What are the Flower Essences Developed by Dr. Bach?
Approximately 90 years ago Dr. Edward Bach (pronounced “Batch”), an English physician and bacteriologist, developed a new system of improving health known as flower essences. Bach spent most of his career working as a doctor in a traditional hospital practice and as a scientist completing medical research. Over the years, he saw the limitations in treating only the physical aspects of a patient’s illness and came to believe that the root cause of physical disease was emotional imbalance. In 1930, he gave up his practice in the city and returned to the countryside to seek out substances within nature which would heal mental, emotional and spiritual unrest.
During his search, Dr. Bach not only discovered specific wild-growing plants, trees and bushes that addressed emotional states he developed brand new ways to prepare them. One of the methods, called the sun method, mimics the way drops of moisture (dew) on a plant interact with the sun. The method creates an energetic imprint of the plant in the water, no physical substance from the plant remains. The result is a liquid product with the ability to gently transform unwanted negative emotions such as fear, depression or lack of confidence into peace and well-being.
38 Single Essences and One Combination Formula
During this period of his life, Bach developed 38 single ingredient preparations and one combination formula. The final stock essence of the products has been diluted several times. It no longer contains any physical plant material, just an energetic signature of the plant or water remains. Each essence addresses one or more states of emotional unrest including: panic, shock, anger, depression, resentment, inability to make a decision, a lack of joy, living in the past, irritability, impatience, apathy, and a lack of confidence.
Thirty-seven of the 38 single ingredient preparations are made from:
the blossoms of one species of flowering plant or the buds or leaves of one species of tree
water and
alcohol (as a preservative).
The 38th single ingredient preparation, Rock Water, is based on water from a spring with healing properties.
The Combination Formula called the Rescue Combination
Dr. Bach combined five of the 38 single essences into what he called the rescue combination. This formula has a remarkable calming influence. When the formula is used before and during stressful events it can prevent emotional tension and unwanted behavior from happening in the first place. When it’s used after an emergency, stressful event, or emotional upset the rescue combination helps restore emotional balance in your horse, other animals, and yourself.
Two of the modern-day liquid products based on this combination are widely available for purchase online and in health food stores. They are called Rescue Remedy® and 5 Flower®Essence (labeled Five-Flower Formula™ in the USA). The Additional Resources section of this blog post lists several websites with educational materials and online stores featuring the flower essences discovered by Dr. Bach.
Why use Bach Flower Essences for Horses, Dogs and People?
The Bach Flower essences are inexpensive, liquid products known for their ability to balance the emotional states of both people and animals. I’ve used them since 1985 on myself and friends as well as dogs and horses in my horse training and rehabilitation practice. The essences have helped me soothe nervous, even hysterical horses at shows and clinics, build confidence in a performer and tone down a bully, reduce the grieving of an orphan foal and keep everyone calm during stressful situations. The essences can also help traumatized animals who have shut down emotionally or become hyper-alert due to previous abuse or injury. And while the Bach flower essences are not a substitute for veterinary medical care I’ve used them to bring animals out of shock following injury.
The Bach Flower Essences Are Not Tranquilizers
While they are very effective calming agents, the flower essences do not sedate an animal or person like a chemical tranquilizer. They seem to balance the animal’s emotional state and, in doing so, change behavior in a positive way.
For example, an emotionally balanced horse does not go into full hysteria when treated appropriately by a veterinarian. A horse that is already frightened or belligerent, however, is likely to become difficult to handle with the added stress of a medical treatment situation. This horse’s core emotional balance is out of sorts and so his behavioral response to the stress of the veterinarian’s visit will be over-reactive. If we dose him with flower essences to defuse his underlying tension and reactivity, the horse will be able to handle the additional stress of the visit from the veterinarian without losing control.
FDA Status
The sale and use of the Bach flower essences in the United States is governed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Their present status is OTC (over-the-counter). This means they can be purchased in stores without a prescription. They are in the “GRAS” category, which means “generally recognized as safe”. This is the same category as human food products. In this context, they are listed as Bach flower essences. In England, they are labeled as Bach flower remedies. The Bach flowers are also listed in the HPUS, the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States. This is where all of the homeopathic remedies accepted by the USA are listed.
Who can use Flower Essences? Can You Harm The Animal?
