The reason for disease lies in the host, not in the germ

When somebody speaks about a disease, for example having “caught a cold” or having been contaminated with a virus or a bacteria, we often may ask ourselves: Who and where is the actual originator of this? Is it true that we are only victims of a disease, innocent victims, I mean, and that disease is just a bad curse, a kind of an undeserved blow of destiny…..?

Well, thinking deeper, everybody agrees that disease simply cannot be understood as something created only by outside agents. It is above all a process linked to our inner worlds. What did the ancient say: Healthy mind – healthy body…..How could it otherwise be that some people are resistant and some are not resistant to the same pathogens?

We can also say: A healthy organism is in balance with all its inner and outer aspects – it is tuned in to a world which is made of an “inside-outside” fluctuating but stable connectedness. A diseased organism often has lost this connection giving rise to dissonance between spirit, mind, body, and its environment.

But more radically we can also say: The main reason of all attack through disease lies in the one who is attacked, not in the attacker. Or, speaking of viruses, bacteria etc: The reason for disease lies in the host, not in the germ. Louis Pasteur expressed it like this on his death-bed:

“Bernard was right. The germ is nothing. The terrain is everything.”

The challenge of change

Another important aspect is the fact that far more than any other specie on Earth we as human beings are constantly challenged by the element of change. Disease can be understood as a crisis of evolution, where new decisions have to be made for progress. It is a warning signal and a chance at the same time. The right answer to this signal decides about our potential for healing.

Rudolf Steiner puts it like this:

“The human condition is to step from one stage of equilibrium to the next. The disrupture of this balance is always at the cost of certain elements for the sake of other elements. Some decrease, others increase and develop beyond measure. Being out of balance the individual looses his link with the universal forces.”

It is always the same: The outer world either imposes itself too much or too little. Thus the outer “damages” add to the loss of internal balance. A bacterial infection or the like are only secondary “accidents”, symptomatic expressions of the underlying disease.”

Of course, if we understand the sudden appearance of a disease as a “crisis” (greek = decision) of our existence, then disease can be a turning point for a more healthy life. In this sense, dis-ease is kind of pre-programed in us due to the fact that we cannot avoid change: In a modern society of hectic change the problem of quick adaptability and flexibility of the human being to a constant program of change cannot but create a vast variety of change-induced health problems. But we must not forget: The “instable equilibrium” and the “breaking of symmetries” (Ilya Prigogine) of our psycho-physiolgical conditions is a must for evolution.

Access the mind

So, we have to focus on another level of understanding, namely on the “underlying dis-ease” in us in order to grasp the total context. And this context lies in consciousness first, nowhere else. Let us not forget: We have to choose carefully our feelings and thoughts as well as our environment if we do not want them to become toxic.

“Keep what brings you peace, release what brings you suffering. Know that happiness (and health) is just a thought away.” – Nathan Panwar

“The mind is everything. What we think we become.”– Buddha

Yes, it is true, our thinking is a major factor for our well-being. We can change our world, inner and outer, with a mere thought. But how can we learn to be “thoughtful”? Thinking is the biggest enemy and the most intricate, glorious benefactor in our life. Our thoughts control where we want to go – and not to go – with everything. They are the head of that fountain welling up constantly from our innermost being. Whether we allow them to participate in creating the chaos and suffering of our so called “human condition” – or its amazing beauty and harmony – is totally up to us.

So we have to learn to think – meaning: to think thoughtfully. Because nobody has taught us this before. No teacher, no parent, no friend……Because the teacher of this can only be my own inner self – there is no outer teacher to tell us how to think correctly – no religion, no book, no coach, no priest……We are actually born to learn to think ! And that was our choice !

Normally, we would say, life teaches us to think. If we are sensitive enough we are able to feel inwardly that our thoughts often are going into the wrong direction. We are even able to feel that i.e. negative thoughts – maintained for too long – bring our energy down. Yes, it is totally possible to even feel frequencies of thoughts. And we can easily feel to be obsessively encaged by our thoughts…….That is a quantum leap in collective human evolution: We are starting to feel, yes, to feel physically, whether our thoughts and emotions are in tune – in tune with us and the world around us.

