MARINA SOKOLOVA: Colour Therapy.

Colour healing was a part of society in ancient Egypt, Greece, China, India, and Tibet. Egyptians in particular use to build healing temples where patients could bathe in specific colours of light, which they believed had different effects. This knowledge influenced the Greek schools of philosophy, such as those of Pythagoras and Plato, but then it disappeared for a while. So it was not until 19^th century that Newton, Goethe and others, started to study light and colour once again. Now some of the teachings preserved in ancient literature have been rediscovered and their tenets and techniques have been incorporated into modern life.

What exactly is the colour.

Colours that we see are just the reflections of an ultraviolet light from the things around us. Light in it self is an electromagnetic energy. The wavelength and frequency of light influence the colour we see. For example: all colours of a rainbow have different wavelengths and frequencies, from red with the highest wavelength and the lowest frequency to violet with the lowest wavelength and the highest frequency.

What is colour therapy.

Colour therapy, also known as Chromotherapy, is an alternative healing therapy that usually involves exposing a person to particular colours in order to bring one’s body back into harmony and restore his or her health and well-being. Nowadays colour therapy is also often combined with visualisation, meditation, acupuncture, acupressure, reflexology, music therapy, psychological counselling, yoga, and conventional medicine.

What can it heal.

Colour therapy can heal asthma, colic, constipation, diverticulitis, impotence, infertility, menstrual problems, anxiety, depression, grief, insomnia, stress, emotional traumas, and alopecia. It can also help during pregnancy and menopause.

It is advised that for diagnosis and treatment of serious illness, one should always consult a qualified colour practitioner. Under the professional code of practice for colour practitioners, all colour treatments for serious illnesses should be given under medical supervision.

Are there any side effects.

There is no united opinion about whether colour therapy can cause any harmful side effects. Some sources state that it is completely risk free. Other highlight the need for a good therapist indicating that self-practising colour therapy can be dangerous. For example: a pregnant woman should not be treated with green as it can destroy embryonic cell structure, or so it is believed by some.

How does it work.

The are seem to be vast number of theories attempting to explain how colour therapy works. Here are the most frequent:

Aura.

Colour therapy practitioners usually believe in human aura. It is said that our auras consist of the layers of colour around our body, each layer represents one colour. First layer, the nearest to our bodies, is red. Whereas following layers are orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, violet and magenta. The layers are continuously moving and interpenetrating each other. These movements respond to environmental inputs as well as shifts in thought, feeling, and physical well-being. The layers of the aura are also thought to be a manifestation of the whole person, where each layer corresponds to a different aspect of the human function. It is said that when we are healthy the colours in our auric fields would appear clear and luminous. Whereas, when someone’s body is out of balance, particular colours may appear darker, or paler, or don’t have a significant presents in that person’s aura, or change into completely different colour.

Colour therapists believe that by administering the colour or colours, which the sick person is lacking in his or her aura, they can bring the body of that patient back into harmony. One might ask: how do the therapists know what colours they might need to apply. Aura can be easily perceived to those people who are gifted or have received special training and thus it can be used as a diagnostic tool and a guide to treatment. Alternatively, if the person does not have the ability to “see” auric field, he or she can tune their senses through dowsing or use a variety of other more scientific techniques.

Chakras.

This approach is very similar to the previous one, only here colours and aspects of human bean are represented by chakras instead of layers of aura. Although, these two approaches are often mixed. The chakras are lens-like structures that collect and strengthen the light that surrounds us. There is eight of them that are usually considered: one is just above one’s head of magenta colour, another is near brows and of violet colour, blue one is near the throat, turquoise one is near the chest, green one is near the heart, then there is the yellow chakra near solar plexus, orange one that is close to belly button, and finally the red chakra that is near the crotch. The chakras are also linked with endocrine glands and certain organs of the body.

The energy of colour.

This one is based on the belief that colours’ energies or their frequencies can influence the energies or the frequencies of organs in a human body. So once a diagnosis was made, the person can often be healed by a particular colour. For example: red in conjunction with its complementary colour of turquoise can counteract infections. The red increases the blood supply to the infected area and the turquoise helps to reduce inflammation. Another example – orange ray is used to treat stones in the kidney and gall bladder.

Matching the frequencies.

This method implies that diseases, viruses or infections have their own frequencies and wavelengths and if one matches them with the frequencies and wavelengths of the colours then the healing would happen. Therapists practising this method actually promise to remove bacterial and virus infections purely by applying colours providing that client completes the treatment.

Scientific version.

Scientists agree that colour therapy can heal. They believe that the brain itself is colour sensitive and when we look at different colours it may facilitate the production of different hormones. Thus for example, using blue colour can help with sleeping problems and violet colour can help to relax. You might have noticed that many TV DIY programmes made use of colour therapy to give rooms “moods” which influence how we feel when we are in them.

Using colour therapy at home.

Here are some very popular colour therapy techniques that you can, as most therapists agree, safely try at home.

Colour breathing.

Sit comfortably and breath, as you breathing imagine that you inhale one specific colour and exhaling another. For example, to increase vitality, breathe in red and breathe out turquoise. For joy: inhale orange and exhale blue. For increased intellectual abilities: breathe in yellow, then breathe out violet. In order to cleanse and balance your body, breathe in green and breathe out magenta. Inhale turquoise to strengthen the immune system, exhale red. Breath in blue for relaxation and peace then breath out orange. To increase self-respect, inhale violet and exhale yellow. Breathe in magenta in order to release obsessional images and thoughts and breathe out green.

Art therapy.

This usage of colours involves art therapy. When you feel disappointment, pain, or anger, get a set of crayons and a sheet of white paper. Sit down and intuitively choose only three colours from your crayons. Express your feelings on paper with the crayons of your choice. Your drawing doesn’t have to resemble any known objects or look attractive. You don’t have to show it to anyone if you don’t want to and of course you don’t have to keep it. It is healthy to release your feelings this way instead of keeping it all in until they manifest into physical disease at a later date.

Eye strengthening exercise.

This technique is supposed to improve you vision. Take three white sheets of paper. Paint or print out a blue octagonal shape on one sheet and red octagonal shape on the other. Keep the third sheet clear. Do the following six times a day. Focus your eyes on the blue octagonal and maintain your gaze for 15-20 seconds. Then look at a blank sheet for 15-20 seconds and after that look at the red octagonal for the same length of time. Hopefully, you should see the results soon.

Visiting a colour therapy practitioner.

When you come to a colour therapist for the first time, he or she will use certain diagnostic tools to suggest a treatment. Different practitioners may use different approaches to this. They might read your auric field in order to determine its state of colour balance, dowse to read the balance of your colour energies, or use psychological techniques such as Lucher colour test or art therapy in order to see your attitudes toward life.

Then once they choose colours to bring your body back into balance, they would usually expose you to the coloured light for a number of sessions. Some practitioners can also give you coloured water in bottles to use in between sessions or suggest to wrap your self into coloured silk body wraps at home.

Colour therapy affects all three aspects of our being –body, mind, and spirit. Bringing these three aspects into harmony let us become whole beings and colour therapy can help us with that. Yes, it can seem confusing, but we only have to learn to trust our intuition, which would lead us to our individually right path.