What are Bach Remedies?
|| Back to articles
Dr Edward Bach was a medical practitioner and bacteriologist in the UK in the 1930s. He was a man well ahead of his time as he believed that our emotions play a vital role in our health and wellbeing. He became dissatisfied with the limitations of orthodox medicine and its focus on curing symptoms. Dr Bach believed that effective treatment involved addressing the cause of illness.
Edward began his search for a gentle and natural method of healing in 1928. He had a revelation at a dinner party when he realised that his fellow guests fell into several distinct types. From this he came to the conclusion that each would react to illness in a particular way. He began with two plants Mimulus and Impatiens and prepared and prescribed them according to his patient's personalities. This caused immediate and successful results. Over the next eight years, he developed another 36 remedies and also wrote a short book, Heal Thy Self, which is still in publication today.
Once he had developed the 38 remedies and one combined remedy, Rescue Remedy, he knew his work was complete and that no further remedies were needed to cover all negative aspects of human nature.
Dr Bach's philosophy was simple and profound and was based on the innate perfection and spiritual nature of human beings. Dr Bach believed:
- 'Health depends on being in harmony with our souls.'
- Disease is: 'entirely the result of a conflict between our spiritual and mortal selves.'
- Health and Happiness result from being in harmony with our own nature, and doing the work for which we are individually suited.
'Health is our heritage, our right. It is the complete and full union between soul, mind and body; and this is not a difficult far-away ideal to attain, but one so easy and natural that many of us have over looked it.' (Dr Edward Bach)
The purpose of the remedies is to support the individual by addressing emotional factors such as depression, anxiety, and trauma that are thought to impede physical healing, thus supporting the client's recovery from illness or, ideally, preventing serious illness altogether. The flower remedies work by treating the individual rather than the disease or its symptoms.