Gaye answers your questions....
How does one use a remedy? Drink it? Sniff it? Apply it to the skin?
The remedies come as a liquid, preserved in brandy. To take them, there are several options: you can dilute 2 drops of the remedy(s) in a glass of spring water (rescue is always 4 drops) for sipping, you can place them directly on the tongue, on the pulse points, or alternatively you can place them in the bath, in massage oils, or a larger spray bottle filled with spring water. For emotions with which you have a longer history, you can make a personal formula bottle. (see below)
Is it safe to take the remedies if you are pregnant?
Yes, it is safe; but if you have any worries on this score you should talk to your doctor or midwife.
As for the alcohol, the small amount that you take when you take a remedy should not be a problem. Again, ask your doctor if you are in doubt.
How soon does Rescue Remedy take effect? How soon do the other remedies make a difference?
Rescue Remedy usually works quite quickly, because it is taken for emergency situations rather than deep-rooted problems. The other remedies can also work quickly, but if you are dealing with something that has been around a long time then it can take weeks or even months to see a real difference. Often timing is governed by four variables: have you chosen the appropriate remedy, are you compliant (meaning faithfully taking them 4 times per day), how sensitive are you and how deeply buried is the emotions or are the emotions within you. I have seen cases wherein the individual does not seem to be shifting in their perceptions for as long as 6-7 weeks, and then suddenly they have a significant break-through of awareness.
What if you feel you need more than one remedy?
You can use more than one, and in this case, six or seven remedies together at the same time is the maximum suggested that people work with. For such circumstances, a personal formula bottle is suggested for both economy and convenience.
To make a formula bottle, fill a clean 1 oz dropper bottle with spring water, add 2 drops of each chosen remedy and top off (about 1/2 teaspoon of either drinking alcohol of your choice, vegetable glycerin or cider vinegar). Once this mixture is made, the standard dosage is 4 drops, 4 times per day. If you keep this cool -- preferably in the fridge -- and if you are careful not to let the dropper touch your tongue, then the water will stay fresh for the two to three weeks that the treatment bottle will last.
You only need to add alcohol if the bottle will not be kept cool if, for instance, you intend to carry it about in your pocket all the time. The only reason you need the alcohol is to help stop the water from going off.
Dr. Bach is known to have given nine remedies together on two occasions, but remember he was seeing thousands of people over a period of many years.
It’s quite common for people to feel they need many more than this number -- 12, 15, 20 remedies or more. However, think about how you feel now and treat that. In other words, treat the main feelings you have now, and when the remedies have dealt with these you can then move on to the issues that were in the background.
What is the likelihood of reactions and rashes, e.g. to Star of Bethlehem, Crab Apple, and how are they caused?
The Bach Flower Remedies work by flooding out negative feelings and emotions. Sometimes the emotions that are dealt with have been repressed for some time and in order to clear them they have to be cleansed from the system. On very rare occasions this can take the form of a rash, or unexpected feelings may be stirred up. Where such things do occur they can be disregarded and there is no reason to stop taking the remedies. If the feelings are extremely bothersome, you can cut back the frequency from 4 times per day to 3 or 2 times per day until you feel more stable. Again, there is no reason to discontinue the remedies.
Someone said I should take Star of Bethlehem at the same time as Rescue Remedy. I thought Star of Bethlehem was one of the things in Rescue Remedy, so why should I take both?
Rescue Remedy is a crisis remedy -- something ready to hand when things have gone wrong. So if you have just received bad news you might take Rescue because it’s more likely to be in your pocket. Then if it appeared that the shock was the outstanding emotion you might switch to Star of Bethlehem alone. You could take both right away, it wouldn’t do any harm, but Rescue alone would be sufficient for the initial crisis.
An occasion where you might take both, perhaps mixed in a treatment bottle, is if you were suffering from regular panic attacks (Rescue Remedy) which could be traced back to a trauma in the past (Star of Bethlehem), there would then be clear indications for both remedies.
Generally speaking you should think of Rescue Remedy as a single remedy with its own indications, rather than as a mix of five remedies.
I'm using Rescue Cream for a finger with eczema. At the moment it's got worse -- should I stop using it?
Some eczemas do not respond well to any cream. If the Rescue Cream is making it worse stop using the cream and instead add Rescue Remedy and Crab Apple to water and use that to clean the area a couple of times a day.
Can you take Bach Flower Remedies in tea, coffee and so on?
