Color Therapy

Table of Contents Feature Articles Masthead Magazine List Shopping Home	Volume 1 No. 8 Color Therapy by Amira Sravesh
	Syntonics: Light Therapy Is About Balance Syntony means ''to bring into balance.'' Dr. Harry Riley Spitler, the light-therapy pioneer who developed Syntonics, coined the term to affirm that what we are doing in healing with light and color is bringing the various energetic systems of the body into balance and equilibrium. Syntonics has become more or less respectable as an alternative therapy because it is used by mainstream optometrists. Its methodology is the application of light and color directly through the eyes. The ability to continue to live, said Spitler, depends upon syntony of the autonomic nervous system in both acute and chronic illnesses, and the attainment of this syntony may be aided by light frequency into the eye. The application of color through gels, lights, lenses, etc., was his means of directing color energy into the body. The optic nerve converts light and its components, color, into electricity, which then traverses the meridians and nervous systems to direct bodily functions. Color thus applied causes cellular and hormonal changes to occur, bringing the cells into synchronization or balance. Spitler said that there was a relationship, in some cases a closely predictable one, between light frequency incident into the eyes and many other phenomena, including: the rate of growth of cells and tissues their rate of cell division the physical development of the individual the mass body potential the development of the biotype, modifying the hereditary tendency the functioning power of the pituitary gland the reproductive rate of any species the dynamic tension between the two divisions of the autonomic nervous system the secretion of hormones by all of the coacting as well as antagonistic endocrine glands, with the pituitary as the "master gland" the restoration of health following departures from the normal the degree of nerve cell irritability (thus modifying reflexes) the state of tension in the autonomic nervous system the eye's vitamin A content, or the degree of its adaptation the perception of pain the relative responses of both striped and smooth muscle bodily health A Rainbow of Color Therapies The application of light and color as therapeutic devices manifests in many ways and on many levels. Colored gels with projections of magnified light penetrate and stimulate the body's meridians, which correspond to traditional Asian acupuncture systems. Also, they access and incorporate the axiational lines mentioned in J.J. Hurtak's Keys of Enoch[1] The sun's rays may be used as light therapy, sometimes projected through colored ''glass'' or other laser-like applications. Colored light can be applied directly to the eyes, as in Syntonics, and the work of Jacob Liberman. (See also [2].) And the use of crystals or crystal rods, with or without an exterior light source, allows color to penetrate into the body through the auric field, transmitting light to the acupuncture points or to the axiational lines described by Hurtak. Further use of color is made in the environment, with colored light bulbs, painted walls in a room, carpeting, furniture, artwork, crystals, clothing, and so on — all of which directly impacts the body-mind-spirit through the biomagnetic or auric fields and the senses. Sunlight, used especially for Seasonal Affectation Disorder or SAD, and colored lighting also can be applied to various areas of the body. Another color therapy involves the use of colored lenses in both prescription and non-prescription eyeglasses to alter and adjust the body's bioenergetics, including hormonal and nervous systems. And Cymatics, which works primarily with sound frequencies rather than color, has one instrument which delivers color that has been imprinted with sound. Practitioners do indeed vary in their applications of these modalities. Light Therapy Old and New All ancient cultures extensively used the healing power of the sun, in the belief that it would strengthen the body on Earth. Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, was an adherent of heliotherapy, which simply means treating disease with sunlight. These ancient civilizations held that the healing power of light is found in its component parts, that is, color. Documented use of color and light therapy exists in the cultures of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, India, China, and Tibet. In 1903, the founder of modern phototherapy, the Danish physician Niels Ryberg Finsen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his research on light and color in the treatment of disease, and in 1904 the award was given to A. Rollier for his continuing work in phototherapy. Modern allopathic medicine employs color therapeutically, such as in the treatment of cancer, but uses only the colors at the extremes of the light spectrum: infrared, and infra-violet. And light is, by definition, employed therapeutically in laser surgery. However, until recently, little therapeutic use had been made of the colors of visible light — those that lie in between the ends of the spectrum. An FDA Roadblock to Color Therapy Edwin Babbitt, whose work in India in the 1870s has been well documented, used colored lights applied to areas of the body. Aspects of the Babbitt's technique were then popularized in the United States beginning in the early 1900s