Chapter One - General Information

History

Essential oils have been in use in both religion and medicine for thousands of years. We know this because reference is made to them in many manuscripts of ancient date. In addition, there are, as near as I can tell, nearly 200 references to essential oils in the Bible. Essential oils were used extensively in Renaissance Europe and in ancient India. In fact, India is probably the only place in the world where this tradition and art was never lost. With more than a thousand years of continuous practice, Ayurvedic medicine (which includes the use of aromatic oils) is the oldest continuous form of medical practice in the world. Much of what is known about the medicinal properties of essential oils comes from these traditional and long-standing sources.

The arrival of modern science in the 19th century brought about the decline of all forms of herbal and homeopathic medicine. This suppression, if you study history even a little, appears to have been deliberately brought about by people who stood to gain financially. Scientists, quite probably with the best of intentions at first, began the practice of isolating the main active ingredient of plants and then reproducing them in laboratories. In this way, penicillin (derived from mold growing on bread), aspirin (naturally present in birch, wintergreen, and meadowsweet), antibiotics, and so on came into wide-spread usage. Today, the marketing of these medicines is big business and very profitable.

There is obvious value in many modern scientific discoveries, but it must also be acknowledged by any open-minded person that these isolated compounds, such as those found in drugs and synthetic therapeutic oils, have many serious side effects and can be easily abused. Every plant, and therefore, every essential oil contains hundreds of chemical compounds, most of them in very small amounts. We know that certain trace elements are fundamental for life, and the human body often requires one in order to assimilate another. Rational thought, and now evidence from scientific studies, shows clearly that when plant material is broken down into individual components in a laboratory, many of these trace elements are lost. In addition, man-made, nearly chemically identical compounds lack them also. In fact, man-made elements tend to develop, physically, left-rotating elements that plug receptor sites and create additional problems of their own. (Information gleaned from the Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Simple, David Stewart, Ph.D, D.N.M.)

The power of living products (herbals and essential oils) lies in the combination of their elements, and the trace components are every bit as important as their main constituents. In fact, it seems to be that the minor constituents have a synergistic (controlling and strengthening) effect on the main constituents. Many of these trace elements enable the herbal or oil to heal more effciently and without the nasty side effects experienced when using the synthetic reconstructions (drugs or oils) that do not contain the trace elements.

With pure essential oils and herbal medicines in their complete state you can heal and nourish without the traditional side effects of drugs!

Aromatherapy, in our time, can be said to have began in France in the early 1900's. England and European countries learned of it quickly and it is a basic part of even mainstream medicine in most countries of Europe and Asia, as is the use of homeopathic medicines. Aromatherapy did not exist in any significant way in the United States until the early 1980's and can be classed into two separate and distinct movements. The first is pure and genuine essential oils prepared for therapeutic use. The second is a mass-market approach to the creation of oils which will be used for perfumery, etc. There is little if any concern for therapeutic value but a lot of attention is paid to the quality and durability of the aroma.

Because of the prevalence of mass-marketing techniques, much of what you hear and see in the media and in promotional material is outright blarney, and what you buy is often synthetic substitutions. As the purchasing public becomes more educated, aware, and insistent on quality this is slowly changing. (I really loved adding that last sentence for this publication edition.) Education and personal experience are your best tools in this market; an oil source that you have come to trust is also invaluable.

Schools of Thought

As noted on the previous page, essential oils have been used throughout the years and throughout the world, but not always by utilizing the same methods of application and/or use. There are large gulfs of difference between what is considered safe and the best method of application between countries and schools of thought.

For the most part, aromatherapists trained in Germany consider inhalation as the best and most effective way to use essential oils. Essential oil molecular structure is such (small molecules with low atomic weights) that they pass directly into the blood stream when breathed into the lungs. At the same time they are also moving directly into the brain through the olfactory nerves which connect to the brain.

In Britain and other English speaking countries, the skin is the primary avenue of absorption and utilization of essential oils. The emphasis is on massage with carrier oils containing only 2-5% of essential oil. The early proponents of aromatherapy in England were not therapists nor health-care practitioners, and often the oils used and studied were perfume or food-grade rather than therapeutic-grade essential oils. In addition, the British tend to rely heavily on scientific research. This sounds good in theory, but in practice the research has been almost exclusively done using low quality food-grade oils, synthetic reproductions, adulterated oils, and isolated compounds rather than the whole oil. Their data, and the advise and cautions generated by it, is invalid in relation to unadulterated therapeutic grade essential oils.

