Dynamic Provings vol. 2

Review

This book review is reprinted from Volume 9, 2003 Edition of The American Homeopath with permission from The American Homeopath.

Reviewed by Melanie J. Grimes

In the course of a lifetime, Hahnemann proved over 90 remedies. In the course of six years, Sherr, his editors, and the students of the Dynamis school have published more thanl4. The monumental task of editing provings can only be appreciated by those who have done so, and the piles of good unedited, unpublished provings that lie in boxes around the world attest to the difficulty.

Dynamic Provings, Vol. 2 is 841 pages of pure proving data, which will long enrich the homeopathic materia medica. The provings this volume contains are:

Brassica napus: Rape seed
Cygnus columbianus bewicki: Bewick Swan
Cygnus Cygnus: Whooper Swan
Olea europaea: Olive
Onchorynchus tschawytscha: Pacific Salmon
Salix fragilis: Crack Willow
Taxus baccata: English Yew Tree
Taxus brevifolia: Pacific Yew Tree

The provings of Bewick swan and Crack willow were conducted by Penny Stirling and the Pacific Yew by Jake Kiakahe and Richard Pitt, the rest are by Sherr and the Dynamis School. Brassica is a repeat from Vol. 1, as the first proving was incomplete.

The book itself is easy to read, and well bound. As editor of Vol. 1, I was pleased to see the same formatting used for both volumes (especially as I created the first formatting!).

Many homeopaths will only familiarize themselves with the new remedies via the computer programs, and certainly our searchable electronic databases are wonderful. Many will only discover these remedies after they present themselves in repertory searches, but for those who truly want to understand the new provings, studying them in their entirety is essential.

New remedies are needed for these new times. It is only by familiarizing ourselves with the new remedies in their fullness, that we will recognize those needing their similitude when it is presented.

Reviewed by Nick Churchill

I once asked a big time Led Zeppelin fan which of their albums was his favourite one. "Physical Graffiti", came the instant reply. Why? "Because it's a double album." With the same faultless logic, the publication of an impressive collection of provings by Jeremy Sherr is always going to be a celebration day for homeopaths accustomed to devouring his offerings singly.

There is a catch though: - one reason why these remedies appear as part of a collection, rather than as individual provings, is because Jeremy is making room for other people to publish their work alongside his own. "With the great increase in the number of provings over the last few years, it has become increasingly apparent that the homeopathic world needs anthologies of provings rather than single booklets", he wrote in his introduction to Dynamic Provings Volume I, concluding that, "We must resume the work of Hahnemann, Allen, Hering and other great homeopaths who have published provings collectively".

Three of the eight remedies in this book, in contrast to one in the first volume, are not by the Dynamis School. Of course that shouldn't be a problem, except that they inevitably stand in the shadow of the brilliance of the other five. Penny Stirling's Cygnus bewicki and Salix fragilis, and Richard Pitt's Taxus brevifolia, are merely good provings, while Jeremy's are touched by the genius that he is seemingly able to invoke at will each time he turns to a new subject.

And wait - haven't we seen crack willow before? It was published in Peter Fraser's attractive Angel's Wing series in 1998 and has been standing on my shelves since then, complete with a repertory section that has been cut here (presumably for the sake of consistency, as none of the other provings have them). Jeremy's Brassica napus is another deja vu, having previously appeared in Dynamic Provings Volume I, but there's a good reason for this - fresh material has been included from the 'Magic Prover', who didn't participate the first time round. Her experiences and insights round out what is by its nature an unexciting though useful remedy.

The four remaining remedies are the Whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus), Pacific salmon (Onchorynchus tschawytscha), olive (Olea europaea) and English yew (Taxus baccata). The salmon is definitely the star of the show. Quite apart from the fact that a picture of these handsome fish leaping up the rapids dominates the front cover, the book has a rather salmony feel - it weighs as much as a prize catch, the gloss coated paper has a curiously fishy sheen to it and, I swear to God, it actually smells of smoked salmon when you put your face close to it. To be honest, I thought the presentation of Volume I, with its lighter matte paper and broader layout, left nothing to be desired and thus, Volume II is a step backwards in this respect. The biggest problem is that the coated paper doesn't take pencil marks very easily. When I study a new proving I want to be able to underline and mark things and make notes in the margin, and because my understanding of the remedy is sure to deepen and change on subsequent readings, I don't want to have to do this in biro.

