Flower Essences: Nature's Healing Soul

These simple and nontoxic therapies restore inner harmony
"Life is joy," says Berry, 40, a client whose life for 15 years had been increasingly limited due to chronic fatigue and reactions to chemicals. "I've tried a lot of things, but when I started the flower essences I noticed big changes."

The healing use of flowers dates back at least 10,000 years. Modern flower essences were developed in Wales in the 1930s by bacteriologist Edward Bach, M.D., as the end product of his lifelong search for a simple, effective, nontoxic cure-all. Today, practitioners worldwide continue to study flowers' subtle vibrational healing properties.

Robert Stevens, for 21 years an instructor at the New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutics, describes flower essences as resonance--energy in a state of vibrational movement. "Mental and emotional processes have resonance also, and when two things resonate together, change is created," he says.

The vibratory nature of consciousness extends beyond the body and possibly continues after the body's death.^1,2 Ancient healing systems such as traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, Hippocrates' methods and shaman-based healing recognize the importance of mind, emotions and spirit in health. These traditions organize the body/mind energetically, as a unified whole.³

In the last two decades, the importance of mind, emotions and spirit in health has captured the attention of many orthodox researchers, who have clinically demonstrated that the brain and nervous system are intimately entwined with the immune system.⁴ Numerous studies have found that emotional states trigger profound changes in neuropeptides and neurotransmitters that control the flow of information between brain cells, mediate mind/body communication and help regulate immune system operation.⁵ Feelings of profound love are especially healing.⁶ Joyce Gerrish, M.A., psychotherapist, healer and meditation teacher, points out that to do its job and stay healthy, each cell in our bodies needs "to feel loved and appreciated."

Researchers at the California-based Institute of HeartMath have found that the heart generates the most powerful electromagnetic field in the body, and all other organs and systems resonate to it. If the heart feels love, every cell also feels love as the brain releases chemicals that signal health and life. Conversely, fear and anger trigger the release of immune-suppressing chemicals. Techniques developed at HeartMath teach executives and cardiology patients to feel love, because HeartMath researchers found that unhealthy, negative emotions do not exist when the heart feels love.⁷

Flower essences are made to create love, joy and peace on a vibrational level through the resonant healing pattern of the flower. Gerrish heals by establishing contact with the source of energy, love and purpose--the soul--in each person and by helping people connect with that source themselves. Bach considered disharmony between the soul and personality as the cause of all disease.⁸ Modern science has evidence that concurs.⁹

The theory behind flower essences is that they replace negative states with positive, which can result in quick physical improvement, ¹⁰ and increase the harmony, confidence, balance, awareness and spiritual connection needed to grow or heal. People experience a renewed sense of themselves, their freedom, purpose and potential.¹¹

Flower essences can be combined for use in any circumstance. Here are examples of their use in emergency, short-term and long-term situations.

Emergency Formulas Shock, anger, fear, dissociation or withdrawal are common in a crisis situation. One emergency relief flower essence combination was created to protect and maintain the soul's connection to the body, focus awareness in the present, provide courage and relief from shock, release feelings of victimization, and calm panic, according to flower essence formulator Kathrin Woodlyn Bateman in western Massachusetts.

She tells of a frail woman who suffered from hypothermia after an ocean swim. The usual measures didn't help, and her companions were desperate--when she remembered she had an emergency flower essence combination with her. As soon as the first drop hit the woman's tongue, she reported feeling warmth flood back into her body.

Bach, originator of the five-flower emergency relief formula, used three of these essences--clematis, rock rose and impatiens--to treat a delirious man rescued from a wreck in a terrible gale. As he was brought ashore, raving, Bach repeatedly moistened the man's lips with the essences. Before his wet clothing was fully removed, Bach said, the man was himself again, requesting a cigarette.

In other examples from my own practice, the mother of a young child with allergies to food additives used either an emergency relief formula or one of its components, moonshine yarrow (Achillea filipendulina), to halt her daughter's reactions. Clematis helped a woman who typically had horrifying flashbacks under anesthesia to have a problem-free surgery for the first time. An infant needing heart surgery amazed her surgeons with her strength and vitality; for 36 hours before, her mother gave the infant rock rose, love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus crowea) and other proprietary essence formulas for mother/child bonding.

In today's fast-paced world, motivation can literally mean the difference between success and failure, life and death. Flower essences can assist to align inner purpose and will to effective action, change and healing.

