EDWARD BACH AND A MEDICINE FOR THE SOUL

“A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may,
after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne

It may surprise the reader to find a purely medical approach alongside other
methodologies of transformational work that come from human sciences. For those who
work in the field, the thought is less surprising. Dr. Edward Bach’s flower essences are
often used in a variety of therapeutic approaches that recognize soul and spiritual
components in the attainment of health.
Edward Bach was born in Moseley, near Birmingham, United Kingdom, on
September 24, 1886. As a boy he was both cautious and imaginative and already
displaying a headstrong and resolute character. His “helper” instinct was visible in the
care he offered his younger sister, as well as other weak and needy people. From an early
age he was fond of nature and liked to take long walks even though his health was
already a matter of concern. He had such a passion for fresh air that he removed his
bedroom window in order to enjoy it more fully.
Having studied to become a medical doctor, he first became a “Casualty House
Surgeon” before realizing that such a profession was too taxing for his fragile health. He
later set up his own practice and also launched into microbiological research as assistant
bacteriologist at the University College Hospital of London. There he specialized in the
production of a new kind of vaccine. He was interested in the field of intestinal toxicity
(toxaemia) and found that certain forms of intestinal bacteria are more numerous in the
intestines of the chronically ill. By focusing on a small number of dominant bacterial
populations, he developed vaccines called “nosodes” that helped to improve the balance
of these bacteria in relation to others, thus improving the state of health.
Vaccine therapy is a specialized field of medicine, the closest in kind to
homeopathy’s famous tenet that “like cures like.” It is no surprise, therefore, that in 1919
Bach started working as a pathologist in London’s Homeopathic Hospital. Here he started

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using the homeopathic method for making his vaccines in compresses and pills. He
developed seven kinds of nosodes that he related to types of bacteria in the intestinal flora
and to an individual typology. It is rare to find excesses of more than one of the seven
kinds of bacteria in any given individual. Bach had begun to observe that he could
recognize the right nosode to administer just by looking at an individual’s body type,
behavior, posture, and way of walking. He gathered observations that showed him that
individuals with phobias of fire, heights, crowds or traffic almost invariably had a
predominance of parathyphoid bacteria; individuals with tension and who are restless and
prone to anxiety have a dominant Proteus population. He also ascertained that the
dominant bacterial population remains remarkably constant in the individual, no matter
what the patient’s history may be. The nosodes had led Bach to the re-discovery of
toxaemia that Hahneman — the founder of homeopathy — had called Psora, those
conditions relating to chronic illnesses tied to intestinal poisoning.
Earlier Bach had reached the conclusion that vaccine therapy was not used to its
full potential in conventional medicine, and that led him to choose homeopathy. He had
come to accept homeopathy’s view that it is not the illness alone that needs the
physician’s attention, but the whole patient. His ultimate dream was to develop a simple
therapy that could be self-administered and to move from bacterial nosodes to plant
remedies that could be more easily produced and personally administered.
In a typically radical fashion, Bach left his laboratory and practice, although
he was a successful and esteemed physician, and wandered into the Welsh
countryside in search of plant remedies. He was roaming the countryside, a little like
he had done as a child, but now with a remarkably single-minded focus. The step he
was taking was truly enormous. It was not unlike Hahneman’s radical departure from
allopathic medicine years before he discovered the potentizing method that led to
homeopathy. The doctor had his predecessor’s work at heart when he said:

It is obviously fundamentally wrong to say that “like cures like.” Hahneman

had a right conception of the truth, but expressed it incompletely. Like may
strengthen like, like may repel like, but in a true healing sense, like cannot

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 cure like. This is not to detract from Hahneman’s work; on the contrary, he
pointed out the great fundamental laws, and the basis that we are merely
advancing his work, and carrying it to the next natural stage…Another
glorious view then opens out before us, and here we see that true healing can
be obtained, not by wrong, but by right replacing wrong; good replacing evil;
light replacing darkness. Here we come to the understanding that we no longer
fight disease with disease; no longer oppose illness with the product of illness;
no longer drive out maladies with such substances that can cause them (one of
the principal tenets of homeopathy); but, on the contrary, to bring down the
opposing virtue which will eliminate the fault.1

