In Memoriam and Tribute: Dr. Jonathan Shore

Cutting-edge homeopathic clinician, dies at the age of 80.

A brief overview of his life’s work.

by Jay Yasgur, Pharm, MSc
[This is a second tribute to Dr. Shore appearing in AJHM – Editor]

Sometime during the second week of February 2023 another stalwart of ours made his departure to another sphere. Dr. Jonathan Shore, a pioneer in the application of bird remedies in homeopathy, made his departure from this earthly realm. [At the time of publication, the exact date of his death was unknown. – Editor]

“Homeopathy is a science that stands as a bridge between the visible and the invisible, between the laws governing this world and those governing a world we can only guess at. One doorway into the invisible world is the proving experience. A gap through which we can breach the limitations of our conventional material world. Thus, the methodology, how it is done, is critical. It is absolutely necessary to ensure that the framework of data collection is not set up to exclude or to rule as inadmissible the very data which carry the inner life of our science.” – Dr. Jonathan Shore.

Jonathan Shore, the son of a pediatrician, was born on August 6, 1943, in Cape Town, South Africa and graduated in 1960 from the Rondebosch Boys High School, which was then considered the finest preparatory school in the country. In 1968, he graduated from the medical college in Cape Town. Despite enjoying those medical school years, it was during his internship that he became disillusioned and unhappy as he found that no one, including himself, possessed an adequate definition nor understanding of what it meant to be healthy.

“The issue was all about disease, and I thought how can you measure what disease is unless you have a measure of health. So I thought I’m going to give up medicine and I’m going to search for health.” – Jonathan Shore (‘My Mind Should Be Out of the Way’: An Interview with Jonathan Shore, MD. Neil Tessler, ND, Simillimum, 17:3, pp. 44-54; p. 44, 2004).

Shore gave up his medical books and began his search for that definition in California. Perhaps it was a search to find himself.

He first moved to Berkeley in June of 1972, then Laguna Beach in August of 1975, and finally to Mill Valley in August of 1977. He started referring to himself as a homeopath in January of 1981. During this period of travel and inquiry he didn’t tell anyone he was a doctor. Repeatedly, however, he found himself continually drawn to medicine and nontraditional methods of healing in general. It was then that he realized he could not escape his path as a physician and, to that end, he became resolved.

During that search, he spent a decade of intensive study of many disciplines, including acupuncture, Tai-Chi Chuan, massage, Jungian psychology, Gestalt therapy, Bioenergetics, Rolfing, radiesthesia, iridology, herbal medicine, Bach Flower remedies, and color therapy, etc. Toward the end of that stretch of time, he had become Clinical and Executive Director of the Wholistic Health and Nutrition Institute in Mill Valley, California. That institute, founded in the mid 1970’s, was the first of its kind in the United States.

As part of that search, Shore became interested in dowsing and muscle testing, then homeopathy, and, finally, in the great historical homeopathic physician, J.T. Kent.  He felt good about his initial connection with that master. but not, necessarily, his repertory, for he thought it to be “a crazy thing made by some anal retentive.”

Shore continued his experiments with dowsing but made little progress in the way of positive results. Until one day, in 1976, when he was in a check-out line of a cafe, the cashier said, “Oh, good morning, Dr. Schore!” Jonathan thought she was talking to him while wondering how she knew him. As it turned out, shewas talking to Dr. Robert Schore, a homeopathic physician, the customer in front of him. After transactions were completed the two struck-up a conservation in which Robert Schore implored Jonathan Shore to try the repertory. Thus inspired, Shore decided to give it a more focused try and use it to repertorize a case of asthma in a teenager.¹

After receiving several doses of Sulphur 6X, his 16-year-old patient’s asthma disappeared in just three days. Shore wept from “the force of it.” That was his introduction and, one might say, awakening.²

He continued in this manner practicing acupuncture and homeopathy before finally using only homeopathy, starting in 1982 (the same year he married his wife Ana, who died about a month before him). He began a full-time homeopathic practice in the San Francisco area, both in private practice and at the Hahnemann Clinic, of which he was one of the founders in 1985. Shore also became a core faculty member of the Hahnemann College of Homeopathy and began to give lectures in the United States and across the globe.

Before all of that though, in 1977, he heard of Vithoulkas and, in 1981, attended the International Foundation for Homeopathy’s (IFH) course taught by doctors Bill Gray and Dean Crothers. With many seminars under his belt, he finally had the confidence to prescribe only homeopathic medicine, leaving acupuncture behind. Whenever George Vithoulkas would visit California, Shore spent as much time as he could at  those seminars and later even went to study with Vithoulkas in Alonissos, Greece for more intensive weeks of study. Shore, in the meantime, had become friends with the north San Franciso bay area doctor, Roger Morrison, who became a mentor of sorts and provider of assistance with questions and difficult cases.

