THE TRUTH ABOUT BACH FLOWER REMEDIES
(Investigator 127, 2009
times there has existed a belief known as Vitalism. This
is the belief that the natural world contains a universal life-energy
that animates, and sustains all life. This concept has been expressed
in many different forms, one of which was that since all plants
contained this life ¬energy they could be used to cure sickness and
heal injuries by transferring their inherent energy to humans.
have used plants for healing for tens of thousands of years; the
earliest forms of plant therapies apparently being based upon
homogeneous principles. Also known as Sympathetic Magic or the Law of
Similarities, this was a belief that if an object or substance had a
colour or shape similar to something else, then there was a subtle
"spiritual" connection between them that accentuated their healing
ability. On this basis for instance, it was assumed the best herbs to
treat bleeding were red-coloured flowers or plants, while those with
red stems, such as Mugwort, and rhubarb, were considered especially
effective in the treatment of menstrual discharges, and to prevent
hemorrhaging after childbirth.
archaic belief has persisted throughout history, and one of the
more recent applications of the belief that plants contain a "spiritual
healing energy" was Bach Flower Therapy, a concept devised by Dr.
Edward Bach, (1886-1936) M.B., B.S., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., D.P.H. a
British physician and pathologist.
that although patients might have a similar stature, and
similar diseases, there were often differences in the time that it took
them to recover. He formed the opinion that, over and above their
body's natural predisposition for recovery, patients needed some
additional natural force; he concluded this was their emotional
composition and, in particular, their attitude towards life.
new observation; for instance, Hippocrates had noted that "melancholic"
women were more susceptible to cancer than those of a sanguine or
phlegmatic nature. Similar ideas were quite common in the 19th century.
Influenced by the widespread interest in Mesmerism, Spiritualism,
Transcendentalism, New Thought and Christian Science there was diverse
opinions as to the actual origins of sickness and disease.
medical profession attributed ill health to actual physical
disorders, others claimed illness was simply a manifestation of
disordered mental attitudes, or even that all forms of illness were
merely figments of the individual's imagination.
appears to have been heavily influenced by a number of such
metaphysical concepts, including a belief in the existence of the Soul
and that it was reincarnated on a regular basis. He had a preoccupation
with a spirit-body dichotomy, referring to the "Soul", a spiritual
component, and the Mind, which represented the physical body, with all
its beliefs and attitudes.
relationship between the two parts of
the individual being are somewhat reminiscent of the Gnostic teaching
that the Soul was a spark of the divine light, the godhead, that had
been placed in corporeal bodies, where it experienced the trials and
temptations of human flesh. In a similar fashion Bach suggested the
Soul came from a superior plane of existence, and was reincarnated into
a physical body. Yet, despite having a symbiotic relationship with that
body, the Soul was the principal component, "the real self' (p. 12);
the body was simply a container for the transcendental Soul, and, as
such, represented only "the minutest reflection" (p. 12) of the true
He came to
believe that the corporeal body, existing in a physical
world, tended to become so overwhelmed that it strayed so much from its
proper higher spiritual objectives that much of what humans came to
believe, and do, was completely contrary to the higher, purer
objectives of the Soul. This created a condition of constant conflict
as the individual was drawn between the objectives of the Soul and the
temptations of the Mind (body).
manifested in a number of negative emotional conditions,
that produced physical and mental "diseases", all of which were
essentially "spiritual disorders". As such, they could not be cured by
physical treatment, they could, "...never be eradicated except by
spiritual and mental effort." (Bach and Wheeler, 1997, p. 10)
increasingly sought to find natural cures for these "Soul"
disorders, and in 1930 he abandoned his regular medical practice
completely and withdrew to the country-side to continue his work
looking for alternative forms of healing.
an orthodox practitioner, Bach became increasingly
disillusioned with mainstream medicine and began to seek answers in the
mystical, transcendental sphere, a quest that led him to adopt the
vitalistic approach that it was necessary to treat the individual
rather than the illness.
that the "healing process" Bach evolved was based upon an
analogy of the interaction of the four elemental substances, earth,
air, water and fire. To the ancients all matter had been created from
these four elements, all of which were believed to contain a basic
elemental creative power. Bach believed that, as plants drew water up
from the Earth, with it they drew the life-giving creative energy
of the earth; to which was added the energy of the air, and finally,
the fiery energy of fire which came when the sunshine "heated" the
plant to draw the energy out of the plant. The end result of this
process was that the essence of this life-energy emerged from the plant
into the dew that formed upon plants overnight.
