MEDITATIVE PROVINGS A FORM OF GNOSIS

By C.Wansbrough published in Prometheus Unbound Vol.3 No 1 Autumn 1996

The pursuit of meaning is undoubtedly the hallmark of the human mind. Such a quest covers all aspects of the human condition and spirals in an ever increasing fashion towards knowledge. Knowledge in turn takes us beyond the particular towards the general, clarifying the workings of reality and allowing us in turn to fuel our desire for power and the domination of our cosmos.

B. Lancaster draws a wonderful parallel between types of knowledge and the story in Genesis of the first brothers Cain and Abel.' The character of each relates to the derivation of his name: Cain from the Hebrew root Kana, to acquire, Abel from Hevel, meaning vapour or breath. These brothers portray, in archetypal language, the two options available to the human mind in its quest to know the world'........the first of these two options is the kind of knowledge which involves separation from the object ; knowing the object as a 'thing' to be acquired, controlled and manipulated. It involves an active grasping of the object in terms of familiar frames of reference. The second kind of knowledge is arrived at by fusion with object, knowing it from the inside. This involves a more passive reception of the object's qualities which defy analysis along familiar lines.' (1)The physicist Eddington made a clear distinction between these two form of knowing, calling the former symbolic and the latter intimate knowledge.

While many authors may well have drawn similar distinctions, there is a certain amount of agreement on the distinguishing characteristics. The first mode is 'dualistic, ego enhancing and proceeds through conceptualisation: the second is direct and associated with a lowering of ego boundaries-- even feeling ourselves fuse with the object'.(2)

Cain therefore comes to characterise very much the former mode, motivated by the desire to acquire and to distinguish clearly his own territory, and his relation to all objects. While Abel, signifying breath may imply the possibility of a direct ,unsullied contact with the world. Moreover these dissimilar modes which clearly divides the scientist from the mystic, have found to be not, merely a question of speculation, but to be based on distinct neurological functions of our right and left brain hemispheres. It has become clearly established through much research, especially with the Split Brain experiments done on epileptics in the 1960's, that the left hemisphere has been found to be predominantly involved with analytic processes, especially with the production of speech and appears to process input in a sequential manner. The right hemisphere, on the other hand , was found to be responsible for certain spatial and musical abilities and to process information simultaneously and holistically.(3)

It can be said that these two modes of knowing are woven into the very fabric of our being, and are a necessary feature in our pursuit for meaning. Such meaning is at the forefront of our minds, in the very act of perception. This activity cannot occur in the absence of sensation, but the sense data constitute only the 'raw material' from which our conscious awareness of objects is constructed. We may be in direct contact with a world of sensations, nevertheless our awareness of things is the end product, of a long and complex process, beginning with the sense data of light, sound etc. and ending finally with the brain interpreting the information it has received from the sense organs. According to Ornstein we do not perceive objective reality but, rather, our own construction of reality-- our sense organs gather information which the brain modifies and sorts and this 'heavily filtered input' is compared with memories, expectancies and so on, until our consciousness is constructed as a 'best guess' about reality. (4)

William James, in a similar vein, maintains that ' the mind, in short, works on the data it receives much as the sculptor works on his block of stone'.

In other words the brain actively organises the world, a new-born babe, has been shown to be actively pursuing that quest in maximising sensory input so as to generate meaning. In many studies of a new-born’s visual system, it has been shown that the new-born, is not born with an ability to make sense of the world, but with a powerful motivation to seek out the means to make sense of the world. Such a quest for meaning begins here and may later on be carried on in adulthood, and though the emphasis may be different, the result ie that quest to perceive or make sense of the world still remains embedded within the fabric of our being. It might be, of interest, to further elaborate on the research in the field of perception, and to demonstrate clearly how the mechanisms involved in the construction of reality appear to converge into an act of perception. Nevertheless since this article hopes to show how both modes of knowing operate in our homeopathic provings, I would like to draw attention to a further distinction in how we perceive and evaluate meaning in our daily lives.

We know from bitter experience, the problems of evaluating right and wrong, and though we have certainly invested much energy in creating a creditable framework of knowledge through science, this has now become fraught with its own misgivings in evaluating truth. The knowledge of the mystic and shaman, so called intimate knowledge has left the shallow graves of unacceptability to vie with the scientific paradigm as an equally acceptable form of knowledge. Instead of science solving that quest for meaning which is the unenviable desire of the human condition, its merciless pursuit of the truth, a necessary corollary to its methodology, has left us in a state of infinite uncertainty. Declared Whitehead ' the progress of science has now reached a turning point. The stable foundations of physics have broken up...the old foundations of scientific thought are becoming unintelligible. Time, space, matter, material, ether, electricity, mechanism, organism, configuration, structure, pattern, function, all require reinterpretation. What is the sense of talking about a mechanical explanation when you do not know what you mean by mechanics.' (5) We are imbued with a desire for meaning, which is our fundamental state of being, every act, every movement, every perception becomes construed as part of our own world view.

