“Our vision of life depends on how close our personality is to our soul”
Dr. E. Bach
Edward Bach was born in Moseley, outside Birmingham, England, and was of Welsh origin. Since his childhood, he had a special feeling for nature and a restless spirit. The simple things in life attracted him. He had been a dreamy and idealistic child. Upon completing his studies, he enlisted in the Worcestershire Cavalry Corps, where he developed his love of animals and nature.
At the age of 20, he entered the University of Birmingham, and after graduating from medical school, he went on to study and obtained degrees in bacteriology and pathology. For many years, Dr. Bach resided in London and devoted much to further research and practices in hospitals and laboratories to perfect himself. He looked for ways to relieve people's suffering and avoided visiting the parks and gardens, which he liked so much because he feared that they might distract him from his path by coming into contact with them.
Dr. Bach was a tenacious and dedicated man. In his treatments and observations of patients and illnesses, he began to suspect that there must be something more behind the physical disease. He carefully studied the individual characteristics of each personality. He found that the same treatment worked for some people and not for others. Perhaps the condition was masking a particular emotion waiting to be relieved. Indeed, the disease was not the cause but the effect of an emotional state.
In 1914, Dr. Bach became responsible for 400 beds at the University College Hospital, in the bacteriology department, and as a clinical assistant in this area. While researching as a bacteriologist, he discovered the relationship between some intestinal bacteria with chronic diseases. His work intensified, and even though his body required attention, Dr. Bach continued his studies until he became seriously ill and had to undergo emergency surgery. After recovering, and despite an unfavorable diagnosis, he regained his strength and immersed himself in research, day and night. When they called his room and they saw that he was always working, they said, "The light that never goes out." Dr. Bach had found that the more he focused on his life goal, the more his energy to move forward grew. He realized that when people give meaning to their purpose, an engine is generated that leads them to create new health possibilities.
He felt recovered and began work at the London Homeopathic Hospital in a short time. Soon his name achieved notoriety through his research. Under these circumstances, he became acquainted with Hahnemann's studies and his book: "Organon of the art of healing," written more than a hundred years ago. Dr. Bach became fascinated by the genius of Hahnemann, who healed his patients guided more by mental than physical symptoms. Homeopathy would confirm what Dr. Bach had discovered: Treat the person instead of the disease. He better understood the methods of healing and the improvement of the individual as a whole. Dr. Bach continued working at the London Homoeopathic Hospital and his Harley Street practice in those years.
By 1926, intestinal Nosodes were known in Britain as Bach's Nosodes. He began an observational work on people, whom he grouped in his writings according to their behaviors and temperaments. He started to prepare remedies with the homeopathic method with great success. In 1930, he decided to leave all profitable activity in London to search in nature for the healing system that he had dreamed of as a child and felt he was getting closer to.
Homeopathy wasn't far away, but it wasn't exactly what he was looking for. He then left his practice and a prominent position in the London medical community at age 44 to travel to his homeland: Wales. Dr. Bach discovered that he had forgotten his instruments and laboratory equipment upon his arrival. He only had a suitcase with clothes and boots for the countryside. However, this was not an impediment but rather a motivation to find a new method to extract the benefits of plants. And he found it.
On his walks through the Welsh countryside, Dr. Bach continued to experiment with wild plants, and in 1930, he wrote "Heal Yourself" while living in Cromer, Northfolk, near the coast. In 1933, he left the coast to return a year later. Before, Dr. Bach had developed the only combination of flowers recognized as an emergency remedy: Rescue Remedy.
Rescue Remedy is composed of five flowers: Clematis, Star of Bethlehem, Rock Rose, Impatiens, and Cherry Plum.
With Rescue Remedy, Dr. Bach rescued a fisherman who had been shipwrecked with his boat. Almost drowned, he recovered to everyone's surprise.
In 1934, he moved to Sotwell, a small house called "Mount Vernon," where he stayed until the completion of his work.
Dr. Bach had a group of companions, Nora Weeks, his great assistant, and Victor Bullen, a dear friend, who gave continuity to his work. Dr. Bach himself prepared them to carry on his legacy. He then wrote "The Twelve Healers and Other Remedies," completing his work and his mission on earth according to his words. Dr. Bach put thirty-eight states of mind and mood into terms with such clarity that even the most straightforward mind can understand what he meant. He said that book was the summary of his entire life.
After a brief improvement, Dr. Bach died on November 27, 1936, in his sleep. He fulfilled his dream, found the healing method he wanted in nature, developed a system of 38 flowers and left his founding philosophy easy to understand and apply. Dr. Bach's teaching transcended his life and his time.