Actually, the spirit of salmon travels all through this book and you can see that Jeremy has a special connection with it, one that sheds light on his past and in a way his future provings too. Most obviously, the fish is a powerful symbol of the cyclical nature of Jeremy's Taoist view of life, with which all his students and readers are familiar, and also of the Jungian 'hero journey' that each of us undertakes and which our work with our patients is about at a deeper level. But perhaps the salmon has more specific connotations to someone as immersed in the world of materia medica as is the master of master provers: doesn't every remedy when made replicate the salmon's journey (upstream is succussion, downstream is dilution)?

And isn't every proving a quest for the source, a swim in the energetic stream that emanates from a remedy, in which provers come closer and closer to the point where they can unite 'as if one person'?

And we, the readers who endeavour to engage with this work rather than settling for an abbreviated second-hand essence, find ourselves fertilised by the source material, transformed by our contact with it.

Onchorynchus tschawytscha is also probably the finest proving I have ever read, with a participatory richness and symphonic embrace of its subject at the experiential level, and superbly edited with staggering attention to detail and an unswerving clarity of purpose. It is a beautiful piece of work and an indispensable remedy. No doubt Brassica has its place too (for, as we say to the patient, the simillimum is the best remedy in the world), but how can we as homeopaths not be touched by the majesty of the salmon and his/her energetic leap into the human world of longing, suffering and, ultimately perhaps, fulfillment? The only thing I would personally have wanted to add is a section accommodating the theme of movement from duality to unity in the proving. This seems to me to be the most important possibility arising in salmon - for in the end the search for the Soul Mate is no more nor less than arriving at the marriage of the male and female principles within oneself. The highest point of individuation seems to be made possible by this remedy.

Salmon is a long proving - 136 pages of symptoms - but it's not the longest one by any means - Whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) is a staggering 203 pages. And while Whooper swan is the only proving in the book that comes close to possessing some of the universalising qualities of the king of fish, in its persuasive portrait of a deeply somatised grief, it is marred (where salmon is almost perfect) by incomplete editing. Jeremy writes in the introduction that "the class did magnificent work with the proving, compiling the data in record time so as to have the swan ready for this volume, where we all felt it belonged". But in truth the work was too hastily done and Whooper swan lacks several layers of editing and polishing. The choice of themes is sometimes infelicitous and the proving is so long mainly because the symptoms have not been properly managed, with material often subject to unnecessary repetition. It is depressing, for example, to read on page 1 of the proving, under "Mind - Sensations Heart/Chest": "Woke with a very heavy heart this morning. Feel very sad. Feel as if there is a big hole in my chest. Feel sad for myself and my loneliness. Feel as if I have lost all hope of ever having my life partner" etc, and then to read the very same words repeated on page 2 under the next thematic heading, "Hollow, Empty/Full Empty, Gap", especially when you know there are 200 more pages to go. Just as good supervision is the secret of a conducting a proving, so careful editing is the secret of publishing a proving.

Why are modern provings so long? Nick Hewes recently made the point that Allen told us everything there is to know about the mental and emotional state of Arsenicum album in the seven pages of his Encyclopaedia of Pure Materia Medica; yet here we are with a record breaking two hundred pages of swan. There is no doubt that as the practice of provings progresses in our times, there seems to be a tendency for provers to relax and 'spread out' - for there to be a sort of inflation in the currency of provings. Paul Herscu has written that it is a question of what cut-off point we choose, of how low is the. 'noise level' of sensations or thoughts that provers can include. It is true that some published provings from sources here and in the States resemble screen dumps by 'loquacious' provers - the worst culprits are the journal-style ones in which a supposed faithfulness to the proving material is merely an excuse for laziness on the part of the editor. I have never seen this in Jeremy's provings, partly because his provers operate in a space delineated by him which fosters precision and fidelity, and partly because of the meticulousness of the editing. While it may be that animal remedies are more loquacious than others (Haliaeetus was by far the longest proving in the first volume), finally it always comes back down to careful editing - there is just no substitute for it.

With the provings in Volume II reaching record-breaking lengths, Jeremy has made a major shift of policy from the one outlined in the introduction to Volume I. There he wrote, "I have often been asked by colleagues why I do not publish essences or pictures of the provings. This would no doubt be convenient, but convenience always exacts its price. Any attempt at constricting a remedy into an easy formulation at this early stage would cast a shadow on the many possible facets waiting to be discovered... The consequences of such an attitude would be stifling... as yet, I have not succumbed to the sweet temptation of contaminating pure materia medica with my glossy thought-virus". But it seems that this is exactly what he has done in Volume II, where each proving is prefaced by a brief, one or two page section entitled, for instance, "English yew as if one". What is the difference between this and an essence?