by his brightest protégé, Dinshah Ghadiali, known simply as Dinshah, and later by the latter's son. Treatment, known as ''tonations,'' was conducted via specially-constructed colored light instruments that focused a beam of light through a single colored glass filter onto one of the 22 body areas outlined by Dinshah. This was done for a prescribed duration and number of days. In the years that patients in hospitals and clinics were treated in this way, primarily throughout the Northeastern United States, thousands of cases of recovery from serious illnesses were documented. But in the 1950s, Dinshah was forced by the FDA to halt the thousands of color therapy applications taking place. Although he was a medical doctor in India, they charged, he was not licensed in the United States. The use of tonations continued, but has declined in the past two decades, replaced by Colorpuncture — a form of acupuncture with light — and other forms of color therapy. Forms of Colorpuncture Since the 1970s, many therapists have worked with John Ott's light therapy contributions, in which he modifies and expands the therapeutic use of color and light. Ott's work includes the use of full-spectrum lighting, and the use of lights and colored gels applied to the body's energy points, as is done in Colorpuncture. Treatment is applied preventively, to neutralize imbalances before they develop into an illness, as well as for healing illnesses that have already taken hold. Formally, Colorpuncture involves the concentration of a small beam of light through a high-strength penlight and/or quartz rod onto a colored gel, which is aimed directly at the body's acupuncture points. In this way, the therapy is a form of ''acupuncture without needles.'' Colorpuncture theoretically reintroduces the correct informative energy into the mind/body to trigger harmonizing and healing impulses in the physical and energy spheres or zones of the body. In the 1990s, the German color therapist Peter Mandel popularized the use of Colorpuncture through teaching the concepts outlined in The Practical Compendium of Colorpuncture[3\, his internationally-read textbook. Mandel's system includes the use of seven circular ''switching stations'' on the skin which are called ''transmitter relays.'' One relay governs the immune system, another the survival and sexual drives, and four others involve ''the spirit within the cells.'' A seventh, the relay of memory, is what some refer to as the Akashic record. Mandel states that every change, every instant of our lives, is recorded; that our life program is an incarnational blueprint, inscribed at the moment of conception, and that the information it carries is activated by our birth. Decompression of all this information from these seven ''switching stations,'' Mandel believes, and from the meridians connected to them, unfolds throughout our lives. The application of colored light on specific points to affect mind/body functions is precisely indicated by the system of Colorpuncture. The healing power of color is further enhanced in these systems by the sensitivity of the individual client and practitioner. The impulse of color from the within to the without, and vice-versa, is apparent in the results experienced by individuals undergoing this therapy. In addition to the acupuncture points and meridians, the body may be further aligned along its axiational lines, as referred to earlier. Axial lines exist in parallel to acupuncture lines in the physical body, and, according to Hurtak, they connect to indigenous resonating star systems and populations. The body, then, is seen as a grid of magnetic domains which move between the pattern angles of the human organs and the primary blueprint of the Overself. And the body's renewing functions may be controlled through the open-ended axial lines. These axial lines, Hurtak says, are themselves controlled by biochemical clocks, which are in turn controlled by electromagnetic resonance factors. All lines may be aligned through the noise/temperature calibrations, which include the therapeutic use of color, light and light frequencies, magnetics, and the pairing of color and tonal frequencies. The application of appropriate sonic and ultrasonic frequencies effectively generates light and, therefore, biochemical regeneration. Colorpuncture has gained even broader use recently, especially in North America, since the appearance of Jack Allanach's book, Colourpuncture: A New Medicine of Light[4]. Amira Amarah Sravesh, MS, DD, works in person in Florida to facilitate the movement of her clients into complete health and the highest levels of Divinity. She uses herbs, psychological and nutritional counseling, healing touch, and color and light therapy. Her work in Tibetan medicine is paramount in her approach. Amira also assists spas, health clinics, educators, and practitioners in setting up course or therapy work for their companies and clients. You may contact her at Box 1717, Alachua FL 32616, phone 904-418-1054, or visit her website at Herbalchemy. Sources: Hurtak, J. J. The Keys of Enoch. Los Gatos, CA: The Academy for Future Science, 1977. Liberman, Jacob. Light: Medicine of The Future. Sante Fe, NM: Bear & Company, 1991. Mandel, Peter. The Practical Compendium of Colorpuncture. Bruchsal, W. Germany: Energetik Verlag, 1986. Allanach, Jack. Colourpuncture: A New Medicine of Light. Rockport, MA: Element Books, 1998. Top of Page Print Version