Dana Ullman is a well-known writer, educator and long-time advocate for homeopathy, with decades of work helping make homeopathic ideas more accessible to the wider public. In a recent article he offers a helpful and very readable way of thinking about how homeopathic remedies may work, especially for those who find the idea of high dilutions difficult to understand.
One of the key points he makes is that homeopathy is not simply about dilution. It is about dilution combined with succussion, the repeated shaking of the remedy during preparation. Ullman suggests that this process may help create ultra-small particles, or nanoparticles, from the original substance. So rather than thinking of a remedy as “just water” or “nothing there,” he invites us to consider that something more subtle may be taking place.
He uses simple examples to explain this. A tiny spark can light a fire. A small key can open a large door. A radio signal cannot be seen, but it still carries information. In a similar way, homeopathic remedies may act more like gentle signals to the body than like large chemical doses.
This is not such a strange idea when we look at the natural world. The body is already very responsive to tiny amounts of certain substances. Hormones, enzymes and other biological messengers can have meaningful effects in very small quantities. Modern research into nanoparticles also shows that very small particles can sometimes behave quite differently from larger amounts of the same substance.
Ullman gives the example of gold. In its ordinary form, gold is not considered magnetic. Yet when gold is reduced to nanoparticles, it can display different properties. This reminds us that we should be careful about assuming that a substance always behaves the same way at every scale.
The broader suggestion is that homeopathy may sit more comfortably within the fields of nanomedicine, biological signalling and information medicine than many people realise. Rather than forcing the body into a particular response, a remedy may be understood as offering a subtle nudge, supporting the body’s own capacity to restore balance.
Of course, this article is not claiming to settle every question about homeopathy. But it does offer a thoughtful way to move beyond the old claim that “there’s nothing in it.” It opens the door to a more curious and respectful conversation about small doses, subtle signals, and the remarkable responsiveness of living systems.
For those of us who use and value homeopathy, this kind of explanation can be useful. It gives us another way to talk with people who are interested, but perhaps unsure how to make sense of it. Homeopathy does not need to be reduced to chemistry alone, but neither does it need to sit outside science altogether. There may be more going on than we currently know how to fully measure or explain.
In simple terms, Ullman is inviting us to consider that homeopathic remedies may work not through quantity, but through pattern, signal and response.
Read Dana’s article in full and subscribe to his Substack here: https://danaullman.substack.com/
