In Memoriam: Jonathan Shore, MD

by Roger Morrison, MD, DABHM

In February of 2023, we lost one of the most quirky, ingenious, rigorous, humorous, and dedicated homeopaths of our generation—Jonathan Shore, MD. Jonathan’s death came just a few weeks after the death of his beloved wife and co-worker, Ana de Shore.  The Bay Area will sorely miss them. As I reflected upon his passing, I realized that his death came much like his life—private, humble, independent and without fanfare.

As I prepared to write this obituary, I also realized that, as well as I knew Jonathan, there remained many mysteries to the man.

Jonathan (born in 1943) was the son of a prominent pediatrician in Cape Town, South Africa. He graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1968 and did his residency there. He was not, by his account, a great student. As far as I know, he never practiced in South Africa but instead spent some years as a nomadic “surf bum” learning at the school of life. Some time—I believe in the early 1970’s—Jonathan showed up on the West Coast of the USA. Once here he began dabbling in various forms of alternative medicine—from acupuncture to iridology to Rolfing and psychology. He became the medical director of a small alternative medicine center in Marin County by 1980 and never moved from the area again. In the early 1980’s he had begun to practice homeopathy in earnest. In 1985, he joined with the members of the Hering Clinic in Berkeley and several outsiders to form the Hahnemann Medical Clinic and the Hahnemann College of Homeopathy. From his studies with George Vithoulkas, Jonathan gained prominence as a teacher and practitioner and was asked to become the editor of the AIH journal, a role he filled for several years.

However much Jonathan enjoyed teaching and writing about homeopathy, he usually declined any public positions. He was not by nature a “joiner,” though sometime in the early 1990’s he was made a member of the Faculty of Homeopathy of the British  homeopathic medical society. He frequently taught throughout the UK, Europe, Japan and America.

Dr. Shore authored many articles on homeopathic material medica, philosophy and, especially, case analysis. He deeply believed in teaching only what he knew as a certainty. In the tradition of E.B. Nash, Jonathan insisted on teaching only remedies he was sure he understood. His mind was extremely flexible and open. He was also an early student of Rajan Sankaran in this country.

Another of Jonathan’s important contributions to our art was a series of provings, especially using the technique of proving remedies during their actual preparation process. A group of provers would conduct the proving while they triturated and potentized the remedy. He concentrated on remedies made from birds and butterflies—resulting in his seminal book about bird remedies, Birds-Remedies from the Avian Realm, with assistance from Anneke Hogeland and the late Judy Schriebman. This book opened the eyes of the profession to many important remedies and made inroads into understanding of this group.

Jonathan was a favorite teacher of many of his students, who loved his entertaining style, his philosophizing (sorry Samuel), and his honesty. Jonathan had a compassionate heart despite a crusty shell. He often wept on hearing his patient’s life stories and was so genuine in his compassion that the patients were deeply loyal to him. He managed every aspect of his practice from booking to collections and gave his patients immediate access to his home phone. Yet he was no milksop—if someone tried to take advantage of him, Jonathan had clear boundaries and a no-nonsense approach.

Jonathan was also a dedicated student of G.I. Gurdjief, an early 20th century Russian spiritual teacher, and was so well respected in that community as to reach the highest levels of leadership. He also dedicated his talents and his full life’s energy to this spiritual practice. He was very athletic and loved the outdoors, and was a formidable astrologer. But his favorite hobby was speeding about in his little sports cars—I remember several—leading to his frequent traffic citations for speeding. Once he showed up at our house with his Miata driver’s door in hand; he had thrown the door open just as a truck was passing him. Jonathan had an impulsive side.

Though I exchanged emails with Jonathan only a few weeks before his and Ana’s death, he never mentioned his condition but welcomed my suggestion of grabbing lunch in the near future. Ana must have been clearly terminal by that point, but Jonathan was so very independent he did not wish to burden anyone with his problems. Stunning! Furthermore, I do not even know his exact cause or date of death. He also told some caretakers that he did not wish for a memorial service of any kind, but the outcome of that wish, my dear old friend, remains to be seen.

Love you.

Jay Yasgur, RPh, MSc. provided the following quote from Jonathan Shore and email responses:

“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

“Losing Jonathan is most unfortunate. I think his bird remedies was a significant addition to our materia medica, one that I have relied on for multiple cases with beautiful outcomes. He is now free to fly with the birds, observe, and partake in multiple other realms. He will be greatly missed for his valuable insights and compassion as a human being.” – Paul Saunders, ND (email  communication, March 2023).

“What a shock to hear Jonathan Shore is gone. He was a pillar in our homeopathic community. I didn’t know him well though. He and his wife came to Guatemala years back to teach for me —subject bird remedies. He was well received.” – Karl Robinson, MD (email communication, March 7, 2023).

“Jonathan Shore’s seminar on birds in London was one of the first homeopathy seminars I ever attended. I was still a student of homeopathy at that time. I remember vividly what a fantastic teacher he was and what a superb collection of bird remedies he presented. He made a big impression on me and helped to galvanise my path into homeopathy. He was warm, compassionate, and inspiring. I feel his beautifully written and illustrated book on birds really helped show the profession the power of studying a group of remedies together…” – Mani Norland (email communication, March 17, 2023).

“I have a fond memory of receiving a warm hug from him when he was here in Auckland [New Zealand] as a guest homeopathy lecturer at a seminar. He was a great teacher.” – Gwyneth Evans (email communication, April 6, 2023)