Ready to be Ex-Communicated From the Oils World

It's been awhile since I wrote a blog entry here. I've been wrestling with myself, my science background, my understanding of pathophysiology and disease processes. The skeptic in me has won out for the past months, and although I keep getting my monthly shipments of oils from The Company, the orders have been getting smaller. As the next month's order comes due to be shipped, I can think of nothing I actually want. This post is overtly negative, overtly critical, and overtly thought-provoking. If challenges to the use of oils, and to your particular brand are offensive to you, stop reading now. If you can stand the scrutiny of a critical thinker, read on.

I have been thinking of the almost-religious zeal with which some oilers profess complete alliance to The Company, and I began to wonder if, because they are themselves spending hundreds of dollars a month on the products, and because their own financial gain from the business side of selling oils is at risk if their product was only so-so, have they come to believe their own talking points as holy doctrine? Is it possible, that if The Company packaged their product in a generic-labeled vial, sold it at Walmart, and asked for no multi-level marketing buy-in, would the users have as stunning of success stories? How much of the use of these oils is because the oils work, and how much is because The Company has a brilliant marketing scheme with millions of devotees?

I ordered The Company's #1 selling product, the combo-vitamin/supplement trio. It's a lot of pills, and its pricy. But, if it did what everyone says it does in terms of boosting energy and increasing overall feelings of wellness, it might be worth it. The man and I began with half the daily recommended dose. After three weeks, nothing. I was ok with feeling nothing after one week, even two weeks, but after three weeks??? Disappointment. I quit. If I had bought a product at Walmart that failed to deliver on its promises after three weeks, I would toss it, as would most people, and admit that I'd been suckered by a slick advertisement. I'm sure some will say I didn't give it enough time, or should have taken the full 12-pills-a-day dose. Maybe they are right. Or maybe I just saved myself almost $900/year on placebos.

The other thing that feeds my skepticism is reading the posts on the social media sites from fellow oilers. Once in awhile, someone will post about side effects they are having from using an oil, or lack of achieving the intended benefit from using them. The respondents always have the same answer. The oil isn't the problem, YOU are. YOU are toxic. You are having negative effects because the oils are ridding you of the bad things in your body, and its manifesting in rashes, or headaches, or breathing difficulties, or whatever is happening to the oiler. Or, the respondent will tell them they are sensitive to that particular oil, and they should try something else. The nurse in me says, if I take XYZ blend, and my hair starts falling out, and I quit using XYZ blend and my hair stops falling out, maybe I wasn't the problem and maybe the XYZ blend was.Also, the concept among oilers that so many ailments we suffer can be chalked up to having raging Candida infections is categorically, scientifically FALSE, yet even the medically trained oilers among us will testify that this is TRUE, and push products that will fix this "overgrowth of yeast." The point at which cult-like devotion to medically unsound concepts trumps evidence-based, provable, re-creatable science is the point at which I have to check out.

So where does these leave me in my journey with essential oils? I don't know. I may do some experimenting. If a bottle of $30+ with shipping oregano can burn off a skin tag, maybe I will buy the $8 bottle of oregano from the health store and see if it too can effectively treat another skin tag. I know some of you just gasped in horror. The hospital system for which I work does NOT use The Company's products. In fact our clinic pharmacy sells what they do use for about $8/bottle, and the patients are benefitting.  I am not sure if my skepticism is more heavily questioning the concept of oils in healing, or about The Company's multi-level marketing dogma that is making some people at the top extraordinarily wealthy, while the thoroughly brain-washed, average Joe is shelling out double digits for it spuriously effective product.

If I need to be ex-communicated now for having raised these issues, I understand. It is, no doubt, heresy to some. I also invite considerate feedback in the comments section here, if someone wishes to point out flaws in my thinking. I am eager to keep learning. I love a good debate. I am not here to antagonize, or to ridicule, or to tell others what to believe, or to convince anyone what they should and shouldn't spend their money on, but to provoke thought. If you are also, let's hear it!