| Dr Edward Bach M.B., B.S., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., D.H.P. (Camb.) | |
 Dr Edward Bach 1886 - 1936 |
Flower Remedies/Essences are a simple and natural method of healing through the personality, by means of the essence of wild flowers. This method was discovered in the 1930s by Edward Bach (correctly pronounced 'batch' or, idiomatically, 'baych'). Dr Bach is now perhaps most famous for his Rescue Remedy™. This method of treatment and the thirty-eight remedies which comprise its pharmacopoeia were discovered by Bach, a renowned physician, who practiced for over twenty years in London as a Harley Street consultant and bacteriologist. He studied medicine at the University College Hospital, London, where he was a surgeon. Despite the success of his work with orthodox medicine he felt dissatisfied with the way doctors were expected to concentrate on diseases and ignore the people who were suffering them. He was inspired by his work with homeopathy but wanted to find remedies that would be simpler and solely to treat emotional states. So in 1930 he gave up his lucrative Harley Street practice and left London, determined to devote the rest of his life to the new system of medicine that he was sure could be found in nature. |
Abandoning the scientific methods he had previously used, he relied instead on his natural gifts as a healer, and used his intuition to guide him through the meadows and lanes of the British countryside including Wales, Oxfordshire and Norfolk. He would suffer the emotional state that he needed to cure and then try various plants and flowers until he found the one single plant that could help him. One by one he found the remedies he wanted, each aimed at a particular mental state or emotion. He found that when he treated the personalities and feelings of his patients their unhappiness and physical distress would be alleviated as the natural healing potential in their bodies was unblocked and allowed to work once more. In this way, through great personal suffering and sacrifice, he completed his life's work. Dr Bach spent much of his time studying the Flower Remedies while living in the English seaside town of Cromer in Norfolk, where he discovered many of his remedies on the Cromer cliffs. (Cromer is also the home town of the English Flower Essence Company Creature Comforters). Dr Bach's wish was that everyone, whether medically trained or not, would have the means to use his healing system of Flower Remedies. He was also keen to develop a straightforward pharmacopoeia and simple method of production so that they could actually be made by anyone too (by following his precise instructions). Therefore, it is well known, by Dr Bach literarys, that he would have commended - nay celebrated, the situation we have now, over seventy years after his death, where there are hundreds of small, independent Flower Essence Companies, all over the world, making and selling the remedies ~ just like Creature Comforters UK. This is said to have been precisely Dr Bach's wish. Dr Bach passed away on the evening of November 27th, 1936. He was only 50 years old, but has left behind him a lifetime's experience and dedication, and a highly respected system of medicine that is now used all over the world. He also gave us the, now famous, Rescue Remedy™ which is used by millions throughout the world including actors, musicians, politicians, 'celebrities', the military, doctors, vets, Olympic sports men and women and members of the Royal family!
Dr Bach quotes: "Treat the person, not the disease" "Let not the simplicity of this method deter you from its use, for you will find the further your researches advance, the greater you will realise the simplicity of all Creation" "Take no notice of the disease; think only of the outlook on life of the one in distress" "Final and complete healing will come from within, from the Soul itself, which by His beneficence radiates harmony throughout the personality when allowed to do so" References
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Article by Jane Stevenson, founder of Creature Comforters UK (and Sun Essences for Animals) Studies have shown that caring for a pet can reduce stress levels. The owners can be happier, healthier and even live longer than people without an animal companion. In my own experience, as an animal enthusiast, I have found that there are few better ways to start your day than with an invigorating walk with your dog who, wide awake, and staring at you with those pleading eyes, is raring to go! Our pets are entirely reliant on us for their well being. We readily take care of their physical needs, but what if they are unhappy? It is easy to forget that we are also responsible for their emotional care. Animals are thought to experience the same breadth of emotions as humans, including the negative ones. Unable to express how they feel or to understand what is happening to them, the animals reaction to difficulties may be communicated through antisocial behavior, such as fear, destructiveness or aggression. Unfortunately