THE PRINCIPLES OF COLOUR THERAPY

Colour therapy is a subtle non-invasive therapy making use of the healing energy contained within the visible rays of colour. Colour therapists introduce the optimum balance of colour energies into the human organism in order to promote harmony and balance between the body, mind and spirit. Only when this balance occurs are we able to work towards a state of perfect health. Colour therapy is at present a complementary therapy, which works well with many other methods of treatments. There are, however, many cases where colour therapy has worked while other methods of treatment have been ineffectual. You do not have to be ill to benefit from colour therapy, as we are all striving towards wholeness and perfect health. Colour therapy encourages us to take personal responsibility for our life and to use the healing power within ourselves. A colour therapist can use colour to balance energy, aid creativity and learning, release blocks and alleviate physical, emotional and mental conditions. Colour therapy helps people understand their needs for certain colours, and show them how to use these colours for healing, health, relaxation, inspiration and protection. Colour therapy is now used extensively in Asia, Europe and America as a complementary treatment for many physical, emotional and mental problems. These include ailments such as asthma, arthritis, nervous and mental disorders, depression, eating disorders, skin diseases, digestive ailments, blood and circulation problems, fevers, rheumatism, shock, for the relief of pain and as part of the treatment for many serious illnesses such as paralysis, multiple sclerosis, M.E. cancers and Aids. Colour therapy has been used as a cure for leprosy in India using only a combination of diet and colour bandages.

Colour treatments can speed up recovery after an illness or an operation.Hospitals around the world are now using certain colours for the decoration of the wards to speed up recovery, with very positive results. It was reported recently that an eight-year-old girl was brought into hospital in Germany suffering from third degree burns. Her doctor, a homoeopath, treated her with colour therapy using blue light, and the child recovered fully in record time with surprisingly little scarring. As Colour therapists use the different colour wavelengths, which are in essence vibrations, colour therapy forms part of what is known as Vibrational Medicine. Sound, fragrance and thought waves are also vibrations, and this is why colour therapy, music therapy, aromatherapy and mind techniques such as meditation and creative visualisations are all closely linked. Sound waves are really colour vibrations slowed down. Think of an electric storm. First we see the lightning and later when the vibrations slow down, we hear the thunder. In fact our senses are so closely linked that some people when looking at a colour hear a corresponding sound. Many blind people can feel colour through their fingertips. Each colour has a different texture and feeling. In fact sighted people can also learn to differentiate colours through their fingers. Colour also emits a fragrance. There are machines which can show one the colour of sounds on a screen. This form of sound and light therapy was used to treat shell-shocked soldiers after the war.

THE EFFECT OF COLOUR ON US

Just as we need to eat a balanced diet if we are to be healthy, so too do we need a balance of the energy from the seven spectrum colours. These colour vibrations nourish not only the physical cells and organs but have a powerful influence on our emotional, mental and nervous activity as well as our spiritual well-being. We all know that colour affects our moods. We find some colours are uplifting and inspiring while others depressing. We often use terms like, 'feeling blue' or 'seeing red', without really thinking of the meaning behind the words. Our feelings and emotions are directly affected by the balance or imbalance of hormones in our body. The energy from coloured light travels to the pituitary gland, the master gland of the endocrine system, thus affecting our entire metabolism. So the visible rays increase and stimulate the production of hormones. Coloured light also causes calcium and phosphorus to be more readily utilised, and pathological blood sugar is diminished without any disturbance to normal blood sugar. The red/orange rays produce heat, which relieves congested conditions. The lymphatic stasis is reduced, causing blood vessels to dilate, resulting in increased blood supply. On the other hand, the cooling blue wavelength reduces blood pressure as the suprarenals are depressed whilst the thyroid gland is stimulated. Colour affects our mental body too. Certain colours, like blue, can calm our minds, while others, like certain shades of yellow, can stimulate mental activity. The effect of colour, however, does not end when we close our eyes. Colour is absorbed through the skin, affecting every cell in our body. As all cells are light sensitive, so colour vibrations affect their growth and behaviour causing fine bio-chemical changes to take place.

Colour therapy is particularly useful as a preventative medicine. Coloured light causes anti-bodies to be stimulated, thus increasing the resistance to bacterial disease or disturbance. Leucocytes can also be increased thus stimulating the capacity of the individual to overcome bacterial infection. Not only do we take in coloured light through our eyes and skin, we also draw in light energy through a system of body energy centres, known as the chakras, which are directly linked to our nervous system.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF COLOUR THERAPY

As with many other complementary medicines, colour therapists believe that a person is not merely a mass of bones, muscles and tissues held together by electrical impulses from the brain. We believe that people have souls. As the word soul is derived from the word 'sol' or sun, we believe that man has his own internal sun, and is an illuminated being or embodied spirit. Colour therapists recognise that while we may have the same illness as someone else, we are all unique, and the cause and treatment of an illness will vary from person to person according to their particular colour needs. Conventional Western medicine treats the disease, but colour therapists treat the patient. That is the whole person, who may coincidentally have an illness. We need to know about the mental and emotional state of the client as well as understanding his spiritual nature. Colour healers look for the true cause of a physical problem, for if we can treat a problem at its source, it can be properly cured. Much medicine used today is really 'band aid' medicine. This uses drugs and external treatments to cover or hide the symptoms with the result the illness may be temporarily held at bay, only to reoccur later perhaps in the same way or in another form. The expectation of most people has also to be changed. Too often when we get ill, we go to a doctor expecting him or her to give us some medicine to make us better. We are handing over responsibility for our well being to somebody else. Illness manifests when there is a need to change a negative No amount of pill popping or medicine will help unless we truly want to change. Many problems are caused by our lifestyle, which involves stress, lack of exercise, poor diet, negative thoughts and actions. These are things we need to change for ourselves. Therapists are there to help us find out what areas in our life need changing. Colour is particularly good for identifying problem areas in our life and helping us make the necessary changes. Illness is only a state of energy imbalance. As colour healing works with energy, it is able to move and balance blockaged energy. Through counselling with colour, a client is encouraged to discover the healing powers within him or herself. Most illness develops in the emotional, mental or spiritual body long before it shows up as physical symptoms. As colour directly links to the subconscious mind, acting as a bridge between the visible and invisible worlds, we can use it to diagnose the root cause of a problem, treating and dispersing it at a deep level. So, illness and especially pain develops to let us know that we need to make changes in our life. It is no use numbing the pain, as the underlying problem will only be healed when we make changes in our life. For example, a woman who suffers from lower back pain really feels that she is without support from her family, while another person with shoulder trouble is taking on too much responsibility, and is literally taking the world on his shoulders. Until the problems relating to the emotional and mental state of the person can be faced, the problem will remain. Illness can also be caused by spiritual imbalances. It is difficult to find the spiritual causes of disease, and one can only really do this by developing one's intuition with these things. For instance, some unexplained phobias could be brought with us from our experiences in another lifetime. Also some states like epilepsy and mental disorders are probably the result of mixed energies brought in from the spiritual world.

