What with time engaged in circumstantial re-arrangement and embarking on a period of semi-nomadism, I’ve written little of late. I have, however, still been prodding and irking my oft-naïve sensibility through regular Twitter trawls, continuing to be appalled at some of the material being flouted sans honte by various propagandists and apologists for homeopathy and suchlike.

There are some serious wackos out there. I never realised homeopathy could come in so many varieties/guises: it seems anything goes; and the more out there the claim, the less comfortable the claimant upon being called out thereon. Cue accusations of negativity/close-mindedness/bullying/trolling, rapid blocking (as is often the way; like that serves any purpose other than riling the blocked into taking more notice – but then these people are often attention-seekers, I think), and adoption of some decidedly vicious activity.

One such character with whom I’ve crossed pens – before (surprise, surprise) being promptly blocked – is a ‘Dr.’ Paul Theriault, who tweets under the handle, @DrPaulND. Young Paul likes to flag up that he is a ‘Doctor’. One issue: he isn’t. At least, according to his biography at his self-obsessed website, not a medical one. (The ‘medical school’ he refers to is the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in Toronto. Which, as I read it, means he does not have a bona fide medical degree; neither does he mention a Ph.D. research qualification. Thus, his entitlement to title himself ‘Doctor’ is specious at best.) Rather, like many a quack behaving like a child playing at being a doctor, he terms himself a ‘naturopath’.

Which means what? Well, allow me to direct you to someone who has far more to say on the topic than I – a former ‘naturopath’ who saw through the deluded and deceptive anti-science attitudes and practices as taught in naturopathy school. If you want the short cut, then it suffices to be aware that naturopaths are into (among a range of wacko ‘modalities’) homeopathy. And our fella ‘DrPaulNotDoctor’ flogs it big time. (With worked in plugs for his forthcoming book.) Indeed, it seems he will go to heroic lengths to impress you with his dedication to the cause.

Recently he happily – in typical self-plugging style – informed the world:

Unless ‘pepr’ is some naturopathy/homeopathy jargon, I take it that he misspelt ‘paper’, and so clicked on the link, which, rather than directing me to some authoritative research journal, instead took me to one of those many poxy, misinformation-promulgating, homeopathy-promoting websites, pitching up on a page-post entitled, The Meconium Humanum Trituration.

I freely confess that I didn’t know what meconium is. But Wikipedia (from where ‘DrPaul’ nicked the photo) soon enlightened me. Though as to what exactly he did with ‘The sample [he] derived from the drug free home birth of a friend of mine… ‘ (so why could he not take his own photograph?), I remained mystified. As such, I perhaps ought to qualify any statements I’m making by declaring my ignorance, thus leaving him retaliation room should he take the opportunity to lambast my admission that I do not wholly comprehend his ‘triturating’ and ‘proving’ of foetal faeces. Because he has not, I consider, made himself very clear. Perhaps it takes those more versed in homeopathy-speak to appreciate the language – and the intention? I’m here only discussing how I read it and trying to understand exactly what he was doing with the stuff.

According to the sub-heading of the article, DrPaulND has done two things simultaneously: trituration and proving:

‘Dr. Paul Theriault reports on his personal proving of Meconium Humanum during trituration.’

From what I’ve gleaned, the C1 to C4 denote sequential trituration ‘levels’; not number of x100 dilution potencies (which are conventionally written with the number before the letter, though it seems interchangeable). As trituration refers to grinding of an insoluble material in order (according to homeopaths) to get it into ‘solution’ (not a very fine suspension?), then must we presume that he first freeze-dried it before combining with lactose for grinding? Or just mash it together damp? Whatever, this process would ‘sweeten’ the material, handy if intending to subsequently ingest it for proving. But let’s give him the benefit of the doubt there, and take it that the proving ‘symptoms’ Paul lists are experienced merely by conducting the process of trituration. But how could that be?

