The water has memory?!

That's what the homeoquacks claim, yes. However, this has no basis in science.

There is no evidence that water has memory.

Edit: No, that was nonsense: http://www.chem1.com/CQ/clusqk.html

That pretty shape was in fact a snowflake...

Edit: Nothing remotely resembling scientific evidence from the alties then; just drive by thumbs down.

That is exactly what they claim. But it is not part of Hahnmanns original idea. It was invented before the concepts of atoms and molecules were common knowledge. So at that time it was plausible that the effect could be stronger when diluted and succussed.

As time went by, it became clear that no molecules of the original substance is present in the homeopathic remedy. Instead of abandoning the idea of homeopathy, the homeopaths rationalised that water somehow remembers what it has been in contact with.

It is an open question how the water forgets all about other stuff it has been in contact with. The other day someone suggested that distilled water has forgotten everything. At least it is plausible that distilled water has no recollection of what it has been in contact with.

EDIT:
Gary is absolutely correct about the significance attributed to succussion. And homeopaths would appear much more consistent in their rationalisations if they only used this to explain why water doesn't remember everything else it has been in contact with.

Yes water has memory. It remembers the Pharaohs who were rained on, it remembers about the cholera epidemic and victim it passed through, the sewerage works, the urine ...

No it really doesn't make sense does it. Apparently it only remembers stuff if it's smacked against the bible. The same method used to make kids remember their bible class - except in the kids' case it was smacked over their heads.

That is the reasoning behind it. smacking kids over the head with the bible helps them remember stuff, therefor smacking a vial of water against the bible helps it remember stuff. It really is as logical as that.

Water only has a homeopathic memory if it has been potentized by succussion, which is a very specific shaking method and is done between dilution steps.

The procedure is:
1 part of the drug and 9 or 99 parts of alcohol/water is taken in a new, well cleansed and labeled glass phial, keeping upper 1/3rd of the phial remains empty. This space is kept empty to generate friction, when the liquid strikes the walls of the phial.

The phial is then corked tightly. Shake until the contents are well mixed.

The phial is grasped in the right hand with the thumb held firmly over the cork and the bottom of the phial is placed on the pulp of the little finger of the right hand. The remaining fingers tightly grasp the phial.

The phial is struck with ten powerful downward strokes of the arm or by striking the closed right hand against open palm of the left hand or a hard, but elastic body, like a leather pad, letting each stroke terminate in a jerk. Hahnemann advised two strokes in the 5th edition and ten strokes in the sixth edition.

The strokes should be forceful, successive, each stroke ending in a jerk, from uniform distance with uniform strength.

Thanks to this very scientific method your water is now potentized with the energies of the original substance. The more the dilution and succussion steps are done, the more potent the remedy gets.
You body's vital force can now act with the energy to expel your disease.

This may have sounded feasible 200 years ago, today we call it WITCHCRAFT.

http://www.homeopathycommunity.com/Tritu…

Often, the desire to believe ridiculously impossible things over-rides any rational objection, because the desperate hope that a fantasy can substitute for reality is more emotionally satisfying than cold, unpleasant reality. That is what makes religion, homeopathic medicine, and con-men possible.

Yes, it is true that they say that. It doesn't gel with reality, however.

They can't really explain how it works, but they'll probably use the word "quantum" in their attempt.

Edit: Thumbs down, yet no explanations - Interesting.

Water does not have a memory,

If it did it would remember all the poo and urine it had ever come into contact with and it would also be very dilute.... and therefore more powerful. If Water has a memory then homeopathy is full of Poo

Water has no memory.

It doesn't work, water has no memory and no they can't explain it either.

Water does not have a memory.

Oh-Oh!! All these years I've been succussing my remedies with the wrong hand!!

Southpaw

I don't know enough about homeopathy to answer your question, but I do remember watching a video called "What the bleep do we know"and there being a certain experiment done using water. There were samples of water from one source and each sample was given a word. Love, hate, happy, sad... etc. I don't remember details of the experiment in terms of how many people did this, but i know that at least one person held the sample of water, stated the word, then thought of a memory that projected this emotion or something like that. Each sample was then frozen and analyzed. The results showed that the negative emotions had similar crystalization patterns and the positive emotions also had similar patterns, but that there were distinct differences between the positive and negative ones. I'm not sure if this even answers your question, or if it had any validity, but it was a cool concept. Google water crystals and emotions and you'll get more info if you're interested

Enjoying homeopathy baiting hey Jaimel?

Personal experience on this forum