OUR PHYSICAL AND SUBTLE BODIES

What do we mean, by treating the whole person? Remember that complementary therapists look at a human being in the context that he is an embodied spirit with a soul.This means there are other parts of our being which we cannot see. Not only do we have our Physical Body but also six other subtle bodies radiating outwards from our physical form. It is only because we are limited by our five senses that most people are only aware of their physical body. Closely linked to our dense body is the etheric body. The Etheric Body is identical to the physical body in every aspect other than it vibrates at a higher rate. The etheric body is our protection, and blockages and distortions of energy can be picked up in the etheric long before there is any sign of them in the physical body. So many physical and mental disorders can be dispersed in the etheric level so never manifest on the physical plane. The etheric is much like the ozone layer surrounding the earth. It collects and filters the energy from the other higher subtle bodies. Unfortunately the etheric body cannot differentiate between good and bad vibrations and lets all these permeate through to the physical body.

Vibrating at a higher rate than the etheric is the Astral Body, and it is in this body that we can move in our dreams. The astral body reflects our moods and emotional state at any time. We also have a Mental Body, which is the collection of thought vibrations, good and bad that surround us. The remaining subtle bodies are the Causal Body, which has to do with our karmas and purpose on earth in this lifetime, and two higher bodies connecting us to the divine life force. Colour vibrations permeate all these bodies, correcting and balancing the life-force energy. Colour is really the purest healing force in the universe, but its penetrating powers are only now being rediscovered and developed in a way appropriate to help us in this modern world. There have been many scientific studies recently proving the effects of the visible coloured rays upon us. In many cases we know that colour therapy works, but as yet are unable to explain why. One thing we do know is that no two people's experiences are the same. Everyone working with colour can contribute to the further understanding of this wonderful healing force. For vibrational medicine is the true medicine of the future.

LIGHT THERAPY

Introduction

Ancient medical books are filled with explanations of the importance of getting enough light. For example, the ancient Ayurvedic physician Chakra who lived in the sixth century B.C., recommended sunlight to treat a variety of diseases. For thousands of years people the world over have revered the sun as a great healer; some ancient cultures even worshiped the sun.

In 1980, A.J. Lewy and coworkers published an article in Science that ushered in the modern era of phototherapy. Lewy suggested that secretion of the hormone melatonin could be suppressed by exposing subjects to bright artificial light but not to light of ordinary indoor intensity. As we shall see later, melatonin is nicknamed "the chemical expression of darkness" as it is secreted at night and is believed to tell the body that it is time to sleep. It has been shown that melatonin in animals is secreted at night by the pineal gland under the influence of a circadian rhythm. Light rays impinging on the retina are converted into nerve impulses, which influence the secretion of melatonin by connections between the retina and the hypothalamus. This demonstration that one physiologic effect of light in humans, transmitted presumably via the hypothalamus, has a threshold intensity far higher than that required for vision, suggested that there might be other effects of light on the brain that require high-intensity light.

There is no doubt that the sun plays a very important role in our daily lives. During winter, the well-to-do vacations in Caribbean. The summer months are synonymous with spending time in the beach, in spite of all the warning of the potential to get skin cancer. We feel better after spending time in the sun. Today, most of the doctors and medical researchers view the sun more as a healer than a hazard.

We know that lack of sunlight can result in nutritional deficiencies. Without sunlight vitamin D cannot be metabolized in the human body, which can result in rickets. Most enzymes, hormones and vitamins need light for proper functioning. Studies have shown that different lights affect different enzymatic reactions for healing purposes. For example, one of the first tests pediatricians do to a new-born baby is to check for jaundice. If found positive, they are placed under a blue light to cure the disease. So, most of us are given light therapy, without us being aware of it.

Professor Mester of Budapest University conducted experiments to determine the function of light in the cells of animals and humans. He found that the monochromatic light promotes the DNA to use the lipoprotein in the area enabling the cell to function better as well as to produce collagen and elastin.

In a study reported in the American Geriatrics Society, researchers wanted to find out "the effects of low-power light therapy on pain and disability in elderly patients with degenerative osteoarthritis of the knee." They have divided the patients into three groups. One group was treated with red light, one was treated with infrared light and the third group got no light therapy. Prior to the light therapy, the pain and disability was statistically similar among the three control groups. They found that pain reduction in the red and infrared groups after the treatment was more than 50%. Significant functional improvement was observed in the red and infrared-treated groups, but not in the placebo group. The experiment showed that low-power light therapy is effective in relieving pain and disability in degenerative osteoarthritis of the knee.

In fact, researchers have determined several benefits from regular, moderate exposure to sunlight-or to sun-like artificial lights. Such exposure can help relieve winter blues and treat other forms of depression; minimize jet lag; shorten abnormally long menstrual cycles and treat psoriasis, eating disorders and some forms of insomnia. It can possibly even help relieve some symptoms of lupus-a serious disease involving the immune system

How Does Light Affect The Human Functions?

