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Learn to immerse
yourself in the bountiful aromas of life, and also discover
one
of man’s oldest
healing techniques. This 81 page book is packed with easily
readable and enjoyable information about the history,
nature, and miraculous power of scent to transform our daily
life and our moments of inspiration.
If you have ever
wondered why you are transformed by a walk in the woods
or a fragrant
garden, if you are curious about the powerful connection
between emotion and scent, then you will find many of your
answers in this book.
To anoint with oil is one of man’s oldest healing
techniques, and one of the most beautiful gestures of
blessing and gifting. Discover a Therapy of Wholeness that
engages your most primal sense with your highest guidance
for optimal happiness and well-being.
Learn to immerse yourself in the bountiful aromas of life,
and also discover both ancient and modern blends of Sacred
Oil that inspire and lift you up to higher levels of
consciousness and energy where unhappiness and disease
cannot easily enter.
This is the perfect companion and information guide for
those of you who already know and use our essential oils. It
is the perfect gift for introducing another person to the
experience of scent as a path to wholeness.
The following is
an excerpt from the book ~
Scent defies the ordinary mind. Though it is one of our five
major senses, supplying our brains with a steady stream of
environmental information, scent is not a feature of the
intellect. It is a powerful experiential force, created to
be that way for our very survival. We have good reason also
to believe that it may facilitate our survival on more than
the physical level.
Fragrance and our sense of smell hold a unique place within
our consciousness. Smell is our oldest, most primitive
sense, in that it is directly received into the primal part
of our brain, which directly triggers the autonomic nervous
system. This is so that smell can stimulate an immediate
survival response without first engaging our cognitive
faculty, which might be too slow or incorrect. Of all our
senses, smell is the most intimately associated with our
emotions and feelings, and therefore it is indelibly of our
five major senses, supplying our brains with a steady stream
of environmental information, scent is not a feature of the
intellect. It is a powerful experiential force, created to
be that way for our very survival. We have good reason also
to believe that it may facilitate our survival on more than
the physical entwined with our entire emotional response
system and history. In many therapeutic healing sessions,
practitioners have reported the patient to remember
a smell
associated with the trauma being addressed, and upon full
recognition of the scent, the injury was gone. At the same
time, smell is the one sense most reported and associated
with miracles or the attainment of higher consciousness.
Many who have experienced a miraculous healing have reported a beautiful fragrance, even though no external cause was
present.
Through aroma, we may have a valuable key that unlocks the
door to all levels
of consciousness, even the hidden ones
that hold our forgotten trauma and the higher ones that
remind us of the sunlit palaces of Paradise. Aroma presents
a golden thread that weaves its way through our physical
body, while engaging a larger emotional matrix that
connects, supports, and directs our physical behavior even
beyond that into a larger metaphysical body which serves as
a direct link between body and soul. Scent has revealed to
me that our body is gradiently linked to our soul, much as
material objects represent gradient degrees of compressed
or
condensed light, ever progressing from the infinite into
form…and back again to
the infinite. In this, I am assured
that our body is just the visible portion of our
soul and
not a separate entity seeking (or avoiding) a spiritual
life.
It was within such a state of connection between the
infinite and the finite, that
I first realized the powerful
connection that aroma can provide for uniting the higher
dimensions of our being with the physical one on which we
all too often fix our attention. There is a holistic nature
to scent, whether it is the fragrance of a country garden or
the most complex blend of essential oil. Because scent is
not refracted
by the lens of mental structure, it leads us
to an immersed union with experiential moments, and invites
us to be anointed by the very essence of our moment in time.
Perhaps there is an even greater wholeness to which our
sense of smell is attuned…the wholeness of life itself.
Surely, we all have strolled into the woods, meadows, or a
back yard garden
at some time to become awash with nature’s
perfume. It could have been the captivating fragrance of
Jasmine or honeysuckle that lured us to follow its path, the
fresh smell of grass that gladdened our hearts, or the
refreshing aroma of
pine, spruce, or juniper that caused us
to relax and linger. We are anointed by
spirit and life
whenever we immerse ourselves in the natural world. In such
moments, we are included in nature’s vital network of
communication, and we
are made more whole and more united
with all of life. These marvelous refreshing experiences are
facilitated by plants as they broadcast their living
essential oils.
