An Interview With My Masters: What Is Aromatherapy?
From the teachings of Nabir
Nabir was my spiritual teacher and mentor concerning the ways of the world. A skilled herbalist, and expert in natural medicine, the things I learned from him, over half a century, have been the foundation for my meaningful, and very successful life.
Here is an introduction to Nabir and his teachings.
In one of his talks, Nabir spoke about the healing power of the aromatic oils that have been extracted from plants.
He also spoke about the concept of the Biophilia Hypothesis, and the importance of immersing oneself in nature. He reminisced of a time right, after high school, when he went into the wild and spent a few years living off-grid. He shared his passion for learning about edible and medicinal plants, and then mentioned that he had once been a “wildcrafter”, and had apprenticed for a few years with a pharmaceutical botanist.
We were all excited about learning more about his past, since he seldom discussed it, unless it was relevant to the subject at hand. He described a small healing practice he had in Katmandu and his use of aromatherapy to heal people. He added, “I would carry a very sick person through the herbal gardens and the dense aroma, that came off the plants had a powerful healing effect on them. I learned this by reading old Latin texts that were shared with me in an Russian Orthodox Monastery in the deserts of Egypt. It said that back in the day, these monasteries, had huge gardens filled with aromatic plants, and the priests would carry sick worshippers, through these gardens.
Here is the Q & A session that followed that talk.
Q. What is Aromatherapy?
A. In the simplest of terms, Aromatherapy is the use of plant derived essential oils to heal the body, mind and spirit.
Q. How much does our sense of smell define how we experience the world.
A. Smell has essential importance in tasting food, feeling love, and experiencing friendship — more than we ever could realize. Just think, a certain aroma can evoke vivid memories, and produce whole body sensations.
Q. Please discuss olfaction in greater depth.
A. To begin with, our sense of smell works both slower and faster than any of our other senses. Sight, hearing and touch produce instantaneous registration but the sense of smell may not. Olfaction, may require a carrier such as a bypassing breeze, or a pocket of air enriched with an aroma or volatile molecules that can be read by our nasal-based odor receptors. On the other hand s new signals detected by our eyes and our ears must first be assimilated by a complex structural system called the thalamus before reaching the brain’s interpretive regions, odiferous messages move quickly on dedicated pathways directly from the nose t into the brain’s olfactory cortex, where they are processed instantly.
Q. Discuss the anatomy of the brain and the sense of smell.
A. Importantly, the olfactory cortex the center of the sense of smell within the brain is embedded within the brain’s limbic system and amygdala, where emotions are born and emotional memories stored. This is the reason why scents, emotional feelings and memories become so easily and intimately entangled and why a simple scent can bring long repressed or forgotten memories to the surface.
The olfactory epithelium, the yellowish mass of mucous membrane located about three inches above our nostrils, contains about 20 million smell receptors each designed to isolate odor molecules delivered either directly through the nostrils as in when you smell ammonia or lavender oil or through the back of the mouth and upward giving specific foods meaning.
Q. Discuss the the connection between the sense of smell memory and the emotions?
A. Scientific research indicates that our memory for scents is long and resilient, much longer and more resilient than visual memories. Many of our earliest odor associations often remain with us when visual memories are forgotten.
This fact is important since it means that scents can be of value treating dementia, depression, and other emotional and memory conditions associated with ageing.
Q. How can the sense of smell be used as a therapeutic tool?
A. This is a complex question since there are so many techniques both in folk medicine, hydrotherapy and massage that use aromatic oils therapeutically. In the specific psychological approach known as “Inner Child Work” the sense of smell seems to be very valuable. There have been a number of studies where researchers offered three different sets of the same 20 memory cues — the cue as a word, as a picture and as a smell. These researchers found that while word and visual cues produced associations largely from the subjects’ adolescence and teen years adulthood, the cues related to the sense of smell evoked thoughts of early childhood, under the age of 10. The researchers pointed out that it seemed that individuals describing these early childhood memories were much likelier to report the sudden sensation of being brought back in time and described the associated memories in exceptionally rich and emotional terms.
Q. Please explain what is meant by exceptionally rich and emotional terms?
A. When they smelled he spice, they were transported to a kitchen from their youth. The scent of tar brought back strong images of Tarring a roof or the bottom of a boat with dad or a friend.
Q. Is there an explanation for why the sense of smell is more profound in bringing back early childhood memories?
A. There is no definitive answer for this but the answer might be found in the fact that first of our senses to mature is olfaction. It is later that vision, words, and touch develop. The cortical link between the sense of small (olfaction) may be the a key to why early sensations keep their form all lifelong.
To explore these ideas in greater depth see a Conversation on Inner Child Work
Q. How influential is our sense of smell to our sense of taste?
In answer to this question, one of Nabir’s assistants brought out a large jar of multi-colored jelly beans. We all started to laugh. What was Nabir up to this time? What was the lesson going to be? Nabir passed the jar around the room and told us each to take a handful of the candy from the jar.
A. Then he spoke. Here is an exercise you can experiment with to understand how the sense of smell works and how it connects to taste.
1. Sample one of each of the colors of the jelly beans in the bag systematically. One at a time. These jellybeans actually have natural flavors. The orange ones taste like orange, the yellow ones taste like lemon, and the black ones like licorice. In this simple exercise, it is important here to distinguish each flavor from the others.
We all did what he asked.
2. Now pinch your nostrils shut and repeat the exercise again.
3. You should notice that the distinct flavors of each type of jelly-bean has disappeared. Every bean will still taste sweet, but there no distinction between one flavor or the other. It is as if without color they would be the same. It is your sense of smell that often helps you distinguish one taste from another.
As you can see by this exercise much of what we know as taste is actually more smell.
Then he arose and left the room ending the session.
This story is a Module from my course, Helping Yourself With Natural Healing
Here is a Medium story on this subject: @lindalum_2779
Here is an earlier conversation with Nabir from the archives @LewisCoaches
Learn more about my philosophy and extensive teachings here
To learn more about studying directly with me, just email me at [email protected]. I will respond personally.
Author: Lewis Harrison is a Manifestation Coach, professional futurist (forecaster), and a philanthropy consultant. He is the creator of the Ask Lewis Mentoring Method as well as HAGT — Harrison’s Applied Game Theory. He is the Executive Director of the International Association of Healing Professionals an educational organization that offers programs around the world in Intentional Living. He is also Independent Scholar, with a passion for knowledge, personal development, self-improvement, creativity, innovation, and problem-solving. You can read all of his Medium stories at [email protected].
For a decade, Lewis was the host of a humor-based Q & A talk show on NPR (National Public Radio) affiliated WIOX FM in NY.
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