Human beings are the product of habits and heritage. Before the advent of alarm clocks, many farmers woke up hearing the rooster crowing, announcing the arrival of morning. They milked their cows, worked in the farm and went into bed at night. There was no electricity. So, daylight announced the initiation and termination of many activities.

Modern life style differs significantly from these early days. Most of us wake up in the morning, not by hearing a rooster crow or by feeling the golden rays of sunlight slowly drifting into our rooms; we wake up by the alarm clock or by the clock radio. Many of us have tough time getting up at the first time; so we set the "snooze" button to give us a little more of precious time to sleep. The windows have heavy drapes, so most of us do not see the sunlight except when we peek outside. In the evening, many of us stay awake to watch the late night shows. (Now we have light night shows and late night shows to keep us company till the wee hours of the night.)

The problem is that our system needs time to sleep. Studies on animals have shown that they have definite patterns they follow every day depending on the season. In autumn, most of the plants and animals get ready to go into "hibernation" for the winter period. Many birds migrate to south for the winter. During this period, they do not eat much (There is not much food to be found.) But, come spring, nature become very lively. The birds return from the south. The trees start the new growth.

Many animals are found to time the events in their lives depending on the season, so that the functions can be accomplished at the most effective way. For example, lambs are born only in the spring when there is plentiful of food for the mother to nurse the newborn. Most of the animal species coordinate the mating time so that the birth occurs in the season when there is plenty of food available. In the tropical rainforests, birds wait till the dry season to breed. In Arctic, the breeding is timed to coincide with the melting of snow and ice.

The question is how do animals know how to predict the seasons in advance? Is it the temperature fluctuations? It cannot be, because, sometimes we have the "so called Indian Summer" in fall; but the birds do fine. It turns out that the most important factor is the day light; or more specifically the day/night cycle. Animals and plants sense the shortening of the days in the fall and perceive the arrival of winter. In spring, the lengthening of the day signifies the arrival of spring and summer. Most of the expert horticulturists know about this. They manipulate the "day light hours" (or photoperiod) to coax the poinsettia to bloom in time for the Christmas season, daylilies to bloom for the Easter (although Easter can be in March or April), etc.

It turns out that human beings are also influenced by the light. Light determines our sleep/wake cycle. In most animals and humans, the desire to sleep is brought on by secretion of a hormone called melatonin. Melatonin is produced in a tiny gland known as the pineal gland. In the evening the pineal gland reacts to the diminishing levels of daylight and starts to produce melatonin, which is then released into the blood and flows through the body making us drowsy. Its secretion peaks in the middle of the night during our heaviest hours of sleep. In the morning, bright light shining through the eye reaches the pineal gland which reacts by switching off the production of melatonin, thus removing the desire to sleep.

The pineal gland is linked up to the rest of the hormonal system. Consequently melatonin production also influences the functioning of other parts of the body. During darkness and sleep, melatonin modifies the secretion of hormones from organs such as the pituitary, the master gland of the hormonal system. The pituitary in turn regulates the secretion of hormones controlling growth, milk production, egg and sperm production. It also regulates the action of the thyroid gland, which is concerned with metabolism, and the adrenal glands, which control excretion of the body's waste. It is obvious then that fluctuations in light and darkness according to the seasons of the year will influence rhythms of growth, reproduction and activity in animals and indeed humans.

Statistics show that despite living and working in "closed structures", our bodies still respond to the external environment and to its seasonal variability in duration and intensity. Scientist have found that growth rates in children are affected by the seasons. For example, surveys carried out in Germany, Sweden and Scotland show that height and weight increase is more predominant in the spring and early summer. In many countries the rate of conception peaks in the summer when the hours of daylight are longest. In numerous trials the seasons have been seen to influence the timing and duration of sleep, pain threshold, alertness, eating habits, mood, the onset of menstruation in women and sexual activity

Biological Clocks and the Relationship to Health

We have shown that light levels influence the life in animals and humans immensely. Scientists have performed experiments to determine how animals will react if they are deprived of light. Of particular interest was to determine, whether they can perceive the seasons in the absence of light. These studies have shown that, the animals perceived the arrival of seasons without the aid of the light. This result led them to the conclusions that the animals and humans too, possess a biological clock in their body that can keep the approximate time in the absence of the external stimuli such as sunlight.

The interesting thing they noticed was that, this biological clock was, at best, approximate. It was not meant to keep time over a longer period of time. (This can be illustrated with the example of our spare tire in cars. Most of new cars come with a spare tire which is smaller in size. It is meant to be used, in case their tire has to puncture, to go to the nearest service station to get the main one fixed. Because the spare tire is smaller, it cannot be used to drive for extended period of time.) For example, the body clock sensed the day more than 24 hours. (The cycle was anywhere from 24 to 48 hours in the absence of light.) What we do is to use the natural daylight to "fine-tune" our body clock (or to apply a correction), so that the body clock is in synch with the external environment. The result of going for an extended period of time without having our body clocks "reset" with natural light is that we get sick with problems such as hormonal imbalances, sleep disorders, and mood disturbances.

Just as animals rely on signals from the sun to keep their body clocks exact and to synchronize their activities, so humans need sufficient daylight to synchronize their circadian and circannual rhythms. It has been suggested that a number of illnesses which result from hormonal imbalances - sleep, appetite, mood and reproductive disorders - could be linked to a disruption of circadian rhythms and ultimately to a lack of sufficient sunlight. SAD is an example of disturbed sleep patterns, appetite and weight disorders and depression, all of which manifest in a yearly and daily cycle: the symptoms peak at the height of winter and are at their worst in the evening. Giving SAD patients artificial daylight (light therapy) has proved successful in correcting these disorders, which suggests that SAD is directly associated with a lack of sufficient light.

