Philosophy of Perfume (part four): Healing emotions

Perfumetherapy, healing emotions

Twenty-five years ago Robert Tisserand expounded the fruits of his research on how our sense of smell could be triggered to activate the release of neurochemical hormones (neurohormones). These substances include serotonin, adrenalin, oxytocin and endorphins, and they govern our physical functions such as respiration, heart beat rate and blood pressure.

They also play a part in producing basic emotions such as fear, hunger, sexual desire, euphoria. In fact, we believe that all emotions are produced by the production of neurohormones. Some of them also influence cognitive function. Tisserand called this field of research Psycho aromatherapy. He affirmed that specific types of molecules in essential oils and specific essences act predictably on all human beings by activating one or several hormone producing glands of the endocrine system

This was the starting point of my understanding the mechanism by which smells awaken emotions, and how olfactory memories were working.

The olfactory memories are custodied within our central nervous system and they are but a memory code that activates the different endocrine glands into pouring in our blood stream a cocktail of neurochemicals that will reproduce the emotions.

In the same way as a musician could write an infinity of melodies with just a few notes, our endocrine system with six major endocrine glands and neurochemicals can play an infinite variety of emotions.

The perfumer in his turn is playing the endocrine system of people. Each essence of his perfume is potentially awaking a complex set of emotion. In this sense, more than a musician, a natural perfumer is like a deejay playing with different songs instead of different notes. Every essence is the song of a living being.

The scents of nature are the root of our olfactory memories; every perfume made with them makes us experience an intricate blend of complex emotions.

Exactly like a writer who writes a novel with words having deep meanings, the perfumer writes stories with scents whose meanings are deeply rooted emotions.

In this sense, the perfume is a story that is understood by the unconscious part of our being, the emotional part, but is this part not our soul?

Would you say that a perfume that is able to make you feel joyous when you were sad or depressed is not a medicine? The perfume that does this is triggering in us an emotion that has cured our downheartedness, a healing emotion. Such smells are often associated with our light hearted cheerful period of childhood.

The smells that compose the perfume will activate our emotions in 2 ways,

1- The direct way of psycho-aromatherapy on the central nervous system.
You will like the smells that trigger in you the endocrine glands that need to be activated. The perfume will practically put in function your personal pharmaceutical laboratory into producing your own personal medicines.

2- The complex way of olfactory memories, your own personal memories and the ones inherited congenitally.
You will like the smells that have been associated with positive experiences, by you personally or by humanity at large.

When I discovered this, I called the new field of research and its applications by the name “Perfumetherapy“.

Perfumetherapy can be explained with a very simple concept: “Your nose is your doctor”, and it naturally integrates into the medicine of Hippocrates who taught: “Vix medicatrix naturae”, which mean: “Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease”, or “the vital force is the medicine”

The fields of application of perfumetherapy so far are: homeopathic medicine, psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy, psychoneuroendocrinology and psychosomatics.

Returning to perfumery, a perfume is a sophisticated story narrated in the language of odours. A perfumer is not one who mixes scents together at random, he is the one who writes a coherent story that speaks to our soul with a clear meaning.

The more a fragrance will touch your soul personally, soothing it, consoling it, rejoicing it, teaching it and healing it, the more you will love and use it. The more you will use it, the more it will be associated with experiences of healing emotions, until it becomes enough to bring you full healing.

AbdesSalaam Attar

Philosophy of Perfume (part 1): Bases for a revolution

Philosophy of perfume (part 2): The language of scents

Philosophy of perfume (part 3): Healing molecules

Philosophy of Perfume (part four): Healing emotions

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See the scents of PERFUMETHERAPY