Aromatherapy is the art and science of altering the chemistry of the brain via inhalation or absorption of essential oils. Essential oils are primarily derived by distilling various parts of plants to release the plant’s essence as a vapor that then cools and condenses. This essence is then collected and bottled and distributed as essential oil.

Plants naturally release their essence whenever they are wounded or threatened, such as the threat of fire, as the essence is the plant’s own natural immune provision to cope or heal from the effects of damage or stress. Essential oil in a plant is akin to blood in a human. All of the plant’s vital resources are contained in the essence.

Although termed essential oil, and despite its heavy, concentrated aroma, appearance and texture, it is wholly absorbed into the human body due to its molecular size and chemical composition, unlike conventional oil products.

It is the only known substance to date that can pass the blood-brain barrier due to the microscopic size of the molecules that condense from distillation. As a result, its impact is immediate as the tiny molecules of essence travel up the nose and into the brain, into the amygdala gland. It is now known that the amygdala gland is the seat of trauma in the brain, and can only be reached through aroma. As a hypnotherapist utilizing aromatics, your client has access to his or her traumatic memories and a means of safely processing those traumas.

Our sense of smell is ten thousand times more sensitive than our sense of taste. Our olfactory system may even contain more receptor cells than our eyes. Of all the five senses, the sense of smell has the most direct and expedient connection to the brain. For this reason, memory is most easily stimulated by smell. Aroma works well as a catalyst for revivification of age and past life regression. Hypnotically induced accelerated learning programs are also well served by the adjunct of aromatherapy.

The molecules that release from the plant material as a vapor during the distillation process are micro-fine in size. This is the key. In the same way that fragrant molecules vaporize into the air from a rose and travel up your nose, the molecules of essential oil travel up through your nose and enter the nerve fibers in the cilia hairs. Aroma molecules have a very specific destination. For every aroma an individual can perceive, there is a particular receptor cell on a cilia. Eight cilia hairs make a bundle. A bundle extends from each olfactory nerve cell. The human nose has about ten million olfactory nerve cells, all of which make up the olfactory epithelium.

The epithelium covers the olfactory bulb. As the cilia hairs receive aroma molecules, they are transferred to the olfactory bulb via electric impulses. The olfactory bulb transfers those impulses on to the amygdala. This is the gland in the limbic system where trauma is held. It is also the gland that can release trauma. The limbic system is also involved in hypnotherapy, as well as automatic functioning, such as breathing, heart beat, blood pressure, stress, hormones, and memory.