Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 08:19:35 -0700
From: John Benneth <john@marius.net>

To: James Randi <randi@randi.org>

CC: Gary E Schwartz <gschwart@U.Arizona.EDU>,
        Brian Josephson <bdj10@cam.ac.uk>, John Benneth <johnbenneth@juno.com>,
        skeptics-forum@egroups.com,
        Jacques Benveniste <jbenveniste@digibio.com>,
        Winston Wu <WWu777@aol.com>, Robert Park <exoffice@aps.org>,
        Wayne Jonas <wjonas@mxa.usuhs.mil>, Andy Bormeth <andy@boericke.com>,
        "David Reilly, M.D." <davidreilly1@compuserve.com>,
        "Tim Lancaster, M.D." <tim.lancaster@public-health.oxford.ac.uk>,
        Naomi Shapiro <naomi.shapiro@ny.email.gs.com>,
        Syd Baumel <sgb@escape.ca>, Wesley Thuro <happydog@sympatico.ca>,
        Dan Kettler <dan@psicounsel.com>, Eric Carlson <ecarlson@wfu.edu>,
        Mike Epstein <mike@mikeepstein.com>,
        Richard Milton <richard@milton.win-uk.net>,
        Eugene Mallove <editor@infinite-energy.com>,
        Iris R Bell <ibell@U.Arizona.EDU>, Andrew Harter <jref@mindspring.com>,
        Earl Staelin <estaelin@aol.com>, Patton Echols <mpecho@rdrop.com>,
        Ravi Narayan <ravi@streamcenter.com>,
        Wallace Sampson <76453.1565@compuserve.com>,
        Richard Winelander <RWINE@aol.com>, Boiron <ddi-boiron@boiron.fr>,
        Andy Bormeth <andy@boericke.com>, Dana Ullman <dullman@igc.apc.org>

Subject: OPEN LETTER TO JAMES RANDI

Dear Mr. Randi,

If two French researchers in 1953 (Alphonse Gay and Jean Boiron)
could use the dielectric stress test to identify homeopathic
test items in double blind tests 600 times with 100% accuracy,
and three other teams could replicate it, what makes anyone
think it couldn't be used to win your offer to pay over a
million dollars for proof that  homeopathy is real?
    The literature clearly demonstrates without the shadow of a
doubt that we have found the method by which to take the Psychic
Challenge award, as you challenged me to do in January of 1999.
    If you still want to create the controls using a magnet, so
much the better, as long as we also make the comparison with the
test items' untampered  liquid vehicles as controls. And if you
want your own man to hold the key to the double blind, so much
the better, as long as we also run a test  with unbiased
participants holding the key.
     The dielectric is only one method amongst many that can now
be used to take your prize.
     I'm sending a copy of this letter to Naomi Shapiro, your
account representative at the Philadephia branch of Goldman
Sachs, where the James Randi Prize Account is reportedly kept,
and others who have indicated an interest in your offer,
including Eugene Mallove, who made a critical review of Robert
Parks' "Voodoo Science", and Ravi Narayan, who made a review of
your lecture at Bell Labs.
     You will also find noted researchers of the homeopathic
phenomenon as well as critics on the cc list.
     I'm also sending a copy to Boiron, the world's largest
manufacturer of homeopathic remedies. They sponsor the Boiron
Institute, who can help in getting copies of the original
dielectric studies by Gay and Boiron.
     I've also included references to the published reports of
other researchers who have used the dielectric stress test who
have replicated the dielectric stress test for homeopathic
remedies and corroborative reports of successful physical
measures..
 

Best regards,

John Benneth
503 674 7578
The Phoenix

PS: I would like to set up a demonstration of the dielectric
double blind in Ft. Lauderdale as soon as possible. Professor
Gary Schwartz of the Human Energy Systems Laboratory at the
University of Arizona in Tucson has written to me that he is
interested in replicating the dielectric test. Professor Eric
Carlson of Wake Forest University in North Carolina has
discussed with me a protocol for the dielectric stress test and
has made numerous suggestions to which I am amenable, as I
believe that any investigation of this method, or any method
that demonstrates the action of homeopathic remedies, is
worthwhile.

