floating picked flower heads in a glass bowl on top of spring water that fills it. The bowl is placed on the ground near the parent plants and exposed to sunlight for a few hours, after which time the flowers are removed carefully with a twig or a leaf. The essence is then poured into bottles half full of brandy to preserve it. The “boiling method” involves placing the plant in an enamel pan of spring water and simmering it for half an hour. Once cool, the essence is filtered and preserved in equal parts of brandy. He published his discoveries in main homoeopathic journals and produced several booklets for lay people, so that his remedies would be accessible to everyone. These included Heal Thyself, Free Thyself and The 12 Healers.
Rose (above), distilled as a flower essence (above right), lifts the spirits and helps alleviate fear of the unknown.
The Flower Essence Society
Although flower remedies are associated with Dr Bach, they were actually described in the 1500s by Paracelsus, who prepared remedies from dew he had collected from flowers to treat his patients' emotional problems. In the early seventies “flower power” were the words on many people's lips, particularly in California, and people would refer to “good vibrations”, and they were interested in the wisdom of the East, the power of love and meditation. Flowers were in vogue, and not surprisingly a variety of people in the healing and psychic world began to discover intuitively a whole host of new flower essences. Within the context of mind altering substances and popular New Age concepts, the profusion of flower remedies was causing some confusion, with some doubt as to whether allegations for their remarkable healing abilities was actually sound or not. Richard Katz and Patricia Kaminski were among those who were developing flower essences, having worked with the Bach flower remedies for many years, but were concerned that charlatans in the area would bring flower healing into disrepute. In 1979 they set up the Flower Essence Society (FES) to separate the wheat from the chaff, to gather case studies from practitioners worldwide to confirm the genuine effects of flower essences, and to run training courses for students and seminars for practitioners. After extensive testing of their remedies on health practitioners, the FES produced a range of flower essences called Quintessentials made from organically grown flowers cultivated around the Californian Sierra Nevada. While Dr Bach's remedies reflected the spirit of his era during the Depression, with flowers for negative emotions such as fear, anger, resentment, depression and discouragement, the Californian Flower Essences were affected by California in the 1970s. Their remedies include flowers for enhancing spiritual development, releasing sexual inhibitions and blocks to creativity and for resolving problems in relationships. From the 1970s onwards the world of flower essences has continued to blossom with ranges of flower essences originating from all corners of the world, including New Zealand, Hawaii, Alaska, Scotland, the Himalayas, Africa, the Amazon and Australia.
Kangaroo paw is a bush flower essence derived from the native Australian plant; it helps to encourage social interaction.
Australian Bush Flower Essences
The Australian bush flower essences were evolved by a naturopath, Ian White, who had used the Bach remedies and wanted to explore the healing potential of flowers closer to home. As a boy he had grown up in the Australian bush, and there his appreciation and respect for nature developed as he accompanied his herbalist grandmother on walks, searching for medicinal herbs. As an adult, information about bush essences, a picture of the flower, where it could be found, and often even its name was channelled to Ian White during meditation. Working with other practitioners who were excited by this new discovery, he set about verifying the effects of the Bush remedies, not only by working with patients but also testing them with Kirlian photography, kinesiology and vega machines, and with other mediums. His book Bush Flower Essences describes 50 of the Australian essences and their applications. Since then, twelve more remedies have been discovered and researched.
Healing Nature
Flower remedies are highly diluted from a physical or chemical perspective, effective not because of their chemical constituents but the life force derived from the flower contained within the water-based fluid they come in. Like homoeopathic remedies, their presence is more subtle than physical, and they address profound issues of spiritual well being, emotional and mental harmony, and the healing of emotional and mental difficulties that create blocks to spiritual development and the realisation of our full potential. They can provide catalysts for helping people to heal themselves, to understand their purpose and direction in life, and free themselves from the mental or emotional suffering that may be hindering them on their path. Dr Bach said that flower essences “raise our vibrations and open up our channels for the reception of our spiritual self. They are able, like beautiful music or any gloriously uplifting thing which gives us inspiration, to raise our very natures and bring us nearer to ourselves and by that very act to bring us peace and relieve our suffering”.
Dr Edward Bach (above) wrote that flower essences could “bring us peace and relieve our suffering”.
The Chemistry of Herbs
How do herbs work on the human organism? Much of their medicinal action can be classified according to a plant's therapeutic constituents, measured using the tools of biochemistry and pharmacology. However, plants also work synergistically – the whole being more than the sum of its parts – and this has been less well studied. As a result, many herbalists are happy to evaluate the healing potential of plants according to both modern scientific findings and more holistic philosophies of energy medicine.
Re-evaluating Herbal Medicines
Modern evaluation of herbal medicines is divided between “rationalistic/scientific” and “energetic” viewpoints. With the emergence of modern Western scientific medicine, herbs have been seen either as old fashioned and obsolete or as sources of pharmacological constituents to be used as building blocks for making drugs.
For thousands of years, until the last 200 years or so, plants provided the sole source of medicines and many familiar and potent medicines of the 21st century have been derived directly or indirectly from herbs. Despite this, there are still those who persist in the view that the value of herbs is unproven scientifically. Cinchona bark, for example, is the source of quinine, the anti malaria drug, periwinkle is the source of vincristine, the anti-tumour drug, the opium poppy is the source of morphine and codeine. Atropine, aspirin, digoxin and ephedrine are all plant derived drugs found in modern pharmacological textbooks and dispensaries. At the same time, however, the unquestionable value and popularity of herbs as medicines in the last 20-30 years has prompted an increasing amount of research into the action of plant components that is not only fascinating but also greatly helpful to the modern practitioner.
The bark from the Cinchona tree, native to South America, is the source of quinine in anti-malarial drugs.
Alongside this enquiry into the world of herbs has come a re-emergence in popularity of more ancient systems of medicine with their “energetic” or “holistic” philosophies, as well as more modern systems of healing using plants, such as aromatherapy and flower essences. This has occurred, amid a milieu of natural healing that has challenged modern allopathic medicine to the point that now many people are conscious that valid choices exist for the patient who is embarking