There are other diseases that are influenced by the circadian rhythm disturbances. Classical depression has a daily rhythm. It worsens in the morning and improves in the evening. The result of this swing is the appearance of mood swings, along with insomnia or disturbed sleep patterns. Today, classical depression is often treated with drugs which exert an influence on circadian rhythms. Research is being carried out to determine the effectiveness of treating it with light therapy. Menstrual disturbances in women, such as irregular menstrual cycles or premenstrual syndrome are further examples of disturbances in the body's biological clocks. Again research is looking at the possibility of treatment with light therapy

Brain, Hormones, Biological Cycles and Clocks

In order to understand the mechanism of Seasonal Affective disorder and the effect of light on our mind, it is necessary to get an understanding of how our body and brain work. We will introduce some important terms in this section to augment our understanding.

Our brain manages a number of complicated body processes, breathing, digestion, circulation, growth, reproduction, and repair. The brain utilizes two separated systems to control these processes, the nervous system and the endocrine system.

The nervous system is the fastest out of the two. Two send a message fast; the brain uses the nervous system. The messages are generally brief (such as a few thousandths of a second). The nervous system employs electrical impulses that travel through nerve cells as fast as 650 feet (200 meters) per second.

The endocrine system sends most messages slowly. It uses hormones to produce more long lasting effects. Hormonal messages travel through the blood stream. It may take several hours or days to reach the destination or to effect a change. Endocrine system is a collection of ductless glands throughout the body that secrete hormones directly into the blood stream. These glands include the pituitary, thyroid, thymus, adrenals, pancreas, ovaries or testes, and many others. The function of these glands are to control the internal environment of the entire body.

The difference between nervous system and endocrine system can be illustrated as follows. Let us say we need to send an article from the United States to Asia. The fastest way to send it is by air mail or express mail. It will take a few days. Since it is expensive, we will only utilize the medium for small things such as a letter. The other way to send is by surface mail (by ship). This takes a few months to get there; but is relatively cheap compared to air mail. Normally, big, bulky items are transported by this means. In this analogy, air mail is like the nervous system and the surface mail is like the endocrine system. Depending on the amount of material to send and the urgency of the message, the brain chooses either one of these systems.

Hypothalamus

Hypothalamus is known as the brain behind the endocrine system. The main vehicle used by hypothalamus is the pituitary (a pea sized gland that sits under the hypothalamus) to control other glands. The hypothalamus weighs a fraction of an ounce. It is about the size of the tip of our thumb.

For example, when hypothalamus determines that the level of thyroid hormone in the blood needs to be increased, it releases a hormone to the pituitary gland instructing it to convey the message to the thyroid gland. The pituitary immediately sends a thyroid stimulating hormone to the thyroid instructing it to release more thyroids. When thyroid receives this message, it will start releasing the thyroid hormone called thyroxin. When this happens, the metabolic rates are speeded up. In the same fashion, hypothalamus controls the other endocrine systems, thus controlling such things as the sugar level in the blood, the body temperature, etc.

Pineal Gland

Pineal Gland is a tiny pine-cone shaped (the name is from the resemblance of the shape of the organ to the pine cone) organ located at the back of the brain, just above the brain stem.

Many scientists believe that pineal gland is the "aging clock" for the body. It appears to act as the body's timekeeper by keeping the body in sync with the most constant environmental cue we have: the light-dark cycle.

It is the panel’s job to announce to the rest of the body that it is dawn or dusk, time for the body to be awake and alert, or time to prepare for bed and a rejuvenating sleep. This crucial signal sets complex processes into motion, a cycle that is designed to remain relatively regular and balanced. The circadian rhythm (see below for an explanation) lies at the heart of the state of internal balance and harmony we know of as health. When it becomes disrupted over a long period of time, there may be serious physical and psychological consequences.

At the same time, the pineal gland also appears to act as the body's pacemaker, a kind of "activities director" for the human life cycle. Scientists believe that the pineal gland, through its major product, melatonin, triggers the start of puberty and regulates reproductive life. When the pineal gland stops giving out its melatonin-directed signals, we grow old because our bodies are no longer able to operate with efficiency or with internal synchronicity.

Melatonin

Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland. Scientists believe that the pineal gland and melatonin are the body's primary timekeepers-its clock and calendar-imparting information about the time of day, season of the year, and phase of life to the brain and throughout the body. Melatonin is believed to influence the internal processes so that all of the body's systems work together, in coordination. Should this internal structure become disorganized in any way, the body becomes more susceptible to disease.

Melatonin is produced almost exclusively at night or in a light-free environment. (In fact, it is nicknamed "the chemical expression of darkness" by scientists because of its nocturnal habits.) Blood levels of melatonin are up to ten times greater at night than during the day. This high concentration of nocturnal melatonin led scientists to conclude that the production of this hormone signals to the rest of the body that it is time to sleep. Indeed, melatonin supplements have been used for decades to treat sleep-related problems, such as insomnia, sleep apnea, and jet lag.

In the morning, when we perceive that it is light, melatonin secretion ceases, which stimulates the production of other hormones and hence other body activities to begin. This orderly daily rhythm is of prime importance to our physical condition, intellectual capabilities, and emotional health.

Animals change their behaviors such as reproduction, hibernation, and migration based on the season. It is believed that animals perceive the change of seasons by the patterns of light and dark. The mechanism used to implement this behavior is by the secretion of melatonin. When daylight hours grow shorter during the autumn months, melatonin production in animals automatically increases, helping to make the almost constant sleep of hibernation possible. When daylight hours increase during the spring, the pineal gland secretes less melatonin, triggering a new pattern of physical activity.

The ways in which these seasonal patterns affect human behavior is under intense investigation. Some researchers believe that seasonal melatonin levels may help to explain Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Chronobiology is a new science that is concerned with identifying our cycles and internal clocks and seeing how they interact. Such natural rhythms as temperature fluctuations, weather systems, patterns of light and dark are studied to explore how it affects the life cycle of men and women.

