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Bach Flower Therapy

 

Bach Flower Therapy is a quasi-homeopathic system of pseudo-diagnosis and pseudo-therapy developed in the 1930s by a British physician named Edward Bach (1886-1936). (See Lynn McCutcheon, "Bach Flower Remedies: Time to Stop Smelling the Flowers?")

Bach put forth his philosophy in Heal Thyself: An Explanation of the Real Cause and Cure of Disease, first published in 1931. Therein he described five "fundamental truths":

 

  • Souls, invincible and immortal sparks of the Almighty, are the real "Higher" selves of humans.
  • Humanity's purpose is to develop virtues and wipe out all interpersonal wrongs. Souls know what circumstances are conducive to the perfection of human nature.
  • One's lifetime is a minuscule part of one's evolution.
  • When one's Soul and personality are in harmony, one is healthy and happy. The straying of the personality from the dictates of the Soul is the root cause of disease and unhappiness.
  • The Creator of all things is Love, and everything of which humans are conscious manifests the Creator.

 

Bach held that disease was essentially beneficial, and that its design was to subject the personality to the "Divine will" of the Soul. Supposedly, he "psychically" discovered the specific "healing" effects of 38 wildflowers.

The life force ("soul quality" or "energy wavelength") of each of these flowers allegedly is transferable to water, and thence to humans. Each of the so-called Bach flower remedies is a liquid that supposedly contains a "soul quality" with an affinity to a human "soul quality"; and each vegetable "soul quality" allegedly harmonizes its human counterpart with the Soul. The bases of classical "diagnosis" are conversation and intuition. Administration of the remedies is usually oral but may be external.