Imaginative Consciousness: Developing “Pure Relation” With Essential Oils
17 Nov, 2024
Hello Everyone,
Philosopher J.N. Findlay in The Transcendence of the Cave remarks: “The other world [i.e., spiritual world] is, in fact, not so much another world as another half of one world, which two halves only make full, rounded sense when seen in their mutual relevance and interconnection.”
Phytoessences (plant essential oils) exert emotional and physical effects via the perception of their respective scents. The olfactory nerves: nerves related to the sense of smell are directly connected to cerebral centers, including the hypothalamus: a crucial portion of the brain stem. Phytoessences contain very active biochemical components, including hormone precursors, which can be utilized by the organism’s physical plane. The hypothalamus plays a pivotal role both in maintaining physiological homeostasis and by serving as the link between the autonomic nervous and endocrine (hormonal) systems.
In this regard, Spiritual PhytoEssencing places great emphasis upon the use of “imaginative consciousness” which enables one to go beyond analysis of the physical properties of a given essential oil via a complementary perception of the spiritual roots from which these physical properties arise. While these spiritual roots are beyond the reach of the senses and rational consciousness, they nevertheless are the source of the material nature of an essential oil.
In I and Thou, the great philosopher Martin Buber discusses the I-Thou relationship between human- and plant-soul: “The living wholeness and unity of a tree that denies itself to the eye of anyone who merely investigates, is manifest to those who say Thou, is present when they are present: they grant the tree the opportunity to manifest it [soul-level consciousness] , and now the tree that has being manifests it.”
Buber’s central point is that one encounters spirit only through a meeting of souls (including a meeting between a human soul and a plant soul) at a “between” space. This “I-Thou” (or “I-You”) meeting (one’s true Self engaging with another’s true Self) engenders the development of pure relation characterized by reciprocal soul-level acknowledgment. In contrast, the more common and generally superficial “I-It” experience is characterized by lack of soul-to-soul acknowledgement, thus using and experiencing rather than knowing and caring.
When I was a young man, I spent a great deal of time traveling about the United States and camping in state and national forests. I can clearly recall hiking through forests on warm, summer afternoons when only the hum and buzz of flying insects and the occasional rustle of deciduous leaves in the breeze echoed in the cathedral silence. At those times I was completely aware of a presence that, as Buber states it, “flashes towards us from that which has being.” I could tangibly perceive that the trees, wildflowers, ferns, etc. were all ensouled and had being. Accordingly, it is natural for my I (the true Self embedded within the higher soul) to feel and acknowledge the “You” of an essential oil and engage with it in a reciprocal soul-to-soul meeting.
Identifying the Unique Soul-Nature of Each Oil
Every living cell must be animated by a vital force, or “ensouled,” and it is this incarnation of higher forces into living tissue that lends each organism its tangible expression. Hence, when using essential oils for psycho-spiritual work, all of the physical features, clinical properties and historical associations, etc. of the plant can be used to develop an understanding of its spiritual roots.
This process of elaboration involves the interweaving of information regarding plant characteristics, habitat, historical and folkloric associations and therapeutic action with a diverse variety of synchronicities.
Plants are alive and all living things are ensouled. Just like each of our souls is unique and has certain individualized specificities and tangible qualities, so do plant souls. The specific mix of archetypal qualities which are encoded into each soul gives rise to the various characteristics and behavioral modes we manifest in our lives.
Similarly, a plant’s biochemistry, form, growth characteristics, therapeutic properties and folkloric associations are reflections or images of its soul’s constituent pattern of archetypal qualities. Dr. Berkowsky demonstrates how he uses these archetypal images to identify the unique nature of an essential oil’s natural expression of being or its “true self.”
If essential oils are blended together with an understanding of the true self of each oil, the oils in the blend will merge and form a unique soul entity which is more powerfully charged with soul force than the sum of its parts.
When diverse soul energies are synchronized in this way, the integrated soul force demonstrates what is referred to as emergent behavior (complex patterns arising out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions).
In turn, this emergent behavior of the blended oils can be used to catalyze emergent behavior within the precincts of the human soul that is directed toward harmonization and the elaboration of that person’s true self.