Shore also continued his tutelage with another homeopath, Rajan Sankaran, attending his Esalen seminars. Though there was no conflict in his mind about what the innovative Indian master offered, he decided to decrease attendance at seminars like those in Esalen. He did remain connected to Sankaran’s on-going body of work, particularly what he had to say about the relationship between homeopathy and the kingdoms of nature. Shore had previously been aware of ‘kingdoms’ as he was familiar with the work of Farrington and the more contemporary British master, Llewellyn Twentyman. The miasmatic approach of Sankaran did not resonate with Shore as it was “too much of a construct” and something which he felt came between him and his patient—“My mind should be out of the way.”

At this point his approach became increasingly intuitive, which helped him solve about half of his cases. The other half were solved using the traditional method —repertorization and materia medica study. This seems to be for some a common scenario as one becomes an increasingly skilled practitioner.

In the Tessler interview, Shore relates his initial foray into the bird remedies when he prescribed Falcon (Falco peregrinus). Shore describes this pivotal moment in his book, Birds – Homeopathic Remedies from the Avian Realm (2004; with Anneke Hogeland and the late Judy Schriebman). While studying a case he’d been involved with for several years, the client told him about dreams in which she was building wings and collecting feathers. After pondering the kingdom approach of Sankaran he thought “maybe it’s a bird.” When this patient returned to him for a follow-up, an eagle dream was related which led him to prescribe Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), based on Jeremy Sherr’s recent proving of that bird, and the remedy worked very well.

After this success, Shore and his patient, along with the patient’s mother, who had been enrolled as a Hahnemann College student, proved Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). From there his intense interest in ‘bird as remedy’ arose like the Phoenix.

This seminal book provides a detailed description of fifteen bird provings, as well as a complete overview of the avian kingdom. For each bird, the core idea is presented as well as a number of outstanding key aspects. Proving information and cases from various practitioners help complete the picture of each bird.³

“The intent of this book is to bring together the currently available information on this group of remedies in a form which will facilitate both a good grasp of the characteristics of the group as a whole and the ability to focus down simply upon its individual members. Thus, emphasis is placed not upon the small details but is rather weighted between the broad generals and the particular individualizing characteristics of each remedy. Although the body of knowledge in relation to these remedies is still in the early stages of development, I believe we have sufficient data to paint pictures that are accurate in their broad outlines.” – Jonathan Shore, MD. (from the introduction to the book.)

Julie Geraghty, in her review of this book (Homeopathy, 96:4, pp. 283,4, 2007), had this to say: “[The authors] have synthesized information from many sources, covering themes from classical provings [and other types of provings as well] done by others of better-known bird remedies like Peregrine Falcon (Misha Norland) and Whooper Swan (Jeremy Sherr), to lesser known remedies like Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) and Brown Pelican (Pelicanus occidentalis), introduced by Jonathan Shore … As this is the first definitive book on homeopathic bird remedy pictures, I am sure that the differentiating features between the various remedies will be clarified with time. My experience is that Jonathan Shore’s work has helped hugely towards understanding when a bird remedy is indicated, but finding the exact simillimum is not always as easy … We need more reference books like this to fill in the detail as our collective clinical experience with bird patients expands, and I hope that more bird provings will be done by Jonathan Shore and others.”

Other bird remedies in this book include, Great Horned Owl, Scarlet Macaw, Andean Condor, Ring Dove, Saker Falcon, Turkey Vulture, Raven’s blood, Bald Eagle, Humboldt Penguin.

Jonathan commented: “The birds hold a special attraction for me because of their lightness, their desire for freedom, and the fact that they partake, in a way, of another world. For years people had been pressing me to write a book, but I always felt that I had nothing special to say. Now that excuse was no longer valid. I don’t know if you have ever tried to produce a book, but it’s an incredible amount of work. I knew I could never do it myself; so I approached my two colleagues, Anneke Hogeland and Judy Schriebmann. We worked together for more than a year. They did an amazing job. I am hardly ever satisfied with the end result of my efforts, but this time the result really exceeded my expectations. I feel we have set a standard for homeopathic publishing, both in terms of aesthetic, user friendliness and content. The book is a practical work of art in its own right, so pleasing to the eye yet so accessible as regards content. It is divided into three sections. The first is a comprehensive overview of the family followed by the core idea, key features, main rubrics, illustrations, mythology and natural history of 15 remedies. The second section are case histories for each of the remedies, and the third is the proving information for each remedy. Thus it is easy to go quickly to the essential information, yet the basis for that information can be researched and studied if the reader wishes to go deeper. ( https://hpathy.com/homeopathy-interviews/jonathan-shore. Dec. 15, 2004 )

In 1992, Shore was awarded honorary membership in the Faculty of Homeopathy, the British homeopathic medical society. Over the years he was also involved in various capacities with the American Institute of Homeopathy (AIH) Board and served for a short term as editor of the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy (currently known as the American Journal of Homeopathic Medicine).