You can put the remedies in tea, coffee, soft drinks etc., and in this respect they are not like homoeopathic remedies.
I would like to know if I can place the remedy drops into hot drinks without destroying their healing properties.
Yes, you can put the drops into hot drinks -- water, tea, coffee etc. This will not affect the potency of the remedies, and because the heat will evaporate the alcohol in the remedies it is a method we sometimes recommend to people who for one reason or another dislike the alcohol content.
I have heard that if you take a remedy for too long you will experience its negative state.
This is not true. The remedies are entirely positive and cannot under any circumstances cause the negative state to appear.
When does one stop taking the remedies?
When the problem that is being treated has gone. There is no need to continue taking them in case it comes back and of course no need to wean oneself off the remedies gradually, as you have to do with some conventional drugs like steroids and beta-blockers. Nor do you need to take a complete course of doses over a specific number of days, as you do with antibiotics.
If things get worse once you start taking the remedies, should you stop taking them or continue?
The Bach Flower Remedies do not cause side-effects or aggravations, but it may be that the remedies are stirring up repressed feelings that need to be cleansed before complete healing can be achieved. If you feel this is the case then you can look to see if there is a need for any other remedies instead of or as well as the ones you are currently taking. It is helpful to keep in mind that the remedies bring about awareness within you and that this is an opportunity for you to work with these repressed emotions toward transformation. Sometimes this requires the assistance of an objective observer such as a therapist or spiritual advisor, as we are rarely objective about our own process.
Additionally, if you feel things are getting worse in spite of the remedies this may mean one of two things. Either the remedies have not yet had time to work (two or more months or even years of regular dosage may be needed to deal with deep-rooted problems) or the selection was wrong, in which case you need to re-evaluate your selection since you are not receiving the support you need.
In any case, the remedies will not themselves cause any symptoms or problems that are not already in you and are entirely beneficent in their effects. This means that there is no need to stop taking the remedies, and even if the wrong ones are being taken this only means that they will not improve things -- they will never make them worse.
Is it always better to select as few remedies as possible?
In a sense it is better to select fewer remedies. The normal guideline is to try to use no more than six or seven at a time, since experience has shown that more than this number is hardly ever necessary if a little thought goes into the selection process. Taking more remedies than are actually needed means that the focus is lost and the ones that are necessary will not work as well or quickly as they might otherwise have done.
However, it is not true that three remedies are always better than four, or that the ideal treatment is a single remedy: if six (or eight, or even nine) remedies really are necessary that is how many you should take.
Are there any combinations of remedies that should never be used?
No. Even the remedies that might appear to be direct opposites (Vervain and Wild Rose, for example, or Vine and Centaury) may occasionally be needed at once by the same person. It all depends on the personality and current emotional states of the person being treated.
Is it safe to take the Bach Flower Remedies if you are a recovering alcoholic, given the brandy content?
If the remedies are mixed into treatment bottles and taken four drops at a time in the approved way the amount of alcohol taken in is actually very small. Nevertheless, taking even a minute quantity of alcohol may have a psychological impact on someone who has decided to give up completely. In addition there is a very powerful drug (known as Antabuse) which causes a violent reaction in someone drinking even a tiny quantity of alcohol. For both these reasons it is best in these circumstances to consult your qualified medical practitioner before taking the remedies.
When you do so you might explain the dilution process and mention that if the remedies are dropped into a hot drink most of the alcohol will evaporate, and it is of course possible to administer the remedies externally by rubbing them on the pulse points. But if in doubt, ask for advice.
Is the effectiveness of Bach Flower Remedies affected if they are stored near aromatherapy oils?
No. The brandy used to preserve the remedies may be affected and may taste a little strange, but the actions of the remedies are not affected in any way.
Are the remedies adversely affected by going through x-ray machines and so on?
No.
Why not mix all the remedies together and have a single mix for every problem?
This was an idea suggested in Dr Bach’s day, and he did in fact try this but found that it simply didn’t work. The simplest and most direct path was the one he recommended -- in other words, selection of a few remedies according to the personality and emotional state.
Why is it four drops of Rescue Remedy and two drops of everything else?
Rescue Remedy is a composite remedy and contains fewer drops of each individual mother tincture than a single stock bottle would. So in order to get the right amount of the remedy the dose is doubled.
Why is it two drops in treatment bottles and in a glass of water -- surely the person taking the glass of water will get more remedy?
