Let’s unpack the energy of colour and light, and how it is used as a charming and unique part of energy medicine.
LET'S GET PHYSICAL
The Physics of Light & Colour
Sunlight makes rainbows ~ Colour is made of light
Worshipped and adored around the world, the sun is our main source of light energy on this sphere we all call home. Always emitting the life sustaining light and heat we need to live and grow, the sun’s constant shine allows for our existence in the most absolute way. The centre of our solar system, the sun illuminates life as we know it. The rays of the sun are known as “white light”, and though white is technically not a colour, the clear pure light of the sun contains every colour in the spectrum. We can see all the different colours contained in the rays of the sun by using a medium like a prism. When light rays pass through a prism, the light is split into seven distinct colours in a process called refraction. Refraction takes place when light passes through a medium, which changes the speed and direction of the ray of light. This allows the human eye to see all the colours a ray of light is made of, separated by wavelength and frequency by the medium it is dispersed through. In fact, this is how rainbows occur - as the sun passes through the water droplets in the atmosphere, the beautiful arc we all love appears in the sky. We see this phenomenon in bubbles, or when we hang crystals in the window, also known as rainbow makers. So, by passing through a medium, light energy shows all its colour.
Red - Orange - Yellow - Green - Blue - Indigo - Violet
Living colour - the energy of light and the colour spectrum
Everything is made of energy, and light is a form of energy too. Everything made of energy is constantly in motion at the energetic level, and when a certain level of motion is sustained, a vibrational cohesion emerges. The way an energy moves consistently over time is referred to as its vibrational pattern. This pattern can be measured with frequency: something’s frequency then is a tool to differentiate varying energy patterns. All phenomena have their own vibrational frequency - including colour, including you!
Light energy is measured in wavelengths and in vibrational frequencies. One wavelength is the length of the vibration: it equals the distance between two successive wave crests. Frequency tells us about the speed of the wave’s motion: it is the number of waves that pass a certain point per second. The relationship between wavelength and frequency is as follows: the longer the wavelength, the slower the ray of light moves, the lower the frequency. And alternatively, the shorter the wavelength, the faster the energy moves, the higher the frequency. Different colours we see are simply light expressing in various wavelengths. Of the spectrum of colours visible to the human eye, red is at the lower end of the spectrum (longest wavelength and lowest frequency), while violet is at the top of the spectrum (shortest wavelength and highest frequency).
COLOUR AND HEALTH
How Light and Colour are used for Healing
Colour and light have a unique place in energy medicine
Energy healing modalities like Reiki work primarily on the energy body and work done on the energetic plane carries through to the physical body, heart, mind and spirit. The energy body is also called the bio energy field, the light body, the aura, the electromagnetic field, and the rainbow body!! You’ll see why. We too are beings of light energy, scientifically this is called our bioluminescence, or bio photons, and this energy flows through us like water. We are all mediums through which light travels, we are prismatic, we glow with light energy, and we shine out all the colours. We are all living rainbows. Think of yourself energetically as a crystal: you are a biological prism. The clearer your energy flows, the brighter your inner rainbow can shine!! On the energetic level, we are all rainbow bodies of light.
"The human body literally glimmers. The intensity of the light emitted by the body is 1000 times lower than the sensitivity of our naked eyes. Ultraweak photon emission is known as the energy released as light through the changes in energy metabolism. We successfully imaged the diurnal change of this ultraweak photon emission with an improved highly sensitive imaging system using cryogenic charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. We found that the human body directly and rhythmically emits light. The diurnal changes in photon emission might be linked to changes in energy metabolism."
Like water, energy is happiest when it is able to move through us smoothly, unimpeded by blocks of any sort. When energy moves in harmony, that patterns leads to health, and vice versa, when the pattern is not harmonious, it may lead to an experience of dis-ease. Energy medicine is vibrational medicine. It uses the power of frequency to tune our bodies into a harmonious state, which creates the conditions that both stimulate and allow the body to heal itself. Using the right frequency, we can stimulate the body back into an energetically harmonious pattern, which is the restoration of balance that leads to health and wellness. Energy healing unlocks stagnancy in our energy and helps keep it flowing, using the power of vibrational resonance in many different ways according to the modality. We can stimulate harmonious energy flow in many ways, and today, of course, we are exploring how using light and colour activates your beautiful energy to flow through you in an optimal fashion - making rainbows. Colour therapy is the aspect of energy medicine that uses the vibration of colour to activate the light within. We can use waves of colour to adjust the vibrations of the body to frequencies for healing, that result in harmony, and a change of state of dis-ease to ease.