From the above we can see that Bach was not seeking a departure from
homeopathy but rather an enhancement of it. For that to happen, the last major
breakthrough was needed. Both discoveries — of the “sun method” and “boiling method”
— came in flashes of intuition, much as the idea of potentizing through “successions”
came to Hahneman, the founder of homeopathy. The doctor had developed a refined
degree of intuition that developed in him from training in the scientific method and from
observing his patients in countless hours of practice. This faculty had now been refined
and interiorized; to it was added his capacity to listen to and trust his inner voice.
There aren’t many examples that have been preserved of how Bach proceeded in
the discovery of his floral remedies. We have two of them in Gorse and Heather, two of
the “seven helpers” — part of those remedies produced with the sun method. In the first
case Bach tells us that an inner message came to him; immediately afterward, he noticed
the flower of Gorse. The discovery of Heather was ushered in by a question asked of a
self-centered woman: “What do you think is the most beautiful sight in the world?” Her
answer, “The mountains covered with heather,” led the doctor to the choice of the same
plant — a remedy used for self-centered individuals. Although this way of proceeding
may seem at first superficial, it denotes the ability of the doctor to listen to everything the
world had to offer him. This insight alone would clearly amount to nothing were it not for

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the tedious work of examination and confirmation of the effects of the two plants from
the available experience with patients.

The first nineteen flower remedies were prepared with the sun method; the other
nineteen, all except one, with the boiling method. What led Bach to the sun method was
the realization that, in the dewdrop that lies on the leaf, lay encapsulated an energetic
essence of the plant, an extract that is potentized (intensified to become more active) in a
way both similar to and different from homeopathic remedies.2 Somehow, we can
visualize the sun method as a large-scale production of dewdrops. With the sun method,
flowers of the desired plant are placed in a glass bowl and completely covered with
spring water. There is a host of specific conditions that accompany the process. The
flowers have to be harvested on a sunny day without clouds and be exposed for two hours
to the sun before being harvested; they must have reached the peak of blossoming just
prior to pollination. The advantage of the sun method lies in the fact that there is no loss
of potency due to drying, transportation or processing of the plant. Everything is done on
site, up to the preparation of the mother tincture. The boiling method uses flowers
harvested with 6” of twigs, which are boiled for half an hour. All other conditions are the
same as in the sun method. 3
The doctor’s career proceeded in a movement of recapitulation and refinement —
from surgery to vaccine therapy to homeopathy and finally to flower remedies. With
these principles it may become clearer why we place flower remedies within the context
of experiential spirituality. The history of Bach’s discoveries will highlight this even
further.

“Healer Know Thyself”

Bach’s path of discovery consisted of having to overcome intensive psychic and physical
pain. He confided to Nora Weeks — for many years his closest collaborator — that he
had been suffering physical pain practically all his life. In 1917 the doctor was operated
on for cancer and told he had three months to live. The remission was complete;
nevertheless Bach struggled for another twenty years with his deteriorating body.

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Although few have looked at these aspects closely, it is clear that the doctor could not
have been very happy in the years leading to his illness.
Bach had first married Gwendoline Caiger in 1913. Three years later a daughter
was born to Kitty Light, whom he married in May of 1917, a month after his first wife
died of diphtheria. He separated from Kitty, on friendly terms, in 1922. As Julian Barnard
notices, after his illness Bach went back to his life-calling with renewed enthusiasm, but
that was hardly a new thing for him. Rather, it seems that he was starting to realize the
relationship between illness and mental attitude that plays such a central role in his
philosophy and in his use of floral remedies.
Bach was both a thorough scientist and a soul with a metaphysical bent. His most
famous and most financially successful work, Heal Thyself, is one of the first modern
books in which medicine is treated from a spiritual perspective. Even if it is far from
being well structured and supported, it provides us a blueprint of Bach’s inner journey of
discovery about ideas that were revolutionary at the time and becoming more
commonplace at present. At times, the doctor’s enthusiasm pushed him to proclaim
radical principles in rather simplistic terms. Only later in life did he moderate them and
become more inclusive and discriminating in his approach.
Bach’s stated distrust of the intellect led him to work from his intuition but
unfortunately left to his successors little theoretical understanding of the elaborate system
of thirty-eight remedies.4 Obviously, as a scientist with so many years of laboratory
experience, he had a vast store of knowledge from which to draw in the collection of his
observations and the elaboration of his concepts. That his approach had some limits is
obvious from the fact that his successors, not having Bach’s level of intuition, would
inherit a complete product but without the theory of knowledge that would allow them to
conceptually elaborate on it and further it. A successful attempt in this direction —
Flower Essence Remedies — uses the Goethean and spiritual scientific approach to
determine new flower remedies beyond the thirty-eight discovered by Bach.5
One of Bach’s fundamental premises is that we come to earth with the task of
learning one — maybe two or three — main lessons. These lessons are both earthly and

