However, I recently learned from a very intuitive healer that essential oils should not be inhaled. She noticed that clients using diffusers had an "off energy" in their lungs. Why? For those who aren't so intuitively-inclined, a more biological answer below:
Our lungs are coated in a surfactant. This liquid is composed of various proteins and lipids that help bridge the gap between the air and our water-based body. Our bodies are made to breathe pure air, and the surfactant helps in this, decreasing the surface tension, and allowing us to breathe.
Essential oils are organic plant-derived chemicals. By "organic" I mean a carbon-based compound; these essential oils are non-polar organic compounds, ie. fat-soluble.
There is a chemistry rule: "likes dissolves like" - so fat compounds will dissolve in fats but not polar solvents like water. Water will dissolve in polar solvents, but not fats. Essentially, fats/oils and water do not mix.
While they by be useful in other applications, inhalation of these oils on a regular basis isn't recommended. Breathing in fat-soluble oils is not what our lungs are made for: the oil doesn't mix with our water-based body!
For great smelling spaces, think water-soluble diffusions: try simmer citrus in water (stovetop potpourri) or burn beeswax candles, incense etc.
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