But even more than that: if we want we can also use thoughts as inner “words” (sanskrit root. “vrit” = “vortex”) to let thoughts “vortically” pull us inside deep into our consciousness and experience the greatest levels of freedom humans can achieve. This is what true meditation for example means. And true meditation teaches us particularly ONE important thing: Do not believe everything you think! You are not your thoughts – as much as you are not your body!

Making thoughts our friends

Yes, thoughts can be the biggest liars, the most sneaky misguiding “friends”, the most amazing hypocrites….They literally create dis-ease every day. The “color” and “weight” of human thoughts constantly decides about the destiny of the world. The danger of thoughts is that they are so near to us. They impose themselves constantly – and this within micro-seconds. How many thoughts are humans thinking every day? Average 40,000 – 50,000. The influence of their “wave-function” is enormous. Most of them is just rubbish because we have – as I said before – not learned the ability to guide them…Again : do not believe all of them! Meditation empowers that one element which we can call the “silent witness” in us (sanskrit “sakshi”). He is the one who participates in our thinking and feelings and effortlessly guides us to correct mental and emotional mis-behavior.

Let‘s not forget: Behind the chattering noise of thoughts hides our freedom – the freedom of adjusting positive thinking with positive feeling – and the art of experiencing subtle, more powerful levels of thought – thoughts which are progressively nearer to our being in peace with ourselves! So, in a sense, we are responsible for our thoughts! With every thought we influence not only our inner world but also our environment, our partner, family, friends – everything and everybody near and far. The subtle quantum field of thinking radiates peace or war, health or disease everywhere. With our thoughts we choose our destiny…..

And again: Since we have acquired a cortical and neo-cortical brain as human beings, wisdom of the ancient reminds us of the innate possibilities of ours to dive beyond the surface level of thinking into our natural inner silence through meditation and – coming out of it – experience our thoughts and feelings with more awareness. This is what Buddha called “mind-fulness” (“sati” ) – being aware of the mental “circus”, of the the “snaps and traps” of thoughts from the level of the gap lying between thinking and being.

Reprograming our thinking with essential oils

Now, what has this to do with essential oils? Well, the incredible thing is that also odors can bring us deeper into our own inner being. Odors have a direct access to our limbic system. That’s where a lot of pre-thinking is happening. I mean : before a thought is created on the level of the neo-cortex inside the human brain it is in a way “pre-conditioned” by the older cerebral system which we share i.e. with monkeys and other animals. And since thinking – as we know very well – is such an important element in the game of being human, we have to access by all natural means that part within us which – from a deeper level – influences all the time our thinking and feeling.

Olfactive experiences or “olfacto-therapy” with essential oils have shown that we can re-program our thinking and feeling naturally and spontaneously. Smelling is the first and the oldest of our 5 senses. Smelling is the oldest “language” in the realm of life. I am convinced that every heavily addicted cigarette smoker can, if he wants, get rid of his addiction just by a simple means of creatively using various essential oils – maybe hidden in a little pouch in the other pocket of his jacket next to his cigarettes……:) Meaning: whenever he wants to grab a cigarette he grabs a Jasmine oil, or a Rose oil, or a Lavender oil or a Neroli oil…..and keeps inhaling their fragrance for 2 – 3 minutes…..Addiction is also a kind of dis-ease. So, again, what we need, is another approach. We need to introduce an element which helps us change the surface level of our human condition.

Fragrances DO have that. They can lead us very deep.

We should not forget : On the surface level of ourselves we are pretty much conditioned human beings. On a deeper level we are pretty much “ourselves” – everybody a unique and free expression of life in all its infinite colors and beauty.

