"What we know as disease is an ultimate result produced in the body, the end product of deep and long acting forces, and even if material treatment alone is apparently successful this is nothing more than a temporary relief unless the real cause has been removed."
Dr. Edward Bach
DR. EDWARD
BACH
As a boy Edward Bach had a keen desire to help any living creature near him that was not well. He also had an avid interest in nature and preferred whenever possible to be surrounded by trees and plants. These may not be unusual characteristics for a young man to posses; it is what these traits led him to later in life that was truly unique and profound.
The adult Dr. Edward Bach enjoyed success as a Pathologist and Bacteriologist. He worked tirelessly tending to patients by day and doing his research by night. So unceasing was he in his desire to cure his patients that his laboratory was identified as the one with "the light that never goes out". As time passed, Dr. Bach's practice grew even more successful but he was not content. To the contrary, he was disappointed with what he saw as the failure of modern medicine.
Bach like all the other doctors of his time saw too many chronic cases. He could offer these patients nothing more than medicine that would temporarily relieve their symptoms. Dr. Bach was not interested in suppressing symptoms, he wanted genuine cures.
Complicating the problem was the fact that he found doctors in general were ignoring the patient and concentrating only on the disease. Dr. Bach was convinced that the disease should be ignored and they should concentrate on the patient. He had noted that while all patients with a similar problem were given the same medications, some responded and some did not. Bach was sure the reason for this could be found only by studying the patient.
Looking beyond conventional medicine for better ways to cure people, Dr. Bach went to work at the London Homeopathic Hospital. While there Bach read the Organon, written by Samuel Hahnemann the founder of homeopathy. When Bach read that one hundred years earlier Hahnemann had also come to the conclusion that studying the patient would lead the physician to the cure, he was revitalized.
While at the London Homeopathic Hospital he did his ground breaking work with nosodes, but he was still not content. The inconsistencies in the outcome of treatments still plagued him. For this reason he felt modern science was actually providing the proof that the answer would be found in a simpler form. As a youth he was enamored with nature. As an adult he was drawn to look to nature once more for the cures modern medicine had not provided. It was not in the city of London where Dr. Bach would find the cures he sought but in the countryside.
Bach wanted a method of healing that could be made available to all people. Every frustration he encountered in traditional medicine nudged him closer to the fields that held the answers. Bach believed it was logical to turn to nature. Nature provided the basics we need to live in the form of food, water, and warmth. Continuing that line of reasoning, he believed it would be nature that also held the answer to healing.
In 1928 the inspiration that finally led to his Flower Remedies came from observations he made at a dinner party. Watching the guests, he grouped them into several distinct personality types. While pondering over the different personality types it occurred to him that each type might respond to illness in the same way.
Later that year he developed two Flower Remedies and began prescribing to his patients based on their personality traits. The successful results were the breakthrough he had been looking for.
Between studying the Flower Remedies and practicing as a Flower Remedy consultant I was sure I had some unique perspective to share with you about Dr. Bach that has never been heard before. After all, I have the distinct advantage of seeing first hand the changes Bach's Flower Remedies make in the lives of those I work with. Well, that just did not happen. His story is simple and must be told in a simple way. The true testimony to the quality of the man and the system of healing he developed is the way humanity has embraced his Remedies and the 70+ years they have endured.
Today the international list of practitioners at the Dr. Bach Centre, UK, shows Bach Foundation Registered Practitioners in 41 countries. What was started by one unassuming and truly great healer searching for a better way for people to achieve wellness has grown to benefit all creatures worldwide.
A flower remedy consultation is not medical, psychological, or veterinary advice. Always consult your physician, psychologist, or veterinarian for physical symptoms or psychological illness.