Colour & Light are energetic tools for Healing
Intrinsically, we know that the levels of natural light we experience, and the colours we surround ourselves with, have a great effect on how we feel and on our overall well being. The quality of colours is one way nature communicates to us about the state of things. For example, a ripe fruit has a different colour and brightness than a rotting fruit. The brighter the flamingos plumage, the healthier the bird. When we are healthy, we have an inner radiance, and when we see this quality in people, we know it signifies healthy energy levels. When we are experiencing dis-ease, our skin and eyes appear more dull, but when health and balanced is restored, our skin glows and our eyes are bright. Actually, it works both ways. While the quality of light and colour expresses the state of energy and wellness, as well, we may use light and colour as sources of healing to restore the energetic integrity, health, and balance in the body.
Natural light is a form of energy, and we need it to survive and to thrive. Every cell in the body needs the energy it absorbs from light. Our biology reacts to light and colour, and our preferences shift according to how we feel. The cells in our body respond to the energetic cues from our environment, and the waves of light and colour around us are of course part of that. Light and colour affect us on all levels - physically, which is easiest to quantify, and we are also impacted mentally, emotionally and spiritually. We are body, mind, heart and spirit and each functions in integral relation to each other. This is one of the reasons that colour therapy, and all energy medicine, is so vast and deep in its reach. When we use vibrational frequency tools, they address our energy on all levels in unison.
Colour and light affect our whole state of being. In general, we can use colour and light to raise energy levels and to expand our personal light energy (our bio-electromagnetic field). Their use as tools for healing is a holistic, non-invasive, powerful and accessible way to restore balance for optimal health and well being. We can use colour to support the body by activating the healing process, encouraging the healthy functions in the body, and improving vitality. Colour can be used to refine our mental capacity and quality of perception, and we can also employ colour to stimulate different emotions and regulate mood. Colour may be used in for a wide variety of issues in a complimentary fashion.
What is Phototherapy, What is Chromotherapy?
Technically speaking, the study of the way light and different colours affect the body are called phototherapy and chromotherapy. They inform the healing methods using the vibrational frequencies of light and colour of the same name. Phototherapy uses light energy and chromotherapy uses colour energy for healing.
The root word PHOTO comes from the Greek word photo, which means light. Often when we think of the word photo we think of a picture, and light is required to take a picture, also interesting is that a photon is a unit of light. CHROMO comes from the Greek word chroma which means colour. THERAPY comes from the Greek word therapeia, which means healing.
How it works ~ premise of colour and light healing
Each colour carries unique healing properties for the body. As discussed above, light and colour are vibrational, and vibration refers to the pattern in which the energy moves, which can be measured using frequency. Each colour moves at its own vibrational frequency, which creates its unique consistent energetic pattern, and this pattern imparts varying energetic properties to each colour. When a colour moves through a medium, such as a prism or a body, the frequency they carry has a resonant effect on the medium it passes through. The vibrations of colour create vibrational reactions in our bodies. Different ailments and concerns respond to different frequencies, as each frequency acts like a key to unlock and activate healing energy in the body, in its own way. So, colours have different uses and applications according to the quality and effects of their energetic signature. Colours treat the issue they are vibrationally complimentary towards, and each colour alleviates different symptoms of imbalance by stimulating our energy in its own way.
Different frequencies of light (colour) can have a profound healing effect on all of life. With this, come specific applications for how we can purposefully use colour to benefit us. By applying the proper colour, the correct resonant vibrations, we help restore the body to a state of health and balance. For example, as the slowest moving colour, red has a grounding and stimulating effect on our energy, whereas violet is the fastest moving colour, and is associated with taking us to more esoteric and deeper places in our consciousness. Colours can stimulate us, energize us, and heat us up when we use the warm/magnetic colours: red, orange and yellow. Colours can relax us, calm us, and cool us down when we use the cool/electric colours: blue, indigo, violet. Green, right in the middle of the rainbow, is known to be a balancing colour between the warm and cool colours. In ancient and modern times we have refined knowledge of the properties of each colour, what alchemical key their energy unlocks in our body, and what growth it opens in our lives. Stay tuned for in depth coverage of how different colours affect our physiology and beyond.