This is true, but the amount of remedy is not important as long as the minimum dose is taken, and the minimum dose is the amount you get if you take four drops from a treatment bottle. When putting the remedies in a glass of water you are taking more than you need, but by putting in two drops you can be sure that even if one drop sticks to the side of the glass you will have enough remedy in the water for it to be effective. It also means that you can sip from a glass of water without worrying about how big the glass is or how much water is in it (see below) or how much of the water you have drunk, because even a few sips from the largest glassful will give you the minimum dose.
Theory, Belief, Research
Bach Flower Remedies were fine in the '30’s - but don’t modern times call for modern remedies?
It’s true that times have changed and that we have new things to be afraid of, new concerns, and new freedoms and responsibilities. People in Dr Bach’s day did not have to fear AIDS and nuclear warfare, or worry about global warming or campaign against genetic engineering.
Does this mean that we need new remedies? No, because the remedies don’t treat the triggers for our emotions but the emotions themselves. Fear is the same now as it has always been; and so are love, understanding and kindness. If you think about it, the circumstances that fire our emotions are somehow more complex than those of Shakespeare, Da Vinci or Dante, but at the end of the day the emotional roots are the same.
Also, it is worth noting that many of the best things about new age spirituality are actually rebirths of old beliefs and practices. These bring us more in touch with our roots and remind us of our relationship to the world, nature and God. The remedies can be seen in that context: not as something somehow outmoded but as something eternally renewed and timeless. They put us in touch with our higher, spiritual self -- and in this way give us the freedom to develop at our own pace, whatever that pace may be, in perfect freedom from our ego’s greed for immediate enlightenment.
Why doesn't the Bach Centre support dowsing and kinesiology as ways of selecting remedies?
Dr Bach made his system as simple and easy to use as possible. This was because he wanted it to be used by people from all walks of life as a way of healing themselves. When a practitioner uses the basic consultation technique for selecting remedies -- which amounts to listening to what the client has to say -- this is something that everyone can understand. Once the client understands that the remedies are being chosen on the basis of how he feels and the sort of person he is, then he can go on treating himself in the future.
When dowsing, kinesiology or any other mechanical or purely intuitive selection method is used the situation is very different. Most people do not know how to dowse or muscle-test, so they have to go back to the practitioner every time they want to select a remedy. They are never in a position to help themselves. And if the dowsing or what-have-you works, it will go straight to the heart of the problem before the client is ready to go that far. This means that self-knowledge, which is one of the aims of treatment with the Bach Flower Remedies, is never attained properly. Treatment should go at the client’s speed, not the practitioner’s, and this is why all practitioners registered with the Dr Edward Bach Foundation have signed a Code of Practice which commits them to only selecting remedies using the classic interview technique that Dr Bach preferred.
How can 38 remedies cover all known states of mind?
People sometimes understand this to mean that there are only 38 states of mind, but it would be more exact to say that there are 38 basic states of mind which can in combination with each other make hundreds of millions of variations.
A useful analogy is with the world of color. There are only three basic colors (red, blue yellow), yet all kinds of hues can be produced when they are used in combination.
Has the efficacy of the Bach Flower Remedies been proven scientifically?
There have not been any proper clinical trials on the actions of the remedies. There was a study done in California as part of a doctoral thesis, but the methodology followed was questionable both in scientific terms and in terms of the assumptions made about the remedies, so we would not produce this study as ‘evidence’ even though it claimed to show that the remedies work. And there have been other, small-scale studies in different parts of the world, but again nothing that would convince a determined skeptic.
The Bach Centre has never set up experiments. When Dr Bach entrusted his work to Nora and Victor, and in so doing set up the Bach Centre, he instructed them to keep their lives simple and their work with the remedies simple as well. Those at the Centre don’t see it as their role to ‘prove’ that the remedies work, instead they simply demonstrate how to use them and let people prove the effect on themselves.
What are the sun and boiling methods?
The sun method involves floating flowerheads in a clear glass bowl filled with natural spring water. This is left in bright sunlight for three hours, then the flowerheads are removed and the energized water is mixed half and half with brandy.
The boiling method involves putting flowering twigs into a pan of spring water and boiling them for half an hour. The pan is then left to cool, the plant matter removed, and again the water is mixed half and half with brandy.
In both cases the resulting mix is the mother tincture, which is further diluted to make the stock bottles sold in the stores.
Background: Clematis (Clematis vitalba),
one of Dr. Bach’s original Twelve Healers and Soul Types.