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Lionel R Milgrom

Publications and source records attributed to Lionel R Milgrom.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Towards a new model of the homeopathic process based on quantum field theory.

BACKGROUND: Quantum theory's notions of non-locality and entanglement have previously informed attempts to model the therapeutic process. Of these, Weak Quantum Theory (WQT) and Patient- Practitioner-Remedy (PPR) entanglement are developing into mathematically- based models of homeopathy. OBJECTIVE: The present study attempted to identify fundamental concepts within quantum field theory (QFT) that could be used to broaden the scope of PPR entanglement models, prior to constructing a more rigorous mathematical treatment. METHODS: In QFT, particles and forces are considered as fully interacting relativistic quantum matter and force fields, respectively. These interactions are visualized graphically as spacetime Feynman diagrams. Further, these interacting field systems can have ground states with broken symmetry; the so-called Higgs field being responsible for this symmetry breaking. In the new model, patient, practitioner and remedy are imagined as fully interacting quantum-like fields; patients and practitioners in terms of quantum matter-type fields, and remedies and diseases as quantum interaction-type fields. RESULTS: Disease manifestation by the Vital Force (Vf) could be an event similar to spontaneous symmetry breaking in QFT: the curative remedy acting to restore the broken symmetry of the Vf field. Entanglement between patient, practitioner, and remedy might be representable as Feynman-like diagrams. CONCLUSION: QFT demonstrates that quantum properties can be physical without being observable. Thus, an underlying similarity in discourse could exist between homeopathy and quantum theory which could be useful for modelling the homeopathic process. This preliminary investigation also suggested that key elements of previous quantum models of the homeopathic process, may become unified within this new QFT-type approach.

Homeopathy↗
PubMed2006

Entanglement, knowledge, and their possible effects on the outcomes of blinded trials of homeopathic provings.

INTRODUCTION: In two recent studies of double-blind placebo-controlled homeopathic provings, entanglement was reported to have occurred between verum and placebo arms of the trials. This contrasts directly with the entanglement-disrupting effects of blinding, recently proposed as the reason for the failure of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to demonstrate unequivocally the efficacy of homeopathy. It is proposed here that such entanglement between remedy and placebo during these double-blind placebo controlled provings is the direct result of the blinding process. METHOD: A previously developed theoretical model of entanglement in homeopathy among patient, practitioner, and remedy (called PPR entanglement) was used in this investigation. RESULTS: In agreement with the results from the proving studies, the model predicts that application of the double-blind RCT methodology to homeopathic provings leads to entanglement between both remedy and placebo arms of the trial. CONCLUSIONS: These theoretical findings can be understood in terms of the act of blinding leading to loss of information because of quantum-like state superposition of the verum and placebo proving groups. This is compared to conclusions drawn from the well-known double-slit experiment of quantum physics, and quantum information processing. It leads to a suggestion for testing entanglement in homeopathic provings.

Double-Blind Method↗
PubMed2006

"Torque-like" action of remedies and diseases on the vital force and their consequences for homeopathic treatment.

INTRODUCTION: Within the developing theoretical context of quantum macroentanglement, a mathematical model of the Vital Force (Vf) has recently been formulated. It describes the Vf in terms of a hypothetical gyroscope with quantized angular momentum. This enables the Vf's state of health to be represented in terms of a "wave function" derived solely from secondary symptom observables produced in response to disease or homeopathic remedies. So far, this approach has illustrated the biphasal action of remedies, resonance phenomena arising out of homeopathic provings, and aspects of the therapeutic encounter. METHOD: In this paper, the effects of a therapeutic remedy and disease states on the gyroscopic angular momentum characteristics of the Vf were investigated by mathematical manipulation the Vf "wave function." RESULTS: The formulation of the Vf in terms of a quantized gyroscope permits disease to be represented as a braking "torque" decreasing the Vf's angular momentum, causing it to "precess" (i.e., express symptoms). The therapeutic remedy, however, provides an accelerating "torque," increasing the Vf's angular momentum and decreasing precession (i.e., reducing symptom expression). CONCLUSIONS: According to this model, symptom expression corresponds to precession of the Vf "gyroscope." Conversely, complete removal of symptoms is equivalent to cessation of Vf "precession." However, if overprescribed or given in unsuitable potency, the curative remedy (which may also be formulated as a wave function but this time derived solely from changes in Vf secondary symptom observables) may cause the Vf to express proving symptoms. Thus, with only observation of symptoms and changes in them to indicate, indirectly, the state of a patient's Vf, the safest treatment strategy might be for the practitioner to proceed via gradual removal of the symptoms. This is congruent with Hahnemann's later development and use of the LM potencies, as described in his final 6th edition of The organon.

Empiricism↗
PubMed2006

Is homeopathy possible?