1. Robert Malcolm Schore (July 13-1943 – April 15-2016) received his medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1969. He found homeopathy through Vithoulkas’ book, Homoeopathy; Medicine of the New Man, when a friend sent it to him. Then, in 1974, after practicing allopathic medicine for five years, he switched to a full-time classical homeopathic medical practice. In the late 1970s and early 80s he studied with Jost Künzli, MD in St. Gallen, Switzerland. He learned cranial osteopathy in 1983 and integrated that into his medical practice. Dr. Schore was president of the California State Homeopathic Medical Society from 1977 to 1978 and, from 1979 to 1989, president of The Hahnemann Foundation. This homeopathic educational foundation sponsored the first integral English translation of the 6th edition of Hahnemann’s Organon. Schore edited the high quality, bi-monthly, classical journal, Homeotherapy, from 1980 to 1985, taking it over after Alain Naude retired.
2. “My most memorable case is one from 30 years ago. This was the one that converted me to homeopathy. I had been aware of homeopathic remedies for some years and was using them but not in any classical sense. I tried all sorts of things, dowsing, muscle testing type stuff, keynotes, etc. The remedies never worked. I believed with my mind that they could work but not with my heart. That is, I had never actually experienced that it could happen. By chance I met another physician who was studying homeopathy and he was very big on the repertory. He said it was the only way. I thought this is a crazy idea to try and make sense of this huge book with pages and pages of symptoms but he was so insistent I said OK the next case that comes I’ll give it a try. The next case was a 16 year old boy who had had asthma since early childhood and nothing had ever helped. He just wheezed every day. So I gathered all the symptoms I could find and looked each one up in the repertory. Made a list of all the remedies in each rubric, added them all up (you know it took hours and hours to write out each rubric and all the remedies ) and of course when you do it that way the remedy most likely to come out on top is Sulphur as it was by far and away the remedy with the most symptoms in Kent’s repertory of that day.  Anyway, I gave him Sulphur 6X three times a day. After a few days his asthma was completely gone. All those years and it was just gone. It was like a miracle for me that those little pellets could do something like that. It  touched me so much it brought me to tears. This is the case that changed my professional life”–https://hpathy.com/homeopathy-interviews/jonathan-shore/ (Dec. 15, 2004)
3. In addition to numerous journal articles in publications such as British Homeopathic Journal, Homeopathic Heritage, Journal American Institute of Homeopathy, Homoeopathic Links and Similimum. For example, ‘Lycopodium,’ (British Homeopathic Journal, 1997; 86:01, pp. 27-33), ‘Calcarea carbonica,’ (British Homeopathic Journal, 1994; 83:03, pp. 148-154) and ‘How I Treat Seasonal Allergies,’ (British Homeopathic Journal, 1994; 83:02, pp. 68-77) are just a few examples.

   There are several other works by Dr. Shore which you might find of interest:

   • Collected Seminars by Modern Classical Masters (c. 1999): This ten volume set consists of books from seminars (there are five years’ worth of seminars given by Shore, vols. 4,5,7,8,9). I include all for the sake of completeness:
     • Volume 1: Seminar by Roger Morrison, Burgh-Haamstede, The Netherlands (1987).
     • Volume 2: Seminar by Roger Morrison and Nancy Herrick, Burgh-Haamstede, The Netherlands, (1988).
     • Volume 3: Seminar by Bill Gray, Burgh-Haamstede, The Netherlands, 1988.
     • Volume 4: Seminar by Bill Gray and Jonathan Shore, Burgh-Haamstede, The Netherlands, 1989.
     • Volume 5: Seminar by Jonathan Shore, Glasgow, Scotland (1989).
     • Volume 6: Seminar by Ananda Zaren, Lelystad, The Netherlands (1989) and seminar by Henny Heudens, The Netherlands (1991).
     • Volume 7: Seminar by Jonathan Shore, Glasgow, Scotland (1990).
     • Volume 8: Seminar by Jonathan Shore, Hapert, The Netherlands (1990).
     • Volume 9: Seminar by Jonathan Shore, Hapert, The Netherlands (1991).
     • Volume 10: Seminar by Roger Morrison and Nancy Herrick, Burgh-Haamstede, The Netherlands, (1991).

