Chromotherapy: when colors heal

Who has never marveled at a rainbow with its seven primary and secondary colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet? We have all intuitively experienced the power of this diffracted light.

Chromotherapy , which is sometimes called color therapy, is a treatment method that uses light in its entire spectrum.

This discipline shares with art therapy the power of color on the psyche. It acts on the physical and mental level. Natural white light is made up of eight visible colors. Artificial colored light is diffused or pulsed using chromotherapy lamps. Art and color are irremediably linked. Art and chromotherapy therefore go hand in hand.

But is chromotherapy really effective? This is what we invite you to discover in this article.

In reality, we are much more dependent on light than we imagine. Science has demonstrated that our body is a complex field of electromagnetic frequencies. It is not surprising that it has the ability to interact with light.

The most obvious demonstration comes from the ultraviolet rays essential to the skin.
This radiation allows us to produce vitamin D, essential for our body. Their visible action is tanning. So why not think that other colors can also benefit us?

From a scientific point of view, color does not exist.
It is the expression of a visual perception which involves a chain of physical, physiological and cognitive processes. (The CNRS journal October 2008).

Each color has an electromagnetic imprint linked to a specific wavelength. The range of colors is only a small part of all the waves that circulate in the universe. However, the eyes are able to differentiate it from sound and the multitude of electromagnetic vibrations.

Our environment is therefore colorful. We move through our daily lives through our senses.

If we perceive colors, it is because they constitute a language that allows us to specify what surrounds us. Color has naturally found its way into the depths of our cultures.

Each color has its own vibration, with potential for effectiveness on the living world. It's easy to see this. Let’s take plants for example. To absorb certain light rays from the sun, they do not need the green color, and therefore reflect it outwards. This is why plants appear green to us.

Chromotherapy, by targeting this property, aims for energetic rebalancing on the physical and psychological levels.

Like art therapy, this discipline is able to act on our physical and moral well-being.

What is chromotherapy?

We all know: a person's environment influences their state of mind.

Color therapy, also called chromotherapy, is a method that uses light and color to treat physical and mental health problems. Today, brain imaging demonstrates that colored light modifies certain neural circuits.

The main idea behind color therapy is that certain colors are recognized as stimulating and energizing, while others are more calming. They could therefore act on our daily life: motivation, sleep, appetite, etc.

But, even more, colors have the potential to heal. According to traditional Chinese medicine, our health depends on a good circulation of vital energy. All illness results from an imbalance of circulation in our body. “Qi” or “Chi”, as it is defined in Chinese medicine, is sometimes too weak, too strong, its circulation blocked or poorly directed.

Among all energy therapies, chromotherapy uses colors as powerful stimuli, capable of increasing or calming a person's "chi". Better yet, the color captured by the brain exerts its effects on all neuronal mechanisms and causes physiological manifestations and the release of hormones.

The history of chromotherapy

Prehistoric men widely used colors in cave paintings. Their ritual uses have been practiced throughout the world since the dawn of time. For example, the Tuaregs attach great importance to indigo. Red is almost universal: ancient Egypt, China and India made it a major color in their spiritual practices. The Navajos worship the color turquoise.

In ancient Greece, Egypt and China, colors were already used to heal body and mind. Thus feng shui practices the ancestral art of choosing the right shades around you and on yourself to harmonize your inner life. Colorful crystals, paints and plants were commonly used.

Hippocrates and Avicenna used them. Later, Paracelsus, Isaac Newton and Johann Wolfgang Goethe recognized the benefits of color. It was the latter who defined the notions of psychological resonance of color and the concept of chromatic agreement, as described in the book “The Theory of Colors” (1810) .

Isaac Newton at the beginning of the 17th century deepened our knowledge of the physical phenomenon of color. It defines the concept of the three primary colors: blue, yellow and red. These are so-called pure colors that cannot be obtained by any pigment mixture.

The Indian medical researcher of Persian origin, Doctor Dinshah Ghadiali , is one of the fathers of contemporary Chromotherapy. His work “The Spectro Chrometry Enyclopedia ” which dates from 192 0, lays the foundations. He explains in his work that light passes through us and is diffracted into colors which produce most of our energy.

The Danish doctor Niels Ryberg Finsen received the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1903 for his white light and color therapy, treatments for which he specially created an institute.
Read “Om Lysets Indvirkninger paa Huden” (on the effects of light on the skin).

Niels Ryberg Finsen Tina Karu, professor and doctor at the Laser Biomedicine Laboratory of the Institute of Laser and Information Technologies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Troitsk, made a revolutionary discovery in 1995. She showed how light acts on the cellular mitochondria. (Mitochondria are intracellular organisms which have the role of providing energy to cells).

Christian Agrapart , finally, is a French neuropsychiatrist. After having explored chemotherapy, hypnosis and acupuncture for a long time, the doctor founded chromatotherapy , a technique registered in 1989. Drawing heavily on ancestral and modern Chinese techniques, Christian Agrapart offers a holistic approach, which is based on calculation of trigrams. He published numerous works in collaboration with his wife Michèle Dumas, including “Chromatotherapy and its applications” and his “ Therapeutic Guide to Colors ”, which met with some success.

Michèle Delmas , for her part, works on ocular chromatotherapy. She published “When the light heals” in 2010.

How does chromotherapy work?

We often forget that light is essential for well-being. It strongly influences our mood. The wavelengths emitted by colors emit vibrations that make our cells vibrate. Colors stimulate our mind and hormonal production. They are likely to modify our states of being.

