frustrations and fears which prevent us from progressing and from coming into contact with our higher selves.”

Peter Mandel, Practical Compendium of Colorpuncture.

In dealing with the interplay between the body, mind and spirit, this system addresses the deeper causes of illness. In addition to regulating bodily functions, color treatments gently release traumas, emotional scars and negative beliefs that are held in the body and maintain a chronic state of imbalance or ill health.

While the basis for placement of the color often derives from the same meridian system as acupuncture, the way color works in the body differs from acupuncture by introducing vibrational information into the body in the form of different colored light frequencies which restore cellular communication and thereby, re-establish homeostasis.

This resonance that creates communication between the cells seems analogous to the way in which two people who enter a room in two completely different energies might begin to “resonate” more closely when music is added into their environment and they come into the same rhythm. The presence of a unifying vibration brings us into

resonance together, and we usually feel better!
Different colors, different frequencies, are used to effect different conditions, or

used in combination to achieve a balance or harmony within the body. Each color has a certain wavelength in the color spectrum from between 400 and 700 nanometers. (A nanometer being equivalent to one-billionth of a meter.)

The vibrational frequencies communicate with the body as each color possesses certain attributes or qualities (positive and negative) and have a complimentary color, which when used together bring balance. The color red, for instance, with the shortest wavelength and lowest frequency is hot, penetrating and stimulating (yang in the Oriental system of yin and yang). Often associated with love, anger, action and vitality, we use red in the expression of these things in many ways, including the red “power” tie. When used in healing, red stimulates circulation, may uplift depression, and in combination with

green, can work to detoxify organ systems and break up deep emotional and energetic blockages.

Green, a more neutral color, has a soothing and relaxing effect, often bringing a sense of well being, and prosperity. In healing it is used for inflammation of the joints, ulcers, tumors, cysts, and chronic diseases. “Greenfood” is experiencing increased recognition and popularity because of the presence and extremely healthful properties of chlorophyll and algae in the diet.

Blue is a cooler (yin) color and is often used to relieve pain and to have a relaxing effect on any diseases that involve heat.. Its complement, orange, gives energy and makes a joyful feeling often effective for fear, tiredness and pessimism and depression. In Esogetic Colorpuncture, treatments for the endocrine system use blue and orange together to bring about hormonal balancing in relation to many symptoms related to hormones.

Yellow is used in diseases of the digestive tract, to strengthen the nervous system and in treatments related to toxicity. Emotions of anger, or other reactive responses can be related to a toxic condition in the body. Violet, the compliment of yellow, acts on consciousness and is therefore supportive of awareness and meditation and is also used in balancing treatments for lymphatic disorders.

While this form of treatment, along with other ways of utilizing light and the subtle energies previously mentioned of sound, plant energies through aromatherapy and flower essences etc. are often regarded in the United States as rather peripheral in Europe this area of medicine has never been lost and is included in the practice of medical doctors as well as healing practitioners.

Peter Mandel, a doctor of naturopathy, acupuncture and chiropractic, at his clinic in Germany, works with people from all over the world with serious degenerative diseases such as cancer using his Colorpuncture system and Kirlian photography to track the energy changes in the body before and after treatments.

As we are moving toward a new relationship to who we are, what we are and how we can be healthy and happy “lighter” beings, our understanding of the relationship between our physical functioning and our emotional and spiritual condition is becoming clearer and deeper. New light is entering the darkness of the human condition of suffering and sickness. Expressions like “green with envy”, “seeing red”, “yellow belly” and “black mood” all have bodily implications whose derivation goes back to our ancestors’ view of the human character and the four temperaments: choleric (red), sanguine (yellow), phlegmatic (green) and melancholic (blue). Each of these temperaments had certain strengths as well as proclivities to weakness. With its root in the mud of this medieval system, a radiant many-petaled lotus blossom is regenerating “new” ancient healing energies that lead us to new levels of spiritual development and health.

In my Whole Life Therapies practice, I integrate the techniques of Colorpuncture and have been impressed with the often immediate effects. I also find that work done during a session on the physical and emotional level with hands-on techniques can be reinforced energetically at a cellular level with a color treatment addressing the same issues at a more core and higher vibrational level. Even a person not consciously in touch with an energy blockage or feeling may experience a release and an energetic shift in how they feel as a result. The Kirlian component to diagnose and measure the effectiveness of treatments through photos of the individual’s energetic emissions is a comprehensive visual representation of the miraculous process taking place.

The color frequencies from the colorpuncture treatments have, in some specific cases, been translated into sound therapy tapes, so that a client can repeat the treatments between sessions at home with tapes that replicate the color treatment they received.

The use of light and color, sound, homeopathy as well as the resonance of flowers and plants (through flower essences and aromatherapy) are all aspects of

what we call “Vibrational (or Energy) Medicine”. The healing occurs through the relationship of these subtle energies and the electromagnetic field of the body and is bringing science and spirituality, physics and metaphysics together. This energetic medicine represents a new paradigm in medicine which has developed from the scientific research and practice of many doctors now publishing, teaching and holding conferences on new perspectives on what is means to be human, how our physical bodies possess a wisdom to maintain health, and how this relatively new understanding of the physical body, matter and light, emanates from

Einstein’s E=mc2, the mantra of this century.

