Dr Bach’s Early Life & Career
Nora Weeks was Dr Bach’s assistant and, with Victor Bullen, was also the first curator of the Bach Centre. She wrote his biography in 1940: ‘The Medical Discoveries of Dr Edward Bach’, which is the main source of information about his life. Others have researched his life more recently, and have added more valuable facts, but only Nora gives us a real insight into the man himself. If you are a serious student of Bach Flower Essences this book is essential reading.
This lesson presents a very brief summary of Dr Bach’s early life and career, with many informative links. You will see how his life experiences led towards the discovery of his famous Flower Essences.
The Child
Born 1886 in Mosely, Warwickshire, Bach was a weak child and he was not expected to live very long. However, as he grew he gained in strength showing a marked enthusiasm for life, with remarkable powers of concentration and observation. From Welsh extraction, he was sensitive and intuitive and held great affection for his Welsh head teacher Howard Fisher, at Winterloe School, Mosely.
He showed great compassion for the suffering of all living creatures, and from a very early age he wanted to be a doctor. Nora Weeks writes in ‘Medical Discoveries’ that he would often dream that he had found some simple form of healing which would cure all kinds of disease.
Even greater than his compassion for others was his all consuming love of nature, and he liked nothing better than to take long walks to study plants.
The Brass Foundry 1903 – 1906
As the eldest son, it was customary at that time for him to join the family business, and at 16 Bach began work in his father’s Brass Foundry. Apparently, he was not good at his job and made a particularly poor salesman! He did, however, come to understand more about human nature and the difficulties of working people, in particular their fear of illness with its crippling expenses. This only strengthened his resolve to find a simple method of healing that would safely and gently cure all disease.
Medical Training and Graduation – 1906 -1912
In 1906 Bach entered Birmingham University to begin his medical studies and later moved to London where he completed his studies at University College Hospital and qualified as a doctor in 1912.
Medical Research – 1914
In an effort to find an effective cure of disease, Bach devoted himself to medical research. He explored the areas of immunisation and vaccine therapy, the leading edge of research at the time, and went on to develop vaccines for the chronically ill. These were prepared from intestinal flora and proved very effective. It is interesting to note that the use of faecal transplants has been revived today.
Activity:
Watch these clips from Julian Barnard’s Lecture on Dr Bach’s Medical Discoveries on immunology and the creation of the first vaccines.
Bach’s illness – 1917
Bach did not serve overseas during the war, as he was not considered strong enough, however he looked after 400 war beds in addition to continuing his research. He also became Assistant Bacteriologist at University College Hospital at this time.
In 1917 he falls gravely ill with cancer and needs an emergency operation. Given only 3 months to live and tormented by the thought he might not complete his life’s work, he returned to his research and amazingly recovered! This seems to have been a turning point for Bach, inspiring him to reflect and ask himself the questions. Why did I get ill and how did I recover?
Activity
Examine what know about Dr Bach's illness and his subsequent recovery. What in your opinion facilitated his return to health and how do these insights impact on his later work?
Embracing Homoeopathy
Taking a post at the London Homeopathic Hospital in 1919, Bach found great kinship with Samuel Hahnemann’s ideas, which influenced his research. He went on to prepare his 7 vaccines homoeopathically, which were called Nosodes. He found them less invasive to prescribe and equally effective.
New Method of Prescribing – ‘treat the patient not the disease’
Following the practise in homeopathy of examining the mental state of patients as well as the physical, Bach began to link particular states of mind to each of his 7 Nosodes which was to have far reaching effects in his forthcoming work with the Flower Essences.
In a paper written to the British Homeopathic Society in 1928, he says ‘I wish it were possible that we could present to you seven herbs instead of seven groups of bacteria, because there always seem to be some reticence in the minds of many to use anything associated in the treatment of pathological conditions’.
We know Bach had a deep connection with nature, but had kept away from it so as to concentrate on his research – however now the call must have been particularly strong because he visits Wales to collect plants for his research and the rest is history!
Activity
The simplicity of diagnosing people through their personality is a key factor in the Bach Flower system. Absorb all the information offered in this chapter and make some notes about how he came to understand and develop this approach. You can add to them later, as your studies progress.
Suggested Reading
Explore these references from the Collected Writings of Edward Bach which offer an in-depth opportunity to understand more deeply the work Dr Bach was engaged in: