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The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine

Entanglement, Knowledge, and Their Possible Effects on the Outcomes of Blinded Trials of Homeopathic Provings

Lionel R. Milgrom

Published Apr 1, 2006• 19 citations
Publisher

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: In two recent studies of double-blind placebo-controlled homeopathic provings, entanglement was reported to have occurred between verum and placebo arms of the trials. This contrasts directly with the entanglement-disrupting effects of blinding, recently proposed as the reason for the failure of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to demonstrate unequivocally the efficacy of homeopathy. It is proposed here that such entanglement between remedy and placebo during these double-blind placebo controlled provings is the direct result of the blinding process. METHOD: A previously developed theoretical model of entanglement in homeopathy among patient, practitioner, and remedy (called PPR entanglement) was used in this investigation. RESULTS: In agreement with the results from the proving studies, the model predicts that application of the double-blind RCT methodology to homeopathic provings leads to entanglement between both remedy and placebo arms of the trial. CONCLUSIONS: These theoretical findings can be understood in terms of the act of blinding leading to loss of information because of quantum-like state superposition of the verum and placebo proving groups. This is compared to conclusions drawn from the well-known double-slit experiment of quantum physics, and quantum information processing. It leads to a suggestion for testing entanglement in homeopathic provings.

DOI
10.1089/acm.2006.12.271

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A quantum-like model of homeopathy clinical trials: importance of in situ randomization and unblinding

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BACKGROUND: The randomized controlled trial (RCT) is the 'gold standard' of modern clinical pharmacology. However, for many practitioners of homeopathy, blind RCTs are an inadequate research tool for testing complex therapies such as homeopathy. METHODS: Classical probabilities used in biological sciences and in medicine are only a special case of the generalized theory of probability used in quantum physics. I describe homeopathy trials using a quantum-like statistical model, a model inspired by quantum physics and taking into consideration superposition of states, non-commuting observables, probability interferences, contextuality, etc. RESULTS: The negative effect of blinding on success of homeopathy trials and the 'smearing effect' ('specific' effects of homeopathy medicine occurring in the placebo group) are described by quantum-like probabilities without supplementary ad hoc hypotheses. The difference of positive outcome rates between placebo and homeopathy groups frequently vanish in centralized blind trials. The model proposed here suggests a way to circumvent such problems in masked homeopathy trials by incorporating in situ randomization/unblinding. CONCLUSION: In this quantum-like model of homeopathy clinical trials, success in open-label setting and failure with centralized blind RCTs emerge logically from the formalism. This model suggests that significant differences between placebo and homeopathy in blind RCTs would be found more frequently if in situ randomization/unblinding was used.

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The possibility that well-documented types of reaction to the prescribed homeopathic medicine may be outcomes of PPR entanglement is discussed within the context of a previously described model for homeopathy that incorporates GHZ three-particle entanglement and Weak Quantum Theory.

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BACKGROUND: Quantum theory's notions of non-locality and entanglement have previously informed attempts to model the therapeutic process. Of these, Weak Quantum Theory (WQT) and Patient- Practitioner-Remedy (PPR) entanglement are developing into mathematically- based models of homeopathy. OBJECTIVE: The present study attempted to identify fundamental concepts within quantum field theory (QFT) that could be used to broaden the scope of PPR entanglement models, prior to constructing a more rigorous mathematical treatment. METHODS: In QFT, particles and forces are considered as fully interacting relativistic quantum matter and force fields, respectively. These interactions are visualized graphically as spacetime Feynman diagrams. Further, these interacting field systems can have ground states with broken symmetry; the so-called Higgs field being responsible for this symmetry breaking. In the new model, patient, practitioner and remedy are imagined as fully interacting quantum-like fields; patients and practitioners in terms of quantum matter-type fields, and remedies and diseases as quantum interaction-type fields. RESULTS: Disease manifestation by the Vital Force (Vf) could be an event similar to spontaneous symmetry breaking in QFT: the curative remedy acting to restore the broken symmetry of the Vf field. Entanglement between patient, practitioner, and remedy might be representable as Feynman-like diagrams. CONCLUSION: QFT demonstrates that quantum properties can be physical without being observable. Thus, an underlying similarity in discourse could exist between homeopathy and quantum theory which could be useful for modelling the homeopathic process. This preliminary investigation also suggested that key elements of previous quantum models of the homeopathic process, may become unified within this new QFT-type approach.