I wouldn't labour this point, except I think it matters. The concept of 'as if one person' is fundamental to the collating, reading and interpreting of a proving, as Jeremy has often pointed out. But the concept cannot really be contained in two pages of essence-description at the beginning of each chapter, which is bound to distract readers from connecting with the remedy through the body of the proving, and bound also to become a widely photocopied and circulated precis of it.

So despite the undoubted fundamental quality of these provings, I feel that something has gone wrong here. In the time since Volume 1 came out, we are now faced with a choice between two hundred pages of proving or two pages of essence. Two hundred pages is certainly too long, while two pages is certainly too short. The remedy gets lost somewhere in between. When I read a proving, I want to be able to read it all in one go, in two or three hours, otherwise I lose the 'as if one person'. That's about the same time it takes to get a full case from a patient which is most definitely 'as if one person'. If the consultation goes on longer than that, I know I've lost the plot. Swan takes hours and hours to read, and it feels like we are going in the wrong direction compared with remedies like Adamas and Germanium from Dynamic Provings Volume I, or even the short but very illustrative Israeli proving of Olea europaea from this book. These new remedies are too good, too important, to not get it right.

This book review is reprinted from Volume 17, Summer 2004 edition of Homoeopathic Links with permission from Homeopathic Links.

Reviewed by Rene Hultier, Ireland

Volume 2 of Dynamic Provings must be seen as a welcome addition to the body of work that has been accomplished by Jeremy Sherr, his school and his followers.

It is evidence of the very large amount of work that must be undertaken to conduct provings and bring them to the homeopathic community.

Many readers will be familiar with his previous works: 'The Dynamics and Methodology of Homoeopathic Provings' and 'Dynamic Provings Volume 1'.

Dynamics and Methodology tells us of the manner in which Dynamic Provings are carried out. It has gained a reputation as the definitive handbook for most groups and individuals who set out upon the quest to complete and publish a proving. It has an important and compelling foreword by E.C. Whitmont.

Provings Volume 1 introduced to the homeopathic community the first anthology of provings, which Jeremy Sherr published. It has a six-page introduction. Three pages of that introduction would have been useful had they been included in Volume 2.

Further in Volume 1 Jeremy states that: 'In Dynamic Provings Volume 2' I hope to publish the other provings which already have been completed by the Dynamis School. These are: Hydrogen, Chocolate, Helium, Yew Tree, Olive, Plutonium and Salmon'. It was unfortunately disappointing to find that of these seven remedies only three were included in Volume 2. These were: Yew Tree, Olive and Salmon.

The other four were not consequently and we will have to wait for a future possible volume.

A further work of Jeremy, which we are encouraged to anticipate, he describes as his clinical experiences and thoughts about the remedies that the Dynamis School have proved. This intention was suggested in Volume 1 and stated more definitely in Volume 2. It should make interesting reading when the goal is achieved.

Volume 2 includes the following remedies. Listed with each is the approximate number of pages and the recorded number of provers:
RAPESEED, 54 pages - 11 provers
BEWICK SWAN, 60 pages - 8 provers
WHOOPER SWAN, 224 pages - 21 provers
OLIVE, 70 pages - 18 provers
PACIFIC SALMON, 156 pages - 25 provers
CRACKED WILLOW, 54 pages - 7 provers
ENGLISH YEW TREE, 114 pages -16 provers
PACIFIC YEW TREE, 92 pages - 14 provers

In Volume 2 we are given the information about the number of provers in each proving. This was not so in Volume 1. This is a dimension that I find usefully informative.

In 'methodology' Jeremy tells us that 'five people will suffice for a small project and fifteen to twenty will produce a very full remedy'. It is arguable that a very small group of people who are well known to one another in a specific sphere of endeavour can influence one another unconsciously as well as consciously. They can harmonise in patterns, which can reveal more about their group than the archetype of the remedy that they are investigating. This harmonisation can be at an energy level as well as at dimensions of psyche. It could be that a very small group might make the results seem unreliable.

In his work on methodology Jeremy cautions against provings of a hundred or more provers. He suggests the consequence will be an 'overproved' remedy with too many common symptoms. This may well be the case but it might equally be true that it is only in groups of over one hundred that a truly collective dimension may be revealed. In other fields entirely the writer Lyall Watson describes the 'hundredth monkey syndrome', which is a well documented phenomenon that seems to suggest that there is a critical threshold beneath which phenomena are seen to be 'individual' and beyond which more 'collective'.

Had this volume contained the missing four remedies that were promised in Volume 1 then it would have been overlarge. The choice to include the remedies that are featured seems to have been made wisely. There seems to be a logic and coherence to the group. The proving of Rapeseed is a re-proving of a remedy published in Volume 1. This seems to be a more complete examination. It previously was described in a scant fourteen pages.

The opportunity to compare and contrast the swans and the yew trees is useful especially as both sets were conducted by different directors, supervisors and groups of provers.

Each of the provings has a few pages of introduction to the substance and some of its dimensions and relationships. In most cases these are adequate. As they are not presented as a complete exploration they are a useful starting point for further investigation should the reader desire. Some of them seem close to the writer's heart and are especially enjoyable. The introduction to Whooper Swan seems to be particularly magical.

Six of the provings have at their beginning a summary of their range of activity in a page titled' As if one'. These six are the provings that are Jeremy's creations. The other two are the work of Penny Sterling. The intention to summarise an 'as if one person' perspective was introduced in Jeremy's 'methodology'. Here he has said 'the main common factor between epidemic and proving is the "as if one person" factor. When proving Neon it was as if we all became one Neon organism together'. In his introduction to Volume 2 Jeremy tells us 'we have included a new tool, which is a collection of significant symptoms on one page, to enable a concentrated overview: "as if one person".' In several pieces of writing about his provings Jeremy extols the virtues of avoiding a thematic summary of a proving. It is a little challenging to determine in exactly what way 'as if one' differs from an essence.

He says 'It should be left to each individual homeopath to weave the symptoms into a meaningful and coherent picture'. Reading through the 'as if one' pages of the six provings, it seems to do exactly that from the perspective of the director. Brassica, Olive, Salmon, and Yew all feature 'as if one' collections of symptoms. These are seemingly woven into pictures, which distinguish an overall summary or impression of the most significant aspects of the remedies. This seems most similar to the idea of an essence.

Whooper Swan has an individual 'as if one' perspective as it is not composed of symptoms but is in the form of a poem called 'Reflection of Swan's Soul' by Rose Todd. It isn't clear if this was written especially for this publication or if it was an existing work, which was chosen as significant. Because the poem's author is listed as a coordinator and a proving editor it would be interesting to know at what stage in the development of the proving she was inspired to write the poem.

In the introduction to Volume 2 Jeremy acknowledges the contribution that has been made to most of his provings by a woman he refers to as Prover 32. He describes her as having 'a wonderful ability to listen to the delicate whispers of a remedy. As such she has contributed amazing insights into the very nature of our provings... I personally confirm that she had no knowledge of the proving substances during the provings'. For me this is the crux of a problem, which I have with some aspects of these writings. In all of the provings that Prover 32 participates in, her contribution of symptoms is proportionally high.

In Salmon she represents 4% of provers and contributes 12% of symptoms. In Whooper Swan she represents 5% of provers and contributes 12% of symptoms. In English Yew she represents 6% of provers and contributes 18% of symptoms. In Olive she represents 5% of provers and contributes 19% of symptoms. In Brassica she represents 14% of provers and contributes 75% of symptoms.

It would be mechanistic and unimaginative to suppose that there should be an exact mathematical relationship that pertains to these investigations. However, these figures do show a bias toward the experiences of Prover 32 in all the provings. That in itself would not be a problem if we knew that Prover 32 had made similar insightful contributions to the provings of directors other than Jeremy Sherr. Perhaps this is in fact the case. However, without that assurance it may be suggested that Jeremy can have such confidence in Prover 32's insights because she has a very strong psychic connection to him.