SCIENCE & SOCIETY
How Light and Colour are Used Historically & Today
History of colour healing
We have used chromotherapy, or colour therapy, as a wellness treatment for all kinds of medical conditions since ancient times. Chromotherapy dates back thousands of years, and has been used as a wellness treatment since ancient times. The cultures of ancient Egypt, Greece, India, China, the Middle East and the Mayans practiced colour therapy and evidence can be found in ancient texts. Egyptians used sunlight and colour healing in tinted windows and in makeup. According to Egyptian mythology, the art of colour therapy was contributed by the god Thoth. Ancient Hermetic tradition of the Greeks included use of colour in minerals, stones, crystals, salves and tinctures for treatments, and healing sanctuaries were painted in different colours. In India, colours appear in the Yogic model of the human bio energy system, specifically, associations with the chakras. According to Indian philosophy which makes up the basis of Ayurveda and Yoga, chakras are vortexes of energy in the body. There are 7 primary chakras, and each colour of the rainbow is associated with a different chakra. In China, there were colour associations with the different elements that form the basis of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Science of chromotherapy in recent and modern times
Like many energy medicine modalities and complementary therapies, chromotherapy has been overshadowed by the reign of biochemistry. Chromotherapy, along with most vibrational therapies that are now called ‘alternative’, fell out of fashion for a while due to the way money and politics impacted medicine. Biochemical medicine was favoured by investment, and as a byproduct, the law. For example, The Flexner Report of 1910, which was commissioned by the Carnegie Foundation, had a damaging impact on what are now called complimentary therapies, for most of the 20th century. We have made great advances in biochemical medicine, and now vibrational therapies are making their way back into vogue as legitimate choices.
Modern medicine is conducting research into vibrational healing methods, recognizing their value as allies to biochemical medicine, rather than competitors. Society is entering a new paradigm of health and wellness, and now more than ever, it is important to use whatever tool in the box that is right for the job. Energetic medicine and wellness habits have a long way to go to be completely understood scientifically, but there is enough understanding that they are being used in hospitals and healing centres around the world for the unique value they offer to help us build immunity and recover from illness. Fortunately we are living in a time where the schism between biochemical and vibrational medicine, in my opinion, heralded by Descartes’ era but can be traced even further back in the history of our healing paradigms, seems to be reconnecting. Both have their own strengths and values in healing and compliment each other.
Dr Dinshah P Ghadiali's chart for how different colours benefit the body. Dr. Ghadiali was a doctor, physician, chemist, and researcher. He devoted his life to promote chromotherapy as a legitimate medical treatment - to help people heal from disease with the use of colour. His incredible mind was ahead of its time, and he fought many battles with the legal and medical community to prove the legitimacy of his work. His legacy has helped to bridge the gap between the esoteric study of colour and modern day science. Thank you Dr. Ghadiali.
Back to chromotherapy, there are hundreds of scholarly articles that discuss healing using the vibrations in light and colour published in a plethora of well respected scientific journals, from American Research Journal of Pharmacy to Oxford University Press. In current times the medical benefits of colour therapy are being investigated and implemented in hospitals and medical research centres around the world. This is just a blip of the history. Later in the year, I will explore the science and unpack the history of this therapy in greater detail. I will continue to explore how frequency can be used as a healing tool, and how vibrational science and its medical applications develop from the bigger picture and in specific ways such as colour and light.
How chromotherapy is applied in society today
Applying light and colour for healing is a unique vibrational wellness practice. Healing with light and colour improves mood, physiology and overall health. Phototherapy, or light healing, is a method of treatment based on the use of light. It can be natural sunlight or artificial light, such as the SAD lights many people use to supplement daylight exposure during darker seasons. Chromotherapy, or colour healing, is a branch of phototherapy, and it focuses on the use of colour as a method of treatment. Also called colour therapy, chromotherapy as a science studies how colour affects our biology, emotions, and perceptions, so we can learn how to apply them to restore balance for overall wellness. Chromotherapy directly induces vibrations into the body as explored above. This stimulates our energy system and our nervous system, creating electrical impulses in the brain, which stimulate hormonal and biochemical processes in the body. Colour is absorbed by the eyes, skin, skull, and bio energy field (or electromagnetic field/aura). Just looking at certain colours has a strong impact. By absorbing light from colour we assist ourselves to stay in balance and in health.
In a traditional healing setting, chromotherapy is done by shining light through the appropriate coloured lenses, either used alone or in tandem, and projecting it on the particular area of the body to stimulate health and well being. Some colour therapists have a practice of using different pieces of coloured silk and place them in appropriate points in the body. Silk is used since it is the highest vibrational material, thus the most efficient conductor to transmit the frequency of each colour. It can be quite an in-depth study, and if you’re inclined, colour and light therapists may administer treatments or guidance. There are many different renditions of chromotherapy lights we can find to bring into our environment. Some of these lamps stand alone, while others are included as a feature in aromatherapy misters, in a shower head for a rainbow shower, and they are commonly included in an infrared sauna experiences in spas and gyms around the world. It is great to get 30 minutes of unfiltered sunshine a day, and the substitute SAD lights provide light relief of the entire colour spectrum of light when we may not receive enough natural daylight in the winter months.
There are many different ways of using light and colour in your life so you can absorb the rays into your body for healing and energy. Check out my Rainbow Meditation for the easiest and fastest way to light yourself up with all the colours of the rainbow.
Stay tuned XO V
For more info check out my Pinterest board "Be the Rainbow: The Art and Science of Colour"