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Colour and Everyday Living is a rather long course generally taken over many weeks however I will try and condense it some and hope that you will persevere with me as you may gain some insight to colour and everyday living.
The visible spectrum consists of seven colors. They are: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. There are 3 primary light colors: Red, Green and Blue.
All colors are psychic; they are realities, not actualities. There is no color in nature.
Colors can excite, or subdue consciousness; can be successfully used in our mystical experiments. Colors can be seen, felt, heard and created in consciousness.
Color has memory, can aid in recalling past events.
Red is the color for concentration. Green is the color for contemplation. Blue is the color for meditation.
The aura does not have any color.
Color effects are always temporary.
All colors are psychologically therapeutic.
Colors change the environment.
Color and Everyday Living
Color is such an everyday part of our lives it is hard to imagine that it can have any effect other than to please or irritate. But there-in lies the clue-all of us are aware that there are some colors we like and some we don't; some make us feel calm, while others are energizing. And if, as recent biochemical research indicates, for each psychological event there is a psychological reaction, the premise that color might actually influence our well being sounds not so wild after all.
The use of color as therapy has been attempted in one form or another since the ancient Egyptians. The healers divined which color the patient was deficient in and put him in a room of that color. Gems of various hues were also employed, and could either be worn, held, or used to treat water: You soak the gem in the water, which "charges it" with the color of the gem, and drink the water. Pythagoras experimented with color therapy, basing his methods on the notion that color could be "fed" through the eyes.
The idea behind the gems as talismans of health is that the various stones which are minerals vibrate at different frequencies and act as condensers of energy from the sun.
Now considering that light and color are frequency vibrations, the thinking that gems could alter the energy field around you is not so farfetched. Furthermore, some of the latest research in nutrition suggests that minerals are exceedingly important to health. The difference here is that proponents of gem therapy advanced the concept that it is not necessary to ingest the mineral; merely keeping it in contact with the skin was thought to be sufficient.
Different nutritive effects
Color therapists today generally believe that when the body is in balance it filters out of white light the colors that it needs. When something's amiss hues applied in a variety of ways even wearing a light blue sweater on a day when you have a sore throat- are supposed to help. Green, for instance is thought to build muscle and tissue and likewise they attest eating green foods will also help. Considering that green vegetables are a rich source of vitamins and minerals needed to build strong tissues the color therapists have a point there.
Suggesting that limited lighting may be related to some forms of cancer. At least a half dozed animal studies have come up with a similar conclusion: reduced-spectrum lighting influences the growth and incidence of some types of cancer.
Incandescent lights, while they lack the full spectrum of natural sunlight, do not appear to cause the same problems, as limited fluorescence. Nevertheless, incandescent bulbs emit little or no ultraviolet and have graduated continuum which is slanted toward large amounts of red and infrared. John Ott, former chairman and executive director of the Environmental Health and Light Research Institute in Fort Lauderdale, developed full-spectrum fluorescents after nearly 40 years observing the effects of lights .upon plant growth. Ott created the full-spectrum by adding the proportionate amount of non-visible "black light" to the blend of phosphors currently used in a fluorescent tube.
Electric Chroma 50, DuroTest Optima, Philips Verd-A-Ray and Vita Lite. They cost a bit more than the limited-spectrum tubes, and the black light burns out in approximately a year with normal use. although the tube will still appear to be going strong, making it necessary to replace the fixture before you can "see" that it needs to be.
Garcy Lighting of Chicago is manufacturing a system using regular tubes with a small black light tube that can be changed when necessary during the normal life of the larger tubes. Called Spectralight, it also eliminates the usual flicker of fluorescence, which is recognized as a contributing factor to headaches, eyestrain, skin blemishes, fatigue and has even been known to cause spasms in some epileptics. Fluorescent tubes have also been found to emit radiation at the terminals and any type of fluorescent should have shields over the ends of the tubes. In addition, the whole tube should not be enclosed under plastic or glass since any covering prevents the full spectrum from coming through. Egg-crate designs (with a small grid) cover the tubes but retain open spaces thus reducing glare but passing ultraviolet and the rest of the spectrum.
School behavior affected
Just how bad limited-spectrum lighting is was markedly demonstrated with a group of first graders during the 1973-74 If we consider light a source of energy it is reasonable to assume that each kind of light--each color--might have a different nutritive effect.