It is their way of communicating among
themselves and all the other species of life.
The environment in which man emerged was not only lush but
also richly aromatic. Many ancient records give account of
man’s love of scent. Since the dawn of recorded history,
fragrant smoke and other scents have been used in daily
rituals and religious ceremonies as a devotion to the
all-pervasive Power of life and creation. Fragrance has been
referred to as the presence of God on earth, a delicate and
precious emanation revealing the connection between spirit
and matter. The Bible, from its earliest chapters to the
end, is full of references to
herbs, fruits, plants, and
seeds provided for our sustenance. “And on the banks,
on
both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees
for food. Their leaves
will not wither nor their fruit fail,
but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the
water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” (Eze 47:12) Then in
conclusion, we find in Revelations 22:2,
the following
vision. “…through the middle of the street of the city;
also, on either
side of the river, the tree of life with its
twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and
the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
Plants are critically important to life on earth. They are
the foundation on which all life stands. The botanical
kingdom is a vast chemical factory, which interfaces between
light and dark, sun and earth, drawing energy from each and
synthesizing it into molecules of carbohydrates, proteins,
and fats necessary to all other forms of organic life.
Plants provide the “crude fuels” which all animals and
humans break down to produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate),
our high-grade fuel. More than that, these ‘factories’ of
life shape and sustain an environment capable of sustaining
all organic life on earth.
Within plants there are essential oils, which are the
high-grade fuel making this miracle possible. When we bring
their pure essence into our lives, we too acquire the
ultimate goodness plants have to offer…which, in many ways,
is the fountain of life. I believe this was the
understanding that the ancient High Priests and perfumers
celebrated as they took great care to extract and prepare
oils worthy of anointing in the name of Spirit. They called
their art ‘alchemy’, and what alchemists had to say about
themselves and their beliefs reveals much about the results
to which they were so devoted. For an alchemist, every
particle of creation had three parts—a body, soul, and
spirit. Their chemical art involved dissolving the physical
essence with which they were working and then allow the soul
and spirit to purify itself and re-condense into
quintessence of the rarest form. With regard to essential
oils, they would distill over and over again until the final
products were highly
potent medicines.
The value of essential oil to the constitution of plants
(and by extension to us) is not merely for the aroma it
provides. There is a vital force encoded within these
‘essences’, which insures the plant will be protected,
healed, restored
when damaged, and propagated when
conditions allow. One of their main
functions in the plant
is to heal all wounds and defeat invasion. They are also the
world's most powerful anti-oxidants. From the beginning, at
the very foundation of life, was the means to safeguard life
and assure its continuance and expansion. This protection,
which is extended to all the rest of life, is perhaps the
most extraordinary contribution of plants. So amazing is it
that it touches every level of our existence.
There is a circle of life that is ever widening. This
applies not to a species, but also within a single member of
a species, and even within a single cell. Every life entity
has a beginning. It grows, protects itself, and replicates
itself. When this circle is unbroken there is a state of
integrity we call ‘wholeness’. In a state of wholeness, life
can continue, grow, and evolve. Ultimately, wholeness is the
secret to health, and interestingly, smell is the signatory
quality that informs all of nature instinctively about the
health of its members and the wholeness that supports them.
A joyful, knowledgeable, and skillful use of aroma can
provide one of the most important of all healing tools. This
is partly because of the constituents in plant essences, and
also partly because we are hard-wired to respond through
our
sense of smell to seek the essences that will assist us in
our needs for wholeness. This is true, whether it happens to
be nutrition, healing, or emotional reparation. The right
smell can effectively lead us to what we need, or stimulate
a state of wholeness where disease and unhappiness cannot
easily enter.
Aromas can have a powerful effect on all levels of your
being: body, mind, emotions, and spirit. A vital, living
fragrance can directly affect everything about you, from how
you feel, to your motivation for living, to your actual
lifespan.
Of all five senses, our sense of smell is the only one
directly linked to the limbic lobe of the brain, the
emotional control center. Anxiety, depression, fear, anger,
and joy all emanate from this region. The scent of a special
fragrance can evoke memories and emotions before we are even
consciously aware of it. Where smells are concerned, we
react first and think later. All other senses (touch, taste,
hearing, and sight) are routed through the thalamus, which
acts as the switchboard for the brain, passing stimuli onto
the cerebral cortex (the conscious thought center) and other
parts of the brain. Therefore, all our other senses are to
some degree ‘filtered’ by the various conditions of
‘conscious allowance’.
