Aromatherapy, Aroma, and Perfume

While "Aromatherapy" is a modern term, there have been efforts to back trace its roots to traditional Chinese medicine and perhaps even aboriginal healing arts. Today's Aromatherapists generally maintain that Aromatherapy is about using essential oils for therapeutic effect and sometimes cross the line into naturopathy by suggesting that the healing power is in the oil itself (or the interaction of oil and human body) rather than in the aroma of the oil.

Laying aside the technical disagreements among Aromatherapists as to which practices are "genuine" and which step outside the bounds of "true" Aromatherapy, I think it is pretty obvious that AROMA can have a mood changing, therapeutic effect but if this effect is due to the power of the aroma, it makes no sense to me to think that therapeutic effects can only be achieved through the use of essential oils or so-called "all natural" materials.

I often find myself spraying or dipping a test blotter with a perfume I have created, sometimes even a commercial perfume I have purchased, and placing it in a holder in front of me on my desk. Why? For harmony and tranquility. To make me feel better while I am working. To "elevate" my mood. And this is clearly a therapeutic effect -- aroma plus therapy. From perfume.

Perhaps my love of perfume is based on the same principles as those of the Aromatherapist, although clearly we accomplish our goals through differing methods. I tend to go for "whatever works" rather than "this is how we must do it."

Funny thing. I think my approach to aroma therapy (separate words) is closer to that of the ancient healers of China. I suspect that the BEST of them were not so rigid about following rules and formulas but instead made great use of their insight into the full range of methods and materials in the world around them to heal -- and, for the best of them, this personal knowledge of materials and methods probably died with them leaving only the rules and formulas to future generations.

Aroma is a powerful communications tool that can bring our spirits into harmony or set them in disarray. Aroma can draw others to us, or repel. But the power is in the aroma itself, no matter how it has been achieved.