REFERENCES:
1951 Gay, Alphonse. Using a modified galvanometer, Gay
discovered
that high dilutes have dielectric stress indices. Presence
of a Physical Factor in Homeopathic Solutions, Edition des
Laboratories P.H.R.,
Lyon France
1952 Gay-Boiron , A Study of the Physics of Dynamization,
Edition des
Laboratories P.H.R.,  Lyon France,
1953   Gay/Boiron. Abstract. In collaboration with Alphonse Gay,
Jean Boiron
demonstrated in a double blind trial that high dilutes have
dielectric indices.
Out of 600 selections they identified the high dilute from plain
water using
Gay's mercury armature galvanometer.
A Physical Demonstration of the Real Existence of the
Homeopathic
Remedy, Edition des Laboratories P.H.R., Lyon France

1982 Jussal, Meera, Dua, & Mishra. Report. Here they measured
capacitance,  resistance and dielectric dispersion, H-ion
concentrations, electrode potentials using an LCR bridge,
time domain reflectance spectroscopy, digital pH meter,
and nonpolarising electrodes.  Physical effects on the
suspending medium by compounds asymptotically infinite
dilutions,
Hahnemannian Gleanings, 3: 114-120

1983 Jussal, Meera, & Dua Dielectric dispersion of weak
alcoholic solutions of some drugs at high frequencies using
Time Domain Spectroscopy
Hahnemannian Gleanings, 8: 358-366

In addition to many biological studies, to further support my
claim that homeopathic remedies have physical measures here are
a couple dozen more
reports:
Proof for homeopathy through Physics-  23 reports
     Various techniques have been employed to demonstrate
that there are physical differences between potentized
solutions and the vehicle, (see Stephenson,
1955; Wurmser, 1967)

1941 Heintz, reference UV spectra, conductivity measurements and
IR
analysis Physikalische Wirkungen hochverdunnter potenzierter
Substanzen Naturwissenchaften
29:713-25

1948 Wurmser and Loch. Abstract. Using a photo optic device they
named the
micromylometer, these two researchers dissevered optical density
measures for
high dilutes,
presaging later spectroscopic and NMR measures. Congress
National des Societe Homeopathique de France, 1948

 1964 Heintz. Reference. Polarography, Les "maximums" del la
Polarographie et la force electromotrice de mouvement C.R.
Seances Academy Science 1962

1966 Smith & Boericke, nuclear magnetic resonance
spectroscopy. Report. Smith and Boericke in this report
demonstrate that high
dilutes can be
identified using nuclear magnetic resonance.
Modern instrumentation for the evaluation of homeopathic
drug structure, Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy

1966 Brucato & Stephenson. Using a 50 KV Alternating Current
Dielectric Tester, these two researchers repeated the discovery
by Gay and
Boiron that homeopathic remedies have dielectric stress indices.

Dielectric strength testing of homeopathic
dilutions of HgCl2,
Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy 59:9, 10: 281
286
1966

1968 Smith & Boericke. Report. The use of NMR is consolidated
with NMR
spectroscopy, Changes caused by succussion on N.M.R.
patterns and bioassay of bradykinin triacetate (BKTA) succussion
and dilutions,
J Am Inst Hom 1968: 61 197-212

1972 Heintz, Reference electronic measures, La mesure de
l'action de
dilutions successives a l'aide, Ann Hom Fr 14:275-84

1975 Young, Nuclear magnetic resonance studies of
succussed solutions J Am Inst Hom
68:8-16

1975 Luu-D-Vinh. Raman-Laser spectroscopy. Optical
density measures are corroborated here using the Raman laser.
Etude des dilutions homeopathiques par effet Raman -Laser
Ann Hom Fr. `975 17: 433-44