Melatonin and Serotonin

Melatonin affects the production and subsequent action of several other hormones in the body. It works in sync with serotonin, a powerful neurotransmitter from which it is derived. Serotonin is involved in several central physiological processes, including pain perception, temperature and blood-pressure regulation, and several neuropsychological functions such as appetite, memory, and mood. Like melatonin, serotonin levels influence a myriad of endocrine activities, including those performed by the hypothalamus and pituitary gland.

Generally speaking, melatonin and serotonin are not active in the body at the same time. As mentioned earlier, melatonin is active at night; serotonin is active in the daytime. Although both tend to moderate endocrine functions, serotonin may also have a negative effect on the cardiovascular system if its levels are too high in the bloodstream. It has been known to cause blood clotting and narrowing of the blood vessels, among other problems. And, unlike melatonin, serotonin levels in the body do not decrease as we age, but instead increase in relation to other hormones and neurotransmitters. Scientists who specialize in the study of elderly and the aging process believe that this age-related imbalance between serotonin and melatonin may play as important a role in the aging process as the lack of melatonin itself, particularly in relation to heart disease. Without melatonin to act as a free-radical scavenger during the night, more damage may occur to blood vessels, thus stimulating the release of more serotonin.

Research has also shown that in very depressed people, there is a shortage of serotonin, along with dopamine and nor epinephrine, three of the neurotransmitters used by the brain. So, the serotonin and melatonin link along with their dependence on the body clock may explain the depression experienced by the people suffering from SAD

Rhythms and Body Clock

Circadian Rhythm

From the Latin circa (about) dies (a day), the circadian rhythm is the twenty-four-hour cycle of light/dark, wakefulness/sleep to which most human physiologic processes are set. At regular intervals each day, the body tends to become hungry, tired, active, listless, energized. Body temperature, heart-beat, blood pressure, hormone levels, and urine flow rise and fall in this relatively predictable, rhythmic pattern - a pattern initiated and governed by exposure to sunlight and darkness.

Experiments where humans were placed in isolation chambers, cut off from all potential environmental cues, have shown that, in the absence of natural daylight, rhythms are still maintained. But in the absence of the day light, the rhythms tend to deviate from 24 hours. For instance, the rhythms were found to expand to 24-30 hours, thus disrupting the biological processes over a long period of time.

The fact that animals and humans can continue to function according to daily and annual rhythms in the absence of external environmental stimuli means that animals and humans possess some kind of biological clock, which act as a backup mechanism in case it cannot get the proper stimuli from the natural events such as sunshine.

This behavior can be illustrated by our clocks. Let us say, our clock is running slow. Over a period of time, the clock may lag the actual time because of this defect. Usually, we will reset the clock when it gets far out of sync by other external stimuli like a radio or phone time. Now, if we do not have access to this external synchronizing signal, the clock can get far out of line with the reality. Our body clocks functions the same way. The biological clock can keep the time; but in the absence of correction from the day/light cycle provided by the sun, the biological clock tends go out of sync affecting our physical and mental health. A similar thing happens when we travel across time zones; we tend to experience what is known as "jet lag".

However, in the absence of natural light our body clocks may lose or gain a little time. This in turn could lead to the resynchronization of different rhythms. For example, in the absence of sufficient environmental light the sleep-wake and associated rest-activity rhythms may lengthen to a cycle of between 30 and 48 hours, while the temperature rhythm may remain at a period of, say, 25 hours. Such resynchronization of the body's intricate rhythms is suspected to trigger problems: hormonal imbalances sleep disorders and mood disturbances.

Circannual Rhythm

Circannual rhythm is the annual or yearly cycle used by all living things.

Circaseptan Rhythm

Circaseptan rhythm is a seven-day cycle in which the biological processes of life, including disease symptoms and development, resolve. Many physicians believe that transplant patients tend to have more rejection episodes seven, fourteen, twenty-one, and twenty-eight days after surgery. They further believe that medications administered to the patients at particular times may be more effective than at other times. These are all related to the circaseptan rhythm.

How does the brain know when it is light or dark?

Deep within the brain, inside the hypothalamus, lie two clusters of cells (i.e., neurons) called the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN). Each of these SCN is composed of more than 8,000 neurons. The SCN act as the body's circadian pacemaker. In mammals, the SCN appear to get their information from photoreceptors in the retina, which transmit signals about light and dark through the optic nerves to the hypothalamus. Once these messages enter the SCN, a series of physiological reactions takes place.

What happens after the light/dark signal reaches the SCN?

We are not sure. The pathway from the retina through the optic nerves to the SCN extends further to reach the pineal gland, which lies adjacent to the hypothalamus above the brain stem. Stimulated by the message it receives from the SCN, the pineal gland either secretes its main hormone, melatonin, or inhibits melatonin's release, which may result in the production of serotonin as was explained before

Light Therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorders

One of the most important applications of light therapy is in the treatment of Seasonal Affective Disorders (SADS). There is a large body of scientific evidence that points to the efficacy of light therapy for the treatment of SAD. What is not quite understood, yet, is how light treatment works.

We have shown that our daily rhythms are affected by the availability of the natural sun light. Many of us work in artificially lit buildings and does not get enough light. Most artificial lighting cannot replace the natural light. The reason for this is that the type of indoor lighting we use is not of sufficient intensity to affect the hormonal mechanisms which control our bodily rhythms. Intensity of light is measured in a unit called lux. One lumen means the light received by the receptor at an intensity of one lumen per square meter. Thus the intensity of light at any point is determined not only by the strength of the illumination source but also by how far it is from the source. The electric light used in most homes and workplaces rarely exceeds 500 lux. A sunny afternoon could be as much as 100,000 lux, and even the cloudiest day is rarely below 10,000 lux. Researchers have discovered that light of at least 2,500 lux is necessary to suppress melatonin production in humans. Most of the bright light therapy uses 5000 lux light (10,000 lux preferred.) The artificial light we use indoors is not of sufficient intensity to suppress melatonin and to correct the circadian rhythm. Night-shift workers, and people who live in Arctic climates, are usually exposed to light levels of only 50 lux. Light specialists believe this "mal-illumination" may be at the heart of many common disorders, including fatigue, depression, skin damage, suppressed immune function, and, of course, sleep problems.

