Orchids, Dolphins Can Heal

By LAUREN WOLKOFF
Tico Times Staff

As a little boy growing up in the tiny town of Singen, Germany, Andreas Korte learned quickly that not everyone shared interest in flowers. So he began to communicate silently with the plants, developing a connection with nature over the years that has since taken him around the world - often into the most remote corners - on research expeditions and lecture circuits.



On his first trip to Central America, Korte arrived in Costa Rica to lead a seminar on his lifelong fascination with the curative properties of orchids, and to discuss the more recent discoveries about the positive effects of dolphin and whalte vibrations.

While the topics may sound unrelated and even mystifying, Korte assures that anybody can lern to "feel the subtle energy" that abounds in plant life and the creatures of the the sea. "All it takes is to go out in nature, find a flower and hold your hands around it to feel its energy. It´s another dimension, but it´s all there," he said.

This tall, blon German does not fit the image of a "tree hugger", nor is he just your average New Age healer. The world-renowned botanist, a consummate professional and academic, has led the way in his field through his research with Amazon plants. Picking up on the tradition of researchers such as Dr. Edward Bach - an Englishman who broke ground 60 years ago with this research in on the healing properties of flowers - Korte traveled to Colombia in 1989 to study that country´s wide variety of orchids.

A little-known fact about orchids, he said, is that they do not have a direct connection with the earth; instead, their roots ahere to tree branches. Reaching a height of between 25-35 meters, these plants take their nutrients from air, moisture and light, not from trees, Korte notes. Considering orchids to be the purest and most highly evolved form of vegetation, Korte said they act on a "higher informational level" and therefore can be used to bring balance to those feeling emotionally or spiritually depleted or blocked, as well as to those who have suffered a traumatic shock.

Essences are not to be used in place of biochemical medicines that the body may require, Korte cautions, but are employed to help release dissonant energy patterns that couse any number of disorders. In accordance with his philosophy, cutting orchids in order to use their energy for healing is forbidden, because "that would be like cutting a person", he said. Instead, he uses crystals to transmit the subtle vibrations of the flower directly into water, which acts as a liquid energy conductor.

The resulting "essence" is then bottled, along with a splash of cognac for preservation purposes. The essences can be used in a variety of ways in our perpetual struggle to recover our physical, spiritual and emotional harmony. Depending on what ails you - and according to Korte, this is a very individual and subtle science - you can drink the essence, wear it in a glass pendant necklace, use it in a creme form or add it to to the bath water.

Over the years, this growing field of floral therapy has produced hundreds of essences, carving out a market in countries such as Poland, Russia, Hungary, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Japan. In 1991, researchers revolutionized the field of essence therapy by beginning to work with animals, namely dolphins and whales. Dolphins, which Korte calls the "ambassadors for the whole animal kingdom", emit vibrations that can reach frequencies up to 15,000 hz and the effect can be both harmonizing and purifying.

Dolphin essence - typically worn in a pendant around the neck so it falls over the heart chakra or energy center - is thought to activate positive energy, both in those who wear it as well as in those who are close to it. It also used in therapy with autistic children. Whale essences is thought to have similar effects, only stronger, and is used to reconnect people to the earth and to their spirits. "They want us to come back into balance again with nature. Animals are in perfect harmony, and they are trying to transmit that special message to us"