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what is it?
Colour therapists believe that colour can have a profound effect on our physical and emotional health and work with different shades to stimulate our natural healing processes.
The brain perceives the visible wavelengths of light as colour. Each colour wavelength is said to vibrate at a particular frequency. Colour therapists believe that sub-atomic particles in the cells of the body also have vibrational frequencies and when these frequencies are disrupted, illness can result. Practitioners make use of colour wavelengths to correct imbalances and 're-attune' the body's vibrational energy to restore harmony.
Colour therapists also draw on the concept of chakras in ayurveda. These are three-dimensional whirling vortices through which energy is said to enter and leave the body. The chakras are described as acting like substations on a national grid, pulsing energy throughout the body.
There are seven principal chakras aligned along the body and each is associated with a certain colour and emotion. They are linked to the 'aura', the energy field that is said to surround your body and whose colours reflect your state of health.
what it's supposed to do
The colours most used by practitioners are those of the spectrum, identified when light is passed through a prism or refracted as a rainbow: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Each is linked with a particular chakra, organs, glands and physical, psychological and spiritual conditions. For example, blue relates to the throat chakra, whose associated organs are the throat, lungs and the thyroid gland. Imbalance in this area is said to affect the upper digestive tract.
Conditions said to benefit from colour therapy include emotional and behavioural problems, stress-related diseases like eczema, depression, headaches, insomnia, high blood pressure, chronic fatigue syndrome and menstrual problems.
what happens
After initial questions about your medical history and colour preferences, practitioners use several methods to assess which colours are appropriate for healing. Those who work with auras and chakras often say they can 'see' which colours are required. The therapist may use a pendulum to dowse either a chart of the spine or your body itself for energy imbalances.
Treatment involves covering all or part of the body with the healing colour, in the form of coloured light, oils, crystals or silk scarves. You may be asked to meditate on a colour, wear a specific colour in your clothing or drink water that has been 'solarised' by absorbing sunlight through stained glass of a prescribed colour.
what's the evidence?
Psychological studies confirm what most of us know instinctively — that certain colours can affect mood. Yellow and red are the most stimulating, and an American study in the 1970s found that 30 minutes in red light raised heart rate and blood pressure, while blue light decreased it. A certain shade of 'womb' pink was shown to have a calming effect on prisoners. Interior designers and paint companies make use of such research when advising colours for particular environments.
Although colour and vibrational healing are attractive ideas, there is no scientific evidence that they can cure diseases nor for the existence of chakras or auras.
precautions
- Always check any symptoms with a doctor.
- Don't accept a diagnosis of disease from anyone who is not medically qualified.
how to find a practitioner
Colour therapy is an unregulated profession and anyone can call themselves a colour therapist, open a training school or college or start a register.
The International Association of Colour and ColourInternational.com provide training in colour therapy and keep a register of practitioners, but most therapists have no professional grounding in anatomy, physiology or psychology. Practitioners of other therapies such as reflexology or acupuncture may also use colour therapy.
» help and info
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(July 2002)
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