Each color is not felt the same way by different people. They influence our choices, and reveal our psyche. This is why a self-respecting color therapist always carries out a color test, at the start of each treatment session, to better identify this or that problem.

Certain colors, such as warm colors, play on the energy flow by toning the tissues. Cold tones, on the other hand, slow down this flow. Each color can act differently by cleansing the body or draining excess energy. Others are regenerative, nutritive, protective and healing. Painless, without side effects and without risk, chromotherapy combines perfectly with other therapeutic practices.

The body emits natural radiation. Colors represent the visible part of light waves. Color therapy relies on the vibrational dimension of light which generates nervous modifications in the organs and emotions. Cellular biochemical reactions are induced.

Some therapists use light points, on principles similar to acupuncture. It becomes possible to relieve pain, functional disorders such as rheumatism, sciatica or digestive problems. This method also helps fight anxiety, insomnia or overwork.

The language of colors

The human body can be defined as a biocultural construct that responds to color. Skin, teeth, hair, lips, nails undergo artificial chromatic modifications. This is one of the social dimensions linked to color.

The body tells us about ourselves as well as others. Beyond the “natural” color of the body, clothing constitutes an element of cultural recognition. The same goes for makeup, jewelry, tattooing and other body modifications.

Furthermore, we use color as a distinctive sign: it classifies, it associates things and beings using a different symbolic language depending on the civilization. This is demonstrated in particular by the lexicon.

Don't we say: green with fear, brooding, seeing life in pink, red with anger?

In life, colors often reflect our moods. Marketing professionals have understood that they can influence us. It also seems obvious that their use can be useful in helping to improve our emotional and physical well-being. They play a role in mental processes. This is undoubtedly why there is a profusion of colors on screens, on city walls, on packaging and in the smallest everyday objects.

Colorful walls can also spark joy and well-being. Marcel Rufo experienced its effects at the EMA, the child psychiatry hospital in Marseille. Young patients find an atmosphere conducive to calm. More than a decorative element, colors act on their well-being, promoting treatments.

What colors for you?

We all have preferences for certain colors. But do you know their actions on our physiology?

Warm colors stimulate. Furthermore, they give vital energy.

Are you lacking enthusiasm? Go for yellow and red.

Beware of blue light which can rob you of sleep.

Gray soothes both the body and the head.

Each color has a frequency and an action.

Energy: reds, oranges and yellows.
Balance: turquoise greens.
Concentration: indigo blues.
Regeneration: purples, magentas, fuchsias.
Red represents danger. It intensifies sensitivity to stress, it increases blood pressure and respiratory rate. It also stimulates the sexual appetite. Avoid in a bedroom if you have sleeping problems, or in a kitchen if you are bulimic.
Pink is relaxing. It reduces aggression and alleviates stress. It is preferred in places of passage.
Orange improves social connections.
Are you creative, or do you want to become one? The color blue suits you, it invites contemplation.
Yellow, for good humor. It symbolizes the joy of living.
The widely used white color is a color with few effects. In addition, it is neutral and perhaps serves other shades.
Gray is associated with elegance when combined with warm colors.

Art and chromotherapy.

Artists are experts in translating colors to express spiritual and emotional forces.

The color of an object depends on the ambient light, its nature, and the person looking at it. We create our colors by looking at a work of art as much as we are captive to it. This produces powerful effects, which go beyond our awareness.

This is why art therapy uses color to treat physical and mental health problems.

In art therapy, color therapy is often used to help people understand their emotions and manage feelings that are off balance; despair, stress, depression, etc.

Matisse, like many other painters, understood his powerful impact through his works. The use of pure pigments could, depending on its design, directly influence our vision of the external and internal world.

Professor Pierre Van Obberghen , visual artist, is dedicated to researching chromotherapy in parallel with the psychology and symbolism of colors. . (Color Treatise, Practical Therapy) . Between art and science, he explores the impact of color in our lives.

Is color therapy effective?

Projecting colored lights onto the body is said to treat certain illnesses. A practice deemed to have no scientific basis for the medical profession, which would rather amount to charlatanism. As in any discipline, there are radical followers.

However, the WHO recognized chromotherapy as one of the main alternative methods in 1976.

The problem with these types of alternative methods is that they can discredit other therapies that are sometimes essential for the healing of patients. Certain beliefs could replace recognized and effective methods, such as phototherapy, light therapy and red light treatment, for example.

Phototherapy uses sunlight, such as ultraviolet rays, to treat certain conditions such as certain skin diseases.

Light therapy

This branch of chromotherapy is well suited to combating seasonal depression. Its action acts by rebalancing our biological clock.

Light therapy is mainly used in countries deprived of daylight in winter. The technique is also used in various ways to heal the body. It acts, for example, on skin diseases such as psoriasis.

NASA uses red and infrared light to improve wound healing speed in zero gravity.

Colored glazing

To decorate your interior, why not try colored glazing?

Whether with colored glass or a colored film on your windows .

With colored films, you have a wide choice of colors to give an effect to your windows.

We live bathed in colors. They are everywhere, so we often don't pay attention to them. However, they act on living things, therefore also on our lives.

Light with its colored variants is life. Nothing living would exist on earth without the presence of the sun's light rays.

Related topics:

Painting therapy
Sophrology
Art and medicine
Art therapy sculpture

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