DR EDWARD BACH: HEAL THYSELF

2014-38  Dr Edward Bach:  Heal Thyself

Dr Edward Bach [1886-1936]

Having qualified as a doctor in 1912, Dr Edward Bach worked for several years in hospitals and was well aware of their negative effect on the human spirit. After leaving orthodox medicines and hospitals in 1930, he started his work with the flower remedies. By 1935, when he had discovered 38 remedies in all, Dr Bach declared the system complete. He had founded a radically new approach to healing that concentrated exclusively on the emotional states of individuals rather than their physical symptoms.

Dr Bach consistently spoke of the Flower Remedies, not as a personal achievement but as a gift from nature, and from God. This is Dr Bach's central message: we are all healers. Everyone can use the remedies. Everyone can heal and in the process understand who they are and take charge of their own destinies.  

In "Heal Thyself" [1931], Dr Bach explains the real cause and cure of diseases. What follows is a summary of the book, in Dr Bach's own words.

HEAL THYSELF 

Disease is in essence the result of conflict between Soul and Mind, and will never be eradicated except by spiritual and mental effort. Such efforts, if properly made with understanding, can cure and prevent disease by removing those basic factors which are its primary cause.  

No effort directed to the body alone can do more than superficially repair damage, and in this there is no cure, since the cause is still operative and may at any moment again demonstrate its presence in another form. In fact, in many cases apparent recovery is harmful, since it hides from the patient the true cause of his trouble, and in the satisfaction of apparently renewed health the real factor, being unnoticed, may gain in strength. 

Disease may be prevented before its onset or aborted in its earlier stages if the proper corrective spiritual and mental efforts be undertaken. Nor need any case despair, however severe, for the fact that the individual is still granted physical life indicates that the Soul who rules is not without hope.  

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There are two great errors: first, to fail to honour and obey the dictates of our Soul, and second, to act against Unity. Either of these brings conflict, which leads to disease.  

Disease is in itself beneficent, and has for its object the bringing back of the personality to the Divine will of the Soul; and thus we can see that it is both preventable and avoidable, since if we could only realise for ourselves the mistakes we are making and correct these by spiritual and mental means there would be no need for the severe lesson of suffering.  

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What we know as disease is the terminal stage of a much deeper disorder, and to ensure complete success in treatment it is obvious that dealing with the final result alone will not be wholly effective unless the basic cause is also removed.  

There is one primary error which man can make, and that is action against Unity; this originates in self-love. So also we may say that there is but one primary affliction - discomfort, or disease.    

The real primary diseases of man are such defects as pride, cruelty, hate, self-love, ignorance, instability and greed; and each of these, if considered, will be found to be adverse to Unity. Such defects as these are the real diseases and it is a continuation and persistence in such defects which precipitates in the body the injurious results which we know as illness.    Such are examples of real disease, the origin and basis of all our suffering and distress. Each of such defects, if persisted in against the voice of the Higher Self, will produce a conflict which must of necessity be reflected in the physical body, producing its own specific type of malady.   

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We can now see how any type of illness from which we may suffer will guide us to the discovery of the fault which lies behind our affliction.

For example, Pride, which is arrogance and rigidity of mind, will give rise to those diseases which produce rigidity and stiffness of the body. Pain is the result of cruelty, whereby the patient learns through personal suffering not to inflict it upon others, either from a physical or from a mental standpoint. The penalties of Hate are loneliness, violent uncontrollable temper, mental nerve storms and conditions of hysteria. 

The diseases of neurosis, neurasthenia and similar conditions which rob life of so much enjoyment, are caused by excessive Self-love. Ignorance and lack of wisdom bring their own difficulties in everyday life, and in addition should there be a persistence in refusing to see truth when the opportunity has been given, short-sightedness and impairment of vision and hearing are the natural consequences.

Instability of mind must lead to the same quality in the body with those various disorders which affect movement and co-ordination. The result of greed and domination of others is such diseases as will render the sufferer a slave to his own body, with desires and ambitions curbed by the malady. 

Moreover, the very part of the body affected is no accident, but is in accordance with the law of cause and effect, and again will be a guide to help us. For example, the heart, the fountain of life and hence of love, is attacked when especially the love side of the nature towards humanity is not developed or is wrongly used; a hand affected denotes failure or wrong in action; the brain being the centre of control, if afflicted, indicates lack of control in the personality.    

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 Obviously the first way to prevent the spread and increase of disease is for us to cease committing those actions which extend its power; the second, to wipe out from our natures our own defects, which would allow further invasion. The achievement of this is victory indeed; then, having freed ourselves, we are free to help others. And it is not so difficult as it may at first appear; we are but expected to do our best, and we know that this is possible for all of us if we will but listen to the dictates of our own Soul. Life does not demand of us unthinkable sacrifice; it asks us to travel its journey with joy in our heart and to be a blessing to those around, so that if we leave the world just that trifle better for our visit, then have we done our work. 

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Want to read the full book HEAL THYSELF by Dr Edward Bach? [Click Here]

Home of Dr Edward Bach, and the Bach Flower Remedies, Mount  Vernon, Oxfordshire, England