Rescue and vine are called "Bach florals".
According to a friend of mine who is an homeopathy doctor (and psychiatric) florals could do great things but when they do wrong they can do big damage. (That were hard for him to fix). He advised me not to use, but if I were going to use, use it rarely, just for real emergencies.
Hi, Br_Rana--
I know what you mean.
It's useful to read some of the literature on the flower remedies. There's a very user-friendly book by an author named Mathild Scheffer called "Bach Flower Therapy Theory and Practice" that helps you select the proper remedy and explains how they work, theoretically, and explains a bit about Dr. Bach's viewpoint.
This is no criticism of you at all, but I would dispute, respectfully, your homeopath's claim that "when they do wrong they can do big damage." I truly, truly believe that is untrue, EXCEPT it MIGHT have damaged his/her business if too many people learned about them : )
My physician is the same--he's an intelligent man and I like him very much, but he does not even believe supplements like Vitamin C actually help anything. I, on the other hand, use supplements daily and feel I've benefitted greatly from them (in excellent health, thank goodness, caregiving stress and all). We have a running joke between us--we call my medicine "My Placebo Cures." And he's gradually coming around to my way of thinking, as he digests my phenomenol HDL readings, LOL, and has watched me use my "placebo medicine" shrink a multinodal goiter (thyroid) he thought could only be surgically removed. Live and Learn, I say, kindly : )
It has been my experience and those of others, that when you select the "wrong" or "inappropriate" remedy, all that happens is *nothing* --- no improvement, but no harm, either. This is stated in some of the literature, too, but the thing that's convinced me most about the value of "flowers" is their phenomenol effects on ANIMALS. The animals can't know what the "placebo cure" is supposed to do, but I've definitely seen the calming effects of Rescue Remedy on my dogs.
I would say the one time they won't work is for "dedicated skeptics" and that's OK, too. My husband was one of those, till I slipped the drops in his water one day then he told me that afternoon he felt tremendously better, what had we done? I then showed him the bottle (self heal drops) and told him I did it without his knowledge, simply because I knew he'd tell me "that will never work." He laughed and said, "keep doing what you're doing--I believe it helped me. And you're right, you could have never convinced me."
I don't really think any ONE thing is "the" cure for anything, but in my experience, the flower essences can have amazing effects. My Illumine and Trauma Stabilizer are my 911's (I guess that's 999's in Britain)!
I would so love to see physicians learn to open their minds and hearts to alternatives, particularly for our Loved Ones trapped in the dementia whirlpool. Perhaps, one day, it will happen.