“Matter, as it were, is condensed or frozen light…allmatter is a condensation of light into patterns moving back and forth at average speeds which are less than the speed of light…{Light is} energy and it is also information – content, form and structure. It is the potential for everything.” David Bohm, Dialogues with Scientists and Sages: The Search for Unity

While we still tend to live as if only what we see is real and can effect us, we know that x-rays, radiation, electricity are all examples of our use of the invisible realm of light and energy. And if we now know that these invisible light forms do impact the body (physical, emotional and spiritual body) why would it not be that color, the part of the spectrum we do see would also impact us in a myriad of significant ways? Color, like sound, is a language of wavelengths and frequencies that have profound effects on the human body and our state of being. In everything from the clothes we choose, the foods we eat and the environments we live in, we experience the influence of color on how we feel.

The more specific use of light and color in healing many physical and emotional disorders and influencing our sense of well being has its beginning in ancient medical systems of the Greek, Egyptian, Indian and Chinese cultures. The design of Egyptian temples allowed for light to be refracted into the different rays of color so that patients

could bath in the appropriate color for healing particular conditions. In Heliopolis, the Greek “city of the sun”, Greek physicians prescribed sunbaths for their patients, and the healing power of sunlight for tuberculosis and many other conditions continued to be recognized by physicians of the 1800’s.

In more technological times, the understanding and use of light has evolved into a rapidly developing field that uses color as a powerful yet gentle and non-invasive healing modality. While earlier work utilized color treatments through the eyes alone, it has now been demonstrated that the frequencies of color travel through the skin and follow along the meridians of the Traditional Chinese Medicine system that describes the flow of life energy or “chi”. This life force known as “chi”, (or “Prana”, or “Qi” in different cultural traditions) has been recognized by all cultures to be a force that is a prerequisite to life and one that carries energy and information. All that exists is made of energy and light, “Chi” and intelligence, or information.

Color is the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum- a continuum of long waves and low frequency of radio waves through infra-red, visible light, ultra-violet light, x-rays, gamma rays and cosmic rays with progressively shorter waves and higher frequencies. When light is refracted through a prism, as Newton discovered, we see the color spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, violet and magenta. Rainbows show us this spectrum of color as the magical reflection of light refracted in raindrops. Color theory continued to develop with Goethe’s insights into the role of the interaction of light and darkness in generating color and the existence of warm (red, orange, yellow) and cool (blue, indigo, purple) colors.
Chakra System

In the Indian system, invisible energy centers within the body are called “Chakras” and correspond to different physical and mental functions as well as to specific colors, endocrine glands and certain organs. Because the ancient system of Chakras, along with the meridians of Traditional Oriental Medicine , form the foundation of so

much of the current healing work and that of color in particular, a brief description will illuminate the relation between these energy centers, color and the body.

(see inserted chart)

The first chakra at the base of the sacrum is the place where primal or root energy of life resides (and along with it issues of survival and security) and is represented by the color red. Children often choose red as a favorite color, and it is the time when they are getting rooted into life. Between the navel and pubic bone is the second chakra, representing creation and creativity and symbolized by the color orange, a joyful color and a bridge between the intensity of the red life blood (first chakra) and yellow, the color of the third chakra representing the active intelligence and power of the fire center of the solar plexus. The heart center (fourth chakra) is represented by green, a color or healing and balance (midway in the color spectrum) and is where our feelings of love either flow or are blocked. The fifth chakra is the throat, our avenue of self-expression and communication and is linked to the second chakra through its relation to our creativity. The color for this area and function is blue, the vibration of purification, often used in relation to pain, and associated with the tranquillity and peace. The sixth chakra, located between the eyebrows (often referred to as the “third eye”) relates to intuition, meditation and psychic power or inner seeing. The color correspondence is indigo, a color associated with the higher vibrations of spirituality and dedication. At the crown of the head is the seventh chakra of pure consciousness and awareness of one’s divinity, represented by the color violet. When this center is open, one feels spirituality in a very personal way free of any dogma.

The relation between the chakras and the seven rays is basic to the use of color in healing. Color and light have a capacity to address not only the physical body, but the emotional and spiritual levels of the person in painless, non-invasive and evocative ways. Color and light treatments help to bring to consciousness and to clear old unresolved or

unexpressed emotions that are now increasingly acknowledged as the root of disease and

the source of ill-health.

“A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial until finally, it becomes what everybody knows.” William James

At the height of summer, with the sun exerting its fullest power on earth, we experience the full bloom of color in all the flowers and vegetables.
As the earth cycle around the sun begins to shorten our daylight and increase the darkness, this change in light has an impact on our bodies and psyches. The production of the hormone melatonin which has been linked to sleep increases in the body with the coming of night.

It has been found that sufferers of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) with symptoms of depression, increased appetite and low energy from the beginning of winter and lasting until spring show high levels of melatonin in their blood during daylight hours. The use of bright full spectrum color through the eyes (by Doctors and Color Therapists) has been a successful treatment for 80% of those suffering from SAD as well as PMS and other conditions, and has accelerated psychotherapy. 1986.

Orange you red-y to yell-ow good-bye to the blues?

References:
Light Years Ahead, Brian Breiling PsyD, Celestial Arts, Berkeley, California, 1996. Light, Medicine of the Future, Jacob Liberman M.D.,Bear & Co. Sante Fe, New Mexico, 1991.
Esogetics, Peter Mandel ND., Energetik-Verlag GmbH – Sulzbach/Taunus, 1993. Vibrational Medicine, Richard Gerber MD.., Bear & Company, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1988.
Spiritual Nutrition and the Rainbow Diet, Gabriel Cousens, MD.., Cassandra Press, San Rafael, California,

Whole Life Therapies, by Johanna Atman, Ph.D. CMT., Certified in Esogetic Colorpunture, along with many supportive healing processes for personal healing and growth, her holistic approach focuses on “the being that’s in the body” and what will support its unique unfoldment to fulfillment.