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BACKGROUND: Factors that participate in the biological changes associated with a placebo are not completely understood. Natural evolution, mean regression, concomitant procedures and other non specific effects are well-known factors that contribute to the "placebo effect". In this article, we suggest that quantum-like correlations predicted by a probabilistic modeling could also play a role. RESULTS: An elementary experiment in biology or medicine comparing the biological changes associated with two placebos is modeled. The originality of this modeling is that experimenters, biological system and their interactions are described together from the standpoint of a participant who is uninvolved in the measurement process. Moreover, the small random probability fluctuations of a "real" experiment are also taken into account. If both placebos are inert (with only different labels), common sense suggests that the biological changes associated with the two placebos should be comparable. However, the consequence of this modeling is the possibility for two placebos to be associated with different outcomes due to the emergence of quantum-like correlations. CONCLUSION: The association of two placebos with different outcomes is counterintuitive and this modeling could give a framework for some unexplained observations where mere placebos are compared (in some alternative medicines for example). This hypothesis can be tested in blind trials by comparing local vs. remote assessment of correlations.

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Lionel R. Milgrom

In criticising papers which recently appeared in Homeopathy, Leick claims that no double blind randomised clinical trials (DBRCTs) show that homeopathy is efficacious, and that specific effects of substances diluted beyond Avogadro's limit are implausible. He states that generalised entanglement models should be able to improve the design of experiments to test ultra-high dilutions, and disparages the authors' understandings of quantum physics. The paper responds to those criticisms. Several DBRCTs have shown that homeopathy has effects which are not due to placebo and these are now supported by preclinical work. This area of theory is in its infancy and it is unreasonable to expect it to have generated experiments at this stage. The authors have used accepted interpretations of quantum theory: Leick's view is coloured by skepticism concerning homeopathy.

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Lionel R. Milgrom

BACKGROUND: One of the principle obstacles to homeopathy's general acceptance has been its perceived lack of sound theoretical basis within accepted deterministic bio-medical thought. This impasse might be circumvented if instead, appeal was made to the nondeterministic concepts of the physical sciences, e.g., quantum theory and its notions of entanglement, nonlocality, and uncertainty; Weak Quantum Theory (WQT) and Patient-Practitioner-Remedy (PPR) Entanglement representing two new complementary strands of thought with the potential to create a new theoretical basis for homeopathy. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this present study was to generate a preliminary mathematical model of the action and reaction of the Vital Force to diseases and remedies within the developing contexts of WQT and PPR Entanglement, based on the metaphor of a hypothetical 'quantized' gyroscope as its physical representation. METHODS: The physics of gyroscopic motion was combined with the quantum theory describing rotating objects (without some of its imposed limitations, e.g., Planck's constant, in line with the relaxation of some of orthodox quantum theory's axioms as proposed by WQT). Thus, increase or decrease in the rate of spin of the Vital Force's hypothetical gyroscope was described in terms of quantized 'shift operators' constructed mathematically from the known 'complementarity' of a remedy's primary and secondary symptoms, expressed in the notation of complex numbers. Ultimately, this generates a hypothetical 'wave function' for the Vital Force. RESULTS: This hypothetical 'wave function' has been used to illustrate certain empirical observations of homeopathy and conventional medicine, e.g., the biphasal action of remedies encapsulated in the Arndt-Schulz Law, Wilder's Law of Initial Value, and some of the results of homeopathic provings. CONCLUSION: This preliminary theoretical analysis suggests that perhaps these less well-known empirical observations should be reinvestigated and, if confirmed, could begin ultimately to provide a much-needed alternative to the doubleblind placebo-controlled trial as a means of investigating and testing the efficacy of homeopathy.

