How it works
by Julianne Bien
• In her closing address at the UN-sponsored International Year of Light conference in Mérida, Mexico, in February, UNESCO’s (1) Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, Flavia Schlegel, stressed the importance of practical, cost-effective light-based solutions for the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
We are finally starting to fully appreciate the power of light, globally. Its advanced uses on land, at sea, deep under ground and far out in space prove we are able to tap the essence of the world around us.
But how about the world inside us? Health-related uses of light include diagnostics, surgery, psychiatry, psychology, revitalization, rejuvenation and emotional and spiritual makeovers. We have laser-based instruments, LED-based apparatuses, full-spectrum lights and various digital and analogue devices.
Where we lag behind is in understanding how, exactly, our bodies respond to light. This is why terms such as chromotherapy, phototherapy and light therapy in general – although ancient in origin – very slowly progress toward full endorsement of the medical establishment.
Auto-immune problems, emotional trauma, allergies, metabolic imbalances, seasonal affective disorder, jet lag, sleep and attention deficit disorders often respond better to light than to traditional medical interventions. And there are good reasons for that; we just haven’t explored them enough.
In the 20th century, photo-biologist John Ott was hired to document the effects of pharmaceutical drugs on living cells, with an electronic microscope and a special camera. Ott noticed that changing the colour filters on his camera lens changed the cells’ behaviour. In fact, lens colour change had a more dramatic effect on the cells than did the observed drugs.
On the ‘ground level’ where life in our bodies unfolds, light and colour have more say than chemical compounds which we concoct. Our cells naturally understand the language of light and its messages – which the colours convey through their frequencies – to ignite, burn, sizzle, scorch, smoulder or go off. That’s the same cycle the stars in our universe undergo.
I’m often asked how colour light therapy really works. It appears esoteric and mystical, bordering on magic. The best analogy I know – one we all know well – is fire.
Fire is quirky. It is our species’ first tool, process and weapon. It gives off light and heat on demand, echoing our life-giving star in the sky, and we get to wield it at will. If you look closely, it varies in colour, depending on intensity. At first, it’s yellow and orange; green flame tips and blue-ish bursts will tell you it’s sizzling; you’ll want it bright white, though, if you wish to melt metal or bake clay.
Still, starting and maintaining a fire is tricky, at best. It’s moody. It might flare up in an instant or just smoulder for hours. Sometimes, a trained hand gives up in frustration; another time a fire will light itself up. Too much moisture around it and it won’t even start; too little and it burns itself out.
So it is with us. We are internal combustion engines, with trillions of tiny burners. Our cells burn up oxygen and produce heat. They use the resulting light as an ultra-fast messaging system. It all works to perfection – from toes to teeth – except when it won’t.
When an imbalance sets in, our internal flame in an organ dies down. Or it flares up, past all safety limits, causing redness, fever and pain. We don’t know what triggers this any more than we can pinpoint the cause of a wild forest fire or control it.
Knowing how tiny our internal burners are, it’s easy to see how fine-tuned and delicate any support we give them must also be.
Most light-based treatments rely on emitting an intense light beam or outputting a wide swath of bright light – one way. Interaction is not usually foreseen. In contrast, hand-held colour light illuminators work off the silent communication between the person sending faint light and the person receiving it.
Instant reactions – live bio-feedback – guide the hand holding the penlight. By spontaneously adjusting the angle and the height of the light beam, we work within the aura and can affect all levels (physical, emotional and spiritual). As with lighting a fire, intuition and experience play a part. This adaptability is why low-intensity, hand-held colour light therapy tools and protocols are so effective.
Colour light therapy is ancient. Thousands of years-old records exist of diagnoses and cures based on colours. Chromotherapy is a well-travelled road to wellness we’ve all but forgotten over time.
With more research and even a fraction of the resources that are poured into developing chemical cures, we could restore much of what was known long ago about light and potentially discover more colour power than we ever imagined.
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© 2016. Julianne Bien is the inventor of the Spectrahue method of colour light therapy. She owns Spectrahue Light & Sound Inc., a Toronto-based company that distributes its original LumaLight hand-held tools and educational materials, including books, DVDs and live trainings. www.spectrahue.com
(1) United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
*No medical claims are made or implied. This information does not replace the advice and care of your medical health care professional.
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