THE INCREDIBLE HISTORY OF BACH FLOWER ESSENCES

"Treat the person, not the disease".

Dr. Bach has overcome all obstacles, but above all he has brought light to a simple, effective and accessible healing system allowing harmony and peace to permeate our lives. His dream of becoming a doctor and finding the cause of disease was not interrupted by the diagnosis of terminal cancer

The history of Bach's Flowers, invented some 80 years ago, cannot be dissociated from the moving life story of its inventor, the English physician Dr. Edward Bach.

Born in Mosley, a small town in the interior of England, he dreamed of becoming a doctor from an early age. But he did not intend to be just a doctor. In his heart, what he wanted was to find the cause of disease. An undertaking that he carried on throughout his life.

Bach studied medicine at University College Hospital in London, where he became a surgeon. Then he obtained his DPH in Cambridge. According to his biographers, he was a rather peculiar medical student, for he soon revealed more interest in patients than in their illnesses: he sat by the bedside and let them speak.

In 1913 he took up a position at University College Hospital as the medical officer and in 1914 he was responsible for 400 war beds during the First World War. That was when he began to observe the effects of stress and trauma in relation to the recovery potential of his patients. He then discovered that the real cause of his illness were worries and emotions.

Despite the success of his work with orthodox medicine, he felt dissatisfied with the way traditional doctors focused on illness and ignored how patients felt. In 1917, he suffered severe bleeding and was diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer, where he was told that he would have no more than three months to live.

An extremely positive man, he gathered his strength and went to the laboratory to work. He began to dedicate himself to research day and night. Besides not thinking about his illness because he had his mind occupied with the vast wealth of power he was fining in plants For this reason, people noticed a light burning constantly at the window, they looked at him at work and commented that it was the "light that never goes out", due to his effort and continuous commitment. In a short time he was completely healed.

He became increasingly known for his discoveries in the field of bacteriology. He worked exclusively for the "University College Hospital", and then as a bacteriologist at the "London Homeopathic Hospital", remaining there until 1922. It was in this situation that he came to know the Doctrine of Hahnemann, the father of homeopathy and his basic book: the "Organon of the Art of Healing", written more than a hundred years before his time. Then he discovered the genius of Hahnemann, who healed guided more by mental than physical symptoms. Dr. Edward Bach was fascinated by "healing the sick" and not "curing the disease".

Passionate about Hanneman's work, he created homeopathically diluted and "potentiated" vaccines. This vaccine is still known today as Bach's seven nosodes.

Homeopathy and the use of flowers

Dr. Edward Bach, then started trying to replace nosodes with herbal medicines. Thus he began to use the dilution and potentiation system, two flowers he brought from Wales in 1928. These plants were Impatiens and Mimulus. The results were very positive and encouraging. Also in this same period, it began to separate individuals by behavioural similarity groups, as if they "suffered from the same problem". This happened after he had attended a party and watched people, when he had an insight and imagined that there should be a medicine to alleviate this suffering common to each group of individuals.

The transition from homeopathy to floral

At the age of 44, he left his native Wales, leaving behind his fame, hs higly lucrative Harley Street in search of fulfilling his great dream. Before he left, he burned everything he had written and researched, leaving the rest of the work to be completed by his colleagues and auxiliaries who worked with him.

Dr. Bach was convinced that most human diseases are caused by negative states of mind (fear, jealousy, despair). He identified 38 remedies - each based on a native flower which, according to his research, would alleviate these negative feelings and thus restore health.

Edward Bach died in his sleep on November 27, 1936, at the age of 50, at his home in Mount Vernon. Today, it is in this very house that the Bach Centre, a centre for the study of Bach's flowers, operates.