Light therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder and circadian-rhythm disorders involves sending visible light through the eyes so that it reaches, and triggers, the pineal gland.

There are several different forms of light therapy in use today; the oldest is sunlight itself. The sun is the ultimate source of full-spectrum light, which means it contains all possible wavelengths of light, from infrared to ultraviolet. Generally speaking light therapy involves the use of equipment that sheds either full spectrum or bright white light.

In most cases, the purpose of light therapy is to increase the amount of light to which we would otherwise be exposed. Bright light therapy consists of looking at special broad spectrum bright lights from one-half to three hours a day, generally in the early morning hours. One should not stare directly into the lights because of possible eye damage.

A substantial amount of light is needed, which means the distance from the lights to your eyes needs to be monitored---close enough to give you the best amount of light, but distant enough so you don't hurt your eyes.

By the mid- 1980s, bright-light therapy (phototherapy) had become the treatment of choice for SAD. But many people found it difficult to allocate the four hours everyday for the light therapy. Additional studies were conducted by the researchers to determine an optimum light therapy. It was found that similar benefits can be obtained from a morning only therapy, effectively slashing the time by half. Later, by increasing the brightness or the intensity of the lights used, the therapy time was cut down further.

A few years later, it was cut further by brightening the lights. For example, with 10,000-lux light, it only required 30 minutes of exposure per day to get effective cure from SAD.

SAD symptoms typically begin to lift about a week after the start of phototherapy. But they return shortly after discontinuing the treatment. As a result, authorities urge people with SAD to sit under bright light daily from October through April

If I was a colour what colour would I be? or alternatively, What is your favourite colour?

If you choose a shade or a tint of a colour. Read the true colour from which this colour is derived, e.g. pink is a tint of red, sky blue is a tint of blue, burgundy is a shade of red. If you choose a tint, the characteristics will be gentler and not so pronounced. If you choose a deep colour, the characteristics will be stronger. Other colours may be a mixture between two true colours. Turquoise for instance is made up of a mixture between blue and green. Therefore you will have some characteristics of blue and some of green. On this occasion black, white, grey and brown have not been included. If one of these is your first choice, choose another colour. Your favourite or identity colour reflects your personality traits and self-image. Each colour has its positive traits as well as negative traits. Which traits do you find relevant to you at this time? This will give you a good starting point Now look at the characteristics of your first favourite colour.

RED

A Red person is full of energy, vitality for red is the creative force in the universe. They are strong and physically active, and tend to be thin or muscular for they have an active metabolism. Red people are out-going, gregarious, and love life. You may be head-strong and impatient and like to get things done quickly. You may also tend to have a bad temper and get heated easily. Red people need to watch their blood pressure doesn't get too high, and watch problems like boils, rashes, and other skin diseases.

Colour needed to balance Red: Blue for softness and calm.

ORANGE

Orange people are just as vital as red people, but they are more practically oriented. Orange people are lively and out-going, and are very cheerful and joyous. While being active they are also practical and make good designers, engineers and architects. Orange people have to watch their energy levels, and often suffer from stress and a battered immune system.

Colour needed to balance Orange: Indigo for intuition and inner calm.

YELLOW

Yellow is the colour of the sun, so these people are bright and lively. They are interested in everything around them and are often scientific in nature. Yellow people are good communicators, and often take on too many projects for them to deal with. Yellow is a mental colour, and the yellow person has a good brain and is capable of logical clear thinking. They also place more importance on the mind than on the body. This results in them neglecting to take proper exercise, and often have a poor diet. The result is that the yellow person is prone to suffer from problems of the digestive system and problems relating to the liver and spleen. They need regular exercise.

Colour to balance Yellow: Violet to bring wisdom in your affairs.

GREEN

Green people are striving to find balance and harmony in their life. They are neither extrovert or introvert and often like to watch the world rather than participate. They do not like taking action and deliberate on anything they do finding it hard to make decisions. Green people are close to nature and love the countryside, parks and gardens, animals and children. As a green person you have a strong identity with the healing arts. They also need space and hate being crowded out. Green people tend to be over-cautious and insecure. Green rules the emotions and relates to matters of the heart. Green also has to do with 'possession' which may be in relationships or with monetary wealth. Many businessmen work on the green ray.

Colour to balance Green: Rose pink of universal love.

BLUE

You are soft, gentle and peaceful by nature. You are passive and introverted, liking to be surrounded by a loving, harmonious atmosphere. Other people feel comfortable in your presence. You have a highly developed intellect and are a good judge of character. You are wise and a decision-maker.

Blue people are caring and this is why blue is the colour of the medical profession. For blue uses the wisdom of the mind in a position of power or authority. Being introverted you do have to watch that you do not become too withdrawn and isolated. 'Blues' can suffer from bad depression. Blue people often find it difficult to communicate their needs and feelings and often suffer from problems related to the throat areas. They also suffer from low blood pressure.

Colours needed to balance Blue: Yellow to aid communication and orange to bring joy and warm relationships.

DEEP BLUE/INDIGO

Like blue people, Indigo people are strong intellectually, but are also in touch with their intuition and higher self. They need a loving and peaceful surroundings and need to be surrounded by beauty. They love music and the arts and with their knowledge comes power. They are very idealistic and many great reformers work on the Indigo ray. They are very loyal and truthful and must make sure they do not abuse their power. They should work for the good of others and not themselves.

Colours needed to balance Indigo: Orange brings practicality and earthing qualities.