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spiritual — they are unique in their individual articulation but archetypal in their essence:
e.g., overcome pride, learn to deal with fear, develop discernment, acquire wisdom.
Bach had determined from his observations of human typology that there were
twelve primary life lessons. In the book Free Thyself, he indicates twelve great qualities
(such as joy, courage, forgiveness, wisdom). These qualities are to be attained in order to
learn the meaning of love by fighting the conditions that cloud it (grief hiding the
dimension of joy, terror or fear hiding courage, ignorance hiding wisdom). Illness befalls
the personality refusing to learn her soul lessons. It is caused primarily by an imbalance
between the higher self and the personality or lower self. However, illness has a forward-
moving thrust that invites us to overcome negative traits in our personality when the
conscious personality does not want to accept the lessons life brings him. Illness indicates
not only the need for change but also the way we can change. This is not a cruel
statement, coming from somebody who had an extensive firsthand knowledge of disease.
Retrospectively one can say that accepting his illness gave Bach not only the strength to
continue living but also to fulfill his destiny. He barely kept his illness at bay until he
completed his mission in 1936.
Bach believed that illness is the ultimate “like cures like.” Disease prevents our
wrong thoughts and feelings to be carried too far in the world. He was confident that
disease disappears when the lesson is learned. He went so far as to say that there is no
incurable disease. An observation among his patients gives weight to this assertion. Some
patients would recover much faster from acute and severe conditions than others would
from much lighter complaints.
As a doctor specializing in vaccine-therapy, he had learned that the immune
system preserves the memories of previous microbial infections and therefore knows how
to master them a second time, if necessary. In the same way, when we have mastered a
life lesson, we acquire those qualities that render us immune to the previous fears,
shortcomings and life challenges. This realization led him to the conclusion that certain
soul states are pathological, and intrinsically generate an illness before it is physically
carried into the body by a pathogen.

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 Thus different therapeutic substances offer help at different levels: physical,
energetic/etheric or emotional. Bach moved from the energetic level most commonly
dealt with in homeopathy to the emotional/spiritual level that is treated by flower
remedies. As a doctor he saw his role in trying to strengthen the spirit of the patient.
From these premises he elaborated a medicine that takes care of emotional illness before
it moves on to the etheric plane and later congeals as physical illness.
The first decisive proof, or the most tangible, of the efficiency of the remedies
was offered by the use of Rescue Remedy. This is a composite remedy of five plants –
originally three. Dr. Bach first applied it in its original form in 1930 to revive from shock
a man who had survived a great storm. He and a mate had been holding on to the mast of
a boat for many hours before lifeboats were able to rescue them, both unconscious at the
time of the rescue. Bach was able to minister to one of the two as soon as he was carried
into the lifeboat. The man had completely recovered upon reaching the hotel after his
rescue. The remedy — made from Impatiens, Star of Bethlehem, Cherry Plum, Rock
Rose and Clematis — has since been successfully used in all situations involving shock.6
Bach’s views are reflected in his biography, particularly in the period 1928 to
1936 – the period of time that it took him to devise the entire structure of the flower
remedies just before his early death at age 50. Bach had strong intuition and, one might
surmise, a degree of clairvoyance. Set to find new soul remedies, he most likely decided
to start with himself, with a plant that would correspond to his own soul type.
Bach was a very self-motivated individual who preferred to work alone without
given schedules, norms or regulations. On occasion, as Nora Weeks remembers, he
would purposely do things to shock or be rude toward those solely motivated by curiosity
about him. He disliked hypocrisy and often refused to meet with people of whom he
disapproved. Interestingly, he was annoyed if he had to wear a hat and made little sudden
gestures as if to remove it. Following his intuition he made quick decisions and was
annoyed by slow people. He could become angry very quickly but would just as quickly
forget his anger. It is not surprising in this overview to realize that Bach was a heavy
smoker. The plant he found for his own type reflects what we articulated — its familiar
name is Impatiens.