Generally, foods of a certain color tend to have the same vitamins: Reddish foods (such as meat and beets) frequently are high sources of B vitamins; yellow--green foods (lemons, greens) are rich in vitamin C.
At this stage of knowledge our concept of color is a combination of two theories and the reality is probably somewhere in between. Light seems to act like a wave with a crest and trough. When two beams of light hit each other crest to crest, their brightness increases, and when a crest of one wave touches a trough of another, the brightness is diminished. Yet light remains a mystery, even to physicists, because sometimes it behaves like particle and not like
• wave system. Sir Isaac Newton passed light through a prism and
• single white beam was dispersed into red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo, and violet. He attempted to relate these colors to the seven notes in an octave, and while critics derided that connection as mystical nonsense, we know that sound, in fact has an effect on our perception of color. Low-pitched sounds tend to make color appear to deepen: red moves toward blue, orange appears more red.
The opposite is true of high-pitched tones, which make colors seem lighter. Light affects us in more ways than simply allowing us to see. Anything other than the full spectrum of natural sunlight has been shown to produce abnormalities in plants and animals. Light in addition to being necessary for vision, stimulates both the pituitary and pineal glands and possibly other regions of the midbrain which control the production of hormones and have a great deal to do with how we feel. it is simply that portion of the spectrum which we can see that is important, but also the bands of long-wave ultra-violet that are present but not visible to the naked eye.
Are we light-starved?
Several studies over the last few decades link ordinary fluorescent lights, which contain only a part of the spectrum of light waves, to a host of general ills far beyond tired and aching eyes-from hyperactivity to cavities. And there is some data school year in Sarasota, Fla. The four classrooms in the trial were windowless, and thus all lighting was artificial. Two classrooms kept their conventional fluorescents, and two had full-spectrum lights installed, with shields to reduce radiation at the terminals. Under the normal lighting some first-graders demonstrated nervous fatigue, irritability, lapses of attention and hyperactivity. Yet, when full-spectrum lighting was installed, these same children settled down and paid more attention to their teachers, who reported improved overall classroom performance. Before the lighting was changed students were photographed by concealed camera fiddling around. leaping from their seats, flailing arms and paying little attention. After two and three months these children were filmed again. Their behavior was entirely different. The children were calmer and more interested in their work. one little boy stood out in the earlier photographs because of his extreme hyperactivity. After the lighting was changed he became much quieter and was able to sit still long enough to concentrate. His teacher reported that he now was capable of doing independent work, had overcome what appeared to be adverse learning disability and learned how to read in a relatively short time. In those rooms where the lighting was not changed from standard fluorescence, there was no improvement in behavior. Although this experiment appears to connect conventional fluorescents and possibly some leaking radiation to hyperactivity, it is likely that they are only one of the many cases.
In San Francisco, allergist Dr. Ben Feingold has cured some hyperactive children simply by removing all synthetic additives from their diet and some of these are artificial colors. It appears that the ingested color reacts with certain wavelengths of light in the environment and in some children produces adverse reactions. Even a single hot dog can cause a tantrum. What is probable is that some youngsters are more susceptible to certain conditions than others, and these tendencies are exacerbated by limited-spectrum lighting.
And Fewer Cavities
Amazingly, those Florida first graders under full spectrum lighting also developed significantly fewer cavities than the group who studied under conventional light. While the reason for the difference in tooth decay is unclear, animal research backs up these findings. Intuitively we know that sunlight (which contains all the colors of the spectrum)imbues us with a sense of well-being. Several studies attest to the fact that being in the darkness decreases the red cell count of the blood, while exposure to light increases it. In either event the blood tends to right itself when the light is stabilized--that is, when we are sometimes in the dark and sometimes in the light. In some circumstances it appears conclusive that color can have healing properties. When an infant is born with jaundice, giving the skin a sickly yellow tinge, exposure to bluelight may correct the condition, depending on the cause. The yellow apparent in the skin is the result of a high bilirubin level in the blood. (Bilirubin is a yellowish substance formed when the body breaks down hemoglobin, the red cell material that transports oxygen through the body). Premature infants often have livers which are not equipped to deal with this problem, and jaundice is the result. If the level of bilirubin is too high, brain damage and cerebral palsy may result.
