Wellness: The Inner Focus
The Inner Rainbow
Color Therapy / Color Healing

Julianne Bien
Spectrahue Light & Sound Inc.
Copyright 2004

Julianne Bien is founder of Spectrahue Light & Sound Inc. in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her area of expertise is the study and application of a noninvasive and holistic approach of beauty and inner healing: color light therapy. Bien has developed color illuminators as well as educational material, and she facilitates training seminars in color light therapy in the United States and Canada.

Skin care professions should obtain specialized training before offering any new services.

It’s been said that beauty is only skin deep. However, skin, one of the largest receptors of light in the body, serves as a boundary between the soul and the outer world. By balancing the body’s color energies, clients can reflect their inner beauty outward.

The natural light energy source—the sun—emits an array of visible and invisible colors, each with its unique frequency and characteristics. The visible color band of frequencies can be seen in a rainbow after a spring shower. Most ancient writings allude to the "as above, so below" concept. Their assertion is that we are a holographic reflection of the universe and that everyone has a rainbow within them.

The light from the sun streams through the skin and lights up the body on the inside. This is the key to life; the sunlight charges the body’s cells and gives them power for their daily tasks. Intangible yet so evident, this light is the carrier of energy in the body. Ancient philosophies and teachings all refer to this life force, using different words to describe it: chi, ki, prana and vitality.

Energetic balance

What do we do with this inner rainbow? What is its purpose? For as long as the life force is harmonious and balanced within … nothing. True health emanates from people, both in visible and not-so-visible, energetic ways. However, when people are not well, physically or emotionally, when they have a health disturbance, acute or chronic, this becomes more obvious. Most illnesses are visible—the skin color changes, the hair becomes limp and the eyes lose their shine. Such a person has an energetic imbalance that stresses the whole body.

Unresolved traumas—environmental, emotional or physical—don’t disappear. They remain dormant energetic imprints on a cellular level. When organs are signaling the problem, they do so through pain or discomfort. Most often it is not possible to correct any detected deficiency separately. Physical pain is the final link in a long chain of related energetic traumas and events that reverberate throughout the layers of the body, mind and soul.

Everyone can benefit from color light therapy, a noninvasive and gentle approach to healing, through relaxation or rejuvenation, relief of acute pain, treatment of chronic ailments, or entire emotional and spiritual makeovers. In the complex field of wellness, the goal is to reestablish the energy balance in the whole body. Light replenishes the body’s natural energy and gently restores the balance in all cells. Each color is associated with a different effect and serves a different purpose (see The Colors of Therapy).

Pure, colored light beams can introduce each color’s unique frequency into the skin. A trained color enthusiast focuses a color’s light beams on specific areas and points on the body. These locations are the traditional acupuncture points along the meridian system, and other established energy portals situated throughout the electromagnetic network that extends off the physical body—namely, the seven chakras. Aligned on the front and back of the body, they directly connect to the endocrine system and the internal organs. (Editor’s note: For more information on the chakras, visit the Skin Inc. magazine Web site, www.SkinInc.com.)

Any stimulation of these points sends an information current along associated pathways, affecting the flow of life force. While other types of therapy send out a relatively slow electromagnetic current along these meridians, information-packed photons transmitted by colored light beams travel at the speed of light.

Color harmonics

Hundreds of protocols in color light therapy have been developed worldwide. You can learn your own methods through books, videos, seminars, trade shows and even the Internet. Techniques can be divided according to their effect: raising or calming energies in the body, balancing different energies or clearing negative energies. The ultimate goal is to enable clients to look at their lives, discover and clear the trauma or conflict that prevents them from living freely. Any professional can learn how to perform color harmonics by gaining an understanding of color energy and how it can be applied with simple tools and techniques, allowing you to restore and maintain health and wellness in your clients. For example, if clients feel hotheaded, if they are "seeing red" on a given day, encourage them to visualize green, the chromatic opposite of red, and bring it into their body using light energy to offset the color imbalance.

Color therapists employ the physical properties of colors to achieve specific effects on the physical, emotional and spiritual level. They can be either a health professional or a trained color therapy enthusiast. This is why color therapy goes so well with homeopathy, massage, aromatherapy, gem and crystal therapy and, of course, as an adjunct to traditional medicine.

