ARTICLE: LM Potencies in Homeopathy
by Dr. Luc De Schepper
LM potencies, also known as Q potencies,* were developed by Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, at the end of his long and productive life. Hahnemann was constantly searching for a way to improve his method. During the last 10 years of his life, he was trying to find a way to speed up the process of cure with homeopathy while at the same time minimizing the sometimes-uncomfortable homeopathic aggravations, or intensification of symptoms, which were typical of homeopathy at that point. Hahnemann, a true Renaissance genius, was one of the greatest pharmacists of his time. He put his knowledge of pharmacy to work in developing a new method of preparing homeopathic remedies. He discovered that by making them even more dilute (diluting 1 in 500 at each step instead of 1 part in 100) he made them more gentle and could almost entirely avoid the homeopathic aggravations for the patient. Not only that, he discovered that the process of cure was speeded up so that it only took one-quarter or one-third as long. In addition, the new remedies could be easily adjusted to the individual patient because they were given daily in water (with the amounts varying from a tablespoon down to a fraction of a teaspoon) instead of once every few weeks or months in a single dose.
Hahnemann had thus hit upon a method which solved the basic concern he had about his system of healing plus advanced it further than he had dreamed possible. At the very end of his life he wrote up his great discovery in a revised edition of his masterwork, the Organon. Unfortunately he died while the manuscript of the 6th edition was at the printer; the printing ran into a snag and the manuscript was lost for nearly 100 years. It was discovered in an attic in Germany between the two World Wars. More time was needed to edit and publish it. By the time the 6th edition became widely available, the practice of homeopathy was well-established. Homeopaths were reluctant to abandon the method they already knew. Thus the LM method is still virtually unknown except in India.
Of the few practitioners of LM potencies in the US, most have learned directly or indirectly from David Little, an American who has spent many years traveling back and forth to India learning about LMs from the Indian masters and practicing with LMs in India. The best source of information about LM potencies in English is his website.
For further reading on LM potencies (in addition to the classic masterwork, the Organon itself) please see Dr. Luc's Human Condition Critical and Musculoskeletal Diseases. Rima Handley's A Homeopathic Love Story and In Search of the Later Hahnemann provide an excellent description of Hahnemann's later years and practice, of interest to the layperson and professional alike. Other books on LM potencies for professionals include Barker's LM Potencies, Chaudhury's Fifty Millesimal Potencies, and Murphy's Organon Philosophy Workbook.
*LM and Q are the Roman numerals for the 1 in 50,000 dilution of the first step in the process of making these potencies.
