the use of inert substances.

Like Pee Zee, they have to make up their own, unknown, unseen,  OCCULT criteria!

PZ Myers claims to be a biologist. But look at the way Myers approaches the problem before him. Instead of giving you the full story, Myers gives only what he wants you to hear, which is mostly ridicule. Myers doesn’t mention his colleagues who have actually conducted the basophil degranulation test. He hasn’t done it. So how is it that we are supposed to believe Myers over Ennis, Sainte Laudy, Belon, Benveniste and all the others and their staff assistants, and the hundreds, possibly thousands of repetitons of these tests, unless Myers is presenting an answer we want to hear?

I’m trying to think of careers and activities that would be more suited for telling people what they want to hear, other than science. How about politics? LOL! No wonder his blog is so popular! Most people aren’t interested in science for anything more than the status it gives them in the eyes of others.

Being a skeptic gives you that “cachet.”

But when it comes to the real complexities of science . . please! Don’t confuse me with the facts! Let’s just pretend we’re scientists, okay?” 

Ennis on the other hand, rolls up her sleeves and gets her hands dirty. She then, as a real scientist, is compelled to truthfully report what her colleagues are loath to hear . .  the truth about homeopathy. What was it again? Oh yes . . “high dilutions of histamine did indeed have biological effects.”

I hear Myers screaming when he reads this, holding his head, “Noooo! I hate homeopathy!”

Ennis comes up with the same statement that Benveniste, Poitevin and dozens of others have come up with. In the glass the truth about homeopathy has been found.

Benvneiste proposed a whole new biological paradigm. Does Myers have the courage to do the test? Or is he more likely to try to sabotage it with word and censure?

If Pee Zee Myers cannot be a real scientist and meet the challenge of homeopathy head on, as Professor Ennis and others have done, then I say fire him and let him go on writing his stupid blog as the prime example of pseudoscience. Why would anyone but the opposition want a joker like Myers poisoning the minds of our youth? He doesn’t teach biological science, he teaches political science. Look at his useless, mindless deblogatory activities

How embarrassing for such a fine institution like the University of Minnesota! To have such an unscientific voice as Myers blathering away while his hands are doing nothing useful, when there are real scientists, like young versions of Rustum Roy at Penn State, who could be teaching biology at the University of Minnesota.
Education should not be about destroying people, as PZ has made it out to be. It should be about building people up, not tearing them down, and learning how things work in world.