the true reason for this behavior often goes unrecognised. Until recently this area of animals welfare was generally overlooked, as conventional treatments often do not cater for emotional problems. However, I have been helping animals with flower essences for over 27 years, and have found them to be a very effective and safe answer to this area of caring for our pets. These essences are used to calm the emotions, lift spirits and bring out the animals full potential. Animals seem to respond remarkably quickly to their therapeutic effects. Perhaps this is because they are innately free of complicated human thought processes and so the placebo effect is not an issue. Experience has shown that in certain situations essences may need to be used in conjunction with sensible training or other treatments. However, we must understand that each animal has a unique personality; they are free spirits and a certain amount of instinctive behaviour is normal. Flower essences have been quietly helping animals for years, and are only now becoming mainstream. They offer immeasurable benefits to our animal friends who, like us, are living with the challenging side-effects of life in the 21st Century. © Copyright 2005 Jane Stevenson
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By Jane Stevenson of Creature Comforters One day my 6 year old daughter Hannah came rushing into my kitchen shouting anxiously: “Mummy, there’s a hurt bird outside”. I rushed outside to find a blackbird who was motionless and barely breathing. I held the poor little bird in my hands and we both watched, helplessly, as it slipped-away. It had completely stopped breathing and looked as though it was dead. Hannah was really upset and I felt sad that I had no means to help the bird. Then I remembered the ‘Rescue Remedy™’. It was worth a try, so I put a couple of drops onto its beak. Hannah and I waited for a couple of seconds and then watched in astonishment as the bird twitched, opened its eyes and, after a few seconds, jostled to its feet and flew away! Living deep in the Norfolk countryside we would often find injured wild animals (birds, rabbits, pheasants etc) in the fields and on the lanes. And my neighbours would bring me any injured animals they found to use my ‘magic remedy’. From that day on I would always use my version of the ‘Rescue Remedy™’; ‘Comforter Essence’ to try to help revive these animals, and, depending on the severity of the injury, it usually worked. Remarkable! Looking back I now realise that that experience with the Blackbird was important: it made me appreciate how powerful the remedies are for helping animals, and this inspired me to specialise in flower essence therapy for animals, and some years later I formed my own company for this purpose: Creature Comforters (formerly 'Sun Essences for Animals'). © Copyright 2007
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Water memory From:
Water Remembers? Homeopathy Explained? New research suggests water remembers what has been dissolved in it, even after dilution beyond the point where no molecule of the original substances could remain. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho reports. For more than a century, practitioners of homeopathy have used highly diluted solutions of medicinal substances to treat diseases. Some substances are diluted way beyond the point at which no trace of the original substances could remain. It is as though the water has retained memory of the departed molecules. This has aroused a great deal of scepticism within the conventional medical and scientific community. To this day, ‘homeopathic’ is used as a term of derision, to indicate something imagined that has no reality. But a series of recent discoveries in the conventional scientific community is making people think again. First, there were the South Korean chemists who discovered two years ago that molecules dissolved in water clump together as they get more diluted (see SiS 15), which was totally unexpected; and further more, the size of the clumps depends on the history of dilution, making a mockery of the ‘laws of chemistry’. Now, physicist Louis Rey in Lausanne, Switzerland, has published a paper in the mainstream journal, Physica A, describing experiments that suggest water does have a memory of molecules that have been diluted away, as can be demonstrated by a relatively new physical technique that measures thermoluminescence. In this technique, the material is ‘activated’ by irradiation at low temperature, with UV, X-rays, electron beams, or other high-energy sub-atomic particles. This causes electrons to come loose from the atoms and molecules, creating ‘electron-hole pairs’ that become separated and trapped at different energy levels. Then, when the irradiated material is warmed up, it releases the absorbed energy and the trapped electrons and holes come together and recombine. This causes the release of a characteristic glow of light, peaking at different temperatures depending on the magnitude of the separation between electron and hole.