Complementary Medicine Research•Jan 1, 2004•22 citations
INTRODUCTION: In two recent studies of double-blind placebo-controlled homeopathic provings, entanglement was reported to have occurred between verum and placebo arms of the trials. This contrasts directly with the entanglement-disrupting effects of blinding, recently proposed as the reason for the failure of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to demonstrate unequivocally the efficacy of homeopathy. It is proposed here that such entanglement between remedy and placebo during these double-blind placebo controlled provings is the direct result of the blinding process. METHOD: A previously developed theoretical model of entanglement in homeopathy among patient, practitioner, and remedy (called PPR entanglement) was used in this investigation. RESULTS: In agreement with the results from the proving studies, the model predicts that application of the double-blind RCT methodology to homeopathic provings leads to entanglement between both remedy and placebo arms of the trial. CONCLUSIONS: These theoretical findings can be understood in terms of the act of blinding leading to loss of information because of quantum-like state superposition of the verum and placebo proving groups. This is compared to conclusions drawn from the well-known double-slit experiment of quantum physics, and quantum information processing. It leads to a suggestion for testing entanglement in homeopathic provings.
BACKGROUND: The randomized controlled trial (RCT) is the 'gold standard' of modern clinical pharmacology. However, for many practitioners of homeopathy, blind RCTs are an inadequate research tool for testing complex therapies such as homeopathy. METHODS: Classical probabilities used in biological sciences and in medicine are only a special case of the generalized theory of probability used in quantum physics. I describe homeopathy trials using a quantum-like statistical model, a model inspired by quantum physics and taking into consideration superposition of states, non-commuting observables, probability interferences, contextuality, etc. RESULTS: The negative effect of blinding on success of homeopathy trials and the 'smearing effect' ('specific' effects of homeopathy medicine occurring in the placebo group) are described by quantum-like probabilities without supplementary ad hoc hypotheses. The difference of positive outcome rates between placebo and homeopathy groups frequently vanish in centralized blind trials. The model proposed here suggests a way to circumvent such problems in masked homeopathy trials by incorporating in situ randomization/unblinding. CONCLUSION: In this quantum-like model of homeopathy clinical trials, success in open-label setting and failure with centralized blind RCTs emerge logically from the formalism. This model suggests that significant differences between placebo and homeopathy in blind RCTs would be found more frequently if in situ randomization/unblinding was used.
BACKGROUND: Quantum theory's notions of non-locality and entanglement have previously informed attempts to model the therapeutic process. Of these, Weak Quantum Theory (WQT) and Patient- Practitioner-Remedy (PPR) entanglement are developing into mathematically- based models of homeopathy. OBJECTIVE: The present study attempted to identify fundamental concepts within quantum field theory (QFT) that could be used to broaden the scope of PPR entanglement models, prior to constructing a more rigorous mathematical treatment. METHODS: In QFT, particles and forces are considered as fully interacting relativistic quantum matter and force fields, respectively. These interactions are visualized graphically as spacetime Feynman diagrams. Further, these interacting field systems can have ground states with broken symmetry; the so-called Higgs field being responsible for this symmetry breaking. In the new model, patient, practitioner and remedy are imagined as fully interacting quantum-like fields; patients and practitioners in terms of quantum matter-type fields, and remedies and diseases as quantum interaction-type fields. RESULTS: Disease manifestation by the Vital Force (Vf) could be an event similar to spontaneous symmetry breaking in QFT: the curative remedy acting to restore the broken symmetry of the Vf field. Entanglement between patient, practitioner, and remedy might be representable as Feynman-like diagrams. CONCLUSION: QFT demonstrates that quantum properties can be physical without being observable. Thus, an underlying similarity in discourse could exist between homeopathy and quantum theory which could be useful for modelling the homeopathic process. This preliminary investigation also suggested that key elements of previous quantum models of the homeopathic process, may become unified within this new QFT-type approach.