Nevertheless this meaning can be construed in one of two ways, and an important distinction can be made between reliable knowledge and meaningful knowledge. In an interesting article by Henry H. Bauer (6), he argues that the most reliable knowledge is map-like in its content, and is knowledge of how something should be, or how things can be done. Such information carries little if any inherent human meaning. For example a map of the underground is a reliable operational guide for taking a journey by train, but it does not offer reasons for embarking on the journey. On the other hand he argues that the most meaningful knowledge is that which is story-like(archetypal) and teaches us about values or brings some sort of insight into our own condition. Moreover agreement about such story-like information can not be forced by demonstration since it remains an intimate part of that individual experiencing insight in his own unique manner. Such a dialectic between reliability and meaning leads to many intractable positions, instead of actually trying to analyse the content of the discussion in terms of these two polarities. This distinction forces us to consider our original division between two types of knowing in a slightly different light, as it becomes clear that neither purely symbolic(objective) nor purely intimate (subjective) knowledge is readily possible, but instead it is useful to look upon knowledge as an amalgam of these two sorts of extremes.

But the dangers of reliability tends to mask its possible unacceptability whereupon individuals mistake a map for the territory of knowledge, leading to a loss of meaning and creative potential. Reliable knowledge in its map like accretions is only a symbolic notation that represents a part of the territory. The latter is the world process in its actuality, a dynamic state which can only be actively understood from a story-like perspective, and depicted in colourful and mythological narratives.

Now there is nothing damaging about reliable map-like or symbolic knowledge, it is immensely value and has been indispensable to civilisation. ' But the problem comes as soon as we forget that the map is not the territory, as soon as we confuse our symbols of reality with reality itself.' (7)

The physicist Sir James Jeans explains:

'As the new physics has shown, all earlier systems of physics, from the Newtonian mechanics down to the old quantum theory, fell into the error of identifying appearances with reality: they confined their attention to the walls of the cave, without even being conscious of a deeper reality beyond.'

To approach such a 'deeper reality beyond' we have to discover the actuality of the territory from which all our maps are drawn, or to put in Eddington's phrase to pursue ' an intimate knowledge behind the symbols of science'.

The pursuit of homeopathy has been based on the language of provings, an ongoing dialogue between nature and the individual, which has resulted in an ever-increasing materia medica. Such a dialogue has tended to emphasise objectivity as a goal, extracting a pattern of symptoms that were map-like in their reliability, and story-like in their meaningfulness. The process of provings is a unique situation which brings together both intimate and symbolic knowledge, and produces a tireless dialectic between both modes of knowing. The original emphasis placed on a proving and the need to construct a pattern which can be fitted into repertory language, acts to stress its symbolic role and has tended to ignore its role as a possible and unique mode of exploring nature intimately.

The intimate nature of this exploration represents the more shamanic aspects of the therapy, and has begun to be noted in its own right, recently, with the increasing emphasis on shorter provings, dream provings and the most recent addition, meditative provings.

What is apparent, is that in any provings, invariably the best or only creditable prover, will be a sensitive, an individual whose sole ability is to be able to intimately explore the entire range of the remedy, from profound archetype to the merest symptom. This ability which is profoundly shamanistic in import remains the most singularly successful feature of a good proving. Such individuals also represent those who perhaps have a far better knowledge of the territory or have at least gained profound insights into the very fabric of our existence. In contrast to this individual, most of the provers may develop a few symptoms but will actually gain very little insight from the experience.

Jeremy Sherr in his own book on Provings(8), makes an interesting comment on the nature of provings 'through experiencing the new artificial persona of a remedy we travel to inner places that we would never otherwise have encountered.......thus we learn as much about our internal landscape as any traveller would learn of the various countries he or she passes through'. He then quotes Hahnemann, a footnote to Para 141,

'Again by such noteworthy observations on himself he will be brought to understand his own sensations, the way he thinks and feels(the essence of all true wisdom: know thyself); furthermore -something no physician can dispense with - they make him an observer.'

So that by doing a proving we can illuminate a hidden part of ourselves, and come to know ourselves in far more intimate detail.

Such an illuminating comment from Hahnemann himself, alludes to a significant, though sadly neglected fact, that not only can a remedy act as a medicine, but also the very act of intimate gnosis that ensues from a proving dialogue, can further the very depths of self-knowledge.

