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Homeopathic remedies and flower essences are two of the most subtle and gentle of all the natural therapies. Today a patient asked me how flower essences and homeopathic remedies differ in their effects on our beings. In order to answer this question I have to address how many levels there are to our beings. Depending on a person’s religious/spiritual/medical perspective, there are different views on this. My response to this question is as follows. For all practical purposes we have four aspects to our beings: 1) physical 2) energetic 3) etheric 4) spiritual. Of course, this is simply a “model” and is not a perfect representation of reality.

The physical aspect of our beings, one can say, has the lowest “energetic vibration” and thus is most “gross”, and the spiritual aspect of our beings has the highest “energetic vibration” and thus is the most subtle and refined. The mind (including thought and emotion), centered in the brain, is one aspect of the physical body. The “etheric” and the “energetic” aspects of our beings fall somewhere between the physical body and the spirit. You can easily feel the energetic aspect by touching someone, and if you are very sensitive, by holding your hand close without actually touching him or her. The etheric aspect is not as easy to sense. It takes a great deal of skill and practice to be able to tune into the etheric aspect of our beings. The etheric aspect is definitely more subtle and thus more difficult to work on as a practitioner. Sometimes patients need support on this level as well as the energetic and physical levels.

Different medicines or therapies affect different levels of being, and of course, all these levels directly influence one another. Therefore, a therapy that affects the energetic dimension can also affect the body, or vice versa. Furthermore, the lower the energetic vibration of the therapy, the more physical (and less spiritual) the effect of the therapy.

The following is an incomplete list of therapies and the level they are most likely to influence:

– Pharmaceutical drugs affect our physical body.
– Herbs are commonly prescribed to influence the physical body as well as the body’s energy.
– “Energy” therapies, such as homeopathic remedies or acupuncture, affect the energetic dimension.
– Flower essences affect the etheric aspect.
– Religious and spiritual activities influence the spirit.

As a rule, the therapies certainly have a “trickle down” effect, but not as much of a “trickle up” effect. In other words, spiritual/religious practices can definitely affect all the lower aspects of our beings, including etheric, energetic, and physical. This is exactly why having a spiritual/religious practice is so key to feeling physically healthy. However, therapies that are geared towards our physical body, such as pharmaceutical medications, are not able to influence our spirit. Also, homeopathic remedies can affect energy and the physical body, but generally do not affect the spirit. However, there can be a subtle “trickle up” effect at times. For instance, homeopathic remedies support our energetic aspect, but may also influence our etheric dimension.

Flower essences have a finer effect on our beings than do homeopathic remedies. Putting it in a different way, the level at which homeopathic remedies work is closer to the physical level than the level at which flower essences work. In conclusion, flower essences come closer to the spirit than any other medical therapies. They touch our spirits in the most gentle way, a way that only a flower can fully appreciate.

Dr. Sharif