BACKGROUND: Factors that participate in the biological changes associated with a placebo are not completely understood. Natural evolution, mean regression, concomitant procedures and other non specific effects are well-known factors that contribute to the "placebo effect". In this article, we suggest that quantum-like correlations predicted by a probabilistic modeling could also play a role. RESULTS: An elementary experiment in biology or medicine comparing the biological changes associated with two placebos is modeled. The originality of this modeling is that experimenters, biological system and their interactions are described together from the standpoint of a participant who is uninvolved in the measurement process. Moreover, the small random probability fluctuations of a "real" experiment are also taken into account. If both placebos are inert (with only different labels), common sense suggests that the biological changes associated with the two placebos should be comparable. However, the consequence of this modeling is the possibility for two placebos to be associated with different outcomes due to the emergence of quantum-like correlations. CONCLUSION: The association of two placebos with different outcomes is counterintuitive and this modeling could give a framework for some unexplained observations where mere placebos are compared (in some alternative medicines for example). This hypothesis can be tested in blind trials by comparing local vs. remote assessment of correlations.
In criticising papers which recently appeared in Homeopathy, Leick claims that no double blind randomised clinical trials (DBRCTs) show that homeopathy is efficacious, and that specific effects of substances diluted beyond Avogadro's limit are implausible. He states that generalised entanglement models should be able to improve the design of experiments to test ultra-high dilutions, and disparages the authors' understandings of quantum physics. The paper responds to those criticisms. Several DBRCTs have shown that homeopathy has effects which are not due to placebo and these are now supported by preclinical work. This area of theory is in its infancy and it is unreasonable to expect it to have generated experiments at this stage. The authors have used accepted interpretations of quantum theory: Leick's view is coloured by skepticism concerning homeopathy.
BACKGROUND: One of the principle obstacles to homeopathy's general acceptance has been its perceived lack of sound theoretical basis within accepted deterministic bio-medical thought. This impasse might be circumvented if instead, appeal was made to the nondeterministic concepts of the physical sciences, e.g., quantum theory and its notions of entanglement, nonlocality, and uncertainty; Weak Quantum Theory (WQT) and Patient-Practitioner-Remedy (PPR) Entanglement representing two new complementary strands of thought with the potential to create a new theoretical basis for homeopathy. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this present study was to generate a preliminary mathematical model of the action and reaction of the Vital Force to diseases and remedies within the developing contexts of WQT and PPR Entanglement, based on the metaphor of a hypothetical 'quantized' gyroscope as its physical representation. METHODS: The physics of gyroscopic motion was combined with the quantum theory describing rotating objects (without some of its imposed limitations, e.g., Planck's constant, in line with the relaxation of some of orthodox quantum theory's axioms as proposed by WQT). Thus, increase or decrease in the rate of spin of the Vital Force's hypothetical gyroscope was described in terms of quantized 'shift operators' constructed mathematically from the known 'complementarity' of a remedy's primary and secondary symptoms, expressed in the notation of complex numbers. Ultimately, this generates a hypothetical 'wave function' for the Vital Force. RESULTS: This hypothetical 'wave function' has been used to illustrate certain empirical observations of homeopathy and conventional medicine, e.g., the biphasal action of remedies encapsulated in the Arndt-Schulz Law, Wilder's Law of Initial Value, and some of the results of homeopathic provings. CONCLUSION: This preliminary theoretical analysis suggests that perhaps these less well-known empirical observations should be reinvestigated and, if confirmed, could begin ultimately to provide a much-needed alternative to the doubleblind placebo-controlled trial as a means of investigating and testing the efficacy of homeopathy.