Pablo Noriega - Bach Flower Essences and Chinese Medicine

BACH
FLOWER
ESSENCES
AND
CHINESE
MEDICINE

In Bach Flower Essences and Chinese Medicine Pablo Noriega takes us into an exploration that has never been so thoroughly attempted: the intersection of Bach Flower Essence theory with that of Chinese Medicine. Both fields hold in high regard the role that the mind and emotions play in human health and suffering. Restoration of balance in the psycho-spiritual realm is highly prized by both paradigms. The brilliance of Bachs theory is in the careful observation of complex human conditions and the identification of plant energies that can harmonize dissonant mindsets. Chinese Medicine also prizes the study of the mind and emotions and how these relate to disease development and has carefully cataloged these in domains of human function known as the five organ systems. Noriega deftly weaves discussion of how these two systems inform one another, giving greater insight into both fields. He expands treatment options for practitioners of Chinese Medicine and broadens treatment context for practitioners of Flower Essence Therapy. This work will be of interest to all who enjoy traversing the boundaries between paradigms and who find satisfaction on the frontiers of intercultural exchange.

DAVID W. MILLER, M.D., FAAP, L.AC., DIPL. OM, EAST-WEST INTEGRATED MEDICINE, LLC

Acknowledgments

F rom the roots, we form ourselves out of many others.

Light is borrowed, the body an instant.

The web that unites us is limitless.

A sparkle suddenly vibrates in the air. Someone believes it was he who gave it life, that he was the one who mixed the blues and the ivies, the looks, the liquors, the delicate leaves that never touch the ground, and the water of the night.

Someone laughs, seated, soaking his feet in the liquid tide of life, someone who knows that the web is infinite, that the roots are interlaced, that we are made of Earth and Sky, that the sparkle of one was forged with tiny filings from the light of everyone.

I offer my gratitude to Guillermo Stilstein, who very early on showed us the door to Chinese Medicine and Tai Chi and with whom a long road has been traveled, one I hope to continue walking together.

Many thanks to Dr. Diana Carballo, who accepted my enthusiasm and guided me through my many questions, and an enormous hug for Hctor Carballo and for Diana and Hctors mom, Fanny T. Socolovsky: may my hugs reach them in whichever place of infinity they find themselves.

Thank you to Dr. Tze Ching Hsiang, with whom I continued studying acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. Through his work with me, theory began to unfold and to flow into my practice.

My gratitude and warmth to one of my teachers and friends, Ricardo El chino Fernndez Herrero, who taught me in class, during lunch, in practice, while sipping yerba mat. He shared with me his nutritional method and deep knowledge in many areas of Chinese Medicine, as well as moments of relaxed friendship during long stretches of our lives.

Dr. He Yi Ming, through his practice and humility, taught me without me being particularly conscious of it. One of his ways was helping me maintain health with Chinese herbs.

Around this same time, another great teacher, the painter Roberto Bosco, passing on that which his own teacher, Demetrio Urrucha, had passed to himpainting and drawing, but much more than that, a way of seeing the world very close to Daoism. To him and to his family, the painter Zulma Gallardo, Cristina y Romina. A word of gratitude as well to a friend from that period, the painter Alejandro Parisi.

To Dr. Gabriel Carrascosa Solar, companion and friend, with whom I share and learn much. Thank you.

To Dr. Ana Mara Soerensen and Dr. Edgardo Soerensen, for the training I received from them, enormously generous, disinterested and humble. It signified a transcendental 180-degree turn in my way of looking at medicine. Their contribution to natural medicine, to biological medicine, is incalculable. They have trained and continue to train many people.

My gratitude for the teachings of Brbara Espeche, in whose institution I studied Flower Essence Therapy.

To Eduardo Grecco: thanks to him I was able to begin to share the first steps of this work and to access a very valuable Chinese Medicine library. My first trips to Mexico and Barcelona were arranged with his help.

Big thanks to my grandfather, Dr. Toms Argentino Ortz Luna, greatness, humility and kindness, another one from whom I learned without realizing it.

To my uncle Dr. Toms Alejandro Ortz Luna, whose path within the medical system shows, in practice, how integration can look.

Many thanks to my friend Dr. Ramiro Velazco, investigator and great practitioner of forms of traditional medicine. Innovator. He taught me in consultation and during long hours of sharing his knowledge with me.

To Dr. Alfonso Masi Elizalde, homeopath, who showed me in action and over the course of three days how an ailment of many years can be cured.

To Dr. Eduardo Yahbes, homeopath. His work with me led me to another therapeutic practice.

My gratitude to Susana Fryc, director of Instituto Sadhana (Sadhana Institute) in Buenos Aires, where my work has been able to unfold with total liberty and support.

To Claudia Stern, director of Cefyn, in Buenos Aires. Thanks to her I was able to begin and to continue to share this material in that city.

To my student-colleagues at Cefyn: the work with them is intense; its pure impulse and affection. Thank you.

To my student-colleagues at Instituto Sadhana, more joyous and affectionate learning and sharing.

All of them are building the bridge between Chinese Medicine and the Bach Flowers.

Many thanks to Lourdes Campos and Mara Julia Falcn of the Instituto de Terapeutas Florales Mount Vernon (Mount Vernon Institute of Flower Essence Therapists) of Santiago, Chile. Their disinterested work in supporting and spreading Flower Essence Therapy, along with the work for and with the people there, is immense and very valuable.

Thank you to those in Chile: colleagues, students, and patients. To my colleagues Carolina Sougarret and Gonzalo Valds for their work and enthusiasm, and to Ronny Cornejo.

Many thanks to my friends and colleagues of the Foursome Seminar in Barcelona: Ricardo Orozco, Jordi Caellas, and Josep Guarch. And the other bald guy in Cuba, honorary member of the pentibaldies, Boris Rodriguez. You are my brothers.

Jordi Caellas and I share the joy of getting together and talking about the Flowers and medicine, and somehow magical doors seem to open. Thanks, also, to his wife, Marga, and their lovely children.

Josep Guarch, soul brother, deep, a great therapist and astrologer, with whom many good times have been shared in Barcelona and Buenos Aires. Thanks as well to Leire, Pau, and Maialen for sharing and for receiving me in their home in Barcelona.

Boris Rodriguez, clinical psychologist, defender of the scientific recognition of Bach Flower Remedies.

A very many great thanks to Ricardo Orozco, for his enormous work with the Bach Flower Remedies, his contribution of the Transpersonal Patterns, thanks to which I was able to begin putting together pieces of the bridge between Chinese Medicine and the Bach Flowers, as have many other people in other disciplines. An inexhaustible trainer of Flower Essence Therapists and a great and beloved friend. He pushed my work forward in many ways. The possibility of sharing it and developing it is due to his unconditional support during these ten years. And thanks to Pilar, who along with Ricardo receive me in their home when Im in Barcelona.

Much gratitude to Institut Anthemon (Anthemon Institute), of which I form part, and where Ive been developing, thanks to Ricardo Orozco, work that has been going on for ten years now.