On the menu

Color light therapy can be performed in spa facilities with minimal investments in time and resources. Based on self-healing, color light therapy avoids any fear from infections in those receiving it or in those who perform sessions. Treatments also are quick and simple. Clients do not have to disrobe, because layers of fabric do not reduce the effectiveness of light; it penetrates without hindrance through their aura, the electromagnetic field that surrounds every living person.

A variety of illuminators, which emit pure colored light beams, exist in the marketplace today. A basic color light set includes seven color lenses, ranging from red to violet, which represent the visible color spectrum of the inner rainbow. Additional colors might be the pastel colors of magenta, crimson, gold, light green, turquoise, blueberry, lavender and pink.

All visible colors, as well as the invisible ones, are blended in natural light. When exposed to it, the body absorbs as much of each frequency—each different color—as each individual system needs, through its electromagnetic fields, the eyes and, more so, through the skin.

Look for illuminators with crystal lenses scientifically developed to produce high-quality, long-lasting and unsurpassed color emission. You will most often need a handheld, portable, energy-efficient, safe and affordable illuminator that is powerful enough to address any skin problems, whether they originate in heredity, lifestyle, diet, illness or emotions. These cost from $240–600. However, facilities also can choose desk-mount units—about $2,000—or wall-mount units—about $3,000, tailored for spas, health care facilities and reception areas in need of regular soothing color light sessions. Color and sound saunas, portable and easy-to-assemble, are designed with the privacy and quietude of a cushioned solar sauna in mind, for high-end spa facilities as well. Saunas can range in price from $8,000 to $16,000, depending on the available features.

As you learn more about the techniques and the power of color light, you will begin to create your own sequence of daily or weekly treatments, which you will be able to maintain wherever your life takes you, or your client.

Color light therapy techniques are not only suited for different conditions and ailments, but also as prevention tools, as they correspond to the body’s natural rhythm. Some of them feel best when applied in the morning. Some you would do well to adopt as part of every afternoon service. Ultimately, there are those designed to help clients after a busy day to release pleasant or meaningful dreams, or in the morning to energize them or give them an increased sense of direction. Recommended price for an add-on treatment is $25–50, depending on the length of the treatment.

Some services using color light therapy, such as lymphatic drainage, cellulite meltdown or breast lifting, are suited well to a spa environment.

Lymphatic drainage/cellulite meltdown. The body’s lymphatic system is responsible for distributing white cells and some nutrients, and ensures a unified response of the whole body to invading organisms. When it becomes sluggish, the entire organism suffers from puffiness and weakened immunity.

Apply a yellow light on top, bottom and all sides of both ankles. In Chinese medicine, the bladder meridian envelops the feet and loops behind both ankles. This is the secret to the effectiveness of this procedure. Positive effects of this technique include reduction of facial lines and cellulite, detoxification of skin, stimulated hair growth and an overall feeling of being energized. Due to its power, this technique should never be done in conjunction with other lymphatic drainage techniques.

Breast lifting. The breast lifting technique is a stand-alone application as well. Beginning with the left side, stroke with the red light above the breast, then stroke down in magenta. Stroke up below the breast in violet, then stroke down in lavender. Over time, under a new energetic regimen, the body soon rearranges breast-building material into firmer, more elevated shapes.

Use the spectrum color, then proceed with the spiritual color. Duration for all points is approximately two to five minutes. Apply every day, until results are satisfactory; best results are achieved after 21 sessions.

The history

Color light therapy has been in use for thousands of years. In ancient Egypt, healers refracted sunlight into colors of the spectrum to shine on patients. In Greece, Heliopolis was a center of heliotherapy—curing the ill by exposing it to the sun. Until the 17th century, the accepted view was that natural light contains no color and that all objects possess some way of coloring it on impact.

One hundred and fifty years after Newton, who examined and measured the behavior of colors refracted from daylight through a prism, the German philosopher and writer Johann Wolfgang Goethe defined the three primary colors and their relationship in the color wheel. Today, these features are fundamental tools in art and design, psychology, fashion and education. Goethe also established that some colors are active and others passive—or cool.

In the 19th century, several scientists looked at color light and other treatment possibilities outside of allopathic medicine. The contested 20th century pioneer Dinshah Ghadiali developed spectra-chrome therapy, shining the light on large sections of the body through colored filters. He documented spectacular results in healing some otherwise untreatable conditions.

