One example of the way light can affect
us is a mild form of depression known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which causes many people suffering during winters.
So our next question is what do we really mean by colour therapy. A lot of expert and authority has give different definition of colour therapy. Let us consider them in turn.
According to Dr king Color therapy, or chromotherapy, is the method of treating ailments through the useof color. Color therapy can be done by shining an appropriate color on an area of the body. It can also be done through the eyes by looking at a particular color, though this should be done with the utmost care to avoid any strain on the eyes. It is a complementary therapy, and should not be used as an alternative to professional medical care. Its results vary and cannot be guaranteed – its efficacy will in large part be dependent on the individual.
The following text on color therapy provides an introduction to the subject and gives examples of the qualities and applications of certain colors. It has been adapted from an article by Dr. King published in 1961 in Cosmic Voice, Issue No. 24.
Wikipedia wich prefer the term chromotherapy for colors Therapy have defined color therapy thus :
Chromotherapy, sometimes called color therapy, colorology or cromatherapy, is an alternative medicine method, which is considered pseudoscience.[1] Chromotherapists claim to be able to use light in the form of color to balance "energy" lacking from a person's body, whether it be on physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental levels. Research has shown it is ineffective.[2]
Color therapy is distinct from other types of light therapy, such as neonatal jaundice treatment[3] and blood irradiation therapy which is a scientifically accepted medical treatment for a number of conditions,[2] and from photobiology, the scientific study of the effects of light on living organisms.
History And Origin Of Color Itself
In Ifa and Orisa tradition we believe that white is the origin of all colors. White is the father of all colors. Hence will have the saying Adiye funfun ni Agba Adiye (white hen is the mother of all birds). It is a universal truth as well that almost every culture in the world believe that white is the origin of all colors. According to James Mooney in his article titled 'Myths and sacred formula of the Cherokee:printed in 1990 stated that color symbolism play an important part in shamanistic system of Cherokee' according to James Mooney every colors start from white. Only white give birth to all other colors. It is only the white colour that grew into four. According to him red pointed to East and it mean success and triumph. Blue pointed to North and UT mean defeat and trouble. The black pointed to West and it means death. White pointed to South and it mean peace and happiness. According to him all other colors like yellow, green, orange, grey, purple, pink, and silver. Do have their explanation but are derived from the four primary colors derive from white.
History And Origin Of Color Therapy.
Colour Therapy is a complementary therapy for which there is evidence dating back thousands of years to the ancient cultures of Egypt, China and India. Colour is simply light of varying wavelengths, thus each colour has its own particular wavelength and energy.
The energy relating to each of the seven spectrum colours of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, resonates with the energy of each of the seven main chakras/energy centres of the body. If you can imagine the chakras as a set of cogs/wheels, they are rather like the workings of a clock or an engine; each cog/wheel needs to move smoothly for the clock/engine to work properly. Thus good health and wellbeing is achieved by a balance of all these energies. Balance of the energy in each of the body’s chakras is very important for health and wellbeing. Colour therapy can help to re-balance and/or stimulate these energies by applying the appropriate colour to the body and therefore re-balance our chakras.
Red relates to the base chakra, orange the sacral chakra, yellow the solar plexus chakra, green the heart chakra, blue the throat chakra, indigo the brow chakra (sometimes referred to as the third eye) and violet relates to the crown chakra.
Colour is absorbed by the eyes, skin, skull our ‘magnetic energy field’ or aura and the energy of colour affects us on all levels, that is to say, physical, spiritual and emotional. Every cell in the body needs light energy - thus colour energy has widespread effects on the whole body. There are many different ways of giving colour, including; Solarized Water, Light boxes/lamps with colour filters, colour silks and hands on healing using colour.
Colour therapy can be shown to help on a physical level, which is perhaps easier to quantify, however there are deeper issues around the colours on the psychological and spiritual levels. Our wellbeing is not, of course, purely a physical issue. Fortunately, many more practitioners, both orthodox and complementary are now treating patients in an holistic manner. That is to say, we are body, mind and spirit and none of these areas function entirely alone; each has an effect upon the other. This is why Colour Therapy can be so helpful since colour addresses all levels of our being.
As babies we first experience colour in the womb where we are enveloped in a nurturing and comforting pink. Then as a child we associate with colour as part of our first learning processes. These first associations contribute to our consciousness. As we get older we attach many different feelings, memories and meanings to certain colours and this can then become a feature in our subconscious. We can build up prejudices to colours which have happy, sad, or frightening connotations for us.
