Animal, Mind and Human voices

Recensie

This book review is reprinted with the permission of the International Foundation for Homeopathy
PO Box 7
Edmonds, WA 98020
(206) 776-4147

Reviewed by Don Beans, Ph.D., LAc.

This book is a significant contribution to the literature of homeopathy. Its importance lies not only in the eight new remedies it details, but also in the shift for modern homeopathy that it portends. This shift recalls an era when practitioners relied on their own experience and internal perceptions rather than engaging in intellectual exercises or the simple recollection of facts. Ms. Herrick is pointing the way.

Aphorism 141: "Of all the provings of the pure actions of simple medicines in altering the human condition, and of the artificial disease states and symptoms that they engender in the healthy person, the most excellent provings remain those that the healthy, unprejudiced, conscientious and fine-feeling physician employs upon himself, with all the care and caution taught here. He knows with the greatest certainty that which he has perceived himself." (Hahnemann)

Eight new animal remedies are detailed in this excellent book. The remedies are the milks of elephant, lion, wolf, dolphin, and horse; the blood of the rat; dinosaur fossilized bone; and the butterfly. Much has been made about the nature of animal, plant, and mineral remedies in a general way, including the unifying characteristics of each kingdom. Ms. Herrick has gone or long way to turn this conjecture into fact by illuminating, through these well done provings and her own analysis of the information, the mental and emotional life of these creatures. The experiences of the provers are readily evident in their proving notebooks, which are an integral part of the text. The underlying theme of each remedy is revealed using Ms. Herrick's insight and direct quotes from each prover. In addition, a repertory of symptoms is provided for each new remedy, with several valuable additions, particularly in the mind and dreams sections.

The value of the provers' and proving master's perceptions is great. Other books of provings leave to the individual homeopath the task of deciding what information is important. This does not allow for the expertise of the proving master to be brought forth. With her characteristic ability to penetrate to the core issue of a remedy, Nancy Herrick has given homeopathy new remedies that will have a deep effect on prescribing. This book will also exert an influence on new provings and our view of remedies in general.

From the Wolf proving:
"One interesting fact links two of the provings in this book. Researchers have discovered evidence that at a certain point in history, wolves went into the sea. Over millennia, they developed flippers and lost their legs. The dolphin is thought to have evolved from wolves or wolflike animals. Given that three water-related themes (WATER, DANGER IN WATER, and FISH) came up in this proving, we can only speculate on the existence of a field of consciousness that still links the land and sea version of this mammal."

Great changes in the practice of homeopathy are possible as we begin to understand remedies from our true experience and prescribe from a real, internal understanding of the remedy.

This book also deserves a place in contemporary literature outside the homeopathic community for the way it leads to understanding of the feelings of the group mind of various animal species. Allowing for a true and deep understanding of the other sentient inhabitants of the planet is a great contribution to the field of ecology.

It also offers a new way of thinking about the messages from ancient traditions. In many native traditions, a portion of the animal is eaten to transfer the essential spirit of the animal to the hunter. The heart of the deer and of the crow are used in the Huichol culture of western Mexico for this purpose. In this way, the spirit of the animal can help the hunter-not understand the hunted animal-but to guide the hunter spiritually in his life and relationship to the natural world.

"Some observers now insist that our civilization's very survival depends on softening our relationship to nature, on each one of us reaching out with compassion to communicate and commune with animals." [Jim Nollman, Utne Reader, March-April 1998, 421]

Suspend the belief that a homeopathic book is just about homeopathy. Allow the experience of members of the animal kingdom to speak to you. Learn these few remedies and then, perhaps, as Hahnemann has said, know them through your own perception. Use this wonderful volume as a way to renew yourself and your prescribing.

Visually, the book is a treat, with its generous layout and clever animal graphics.

Animal Mind, Human Voices clearly establishes Ms. Herrick as one of the guiding forces of homeopathy of this generation.

Donald R. Beans is a licensed acupuncturist in private practice in Bigfork, Montana, and a graduate of the IFH Professional Course. His practice includes homeopathy, nutrition, and acupuncture. He is also the author of five multimedia presentations on various aspects of health care and numerous articles.

RESONANCE - September/October 1998

This book review is reprinted from The Homoeopath with permission from Nick Churchill of The Society of Homoeopaths.
2 Artizan Road, Northampton NN1 4HU, United Kingdom.

Reviewed by Francis Treuherz

This book is a collection of eight provings which includes much rich information about the signature and origins of the lives of the beasts from which the proving substances are obtained. They are listed below with the themes as interpreted by the author from the provers' reports and notebooks.

Each proving is presented in an identical format. The animal and its life is described, with a brief description of how the substance was obtained and which pharmacy prepared it, although not the methods and protocols for potentisation. This description already includes a mention of the themes which are integrated with the life of the animal and indeed often derive from it in the way of a signature, a tendency to anthropomorphise qualities from the animal. If an animal has been oppressed and its life is threatened then this appears in the themes. An example is 'protectiveness of children' which at the same time is referred to the male wolf protecting cubs and wolves in India eating children.

