On the Abyss:
A proving of Acanthocephala terminalis – leather bug

Biological classification 
Order: Hemiptera (true bugs, cicadas, grasshoppers, aphids, etc.)
Suborder: Heteroptera (true bugs)
Family: Coreidae
Also known as leaf-footed bugs: leaf-footed bug, squash bug, clown bug, tip-wilter (1)

The Acanthocephala terminalis or leather bugs (leaf-footed bugs) are distinctive, nearly one-inch-long insects of the family Coreidae. They are named for the leaf-like expansions on their hind legs. All Coreidae species are plant-eaters. Some Coreidae live in foliage, but most nymphs and adults live above ground on their host plants, where they feed on seeds, fruits, stems or leaves. Some occur on an astonishing variety of plants, while others are restricted to a single host plant, such as pumpkins (Cucurbitaceae). In autumn they often migrate into human dwellings.

These insects have a characteristic proboscis shaped like a syringe:
"As with all bugs, the adults are equipped with a proboscis, an injection-needle-like apparatus located under the head, with which they can pierce plant tissue and suck out liquids. But they do not just suck out the sap; they inject a tissue-dissolving saliva and then suck up the resulting pulp. Bugs cannot take solid food; by using these liquefying enzymes they cause great damage to plants." (Emphasis by the author)

Comment
The remedy shows an inner split. One side is reflected in the name "clown bug" — the side of the carefree child — while the other emphasises death and drugs, and these two themes recurred throughout the proving. Even the proving itself split into two parts — the first trituration and then the second.

The first side was clown-like; in the second themes such as AIDS, horror, vaccinations and death emerged. The AIDS theme related to Africa and Haiti. The idea that people are forced to be vaccinated was a major topic of discussion — considering that this insect has an "injection-needle-like" proboscis! The C12 proving showed gastrointestinal complaints, with a focus on digestion. In the proving dreams images of the Grim Reaper and of zombies manifested.

Clowns are associated with childlike behaviour, yet they can also have a serious side. And they can also have a rogue side.

Proving set-up
This proving was carried out twice — originally by me and Carol Jones — also a member of the "Great Lakes" proving community — in Boston in November 2010. We triturated the remedy to C3 to stabilise it. A year later I organised a Great Lakes proving of the substance in Akron, Ohio. The provers were three women aged 35, 47 and 55, one African-American, one Iranian-British participant and one Euro-American. The provers did not know what substance was being proved. After C3 and C6 the provers took a dose of the remedy potentised to C12 and recorded their symptoms for 14 days.
The first trituration felt light, playful and childlike with singing and a sense of light-heartedness. The provers treated the bug as if it were their child ("How's our little fellow?"). They had difficulties with communication and with numbers, a "reversed" Mercury feeling with misunderstandings. At some point anxiety and sensitivity to noise appeared, and one of the provers got lost in the streets after the proving and went into total panic. Both had stomach complaints — one felt nauseous, the other had flatulence and belched constantly. They also experienced intense hunger.

The second trituration — from C3 to C6 — acted very differently.
During this trituration there was a discussion about germs, contagion and vaccinations ("The stuff that's in vaccines is worse than the disease itself!"). Then there was talk about AIDS / HIV in Africa, and about people in Malawi or Nigeria being forced at gunpoint to be vaccinated. This led to discussion of former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who adopted the prevailing Western view on the origin of AIDS and considers poverty as a cofactor in the AIDS epidemic.
The provers spoke about Jacques Pepin's new book "The Origins of AIDS", which had just been published that week. In this book the epidemiologist Pepin traces the roots of AIDS in Africa back to the colonial period and its vaccination programme in the first half of the 20th century. After careful analysis of European health records from the colonial era, Pepin concludes that through vaccinations in which glass syringes were reused, HIV was indeed transmitted from the blood of European colonists, infected with simian virus, to the indigenous West African population. In the proving session there was also discussion of the spread of AIDS in Haiti.
The provers also spoke about the evil eye and how one might protect oneself from it. One prover drew a picture of an eye.

Mental / emotional themes

• Vaccination / infection / AIDS
• Death / zombies / horror / the dead
• Fear-inducing dreams
• Evil eye / magic / supernatural
• Connection / separation
• Getting lost
• Melancholy / carefreeness
  

Physical

• Faeces, bowel movements, flatulence, haemorrhoids
• Pressing pain, pressure

The full proving can be viewed on the "Great Lakes Provings" website: http://www.greatlakesprovings.com