1. Flowers hold a type of sustenance for the human psyche and are a primary treatment for Shen.
  1. Flower essences are the Qi or the Life force of a flower that has been captured by water that offers significant therapeutic benefits for the body-mind complex.
  1. Each flower essence works with a different psychological issue or theme. Flower essences contain healing information that can be used to transform specific issues related to Shen. For example, Rose is an age-old symbol of the heart. In traditional medicine, rose petals are often used to address yin deficient heat and nourish the Shen. Rose flower essence has tremendous therapeutic benefit for healing the heart through its ability to simultaneously uplift and calm. It provides emotional comfort and soothing. It helps heal the emotional heart in cases of grief, heartbreak, sadness, heavy-heartedness, and many other heart-related conditions.
  1. Flower essences work on the various energy pathways such as the acupuncture meridians to create health and well-being on multiple levels. They can be safely applied to the body externally, such as on the acupuncture points, or taken internally.
  1. Flower essences are a gentle, safe, efficacious and versatile remedy for every patient at every stage of life. They are free of side effects and do not interfere or interact with other types of botanicals or pharmaceuticals. They are gentle, odorless and unassuming but powerful in their ability to shift negative patterns within the psyche of patients.


Humanity has a long history of employing flowers for their beauty, healing, and transformational purposes. Nearly all cultures use flowers to promote the health of body, mind, and spirit. Flowers are used for medicinal preparations, spiritual ritual, and ceremony & are often given as gifts.

If we look at what a flower represents to a plant, we see that flowers serve a very important function. Because a plant channels its metabolic energy into forming its flowers for reproduction, a flower could be considered to be the highest creative expression of a plant with concentrated life force energy. This concentrated Life force or creative energy, which is represented by the bioelectrical field of a flower, is therapeutic.

The practice of flower essences consists of utilizing a type of Lifeforce found in nature to activate the innate healing potential of the mind. A flower essence is a bioenergetic imprint of a flower that has been captured in water. New research is now documenting that bioelectrical fields emitted by plants are responsible for the exchange of information from one living being to another. The bioelectrical or energetic information emitted by a flower not only assists pollinators to find nourishment in the form of nectar but holds a type of sustenance for the human psyche as well. We know that Qi is what animates all of life and without it, life cannot exist. It is an intelligent invisible force that is in and around all living things. The bioelectrical field that is in and around a plant is its Qi or Life force. Flower essences contain a subtle energetic preparation of the Qi or the Life force of a flower that offers significant therapeutic benefits for Shen. Flower essences most closely resemble homeopathic preparations.


Ancient wisdom shines with the knowing that wellbeing & illness are strongly connected to the mind, society and spiritually. For example, many cultures believed that health was intimately tied with how a person felt about themselves & their place in the world. They knew that the mind and body are inseparable and the health of one is intimately linked to the health of the other.

Psychoneuroimmunology or PNI is a branch of medicine that studies how the mind and the body communicate. It considers how our thoughts and emotions influence our physiology. It is well documented at this point that ‘negative’ or ‘depleting’ psychological states such as chronic stress, depression, anxiety, fear & feelings of alienation take a toll on our health. These chronic depleting mental states have been shown to be pro-inflammatory, disruptive to immune function and even capable of altering genetic expression.

When we give equal consideration to mind as we do the body, we encourage deeper & more effective healing. When we consider the findings of PNI, something many cultures have known all along, we are able to understand how our emotional and mental states may be impacting our health.

For example, we can think of a patient who is experiencing chronic negative feelings and mental stress centered around a past traumatic event. Alternatively, we can think of a patient who may or may not realize how much they are being impacted by unmetabolized past experiences. Many acupuncturists and other body workers can attest to how emotions get locked and held in the physical tissue of the body. During a session, while manipulating the physical body, emotions often get released (sometimes very old emotions get released). This is an example of how the body and mind are intimately linked and it is an example of how chronic unresolved emotional and mental constructs can impact physical function.

In clinical practice, how then do we best address the need each client has to nourish the Shen and activate the innate healing power of the mind?

One of the most effective ways of encouraging healing is to capture the healing force of nature, in particular, the healing power found in flowers. Flower essences are some of the most gentle yet effective botanical medicines we have to activate the innate healing power of the mind.

Most cultures have been using a type of energetic floral water since time immemorial for transformational purposes & to activate the healing capacity of the mind.


Dew, the droplets of water that appear in the early morning, is seen as a life-giving substance. It provides moisture for many plants and animals. And has also been collected and used for agricultural, healing and mystical purposes.

According to ancient philosophers and numerous traditions, dew represents the Universal Spirit in condensed form, & an alchemical elixir of life that mysteriously appears to offer nourishment and regenerative power. This condensed form of universal prana or life force is thought to carry information about the environment. For example, if we have dew that has formed on a flower, that dew is thought to contain information from the sun and the moon, planetary configurations, and especially information that the flower emits.

Back in the 1500’s, Paracelsus gathered dew on plates of glass under various astrological configurations, believing the water to capture, concentrate and carry within it the planetary energies. Also, more recently, Dr. Edward Bach a British physician and homeopath, began collecting morning dew from flowers for its healing power. Bach had a similar view in that he felt the dewdrops contained some of the properties of the plant upon which it rested.

With this information, we can see then that originally, the first flower essences were the dewdrops gathered directly from flowers. Perhaps what certain ancient people sought to capture was the bioelectrical field of the flower contained within the droplets of dew.

Again, a flower essence is made by imprinting the bioelectrical information emitted by a flower into water. This process replicates the desirable healing properties many sought to capture within dew, the healing information found in flowers.


One study examines flower remedies as a means of pain relief through a retrospective case study analysis to establish how clients suffering from painful conditions responded to the therapy.

Results: Of 384 subjects, 41 suffered pain. Of these, 46% felt treatment had relieved their pain; in 49% the physical outcome was unknown. About 88% of all subjects reported an improvement in their emotional outlook.

Conclusion: The use of flower remedies has brought about positive emotional changes in the majority of clients in this study. In particular, relief of negative emotions and promotion of positive thought including how clients opened up and dealt with, emotional issues. Another study reveals that flower essences had a positive impact on those with chronic depression giving rise to a 50% decrement on two psychological evaluations: the Hamilton depression score & Beck Depression Inventory. [The two studies involving flower essences were conducted in Europe and have been briefly outlined in the Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, August/September 1998 (911 Tyler Street, Pt. Townsend, WA 98368-6541, USA, http://www.tldp.com)]

Flower essences are a safe and efficacious preparation of flowers with significant therapeutic benefits for patients.

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