Provings

Homeopaths learn about the healing properties of our remedies through carefully structured and monitored clinical trials called provings. Different from standard allopathic trials, we principally learn about the action of our remedies through carefully observing and recording their effects on healthy individuals.  Provings are rooted in our understanding of the principle of like cures like which teaches that a substance that can create certain symptoms has the capacity to safely remove those symptoms when administered in potentized homeopathic form. Therefore, a proving is conducted to learn about the symptoms or the “state” that a substance can bring about in healthy adults.

Participants in a proving must have certain qualifications. They must have the time and willingness to participate in the study and they must have the ability to notice and articulate their experiences at the mental, emotional and physical levels. Unlike allopathic clinical trials, participants in provings are never paid. Homeopathy has never attempted to conduct a clinical trial on animals. In addition to the ethical issues related to this, it would be impossible to gather scientific information about the experience of an animal at the mental or emotional level and this is critical to the science of homeopathy.

At the start of each proving, baseline clinical information is gathered for each participant. Data are collected about their mental, emotional and physical symptoms so that the clinical director of the trial will eventually be able to sort these baseline symptoms out of the final analysis of the effect of the medicine. Participants in a proving are not told the nature of the substance they are taking. They take the medicine at specific intervals and maintain a careful daily log of their experiences and symptoms. In addition to recording their experiences on paper, each participant has a trial supervisor to whom he/she reports on a regular basis. At the end of the proving, the clinical supervisor of the study compiles and analyses the data to perceive the most salient symptoms and experiences of the participants. A report is prepared and data from the proving is added to the homeopathic reference books used by professional homeopaths. Over time, the findings from clinical experience using the remedy with sick individuals are also added to the homeopathic literature and this helps to fill out our understanding of the action of the homeopathic remedy.

Hahnemann conducted the first proving with cinchona bark in 1795. Today, provings of new and different substances are regularly conducted around the world and we have over 5,000 remedies.  Provings are an important tool that allows us to expand our supply of medicines so that homeopaths can identify the specific remedy that will match the TOTALITY OF AN INDIVIDUAL'S SYMPTOMS to bring about healing in the most gentle, expedient and safe manner.