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 In the description of the soul type for whom the plant should be used, the doctor
gives us a detailed description of a specific type of double. There are twelve such
remedies, the first twelve of the group of nineteen that are obtained through the sun
method. The Impatiens soul type is choleric, impatient and sensitive to criticism. People
of this type tend to sit on the edge of their chair, ready to produce outbursts of energy that
they use to influence the outer world. When under stress, this kind of person is likely to
be rather vocal. In order to resolve a difficult situation or conflict, the temptation to create
force is great. In fact this type often harbors, in the depth of his soul, a vein of cruelty.
Bach goes so far as to attribute to this the traits of an inquisitor.
The second or third flower he found was Mimulus, from which he derived a
remedy for those who are besieged by fear (fear of illness, of death, of accidents, of
poverty, among others), and who can be easily frightened by particular circumstances and
situations. J. Barnard points out that this was most likely Bach’s state of mind in setting
upon his new life course. Would he lose all his resources and end up in poverty? What
would people — especially his peers — think of him? Would his body support all this
strain and stress? Mimulus was the remedy that could give him the freedom of mind he
needed to continue his work.
The third flower is Clematis, addressing the needs of those who lose contact with
their deeper self, with their body and with the physical experience of reality. This remedy
probably helped Bach remain grounded and not get lost in the flip-side of intuition. In a
state of mind of one who seeks unity of the whole, he could have easily lost grounding in
reality.
It is now easier to see the need that prompted Bach to wander into the Welsh
countryside in search of a remedy that could give solace to his soul before embarking on
a pursuit to find remedies for others. We can see that Bach stuck to the maxim “Heal
thyself” — the idea that the physician must heal himself before attempting to heal others.
The unflattering portrayal of the Impatiens type indicates that Bach spared no pain in
order to get to the bottom of the matter.
After finding the first three remedies, Bach set out to find floral essences for
others. To do that he had to immerse himself completely in the mood and suffering of the

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soul he wanted to help. Nora Weeks describes how Bach found the remedy for the Water
Violet soul type, one of the first twelve remedies. Before finding the remedy, Weeks tells
us that Bach had come to embody the type — calm, detached, self-contained and very
reserved — and then he directed his attention to the plant world. We don’t know how
long the search may have taken. When he came to the plant Water Violet, he felt that it
“vibrated” the same soul process of the patient he had in mind. It was a consciously
pursued process, although Bach could not explain it to others or help them follow the
same path of discovery.
After elaborating on the first half of the remedies, Bach felt a calling to develop
another nineteen remedies. Before discovering these, he was often immersed in a
profound soul dilemma — often accompanied by intense physical pain — and literally
had to find relief in the plant world. The new remedies did not address soul types; that
was the task of the first twelve remedies.7 At first, the thought of having to find more
remedies left him more overwhelmed than motivated. He was thrust into an emotional
state of feeling that the task was too great for his strength — he was physically
debilitated. The sight of Elm (Ulmus Procera) helped to lift his spirit. He used its flowers
for what he later called the Elm type — those who are overwhelmed or burdened by
responsibility.
Before discovering the remedy Cherry Plum, Bach experienced strong and
persistent headaches. The accompanying soul mood was fear of losing control of the
mind and going mad. In the definition of the illness he says, “…fear that the mind be
over-stimulated, fear of doing something fearful and wrong that one would later regret.”
This state of mind went further with one of the next remedies, Aspen, used for fears and
worries of unknown origin and for nervousness and anxiety. Nora Weeks indicates that
Bach communicated with the spiritual world and experienced vague, unexplainable fears
both day and night. These fears had no rational foundation. He may have experienced
destructive forces that generate fear, even terror, and could hardly be shared with others
who would most often attribute them to an overactive imagination.