The British place a great deal of emphasis on the potential problems with essential oils. Their lists of cautions are extensive for nearly every oil and their lists of oils that should never be used is also quite lengthy. Formally trained aromatherapists in the United States tend to lean heavily in the British direction, probably because studying English texts is easier for us than studying French or German ones. I consider myself guilty of this bias to a great extent in my early days using essential oils. It should be noted here that most essential oils contain compounds that are toxic individually. Myrrh oil contains many such compounds, yet it is one of the gentlest, safest, mildest oils in nature. The Bible says that Esther was massaged with oil of myrrh every day for 6 months to prepare for marriage to the king. Some British aromatherapists believe that this cannot be correct since studies of the individual components of myrrh obviously show some of these components to be hazardous, especially when applied day after day. (Interesting how scientists are so prone to believe their own prejudices rather than revealed word.)

An interesting fact, noted in The Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Simple by David Stewart, Ph.D., D.N.M., is that myrrh essential oil is used to protect skin from the rays of the sun. This is amazing because myrrh contains more furanoid compounds than any other essential oil. Furanoid compounds are implicated in studies as amplifying ultraviolet light and are said to make an oil phototoxic (meaning that it can potentially cause sunburn and skin damage when exposure to sunlight occurs after application). This is a perfect illustration of the difference between a complete oil and its individual components. The French recommend the use of essential oils in just about any way you can imagine. They particularly emphasize the taking of essential oils orally. Many people, using only pure therapeutic grade essential oils, are doing this with good result and no reported problems. As is emphasized in this book, I do not recommend the oral consumption of essential oils. The fact remains that every incident in which harm from essential oils has been documented has been with internal consumption, either intentionally or accidentally. Oils absorb so rapidly when inhaled or placed on the skin and I have had such great success with those methods that I have rarely felt the need to recommend internal use.

My recommendation is to use oils consistently, sensibly, with joy and thanksgiving, and by any method whatsoever that you choose. My thinking certainly follows French thought more closely than English.

Chapter Two - Basic Principles and Information

Essential oils contain the nutritive values and healing properties of plants in a very concentrated form. They often heal the body, mind, and spirit, while regenerating damaged tissue and bringing oxygen to deprived cells. The use of essential oils also seems to improve overall immune function.

FREQUENCY

Every organ of the human body has a frequency range at which it operates when healthy; the human body has an overall bioelectrical frequency. During illness or with impending death, the body's frequency drops significantly. Essential oils have frequency ranges that are several times greater than the frequency of herbs and food. The application of essential oils can quickly raise the body's overall frequency or stabilize the frequency of a struggling organ (LeVabre, Higley, Stewart). Studies have been conducted showing that, without question, negative things such as coffee, negative thoughts, stress, and poor nutrition lower the body's overall frequency. (Imagine that!) Essential oils often restore the body to normal ranges within seconds and improve overall feelings of well-being.

Each essential oil (single) has a frequency range that is attractive or healing to particular organs, meridians, etc., of our bodies. In general, and this varies quite a bit, oils with lower frequencies are considered to make physical changes in the body; oils with midrange frequencies to effect emotional changes; high frequency oils, nearly always 'blossom' oils, bring about spiritual changes.

A well-done blend can contain oils in all three frequency ranges and can create a profound and deeply healing environment. Blends are less likely to cause a negative reaction because each individual oil is only a percentage of the whole, and sometimes only a very small percentage.

Learning to mix your own blends can be a tricky undertaking. It usually requires that you practice, practice, practice before you will consistently create workable blends. Playing around with blends can be more fun than cooking creatively, but it can be an expensive experience.

Oils have to go into a blend in a particular order and in very specific quantities. If a book of recipes does not mention this, the author probably does not understand it (or does not know how to explain it). Either way, unless you get the order correct, your blends will not turn out very well.

The order in which oils go into a blend depends on things called 'notes' and other things called 'properties'. The term 'notes' refers to a combination of aromatic pungency and the longevity of the therapeutic qualities and is relative to the other oils in the blend. Many oils can be considered either middle notes or high notes depending on quantity and what other oils are in the blend.

Understanding the properties of each single oil, whether it is considered a base, an equalizer, or an enhancer, etc., is also necessary for you to understand how the oils you have chosen will react to each other and which should be put in first and in what quantities.

SYNERGY

The term used to express the idea that single oils blended together achieve a product that is more than just the sum of its parts. A blended essential oil is better able to reach the various layers of spiritual, physical, and emotional healing and do all this with less chance of negative results.

