In ST, it is a common practice to administer 200, 1M, and 10M on successive days. This is done with combination remedies and nosodes in a routine manner. In most cases such a dose of high potency mixtures are given once every month based on each "separate" aetiology along the time-line. Such an approach has little in common with the homeopathic doctrine of the minimal dose and the individualization of treatment. It seems there is little faith in ST in the power of the single dose and its ability to start the healing process. Many of the most striking cures are made by one single dose, although repetition is often needed in chronic diseases. In this case, however, the remedy is used only as much as is needed by the individual.

The best homeopathic cure is one in which there is rapid amelioration without any aggravations whatsoever. In ST severe, prolonged aggravations are often produced through the use of combination remedies, the isopathic use of nosodes, and triple doses of high potencies (200/1M/10M). This becomes all too obvious when one studies the cases offered in Homeopathy Renewed. All of the symptoms brought out during treatment are considered to be beneficial "healing reactions." There is not one mention of the fact that not all symptoms that appear after the ingestion of such a series of high potency remedies are of a beneficial nature nor signs of the correct remedy.

Hahnemann taught that the "so-called homeopathic aggravation" (Aphorism 161) was caused by too strong of a primary effect of the remedy, and therefore, it is not a healing crisis. Each set of symptoms which arises after the ingestion of a homeopathic remedy must be evaluated for their peculiar nature. There is a great difference between a similar aggravation, a dis-similar aggravation and accessory symptoms brought out under treatment. Each manifestation has a different meaning and affects the future case management.

In the case of a similar aggravation there is an increase of the symptoms already present. This is a sign of the correct remedy given in the wrong dose and potency or repeated when not needed. Dis-similar aggravations are those in which there is the production of new and troublesome symptoms not appertaining to the disease being treated. This is the sign of a wrong remedy. Accessory symptoms are side-effects produced by the remedy which are un-homeopathic to the individual, and that are caused by partial simillimums. All of these signs must be carefully analyzed, as they call for different courses of action by the homeopath.

We certainly cannot automatically call all of these diverse manifestations "healing reactions." Neither can we state that if a person didn't need the remedy, it could not produce any symptoms. Isn't this contrary to all of the experience gained in the provings of homeopathic remedies on the healthy? After all, look at all the symptoms that were brought out by remedies on persons that did not need them. The bringing out of symptoms does not necessarily prove that a remedy is correct, let alone beneficial. Combination remedies make it very difficult to follow a case, because no time is given to assess the reactions of each remedy separately on the vital force.

Each constitution has its own unique sensitivity, which needs careful individualization of both the remedy and the treatment schedule. In Hahnemann's advanced methodology, remedies are given exclusively in medicinal solutions rather then in a dry dose of the pills. In this way the administration of the remedy is adjusted through succussions and controlled dosages to fit the exact sensitivity of the constitution.

Such a refinement of the dose is impossible without strict individualization of treatment and the usage of the aqueous solutions of the centesimal and LM potency. These methods cause the remedies to act more gently on a deeper level, and speed the cure of complex chronic diseases without causing undue aggravations. For more information about these techniques, please read my document "Hahnemann's Advanced Methods" in the archives of the Homeopathy Mailing List or, if necessary, contact David Little@maui.net for a copy.

Proper case management is one more reason why the maxims of the single remedy and the minimal dose are very important. How do we know which remedy is causing what effects after we have given a combination of remedies in 200, 1M and 10M on three consecutive days? There also must be some discrimination between aggravations caused by the primary action of a homeopathic remedy and healing reactions caused by the secondary action of the vital force according to Hering's laws. Such a situation demands a deeper study of symptomatology, in which ST is very weak. This brings us to another point, the routine treatment of inherited miasms with all the major nosodes.

Sequential Therapy and Anti-miasmic Treatment

After the removal of all of the acquired blockages along the time-line, the sequential therapist begins the treatment of the inherited miasms. It is certainly a theoretical truth that everyone has all of the miasms to one degree or another. Nevertheless, to move from this assumption to the routine use of all the major nosodes on every patient is certainly a great leap. Also, at the same time, it is said in ST that there is a fixed order to the treatment of inherited miasms. First psora is treated with Psorinum, second TB with Tuberculinum, third sycosis with Medorrhinum, and fourth syphilis with Syphilinum. This seems to suppose that the inherited miasms are in some fixed order.

The concept of a fixed order of miasms is a contradiction of the principles on which ST is based, the time-line. How can there be a fixed order of the layers of the inherited miasms when they have also developed in time and space? Certainly, if a father has acquired sycosis, there is the greatest possibility that the inherited effects of the miasm will be observable in his child. This can often be seen in the very physical constitution and mental temperament of the child as well as the symptom syndromes present.

Does this child need Psorinum, then Tuberculinum, and finally Medorrhinum? Certainly not, because as the time-line extends backward through the generations, it must reflect individual mixtures of miasms not fixed program schedules given to everyone. Maybe the child needs Thuja, Natrum sulphuricum, or some other anti-sycotic remedy, rather than a nosode. The assumption that inherited miasms can only be removed by nosodes is unfounded. There are manifold case histories that prove this basic point. Exposing everyone to the exact same series of all the major nosodes has no basis in the time-line nor in the signs and symptoms of the miasmic syndromes.

Sequential therapists maintain that the basis of its fixed series of remedies can be found in Hahnemann's writings. Although Hahnemann did give directions about the order of treatment of specific miasmic combinations in The Chronic Diseases, he did not give one set of instructions for use in all conditions. The series followed in ST has its origin in Hahnemann's instructions on how to treat a person with a syphilitic background who contracts sycosis that is suppressed, thus activating latent psora producing a complex disease. This example can be found on the last page of Hahnemann's discourse on Sycosis.

Under the above conditions, Hahnemann suggested first the use of an anti-psoric, then an anti-sycotic, and lastly, the anti-syphilitic. This is the exact order that the layers formed in this particular situation. In the next chapter on Syphilis he gives a different order of remedies where an anti-psoric is followed by an anti-syphilitic, because it is a different condition. This demonstrates that Hahnemann's treatment was individualized and not a fixed order of anti-miasmic remedies.

To prove that a person needed these nosodes, the sequential therapist points to the so-called "healing reactions" these remedies induce. Dr. Elmiger states he has given Psorinum 10M to every client, and found in many who were not psoric that the nosode still triggered the manifold symptoms of psora! Well, If you given Psorinum in 200/1M/10M to everyone on three successive days you are going to produce proving symptoms in many individuals! Is it any surprise that many of the clients undergoing this treatment would manifest "skin eruptions, bronchitis, migraines" and other such symptoms (many of which they never had before)?

Dr. Elmiger also speaks of giving Tuberculinum, Medorrhinum and Syphilinum in the same manner and getting the same "more or less vivid and explosive" reactions. Symptoms that are produced by a primary action of a potentized remedy are no proof that the person "needed" the remedy. Such an experiment only shows that homeopathic remedies are capable of producing symptoms. The symptoms caused by a primary action are signs of an improper dose, partial simillimums and wrong remedies. It is only the conservative, curative, secondary reaction of the vital force that produces true healing effects. Under the controlled direction of the vital force such healing crises are temperate, brief and complete in nature. It is by the careful application of the cardinal homeopathic principles that one attains the "rapid, gentle and permanent cure" elucidated in Aphorism 2 of The Organon.