As a general rule, the phenomenon is observed in crystals with an ordered arrangement of atoms and molecules, but it is also seen in disordered materials such as glasses. In this mechanism, imperfections in the atomic/molecular lattice are considered to be the sites at which luminescence appears. Rey decided to use the technique to investigate water, starting with heavy water or deuterium oxide that’s been frozen into ice at a temperature of 77K. The absolute temperature scale (degree K, after Lord Kelvin) is used in science. (The zero degree K is equivalent to –273 C, and deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen which is twice as heavy as hydrogen). As the ice warms up, a first peak of luminescence appears near 120K, and a second peak near 166 K. Heavy water gives a much stronger signal than water. In both cases, samples that were not irradiated gave no signals at all. For both water and heavy water, the relative intensity of the thermoluminescence depends on the irradiation dose. There has been a suggestion that peak 2 comes from the hydrogen-bonded network within ice, whereas peak 1 comes from the individual molecules. This was confirmed by looking at a totally different material that is known to present strong hydrogen bonds, which showed a similar glow in the peak 2 region, but nothing in peak 1. Rey then investigated what would happen when he dissolved some chemicals in the water and diluted it in steps of one hundred fold with vigorous stirring (as in the preparation of homeopathic remedies), until he reached a concentration of 10 to the power -30 g per centilitre, and compare that to the control that has not had any chemical dissolved in it and diluted in the same way. The samples were frozen and activated with irradiation as usual. Much to his surprise, when lithium chloride, LiCl, a chemical that would be expected to break hydrogen bonds between water molecules was added, and then diluted away, the thermoluminescent glow became reduced, but the reduction of peak 2 was greater relative to peak 1. Sodium chloride, NaCl, had the same effect albeit to a lesser degree. It appears, therefore, that substances like LiCl and NaCl can modify the hydrogen-bonded network of water, and that this modification remains even when the molecules have been diluted away. The fact that this ‘memory’ remains, in spite of, or because of vigorous stirring or shaking at successive dilutions, indicates that the ‘memory’ is by no means static, but depends on a dynamic process, perhaps a collective quantum excitation of water molecules that has a high degree of stability (see "The strangeness of water and homeopathic memory", SiS 15). Institute of Science in Society
From the Institute of Science in Society 3. The Strangeness of Water & Homeopathic ‘Memory’ Is there any reason for homeopathic remedies to work? Does the strangeness of water hold the key? Dr. Mae-Wan Ho describes recent ideas on how the quantum electrodynamic properties of water could provide the basis of homeopathic ‘memory’ and how one might investigate them. Water is the most abundant substance on the surface of the earth and is the main constituent of all living organisms. The human body is about 65 percent water by weight, with some tissues such as the brain and the lung containing nearly 80 percent. The water in our body is almost completely tied up with proteins, DNA and other macromolecules in a liquid crystalline matrix that enables our body to work in a remarkably coherent and co-ordinated way (see "To science with love", this issue). Although water is the most familiar of liquids, it is also the most mysterious. Water is densest at 4 C and expands on freezing at 0 C, which is why ice floats, fortunately for fish and other aquatic creatures. The water molecule consists of an oxygen atom bonded to two hydrogen atoms (H2O). The water molecule has the shape of a tetrahedron, a three-dimensional triangle. The oxygen atom sits in the heart of the tetrahedron, the hydrogen atoms point at two of the four corners and two electron clouds point to the remaining opposite corners. The clouds of negative charge result from the atomic structures of oxygen and hydrogen and the way they combine in the water molecule. Oxygen has eight negatively charged electrons disposed around its positively charged nucleus rather like layers of the onion, two in the inner shell and six in an outer shell. The inner shell’s capacity is filled, but the outer shell can hold as many as eight. Hydrogen has only one electron, so oxygen, by combining with two hydrogen atoms, completes its outer electron shell. The hydrogen’s electron is slightly more attracted to the oxygen nucleus than its own nucleus, which makes the water molecule polar, and it ends up with two clouds of slightly negative charge around the oxygen atom, and its two hydrogen atoms are left with slightly positive charges. The positively charged hydrogen of each water molecule can attract the negatively charged oxygen of another, giving rise to a hydrogen-bond (H-bond) between molecules. Each molecule of water can form four H-bonds, two between the hydrogen atoms and the oxygen atoms of two other molecules, and two between its oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms of other molecules. Ice is usually composed of a lattice of water molecules arranged with perfect tetrahedral geometry. In liquid water, however, the structure can be quite random and irregular. The actual number of H-bonds per liquid water molecule ranges from three to six, with an average of about 4.5. At ordinary temperatures, liquid water consists of dynamic clusters of 50 to 100 water molecules, in which the H-bonds are constantly making and breaking (or flickering). The tetrahedral H-bonded molecule also gives water a loosely packed structure compared with that of most other liquids, such as oils or liquid nitrogen. Water offers eternal fascination for physicists and physical chemists, not the least of the reasons being that it enables DNA and all proteins to function properly in the living organism (see Box). Water is the real medium of life The importance of water to living processes derives not only from its ability to form hydrogen bonds with other water molecules, but especially from its capacity to interact with various types of biological molecules. Because of its polar nature, water readily interacts with other polar and charged molecules such as acids, salts, sugars and various regions of proteins and DNA. As a result of these interactions, water can dissolve those substances, which are consequently described as hydrophilic (water loving). In contrast water does not interact well with nonpolar molecules such as fats, oil and water don’t mix. Nonpolar molecules are hydrophobic (water-fearing). Hydrophobic interactions in water are very