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 Bach’s quest was a blend of scientific research and journey of the soul. We have
seen some of the second series of nineteen remedies and the soul state with which they
are associated. The last of this second series is Sweet Chestnut. Bach described it as the
essence to give “…when anguish is so strong that it becomes intolerable. When the mind
or the body feel they have reached the extreme limit of tolerance and presume they are
about to give up.” In the months of June-July 1935, leading to the discovery of this
essence, Bach suffered from a violent rash which caused him constant burning and
irritation. Bach was also experiencing fears and feelings of complete despondency and
annihilation, feelings similar to being in the depths of a mine where light never enters. It
was truly a dark night of the soul that ushered in the completion of the doctor’s efforts.
Bach’s way of working corresponds to the method of the alchemists of old who
accompanied all their experiments on earthly substances with corresponding soul
experiences. For those forerunners of the scientific method there was no separation
between the outer and the inner world — a notion that is becoming more popular today in
the field of quantum physics. Let us look closely at how the plant mirrors the state of
mind to be treated, or rather how the gesture of the plant offers us an insight into its
medical applications.
It would be inexact to define a plant in terms of wrong or right, pluses or minuses.
Rather, the plant stands as an overall image for the archetypal thought-form that applies
to a type of individual and describes that individual’s motivations and way of thinking
and operating in the world as well as complementary qualities he might develop. Thus the
plant gesture often defines sets of seemingly contradictory postures. These express the
contrast between what is and what could be. The plant shows us the path from illness into
health in an imaginative way. This explains how, for example, in the assessment of the
plant Centaury, Bach went from thinking that it could be used for the “tyrant who
exercises power over others” to realizing that it actually was meant for those who let
themselves be subjugated by others.8 In the case of the flower Heather, Bach initially
indicated that Heather people were tall, sturdy, well-built, jovial and warm. In his last
edition he says: “those who constantly look for the company of whosoever is available

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since they need to talk about their problems with others, no matter who they are. They are
very unhappy when they have to remain alone for any length of time.”9

The Plant Illustrates the Path

Let us see in Impatiens — Bach’s main type — how the plant illustrates the path from
soul illness to healing. Impatiens Glandulifera, native of the Himalayas, is an annual that
can reach more than six feet high. It lives at a height of between 6,000 to 13,000 feet,
loves damp soil and develops well when close to a source of animal manure. The heavy
seeds form thick colonies that choke all other growth when they germinate, thanks to a
rapid growth of almost an inch per day. When these plants colonize a pasture, the pasture
is permanently degraded for animal use. The unique and exotic flower form that has
inspired the name “Poorman’s Orchid,” is fertilized by cross-pollination. The flower,
finely balanced on top of the stem, is indicative of the grace, spontaneity and compassion
that was found in Edward Bach and the Impatiens type. For therapeutic purposes Bach
deliberately chose the mauve flowers of the plant rather than the red ones that are far
more common. The color mauve has a soothing and delicate quality not present in the red
ones. The traits of the flower contrast with the rigid gesture and tension that appear in the
pods that, once ripe, explode and propel seeds out of the plant like projectiles. No doubt
this gesture prompted the designation Impatiens. The tension visible in this gesture is
clearly indicative of the Impatiens type. The floral remedy makes the person “less hasty
in action and thought; more relaxed, patient, tolerant and gentle towards shortcomings of
others and upsetting conditions.”10
The Mimulus type, which Bach also carried in his personal psychological make-
up, defines people who react sensitively to the physical and psychological stimuli of their
environment. Being very sensitive to noises, light, crowds and all other stimuli, they tend
to isolate themselves, avoid conflict and flee the thick of life. Their lesson in life is to
develop the corresponding missing virtues: a “quiet courage to face trials and difficulties
with equanimity and humor” and an “ability to enjoy life once more without irrational
fears.”

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 The plant expresses this delicate nature in its need to live in a pristine, unpolluted
environment. However, Mimulus also likes to live on the edge. The plant grows close to
rocks, where the water constantly covers its roots, and is able to survive for a time under
water. It throws its seeds in the water in a gesture of trust for the future. The seeds first
float, then sink, and germinate under water. Then, they reemerge and reach places where
they can root, thus accomplishing a journey full of risks. When the water level overflows,
Mimulus uses yet another strategy for propagation. It can let loose fragments of its stem,
which will settle on the edge of the water where they will begin to root new plants.
Practitioners who work with these remedies advise that we can choose essences
by looking at how we react in situations of stress: when we are tired, when a serious
decision needs to be made or when facing an emergency. These are the times when our
double is most likely to be activated and rise to the surface of our personality. Another
approach is to choose them according to the qualities we admire most or dislike most in
others. Looking at formative episodes in our childhood or youth, when a healthy
individual type has not been covered over by individual reactions to blows of destiny —
this is a way to detect the dominant personality type.
Bach Flower Remedies can bring out emotions more quickly, more readily than
they would naturally appear. These are the emotions we would experience in a normal,
positive unfolding of a psychological crisis. There is no evidence that they induce new
emotions! And, no side effects have been found in the use of flower essences.12 Bach
Flower remedies work well in synergy with soul work, such as journaling, counseling,
meditation and dream work. The flower essences induce inner development by
stimulating a dialogue between the inner self and the double, and a mobilization of the
forces of the soul that can transform the double without suppressing any aspect of it.
In Katz and Kaminski’s view, Bach’s flowers work both with similar and contrary
characteristics, as is visible in the gesture of the plant itself — in the realm of archetypes
that lie beyond the realm of duality — beyond the primary realm of homeopathic
remedies that work with energetic processes at work in the physical. They reach the
conclusion that the flowers evolve, according to the alchemical principle of
metamorphosis and the union of opposites, into a new synthesis.12 The Bach remedies