As a therapeutic intervention, homeopathy is the target of increased scepticism because in the main, its remedies are diluted and succussed (potentized) out of material existence. This puts homeopathy seemingly at odds with the paradigm of conventional science, in particular, that atoms and molecules are the fundamental building blocks of all matter. Accordingly, homeopathy cannot work, so that any reported beneficial effects must, at best, be due to the placebo effect. The purpose of this article is to challenge that conclusion and to suggest that there may well be conventional science-based explanations of how homeopathy could be possible. Homeopathy's key principles are first described. Then the double-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT), the chief means by which homeopathic remedies and prescribing are tested, is shown to be based on a linear reductionism that is too blunt an instrument with which to test the efficacy of complex interventions such as homeopathy The memory of water hypothesis, as a mechanism for how potentized remedies might work, is reviewed, along with some evidence for its existence. A possible rationale for the water memory effect is proposed in terms of a dynamic 'ordering' of water's constantly switching network of intermolecular hydrogen bonds, induced by the manufacturing process of homeopathic remedies. This could lead to a long-range molecular 'coherence' between trillions of mobile water molecules. However, the water memory effect is an essentially pharmacological explanation of homeopathy's putative efficacy. It is pointed out that healing also entails an interaction between consenting beings. From this point of view, an explanation of any therapeutic procedure should include an attempt to describe the nature of the patient-practitioner interaction. From this perspective, a quantum theoretical treatment of the therapeutic process, involving a form of macro-entanglement between patient, practitioner and remedy (PPR), is advanced as another possible explanation of the homeopathy's efficacy. This shows that the reason double-blind RCTs deliver at best only equivocal results on homeopathy's efficacy is because it effectively breaks the PPR entangled state. A comparison is made between the entanglement-breaking effect of double-blind RCTs and the wave-function 'collapsing' effect of observation in orthodox quantum theory. The article concludes by suggesting that the memory of water and PPR entanglement are not competing but most likely complementary hypotheses, and that both are probably required in order to provide a complete description of the homeopathic process. While awaiting experimental evidence of these hypotheses, it is suggested that observations of clinical outcomes would be superior to RCTs for further testing homeopathy's efficacy.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2005

Patient-Practitioner-Remedy (PPR) entanglement, Part 8: 'Laser-like' action of the homeopathic therapeutic encounter as predicted by a gyroscopic metaphor for the vital force.

BACKGROUND: A preliminary mathematical model for the Vital Force had been developed based on the idea of a metaphorical gyroscope, combined with earlier notions derived from Weak Quantum Theory (WQT) and Patient-Practitioner-Remedy (PPR) Entanglement. This combination generates a hypothetical 'wave function' as a description of the state of the Vital Force that is intimately related to the secondary symptom picture of the therapeutic remedy, and is capable of illustrating certain empirical observations of the homeopathic process, including the bi-phasal action of remedies and some of the results gained from provings. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this present study was to further develop the idea of a Vital Force 'wave function' by generating insights into its mode of reaction to therapeutic intervention by a practitioner. METHODS: In orthodox quantum theory, the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, in which a particle's wave function is operated upon by the Hamiltonian total energy operator, provides information concerning the temporal evolution of the wave function. By analogy, a secondary-symptom-dependent Vital Force equation is postulated in which the Vital Force 'wave function' is operated upon by a so-called 'homeopathic operator'. RESULTS: By inserting the previously developed wave function for the Vital Force into the secondary-symptom-dependent Vital Force equation, another equation is generated mathematically reminiscent of longitudinal mode standing waves set up in the resonant cavity of a laser. CONCLUSION: In the language of therapeutics, it is often said an essential part of the curative process is that practitioners act as 'mirrors' for their patients. Previous papers in this series have shown that this reflective practitioner activity is more than a poetic analogy. Borrowing from the mathematical formalism of quantum theory, with its ideas of entangled, coherent wave-functions as metaphors for the homeopathic process, this mirror-like activity can be seen to be an integral part of the curative therapeutic encounter. The preliminary theoretical investigation reported here develops the metaphor further by suggesting that the effect of this practitioner mirror-like activity on a patient's Vital Force during the therapeutic encounter, might be likened to the sequence of operations by which lasers function. The analogy seems compelling, as an essential feature of laser operation is the arrangement of parallel mirrors placed at both ends of the laser's resonant cavity.

Empiricism↗
PubMed2005

Are randomized controlled trials (RCTs) redundant for testing the efficacy of homeopathy? A critique of RCT methodology based on entanglement theory.

INTRODUCTION: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have yet to deliver unequivocal results demonstrating the efficacy (or otherwise) of homeopathic remedies and individualized homeopathic prescribing. This could be caused by an implicit assumption inherent in RCT methodology that specific effects of a remedy and any nonspecific effects of consultation are independent of each other. Reported here is a theoretical investigation of the consequences arising from this assumption proving to be false. METHODS: A previously developed theoretical model of entanglement in homeopathy between patient, practitioner, and remedy (called PPR entanglement) was used in this investigation. RESULTS: The adherence to RCT methodology could result in such trials completely disrupting the formation or survival of any three-way PPR entangled state. CONCLUSIONS: Assuming the PPR entangled state is a necessary condition for therapeutic interaction, alternatives to RCTs are urgently required that can take into account possible entangled specific and nonspecific effects during trials of homeopathy. That RCTs sometimes deliver positive results for the use of homeopathic remedies may be caused by residual entanglement arising from homeopathic remedy manufacture.

Homeopathy↗