in the physical scientific framework, it is necessary to largely eliminate its chemically material elements. This is done with the potency process. As is generally known, beyond D23 a potentized substance no longer contains any molecules at all. This fact is the main argument proponents of the materialistic paradigm use against homeopathy (“where there is nothing, there can be no effect”).
However, it is precisely this fact that is one of the main presuppositions as to why it works. Homeopathy dissects the phenomenological symptoms of illness and medicine into the minutest details and uses them as the key to open the patient's informational system. The more exactly the key fits, the better the medicine works.
Acupuncture as Informational Therapy
Acupuncture is an alternative method of treatment, but has the same goal: influencing functional processes in organisms.
The fascinating teachings of Chinese acupuncture are a particularly impressive example illustrating discoveries that were first recorded by subtly watching functional interrelations. East Asian philosophy, wisdom, and patience collected extensive knowledge regarding energetic processes and interrelationships within organisms. The knowledge of two opposite forces (yin and yang) continuously interacting as well as energy flowing throughout meridians (a complex structure subject to clear laws) opens the possibility to selectively influence harmonic and functional disruptions of the entire system. Physical stimulation such as pin pricks, warmth, and pressure applied locally—even laser light of a specific wavelength—can bring about astonishing results when applied at specific points on the body.
In modern computer studies, I. E. Dumitrescu proved that acupuncture points empirically found and known for hundreds of years indicate “ channels carrying information between an organism and its electrical environment” (Dumitrescu 1989). If that type of channel is stimulated by a pin prick, an electrical field that serves as an information carrier is established. This allows the exchange of information from both ends of the channel and also between channels (when treating several points).
The essence of ancient acupuncture can therefore be considered in terms of modern research to be a completely physical methodology operating in the informational and regulatory system of an organism.
Electro-acupuncture, a Window into the Future
In the early 1950s some interested physicians (R. De La Fuye, J. E. H. Niboyet in France, W. Schmidt in Germany) thought of combining the basics of Chinese acupuncture with the possibilities of modern electronics. They started to measure the classical acupuncture points electrically.
The actual founder of electro-acupuncture, however, is the German physician Reinhold Voll. Thanks to his diligence and extraordinary energy we now have the impressive teachings of EAV (electro-acupuncture according to Voll). Voll and his coworkers created a system of specific points used to measure organs and their surrounding areas. This system far exceeds the original Chinese acupuncture system. Generally speaking, electro-acupuncture uses a special device that emits very low electricity to measure the tension of an organism at specific acupuncture points. Voll was able to prove that there are interconnections between certain points and their respectively assigned organs and corresponding areas. According to Schmitz-Harbauer (1992), they realized that, “pathological response signals at electrically significant points on the skin correlate with pathological changes in organs, systems, or subsystems.”
Measuring the acupuncture point is not exclusively meant to measure the electrophysiological properties of tissue in and around the area of the point, rather it is meant to measure the regulatory field interrelating to the point.
The ability to electrically measure functional and energetic conditions of an organism on the epidermal layer of the skin is a medical sensation. Unfortunately, it has not been recognized as such by other than a few insiders of the electro-acupuncture community.
Even more sensational and important was the discovery of the so-called drug testing. In 1954, Voll accidentally observed that a drug held by a patient changes the measurements at the acupuncture points. Initially, this phenomenon seems unbelievable as this change also took place when the substance was contained in a glass tube. The same happened with homeopathic high-potencies, solutions that no longer contain any molecules of the substance, but only intangible information.
Kramer showed that the “energetic frequencies” of a particular substance are transmitted via metallic conductors. He corroborated that the same information can also be transmitted without a conduction medium, solely “by air” over a short distance. He concluded that the effect of the “drug test” must be caused by “electromagnetic frequencies, similar to radio wave” (Kramer 1979).
The question arose as to whether the physical information of the test substance could be transmitted by a sender-receiver system. Experiments to that effect were positive. A device was subsequently developed. This device proved to be very worthwhile in clinical practice as it simplified the drug test and saved time. A brass plate attached to the sender registers the electromagnetic information of the tested substance and sends a wireless transmission to the receiver via an amplitude modulated frequency. The patient is connected to the receiver by cables and electrodes. As is customary, the acupuncture points are measured and show the same results as if the measurement were taken via direct contact with the patient and the substance.
Toward the end of the 1950s we already had a simple procedure, comprehensible for physicians, which proved that the specific physical information of a substance can be tapped. This information clearly possesses the properties of electromagnetic oscillations and unequivocally creates measurable changes in the informational system of a patient.
These findings were breathtaking and exciting, but too far removed from the well-worn path of traditional scientific thinking. They were not able to find broad acceptance in the medical community. Despite impressive success in diagnostics and therapies, electro-acupuncture remained a medical outsider. It eventually found many supporters among open-minded German naturopaths.
Unerringly, Voll expanded the method, discovering ever more correlations and new epidermal points related to organs. EAV soon became a very complex field of knowledge not easily accessible for most people. Voll's autocratic leadership style also created resistance within the EAV community. Aspirations to improve and simplify the method soon split the association. New groups started up that developed different methodologies, but never denied the intellectual heritage of Reinhold Voll.
In the early days of electro-acupuncture a physician from Nurnberg, W. Schmidt, had his own ideas and co-founded a new independent “Arbeits-und Forschungsgemeinschaft fur bioelektronische Funktionsdiagnostik und -therapie” (BFD) (Research Community for Bioelectronic Functional Diagnostic and Therapy) with H. Vill.
The BFD developed successfully. It endeavored to simplify test methods (e.g., measuring skin conductivity, electro-impulse dermography, decoder dermography) and emphasized regulation diagnosis (Bergsmann, Maresch, Pflaum, Vill, and others).
Also interested in simplifying the EAV method, H. Schimmel pursued a different path yet again, in the early 1970s. He aimed to replace the time-consuming method of measuring many organ-specific points customary with Voll with simpler and more elegant methods. Using test ampoules of potentized organ preparations as diagnostic indicators, he found it was possible to measure just a few arbitrary points. Now known as the Vega test, this method has proven useful in practice and has found numerous proponents (Schimmel 1991).
Thanks to the various electro-acupuncture techniques, progress was made particularly in the diagnostics field. Now it was possible to show relationships between certain epidermal points and internal organs as well as functional correlations (i. e., between foci and other organisms). Using the method of drug testing, it was possible to predict the effect of homeopathic substances and allopathic drugs for the first time.