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can thus reach the emotional realm. Unlike homeopathic remedies, they work according
to the freedom of the individual. Potentizing the flower remedies makes them effective
but in a compulsory way, thus presenting the problem of side effects that can result from
use, or misuse, of homeopathic remedies.13 All of the above was intuited by Bach. He
envisioned his flower remedies as medications that “flood our bodies with beautiful
vibrations of our Higher Nature in the presence of which disease melts like snow in
sunshine.” He also stated that the remedies “bring more union between our mortal and
spiritual self.” For this reason he could assert that the remedies were “more spiritualized
than all the previous remedies.”
It is not surprising that Bach also saw healing in relation to our ability to take
responsibility for our actions. The two main causes for disease were, in his opinion, greed
and idolatry. Idolatry is the term he used for any degree of dependence from and on other
human beings. He expressed it thus: “…today, tens of thousands of us worship not God,
not even a mighty angel, but a fellow human being. I can assure you that one of the
greatest difficulties which has to be overcome is a sufferer’s worship of another
mortal.”14
The same conclusion appears strengthened in his view that “disease is the result
of interference: interfering with someone else or allowing ourselves to be interfered
with.” The doctor concluded:
Absolute freedom is our birthright, and this we can only obtain when we
grant liberty to every living Soul who may come into our lives. For truly we
reap as we sow, and truly “as we mete so it shall be measured out to us.”
Exactly as we thwart another life, be it young or old, so must that react upon
ourselves. If we limit their activities, we may find our bodies limited with
stiffness; if, in addition, we cause them pain and suffering, we must be
prepared to bear the same, until we have made amends: and there is no
disease, even however severe, that may not be needed to check our actions
and alter our ways.15

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 Doctor Bach’s Impatiens type always lived on the edge, projected toward the
future, foreseeing possibilities to come. His intuitions — potent although often overly
idealistic — point to future possibilities for medicine. He stands as a forerunner of the
interests of many modern human beings. This is how the doctor saw the state of present
humankind:
But the times are changing, and the indications are many that this
civilization has begun to pass from the age of pure materialism to a desire for
realities and truths of the universe. The general and rapidly increasing interest
exhibited today for knowledge of the super-physical truths, the growing
number of those who are desiring information on existence before and after
this life, the founding of methods to conquer disease by faith and spiritual
means, the quest after the ancient teachings and wisdom of the East — all
these are signs that people of the present time have glimpsed the reality of
things.16

Bach’s Prophetic Views

These remarks acquire more depth when we look at less known aspects of the doctor’s
life. Bach’s heightened sensitivity was the result of his soul’s continuous living at the
boundary between the inner and outer worlds. In conformity with the Mimulus type, he
had great difficulty in confronting noises and crowds and was at times so affected that he
suffered both mentally and physically. It is not surprising then that Bach was, to quite a
degree, telepathic and perceptive: he could detect what people felt, which was at times
hard both for himself and others. In his practice Bach often needed to recover after
receiving particularly trying patients. He was not trying to protect himself from these
states as he felt they were necessary for the performance of his task.17 The above
conditions reached pathological levels, particularly at the time preceding his discovery of
the right remedy for the condition affecting him. Not unlike Edgar Cayce, Bach would
suffer physically from deviations from his higher nature.
Toward the end of his life, Bach was able to foretell events. His biographer, Nora
Weeks, remembers that he was able to warn the fishermen, whom he knew well, of a