All life experiences make an impression upon us. Some experiences will be positive and some negative. It is these negative experiences which can manifest themselves physically over time as dis-ease. As an example:- perhaps we have, over the years, been in a situation where we have felt unable, for one reason or another, to speak our mind, or to express our own truth. This can manifest as a problem in the throat chakra. The throat chakra relates in the spiritual aspect to self expression. Thus, if our self expression has been blocked, the energy in this area will not be free flowing and in turn this can lead to a physical manifestation of dis-ease.
Noting strong colour preferences can also be a helpful aid to finding possible problems and working with the appropriate colour/colours to help to dispel negative feelings, free blocks and re-balance the body emotionally, spiritually and, in turn, physically.
Colour Therapy is a totally holistic and non-invasive therapy and, really, colour should be a part of our everyday life, not just something we experience for an hour or two with a therapist. Colour is all around us everywhere. This wonderful planet does not contain all the beautiful colours of the rainbow for no reason.
Examine these view of what the Wikipedia have to say on history of color therapy. To gain more insight. According to Wikipedia
Avicenna (980-1037), seeing color as of vital importance both in diagnosis and in treatment, discussed chromotherapy in The Canon of Medicine. He wrote that "color is an observable symptom of disease" and also developed a chart that related color 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.[4]
American Civil War General Augustus Pleasonton (1801–1894) conducted his own experiments and in 1876 published his book The Influence Of The Blue Ray Of The Sunlight And Of The Blue Color Of The Sky about how the color blue can improve the growth of crops and livestock and can help heal diseases in humans. This led to modern chromotherapy, influencing scientist Dr. Seth Pancoast (1823-&nsash;1889) and Edwin Dwight Babbitt (1828-–1905) to conduct experiments and to publish, respectively, Blue and Red Light; or, Light and Its Rays as Medicine (1877) and The Principles of Light and Color.[5]
In 1933, Indian-born American-citizen scientist Dinshah P. Ghadiali (1873–1966), published The Spectro Chromemetry Encyclopaedia, a work on color therapy.[6] Ghadiali claimed to have discovered why and how the different colored rays have various therapeutic effects on organisms. He believed that colors represent chemical potencies in higher octaves of vibration, and for each organism and system of the body there is a particular color that stimulates and another that inhibits the work of that organ or system. Ghadiali also thought that by knowing the action of the different colors upon the different organs and systems of the body, one can apply the correct color that will tend to balance the action of any organ or system that has become abnormal in its functioning or condition. Dinshah P. Ghadiali's son Darius Dinshah continues to provide information about color therapy via his Dinshah Health Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing non-pharmaceutical home color therapy, and his book Let There Be Light.[7]
Science writer Martin Gardner had described Ghadiali as "perhaps the greatest quack of them all." In 1925, Ghadiali was accused of rape and arrested in Seattle and sentenced under the Mann Act for five years at the United States Penitentiary, Atlanta. According to Gardner, photographs of Ghadiali at work in his laboratory are "indistinguishable from stills of a grade D movie about a mad scientist."[8]
Throughout the 19th century "color healers" claimed colored glass filters could treat many diseases including constipation and meningitis.[9]
Important colors for use in color therapy
GREEN
This is the most basic color of all in healing. It is the color which you always use first and last. No matter what you are ailing, start off and finish with an application of green. It is the safest color of all to use. It is a color which can be applied all over yourself or it can be concentrated on to any one part of the body. The green should be taken from the middle of the color spectrum, neither too blue nor too yellow. You should have some type of a color lamp which will spread out the light so that it can be played all over the front and the back for ten minutes. This green is the great color of balance, which harmonizes the flow of prana or universal life force, throughout the psychic centres. It operates, as do all other colors, firstly on the aura, the reflection of which reacts upon the physical body.
To apply you must be relaxed while the green light bathes the whole front of the body for five minutes and the back for five minutes. Then you can start using other colors.
YELLOW
Yellow is the color which signifies wisdom. Any mental deficiency, no matter how it shows itself, will be relieved by the use of yellow if concentrated on to small areas of the body. A concentrated beam of yellow light about the size of a tennis ball applied at the base and at the front of the neck, has been found very valuable for all cases of nervous conditions and for all cases where some mental blockage or other shows itself. The mental blockage may be brought on by bad circulation which caused the brain cells to be starved of lymph and blood. It may be caused by incorrect breathing, which brings about mental deterioration more quickly than anything else or it may be the result of a nervous breakdown or severe mental strain. In the latter case it could no longer be considered a mental blockage, but rather – mental tiredness.
