Miscellaneous

This idea seems to come from a WHO report that mentioned the Bach remedies, along with other forms of complementary medicine, as examples of the kind of complementary techniques that were being used around the world.

It seems that somebody misread this passing reference as being an official statement of approval. This mistaken belief ended up being put in a book. From there, other authors have quoted the same statement to the point where the idea is quite wide spread, particularly in Spanish-speaking countries.

As far as we know there is no truth in this statement. The World Health Organisation doesn’t approve or licence any treatments, so the question should not even arise.

The house and garden at Mount Vernon are owned by the Dr Edward Bach Healing Trust, a registered charity formed in 1989 to help the elderly, the poor and the sick.

The Trust in turn is landlord to two companies, Bach Centre Mount Vernon Ltd. and Bach Visitor and Education Centre Ltd. These companies run the Centre’s day-to-day activities, including the Bach Foundation International Register of Practitioners.

Both companies are owned by the Ramsell family. John Ramsell, who passed on in 2008, was brought into partnership by Nora Weeks and Victor Bullen in the 1970s. His daughter Judy is currently head of the Centre. Nobody else has any control over or ownership of the Bach Centre’s activities.

No.

A judgement issued at the end of the 1990s, after a legal action brought by Healing Herbs Ltd. against Nelsons Ltd., included the erroneous claim that Bach Centre Mount Vernon Ltd. had been sold to Nelsons in 1993. This is not true.

Certainly, a company of a similar name was sold to Nelsons in 1993, as part of the sale of the Centre’s remedy production business. But Bach Centre Mount Vernon Ltd. was not sold, and like the rest of the Bach Centre continues to be run as part of an independent organisation. See also the question, Who owns the Bach Centre?

The Bach Centre set up the Bach Foundation (or The Dr Edward Bach Foundation Ltd, to give its full name) in the early 1990s. Its purpose was to run education and practitioner registration for the Bach Centre.

In 2007 we decided to run education and registration alongside other Bach Centre services such as the shop, the visitor centre and so on. So we transferred the functions of The Dr Edward Bach Foundation Ltd to a new company called Bach Visitor & Education Centre Ltd.

We still use the ‘Bach Foundation’ name and logo in connection with our practitioner registration programme, but the Bach Foundation International Register and course approval are run direct by the Centre. ‘Bach Foundation’ is a trade mark for the Register and not the name of a separate organisation.

Levels 1, 2 and 3 are all available via distance learning.

No. The Code of Practice doesn’t mention brands and BFRPs are entirely free to choose which they use, or can indeed make their own remedies if they want.

By law stock bottles have to carry a “use-by” or “best before” date. The length of time is set by the maker, and relates to the shelf life of brandy stored in a rubber-topped bottle.

The remedies themselves will keep their properties indefinitely (although the brandy may begin to taste a little strange after the date on the bottle).

The sun method involves floating flowerheads in a clear glass bowl filled with natural spring water. This is left in bright sunlight for three hours, then the flowerheads are removed and the energised water is mixed half and half with brandy.

The boiling method involves putting flowering twigs into a pan of spring water and boiling them for half an hour. The pan is then left to cool, the plant matter removed, and again the water is mixed half and half with brandy.

In both cases the resulting mix is known as mother tincture. This is diluted at the rate of two drops per 30mls of brandy to make the stock bottles sold in the shops.

Ever since Dr Bach wrote it, The Twelve Healers and Other Remedies has always been the most important book on the remedies. At the Bach Centre we have always seen it as a working text – not a historical document, but a manual that everyone can use. Every practitioner has a copy – and even now, we go back to the remedy descriptions in The Twelve Healers all the time. Every time we do, we get new insight into the system.

As a working text, The Twelve Healers has been added to and edited over the years to try to meet new needs as they arise. This is exactly what Dr Bach did during his lifetime – indeed, the first changes after 1936 were dictated by Dr Bach shortly before his death. Comparing our online 1936 facsimile edition and the 2009 Bach Centre ebook edition, for example, the main differences are:

• The 2010 version contains the longer introduction dictated by Dr Bach at the end of October, 1936 – after the 1936 edition had been published.
• A line of the Rock Rose description referring to it as ‘the rescue remedy’ has gone, to avoid confusing it with the well-known brand of the emergency mix.
• The list of chemists supplying remedies has gone. The number of shops supplying remedies has increased beyond the possibility of listing them in a book this size. (Prices have also inevitably increased.)
• The dosage instructions have been rewritten. They now mention how to choose remedies and their use with animals and plants, explain how to use the crisis mix and cream, and give a clearer account of the minimum daily dose.
• The 1936 instructions on how to make remedies have been removed. Dr Bach aimed this part of the book at people who were making remedies for personal use. To simplify the description he left out one of the dilution stages he followed when preparing remedies for pharmacies – and in practice most people struggled to identify the plants they needed to use from the Latin names alone. To provide practical and consistent help to remedy-makers, Nora Weeks and Victor Bullen instead wrote the book Illustrations and Preparations, which includes full descriptions and photos of the correct plants.
• Some of the Latin names of the plants have changed. They are the same plants! – but later editions reflect changes in the International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature.

And at the risk of adding to any confusion! – the 1941 edition is actually the main one to get. It has all the text of the 1936 edition, the last personally prepared for the press by Dr Bach, plus the longer introduction that he dictated at the end of his life and asked Nora Weeks to include in the next edition.

See the bottom of the page for information of the location of the Bach Centre, and visit our visitors guide.