These links can ensure that the unconscious dimensions of an individual psyche can produce images in dreams and fantasy states that synchronise with those of a significant other. This phenomenon is cited by Jungian analysts and is described in Whitmont's 'Dreams: A Portal to the Source' - when patients can produce dreams that answer the therapists unstated questions. With an intimate link between the psyche of Jeremy Sherr and Prover 32 it may be argued that she has no need to be told of the nature of the remedy during the proving. She will produce images that will satisfy Jeremy's assessments both conscious and unconscious of what the remedy is about. How this may be avoided is quite simple. At the ECCH web site is a page titled 'ECCH recommended guidelines for good provings'. Not surprisingly this page contains acknowledgements of the contribution to homeopathy, which has been made by Jeremy Sherr in his 'methodology'. Consequently there are very many points upon which 'guidelines' and 'methodology' provide very similar advice. There are a few guidelines concerning the Master Prover or co-ordinator.

The first suggests that the Master Prover be an experienced homeopath well acquainted with the philosophy and methodology of provings. The second charges the Master Prover with responsibility for the safety of the provers, the quality of work of supervisors, and the extraction, collation and editing of symptoms. These two points are nearly identical in 'guidelines' and 'methodology'. However, in 'guidelines' by ECCH is one further criterion, which is not found in Jeremy's book. That is that 'in order to ensure freedom from prejudice the Master Prover should be blinded to the remedy that is being proved'. It seems that this is an extremely significant difference. It seems that the ECCH advice is the only way to avoid serious potential pitfalls and flaws in provings.

The word 'prejudice' seems accurately appropriate. Our prejudices - our prejudgements - inform our decisions about what is significant in the phenomena that we perceive and when we listen to or read the experiences or symptoms of others. In performing an 'as if one' collection of the significant symptoms in a proving there must be a very great difference between doing so when one knows the nature of the substance and when one does not. The former can be informed by associations with personal fantasies and unconscious personal materials whilst the latter cannot. The ECCH guidelines suggest that a proving committee be the overall authority for assigning remedies to provers and choosing potencies, for liaising with pharmacy, for keeping records, for distributing remedies and notebooks, for typing and publication and for ensuring that the double blind principle applies all along the proving. This seems to be an ideal, which could be achieved if there were greater co-operation between the individuals and the schools who are conducting provings. If a school of homeopathy has a director who wishes to carry out a proving and this is done in his/her school then the criterion of a 'blinded Master Prover' can only be complied with if the director has no hand at all in the conducting of the proving.

If however between all of the schools/societies or at ECCH level a committee was established that could receive and assign proving substances then the criterion of double blinding could be adhered to for all the participants in the proving. Such compliance might rob the writings that accompany proving data of much that is well written, rich and enjoyable. However, it would ensure that there is a standard basic foundation that is more closely supported by a collective experience of an archetype. It would quite likely be less dramatic and possibly more impersonal but none-the less more reliable.

Despite what I consider to be a very serious flaw there is a great deal to enjoy in reading Jeremy Sherr's writings. There is much that can be used to determine the possible use of these remedies. However, for me to be able to decide if these remedies are applicable to cases then the written proving is only the beginning of the work that I need to undertake. Most of this source material is of high value. However, whenever I read the amazing dreams and mind symptoms of Prover 32, whilst I acknowledge that Jeremy finds these perspectives definingly valuable, I'm afraid I am undermined by doubt. I ask myself each time - would she have had similar experiences if Jeremy did not know the substance she was proving? I wonder, would her contribution be so intuitively sensitive to the remedy if it had been sent to her by a homeopath just as charismatic and influential as Jeremy, but with whom there was no intimate psychic link? Who knows, maybe Jeremy and Prover 32 will become curious about these phenomena also?

When I started to write this review I found myself reacting strongly to what I perceived as imperfections in the methodology of handling the material. At first I felt that this was because like more than a few of the 'personalities' in homeopathy today, Jeremy Sherr's followers seem to attribute to him a degree of infallibility. It was then I opened the book to page 133 at the beginning of the proving of Whooper Swan and read Yeat's poem 'Wild Swans of Coole'. That same day I was due to visit the Burren School, at Gort in County Clare. Nearby to the school is the estate of Coole.

Whenever we go up to Gort we take time out to visit the gardens, woodlands and lake. As I walked down the avenue of trees through the tunnel of overhanging branches toward the water I felt my spirits lift. I knew that without doubt I should be given a sign to determine my attitude to the review I was attempting. Either there would be no swans and all my misgivings confirmed or there they would be and I must let go of doubts. As I walked out of the darkness into the light of sunset before me was one isolated swan swimming in a solitary circle seeming to study its reflection in the lake. Only, in the far distances on the lakeshores, north and south could be seen its companions in great numbers. To me this evidence of the magical and synchronistic reminded me that these dimensions also must always pertain to provings.