The Complete Essential Oils Sourcebook: A Practical Approach to the Use of Essential Oils for Health and Well-Being. Julia Lawless
“He saw that there was no mood of the mind that had not its counterpart in the sensuous life …”
OSCAR WILDE
Responses to scents vary, but the rose has a perfume that is universally appreciated.
Some fragrances are generally experienced as pleasing, while others are widely perceived as repugnant, yet it is difficult to make hard and fast rules about how any individual will react to a particular smell. This is because the physiological effect of a given odor can be overridden by an individual’s specific emotional associations and psychological preferences. Sometimes even an unpleasant smell can have beneficial results if the associations are positive.
The close connection between the sense of smell and the experience of emotion has often been noted. It is suggested that, physiologically, molecules of odor in some way stimulate the same brain centers that signal the drives toward or away, which underlie almost all human emotion.5
Our sense of smell influences our moods, emotions, and memories. In view of the idiosyncratic quality of smell, it is virtually impossible accurately to assess in advance an individual’s reaction to a particular odor, or to prescribe a fragrance for therapeutic purposes without taking all the following considerations into account:
Strong odors such as frankincense are thought to affect mood and emotion through a physiological effect on the brain.
CARDAMOM
LEMON
Since our response to scent is so individualistic, to what extent is it possible to use odors to bring about a predictable response? The writer Michael Stoddard asserts that although there is no odor capable of systematically inducing a given reaction in human beings, it is nevertheless possible that we are still subconsciously manipulated by odors. Since the sexual and social instincts of human beings are no longer controlled by scent-signals as they are in other mammals, odors do not bring about overt changes in human sexual or emotional behavior; rather, they create changes in mood or feeling states, often at a subliminal level. Such changed states, as studies have shown, can subtly color and redirect our thoughts, often without our noticing.6
Masked Venetian ladies buying perfume in “The Perfume Seller” by Pietro Longhi, 1702–1785.
Scents largely influence us unwittingly. This is what endows them with such great psychological potential, for better or for worse. At present, there is a great deal of scientific interest in the potential psychological effects of aromas, and the Fragrance Research Foundation in New York has in recent years coined the term “aromachology” to describe the study and use of natural or synthetic odors in this field. The current commercial trend is also moving toward a rapid increase in the utilization of fragrance as a marketing agent. For example, in a trial test using fragranced shoes, it was shown that customers were attracted to the scented items in preference to nonscented items—even if they did not know why.
For exactly the same reasons that scent can sell shoes, fragrance can also be used as a very powerful therapeutic tool, especially for psychological or psychosomatic complaints. Fragrance has been found to be an ideal candidate for use in relaxation work, because it directly targets the inner mind, and bypasses any critical interference by the verbal, conscious mind. The word “osmotherapy” has been suggested specifically to describe the utilization of scents, both natural and artificial, for therapeutic purposes.7
This approach, however, is quite distinct from psycho-aromatherapy, in that the latter employs only natural fragrances derived from botanical sources, and also combines inhalation with other methods of treatment. In aromatherapy, therapeutic massage forms a large part of the individual’s treatment. Aromatherapy massage is particularly beneficial because it combines inhalation with the healing effects of touch. Aromatic bathing also harmonizes scent with relaxation, as well as promoting absorption of the essential oils through the skin.
Thus, the practice of psycho-aromatherapy, while concentrating on the power of smell, actually embraces a variety of methods and techniques. In this respect it is a truly psychosomatic type of treatment for it operates on the body, mind, and emotions.
GERANIUM
LAVENDER
Scent and stress
The sense of smell is intimately connected with, and influences the functioning of, the central nervous system. Moreover, many illnesses could be said to be rooted in the mind—in a person’s negative outlook or underlying fears. It is well known that mental states such as anxiety, irritation, or anger cause physical changes in the body, including an increase in heart rate, and change in breathing pattern and muscle tone. Stress and mental unrest, which are thought to be at the root of so much of our 20th-century “disease,” eventually produce a degenerative effect on the entire organism.
There is also a reciprocal relationship between stress and scent, in that certain smells, especially those with pheromonal potential (the potential to influence others of their species), can cause stress reactions and vice versa. Animals are particularly sensitive to this phenomenon, but the smell of fear or the smell of disease can sometimes be picked up by humans with a trained nose. Happiness and good health have their characteristic scents, too.
A person’s subconscious attitudes are related to the limbic system, the most primitive part of the brain concerned with basic emotions and mood. Since the body and mind are intrinsically related, a change in the mental or psychological disposition of an individual can have dramatic results on the person’s physical health. And, since the limbic system is especially susceptible to the effects of fragrance, it is possible to heighten or influence a person’s underlying dispositions and attitudes by subjecting him or her to certain scents.
Scents rapidly affect our mood and emotions via the brain.