VIOLET/PURPLE

These are extremely sensitive people, and are often musicians, artists or writers. They are easily hurt, and must take care that they surround themselves with other sympathetic individuals and supportive surroundings. Violet is the most intuitive of colours, and people choosing this colour are likely to be seeking spiritual development. Violet people are called to serve and many psychics and healers operate under the violet ray. Because they are so sensitive, violet people often suffer from mental and nervous disorders.

Colours needed to balance Violet: Yellow for wisdom and to boost personal power (ego).

COLOUR DISLIKES AND COLOUR TESTS

Our short-term attractions relate to a particular stage we are going through at the time and here it is particularly useful to consider the colours we do not like and reject.

If you do not like:

Red shows frustration, anger or defeat

Orange suffering from exhaustion, mental or physical fatigue

Yellow suffering disappointments, feeling powerless

Green mental disturbance, loneliness, rejection

Blue anxiety or fear, loss of wealth or status, sense of failure

Purple pretentious, conceited, vanity, can avoid close relationships

Brown Desire to stand out as an individual, or to stand on your own feet

Black Desire to be in control and not relinquish personal power

Each colour has both positive and negative aspects. If a person displays negative traits of a colour, this colour energy is blocked and its chakra centre needs to be cleared. To balance energy in a chakra, first use the colour rejected and then its complimentary colour to draw in the opposite positive traits. You will, of course, be taught different ways of clearing these blockages in further lessons of this course. In the meantime, it is important that you are able to diagnose a problem and know which colour energies that individual needs. For example, a woman who developed a lump on her thyroid, found it very difficult to speak her true feelings for fear of rejection. This woman obviously had a blockage in the throat or blue area which needed to be cleared.She then needed to be encouraged to communicate and build up her self-esteem. Yellow aids communications and orange helps draw warm loving relationships to one.

You will find the following list useful as it lists some of the negative

qualities of each colour and the colours needed to balance these:

BLOCKAGES AND NEGATIVE QUALITIES OF COLOURS

Red Inability to accept life's responsibilities. Ruthlessness, pushy, quick-tempered, stubborn

Orange Fearful, timid, shy, lack of interest in life. Problems with sexuality and relationships

Yellow Jealousy, envy, fear, emotions and living by patterns learned in childhood. Feelings of lack of power, obsessional behaviour, disoriented, muddle-headed

Green Insecurity, needing to be loved and protected. Feeling that life is unfair, unjust. Victim mentality.

Turquoise Confusion, turmoil, inability to move through your own boundaries and limitations. Destructive thought forms.

Blue Difficult to express yourself, motivational problems. Head in the clouds, daydreaming and not in touch with the real world.

Violet Fears and phobias, relying too heavily on the intellect and not on your intuition. Doubting and apologising for yourself.

Magenta Denying your own needs, martyrdom and self-sacrifice, inferiority complex, trying to control others.

COLOUR TEST (relating to immediate state of well-being)

You will need some pieces of clear bright coloured paper or card. Cut them into identical size and shapes. Make sure you have the following colours:

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Dark Blue, Violet/Purple

(Magenta and Turquoise can be added for a full test)

First choose the two colours that you are most attracted to. Try not to take too long to decide. Rather let your first impression give you your choice. The first colour you select will show you the energies you are using at the present time. Your second colour will indicate the area of challenge now facing you. A third colour can then be chosen to indicate what energies which are coming in, and that you should work with in order to meet your challenges.

RELATIONSHIPS REVEALED THROUGH COLOUR

We incarnate on this earth alone and we leave it alone. Most people feel a sense of loneliness at some time during their life. This is a painful feeling but not a destructive one, as this feeling comes from our soul's desire to go home and be united with the divine. We must remember that we are given everything we need for our time here, and the situations we find ourselves in, are given to us as lessons, so we can grow and become self-conscious. That is, to really know ourselves.

People colour other people's lives. We are attracted to people whose colours are in harmony with our own. Thus blue people will get on very well with green and violet personalities, while will clash with the reds and oranges. This is because the blue person likes peace and solitude while the orange person loves people, noise and parties. Ask your partner, friends and colleagues what their favourite colour is and find out about their colour personality. Many people are attracted to people whose colour energy they need at that time. Once they have drained that energy off that person, they move on and that relationship or friendship will come to an end. We have all experienced the feeling of being sapped of our energy by another person. Although we may have bias to one particular colour, a mature adult needs a balance of all the colours in his or her Aura. It is only when we have a balance of all these colour energies, and our chakra centres relating to these colours are open, that we can begin to have whole and lasting relationships.

Your name is a musical sound which is repeated during your whole life like a mantra. It is therefore very important. Many people do not like the names they were given at birth, and change them. This is because the name is out of tune with their own musical vibrations. There is much power in the

spoken word, as the sound sets up resonances and rhythms which affect other people and yourself. Poetry is another way we can use words to set up harmonious rhythms. A lullaby sung to infants by their mother or father, also has the same soothing effect. Mantras are sound rhythms which connect us to our inner selves and the divine world. The best known mantra is the AUM sound. This sound links the eyes, ears and mouth, in the form of a triangle a shape of much power and energy.

A = EYES

U = EARS

M = MOUTH

Repeating this mantra connects our third eye and our ability to develop inner vision and hearing.

YOUR LIFE SONG

Your Life Song is an interesting application of numerology, the ancient science of numbers first introduced and studied by the Greek philosopher Pythagoras around 530 B.C. Numerology is based on the concept that a person's personality traits can be foretold by making a simple calculation using only the individual's birthdate. The result of this calculation is called the “birth number” or “lifepath number”. While this may sound odd, as well as a bit foolish, the predictions made using this simple system are often surprisingly accurate. As you read on, you will learn how to determine your personal lifepath number and you will learn about the personality traits that accompany your number.

The calculation of the birth number is a simple one. Just add each of the digits in your date of birth together. If the numbers add up to a two or more digit number, then add those digits together and repeat this process until you have a single digit.

