Some of the medicines administered by Hahnemann were poisonous; so he gave them to patients in very small, dilute doses. However, he was disturbed to learn that some of his patients reported that their symptoms worsened before becoming better. In order to prevent these “aggravations”, as he called them, he changed the method of dilution. He devised a twostep process whereby he diluted each remedy by “succussing”, or shaking it vigorously, and banging it down on a hard surface, at each stage of the dilution. He believed that by vigorously shaking a remedy the energy of a substance was released. To Hahnemann’s surprise, not only did the diluted medicines cease to produce such strong aggravations, but they also seemed to act faster and more effectively than more concentrated solutions. Although they were weaker, they were actually more potent. For this reason, Hahnemann called his new homoeopathic remedies “potentizations”. In homoeopathy, “potency” is used to describe the dilution, or strength, of a remedy.

Hahnemann continued to experiment with diluting remedies throughout his life, gradually using weaker solutions, which paradoxically became increasingly potent. The remedies became so dilute that they no longer contained a single molecule of the original substance used to make them, yet they remained extremely effective. During his lifetime, Hahnemann proved the efficacy of about 100 homoeopathic remedies. He believed that only a single remedy dose should be given, for the shortest period of time necessary, to stimulate the body’s healing power.

One of the common scales for measuring the dilutions is the centesimal scale-that is, diluting the remedy in the ratio of 1:100. For a liquid this means one part of the remedy is mixed with 99 parts of a diluent, usually either alcohol or water. This is called a 1c dilution; this is then shaken in a special way, or succussed, and one part of this is added to 99 parts of the diluent to make a 2c dilution, and so on. As you can see, levels of extreme dilution are quickly reached, and so the remedy cannot be said to be acting physically in a conventional way, and indeed an important part of the “remedy picture” is the emotional reactions that are produced. The personality of the patient is a significant factor in choosing a remedy. Paradoxically, the more dilute the remedy, the more effectively it works.

A homoeopathic practitioner may well use a very diluted remedy, to address an imbalance in our basic constitution, if there is a very clear picture that matches the individual.