Chromotherapy, sometimes called colour therapy or colourology, is an alternative medicine method. It is claimed that a therapist trained in chromotherapy can use colour and light to balance energy wherever our bodies are lacking, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental.
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Chromotherapists claim a scientific basis for their practice, proposing that colours bring about emotional reactions in people. A standard method of diagnosis is the use of Luscher’s colour test, developed by Dr. Max Luscher in the early 1900s. When performing chromotherapy, colour and light is applied to specific areas and acupoints on the body. Because colours get associated with both positive and negative effects in colour therapy, specific colours and accurate amounts of colour are deemed to be critical in healing. Some of the tools used for applying colours are gemstones, candles, wands, prisms, coloured fabrics, bath treatments, and coloured glasses or lenses. Therapeutic colour can be administered in a number of ways, but is often combined with hydrotherapy and aromatherapy in an attempt to heighten the therapeutic effect.
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History
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Several findings indicate that colour and light have been used for health treatments since the beginning of recorded time. Colour therapy is possibly rooted in Ayurveda, an ancient form of medicine practiced in India for thousands of years. Other historic roots are attributed to Chinese and ancient Egyptian culture. In traditional Chinese medicine, each organ is associated with a colour. Ancient Egyptians built solarium-type rooms, which could be fitted with coloured panes of glass. The sun would shine through the glass and flood the patient with colour. As late as the nineteenth century, European smallpox victims and their sickrooms were draped with red cloth to draw the disease away from the body.
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Today, some therapists have a box with a mechanism that flickers light into the eyes. They report success in speeding the recovery of stroke victims and those persons who experience chronic depression.[citation needed] Some therapists recommend the wearing of eyeglasses with coloured lenses. Specialized shops also sell baths equipped with lamps that emit the wanted colour to induce the desired effect. Chromotherapy is not bound to medicine: practitioners of Feng Shui bring specific colours into our homes and workplaces, trying to achieve optimum balance of energy.
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Meaning and use of colours
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Chakras and their corresponding positions in the human body
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Health is contingent upon balancing not only our physical needs, but our emotional, mental and spiritual needs as well. In India, a group of healers known as Ayurvedic healers associate colors with the seven main chakras, which are spiritual centers in our bodies located along the spine.Chakras store and distribute energy and information. Much of the information on chakras comes from the yogic teachings in India. According to these teachings, each chakra is also associated with one of the five primary elements: earth, air, fire, water.There are seven of these chakras and each is associated with a particular organ or or system in the body. Each chakra has a dominant color, but these colors may become imbalanced. If this happens it can cause disease and other physical ramifications. By introducing the appropriate color, these maladies can be fixed.Below is a description of each chakra, its corresponding color, location and physical/emotional association.
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