Jonathan Shore, MD, Cutting-Edge Homeopathic Clinician, dies at 80 (1943–2023)

Sometime during the second week of February 2023 another stalwart of ours made his departure to another sphere. Dr Jonathan Shore, a pioneer in the application of bird remedies in homeopathy made his departure from this earthly realm.

‘Homeopathy is a science that stands as a bridge between the visible and the invisible, between the laws governing this world and those governing a world we can only guess at. One doorway into the invisible world is the proving experience. A gap through which we can breach the limitations of our conventional material world. Thus the methodology, how it is done, is critical. It is absolutely necessary to insure that the framework of data collection is not set up to exclude or to rule as inadmissible the very data which carry the inner life of our science’.–Dr Jonathan Shore

Dr Shore, the son of a paediatrician, was born on 6 August 1943 in Cape Town, South Africa, and graduated in 1960, from the Rondebosch Boys High School, which was then considered the finest preparatory school in the country. In 1968, he graduated from the medical college in Cape Town. Despite enjoying those medical school years, it was during his internship that he became disillusioned and unhappy as he found that no one, including himself, possessed an adequate definition nor understanding of what it meant to be healthy.

‘The issue was all about disease and I thought how can you measure what disease is unless you have a measure of health. So I thought I’m going to give up medicine and I'm going to search for health'.–Jonathan Shore (‘My Mind Should Be Out of the Way,’ an interview with Jonathan Shore, MD, Neil Tessler, ND, Simillimum, 17:3, pp. 44-54; p. 44, 2004).

Shore gave up his medical books and began his search for that definition in California: perhaps it was a search to find himself.

He first moved to Berkeley in June of 1972, then Laguna Beach in August of 1975 and finally to Mill Valley in August of 1977. He started referring to himself as a homeopath in January of 1981. During this period of travel and enquiry, he did not tell anyone he was a doctor. Repeatedly, however, he found himself continually drawn to medicine and non-traditional methods of healing in general. It was then that he realised he could not escape his path as a physician and, to that end, he became resolved.

During that search, he spent a decade of intensive study of many disciplines, including acupuncture, Tai-Chi Chuan, massage, Jungian psychology, Gestalt therapy, Bioenergetics, Rolfing, radiesthesia, iridology, herbal medicine, Bach Flower remedies and colour therapy. Toward the end of that stretch of time, he had become Clinical and Executive Director of the Wholistic Health and Nutrition Institute in Mill Valley, California. That institute, founded in the mid-1970s, was the first of its kind in the United States.

As part of that search, Shore became interested in dowsing and muscle testing then homeopathy and finally, Kent. He felt good about his initial connection with that master but not, necessarily the repertory, for he thought it to be ‘a crazy thing made by some anal retentive.’

Shore continued his experiments with dowsing but made little progress in the way of positive results until... Until one day, in 1976, when he was in the check-out line of a cafe. The cashier said ‘Oh, good morning Dr. Schore!’ Jonathan thought she was talking to him, yet ‘how does she know me?’ As it turned out, she was talking to Dr Robert Schore, a homeopath, the customer in front of him. After transactions were completed the two struck-up a conservation in which Schore implored Shore to try the repertory: ‘You have to use the repertory!’ Thus inspired, Shore decided to give it a more focused try and use it to repertorise a case of asthma in a teenager (See Appendix A).

After receiving several doses of Sulphur 6x, my 16-year-old patient's asthma disappeared in just three days. Shore wept from ‘the force of it.’ That was his introduction and, one might say, awakening (See Appendix B).

He continued in this manner practicing acupuncture and homeopathy before finally using only homeopathy, starting in 1982 (the same year he married Ana, who died about a month before Jonathan). He began a full-time homeopathic practice in the San Francisco area, both in private practice and at the Hahnemann Clinic, of which he was one of the founders in 1985. Shore also became a core faculty member of the Hahnemann College of Homeopathy and began to give lectures in the United States and across the globe.