important for protein folding, because the chain folds so as to keep the hydrophobic parts inside, and expose the hydrophilic parts on the surfaces next to water. Proteins only work when they are folded properly and when there is water around, when they become ‘plasticised’ or flexible. The properties of water and its interactions with proteins and DNA have been extensively studied using molecular dynamic simulations. These computer simulations follow the motions of populations of molecules according to interactions between atoms within the molecules and between molecules. Molecular dynamic simulations show that while polar molecules such as urea form hydrogen bonds with water and dissolve in it, water molecules either don’t mix at all with nonpolar substances such as fat and oil, or tend to form a cage around the molecules. These simulations also show that water is integral to the structure and function of all macromolecules. Early attempts to create molecular dynamics of models of DNA failed because repulsive forces between the negatively charged phosphate groups in the DNA backbone cause the molecule to break up after only 50 picoseconds. (The 50 picoseconds are in terms of real time as experienced by the DNA, and would have taken hours, if not days of computer time.) In the late 1980s, Levitt and Miriam Hirshberg showed that when water molecules were included, the DNA double-helical structure was stabilised by the water molecules forming hydrogen bonds with the phosphate groups. Subsequent simulations showed that water interacts with nearly every part of the DNA’s double helix, including the base pairs. In contrast, water does not penetrate deeply into the structures of proteins, whose hydrophobic regions are tucked within. So, protein-water simulations have focused on the protein surface, which is much less tightly packed than the protein interior. From experiments, we know that heat causes the alpha-helices (a predominant structural feature of proteins) to uncurl, but in early simulations without water, the helix remained intact. Only by adding water were Levitt and Valerie Daggett able to mimic an alpha helix’s actual behaviour. Recent investigations in our own Institute are showing that water is integral to the liquid crystalline structure of living organisms. The liquid crystalline structure of organisms holds the key to rapid intercommunication within the organism and the perfect co-ordination of living processes. While most physicists and biochemists are still trying to understand the interactions of water molecules in terms of classical mechanics, a number of physicists have begun to think of the quantum properties of water. Conventionally, quantum properties are thought to belong to elementary particles of less than 10-10m, while the macroscopic world of our everyday life is ‘classical’, in that things in it behave according to Newton’s laws of motion. Between the macroscopic classical world and the microscopic quantum world is the mesoscopic domain, where the distinction is getting increasingly blurred. Indeed, physicists are discovering quantum properties in large collections of atoms and molecules in the nano-metre to micro-metre range, particularly when the molecules are packed closely together in the liquid phase. Recently, chemists have made the surprising discovery that molecules form clusters that increase in size with dilution. These clusters measure several micro-metres in diameter. The increase in size occurs nonlinearly with dilution and it depends on history, flying in the face of classical chemistry (see "Molecules clump on dilution", this issue). Indeed, there is as yet no explanation for the phenomenon. It may well be another reflection of the strangeness of water that depends on its quantum properties. In the mid-1990s, quantum physicists Del Giudice and Preparata and other colleagues in University of Milan, in Italy, argued that quantum coherent domains measuring 100nm in diameter could arise in pure water. They show how the collective vibrations of the water molecules in the coherent domain eventually become phase-locked to the fluctuations of the global electromagnetic field. In this way, long-lasting, stable oscillations could be maintained in the water. One way in which ‘memory’ might be stored in water is through the excitation of long-lasting coherent oscillations specific to the substances in the homeopathic remedy dissolved in water. Interaction of water molecules with other molecules changes the collective structure of water, which would in turn determine the specific coherent oscillations that will develop. If these become stabilised and maintained by phase coupling between the global field and the excited molecules, then, even when the dissolved substances are diluted away, the water may still carry the coherent oscillations that can ‘seed’ other volumes of water on dilution. The discovery that dissolved substances form increasingly large clusters is compatible with the existence of a coherent field in water that can transmit attractive resonance between the molecules when the oscillations are in phase, leading to clumping in dilute solutions. As the cluster of molecules increases in size, its electromagnetic signature is correspondingly amplified, reinforcing the coherent oscillations carried by the water. But then, one should expect changes in some physical properties in the water that could be detectable. Unfortunately, all attempts to detect such coherent oscillations by usual spectroscopic and nuclear magnetic resonance methods have yielded ambiguous results. This is not surprising, in view of the finding that cluster size of the dissolved molecules depends on the precise history of dilution rather than on concentration of the molecules (see "Molecules clump on dilution", this issue). It is possible that despite variations in the cluster-size of the dissolved molecules and detailed microscopic structure of the water, a specificity of coherent oscillations may nonetheless exist. The failure of the usual detection methods is because they depend on measuring the microscopic properties of individual molecules, or of small aggregates. Instead, what is needed is a method for detecting collective global properties over many, many molecules. Some obvious possibilities that suggest themselves are measurements of freezing points and boiling points, viscosity, density, diffusivity, and magnetic properties. One intriguing possibility for detecting changes in collective global properties of water that is not so obvious is by means of crystallisation. Crystals are formed from macroscopic collections of molecules. Like other measurements that depend on global properties, crystals amplify the subtle changes in individual molecules that would have been undetectable otherwise (see next article).