In the early 20th century, John Nash Ott was experimenting with time-lapse photography, and his efforts produced new artificial sources of light, which closely replicate the full daylight spectrum. Russian biologists then proved plant cells can communicate among themselves through a barrier of quartz glass and that light is the carrier of biological information.

In the late 1970s, Peter Mandel, a naturopathic practitioner from Germany, mapped the diagnostic topography of hands and feet, capturing subtle differences in electric charges of the skin caused by pathological processes. Now, improved versions of his camera have become reliable diagnostic tools, used by health professionals and color enthusiasts worldwide.

It is another of Mandel’s groundbreaking discoveries that ignited the modern worldwide success of color light therapy. He found that, when specific acupuncture points are irradiated with focused light beams of color, pain can be alleviated within minutes, regardless of the underlying condition. In the 1980s, renowned biophysicist Fitz-Albert Popp received a Nobel Prize for illustrating that humans are beings of light. Indeed, in the late 1980s, a team of Russian researchers proved that the body has channels of light paralleling the 12 meridians as they are known in traditional Chinese medicine, main pathways that enable color light therapy to do its work.

Valerie Hunt of the University of California, Los Angeles, is the first modern researcher to apply scientific methods of study to electromagnetic emissions in biological organisms. She measured human bio-energy, the energy fields surrounding the human body, and demonstrated that body’s energetic emissions show chaotic changes before pathological conditions in the tissue can be diagnosed. In other words, she proved the main postulate of color light therapy: that ailments begin outside the physical body as energetic imbalances, and can be treated non-invasively if they are detected in time.

Indeed, modern science discovers more and more proof of a fundamental law that applies to all objects in the universe, minuscule as well as massive, from the tiniest particles to the largest galaxy … including the atoms that make up human beings. All communication and the entire interaction of matter in the world seems to be associated with or accomplished through the energy of light.

Inner beauty

Health and wellness is inner beauty expressed outward. A person’s inner beauty is asserted as a result of an accomplished balance in the body-mind-soul matrix of the individual.

Many people work hard at achieving this balance, through a healthy lifestyle, self-development, activism and spirituality. Most are careful about their choice of food, work, products, clothing, music and their moods. This is because they are well aware that beauty comes from within and that action and energy follows their thoughts. With a balanced inner energy, your clients can reflect their inner rainbow to experience their outward beauty. n

The Colors of Therapy

Red. Red is a hot, positive color. With its penetration power—the highest of all visible colors—it is recommended for treatment of muscles and the heart, as well as impeded circulation. It can have a positive effect on all chronic illnesses. Red generates enthusiasm, arouses passion and a lust for life.

Orange. Orange is warm and encouraging. It can help raise the spirit and build inner strength; it is recommended for cases involving depression and fear. It can promote a healthy appetite and increase the sex drive. It is used for hormonal cleansing and in menstrual difficulties.

Yellow. Gentler then red or orange, yellow also is a warm, positive color with a purifying effect that stimulates clarity of intellect. It can aid digestion, as well as toxin processing and elimination. It can help with learning disabilities and is a recommended color for strengthening internal organs and the endocrine system.

Green. Green is a cooling, sedating color that helps reduce swelling in the joints and tissues. It calms the body and helps reduce inflammation, as it has a balancing effect. It’s the color of the relaxed heart and of nature. When in doubt, use green.

Sky blue. Sky blue is a cool, yet powerful color that can break down emotional barriers and facilitate spiritual growth. It can be used for mental relaxation and tackling embedded psychological issues. Turquoise tones skin tonifier and is a pain reliever. It can help regulate imbalances in the lung and large intestine area.

Indigo blue. Indigo blue is a peaceful and cool color. It has a calming, sedative effect and is very helpful in treating sleep disorders, headaches and pain. It also regulates elastic tissues in the organism and can help in all kinds of cramps. Indigo blue can assist in reducing bleeding and swelling in hemorrhoids and has been known to have an astringent effect on most skin eruptions or oozing. It is also applied to combat bacterial infections.

Violet. Violet is a cold color. It has the shortest waveband and highest amplitude in the visible color spectrum. It can promote awareness and consciousness, help in mental and nervous disorders and increase effects of meditation. It also has been known as a spleen stimulant and an agent in cleansing the body of toxins. Violet is the color for neutralizing emotional wounds and for spiritual awakening. It can be used as a powerful tranquilizer.