Anyone can use the flower essence formulas. There are lay and practitioner training offered by various educational organizations but no state licensing exists. Because of their benign nature and “microdose” preparation, the Bach Flower essences are completely safe. You cannot create harm by overdosing or picking the “wrong” flowers. The remedies are safe to use at the same time the animal is on prescription medication, herbs or nutritional supplements. Horse and dog owners as well as professional equine and canine body workers, veterinarians, horse trainers, dog trainers and farriers can all benefit from the calming influence the products provide.
How do the Essences Work?
It’s not scientifically known how flower essences work. Dr. Bach urged users not to worry about the mechanism with which the essences healed because they so clearly did bring about positive results. He focused on describing the flowers themselves and their ability to bring about emotional peace and harmony. He offered hundreds of case histories describing the medical and emotional states of patients he helped using the flower essences.
Nora Weeks in her book The Medical Discoveries of Edward Bach, Physician (1973) stated: “From 1930 until his death in 1936, Bach used the herbal remedies alone in the treatment of all cases of disease and sickness that came to him, and the results fully justified his conviction that the true healing agents are contained in the beneficent plants and trees of nature.”
Do the Bach Flower Essences have any Side Effects?
One of Dr. Bach’s goals in developing the flower essences was to find remedies which would assist in healing with no painful reactions. Dr. Bach wanted them to be so easy and safe to use that they be kept in every home’s medicine cabinet for family use. As a result the 38 flower essences he finally chose heal gently. There are no side effects reported in their use and no fear of ill effects from overdosing or from incorrect choices. The remedies can be safely used in conjunction with other types of treatments both pharmaceutical and herbal in nature.
Additional Resources
Blog Post
Diana’s Bach Flower Journey: Timothy’s Story
The Thoroughbred racehorse Timothy’s Hope was my primary equine teacher during 1985-1988 and 2003-2012. During our first year together he showed me the miraculous nature of the flower essences discovered by Dr. Edward Bach.
Read the Post
Websites with Free Educational Materials
www.healingherbs.co.uk
www.bachflowerlearning.com
The Healingherbs Company in Hereford, England, creates the 5 Flower® Essence and the 38 single flower essences developed by Dr. Bach. The Healing Herbs website offers many free educational resources including the Bach Flower Learning Programme, a free, eight-part online study program that teaches students about the 38 flower essences. This program can also be accessed by going to the website: www.bachflowerlearning.com
Note: In the USA, the Healingherbs Company combination product 5 Flower® Essence is labeled and sold as the Five-Flower Formula™ by Flower Essence Services (FES) of Nevada City, California, which is the North American distributor for the Healingherbs brand of Dr. Bach’s essences.
As explained above, the company called Flower Essence Services (FES) of Nevada City, California, is the North American distributor for the Healingherbs brand of Dr. Bach’s flower essences. The Five-Flower Formula™ and Bach’s 38 single essences produced by the Healingherbs Company are available for purchase in the FES website store.
Note: This is where Diana purchases the Healingherbs brand of Bach flower essences and other supplies. She finds the staff members at FES to be very knowledgeable and helpful.
The Bach Centre is located at Mount Vernon, the cottage in England where Dr. Bach lived and worked during the last years of his life. This website has information on the 38 flower essences, and educational programs including distance learning. The website also offers free PDF books, pamphlets, and articles written by Dr. Bach and others. One free PDF contains the 1941 edition of Dr. Bach’s simple yet profound book The Twelve Healers and Other Remedies.
The website store sells the Rescue Remedy® brand of the rescue combination formula and Dr. Bach’s 38 single flower essences that are manufactured by Original Bach® Flower Remedies of the Nelson Company, London, England.
www.bachflower.com
www.directlyfromnature.com
The www.bachflower.com website includes a lot of free information about the use of Bach flower essences for humans and animals. It provides excellent descriptions of each of the 38 single essences written by Dr. Bach with keywords and indications. An online Bach flower questionnaire is also available.
The www.bachflower.com website links to an online store called www.directlyfromnature.com, which sells the Rescue Remedy® brand of the rescue combination and the 38 single Bach flower essences that are manufactured by Original Bach® Flower Remedies of the Nelson Company, London, England. This website also carries an extensive list of new and used books on the Bach Flowers.
Note: Diana purchases books from this site. The staff members are very helpful.
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