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coming gale three weeks ahead of time. On another occasion he dreamed of a friend
fisherman whom he saw in great danger during a storm. In the dream Bach had seen him
and another one asleep and had said to the second “wake up.” The doctor awoke, startled
by the images, and ran ashore to see the boat he had dreamt of. The fisherman friend
confirmed the danger and the sudden awakening by the mate that had saved his life.18
On several occasions Bach felt impelled to lay his hands on a patient’s arm or
shoulder, and the patient was quickly healed. He felt at once a tremendous compassion
and desire to be of help and he “would feel the healing life flow from his hands into the
patient, who immediately was well.” Nora Weeks herself claims that she was cured of a
severe bronchitis by the doctor passing his hands over her back.19 However special this
power may still appear today, Bach felt that it was a natural faculty that he claimed he did
not know how to teach.
It is now hardly surprising that Bach remembered some details of his previous
lives, although these meant little to him. It is also not surprising, therefore, to hear his
ideas about the impending spiritual revolution occurring in our time: “For the next
coming of Christ, there is a band of people who, to welcome Him, should be able to
transcend their physical natures and realize their spirituality.”20

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1) Ye Suffer From Yourselves quoted in Patterns of Life Force: A Review of the Life and
Work of Dr. Edward Bach and His Discovery of the Bach Flower Remedies, Barnard
Julian, 1987, Bach Educational Programme, Hereford, U. K., p. 63.

2) About the differences between homeopathic and flower remedies, see: Flower
Essences and Homeopathy: An Article Exploring the Relationship between These Two
Allied Therapies, Richard Katz ad Patricia Kaminski, 1983, published by the Flower
Essence Society, Nevada City, CA.

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www.humanspiritcircles.com
3) Bach did not say why he used the second boiling method. He discovered the second
group of nineteen plants from March to July 1935. At that time he was undergoing the
state of mind that the remedy would later cure. It has been speculated that the boiling
method was devised in order to treat woody species but this argument fails to justify
the presence of herbaceous plants such as Mustard and Star of Bethlehem among the
second group of nineteen. Rather, J. Barnard finds justification in Bach’s remark that
the sun-boiled remedies act at a deeper level, therefore the need to extract their
healing quality with a more radical means than the sun method. The second group of
nineteen plants addresses the great trials of life that submit the individual to great
pressure, intense emotions and pain. A look at the description of the soul states that
these remedies cure confirms Bach’s incidental remark. We have previously
illustrated this with Elm, Cherry Plum and Aspen.

4) In his book Free Thyself we see this quote:

“ Health is listening solely to the commands of our souls; in being trustful as little
children; in rejecting intellect (that knowledge of good and evil); with its reasonings,
its ‘fors’ and ‘againsts’, its anticipating fears; ignoring convention, the trivial ideas
and commands of other people, so that we can pass through life untouched,
unharmed, free to serve our fellow-men.”
Further in the same chapter we read: “Truth has no need to be analysed, argued
about, or wrapped up in many words. It is realized in a flash, it is part of you. It is
only about the unessential complicated things of life that we need so much
convincing, and that have led to the development of the intellect. The things that
count are simple, they are the ones that make you say, “Why, that is true, I seem to
have known that always,” and so is the realization of the happiness that comes to us
when we are in harmony with our spiritual self, and the closer the union the more
intense the joy.” (Heal Thyself, chapter 3, in The Original Writings of Edward Bach:
Compiled from the Archives of the Dr. Edward Bach Healing Trust Mount Vernon,
Sotwell, edited by Judy Howard and John Ramsell, 1990, C. W. Daniel Co., Saffron
Walden, U. K.)

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 From the above in light of Bach’s biography his “reject of the intellect” becomes
more circumstantiated. It reflects Bach’s journey in the expression of his self and the
rejection of fears that had cramped his youth and early adulthood. Suffice to
remember the three years from age 16 to 19 when he worked in the family’s brass
foundry before mastering the courage to make known his desire to be a doctor. It also
applied to the tumultuous life of feelings in his relationships and marriage.

5) The Flower Essence Society continues the research for the introduction of new flower
remedies. It publishes the Flower Essence Repertory: A Comprehensive Guide to
North American and English Flower Essences for Emotional and Spiritual Well-
being, Patricia Kaminski and Richard Katz, The Flower Essence Society.

6) Handbook of the Bach Flower Remedies, Philip M. Chancellor, 1971, C. W. Daniel,

London, pp. 237-242.