From the New Scientist Icy claim that water has memory 19:00 11 June 2003
Holding such a heretical view famously cost one of France's top allergy researchers, Jacques Benveniste, his funding, labs and reputation after his findings were discredited in 1988. Yet a paper is about to be published in the reputable journal Physica A claiming to show that even though they should be identical, the structure of hydrogen bonds in pure water is very different from that in homeopathic dilutions of salt solutions. Could it be time to take the "memory" of water seriously? The paper's author, Swiss chemist Louis Rey, is using thermoluminescence to study the structure of solids. The technique involves bathing a chilled sample with radiation. When the sample is warmed up, the stored energy is released as light in a pattern that reflects the atomic structure of the sample. Twin peaks When Rey used the method on ice he saw two peaks of light, at temperatures of around 120 K and 170 K. Rey wanted to test the idea, suggested by other researchers, that the 170 K peak reflects the pattern of hydrogen bonds within the ice. In his experiments he used heavy water (which contains the heavy hydrogen isotope deuterium), because it has stronger hydrogen bonds than normal water. Aware of homeopaths' claims that patterns of hydrogen bonds can survive successive dilutions, Rey decided to test samples that had been diluted down to a notional 10-30 grams per cubic centimetre - way beyond the point when any ions of the original substance could remain. "We thought it would be of interest to challenge the theory," he says. Each dilution was made according to a strict protocol, and vigorously stirred at each stage, as homeopaths do. When Rey compared the ultra-dilute lithium and sodium chloride solutions with pure water that had been through the same process, the difference in their thermoluminescence peaks compared with pure water was still there (see graph). "Much to our surprise, the thermoluminescence glows of the three systems were substantially different," he says. He believes the result proves that the networks of hydrogen bonds in the samples were different. Phase transition Martin Chaplin from London's South Bank University, an expert on water and hydrogen bonding, is not so sure. "Rey's rationale for water memory seems most unlikely," he says. "Most hydrogen bonding in liquid water rearranges when it freezes." He points out that the two thermoluminescence peaks Rey observed occur around the temperatures where ice is known to undergo transitions between different phases. He suggests that tiny amounts of impurities in the samples, perhaps due to inefficient mixing, could be getting concentrated at the boundaries between different phases in the ice and causing the changes in thermoluminescence. But thermoluminescence expert Raphael Visocekas from the Denis Diderot University of Paris, who watched Rey carry out some of his experiments, says he is convinced. "The experiments showed a very nice reproducibility," he told New Scientist. "It is trustworthy physics." He see no reason why patterns of hydrogen bonds in the liquid samples should not survive freezing and affect the molecular arrangement of the ice. After his own experience, Benveniste advises caution. "This is interesting work, but Rey's experiments were not blinded and although he says the work is reproducible, he doesn't say how many experiments he did," he says. "As I know to my cost, this is such a controversial field, it is mandatory to be as foolproof as possible."
Jacques Benveniste Benveniste was a French immunologist (March 12, 1935 - October 3, 2004). In 1979 he published in the French Compte rendus de l'Académie des Sciences a well-known paper where he contributes to the description of the structure of the platelet-activating factor and its relationships with histamine. He was head of INSERM's Unit 200 directed at "Immunology, allergy and inflammation". He was at the center of a major international controversy in 1988 when he published a paper in the prestigious scientific journal Nature reporting on the action of very high dilutions of anti-immunoglobulin E on the degranulation of human basophils, a kind of white blood cell. Biologists were puzzled by these results as only molecules of water, and no molecules of the initial substance (anti-IgE) are expected to be found in these high dilutions. These results seem to indicate that the configuration of molecules in water may be biologically active. A journalist coined the term water memory for this hypothesis.
