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Color is introduced to us early in life. We use pastel pinks and blues in our nursery decors to welcome newborn babies into a gentle and restful atmosphere. We delight in a rainbow, sigh at a sunset, and luxuriate in the rich colors of our homes, clothes, special spaces. Our eyes gravitate towards color like moths to the light. And no surprise, really, that seeing, wearing or being exposed to color- whether in the form of light, pigment, or cloth- can affect us at levels we are only just beginning to understand.
Applying the famous Luscher's Color Test can be quite revealing. Scientists, who have studied color and light extensively, recognize that colors bring about emotional reactions to individuals Color therapy, also known as chromotherapy, is often facilitated in the healing rooms of alternative health practitioners. Color therapy is classified as a vibrational healing modality. Vibrational medicine incorporates the use of chi energies within living organisms such as plants, gemstones and crystals, water, sunlight, and sound.
A therapist trained in color therapy applies light and color in the form of tools, visualization, or verbal suggestion to balance energy in the areas of our bodies that are lacking vibrancy, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental.
Tools Used in Color Therapy
- Gemstones
- Candles / Lamps
- Crystal Wands
- Crystal and glass prisms
- Colored fabrics
- Color bath treatments
- Colored eye lenses
- Lasers
Color therapy, also known as chromo therapy, is used by alternative health practitioners who use color to balance energy wherever our bodies are lacking, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental. In your aura, there are different layers, and in each layer, there are different colors that may be used for clearing and rebalancing your energy field. An aura reading is looking at the colors found in your aura. Knowing what colors are in your aura brings you closer to your spirit. If you can consciously bring that out, you have more advantage in clearing and healing your life. It's really just another layer of knowing."
Colour healing has been long practiced and written about. Avicenna (980-1037), who viewed colour to be of vital importance in diagnosis and treatment, discussed chromotherapy in The Canon of Medicine. He wrote that "Colour is an observable symptom of disease" and also developed a chart that related colour to the temperature and physical condition of the body. His view was that red moved the blood, blue or white cooled it, and yellow reduced muscular pain and inflammation. He further discussed the properties of colours for healing and was "the first to establish that the wrong colour suggested for therapy would elicit no response in specific diseases." As an example, "he observed that a person with a nosebleed should not gaze at things of a brilliant red colour and should not be exposed to red light because this would stimulate the sanguineous humour, whereas blue would soothe it and reduce blood flow. Hence colour healing can be said to have been around for a while.
In India, people believe in the concept of chakras which are said to be the spiritual, healing centres of the body. Colour healing also relates to the chakras. A recent development in Western practices dating back to the 1940s is to associate each one of the seven chakras to a given colour and a corresponding crystal. For example, the chakra in the forehead is associated with the colour purple, so to cure a headache you would apply a purple stone to the forehead. This idea has proven highly popular and has been integrated by all but a few practitioners.
The association of colour with the chakras has helped vastly in healing and improving general health. The use of colour has been exploited also in other areas of life. Colour, associated with light and vision is supposed to have the power to soothe or aggravate as it may be. Hence, people are advised to wear colours that suit them or make them happy.
Each chakra is associated with a colour and a body system.
Sahasrara or the crown chakra is represented by violet. Ajna or the brow chakra is represented by indigo and relates to the skin. Vishuddha or the throat chakra is represented by the colour blue and is associated with the throat. Its function is soothing illness and pain. The fourth is the heart chakra or anahata symbolised by the colour green. Manipura the solar plexus chakra is related with blood and represented by yellow. It is responsible for purification. Svadisthana or the pelvis chakra is responsible for the lungs and energy levels and the colour orange. Muladhara or root chakra represented by the colour red and related to the circulatory brain.
Not relating to the chakras, the primary colours have their own basic healing properties.
Violet: Violet is at the opposite end of the spectrum from red. Good for mental disorders, the nervous system, baldness and female complaints.
Indigo: Indigo is a slight narcotic removing fears and reassures those afraid of the dark. Good for emotional problems, deafness, and especially good for the eyes, even cataracts.
Blue: Blue acts as an antiseptic and cooling agent. Excellent for inflammations including those of internal organs. Good for cuts and burns, also for rheumatism.
Green: Green is the great healer. It is neutral to the other others. It serves as a general tonic and neutralizer. When in doubt, use green. Excellent for heart problems, neuralgic headaches, ulcers, head colds and boils.
Yellow: Yellow is excellent in treating bowel and intestine problems. It can act as a mild sedative to relieve many fears and give a mental uplift. It is good for treating indigestion and heartburn, constipation, piles, also menstrual problems.
Orange: Orange is not as harsh of a color as red, but has many of the same properties. Very good for illnesses of the respiratory system such as asthma and bronchitis; also good as a tonic and laxative.
Red: Red is at one end of the spectrum. It is a warm color which invigorates, excellent when used for treatment of persons having heat diseases, anemia, and liver diseases.
Color healing is usually done with the technique of visualization. The practitioner vividly holds the color in his mind and directs it to the affected area of the patient. The practitioner produces the color required to heal the patient. Most often light from outside or direct sunlight is used. To intensify the required color a piece of colored glass, plastic, or even cellophane may be used in which to direct light through. One method is to tape the piece of colored glass, plastic, cellophane, or even tissue paper on the pane of a window, then let the patient sit in front of the window so the colored light is directed directly on the patient’s afflicted area, if it is the stomach then the light should penetrate the stomach area, or an afflicted arm, or whatever. This treatment should be given in two thirty minutes daily, once in the morning and once in the evening.
In the absent of sunlight or there is no available window artificial light may be used. One method is the use of a photographic slide projector. This is frequently better than a window because the light can be more accurately focused onto the afflicted area. From a photographic supply firm one can obtain empty cardboard slide mouths onto which can be placed small rectangles of colored plastic or acetate so to have a set of slides of the seven primary colors. An ordinary glass of water can become medicinal when charged by sunlight. Tape a piece of colored paper or acetate around the glass (a colored bottle is even better) and let it sit in sunlight from six to eight hours. Even if the sun does not directly shine on the water it will still be charged. An example of this is drinking red water in the morning to wake one up or invigorate the person, and drinking indigo at night to relax him. Treatment by the use of color-charged water is called Hydrochromotherapy. Color healing, used as form of sympathetic magic, can also be applied when the patient is absent by utilizing a photograph of the person. The treatment is known as Graphichromotherapy. It is best employed by using a low voltage light bulb, perhaps even a night light. The same application applies as in all color healing: focus the color directly onto the afflicted area. This can be more easily done when the photograph is in a frame. The colored material is placed over the afflicted area of the person.
Color therapy is a practiced area of healing that has been contested previously but has had proven results. As alternative healing methods go, color therapy is a well-respected art.
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