It is true: Smelling with full awareness a pure fragrance of Nature from an essential oil brings us deeper to our own nature – away from the surface level. Surface thinking is uni-lateral thinking. Mature thinking needs verticality – or better: the uni-lateral (horizontal) “self-gossip” needs vertical alignment by “talking” with our innermost being. It is amazing, but fragrances from the heart of Nature such as we find in essential oils can generate that “talk” in us, that depth in us. And this also can help us to get free from the bondage of the matrix of environmental conditioning to which we are exposed 24 hours a day. And, foremost of all, essential oils, and specifically the olfactive experience with them, often bestow exactly the energy we need to free us from negative thoughts and emotions.

“Essential Oils are frequency generators. In their capacity to serve as photonic power blocks they energize the brain and the whole body with numerous electron-rich molecules. Research has shown that each essential oil contains a certain bioelectric frequency that when inhaled travels to the secondary neurons in the olfactory bulb, which sends impulses to the limbic system and the olfactory sensory center at the base of the brain.  They then pass between the pituitary and pineal gland and move to the amygdala, which is the memory center for fear and trauma.” – Center for Alternative Medicine

To conclude

Essential oils can spontaneously reprogram the brain. The fight and flight reaction of the amygdala in the limbic system is buffered. Pain and fear are re-interpreted. Moments of ease reappear in the dis-ease of a situation.

We can truly say: Aromatherapy is a beautiful way to help us in our constant need to re-program ourselves, our mind. We can also say: to find our innermost freedom for an ever changing, very personal, very joyful, very evolutionary “program” which we define every day ourselves and which – at the same time – is inscribed in every human being by the grace of the intelligence of the Universe.

Some testimonials

“Before meditation (directly after my accident) I had put 1 drop of Jasmine sambac oil on my pulse. During meditation all of a sudden I was overwhelmed by a feeling of strong joy and love. It became so strong that I wanted to embrace and kiss the whole world. I could hardly restrain myself. This lasted for very long. At the same time a huge firework of blossoms spread all over me – the blossoms were all out of white synapses and in the gaps there were lots of ice-blue crystal spaces….” – Markus – student of Dr. Malte Hozzel

“My name is Richelle and I suffer from anxiety and stress. I have been trying to relieve my stressors and anxiety by going to counseling, exercising and many other methods. Most did help, but I noticed that I had suffered from stress and anxiety mainly when I was at work….I found my anxiety, on some days, was out of control…. I received great information about many different aromas. The one that caught my attention was Bergamot. I was very hesitant at first to try this type of therapy….I have been using the Bergamot and noticed such a difference in my mood. When I feel that I am in a stressful situation, I take some deep breaths of the Bergamot and my mood shifts to a calm feeling and my anxiety starts to disappear.

I gave the Orange Blossom to my close friend to try because she suffers from the same stress and anxiety issues that I experience. One day I forgot my jar and noticed a significant difference in my mood…let’s just say that I won’t do that again. I believe in this product. Thank you.” – Richelle – New Mexico

To leave you with this beautiful and inspiring text…

“The early memories come wrapped in heat. The beauty of something unseen fills my body and makes me glad to be alive. So it was that my first rose came to me by scent in the beginning of the hot time when the rose bushes burst into bloom. I did not see its form, not then……for something else had been awakened – a longing that would fill my heart.

Do you know that the essences of plants are like the gentle touches of an angel‘s wings? It is up to you whether or not you turn to see their beauty.

I linger with many fragrances – with clove, myrrh, frankincense, orange flower, rose – and so many others. These are my friends, and they will help you as well, if you open your heart to them.

Sometimes as I pass my hands over the many perfumes that now dwell near me, I feel the rose blooming again in the chamber of my memory.

I pray that I may never forget until the longing in my heart has finally brought me

face-to-face with the Highest……..

For you see, the hidden hand of healing that brings relief from the pains of this world comes from a world beyond. It comes as an aroma on the winds of the soul.”                                                           – David La Chapelle, Navigating the Tides of Change, p. 163-65

Dr. Malte Hozzel