From Wikepedia... Water memory is a scientifically unsupported speculation that water is capable of retaining a memory of particles once dissolved in it, even after being diluted so much that the chance of even one molecule remaining in the quantity being used is minuscule.[1][2] Shaking the water at each stage of a serial dilution is claimed to be necessary for an effect to occur.[3] The concept was proposed by Jacques Benveniste to explain the alleged therapeutic powers of homeopathic remedies, which are prepared by serially diluting aqueous solutions to such a high degree that even a single molecule of the original solute is highly unlikely to remain in each final preparation. Benveniste sought to prove this as the basic foundation of homeopathy, by conducting an experiment to be published "independently of homeopathic interests" in a major journal.[4] However, while some studies, including Benveniste's, have claimed such an effect, double-blind repetitions of the experiments involved have failed to reproduce the results, and the concept is not accepted by the scientific community.[5] The most prominent advocate of this idea was the French immunologist Jacques Benveniste.[4] His team, at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), diluted a solution of human antibodies to such a degree that there was no likelihood that a single molecule remained, but said that when human basophils were exposed to the solution, they responded by releasing a chemical substance as they would have if they had encountered the original antibody (part of the allergic reaction). The effect supposedly only worked when the solution was shaken violently. Benveniste claimed "It's like agitating a car key in the river, going miles downstream, extracting a few drops of water, and then starting one's car with the water." [6] At the time, Benveniste offered no explanation of how the effect might work.
In the end, a compromise was reached. The paper was published in Nature Vol. 333 on 30 June 1988,[3] but it was accompanied with an editorial by Maddox that noted "There are good and particular reasons why prudent people should, for the time being, suspend judgment" and described some of the fundamental laws of chemistry and physics which it would violate, if shown to be true.[1] Additionally, Maddox demanded that the experiments be re-run under the supervision of a hand-picked group of what became known as "ghostbusters", including Maddox, famed magician-cum-paranormal researcher James Randi, and Walter Stewart, a physicist and free-lance debunker at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
In a response letter published in the same issue of the journal, Benveniste lashed out at Maddox and complained about the "ordeal" he endured at the hands of the Nature team, comparing it to "Salem witchhunts or McCarthy-like prosecutions."[8] In both the Nature response and a following Quirks and Quarks episode, Benveniste especially complained about Stewart, who he stated acted as if they were all frauds and treated them with disdain, complaining about his "typical know-it-all attitude". In his Nature letter, Benveniste also implied that Randi was attempting to hoodwink the experimental run by doing magic tricks, "distracting the technician in charge of its supervision!" He was more apologetic on Quirks and Quarks, re-phrasing his mention of Randi to imply that he had kept the team amused with his tricks and that his presence was generally welcomed. He also pointed out that although it was true two of his team-members were being paid for by a homeopathic company, the same company had paid for Maddox's team's hotel bill. Maddox was unapologetic, stating "I'm sorry we didn't find something more interesting." On the same Quirks and Quarks show he dismissed Benveniste's complaints, stating that the possibility that the results would be used by the homeopathy community demanded an immediate re-test. In failing, the tests demonstrated that the initial results were likely due to the experimenter effect. He also pointed out that the entire test procedure that Benveniste later complained about was one that had been agreed upon in advance by all parties. It was only when the test then failed that Benveniste claimed it was not appropriate. The debate continued in the letters section of Nature for several issues, until eventually being ended by the editorial board. It continued in the French press for some time.[9] For all of the arguing over the retests, it has done nothing to stop what Maddox worried about; even in the light of their failure they are still used to claim that the experiments "prove" that homeopathy works.[10] One of Benveniste's co-authors on the Nature paper, Francis Beauvais, later stated that while unblinded experimental trials usually yielded "correct" results (i.e. ultradiluted samples were biologically active, controls were not), "the results of blinded samples were almost always at random and did not fit the expected results: some 'controls' were active and some 'active' samples were without effect on the biological system."[11] [edit]More recent experiments
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| Please note: Flower Essences (or Remedies) are often confused with 'Essential Oils' (such as Lavender, Ylang Ylang etc). However, they have virtually nothing in common with each other. Firstly, unlike Aromatherapy Essential Oils, Flower Essences have virtually no taste, fragrance or colour (other than the diluted brandy that they are preserved in). Secondly Flower Essences are a complementary therapy that is taken internally, whereas Aromatherapy Essential Oils are for external use only. | |