Among the feelings he describes early on are ones of ‘mucky’, ‘bad’, ‘disgust’, ‘choking’, and so on. Well, that all makes perfect sense, considering the material he is working with. But reading the symptoms C1 through C3, so florid and morbid is his language one could be forgiven for taking it that ‘DrPaul’ has co-imbibed some highly psychoactive substance and is in need of psychiatric attention:

‘I’m very afraid. I am doing this trituration wrong somehow.’

‘And I’ve failed, failed, failed’

‘It is as if an elephant tusk or curved sword is stabbing me’

‘I feel like a failure.’ / ‘I feel like a terrible and worthless person right now.’ / ‘I’m incapable and I loathe myself’ / ‘I feel a profound self loathing for what I have done.’ [sic] / ‘I could be a horrid person!’ / ‘I am a horrid person’

Summarising these stages, time-demarcated by each passing hour, ‘DrPaul’ turns illeist (‘the being’ / ‘it’), and/or is wanting us to believe he is having some sort of out-of-body experience. (Golly! I’d suggest absinthe – you might find it more pleasant… and you could still add sugar to taste.) But through this series detailing his ‘mental emotional picture’ we eventually get to the uptick that is C4:

‘I feel rays of light from myself (located in the upper chest) reaching out and touching my energy body and aligning it with me, rather than what I was previously aligned with’

‘The being realizes that the circumstances it became involved in do not reflect its own inner nature, and it begins to express that inner nature into its own body and energy fields.’

Ah. Those last two words (my emphasis in bold). Don’t they tell us all we need to know? Yes, persisting with another mere hour’s worth of pummelling and you’re on the road to bliss:

‘The trituration to the C 4 step, which only requires another hour of trituration, delivers us the essential knowledge of the substance and with that the true essence of the remedy.’

Because, as more fully ‘explained’ by another dingbat site, it is during the C4 cycle that:

‘… we will come across the more spiritual side of the remedy. Here lies not only the absolute essence of the remedy, this is also our deepest and most profound individual level of functioning. Within this layer lie our life purpose, our goal and pathway.’

Elsewhere:

‘Remedies triturated to the C 4 level predominantly express the spiritual aspects, the soul, the essence of the remedy force.’

Oh, for the creative juice to come up with such lines of enigmatic poetry! (There are, we’re informed, even higher levels… which read like a dangerous acid trip.) But I guess I’m just a prosaic materialist, genuinely confused as to how ‘DrPaul’ conducted his ‘personal proving’, wondering whether he’d gone on to make serial dilutions of the stuff, and then, what?: rubbed it into his skin?; inhaled (of) it?; (injected it? – Feck!); or, ingested a dose of it? I couldn’t glean any other interpretation, and he wouldn’t answer me when queried:

But the extra detail provided at that other dingbat site made it all, err, ‘clear’:

‘During the trituration the person who is grinding the substance goes through a proving as the energy coming from the originating substance is not just transferring itself to the milk sugar, it is detaching itself from the substance and is spreading itself like a radiant field from the mortar. So the person grinding is also exposed and during the cycles of triturating this prover will notice symptoms in a certain order.’

So, I’m relieved to confirm that ‘DrPaul’ has not (at least not as far as I’m aware) actually swallowed the sweetened and diluted residual contents of a neonate’s nappy. And I’m happy to apologise to him, if he deems I’ve perceived him so.

But then… what of his offer to supply his ‘preparation’ to anyone who e-mails him? Is this at C4 potency? Or does he put it through serial dilution and succussion stages before mailing? And for what ailment? And what would they need to do with it?

I think it’s kindest to say that ‘DrPaul’ and I are what we might term philosophically misaligned. I cannot relate to the religious-lite language he and others deploy in order to promote/sell this kind of thing – because it is meaningless gobbledegook. But there are those saps with an ‘anything-goes-homeopathy’ mentality who apparently lap up the kind of silly, idiotic dross posted and self-plugged by ‘DrPaulNotDoctor’.