Here are the answers to some of the common questions about the remedies. These Frequently Asked Questions were copied from the Bach Center and was enhanced with CD specific information.
What is the remedy for asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, headaches, muscular tension etc.?
The Bach flower remedies don't treat physical complaints directly. They help by treating the negative emotional states that provoke or worsen the problem in the first place. The way to select the correct remedy or remedies is always to think about the sort of person you are and about your current emotional state, and forget the physical symptoms.
How do you take remedies?
The traditional remedies come as a liquid, preserved in brandy. To take them, dilute two drops of each remedy into a 30ml dropper bottle, top up with mineral water, and take four drops four times a day. Alternatively you can put the two drops into a glass of water, and sip from that at intervals.
You might need to mix two or more remedies together to match your precise mix of emotions.
With the Frequency CD you can play the track(s) you require based on what you require.
Do I have to be in the same room as the frequencies are playing?
No, through the law of resonance, if you place a piece of your hair on the speaker your body will still gain the effects of the frequencies even though you are not in the room making it convenient and easy! Still some like to listen to the natural frequency of each essence and that is fine too!
How soon does Rescue Remedy take effect? How soon do the other remedies make a difference?
Rescue Remedy usually works quite quickly, because people use it for emergency situations rather than deep-rooted problems. The other remedies can also work quickly, but if you are dealing with something that has been around a long time then it can take weeks or even months to see a real difference.
How many remedies can I take at the same time?
It's quite usual to take up to six or seven remedies together at the same time, and this is the rule of thumb maximum we suggest people work with. Dr Bach is known to have given nine remedies together on two occasions, but he was seeing thousands of people over a period of many years.
It's quite common for people to feel they need more than six or seven remedies. Some might feel they need 12, 15, 20 remedies or more. The answer to this is to think about how you feel now and treat that. If you have a lot of remedies on your list but many of them are for things you felt yesterday or last week or ten years ago, then you can leave those out. Treat your main feelings, and when the remedies have dealt with these you can move on to the issues that were in the background.
Still, 'up to six or seven' is only a guideline. If you are sure you need eight, or even nine, then that won't do you any harm.
What is the likelihood of reactions and rashes, and how are they caused?
The remedies work by flooding out negative feelings and emotions. Sometimes the emotions that are dealt with have been repressed and in order to clear them they have to be cleansed from the system. On very rare occasions this can take the form of a rash, or unexpected feelings may be stirred up. Where such things do occur there is no reason to stop taking the remedies.
Are there other ready-mixed remedies apart from Rescue Remedy?
The only ready-mixed remedy we recommend is the mix sold under the trade name Rescue Remedy. This mix was prepared by Dr Bach to cover the usual reactions people would have to crises and emergencies. It was intended as an emotional first-aid kit, so after the immediate crisis is over the correct thing to do is to look at the individual response rather than go on taking Rescue Remedy indefinitely.
It would be quite wrong to make up the same mixture for everyone preparing for an examination, or everyone who felt depressed or suffered from insomnia. No two people will ever react in exactly the same way and to reflect this we need to find a personal mix.
Someone said I should take Star of Bethlehem at the same time as Rescue Remedy. I thought Star of Bethlehem was one of the things in Rescue Remedy, so why should I take both?
Rescue Remedy is a crisis remedy - something ready to hand when things have gone wrong. So if you have just received bad news you might take Rescue because it's more likely to be in your pocket. Then if it appeared that the shock was the outstanding emotion you might switch to Star of Bethlehem alone. You could take both right away - it wouldn't do any harm - but Rescue alone would be sufficient for the initial crisis.
An occasion where you might take both, perhaps mixed in a treatment bottle, is if you were suffering from regular panic attacks (Rescue Remedy) and could trace them back to a trauma in the past (Star of Bethlehem). There would then be clear indications for both remedies.
Generally speaking you should think of Rescue Remedy as a single remedy with its own indications, rather than as a mix of five remedies.
I occasionally have fears during the night, which includes being afraid of the dark. Is this Aspen or Mimulus?
The answer is 'it depends'...
