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ChromatherapyWhere Did Chromatherapy Originate?
The word Chromatherapy is derived from the Greek word “khroma,” meaning color, and is a method of healing with the use of color. The historic roots of color and light therapy date back to India, Egypt, Greece, and China. Ayurveda, an ancient healing system which originated in India thousands of years ago, associates colors with each of the 7 primary energy centers (chakras) of the body. Ancient Egyptians also made use of color therapy by using solarium-type rooms which were filled with windows of colored glass. Sun shining through the glass would flood the patient with specific colors. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the organs and systems within the body are also associated with specific colors.
Known as the “Prince of Physicians,” Avicenna (980-1037)Islamic physician, philosopher, scientist contributions for his contributions in the field of philosophy and religion viewed color to be of vital importance for diagnosis and treatment in his medical encyclopedia “The Canon of Medicine.” Divided into five volumes, this encyclopedia includes medical knowledge collected from around the world, including Greece, Europe, India, Persia (Iran), China, and Tibet, to form standard principles of medicine. He also composed the Kitāb al-shifā (known as the "Book of Healing"), a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopedia. Avicenna wrote that "Color is an observable symptom of disease" and also developed a chart which related color to the temperature and physical condition of the body. The Canon of Medicine has been translated into every major language in the civilized world and was considered a great leap in the field of medicine in its time.
In 1810, Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe published his “Theory of Colour.” Considered one of the first holistic thinkers, Goethe presented his theory on color from the perspective of human perception, stressing that it is “impossible to divorce oneself from participation in nature.” This viewpoint was considered controversial for its time as it was in direct contrast to Newton’s scientific viewpoint of the optical spectrum. Other works followed on the value of color. In 1877, Dr. S. Pancoast published “Light and its Rays as Medicine” which presented his successful use of color filtered through sunlight as a therapeutic agent. This was closely followed in 1878 by the “Principles of Light and Color” by Dr. Edwin D. Babbitt which focused on the different color spectrums and their uses in healings. In 1933, scientist Dinshah P. Ghadiali published “The Spectro-Chome Metry Encyclopedia” which was the first book to explain how and why various colors had a therapeutic effect on the human body. Ghadiali maintained that living in a healthy body requires a proper balance within the body of the color energies. When this balance is disturbed then disease can result.
Considered a pioneer in the field of chromatherapy, Danish physician Dr. Niels Finsen conducted research on which light frequencies would best heal skin affected with smallpox and tuberculosis. Finsen discovered that red light sped healing in recovering smallpox victims, and that ultraviolet radiation sped healing in the recovery of tuberculosis lesions. In 1896, Finsen founded the Medical Light Institute (now the Finsen Institute of Copenhagen) for the phototreatment of tuberculosis. Dr. Finsen's success in the application of chromatherapy for skin treatment earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1903.
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