Edward Bach

From SkepticWiki

Dr Edward Bach (pronounced 'batch') was an English physician, born September 24, 1886, Moseley; died November 27, 1936. His name today is chiefly associated with Bach flower essences which he developed in the 1930s.

Bach originally studied conventional medicine at the University College Hospital, London, where he was a House Surgeon. He worked in general practice, in Harley Street, as a bacteriologist and later as a pathologist working on vaccines.

Despite the success of his work with orthodox medicine Bach apparently felt dissatisfied with the way doctors concentrated on diseases and ignored the people who were suffering from them. He had already dabbled in homoeopathy and in 1930 he abandoned his Harley Street practice, along with the scientific method, determined to devote the rest of his life to a new system of medicine that he was sure could be found in nature.

Bach chose to rely on intuition - what he saw as his natural gifts as a healer - to guide him. One by one he came up with the remedies he wanted, each aimed at a particular mental state or emotion. He spent the spring and summer looking for and preparing the remedies and the winter giving help and advice to his patients. He believed that when he treated the personalities and feelings of his patients their unhappiness and physical distress would be alleviated. He claimed that the natural healing potential in his patients' bodies was unblocked by his remedies and allowed to work to full effect.

In 1934 Dr Bach moved to Mount Vernon in Oxfordshire. In the hedgerows and fields he found the remaining 19 remedies that he claimed would complete the series of flower rememdies. He discovered 38 remedies, including agrimony, which treats mental torture behind a cheerful face; aspen - fear of unknown things; clematis - dreaming of the future without working in the present and scleranthus - inability to choose between alternatives.

Bach is said to have chosen his remedies by treating himself until he found something he felt was effective. He died at the age of 50.