Edward Bach (1886-1936), creator of the
Bach Flower Remedies believed that
physical
illnesses are
symptoms of "...our
fears, our
cares, our anxieties and such
like that open the path to the invasion of
illness." He thought
flower essences worked
by altering a patient's
mental state to one that was conducive to
healing. His focus
was mainly on the symptoms of
psychosomatic diseases.
On
medicine:
"The medical school of the future will not particularly interest itself in the ultimate
results and products of disease, nor will it pay so much attention to actual physical
lessons, or administer drugs and chemicals merely for the sake of palliating our
symptoms, but knowing the true cause of sickness and aware that the obvious physical
results are merely secondary, it will concentrate its efforts upon bringing about that
harmony between body, mind and soul which results in the relief and cure of
disease."
-from Heal Thyself
The
essences are created by letting
flowers sit in a bowl of
water in the
sun. After a while, the flowers are removed and the
mother essence is preserved with ~50%
brandy. Stock bottles (what you buy in
a store) are created with ~15 drops of the
mother essence and preserved in 30-40%
brandy.
The essence is then administered from a (usually) self-made
dosage bottle with ~15 drops of stock to 1 oz
of water. The essence does not contain any extracts from actual flowers; their healing
"
vibrational" aspects are thought to remain in the water even after they are removed.
The
Bach Flower Remedies are:
agrimony,
aspen,
beech,
centaury,
cerato,
cherry plum,
chestnut bud,
chicory,
clematis,
crab apple,
elm,
gentian,
gorse,
heather,
holly,
honeysuckle,
hornbeam,
impatiens,
larch,
mimulus,
mustard,
oak,
olive,
pine,
red chestnut,
rock rose,
rock water,
scleranthus,
star of bethlehem,
sweet chestnut,
vervain,
vine,
walnut,
water violet,
white chestnut,
wild oat,
wild rose,
willow