In considering the wholeness of scent, I am reminded of St.
Paul’s letter to the Philippians (4:18), in which he
remarks, “I am amply supplied, having received of
Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They were a fragrant
offering, well pleasing to God.” Most likely the use of the
word ‘fragrant’ was a metaphor referring to the endearment
they contained rather than some aromatic oil. His statement
is a potent reminder that spiritually we are just as attuned
to our senses as we are physically.
In my experience, there are a number of vital similarities
between the way we
are nurtured, guided, and protected by
our basic physical needs and our highest spiritual nature.
Both are instinctive and empathic. Both serve without
reservation or condition. This is quite unlike our normal
cognitive functions and behavioral patterns, which are
conditioned, encumbered, often focused on fragmented parts of our life (especially the parts under challenge), and
frequently resistive to change.
By creating positive associations between our favorite
scents, which directly affect us physically, and a
corresponding spiritual (or higher mental) state, we can
create a bridge that passes over the troubled water of many
life challenges. While there are challenges that must be met
immediately and head-on, most of our troubling situations
are just murky waters created by causes beyond our control
or by
others with whom we have confused our feelings. In
those cases, we can turn
our attention toward self
nurturing. We can re-establish our wholeness while the
outer
situations are working out their tangles and revealing a
clearer picture of what further can be done.
This is a type of wholeness therapy in which we are
eliciting the soul’s greater knowing and sensitivity. Then
we engage it with the innocent, base-level knowing
of the
body, which is hard-wired to seek protection and healing in
the most effective way. In our ancient history, smell was
the body’s highest survival sense. It was
so vital that it
is the only one of our five ordinary senses having a direct
connection to the autonomic nervous system, without any
conscious filters or permissions.
By connecting our highest
faculty (the heart and soul) with smell, our most primal
initiatory sense for well being, we are by-passing all the
sludge and confusion in between, which could misdirect us or
pin us down. The principle is that by moving us up to the
soul’s radiance, under the authority of love, we will
reconstruct our wholeness in the gentlest, most beautiful
and effortless way through our body’s inner knowledge.
To do this, we first attend to the physical and emotional
needs of our bodies, whether that would be to provide rest,
therapy, play, or more desirable work. Use good sense to
move conflicts aside. Then use good scents to fully engage
your body in what you are doing! That would include
everything from a summer peach exploding with aroma while
the sweet nectar cools your throat, to more frequent
enjoyment of natural fresh air, to the selection of
essential oils that uplift and enrich your spirit, to
anointing with a special oil blend in a moment of greater
reverence. All of these wonderful aromas wake up the
autonomic nervous system and create signals of well-being on
a deep cellular level that cannot be screened out by the
cognitive mind or overwhelmed by environmental turbulence.
While doing this, turn your attention to the aspirations of
your soul. These could be plentiful and unique for each
person. Wonderful changes can occur (and remain) as to seem
miraculous.
Our soul’s aspirations are always guiding us toward
fulfillment or moving us around the roadblocks to it.
Usually, though, we are so focused on the affairs of the
world that we do not see this higher work, or utilize its
great benefits. By acknowledging our spiritual aspirations,
and specifically putting our attention on them, we bring
them into all levels of conscious living and even our
unconsciousness patterns.
The process of awakening is an
ever-widening circle, and wherever you are in the circle is
a wonderful place to be. Sometimes it can be temporarily
challenging as
you move through a bit of resistance or
old
limiting beliefs, but it is always relieved by the brighter
view on the summit of that experience.
It is very healing to create a direct association between an
aspiration of the soul and an aroma you are moved by
emotionally. In doing this you have performed your first
practical application of anointing. There may be different
occasions or anointing, but there is only one universal
reason for it. That is to establish an unimpeachable
connection between body and soul that your senses can
recognize. This is true, whether one is using a blend of oil
steeped in sacred tradition or one that is the fruit of
modern inspiration. When this vital connection happens it is
always sacred, even if the application was a casual one. The
sacred connection is more important than which fragrance or
oil blend are used. The Scents of Life formulas were
designed to coordinate profoundly and universally with the
aspirations of the soul.
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