Frequency and Its Importance to an Essential Oil's Therapeutic Action

The same is true of essential oils.

Oil Frequency: A key to the effectiveness of aromatherapy

Over the years, some misconceptions about essential oil frequency have been perpetuated.  I’ve been guilty of this myself.  But, contrary to what many people are saying about the frequency of essential oils, it would be better to think of it harmonically, rather than as a specific measurable rate of electrical energy flow that is constant between two points.

“Specific oils have many frequencies,” writes Dr David Stewart, in his book The Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Simple: God’s Love Manifest in Molecules.  “When we say that an oil has ‘a frequency,’ what we are referring to is the ‘fundamental harmonic‘ of that oil.”

Take, for example, a guitar string.  When it is plucked, it rings at a specific pitch.  That is its “fundamental harmonic”, which has a specific frequency, measured in Hz (vibrations or cycles per second).  However, if you listen, you can hear many other tones above this fundamental harmonic, each with their own frequency.  These are called harmonics or overtones.  And, like a guitar string, oils, vegetables, herbs, animals and people all have their own frequencies.  Within the human body, each organ system also has its own frequency.

But, how does this apply to frequencies of essential oils and their support of your health and wellness?

Let’s look at the guitar again.  A guitar string, stretched tightly between two points and plucked would still have its fundamental harmonic and overtones; but it would still sound pretty flat.  The reason is that it would lack resonance.  But, when that guitar string is put on a guitar and plucked, it creates a marvelous sound — at least, it has the potential to.  On a good guitar, when a string is plucked,

• it rings with its fundamental harmonic,
• it resonates with the wood of the guitar, and
• it unleashes all the harmonics and overtones of that string, the guitar and all the other strings of the guitar, to create a full-bodied sound, unique to that guitar.

With a good guitar with good strings, the guitar will actually feel alive in your hands.  It’s a truly amazing sensation.

Essential oils work in the body in much the same way.  The different organs and tissues of your body each have their own frequencies, and each essential oil has its unique spectrum of harmonics (called “timbre”).  When an oil is applied to the body, its molecules will resonate with the different organs and tissues of the body, according to their unique spectrum of harmonics, transferring their energies there, while having little or no effect elsewhere.  That is why some oils are supportive of muscles, others ofnerves or bones, some of the mind or emotions.

“Aromatic oils,” writes Dr Stewart, “transfer their [benefits] to the various aspects of our being according to the music in their molecules — composed by God, himself.”

Therapeutic effects of the frequency of essential oils

The frequencies of essential oils can have a powerful supportive effect in another important way.  When the body is out of balance, it no longer emits its healthy frequencies.  Instead of having harmonic balance, it’s “out of tune”, in a state of dissonance.  But, when put into contact again with proper frequencies, through the use of essential oils, the vibrational energy transfer restores the system to harmonic balance and wellness.

However, for this harmonic balance to be restored, the essential oils must produce coherent frequencies that are naturally tuned to the body.  For this, the oil must be truly therapeutic-grade.  If the chemical profile of the oil is incomplete or adulterated in any way, it won’t have that harmonic “ring”.  It’s like a guitar that is out of tune or has old strings (which have lost their harmonic tone).  Or worse: It’s like a bad guitar that no amount of tuning or the best of stings can help.  It feels dead in your hands.

Unfortunately, most essential oils produced in the world today lack that harmonic balance.  Instead, they create dissonance, because of their incomplete chemical profiles or adulterations.  Even some that are sold as therapeutic-grade essential oils lack significant therapeutic properties and/or are contaminated with toxic chemicals.  That’s why, today, I use only dōTERRA^® essential oils.

The quality of your essential oils is everything in aromatherapy

As you can see, when considering which essential oils to purchase and use, besides the properties of fragrance and chemical integrity, oil frequency is of vital importance.  The problem is: Most essential oils produced in the world today simply are not kinetically “alive” enough to vibrate at the frequencies that will effectively support body systems, restoring balance and normal function.

Why is this?

The reason is simple: About 98% of the essential oils produced world-wide are produced for the cosmetic/perfume or food flavoring industries.  In these industries, the therapeutic effect of the oil is not a consideration; and so, the oils are produced in a manner is that is totally unsuited for oils to be ues in aromatherapy.  Producers start with plant material that:

• may not have been grown under the best conditions, or with the best — organic — methods,
• may not have been harvested at the ideal time, to insure the optimal content of key chemical constituents, or
• may not have been harvested on-site of the distillers.

Furthermore, producers generally use distillation methods that, while efficient and produce oils that are acceptable for the cosmetic/perfume or food flavoring industries, result in an oil that should not be used for aromatherapy.  For example, they may:

• take short-cuts in their production methods, such as distilling the oils under too much pressure and at too high a temperature.  This fractures the oil’s delicate molecular structure, resulting is an inferior oil;
• re-distill the same plant material several times, which results in a decreasing quality of oil at each distillation;
• inject chemicals into the water used for distillation which, while increasing the oil yield, results in an oil that is chemically contaminated;
• have synthetic chemicals added, either to improve the fragrance of the oil (needed because of other poor practices) or extend the oil to increase the overall yield.

As a result, these oils are effectively rendered inert — dead.  Since the frequency of the oil — or, its kinetic vibration — plays such a key role in its effectiveness as a therapeutic agent, it’s of vital importance to always choose oils that were produced for aromatherapy purposes.

Chaos to order: Not all frequency is the same

However, frequency, per se, is not the issue.  Your TV and microwave have that.  The important factor is that, unlike your microwave, which has a chaotic movement of ions, essential oils have a harmonious frequency.  The chaotic frequencies of your microwave have a disruptive effect on your body’s systems.  (I might add here that, essential oils that have been adulterated with synthetic chemicals have much the same effect on the body.)  By contrast — and this is a very important contrast — therapeutic-grade essential oils help to restore and maintain your body’s equilibrium.

What is frequency, and how does it impact your health?

Frequency, as noted above, is generally defined as a measurable rate of electrical energy flow that is constant between any two points.  Everything has electrical frequency, including essential oils; and Dr. Robert O. Becker, in his book The Body Electric, establishes that the human body has an electrical frequency, and that much about a person’s health can be determined by its frequency levels.

While this may be true, I believe that it is much more helpful to think of essential oil frequency according to the harmonic description above.  Much has been made of the electrical energy flow idea of essential oil frequency, that this oil has so-and-so many Hz of frequency, and time is spent trying to figure out which oil to use, based on its electrical impact on the body.  I feel that this is a mistake, because:

1. The idea of specific frequencies of the body or oils (as noted in the study below) has some problems.  The study results have not been duplicable, which raises questions about their veracity, and
2. The emphasis should be on balance and chemistry.  It should be enough to know that the oils have frequency, without trying to over-analyze that point.