Abstract
Among homeopaths the common idea about a working hypothesis for homeopathic effects
seems to be that, during the potentization process, ‘information’ or ‘energy’ is being
preserved or even enhanced in homeopathic remedies. The organism is said to be able
to pick up this information, which in turn will stimulate the organism into a self-healing
response. According to this view the decisive element of homeopathic therapy is the
remedy which locally contains and conveys this information. I question this view for
empirical and theoretical reasons. Empirical research has shown a repetitive pattern,
in fundamental and clinical research alike: there are many anomalies in high-dilution
research and clinical homeopathic trials which will set any observing researcher thinking.
But no single paradigm has proved stable enough in order to produce repeatable results
independent of the researcher. I conclude that the database is too weak and contradictory
to substantiate a local interpretation of homeopathy, in which the remedy is endowed
with causal-informational content irrespective of the circumstances. I propose a non-local
interpretation to understand the anomalies along the lines of Jung's notion of synchronicity
and make some predictions following this analysis.
Keywords
homeopathy - model - causality - synchronicity