The greater the number of essential oils one understands on this level, the more dynamic the potential for creating blends which will touch the soul on deeper and deeper levels and provide the illumination to lead it from inertial stuckness and fragmentation to wholeness and soul-to-soul relation with all elements of the natural world.
If you really want to develop these rare healing skills, gain access to the inner realm of the essential oils and, in the process, move forward to full presence of being, I suggest you take advantage of the NHSS/SPE Membership Program to do so in the comfort of your own home.
The program also offers my Natural Health Science System (NHSS). The NHSS consists of a synthesis of all the components of my practice and my lifestyle over the course of 45 years. Although retired now from naturopathic practice, the following components still serve as the paving stones for the pathway of my daily existence:
the basic principles of healthful, all-natural diet,
strategic nutritional supplementation,
herbal medicine,
cell salts, homeopathy,
Vital-Chi Skin-Brushing,
hydrotherapies, healthful sunbathing,
stretching exercises, chi kung (qigong) exercise, deep breathing exercises,
acupoint therapy
and other forms of self-directed therapeutic bodywork.
My basic premise in teaching the NHSS has always been that each person should have the knowledge and skills to preserve good health and to be a skillful healer within one’s own home.
I need to emphasize that this program is not designed exclusively for professional practitioners of the healing arts. For the last 35 years, my goal has always been to provide guidance regarding the basics of self-healing on both physical and psycho-spiritual levels. I feel this is a crucial factor in taking control of one’s life. Even if you only use the knowledge and skills you will learn in my classes for self-healing or helping your friends and family, you are just as important to me as a teacher as a student who uses those skills effectively in a professional practice.
I hope you find our content beneficial in your journey toward wholeness of being. As always, please feel free to write to me if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you!
With gratitude, Bruce
The Trauma of Birth, Separation Anxiety and Essential Oils: Part I
Learn how focal points and intricacies in the practice of Spiritual PhytoEssencing can enable via the use of customized essential oil blends, to help an individual’s soul overcome the various degrees of separation, the kernels of unhappiness and disorientation, embedded in human existence.
Vital Chi Skin Brushing can sustain or reestablish the skin’s functional integrity and youthful glow. The skin is as major an organ as the heart, lungs and kidneys. Its primary functions include: respiration, excretion, blood and lymph circulation, immunity and the conduction of vital chi. However, unlike other vital organs, the skin can be non-invasively accessed and mediate systemic rejuvenation by a variety of therapeutic techniques, including proper Skin Brushing. Vital Chi Skin Brushing is a particularly powerful therapy which can positively impact the entire body.
The program is available as an eBook/PDF and video. The book and video are available as a set with an optional addition of the ImmunEssence™ Blend.
High-Intensity Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy Webinar
The focus of the webinar is the home use of a high-intensity PEMF machine from PEMF-devices.com. This device has tremendous healing potential. Over the course of a few months, I have developed some very unique, easy-to-do protocols wherein I have adapted certain aspects of healing systems such as the Chakra System, early 20th century chiropractic and osteopathy, Chapman's Neuro-Lymphatic Reflexes, Tom Tam Healing System, Dr. Richard Tan's Balance Method, Dr. Reinhardt Voll's electroacupuncture, etc. to this PEMF therapy device.
The webinar and supporting protocol book can be downloaded for free by members of NHSS/SPE program (see below).
20% discount on Dr. Berkowsky’s SPE Gemstone Essence Collection essences (52 essences sold individually or in sets). These potent gemstone essences are for members and professional practitioners only.
DISCLAIMER: All content is intended as an educational tool, and not as a prescription. Readers are advised to seek the advice of their healthcare providers before discontinuing any medication and/or trying any new remedy or technique.
Dr. Bruce Berkowsky is the founder/teacher of the Natural Health Science System™ which he has developed over the course of his 40+ years of research and private practice, and includes: traditional naturopathy (N.M.D., MRN, CTN); herbology (M.H.); nutrition (Ph.D.); homeopathy (DHM, H.M.C.); massage and bodywork (NCTMB); aromatherapy (cert.); constitutional iridology (cert.) as well as East/West healing arts/exercises/bodywork.
Dr. Berkowsky, a registered naturopath, master herbalist and classical homeopath, is the founder/teacher of Spiritual PhytoEssencing and the Natural Health Science System which he designed following many years of research and clinical practice.
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