Bach's Cromer 1 By a steep, cobbled slipway that leads to the beach, sits a row of tall Victorian terraces inhabited by artists, holidaymakers and fishermen. Nestled amid the row is an unremarkable dwelling with a dark green, iron door. There seems nothing extraordinary about this house except that, unknown to most, it was once, during the 1930s, the residence of a very special man. A man who has influenced thousands worldwide; someone who has inspired hundreds of books, written in many different languages, and myriad websites, articles, leaflets, brochures and journals. An inspirational, some say visionary, doctor, homeopath and surgeon who - through great personal sacrifice and dedication - pioneered a new, alternative system of treatment that went-on to be revered around the world by those seeking a different, natural way to heal emotional problems. Having used, made and prescribed Flower Remedies, for the larger part of my life, I feel extremely privileged to live just a 15-minute walk from Dr Bach’s former residence and in the town he inhabited when discovering many of his Remedies. A quaint, traditional seaside town; to the casual observer there’s nothing particularly remarkable about the Cromer. It has the obligatory pier, a modest promenade and a few (formerly) grand hotels. In wintertime it’s quiet, sleepy and windswept (or gale-swept), in the summer it’s all ice cream, windbreaks and holidaying families, probably just as it was in the 1930s when Bach lived here. But there are some fine places to be found in and around this town, on the wild, sandy cliffs and grassy green hills. Places that Dr Bach himself walked whilst looking for plants and flowers to add to his growing range of remedies. I’d like to take you to one of those places, a special one, just over the way from my home. The delightfully named ‘Happy Valley’ (see the scene at the start of this page) is an area of mown park and wild scrubland, watched-over by an elegant lighthouse and bordered by the open sea to one side and woodland to the other. A favourite place for dog-walkers, it’s where I take my dog, Simba, early each morning. If you climb the steep ridge, out of the valley, you’ll be met by a wonderful view overlooking a wide expanse of sea. Sometimes the sea is bluey green – tropical looking, other times it’s dark, rough and angry. But it is here, during the late summer, that the cliffs are blanketed in a profusion of Clematis, as far as you can see. There’s a nicely positioned bench nearby and a perilous long, windy path, cut out of the cliffs, leading to the beach. So, although this is a public place, this little patch still feels secret and special – the flowers positively inviting you to make a remedy from them. It is well documented that Bach made his very first Remedies in and around Cromer and that his Clematis was made from the flowers on these banks, but could this be the precise spot? Perhaps, back in the 1930s, this is where the first ever Clematis Flower Remedy was made? Perhaps those very plants I use to make my Clematis are the descendents of those that Bach himself used? It’s impossible to know, but it’s nice to wonder or even daydream; as those requiring Clematis are prone!
The Birth of Rescue Remedy This otherwise fairly ordinary town of Cromer is a place that inspires me like it inspired Edward. A place where many of the first discoveries were made, and the sequence of unplanned events happened, that helped enable Edward Bach to create something very special – a gift to the world. © COPYRIGHT J STEVENSON, A DIGBY 2010 |
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The Power of Flowers
Flower Remedies were first discovered in the 1930s by consultant surgeon and bacteriologist Dr Edward Bach. He studied medicine at the University College Hospital, London, and progressed to Harley Street where he presided over a successful practice for over 20 years. However, despite the success of his work with orthodox medicine, Bach felt dissatisfied with the way doctors were expected to concentrate solely on the diseases that people suffered whist ignoring the people who were suffering them. Inspired by his work with homeopathy he looked to find a simpler remedial method that would focus on the emotional catalysts and consequences of illness rather than the illness itself. He once said: “Take no notice of the disease; think only of the outlook on life of the one in distress.” So in 1930: he abandoned the scientific methods he had previously used; he gave up his lucrative Harley Street practice; he left London and moved to the countryside and he went on a ‘voyage of discovery’. Dr Bach dedicated the rest of his life to finding and developing a new system of medicine that he was sure could be found in nature. Dr Bach would travel the length and breadth of the meadows and lanes of the United Kingdom (specifically Oxfordshire, Wales and Norfolk) and, using his natural gifts as a healer and his intuition as a guide, he would select individual flowers that he believed could help various negative emotional states. Once he found himself experiencing the negative emotional state that he needed to cure, he would then try various plants until he found the one single plant that could help him overcome that emotion. One-by-one he found the remedies he wanted, each aimed at a particular mental state or emotion ~ he discovered thirty eight in all. Dr Bach found that, when he treated the personalities and feelings of his patients, their unhappiness and physical distress would be alleviated as the natural healing potential in their bodies was unblocked and allowed to