BACTERIA AND VIRUSES

Essential oils are antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, anti-infective, anti-tumoral, antiparasitic, and antiseptic. This is not a matter of some oils being one and other oils being another; all essential oils have these properties to one degree or another. These properties could be the result of the unique oxygen/nutrient carrying capacity of essential oils as described above. Essential oils have been shown in laboratory studies and clinical trials to destroy or seriously inhibit tested bacteria and viruses and to do so without causing harm (unlike drugs) to cells, organs, tissues, or body systems.

AROMATIC

Essential oils are aromatic (volatile). This means that their small molecules are able to be diffused readily into the air and absorbed into our bodies through our olfactory and respiratory systems. It is an interesting fact that although we may not be able to detect all of an oil's fragrances because our nose has no receptor sites for particular molecules, all of the molecules can enter our systems through the nose. From the nose they can go directly into the central brain or they may go into the lung and from there directly into the blood stream.

Because of their small molecular structures, when diffused they purify the air in the following ways: removing metallic particles and toxins from the air, increasing ozone and negative ions which inhibit bacterial growth, destroying odors from mold, cigarettes, or animals and filling the air with a fresh, beautiful, healing, and uplifting scent.

APPLYING EXTERNALLY/BENEFITTING INTERNALLY

Because of the molecular structure of essential oils, they can act on internal organs when applied externally to the body. This ability is explained by Hilton's Law of Physics, which states that the nerve which supplies a joint also supplies the muscles which move the joint and the skin over the joint. This law also applies to organs and the tissues surrounding them. Massage therapy and other modalities operate using this principle. Essential oils work through the skin on nearby organs, on the nervous system, and then throughout the entire body. Essential oils quickly penetrate the tissues of the skin reaching the organs and joints.

PENETRATE CELL WALLS

One great benefit of essential oils is that they are capable of moving through cell walls even when the cell walls are hardened because of damage or scarring. Essential oils reach areas of the body far from where the oil was applied, and they do so in just a few minutes. The oils are then metabolized by the body in the same way that other nutrients are metabolized.

CELL REGENERATION

Most essential oils are cytophylactic; this means that they stimulate the generation of new cell growth following burns, surgeries, or wounds of any nature. Of particular note in this category are lavender, patchouli, neroli, ravensara, coriander, and helichrysum.

SKIN CARE

The skin is a barrier between our bodies and the outside world, but it is not the impenetrable barrier that it was once thought to be. The skin absorbs and alters both nutrients and pollutants and expels various waste materials through the sebaceous glands. The skin is supposed to do all this amazing work while staying moist, healthy, and glowing. Essential oils can be of great help to the skin in accomplishing this amazing work. Your skin care regimen need not be elaborate or time consuming to make a significant difference to both the beauty and functionality of your skin.

CIRCULATION

Essential oils are rubefacient, which means that they activate capillary circulation. Increased circulation to the capillaries prevents tired, achy legs, and the slow healing experienced by diabetic people, as well as muscle tenseness and strain. Increased circulation also brings more oxygen and nutrients to the cells and more effciently carries waste products away from the cells and tissues.

EXPECTORANT

Most essential oils are expectorant to some degree. They improve the function of the lymphatic system by causing mucous to become more fluid and more easily expelled from the lungs and mucous membranes.

CLEANSING EFFECT

All essential oils have a cleansing effect on the human system, whether it be on the skin, in the blood, in the lymphatic system, or on a person's accumulated cellulite. One of the things that appears to happen when essential oils are used regularly is that toxins, free-radicals, cellular debris, heavy metals, pharmaceutical drugs, petrochemicals, renegade cells, fungi, bacteria, and even viruses attach themselves to the cellular structure of the essential oil and are then excreted from the body in natural and harmless ways. This cleansing effect on cellular receptor sites increases our ability to absorb and utilize vitamins and minerals.

ANTIOXIDANTS

Essential oils are powerful antioxidants. By their very nature they aid the body in eliminating free radicals and the damage they cause. This is explained further in the section on essential oils and security scanners.

OXYGEN AND NUTRIENT TRANSPORT

Oxygen is the carrier of nutrition throughout the human body. Essential oils contain molecules which help transport nutrients to starving or undernourished cells. Disease begins when a cell lacks oxygen and available nutrients. By providing needed oxygen, essential oils strengthen every cell in the body, including those necessary to the immune system.

BALANCE OR HOMEOSTASIS

Many essential oils are adaptogenic, meaning they will instigate a reaction in the body to bring about a state of balance. For example, hyssop normalizes either high or low blood pressure; peppermint is found on lists both as a stimulant and as a sedative, and this is accurate; lemon acts on the nervous system either as a sedative or a tonic, as needed. This is true of the various plants in herbal form as well. Essential oils are simply stronger and the effects more immediately recognizable.