Long-Term Healing Many practitioners see strong evidence that unhealthy behaviors and ailments are rooted in old wounds and traumas. For instance, children with attention deficit and hyperactive disorder have dramatically improved after taking Bach's emergency relief formula, along with mariposa lily (Chalochortus leichtlinii) and holly (Ilex aquifolium) to heal birth trauma; release feelings of hurt, abandonment and rage; and heal bonds to the self and family members.¹² Marlene Rudginsky, author of The Flower Speaks, finds that many women who have lost a child or been unable to bear a child need lady's mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris) to forgive themselves.¹³

Deepak Chopra, M.D., states, "Bringing awareness into contact with frozen patterns of old conditioning starts to melt those patterns, for ultimately everything we can sense or think about is simply an aspect of our awareness."¹⁴

This is how flower essence practitioners describe the action of flower essences: releasing old traumas, healing old wounds, gently bringing awareness to areas that have been closed, numbed or frozen. Perhaps nowhere is this as vital a process as for those who are ill with a chronic or life-threatening disease. Emotional repression interferes with the unified response of the healing system. Conversely, self-awareness, love, gratitude and positive thinking are keys to improved quality of life.¹⁵

My client Patty had a stubborn case of intestinal parasites that caused diarrhea and great discomfort. Due to digestive weakness, she'd been able to eat only brown rice, fruit and some vegetables. Working with herbs and flower essences, she not only cleared her parasites, but transformed her life. She frequently used yarrow (Achillea millefolium), which strengthens the body's energetic boundaries. Many practitioners believe a weak or damaged energetic body is often implicated in allergies, mental illness, parasites and fatigue.¹⁶ Patty realized her health issues were completely connected to her neediness, unfulfilling relationships and lack of self-worth and creativity.

In pain and physically limited, Sue, 47, still suffered disabling complications from a dance injury she suffered as a teenager. She felt isolated, hurt, bitter and spiritually rejected. After a year of essence therapy, chrysanthemum and roses helped her reconnect to a meaningful spiritual and creative basis for her existence. Other essences released deep pain and grief. To reconcile family relations enough to enjoy visits, she took snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) for anger and verbal abuse, petunia (Petunia x hybrida) for speaking from her own pain, and obedient plant (Physostigea virginiana) for self-empowerment. Flower essences make her "more conscious of connecting to my capacity to change," she says.

The periods when she doesn't take essences correspond to plateaus in growth and worsening in her physical condition. Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) and garlic (Allium sativum) have helped her deal with a health care system that can only guess at treatments.

Berry struggled for many years to feel more positive, trying affirmations and self-hypnosis. When she took mariposa lily (Calochortus leichtlinii), resistance melted away, along with the emptiness she associated with her mother's rejection of her.

On whatever level healing is needed, flower essences assist. Their action is undoubtedly subtle, and thus all the more profound. Robert Stevens reminds us that "Flower essences are the soul of the plant liberated from its physical properties." They are "a way of resonating deeper inside our bodies; soul talking to soul in the wisdom of nature."

Ziporah Hildebrandt has been making and using flower essences for more than 15 years. She practices flower essence therapy in Shutesbury, Mass.

REFERENCES
1. Albert, D.Z. Scientific American 270: 61-62, 66-67, May 1994.
2. Pert, C.B. In Ornstein, R., & Swencionis, C., eds. The Healing Brain: 158-59. New York: The Guilford Press, 1990.
3. Monte, T. The Complete Guide to Natural Healing: 6-7. New York: Berkley/Putnam, 1997.
4. Kiecolt-Glaser, J.K., & Glaser, R. "Mind and immunity." In Goleman, D., & Gurin, J., eds. Mind Body Medicine: 58-59. Yonkers, N.Y.: Consumer Reports Books, 1993.
5. Felten, D.L., Cohen, N., et al., In Ader, R., Felten, D.L., et al., eds. Psychoneuroimmunology, 2nd ed.: 11-16. San Diego, Calif.: Academic/Harcourt, 1991.
6. Demartini, J.F. Count Your Blessings: 4-5, 47-48, 207. Rockport, Mass.: Element, 1997.
7. Thomson, B. Natural Health 27: 155-56, Sep./Oct., 1997.
8. Bach, E. In The Bach Flower Remedies: 26-27, 30-31. New Canaan, Conn.: Keats, 1979.
9. Ivker, R. Natural Health 27: 94, Sep./Oct., 1997.
10. Pitcairn, R.H., & Pitcairn, S.H. Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats, rev. ed.: 205. Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Press, 1995.
11. Weeks, N. The Medical Discoveries of Edward Bach, Physician: 104-5. New Canaan, Conn.: Keats, 1973.
12. Olson, E.W. Flower Essence Society Newsletter 5: 8-9, Summer 1995.
13. Rudginsky, M. The Flower Speaks, Stamford, Conn.: U.S. Games Systems, 1996.
14. Chopra, D. Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: 97. New York: Harmony, 1993.
15. Siegel, B.S. Peace, Love and Healing: 161. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.
16. Kaminski, P., & Katz, R. Flower Essence Repertory, 4th edition: 399. Nevada City, Calif.: Flower Essence Society, 1996.

Article Info
Issue:
Nutrition Science News 02/98
Department:
Features
Author:
Ziporah Hildebrandt

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