Some researchers suggested that the Bach Flowers are not medicines at all (since the flowers are just kept in a bowl of water and are exposed to sunlight and the resulting potion is diluted so much and then a few drops of that is again diluted, thus effectively ensuring that no physical substance is present. So, in the absence of a physical medicine, the curative effect is attributed to the famous Placebo Effect.
What is the Placebo Effect? Placebo literally means to please. Hence a placebo is not a real medicine but is some innocuous substance which works because the patient thinks that he/she has been given the medicine. So, it is a form of faith healing. Placebo Effect is well known in medical circles and pharmaceutical companies evolve fairly sophisticated tests to eliminate the Placebo Effect from their Drug Trials, before they can legitimately claim that their medicine is indeed more effective than a dummy pill.
This argument is refuted and that the healing effect of Bach Flowers is not due to Placebo Effect is demonstrated by the success of Bach Flowers in the treatment of children and animals. Small children and animals don't know what is given to them and they respond very well to this form of therapy. In their case, faith does not play a part.
One theory for the action of Bach Flowers is that they help the individual ego (the little self) to reconnect to the Higher Self and thus reestablish the energy connection. Analogies of a battery and a small water tank are given. Both the battery and the water tank have limited capacity and when they lose the connection with their source (the Mains for electricity and water respectively), will get discharged sooner or later. Both will get restored to their former healthy state when they get reconnected.
Each Bach Flower Essence can be thought of as a missing link in the connection and thus depending on the symptom shown, the right essence can be chosen to reestablish the links.
This theory is appealing and has some merits, but in practice it is difficult to prove.
I feel that how a remedy works is less important than the fact that it works.
I am giving below some emails from http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/talkbach/ that deal with Placebo, with the place of Bach Flowers in the healing methods etc. I hope you will find it useful. What I wrote and what Rosada wrote were a few years apart and I was not aware of her mail, when I replied to Sukrit's mail regarding the Placebo Effect etc.
Swamy
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Swamy wrote:
Thank you Sukrit for bringing up an important post. Placebo effect is indeed a fairly strong effect where 'hypochondriacal' patients (those who imagine that they are ill though the physical examination reveals no problem) are immensely benefited by the doctor spending time to examine them and 'prescribing' a medicine, which could be some harmless mixture or sugar pills. Placebo means to please. So the patient is happy that he/she got the medicine and the doctor is happy that the patient (who is a paying customer and is thus very important to the doctor) is happy.Experiments in a factory (the famous Hawthorn experiments) conducted by industrial engineers (the changing of light bulbs triggered that memory) has revealed that paying attention is what increased the productivity of workers more than the amount of light!Since many of our health problems do have a psychological/emotional basis (there is an emotionally hungry child in many of us), placebo works by pleasing that child and thus improving the overall condition.The placebo effect is very strong in some psychological disorders. Homeopathy, Reiki, Bach Flowers etc., are considered to be placebos by main stream doctors. But, infants and animals (we can include trees too -- Swamy) are not aware of what they are being given and so placebo effect should not play a role in such cases. But they do and thus Homeopathy, Bach Flowers etc., (and Reiki too) are not placebos. As for improvement setting in after reading about a Flower Essence but without taking it, I had this experience several times and posted here (in that group) about my experience. Similarly, the very act of requesting Reiki makes people better before others actually respond. As Rosada wrote, our being aware of our energy flow and re-aligning is that which is effective in healing. As for Rock Water people, they have rather rigid beliefs including the belief that the apparently harmless drops can't help them really! So, they don't respond easily to other essences. Till they get Rock Water, that is. Thus it may help in frigidity too! Agrimony people are aware of their feelings but don't show them, whereas Rock Water people are not aware (at the conscious level) of their feelings. I hope others will throw more light.Best wishes.Swamy---
In talkbach@yahoogroups.com, "sukritsanatani"
All this discussion on the dosing without consent makes me think of the old joke, "How many psychiatrists (make that, 'Bach Flower Practitioners') does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Only one, but the light bulb has got to truly want to change...Anyway, Thanks Frank for the explanation re the 38 Bach Flower Assortment versus taking on the whole world of flora possibilities. As to the question, should you dose others or just dose yourself?, I wrote but didn't send an email yesterday saying I felt Sheri had been too hard on Ruth and suggested she try a little tenderness along with a big shot of Vervain. Well, my computer ate it so I took that as an omen and didn't rewrite the message but instead dosed myself with chicory so I wouldn't worry about Ruth and, Lo!, today's messages show they've cleared it up themselves without needing my interference at all. This shows me that sometimes we are called upon just to be loving witnesses and this is a contribution in itself, we aren't always in the theatre to be on stage, sometimes a show just needs an appreciative audience! Yet I do feel as practitioners that if we have been asked, like by a wife wondering what to do about an abusive husband, we can do more without breaking a higher moral standard, than just strengthen the wife. But the motivation is not that we're wanting to "help" the husband, that's co-dependant victim thinking in itself, but rather that at this point we're giving the wife some much needed means of self defence. My own experience, however, is that usually we don't have to go so far as dosing a husband unawares, that strengthening the wife will indeed be enough. Still I say it's better to help her put drops of water in his coffee if her next option is to put arsenic in his tea! (Rosada was discussing the ethical aspects of trying to heal someone without his express permission -- more about that later - Swamy). Now as to the discussion about the placebo effect of Bach Flowers.. First of all, the so called "Placebo Effect" is not at all understood and yet experience shows it is real. So to worry that Bach Flowers may act like a placebo and therefore should not be valued is a misunderstanding. (She means that a placebo is also valuable since it works - Swamy)
Healing happens when we "Let go and let God", whether we are enabled to do this by saying a prayer, taking a drug, a flower essence, a placebo or just falling asleep the healing process occurs for the same reason: we are no longer giving energy to the imbalance and thus are allowing change on it's own to bring things into balance. But being able to Let Go is no small thing. Death is a way of letting go, sleep is a way of letting go, trusting someone else's advice or a taking a drug or a flower essence is a way of letting go, but all these approaches involve a degree of being unconscious (letting go of biases and prejudices, relaxing is more correct -- Swamy) and ultimately we are here on classroom earth because we want to learn how to Let Go and stay conscious at the same time. The way we learn how to do this is by discerning which way the energies are flowing and then consciously choosing to go with the flow (stop struggling against the river flow and swim along -- you will reach the shore safely some where else -- Swamy). Bach Flowers help us discern the energies with a minimum amount of unconscious support. Kinda like standing next to a singer who has perfect pitch. You recognize the tone and can then find it yourself. In fact many of us have had the experience where we've been stressed and only needed to think "I could use some RescueRemedy here," and then without actually taking the drops had the stress disappear. (That is what I too experienced -- Now a days, I hardly use the Bach Flowers! -- Swamy) It's as if when we've learned to discern the energies we can flow with them instead of needing to go unconscious to adjust.
So I suggest prayer works for when you can't feel the flow, a placebo works for when you can't quite trust prayer and Bach Flowers are for when you can't quite trust placebos, and drugs are for those who can't trust Bach Flowers.
But ultimately it all adds up to the same thing, we're trying to find a way to go with the flow, accept change, with a minimum of going unconscious. Question, has anyone had experience with Oak or Elm or Olive? They sound like their sort of dealing with the same things. What are the differences? Also, I would have thought from the description that "Rock Water" would be used a lot for people who don't seem to respond quickly to the essences yet I don't see much mention of it. What is Rock Water generally used for?
Thank you all so much for being there!
Rosada.
(I have slightly edited Rosada's post mainly to eliminate some typos, but the spirit has been left intact.)
