Bach flower remedies are homeopathic dilutions of flower material developed by Edward Bach, an English homeopath, in the 1930s. Bach believed that dew found on flower petals retain healing properties of that plant. The remedies are intended primarily for emotional and spiritual conditions, including but not limited to depression, anxiety, insomnia and stress.

The remedies contain a very small amount of flower material in a 8:7 solution of brandy and water. Because the remedies are extremely diluted they do not have a characteristic scent or taste of the plant. Vendors claim that the remedies contain “energetic” or “vibrational” nature of the flower and that this can be transmitted to the user. Bach flower remedies are labeled as homeopathic because they are extremely diluted in water, are considered vibrational medicines, and they rely on a concept of water memory. Yet Bach Flower remedies do not follow other homeopathic precepts such as the law of similars or the belief that curative powers are enhanced by shaking and repeated diluting (“succession”).

Philosophy Behind Bach Flower Remedies

Bach thought of illness as the result of “a contradiction between the purposes of the soul and the personality’s point of view.” This internal war, according to Bach, leads to negative moods and energy blocking, which causes a lack of “harmony,” thus leading to physical diseases.

Rather than being based on research using the scientific method, Bach’s flower remedies were intuitively derived and based on his perceived psychic connections to the plants. If Bach felt a negative emotion, he would hold his hand over different plants, and if one alleviated the emotion, he would ascribe the power to heal that emotional problem to that plant. He believed that early morning sunlight passing through dew-drops on flower petals transferred the healing power of the flower onto the water, so he would collect the dew drops from the plants and preserve the dew with an equal amount of brandy to produce a mother tincture which would be further diluted before use. Later, he found that the amount of dew he could collect was not sufficient, so he would suspend flowers in spring water and allow the sun’s rays to pass through them.

Bach advertised his remedies in two daily newspapers, but since his practices did not follow any scientific protocol, and his methods and claims were unproven, the General Medical Council disapproved of his advertising. For example, in his treatise Heal Thyself he wrote:

“Disease will never be cured or eradicated by present materialistic methods, for the simple reason that disease in its origin is not material . . . Disease is in essence the result of conflict between the Soul and Mind and will never be eradicated except by spiritual and mental effort.”