Before all of that though, in 1977, he heard of Vithoulkas and, in 1981, attended the International Foundation for Homeopathy's (IFH) course taught by doctors Bill Gray and Dean Crothers.

With many seminars under his belt, he finally had the confidence to prescribe leaving acupuncture behind. Whenever Vithoulkas would visit California, Shore spent as much time as he could at those seminars and later even went to Alonissos, Greece for more intensive weeks of study. Shore, in the meantime, had become acquainted with the north San Francisco Bay area doctor, Roger Morrison, who became a mentor of sorts and provider of assistance with questions and difficult cases.

Shore continued his tutelage with Rajan Sankaran, attending his Esalen seminars. Though there was no conflict in his mind about what the innovative Indian master offered, he decided to decrease attendance at seminars like those in Esalen. He did remain connected to Sankaran's ongoing body of work, particularly what he had to say about the relationship between homeopathy and the kingdoms of nature. Shore had previously been aware of ‘kingdoms’ as he was familiar with the work of Farrington and the more contemporary British master, Llewellyn Twentyman. The miasmatic approach of Sankaran did not resonate with Shore as it was ‘too much of a construct’ and something which he felt came between him and his patient: ‘my mind should be out of the way.’

At this point his approach became increasingly intuitive which helped him solve about half of his cases. The other half were solved using the traditional method – repertorisation and materia medica study. This is often a common scenario as one becomes an increasingly skilled practitioner.

In the Tessler interview, Shore relates his initial foray into the bird remedies when he pre- scribed Falcon. Shore describes this pivotal moment in his book, Birds - Homeopathic Remedies from the Avian Realm (2004; with Anneke Hogeland and the late Judy Schriebman). While studying a case he had been involved with for several years, the client told him about dreams in which she was building wings and collecting feathers. After pondering the kingdom approach of Sankaran, he thought ‘maybe it's a bird.’ When this patient returned to him for a follow-up, an eagle dream was related which led him to prescribe Eagle based on Sherr's recent proving of that bird: the remedy worked very well.

After this success, Shore and patient, along with the patient's mother – who had been enrolled as a Hahnemann College student, proved Red-tailed Hawk. From there his interest in ‘bird as remedy’ arose like the Phoenix.

This seminal book provides a detailed description of 15 birds as well as a complete overview of the avian kingdom. For each bird, the core idea is presented as well as a number of outstanding key aspects. Proving information and cases from various practitioners help complete the picture of each bird (See Appendix C).

‘The intent of this book is to bring together the currently available information on this group of remedies in a form which will facilitate both a good grasp of the characteristics of the group as a whole and the ability to focus down simply upon its individual members. Thus emphasis is placed not upon the small details but is rather weighted between the broad generals and the particular individualizing characteristics of each remedy. Although the body of knowledge in relation to these remedies is still in the early stages of development I believe we have sufficient data to paint pictures that are accurate in their broad outlines’.–Jonathan Shore, MD, (from his introduction to Birds - Homeopathic Remedies from the Avian Realm)

Julie Geraghty in her review of this book (Homeopathy, 96:4, pp. 283,4, 2007) had this to say:

‘[the authors] have synthesized information from many sources, covering themes from classical provings [and other types of provings as well] done by others of better known bird remedies like Peregrine Falcon (Misha Norland) and Whooper Swan (Jeremy Sherr), to lesser known remedies like Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) and Brown Pelican (Pelicanus occidentalis), introduced by Jonathan Shore...As this is the first definitive book on homeopathic bird remedy pictures, I am sure that the differentiating features between the various remedies will be clarified with time. My experience is that Jonathan Shore's work has helped hugely towards understanding when a bird remedy is indicated, but finding the exact simillimum is not always as easy... We need more reference books like this to fill in the detail as our collective clinical experience with bird patients expands, and I hope that more bird provings will be done by Jonathan Shore and others’.

Other bird remedies in this book include Great Horned Owl, Scarlet Macaw, Andean Condor, Ring Dove, Saker Falcon, Turkey Vulture, Raven's blood, Bald Eagle, Humboldt Penguin.