Hahnemann was probably a sensitive or became more sensitive through a series of provings, and was equally aware just how important the actual process of proving was. Nevertheless his desire to create a credible and objective medicine, and his need for scientific validity, shifted his own insights away from the enormous depth of knowledge that could be gained in a serial ongoing dialogue with nature in potency. Notwithstanding his overwhelming need to establish his medicine on a rational basis, the few words alluded to above about self-knowledge still had time to register, even though it is only found in a footnote to one of his paragraphs.

The realisation that by creating a dialogue between himself and nature remained one possible mode of gaining self knowledge and even insight into the very workings of nature herself.

Equally enlightening is another observation in the same footnote that implies that in the process of proving one becomes ' an observer' This can be possibly interpreted in the language of modern psychology, that in using his intimate mode of knowing, the individual was also lowering his ego boundaries and possibly learning to stand aside from his own construction of his supposed reality and allowing a more intimate appreciation of the remedy.

The question I now wish to ask after the aforementioned discussion, is whether meditative provings have a role to play in homeopathy, and whether they represent a valid language.

It is quite clear that if one is able to create a circle of homeopathic practitioners who meditate regularly at least once a month for at least a period of two years, one very important feature will emerge, that is an emerging state of resonance. This factor alone entrains the group to a certain level which seems to apparently enhance its sensitivity and enable it to finally act a single multi-organism, thereby reduce its ego boundaries and prove in an intimate fashion whatever remedy had been ingested. It is equally possible that in a meditative state the remedies will tend to not only be more accessible to our unconscious and therefore less prejudiced since we will not be in our normal ego states, but in a far less defined and therefore less prejudiced state to comment on or about the experiences being gone through. Furthermore the fact that a remedy has the ability to illuminate even our deepest aspects, possibly unexplored because of our own inability to enter into intimate contact with anything but our symbolic constructions of reality, renders such meditative provings a valid and even unique mode of exploring the territory of our own being. It possibly renders luminous, connections normally difficult to make, and can be compared to a rather unique and self-experiential tool for self-development.

A number of important features, can emerge in these provings, the first is, an ongoing sensitivity develops which in turn can enhance one's own empathic abilities. Such sensitivity also relies on an ability to step aside from one's normal ego boundaries and become more of an observer, thereby gaining more depth about the remedy. It also strangely enough seems to leave few after effects, and in my experience no prover of this type has yet reported any severe or ongoing symptoms from the experience of a meditative proving. Equally important in the ongoing process of monthly meditative provings, is just how illuminating different remedies have become, and how one can enrich the inner landscape of the self by the such a dialogue with nature. For it is an accepted fact of any perennial wisdom that the self is but a mirror of nature, and it is only through such an exchange that one can gain insight into the fabric of reality. It is no soliloquy that we engage in, but a veritable treasure trove of intimate knowledge, and only this form of proving could be said to truly create the shaman of the 21st century. It is by creating an ongoing sensitivity in this veritable manner, that one can open oneself up to limitless possibilities, as provings of this nature take on the aspects of a contemplative role. Observer and observed gain insights into each other, as the limits of our perceptual constructions fall away, and it becomes possible to explore in a creative fashion our inner selves, by comparing and contrasting the dynamics between remedy and observer. Such a shamanic experience becomes a poetry of intimacy, and in the Defense of Poetry Shelley captures the point with characteristic subtlety ' Poetry defeats the curse which binds us to be subjected to the accident of surrounding impressions.......It creates anew the universe, after it has been annihilated in our minds by the recurrence of impressions blunted by reiteration'.(9)

It is this same poetical desire in the creative process that can be awoken and renewed with the process engendered in ongoing provings, for it remains a unique form of exploration that serves to illuminate the fundamental relationships between the various levels of reality, including the spirit, man and nature.

1. Mind, Brain and Human Potential by Brain Lancaster- Element Books 1991

2. Ibid above

3. Left Brain Right Brain by Freeman & Co- Springer Deutsch 1985

4. Psychology of Consciousness by R Ornstein -Penguin 2nd edition 1986

5. Science and the Free World by A.N. Whitehead - New York Free Press 1967

6. Two Kinds of Knowledge: Maps and Stories by Henry H. Bauer in Journal of Scientific Exploration Vol 9, No 2, 1995

7. The Spectrum of Consciousness by Ken Wilber- Quest Books 1993

8. The Dynamics and Methodology of Homeopathic Provings by J. Sherr- Dynamis Books 1994

9. In the Defense of Poetry by Percy Byshe Shelley - Works of Shelley Penguin 1988