Materia Medica With A Difference: highlighting key features seen in classical practice (2010). This book is a collection of Dr Shore’s lectures on some of the key remedies of our materia medica in which he highlights special remedy features helpful in prescribing. In other words, this work is not merely a factual description but a discussion of remedies in terms of personality, how they stand out or appear in a patient. Included also is a discussion (question, answer) section and a section devoted to pediatrics.

Tracking the Simillimum: with Discussion on Evaluation, Analysis and Comparisons of Various Drugs (2010. Bill Gray and Jonathan Shore). This useful volume discusses some key homeopathic methodological concepts, several remedies (Staphysagria, Thuja and Causticum) and a lengthy section devoted to pediatrics in which seven remedies, Silica, Natrum muriaticum, Sanicula, Kali carbonicum, Magnesia carbonicum and Antimonium crudum, are covered in detail. A dozen or so cases, in total, are presented.

Pediatric Case Taking and Prescription: with detailed case records, discussions and illustrations ( B. Jain Publishers). This work contains a collection of Dr. Shore’s lectures on children in general, highlighting the important points useful in pediatric practice. It contains an amalgamation of cases, remedies and staging of remedies, thereby, providing a complete picture of pediatric cases, allowing one to have a firsthand account of pediatric practice. This book is enriched with video cases, showing pictures of children depicting various expressions which point toward the remedy. Case presentations are also presented by Alize Timmerman, along with Shore.

Other related works of interest include:

• • • ‘Free as A Bird: Bird Remedies in Homeopathic Practice’ (2018; Markus Kuntosch, MD).
    • Spectrum of Homeopathy (Narayana-Verlag, Issue 1, 2011) is a themed issue entitled, ‘Birds: A New Group Of Medicines.’ This issue is a large assemblage of articles and cases, including an interview with Jonathan Shore. Other authors include, Misha Norland, Markus Kuntosch, Pat Deacon, Annette Sneevliet, Deborah Collins, Jorg Wichmann, Elrich Welte, Heinz Wittwer, Hans Eberle, Ose Hein, Andrea Amende, Wyka Evelyn Feige, Jurgen Hansel, Linda Johnston, Rosina Sonnenschmidt, Jan Scholten, Chetna N. Shukla and Louis Klein. Birds discussed include the sparrow hawk, house sparrow, peregrine falcon, eagles, turkey vulture, albatross, grey parrot, quetzal, greater roadrunner, Indian pea fowl, raven, swift, pelican, cormorant, griffin, pigeon, dove, scarlet macaw and the nosode, Tuberculinum aviaire.
    • ‘Birds: seeking the freedom of the sky’ (2009; Peter Fraser).
      See the following issues of HomeopathicLinks which were bird-themed, Spring and Summer (22:1 & 22:2, 2009) and the Autumn issue of The Homeopath (24:2, 2005) also bird-themed.
    • ‘The Margins of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World’ (1987; Robert Jahn and Brenda J. Dunne; this book was seminal in the development of much of Shore’s thought).

Another important contribution made by Jonathan was a series of provings using the technique of proving remedies during their actual preparation process. Here, a group of provers in a meditative mood, conducted provings while they triturated and potentized the substance. His focus was on bird and butterfly remedies and inspired him to write his seminal book on bird remedies. This methodology is appreciated in detail in Hogeland and Schriebman’s important treatise, ‘The Trituration Handbook: Into the Heart of homeopathy’ (2008).

Mr. Yasgur wishes to acknowledge the following who helped in compiling this obituary: Roger Morrison, Nancy Herrick, Paul Saunders, Mani Norland, Karl Robinson, and Linda Lillard.

About the Author: Jay Yasgur, Pharm, MSc, is a pharmacist, author and homeopathic consultant who has written many book reviews, articles and his “Yasgur’s Homeopathic Dictionary and Holistic Health Reference” is a popular (on Amazon; 5th edition available now). He has produced and edited several other works, e.g., :Some Clinical Experiences of E. E. Case,” “111 Great Homeopaths,” “The Dunham Lectures of Kent,” “Homoeopathic Materia Medica for Nurses” (B. C. Woodbury, Jr.), Glen Dupree’s “Homeopathic Thesaurus, etc.” Mr. Yasgur was the first to offer an accredited homeopathy continuing education program for pharmacists in the US. He may be contacted at jay@yasgur.net.