1979 Kumar and Jussal, surface tension measurements, A
hypothesis on the nature of homeopathic potencies, Br
Homeopathic Journal 68: 197-204

1980 Boiron & Luu-D-Vinh, Raman Laser spectroscopy, Etude
de l'action de la chaleur sur les dilutions hahnemanniennes
par spectrometrie raman. Ann Hom
Fr  22 (2):113-18

1983 Sacks, A.D. Abstract. Nuclear magnetic resonance
spectroscopy, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy of
homeopathic remedies J. Holist. Med. 5, 2: 172-177

1988 De Guidice, E. Preparata, G. Vitello, G. Water as a
free electric dipole laser Phys. Rev. Lett. 61: 1085-1088

1990 Weingartner, O. Nuclear magnetic resonance NMR
features that relate to homeoapthic Sulfur potencies Berlin,
J. Res. Hom. 1, 1:61-68

1992 Demangeat, L., Demangeat, C., Gries, P., Poitevin, B.,
Constanstinesco, A. Nuclear magnetic resonance. Report. In this
study vortexed potencies of Silicea in a concentration of 1.66X
10-5 to 1.66x 10-29 moll Silicea in 0.9% NaCl were investigate
by means of NMR. Special attention was to the relaxation
times T1 and T2 of the hydrogen protons Modifications des temps
de relaxation RMN a 4 MHz des protons du solvant dans les tres
hautres
diltuions salines de silice/lactose

1994 Shui-Yin Lo. Report. Photo microscopy, (see pictures of Ice

Electric, or "homeopathic" crystals below) In this unusual
and controversial experiment, the Lo team, according to Dana
Ullman, used an still yet unknown technique to actually
photograph hydrogen bonding in water, revealing the
suggestion that homeopathic drugs are a type of liquid crystal
"Anomalous State of Ice," Modern Physics Letters B,
10,19(1996):909-919.
See also, "Physical Properties of
Water with IE Structures," Modern Physics Letters B, 10,
19(1996) : 921-930.

1996 Conte, Berliocchi, Lasgne and Vernot, nuclear
magnetic resonance, infrared, beta scintillation. Report. In
this amazing
little book this interdisciplinary French team presents the
first nuclear theory for homeopathic drugs. According to the
authors
when matters disappears by dilution and is potentized by
succussion, it leaves the opposite of the well known super dense
black
hole, what the authors call a WHITE HOLE and discuss a new
atomic particle, the HYPERPROTON. This investigation they
believe reveals the first model for the drive of animated
matter. In this report they evidence  the emission of Beta
radiation from homeopathic drugs. Theory of High Dilutions,
Polytechnica,
Paris

1999 Wodtke & Benneth. Report. Kirlian photography  This was my
first experiment into homeopathic research. Not knowing
that the literature abounded with examples at the time, it was
thought that there were no methods by which to detect or
identify
homeopathic substances. In Jean Elmiger's Rediscovering
Real Medicine homeopathic remedies reportedly can
be identified through the use of electrography, or Kirlian
photography. Using the Web. Chris Wodtke possessed
what he claimed was the most advanced Kirlian photography
equipment available. He agreed to attempt to
identify five samples of homeopathic drugs and controls in
a blind test. He was sent two bottles of homeopathic
Anacardium and three bottles with identical control solutions.
He succeeded in identifying four out of the five in this test.
It is believed that the fifth item, which was misidentified, may
have
become potentized by the previous samples. World Wide Web

1999 Vittorio Elia and Marcella Niccoli, thermography,
"Thermodynamics of Extremely Diluted Aqueous Solutions,"
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, June, 827:241-248.

1999 John Benneth, hydrogen ion concentrations were measured and
a
pH change induced by dilution and succussion of acetic
acid (vinegar). World Wide Web

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