Gaye Mack, MA
Bach Foundation Registered Practitioner
Dreams and dreaming, whether they have been experienced by tribal Shamans or recounted in the conventional setting of a therapist’s office, they have been and continue to be, an eternal part of the human fabric playing important rolls in religious traditions, cultures, rituals and our personal insights. According to Dr. Garey Malek, Chicago psychiatrist and Jungian analyst, “Dreams are trying to show us at any given point in time, the relationships between our various parts, the facets of our selves at various levels”.
Dreams have been interpreted, analyzed, statistically studied, examined and investigated by hard science, social science, and the esoteric faithful. Jung, Freud, and the existentialists built careers on the study of dreams, as do their modern contemporaries. At the end of the day however, the discussion comes down to the meaning of our dreams and how we can best use them as personal tools to guide us toward a deeper and clearer understanding of ourselves and our soul’s path. Fortunately, nature has provided us with a special treasure to help us on this journey of personal growth and awareness in the form of flower remedies.
The story surrounding the discovery of flower remedy therapy begins in 1928 with the pioneering work of respected British physician and bacteriologist, Dr. Edward Bach. In the course of conducting bacteriological research that included close observation of his patients, Dr. Bach concluded that there was a definitive connection between our emotional states and the lack or presence of illness and disease. In addition, Bach was a highly intuitive and spiritual individual, who had become increasingly dissatisfied with the way orthodox medicine ignored conflicting emotional and spiritual states unique to the human condition. He believed that the nature of illness and disease was a result of a disconnection between our soul-directed path for this lifetime and the personality or ego. Further, if the conflict or disconnection is not balanced out, a signpost of the disconnection eventually manifests in illness as our spiritual nature struggles to move us along on our intended path, much like water seeking its own level. Convinced that nature possessed a simple system of healing that could correct such disharmonies, he traveled to Wales where he initially discovered the first two of the 38 flowers that would later comprise the Bach repertoire of flower remedies.
Back in his laboratory in London, Bach prepared solutions from the flowers in a manner similar to the oral vaccines that he had been working with in his bacteriological research. Upon administering them to several of his patients according to their emotional profiles, (not their physical symptoms), the results were so outstanding and far beyond his expectations, that he knew he was on the right track.
By 1930 Bach closed his consulting practice, passed his laboratory on to his colleagues, and left London for good in order to pursue his work with the flower remedies. In 1935, after seven years of perfecting all aspects of his work, he announced it was complete; the 38 flower remedies in the repertoire were all that was needed to address the basic negative emotional states of mind, which left unbalanced, would eventually lead to illness and disease. Subsequently, Dr. Bach died quietly in his sleep in the fall of 1936.
The 38 flowers in the Bach Flower Remedy repertoire, according to Dr. Bach, possess a unique vibrational energy capable of balancing out the negative and potentially harmful, states of mind which we are all capable of experiencing, particularly in times of major life transitions and emotional crises.
Bach’s philosophy was firmly grounded in the belief that the soul is the keeper of divine wisdom innate in each of us, and it is only when our emotions are thrown into a negative state by the ego or personality, that we lose our connection to this wisdom. When this happens, the soul attempts to find alternative ways to get its message through to our consciousness and our body.
When emotions are in disharmony due to a conflict between the ego and soul’s intention for us, dreams can be interpreted as soul messages that in our conscious state we are simply unable to recognize, whether due to denial, repression, trauma or other psychological dynamics. Therefore, it is our best interest to rebalance this conflict before the body manifests it through illness and disease. Therapists, such as those from the Jungian school of thought, believe that the Soul draws from the collective unconsciousness to give us messages through dreams, while other therapists feel that dreams are simply windows to our individual soul. Whatever the purpose of dreams, whether to warn or encourage us toward examination and self-discovery, flower remedies are a valuable tool in this process.
While the purpose of dreams may be a soul communication, they can appear in frightening scenarios to get our attention by awakening us in a state of fear, terror, shock or apprehension. For these particular transient states the flower remedies Rock Rose, (for terror) Aspen (for a sense of foreboding and anxiety, especially when the individual can not articulate the dream) and Star of Bethlehem (for shock and trauma) would be called for. Those dreams which depict relationships to past events, especially ones involving grief and sadness would indicate the need for Honeysuckle (to break ties to past events, especially if the ties are emotionally unhealthy and need to be severed) and again Star of Bethlehem, should grief and loss be connected to the dream.
In general, if an individual is consciously engaged in exploring their dreams through dream interpretation and journaling, the remedies will facilitate clarity of the dreams. With the use of the remedies, dreams tend to become more vivid, easier to recall and the awareness needed moves more easily into our consciousness. During this process any of the 38 remedies may be called upon depending on the specific characteristics of the dream or dreams.
For some, negative emotional states at any given time can only be worked out initially through dreams because of their intensity. The healing energetic vibration of the remedies acts as a bridge to facilitate the integration process between our subconscious and consciousness so that we may safely look at and interpret the meanings of the messages our soul is trying to convey to enhance our well being and growth.
While there are only 38 Bach flower remedies, there are a possible 293 million combinations of the 38. In addition to the usefulness for dreams, Dr. Bach meant them to be used throughout our lifetime as a self-help tool for attaining a state of emotional well-being, whether the distressed emotional state was temporary, had a deeper emotional history or involved crises of faith and spirituality.
Because they are non-toxic, non-habit forming, possess no contraindications and one can not desensitize to them, they can be used on infants, children, adults, the elderly, animals and even plants. Any combination of up to seven remedies can be administered in a variety of ways in addition to taking them orally, such as in aromatherapy diffusers, spray misters, massage oils, the bath, compresses, and on the pulse points. Today, the trustees of the Dr. Edward Bach Foundation at the Bach Centre in England oversee the making of the mother tinctures for the remedies according to Dr. Bach’s strict and original guidelines. Because of the dedication of those at the Centre, the Bach remedies are readily available to all, as he intended, through natural food and health stores in at least 66 countries around the world.
The fact that there are now a variety of flower remedy repertoires available world-wide, all of which are based on Dr. Bach’s work, attests to the fact that he unselfishly left us with a powerful, but simple, healing tool of nature to assist us in moving along our intended soul path.
“Health depends on being in harmony with our souls, it is our heritage and our right…”
Dr. Edward Bach M.B., B.S., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., D.P.H
Other Articles
Why Choose a Bach Flower Therapy Personal Evaluation? • From Medicine Man to Mystic
“Two Bach Remedies for Self-Doubt: Gentian and Cerato” link is off-site
Background: Centaury (Centaurium umbellatum),
one of Dr. Bach’s original Twelve Healers and Soul Types