(1886 – 1936)
Dr. Edward Bach (pronounced to rhyme as “batch”); was born on 24 September 1886 in Moseley, Worcestershire, UK. He studied medicine at the University College Hospital, London, and obtained a Diploma of Public Health (DPH) at Cambridge. An English doctor, bacteriologist, homeopath, and spiritual writer, best known for developing the Bach flower remedies, a form of complementary medicine inspired by classical homeopathic traditions.
Despite the success of his work with orthodox medicine he felt dissatisfied with the way doctors were expected to concentrate on diseases and ignore the people who were suffering them. He was inspired by his work with homoeopathy but wanted to find remedies that would be purer and less reliant on the products of disease. So in 1930 he gave up his lucrative Harley Street practice and left London, determined to devote the rest of his life to the new system of medicine that he was sure could be found in nature.
Just as he had abandoned his old home, office and work, so now he abandoned the scientific methods he had used up until now. Instead he chose to rely on his natural gifts as a healer, and use his intuition to guide him. One by one he found the remedies he wanted, each aimed at a particular mental state or emotion. His life followed a seasonal pattern: the spring and summer spent looking for and preparing the remedies, the winter spent giving help and advice to all who came looking for them. He found that when he treated the personalities and feelings of his patients their unhappiness and physical distress would be alleviated as the natural healing potential in their bodies was unblocked and allowed to work once more.
In 1934 Dr. Bach moved to Mount Vernon in Brightwell cum Sotwell in Oxfordshire. It was in the lanes and fields around about that he found the remaining 19 remedies that he needed to complete the series. He would suffer the emotional state that he needed to cure and then try various plants and flowers until he found the one single plant that could help him. In this way, through great personal suffering and sacrifice, he completed his life’s work.
Dr. Bach passed away peacefully on the evening of November 27th, 1936. He was only 50 years old, but he had left behind him several lifetimes’ experience and effort, and a system of medicine that is now used all over the world.