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eCAM Advance Access originally published online on September 14, 2006
eCAM 2007 4(1):7-16; doi:10.1093/ecam/nel062
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© 2006 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commerical use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Review

Journeys in The Country of The Blind: Entanglement Theory and The Effects of Blinding on Trials of Homeopathy and Homeopathic Provings

Lionel R. Milgrom

Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London SW7 2AZ, UK

The idea of quantum entanglement is borrowed from physics and developed into an algebraic argument to explain how double-blinding randomized controlled trials could lead to failure to provide unequivocal evidence for the efficacy of homeopathy, and inability to distinguish proving and placebo groups in homeopathic pathogenic trials. By analogy with the famous double-slit experiment of quantum physics, and more modern notions of quantum information processing, these failings are understood as blinding causing information loss resulting from a kind of quantum superposition between the remedy and placebo.

Keywords: quantum entanglement – homeopathy – double-blind randomised controlled trials – homeopathic provings – double-slit experiment

For reprints and all correspondence: Lionel R. Milgrom, Department of Chemistry, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, UK. E-mail: l.milgrom{at}imperial.ac.uk

Received July 8, 2006; accepted August 15, 2006


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