work once more. In this way, through great personal suffering and sacrifice, he completed his life's work. Dr Bach's wish was that everyone, whether medically trained or not, would have the means to use his healing system of Flower Remedies. It was also said he was also keen to develop a straightforward pharmacopoeia and simple method of production so that they could actually be made by others too (by following his precise instructions). Therefore, it is well known, by Dr Bach literarys, that he would have commended - nay celebrated, the situation we have now, over seventy years after his death, where there are hundreds of small, independent Flower Essence Companies, all over the world, making and selling the remedies ~ just like Creature Comforters UK. This was precisely Dr Bach's wish. Dr Bach passed away on the evening of November 27th, 1936. He was only 50 years old, but has left behind him a lifetime's experience and dedication, and a highly respected system of medicine that is now used all over the world. He also gave us the, now famous, Rescue Remedy™ which is used by millions throughout the world including actors, musicians, politicians, 'celebrities', the military, doctors, vets, Olympic sports men and women and members of the Royal family! What are Flower Remedies? They are a complementary therapy in liquid~herbal form made from the ‘flowering’ organs of a select variety of wild plants ~ of their flowers, catkins and tree buds. Flower Remedies are a natural and gentle therapy that, as literature suggests, can be used alongside other treatments without affecting other medicines or therapies, they also have no known side effects. Each remedy bottle usually contains roughly 50% spring water, 50% Brandy (used as a ‘natural’ preservative) and the ‘energy signature’ of a particular plant. [Stock bottles are preserved in 100% brandy]. Taken internally, the remedies are used to help gently address transient emotional and behavioural problems ~ naturally. For example; a person may have suffered a bereavement or loss and therefore may be finding it difficult to ‘move on’ and look to the future with hope and enthusiasm. In this instance they may be prescribed a course of Honeysuckle and Walnut which, as Dr Bach found, can help to alleviate feelings of grief, regret or wistfulness, e.g. ‘longing for times past’. How do they work? Although Homeopathic Medicine is different to Flower Remedy Therapy, they both use the stored ‘vibration’ or, what’s commonly known as; ‘energy signature’ of a specified plant to unlock the healing potential of that living material. With Flower Remedies this is done by means of a phenomenon called ‘Water Memory’. The rationale for proponents of this phenomenon is that water is capable of retaining a memory of the vibration of particles or flowers that have been placed into it for a specified period of time and by a specified means (to learn more about this process read additional Water Memory articles). Therefore the ‘source material’ could, for example, be a Verbena officinalis flower that, using Dr Bach’s traditional method, is first submerged into fresh spring water and is then left in the sunlight for a few hours to ‘infuse’. Once the water has collected the memory of Verbena officinalis its’ unique ‘energy signature’ will be stored forever within that spring water. The next step is for the infused spring water to be preserved (usually using brandy) and thus it becomes a Flower Remedy that is used for the unique emotional or behavioural problems that Verbena officinalis is understood to address; in this case – fanaticism or intensity. The notion of water having the capacity to retain a ‘memory’ has proven to be a controversial one amongst many members of the scientific community (and often an inconceivable one to the layman!). However, recent studies by some eminent scientists have shown that, although still not fully understood, there is some validity to this ‘concept’. When studying the water that it has been placed into: each flower (for instance) imparts a unique ‘fingerprint of energy’ into the water – these subtle, yet distinct changes can be observed through a powerful microscope, and, when frozen, can be seen as thousands of beautiful and identical geometric crystals (similar to magnified snow flakes); all totally unique to that particular plant. And therefore, as one would expect, microscopic photographs have also shown that the molecular structure of water changes when infused with particular particles, however, much more significant is the fact that these changes can still be observed after the water has been diluted so extensively (by thousands of percent of the original concentration) that logic and science would predict that there would be no trace whatsoever of the added particle. In such studies the water behaves in a way that is not fully understood and is apparently in contradiction to the laws of known science. However, despite any conclusive scientific explanation, many, many people who have used the Remedies over the past 75 years have reported positive effects from taking them. Some may say that this could simply be the ‘placebo effect’ (in other words: a sense of benefit felt by the patient that arises solely from the knowledge that treatment has been given), however, many practitioners and pet owners have also reported some amazing results when the Remedies are given to animals, so there can be no question of the placebo effect being at work in those cases. Therefore, we don’t really know how they work but we know that they do! © Jane Stevenson and A. Digby |
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