Essential Oils

The use of essential oils in health and beauty goes back thousands of years. Essential oils are considered the life blood of plants. They are made from extracting, often with steam, unique constituents from roots, leaves, flowers, seeds, or stems of a plant. They can be used neat or diluted to help the body heal, flourish in health, and achieve altered states of mind-body-spirit. Anointing the body with these sacred oils is illustrated poignantly in the biblical reference of Mary Magdalene applying spikenard oil to the feet of Jesus of Nazareth, peace and blessings be upon him.

What is Raindrop Therapy? Does it involve being outside in a thunder storm, or is it a state of nirvana achieved by dancing with Gene Kelly’s ghost?

Raindrop Therapy is a healing modality utilizing essential oils to effectively treat the spine and corresponding regions of the body for a multitude of conditions. One need not be ill to benefit, but it is a potent method for addressing varying spinal misalignments (e.g., kyphosis and scoliosis) thought to be caused in part by microorganisms. But before delving in further about this healing method, it is important to discuss plants and their role in our daily lives.

It seems evident that the healthiest way to eat for ourselves, our children, and our planet, is a plant-based diet. This does not necessarily mean an exclusively vegetarian diet; we need to be conscious of what our body is needing to be in optimum health, and this can change throughout our lives and circumstances. Please be in the mercy with this rather than accommodating trends. When mainly raw, and some cooked, vegetables and fruits form the foundation of our meals and snacks, we get more complete nutrition and detoxification from our food. Then, like Hippocrates advocated, our medicine is food, and our food is medicine. The law of signatures doctrine suggests that foods look like the body part they effect. It is interesting how many fruits and vegetables mimic in crude and beautiful form, the reproductive organs. Perhaps Nature is telling us, subtly or not, that the keys to our healthy propagation of the species lie in eating lots of fruits and vegetables.

Raindrop Therapy draws from many traditions. This therapy was formalized by naturopath Gary Young, as a way to support and heal the body. He studied with a Lakota elder, while staying on their tribal lands in South Dakota, and learned about the history of the Lakota traveling to see the Aurora Borealis as a means to bring about healing. Apparently, after the Lakota were no longer allowed to cross into Canada, they used visualization to imagine the lights coming into their spine and feathering throughout their spine and back to effectively bring about healing. This feathering is mimicked in the application of some of the oils along the spine. The essential oils are applied undiluted (aka, neat) in following the aromatherapy model of France, which is the most studied and utilized style of essential oil application in the world.

The effects of Raindrop Therapy can be quite profound. A client of mine with Cerebral Palsy had tried every alternative treatment he could find to improve his condition, and had the most long-lasting success with Raindrop Therapy. People with Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Lyme’s disease, or with deeply held emotional patterns, low back pain, or musculoskeletal imbalances, to name but a few, may benefit deeply from this treatment. The spine is the focus of the treatment, but remember, the spine houses the spinal cord which innervates the organs and the muscles via the spinal nerves. This treatment is gentle, but the oils penetrate deeply into the body, and deeply into the brain via the olfactory nerve. The olfactory nerve connects us to our most primal and ancient brain (the amygdala), and can deeply impact our emotions. Raindrop Therapy is offered as a great way to balance immunity and release tension, whether it be physical, mental, or emotional. This therapy can be tailored to specific issues.