Yellow is the color which will relieve this type of condition. The normal time of application is twelve minutes altogether, therefore if it is applied over the front and back of the head, and the front and back of the neck in concentrated form, it should last for three minutes on each place on the bare skin. Ladies should remove their make-up before color healing as the pigments are liable to reflect the color rays which are extremely subtle in nature.
ORANGE
This is a stimulating color which can be given to the spleen, liver, kidneys, heart and indeed to any organ which helps to promote good circulation. The total time for application is 10 minutes. Apply a bright orange vibration in concentrated form to the spleen if you are suffering with low circulatory trouble, but not if you suffer with high blood pressure. All the internal organs such as liver, kidneys, bowels can be stimulated by this color. The more concentrated it is the more effective it will be. Your color apparatus should be good enough to concentrate a beam of light down to about the size of a tennis ball. Such a concentrated beam of orange vibration played for four minutes on the spleen twice per week will help those with low circulatory trouble. This color will help to stimulate the heart if concentrated over this place or indeed any other organ which needs stimulation. Orange is the great vitaliser and if given in conjunction with Spiritual Healing and other forms of natural treatments it can often supplement them and act as a trigger.
Do not give orange on the forehead of anyone who is highly nervous. If you or your patient suffers from brain fatigue however, orange can be given on the back of the neck, but not longer than four minutes.
RED
Bright crimson red is even a more potent stimulator than orange. This should not be given to anyone on the head. But if really concentrated on to rheumatic joints it will be beneficial. You can apply the red to the legs, knees or ankles for ten or fifteen minutes. If the rheumatic conditions are high up in the shoulders, I would suggest an application for only five minutes at a time. Place your lamp in such a way that the beam will be projected on to the back or front of the shoulder and not come across the shoulder on to the head. Even if it does shine on the head it is not harmful in any way, but it is best to avoid this.
As the light frequencies of red are slow and very long, they have high penetrating properties, therefore can be used to stimulate the aura (and physical body) to such an extent that circulatory blockages can be cleared.
Regarding infra-red this too can be used very successfully. An infra-red lamp is based on the same principle as an ordinary red color lamp except that the very potent infra-red rays act directly upon the physical by causing great heat. Infra-red is far more dangerous to use than the color red and should not be given for longer than fifteen minutes on any part of the body. Infra-red rays should not be given over the reproductive organs of a man or a woman, neither should they be given for more than two minutes over the liver, kidneys or bladder, because they can cause some damage. Do not under any account give infra-red rays to the head, certainly not the eyes. If you are using infra-red then strictly obey your doctor’s recommendations. The color red can be given over the liver, kidneys or bladder for three minutes without any harm whatever.
Keep the color red away from the head of the patient who has had a nervous breakdown or who is highly strung in any way.
BLUE
The effective shade is a deep full-bodied primary blue and this can be applied from the top of the head to the feet of most sufferers. If the complaint is high blood pressure, any kind of nervous breakdown, nervous tension in any one of its forms, blue applied for ten minutes can be beneficial. On the other hand, if you suffer from a cold or flu, use orange color in preference to blue because you will discover, especially if you are sensitive that you are liable to get physically cold under the application of a blue light. This is caused because the high vibrations are short and quick and they manifest as cold rather than heat. From this you can see that orange and red produce heat and are therefore necessary in cases of low temperature; blue produces coldness and is therefore necessary in cases of high temperature. Blue causes most people to relax. An application of blue color vibrations will also help people to sleep who suffer with mild insomnia. For more severe cases a low wattage dark blue light in the bedroom has, before now, proved beneficial.
VIOLET
Violet can be used all over the body, but to apply it lower than the hips would be a waste of these wonderful vibrations, which are of high spiritual content. So therefore I suggest that violet light is confined mainly to the forehead, the back and front of the head, the back and front of the neck and in concentrated form over the heart and between the shoulder blades for a total time of fifteen minutes. Violet tends to bring great relaxation and also like blue, can often be felt as waves of coldness. It does not stimulate basic circulation, but it does stimulate the flow of the more subtle energies throughout the psychic centres and the nervous system. Because of this it is especially beneficial when used on the forehead and neck.
GREEN
All color treatments should start and end with green for ten minutes each time. Bathe yourself or patient with a green light front and back for five minutes each side. Now this will tend to balance any imbalance which may have been brought about through the stimulation of red or the more subtle stimulations of the blues. As green is the great balancer and harmonizer it causes many people to become very relaxed. It tends to counteract subtle energies which have built up in one nerve ganglia and causing starvation of another nerve ganglia. Start your treatment with an application of green and always finish with an application of green.