7) The first 19 remedies are divided into 12 + 7. The 12 correspond to the soul types.
The 7 correspond to the individual responses learned over time that mask the
objective type. The same would be true of the second group of 19 but in practice this
subdivision is rarely used.
Bach explained that the second series of 19 remedies act at a deeper level and
help us to realize the Great Self that will help us fight off fears, worries and illnesses.
The remedies obtained by boiling address the theme of intensity, pressure and
undoubtedly pain. The boiling method addresses the need to dissolve and break old
models. The resistance to this process releases pain. Patterns of Life Force: A Review
of the Life and Work of Dr. Edward Bach and His Discovery of the Bach Flower
Remedies, opus quoted, see pp. 180-181 and 263.

8) Patterns of Life Force: A Review of the Life and Work of Dr. Edward Bach and His
Discovery of the Bach Flower Remedies, opus quoted, p. 91.

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9) Ibid., p. 140.

10) From Dictionary of Bach Flower Remedies: Positive and Negative Aspects, T. W.
Hyne Jones, 1984, C.W. Daniel Co., Saffron Walden, Essex, U. K.

11) There are no two identical individual patterns of recovery that result from Bach
Flower therapy! According to M. Scheffer, there are different courses of development
according to acute or chronic states. In an acute state the correct Bach flower can
have an effect in hours or a few days. In a chronic state the therapy may need weeks,
months or up to two years to have an effect. Here she distinguishes between:

- positive effect curve (category 1): initial positive reaction with subsequent
ups and downs stabilizing around a plateau. At first it seems the flowers
have an “automatic effect,” then the patient has to work with them.

- negative effect curve (category 2) with subsequent ups and downs

stabilizing around a “positive” plateau. The first phase corresponds to an
intensification of symptoms similar to a primary, homeopathic reaction!
This can last for days or weeks and then improve. These are
intensifications of the normal healing process, not added external factors.

Among the primary reactions that a person can experience:

- Change in eye expression
- Intensified sensory impression
- Feelings of warmth and joy throughout the entire body
- Strong need for rest
- Sense of dizziness and confusion during the day
- Flashes of past disease symptoms
- Cleansing reactions: sneezing, rashes, eczema, itching, diarrhea, frequent
urination, swelling of lymph nodes, heavy menstrual flow

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 - Ability to wean oneself of addictive substances; added sensitivity to
alcohol
- Weight loss
- Eating and drinking habits returning to normal
- Improvement in other treatments
- Increased everyday activity
- Interest in exercising and in nature
- Stronger reactions to changes of weather
- Ability to cry again and experience deeply one’s own emotional states
- Looking younger and almost childlike
- Dreaming becomes more vivid

Condensed from Mastering Bach Flower Therapies: A Guide to Diagnosis and

Treatment, Scheffer Methchild, 1984, Healing Arts Press, Rochester, Vermont, pp.
10-23; and Encyclopedia of Bach Flower Therapy, Scheffer Mechthild, 1999, Healing
Arts Press, Rochester, Vermont, p. 234.

12) Flower Essences and Homeopathy: An Article Exploring the Relationship Between
These Two Allied Therapies, opus quoted, p. 12.

13) Ibid., p. 10.

14) The Original Writings of Edward Bach: Compiled from the Archives of the Dr.
Edward Bach Healing Trust Mount Vernon, Sotwell, opus quoted, p. 65.

15) Ibid, opus quoted, p. 64.

16) From Heal Thyself, p. 24 quoted in Patterns of Life Force: A Review of the Life and
Work of Dr. Edward Bach and His Discovery of the Bach Flower Remedies, opus
quoted, p. 61.

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www.humanspiritcircles.com
17) The Original Writings of Edward Bach: Compiled from the Archives of the Dr.
Edward Bach Healing Trust Mount Vernon, Sotwell, opus quoted, p. 181.

18) The Medical Discoveries of Edward Bach Physician, Nora Weeks, 1940, C. W.
Daniel Co., Saffron Walden, Essex, U. K., pp. 106-7.

19) The Original Writings of Edward Bach: Compiled from the Archives of the Dr.
Edward Bach Healing Trust Mount Vernon, Sotwell, opus quoted, p. 182; and The
Medical Discoveries of Edward Bach Physician, opus quoted, p. 43.

20) The Original Writings of Edward Bach: Compiled from the Archives of the Dr.
Edward Bach Healing Trust Mount Vernon, Sotwell, opus quoted, p. 77.

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