quantity of the "essence" was severely restricted by the
small amount of dew that could form on a plant, Bach sought to
replicate the process by other methods. One of these, the "sun method",
involved picking the flowers on a warm day in the sunshine and
sprinkling them with water freshly drawn from a local spring, and
placing them in a glass container which was left in sunshine for a
period between two to four hours. This was, according to Bach, enough
time for the sunlight to transfer the "vibrations" (the energy) of the
flowers into the water. Once the water had absorbed this floral energy
the flowers were removed and the water mixed with an equal amount of
alcohol, usually Brandy, and then bottled.
to treat patients this solution would be further diluted by
adding more water. For those plants that did not bloom in the summer
Bach employed a "cooking method" of distillation, where the plant
material was boiled in water, then filtered, the resulting solution
mixed with an equal amount of alcohol, then bottled and used in the
same fashion as material obtained by the sun method.
Flower Therapy is essentially an amalgam of Vitalism and several
other pseudo-scientific theories. One aspect of vitalism was that,
rather like the strings of a huge musical instrument, all matter in the
cosmos "vibrated" at different frequencies. An ancient Hellenic
concept, based in part upon Pythagorean theory, it was believed that
living beings also vibrated at a specific frequency. This formed the
basis for an alternative form of therapy known as "vibrational
medicine" the belief that the human "dynamic energy system" was attuned
to that of the cosmic vibrational energy. As Jacka (1989) noted,
"...these energies are seen as the cause of health or disease". (p. 61)
is that, while the human energy field remained "in tune"
with this infinite vibratory source, good health, harmony and a
positive life-style prevailed; however, if there was any interference
with this cosmic connection, severe dissonance would result causing
physical or mental disharmony in the life and health of the individual.
proposed that although the reincarnated Soul, a fragment of the
divine godhead, was "imprisoned" within the physical body, it
nevertheless retained a subtle connection to the great field of
universal energy, the supreme being that was its creator. However,
because the Soul was often overwhelmed by human frailties the resulting
conflict between the Soul and the Mind upset the energy potentials of
both, severing, or at least interfering with, the psychic connection.
This created a sense of disharmony, producing an ever increasing sense
of personal alienation and negativity. However, because the floral
remedies had the same energy frequency as that of the godhead and the
Soul they were able to act as a medium, reuniting the Soul and the Mind
so that the entire organism was once again attuned to the godhead.
to Bach each plant had a unique vibrational
"energy-signature" that was transferred into the dew, and because this
vital-energy could be transmitted to the individual using his
flower therapy, the individual would experience feelings of relaxation,
and, more specifically, it would remedy the specific psychological
disorders causing the disharmony between the Soul and the Mind.
many serious problems with the various concepts that are the
basis of Bach Flower Therapy.
problem is that, while it purports to be a scientific theory
it is nothing of the sort, it is clearly based upon spiritual and
religious concepts, a complex amalgam of Vitalism and Gnostic
major problem is that the entire process is based upon the
subjective "intuitive" observations of one individual, and as such is
not only completely unscientific but also profoundly unreliable.
term "intuitive feelings" is an accepted part of alternative
forms of therapy, it has no place in real science. Proper science is
based upon objective research, where tests are repeated by numerous
researchers and the results are always the same. The "impressions" that
Bach claimed to have perceived are scientifically invalid since they
cannot be repeated.
one must ask if the Bach therapy actually works – to which
one must respond Yes and No!
work for some people but only because, like all forms of
alternative therapy, it relies heavily upon suggestion and the belief
by the user in the efficacy of the process.
when the Bach treatment is actually successful, it is merely
an example of the placebo effect.
studies of the Bach method by various researchers, including
Walach et al (2001), Ernst (2002) and Pintov et aI (2005), found that
there was no evidence to suggest the Bach method was any more effective
than a placebo, in other words, the process is an invalid form of
and Wheeler, F.J. (1997). The Bach Flower Remedies,
Edition. New Canaan, Connecticut: Keats Publishing, Inc.
E.(2002). "Flower remedies": a systematic review of the clinical
evidence. Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift 114 (23-24): 963-966.
(1989). Frontiers in Natural Therapies: Port Melbourne:
S., Hochman, M., Livne, A., Heyman, E.,and Lahat, E. (2005).
Bach flower remedies used for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
in children - a prospective double blind controlled study. European
Journal of Paediatric Neurology, 9(6): 395-398.
H., Rilling, C. and Engelke, U., (2001). Efficacy of
Bach-flower remedies in test anxiety: a double-blind,
placebo-controlled randomized trial with partial crossover. Journal
Anxiety Disorder, July-August 15(4) 359-366.
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