Example 23.03.1964 = 2+3+0+3+1+9+6+4=28

then 2+8=10

then 1+0=1

Birth Date number = 1

When you have calculated your birth number, you can find your key-note and identity colour.

You can play your key-note before meditating. Listen to music written in this key. Playing or humming a chord in one's keynote soothes strained nerves and a tired body.

Birth No.1 = C (middle) red

Birth No.2 = D orange

Birth No.3 = E yellow

Birth No.4 = F green

Birth No.5 = G turquoise

Birth No.6 = A blue

Birth No.7 = B violet

Birth No.8 = C (high C) silver

Birth No.9 = D (high D) gold

Visualise your identity colour while listening to your key-note. You can also imagine your identity colour forming a protective envelope around you. This colour energy will protect you from negative vibrations surrounding you. Do this before you go to any public place, or to a meeting, or if you are dealing with other people.

THE CRYSTAL KINGDOM

In order to function in this rapidly changing world, man needs to find more peace and harmony within himself. We need to discover the power of the mineral kingdom in order to become whole and wise, for if we upset the delicate balance of any of Nature’s kingdoms we end up suffering from our actions. All imbalances that we experience in the human kingdom can be balanced by elements in the mineral, plant and animal kingdom. The mineral kingdom gives service to all life by providing a stable balance for planetary structure. All other kingdoms on earth depend on the form and balance given by the life-force energies of the mineral kingdom. It provides the foundation for life. Minerals have the lowest vibrations of all living things. They form the body of the earth from which everything grows. We too are made up of the same elements as the earth. We are not separate from it, but connected by our life-force energies. Our human structure is made up of minerals and therefore the spiritual qualities of these minerals can be expressed in human form. We are now just beginning to realise the potential of crystals to heighten the spiritual and physical aspects of our newly awakened awareness. The mineral kingdom receives its life-force energy from the sun and from other planetary sources. Stones are living entities; living, breathing, transmitting, interacting, shining, pulsating. They emit powerful vibrations and frequencies that affect our whole being. They can heal, balance and attune the body, mind and spirit. Crystals are pure solarised sunlight, which take millions of years to form. Each has its own resonance, or vibration. Man has already possessed the knowledge for the use of crystals and light to heal. The ancient Atlantians were a great civilization that used colour and crystals for healing. The Atlantian crystal healing has highly developed as crystals provided the basic energy source. Not only were crystals used for healing but also for teaching and interstellar communication. Unfortunately, due to misuse of their powers, this knowledge was lost. Over the centuries people have used gemstones to attract the solar rays and indeed modern communication systems and computer technology make use of the crystal in the form of the silicon chip. Today we are learning to use crystals (precious or semi-precious stones) as a preventative and curative form of treatment, which generate healing vibrations acting on the body's energy field. Crystals can be used to channel healing energies through the healer to patient or be placed on specific parts of the body that need treatment. Crystals are here to teach and serve us, but their energy lies dormant until we awaken their elemental consciousness with unconditional love. The mineral, plant and most of the animal kingdom are bound by group consciousness. The elementals need to be directed, and therefore a crystal or gemstone needs to be programmed to serve. By holding a crystal in the left hand, send it love and energy. This wakes up the element in the crystal. Hold it over the heart centre saying, I love you. Give it caring love (not emotional love), forming a relationship with the crystal. It is only in some higher animals and man that we assert individual consciousness. This individual consciousness is brought about by our ego which binds us to this three dimensional world. The ego brings with it a separation from our intuition and higher self, which is spiritual in origin. We are very seldom aware of our true inner self, which links us to all other life forms. This disconnection causes most of our problems. We disregard the intuitive self as being illogical and unimportant for our daily routines and activities. So we suppress the expressions of our higher self, and over-ride them with our thoughts of logic and reasoning.

The intuitive self has capabilities to forewarn, foretell and guide us, and is typified by expression of selfless love, compassion and joy. Crystals can help us to liberate those areas of the mind, which we are not consciously aware of, and help us balance the subconscious (higher or intuitive self) and conscious mind.

As we strive for self-knowledge our level of consciousness increases. We are both matter and spirit, and once we can understand this connection we shall become whole and healthy. Man is on a path of evolution, which is to learn that the source of love is within us and to open to the goodness and abundance of the universe. We need to get in touch with our higher and spiritual self in order to connect to crystals and awaken their healing powers. The crystals themselves can help us to do this.Like all the kingdoms on earth the mineral kingdom is in a state of evolution. It is the struggle of the mineral kingdom to learn that they can give and receive life-force energy without leaving the space they occupy. This is the lesson of form. All the kingdoms have different lessons to learn.

The state of evolution of a stone is shown by the luminosity. Dull stones are less evolved, while clear luminous stones such as crystals and diamonds are highly evolved. Each stone is tuned in to a particular ray and have a particular function and purpose to serve.

CRYSTALS AND COLOUR

Crystals embody pure light energy, because they absorb and reflect light rays. As white light passes through a gem, certain wavelengths may be filtered out, those that survive the passage give the stone its colour .The gem embodies the power of the coloured ray it reflects. When light passes through a gem or crystal without interference, it is said to be transparent. If a particular wave length of colour is absorbed, the remaining rays will pass through the stone and give it a certain colour .If only some colours pass through the gem, it is said to be translucent or opaque. So translucent means allowing a passage of light although not a clear one. Lastly we have opaque stones, which are impervious to light. These stones will absorb all the colours of the spectrum, except for one colour wavelength. This colour will be reflected back, giving the stone its colour. Therefore if all wavelengths are absorbed except green, the stone will appear green. If all the light is absorbed the stone will appear black. Sometimes the interaction of light with a gemstone produces not a single colour but several. Gems like the diamond have the capacity to separate out the different wavelengths as light passes through them so that all the colours of the rainbow are produced. Other minerals also have this 'fire' quality such as found in the fire opal. These stones should be used on their own for healing, as they work on all the body energy centres