Color therapy through the eyes
Now there is another aspect of color therapy, which has to be done very carefully but which is nevertheless effective, that is the introduction of color through the eyes. We all know that what we see affects us. What most people do not realize is that every color seen has some effect upon the cells of the body. If you put someone prone to idiocy in a red room, you will precipitate this condition, if you put the same person in a blue room, you might alleviate the condition.
Color can be introduced through the eyes but it has to be done very carefully. Green of course can safely be introduced through the eyes. When you start your color treatment with green, look at the green light for a couple of minutes. When you use violet, blue or yellow do the same with these colors and you will find that they will have a great inspirational effect upon you.
I do not suggest that you look at orange or red light because of its basic vibrational properties.
Naturally if your color lamp is too bright to look at without any eye strain whatever then some kind of a diffusing screen should be put in front of it while you look at it. If this is not possible then project the color on a movie screen if you have one or even a white sheet while you look at the color for two minutes.
During some meetings we had at The Aetherius Society Headquarters in England, we projected a violet light on to a screen in front of people who were performing the Violet Flame practice. Every one of them remarked how much easier it was to do this practice when they could actually see this color. At least a dozen of these people remarked how relaxed and harmonious they felt afterwards. You could probably use this yourself before your practice of The Twelve Blessings. After the end of your practice throw a green light on the same screen for a couple of minutes and this will even enhance the procedure.
Color therapy equipment
Now the success of color vibrations does, to some extent, depend on the purity of the color and the power of the lamp behind it. Plastic color material can be obtained from any theatrical equipment depot which can easily be cut to any size you require. Of these we found in England the best type was fireproof “Cinemoid”. This stuff is heat resistant and very tough. There must be many such similar commodities on the market.
What about color healing lamps? Well, in Britain there are excellent color healing lamps for sale, some of which are expensive because they are hand built of the finest materials available. But it is not necessary to pay a lot of money for a piece of apparatus. Any slide projector can be used as an excellent color vibration lamp. It can be focused, does not give out undue heat, colored plastic can be mounted in the slide carriers between glass and most of these projectors have an effective cooling system. Some of the more recent ones even have remote control to enable you to set up your colors first and then push the button when you want to change the color… a luxury, which though not necessary, is very helpful.
You should use a lamp between 230 and 500 watts… but never over 500 watts. If your apparatus is a powerful slide projector you will not be able to look at this to take the color through the eyes, but in this case, of course, you can project the color most effectively on to a screen, which is probably the best way of doing it anyway.
How to enhance color therapy
There is a very deep occult significance behind all colors. Some astrologers have worked out the color combinations which correspond to birth signs. As these colors undoubtedly are essential it would be as well to find this information from some reliable source and incorporate this combination in your treatment.
If you follow the basic advice given here, you will discover that color vibrational treatment can supplement all other forms of spiritual healing and indeed can supplement orthodox methods of healing. Of course the right spiritual approach coupled with a correctly balanced diet, exercise and deep breathing is also necessary. So if you combine all these things together you could derive much benefit.
A last word of advice. In certain cases color healing has been found to act quickly, but not in all cases. As a general rule the more spiritually attuned the user is, the more effect color vibrations will have, but even an ordinary, relatively insensitive person, will eventually react to this treatment. So go on with it even though it appears, as it will in some cases, to be slow in its reaction.
In some countries there are strict laws prohibiting the use of color healing professionally except by qualified medical practitioners. It was not my intention in this article to give the layman information so as to enable him to do this professionally; but rather to impart in easily understandable fashion, a basic knowledge about color vibrations that readers might give themselves a treatment should they feel inclined to do so.
Although scientific reception of color therapy has not really be favorable as expected. Wikipedia has given credence to this when it explain that, Chromotherapy is regarded by health experts as quackery.[12][13]
According to a book published by the American Cancer Society, "available scientific evidence does not support claims that alternative uses of light or color therapy are effective in treating cancer or other illnesses".[2]
Photobiology, the term for the contemporary scientific study of the effects of light on humans, has replaced the term chromotherapy in an effort to separate it from its roots in Victorian mysticism and to strip it of its associations with symbolism and magic.[9] Light therapy is a specific treatment approach using high intensity light to treat specific sleep, skin and mood disorders.
Copyright :Babalawo Pele Obasa Obanifa, phone and whatsapp contact :+2348166343145, location Ile Ife osun state Nigeria.
IMPORTANT NOTICE : As regards the article above, all rights reserved, no part of this article may be reproduced or duplicated in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying and recording or by any information storage or retrieval system without prior written permission from the copyright holder and the author Babalawo Obanifa, doing so is considered unlawful and will attract legal consequences..
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