BLOOD/BRAIN BARRIER

Some essential oils, those containing sesquiterpenes, cross the blood/brain barrier. According to Connie and Alan Higley in Reference Guide for Essential Oils, The American Medical Association (AMA) determined that if they could find an agent that would pass the blood/brain barrier, they would be able to cure alzheimer's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson's disease. In June of 1994, it was documented by the medical Universities of Berlin, Germany and Vienna, Austria that sesquiterpenes have the ability to go beyond the blood/brain barrier. This is an awesome discovery with profound ramifications for medical science. The team who made the discovery expected worldwide acclaim. This did not happen. Perhaps the world is fortunate that doctors are NOT making drugs cross this barrier in the brain with the use of essential oils. The blood/brain barrier is the membrane between the circulating blood and the brain that prevents certain damaging substances from reaching the brain tissue and cerebrospinal uid. Oils such as cedarwood and sandalwood, high in sesquiterpenes, cross this barrier and bring increased amounts of oxygen and their healing properties to the limbic system of the brain.

Essential oils containing sesquiterpenes in significant amount are as follows: cedarwood, patchouli, sandalwood, ginger, blue cypress, myrrh, vetiver, chaste tree, chamomile German, black pepper, spikenard, ylang ylang, and yarrow. Frankincense, which is world renowned for this, actually contains far less than the oils listed above. It does, however, contain other components that make it very effective overall.

ACUPRESSURE AND ENERGY WORK

Essential oils are considered the life force or the energy of the plant. They are used in many parts of the world in energy and acupressure work. This type of work is finally catching on in the United States. Specific essential oils can be associated with the meridians and chakras. ( There is further information on the meridians and chakras in Chapter 8.)

VARIETY OF ACTION

People are a complex combination of mind, body, and spirit. Essential oils seem to have the ability to affect all three areas at the same time and in a balanced and beneficial way. The various levels of action of essential oils are not exclusive from one another. You cannot say, 'I will use this oil today because it has astringent properties for my oily skin,' and not encounter, for example, the antiviral properties of the chosen oil. When working on any physical ailment, there will also be beneficial effects seen on the emotional and energy levels of the body.

SPIRITUAL AND EMOTIONAL DIMENSIONS

The spiritual and emotional dimensions of essential oils are well known and have been used by people throughout recorded history.

Some oils are calming; others bring sharpness and clarity to thinking processes and stimulate memory; still others bring a sense of contentment, well-being, and faith in the future. The phenomenon of improved mood and mental/spiritual clarity has been experienced and described by many.

RELEASING EMOTIONAL TRAUMA

Present in the limbic system of the brain is a gland called the amygdala. This gland is directly connected to the olfactory bulb and is stimulated by the sense of smell and by our thoughts. Studies conducted recently on the meditation techniques of Tibetan monks indicate that the amygdala is the brain's solution center. Present it with a problem and it immediately begins to come up with possible solution scenarios. It is now known in scientific circles that every cell of our bodies contain memories, even memories that have passed along family lines, much like the tendency to a certain eye color or curly hair. The aroma of essential oils reaches into this level of the body and aids us in releasing patterns that are not serving us well.

RESPONSE TO WORDS, THOUGHTS, AND PRAYER

In studies conducted by Bruce Tainio, participants were asked to direct negative thoughts toward several essential oils. The frequency of the oils was measured before and after the thought directing. The overall frequencies of the oils went down by an average of 12 MHz following negative thought. The frequencies of the same oils went up by an average of 10 MHz when positive thought energy was directed at them. Interestingly, the average increase in resonant frequency went up by 15 MHz when the oils were prayed for consistently.

Anecdotal evidence has been produced showing that oils amplify our intent. The intent of the user will move molecules of oil to where they are most needed more quickly. Oils respond with an increase (or decrease) in frequency and effectiveness according to the attitudes and intentions of the producer, handler, distributor, experimenter, shipper, and end user (you). Love your oils, pray over and for them, and for yourselves, use them with a firm intention set in your mind on what you need them to do and you will notice an increase in the effectiveness of the oils and, I believe, in your health and well-being. The powerful properties displayed by essential oils make perfect sense to the student of molecular biology and have been proven in clinical trials and practical usage. Essential oils, being derived from whole plants which are part of God's marvelous creation, contain some amazingly well-designed molecules that work in consistently predictable ways. There is nothing 'magical' about the way that essential oils work.