Sanguis soricis (Rat's blood) secret/hidden, clarity, sexuality/sensuality, dancing, darkness-light/black-white, dirtiness/cleanliness, feminine/goddess/woman/mother

Lac loxodonta africana (Elephant's milk) Murder/brutality/violence, suffering/homeless, air/water, food/feeding others/not enough food, positive emotions, people as animals, theorising about the substance, timelessness

Lac leoninum (Lion's milk) Anger/rage, concern about people and desire to help them especially children, theft, problems with authority figures, women at odds with their husbands, men relating to other men, no clothes, playfulness, cats/catlike

Lac lupinum (Wolf's milk) Mortality/immortality, protective of children in danger, intruder/outsider, danger/desire for danger, fire, damaging liquid, danger in water, detached, confused/organised, critical, trying to help, enclosures/crowded/tunnels, friends/loving, broad/wide/huge, circles/spirals, holes in legs, fish, wallet/purse/lost things, transportation/vehicles, water

Lac delphinum (Dolphin's milk) Calm, calm during danger, danger, play and pleasure, circles, separation detached, clairvoyance

Maiasaura lapidea (Fossilized dinosaur bone) Apprehension, danger, accidents, helping/no-one helping, heights/flying, joy/fun/ecstasy, decadent sexuality

Limenitis bredowii (Butterfly) Being a baby a child or particularly an adolescent, a child feeling unprotected by adults, emotions not the mind, sexuality, body awareness/sensuality, loving feelings, mother/father/family, buildings

Lac equinum (Mare's milk) Apathy/ennui, difficult encounters, frustration, confrontational/critical/nasty, mistakes, organisation, impatient, irritable, killing/violence

Then the themes are elaborated with excerpted paragraphs from the provers' journals under the heading of each theme, with the inclusions of many reports of dreams. Next is a listing of rubrics precisely assigned and indented as they might fit into a repertory, and finally the provers' journals for the first three weeks. The provers met after three weeks in a group to report back and it is clear that there were symptoms not recognised until mutual discovery led to their reporting under the peer group influence.

The contrast with the austere and comprehensive listing without interpretation of Jeremy Sherr's Dynamis provings is noticeable but as an unprejudiced reviewer it is not possible to say whether one method of reporting is superior to the other.

There is a brief introduction where methods were outlined. It seems that not all provers had supervisors, but all kept notebooks, all met after three weeks, but all were also followed up for longer term reactions. (The Lac delphinum proving was completed in one week at an international seminar in Hawaii.)

If the author were here I should like to ask many questions. Are there any veterinary uses of these animal remedies? Are there any animal diseases to which these creatures are prone and so what is the connection with human disease and nosodes? Anthracinum and Lyssin were proved in 1833, Oscillococcinum in 1925, it is clear that animal-borne diseases affect humans, and how do these provings relate?

There is no doubt in my mind that this is an important work and another milestone in the history of our development. Looking back to some 19th century provings which I have studied like the monumental Belladonna proving by Bellows which re-proved a familiar substance with many blind provers in a number of cities, the delightful little book by Hale on Sabal serrulata, and the Solanum tuberosum aegrotans of Benoit Mure it is clear that there are many ways of being right, many different ways of producing provings. In Brazil in the 1840's sophisticated and subtle dreams like eating human flesh, witches and green men could be produced. The Sabal proving shows as much activity in the female breast glands as the male prostate glands but few mentals to deflect one from an organ remedy. The Belladonna proving was so monumental and systematic that no one now uses the information although it is a classic of the double blind method. Herrick, by the way does not mention placebo.

Why do I refer to these old provings? Why, to explain away my prejudices and perhaps to sharpen awareness of yours. There have been as many methods of proving as there have been homoeopaths. The choice of substance, of reporting, of dreams and of style always reflect the culture and language of their origins. This book strikes me as pure California. I should like to think that homoeopathy has always had an international language and that the information from this book will be as useful in Calcutta as in Manchester. Ghose has summarised the homoeopathic provings and traditional Ayurvedic uses of some fifty medicines from India, of which only a few are in regular use in the west. How will these animal remedies be understood and used in Bengal?

In its present form it is exciting, stimulating, fascinating reading. It appears that the work has been systematically carried out and systematically reported. It will perplex our allopathic colleagues, 'our friends the enemy' as Burnett called them, as the book reports blind trials of a sort, yet with submolecular doses. It perplexes me, as for the time being there are no cases, no clinical results on which to build a different kind of picture. There are symptoms but as yet little pathology. These will follow. This is a brave start for our brave new world where we find such creatures and they appear to have such amazing qualities.

The Homoeopath
Summer 1998
No. 70