If you hear a noise and think that it might be an intruder, then that would be a known fear and you would take Mimulus or Rock Rose if you were truly terrified. But if the fear is purely imaginary - you check the house and find nobody, but still feel afraid that 'something' is there - then that begins to be Aspen.
As for fear of the dark, that is a known fear and so indicates Mimulus. But again, part of the fear could be fear of 'something' in the dark, or of something that you cannot name happening to you while you cannot see - and again that is an Aspen fear.
In practice it may be right to take both at once, since elements of both fear can be present at the same time.
How does the depression of Sweet Chestnut compare to that of Mustard? And how does it compare to the hopelessness of Gorse and Gentian's lack of faith?
Gentian is for a mild despondency after a setback. For example, you might have applied for a job and failed to get it. You say 'I might as well give up' - but eventually, with a sigh, you fill in another application form for a different job.
Gorse is when you feel very pessimistic. Something has gone wrong and you decide to give up because there is no point trying again. To use the same example, you apply for a job and fail to get it. In a Gorse state you say 'that's it, I give up' and tear up the other application form.
Sweet Chestnut is a different thing altogether. Dr Bach listed Gentian and Gorse in his 'Uncertainty' group, because in both instances the problem is not genuine despair but rather a lack of faith. If only Gentian and Gorse were more certain of their success they would not be depressed at all. The Sweet Chestnut state comes when all avenues really are closed off.
Imagine someone who has failed to get a job. All the time he is out of work the rent remains unpaid. His wife and children are starving. He has no money to travel to an interview and his clothes are too ragged for him to get work in any case. Then the bailiffs arrive to kick them out of the house. This is absolute despair, the dark night of the soul, when all possible ways forward are cut off. Even suicide would not be a solution because it would mean abandoning his wife and children.
When you look at Sweet Chestnut like this you can see at once the clear difference between it and Gentian and Gorse.
Finally, Mustard is the remedy for when everything in life is fine but we still feel gloomy, as if there is a cloud hanging over us. To use the same example, you might have actually got the job that you really want. You should be excited, but your spirits are low. When people say 'why are you so down?' you can only shrug your shoulders.
I have heard that if you take a remedy for too long you will experience the negative state of that remedy.
This is not true. The remedies are entirely positive and cannot under any circumstances cause the negative state to appear.
When does one stop taking the remedies?
When the problem that is being treated has gone. There is no need to continue taking them in case it comes back and of course no need to wean oneself off the remedies gradually, as you have to do with drugs like steroids and beta-blockers. Nor do you need to take a complete course of doses over a specific number of days, as you do with antibiotics.
If things get worse once you start taking the remedies, should you stop taking them or continue?
The remedies do not cause side-effects or aggravations, but it may be that they are stirring up repressed feelings that need to be cleansed before complete healing can be achieved. If you feel this is the case then you can look to see if there is a need for any other remedies instead of or as well as the ones you are currently taking.
Where things are getting worse in spite of the remedies this may mean one of two things. Either the remedies have not yet had time to work or the selection was wrong.
The remedies will not cause any symptoms or problems that are not already in you and are entirely beneficent in their effects. This means that there is no need to stop taking them. Even if you are taking the wrong ones this only means that they will not improve things - they will never make them worse.
Is it always better to select as few remedies as possible?
The normal guideline is to try to use no more than six or seven at a time, since experience has shown that more than this number is not usually necessary if a little thought goes into the selection process. Taking more remedies than are actually needed means that the focus is lost and the ones that are necessary will not work as well or quickly as they might otherwise have done.
However, it is not true that three remedies are always better than four, or that the ideal treatment is a single remedy: if six (or eight, or even nine) remedies really are necessary, which is how many you should take.
Are there any combinations of remedies that should never be used?
No. Even remedies that might appear to be direct opposites (Vervain and Wild Rose, for example, or Vine and Centaury) may occasionally be needed at once by the same person. It all depends on the personality and current emotional states of the person being treated.
Why not mix all the remedies together and have a single mix for every problem?
Someone suggested this to Dr Bach, and he tried it but and found that it didn't work. The simplest and most direct path was the one he recommended - in other words, selection of a few remedies according to the personality and emotional state.
