Doctor Edward Bach, the founder of Flower Therapy, was a man well ahead of his time. Even though his life took place about 100 years ago, his philosophy is my greatest inspiration when it comes to health and I don't think I have found anything that would be closer to my worldview on this topic.
First of all, according to Bach, modern medicine is not effective because it focuses only on the results, instead of the causes of health problems. This is related to the materialistic approach to science, which I mentioned here. Dr. Bach began his career as a bacteriologist and, despite the successes in his practice, devoted his life to perfecting a much more gentle, simpler and more effective method of healing.
“Health is our heritage, our right. It is the complete and full union between soul, mind and body; and this is no difficult far-away ideal to attain, but one so easy and natural that many of us have overlooked it.”
According to Bach, the causes of all human ailments are 1. disconnection from the Soul/Higher Self, i.e. acting contrary to what we really feel internally, and 2. actions against the Unity, i.e. everything we do to the detriment of other beings on Earth, who, without exception, come from the same Source. Diseases are not inherently evil, but "corrective" and indicate to us that we are making one or both of these mistakes.
Going further, Edward Bach distinguished 7 main faults of human personality within the above causes. They are pride, hatred, cruelty, excessive self-love, instability, ignorance and greed. Pride has to do with our failure to understand that we are only a tiny part of a vastly greater whole and that we are ultimately subject to God's will. Hate and cruelty are the evidence of complete separation from Oneness and true human nature. Excessive self-love indicates too much focus on yourself at the expense of helping others. Instability and ignorance come from the fear of making a mistake. Greed, on the other hand, is related to interfering in other people's lives by having power over them.
Working with these faults, however, is not about fighting them, but about developing a virtue that is their opposite - just like transforming a Shadow into a Gift in the Gene Keys. For this purpose, Bach created a system of 38 flower essences that cover all possible aspects of these imperfections and facilitate the development of the corresponding virtues. Each Flower is a symbol and emanation of a given virtue.
“And so in true healing, and so in spiritual advancement, we must always seek good to drive out evil, love to conquer hate, and light to dispel darkness.”
Bach considered his method a continuation of the work of Samuel Hahnemann, who was the founder of homeopathy. Unlike some homeopathic medicines, none of the Flowers are toxic and cannot cause any harm, regardless of the dosage. An important advantage is also the extraordinary simplicity of the complete system of 38 essences, compared to the thousands of currently known homeopathic medicines and the need for quite specialised education to be able to effectively select or make these medicines.
According to Dr. Bach, regardless of whether a person is a king, a farmer, a factory owner or a priest, they will enjoy full health only when what they do is consistent with the true mission of their soul, so it's not a result of any manipulation from the outside. It's therefore extremely important that a person with the potential to significantly influence others (such as a parent or teacher, but today I would also add the media and the government) interferes as little as possible in the development of another person, thus not limiting his or her freedom and ability to fulfill his or her own unique mission on Earth.
“Truth has no need to be analysed, argued about, or wrapped up in many words. It is realised in a flash, it is a part of you. It is only about the unessential complicated things in life that we need so much convincing, and that have led to the development of intellect. The things that count are simple, they are the ones that make you say ‘why, that is true, I seem to have known this always,’ and so is the realisation of happiness that comes to us when we are in harmony with our spiritual self, and the closer the union the more intense the joy.”
What do you think about this philosophy? How close or far is it from what you think?
If you are interested in details - you can download Edward Bach's most important work "Heal Thyself" for free, along with many other texts by him, on the official website of The Bach Centre.