Jonathan commented:

‘The birds hold a special attraction for me because of their lightness, their desire for freedom and the fact that they partake, in a way, of another world. For years people had been pressing me to write a book but I always felt that I had nothing special to say. Now that excuse was no longer valid. I don’t know if you have ever tried to produce a book but its an incredible amount of work. I knew I could never do it myself so I approached my two colleagues, Anneke Hogeland and Judy Schriebmann. We worked together for more than a year. They did an amazing job. I am hardly ever satisfied with the end result of my efforts but this time the result really exceeded my expectations. I feel we have set a standard for homeopathic publishing, both in terms of aesthetic, user friendliness and content. The book is a practical work of art in its own right, so pleasing to the eye yet so accessible as regards content. It is divided into three sections. The first is a comprehensive overview of the family followed by the core idea, key features, main rubrics, illustrations, mythology and natural history of 15 remedies. The second section are case histories for each of the remedies and the third is the proving information for each remedy. Thus it is easy to go quickly to the essential information yet the basis for that information can be researched and studied if the reader wishes to go deeper'.– https://hpathy.com/homeopathy-interviews/jonathan-shore/ (15 December 2004).

In 1992, Shore was awarded membership in the Faculty of Homeopathy, the British Homeopathic Medical Society. Over the years, he was also involved in various capacities with the American Institute of Homeopathy (AIH) board and served as editor of the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy (currently known as the American Journal of Homeopathic Medicine which is currently published yearly).

‘Jonathan Shore was a profoundly deep thinker and teacher. At Hahnemann College of Homeopathy, for twenty years, his lectures were always loved and respected as well as highly entertaining. Jonathan truly was a man who ran to his own drummer always finding a new and unique way of looking at things and people. He became one of the world's top experts with his provings and writings on bird remedies. He was a favorite teacher – his students loved his entertaining style, his philosophizing (sorry Samuel) and his honesty. Jonathan had a compassionate heart despite a crusty shell. His early death is a huge loss to the homeopathic as well as Gurdjieff communities, as he was a leader in both’.–Nancy Herrick, P.A. and Roger Morrison, MD (email communication, 2 March 2023).

‘Losing Jonathan is most unfortunate. I think his bird remedies was a significant addition to our materia medica, one that I have relied on for multiple cases with beautiful outcomes. He is now free to fly with the birds, observe, and partake in multiple other realms. He will be greatly missed for his valuable insights and compassion as a human being’.–Paul Saunders, ND (email communication, March 2023).

‘What a shock to hear Jonathan Shore is gone. He was a pillar in our homeopathic community. I didn't know him well though. He and his wife came to Guatemala years back to teach for me - subject bird remedies. He was well received’.–Karl Robinson, MD (email communication, 7 March 2023).

‘Jonathon Shore's seminar on birds in London, was one of the first homeopathy seminars I ever attended. I was still a student of homeopathy at that time. I remember vividly what a fantastic teacher he was and what a superb collection of bird remedies he presented. He made a big impression on me and helped to galvanise my path into homeopathy. He was warm, compassionate, and inspiring. I feel his beautifully written and illustrated book on birds really helped show the profession the power of studying a group of remedies together...’–Mani Norland (email communication, 17 March 2023).

‘I have a fond memory of receiving a warm hug from him when he was here in Auckland [New Zealand] as a guest homeopathy lecturer at a seminar. HE was a great teacher’.–Gwyneth Evans (email communication, 6 April 2023)

‘Jonathan was also very athletic and loved the outdoors. He was a formidable astrologer. But his favorite hobby was speeding about in his little sports cars – I remember several–and also his frequent traffic citations for speeding... [Yet] as I reflect upon his passing, I realized that his death came much like his life – private, humble, independent and without fanfare... I realized that as well as I knew Jonathan, there remained many mysteries to the man.’–Roger Morrison, MD.

Left: Robert Petrucci, MD; right: Jonathan Shore (Photo courtesy: Robert Petrucci)

Publication History

Article published online:
30 June 2023