In many disease patterns, the personal states of mind of the sufferer play a role. Naturopathic methods such as Bach flower therapy focus on these relationships during treatment and seek individual healing options.
What is Bach flower therapy?
Bach flower therapy is a naturopathic procedure of alternative medicine. When properly applied and dosed, flower essences are free of side effects. Bach flower therapy, named after its developer, the English physician Dr. Edward Bach (1886 – 1936), is a naturopathic procedure of alternative medicine. Dr. Bach, originally a surgeon and orthodox physician, had been intensively involved with herbal medicine and homeopathy since his youth and, due to his practical experience with patients and a cancer he had survived, in which he was diagnosed with only a short life expectancy, came to the conclusion that many illnesses have their cause in a disturbance of the mental balance and that a cure must therefore be initiated from the mental-spiritual level. From this he first developed the description of 19 states of mind, and subsequently 38, to which he assigned flower and plant parts that were placed in water or boiled to release their effect into the water. From these resulting mother tinctures, Bach’s flower essences were produced in a further step by dilution.
Function, effect and goals
Bach was a very good doctor in his time, but was dissatisfied with the healing successes of conventional medicine and tried to find new methods of treatment for chronically ill patients who could not be helped by conventional medicine. To this end, he researched the connections between a pathologically altered intestinal flora and chronic courses of disease and was able to isolate 7 pathological bacterial strains in these investigations, from which he developed vaccines against the previously untreatable diseases. After his own cancer illness with a low life expectancy, which he overcame to the astonishment of everyone, he became more and more convinced to focus more on the personality of the sick person and less on the symptoms. Dissatisfied that vaccines had to be made from pathological agents, he began to search more and more for herbs and in 1935 was able to name 38 negative states of mind as possible causes, to which he assigned 38 flower essences that were supposed to stimulate the self-healing powers through harmonization. Bach assigned a medicinal plant to each of these states of mind, the essence of which is supposed to dissolve the negative soul pattern. For example, copper beech is supposed to provide more compassion and tolerance in people who are particularly critical, agrimony helps with fear and anxiety, plumbago harmonizes low self-esteem, gorse hopelessness, olive exhaustion and dog rose indifference. The preparation of the Bach Flower Essences follows a fixed ritual. The flowers must be picked on a sunny day before 9 o’clock in the morning and left in water for 3 hours. Then the liquid is preserved with brandy or cognac, they are diluted in the ratio 1:240, the solutions are bottled and further diluted. Further dilution produces the Bach Flower Essences, which can be taken as drops. For trees and shrubs, stems and leaves are boiled out instead of the flowers. A special form of Bach flower essences are the “emergency drops” developed by Bach, a composition of 5 constant flowers with double concentration. They are particularly suitable in emotional emergency and stress situations, for example, before operations, dental treatment or exams. In real emergencies, however, a doctor should always be consulted.
Risks, side effects and dangers
Only natural plants are used for Bach flower essences. Since Bach flower therapy only transmits the healing information, the body also only absorbs the active ingredients when it has a deficit of this energy. If the wrong remedy is taken, it will not be absorbed by the body and therefore cannot cause any harm. If the flower essences are used and dosed correctly, they are free from side effects. A positive and intentional side effect may be more intense dreaming and relieving tears. When using Bach flowers, there are also no interactions with other medications.With some remedies there is a risk of dependence that can arise from the substances used, and over time the dose must be increased to keep the effect constant. Bach flower therapy does not involve this risk. People with alcohol problems should still be careful, because the Bach flowers contain alcohol. Dry alcoholics should rather avoid the flower essences. Alcohol can also affect the effect of taking other remedies, if they react to alcohol. The effectiveness of the Bach flowers is controversial, the treatment costs are therefore not covered by public health insurance. In Germany, they are not approved as medicines and can therefore only be obtained from pharmacies abroad. The Bach flower essences are taken today mainly by people for self-help, but partly also used by medical and psychological institutions for treatment, either for general health care, as help in stressful situations or for accompanying support in chronic diseases. Especially children often respond well to treatments with Bach flowers. Good treatment successes are also shown with animals and plants. Who wants to find out which Bach flower essences are best suited for him, can find out in online questionnaires. It is important here to pay particular attention to the conditions that are present at the moment, less the conditions typical of the character.