Light replaces transfusion
Previously, the only treatment possible was a complete transfusion, or exchange of blood, which obviously endangers the infant to some degree. Often repeat transfusions were necessary. In 1958, an English doctor, Richard Cremer accidentally discovered that the bilirubin level could be corrected with artificial blue light in the nursery for eight hours a day for five or six days. Today, the blue-light treatment is finally replacing the transfusions. While an initial transfusion may still be necessary, the light treatment has considerably reduced the need for additional ones. At some medical centers, including the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, full-spectrum fluorescent has been found to work nearly as well as blue light. The babies are kept under the full-spectrum fluorescent around the clock for a few days. Shields cover their eyes (Yet the lighting in the rest of the hospital is limited spectrum-fluorescent). Medicine makes some people react differently to the sun. The tetracyclines especially cause some people to burn more readily, and as a result the dosage required may be different if you are wintering in sunny climes. The profound effect of sunlight on human beings can be appreciated from the fact that its total absence can make a woman temporarily infertile. it happens to Eskimos who live near the Arctic Circle during the dark winter days when their land is unrelieved by sunlight. if light is somehow related to behavior and the female's ability to conceive, might it also influence the sex of her offspring? Well it appears to do so in chinchillas. In 1970 statistics compiled over five years by more than 2,000 ranchers demonstrated that the ratio of females to males could be altered by the color of light under which they lived. Chinchillas, were bred under ordinary incandescent lighting such as plain light bulbs have litters averaging 60-75 percent male; when the bulbs were changed to "daylight" bulbs which have a transparent bluish glass the ratio of females to males reverses. So, in this case, blue is for girls.
Pink light irritates
We are not suggesting that if you want a boy you replace your bedroom bulbs with pink bulbs; in fact pink light produces irritability and tension when it is installed in offices to provide a softer feeling, according to light expert John Ott.
In one informal study at the University of South Florida, Ott remembers three college students out of 300 were found to be "disturbed." All three wore the pink lens glasses so much in fashion. In laboratory tests, pink fluorescent lighting kept on for 12 hours a day over a period of six months caused the tails of mice gradually to slough off. This group had the lowest survival rate as compared to mice kept under various types of fluorescent. Survival was highest under day light--full-spectrum fluorescent. Plant life is similarly affected by color. Generally, long-wave light (red, orange) appears to accelerate plant growth, while short-wave (green, blue, violet) retards it. Plants that bloom during the long summer sunlight are found to grow tallest when exposed to orange-red light; they did not bloom at all under yellow, green or blue light, although they did produce heavy foliage. Morning glories however, which open before dawn do best under blue and fail under red.
Fish that spend their lives in aquariums thrive in a black light, the safe ultraviolet, is kept on at least part of the day. It not only prevents a disease known as "pop-eye" but also puts a stop to the fin-nipping that is common among aquarium fish. Some fish cannot be kept alive in captivity without the added black light. Although discos and nightclubs often use this kind of lighting for effect rather than health (it makes white glow in the dark) those who frequent them may be doing themselves a bit of good. At one Chicago seafood restaurant, according to Ott, the ultraviolet light was added many years ago for special effects. When the owner was queried about the health of the employees, he revealed that they generally got along extremely well, were seldom ill and that he had the same waiters who had been there when the lights were installed 18 years before. Although most of us are aware that there are some colors we are attracted to and some we shun, does color elicit physiological changes that can be measured? That was the question Robert Gerrard set out to answer a few years ago when he was working on his doctorate at the University of California at Los Angeles. His research confirmed intuition: Red does excite, blue does soothe. He did detailed studies of blood pressure, the conductivity of the palm that indicates the arousal of the autonomic nervous system, respiration rate, heartbeat, muscle activity, eye blinks and brain-waves. He asked the subjects how they felt. The more anxious the subject, the more red disturbed them. Blood pressure, eye blinks, palm conductivity and breathing rate went up under red, down under blue. No difference was found in heartbeat, but there was in brainwave activity. While the brain showed response to red, white and blue (the only colors used in the experiment), after 10 minutes the activity remained consistently greater for red than for blue.
White elicited a response similar to red. Restauranteurs for years have known that vivid red tends to make diners psychologically outgoing and expansive, and they use it in the decor of many posh eating places. How many times have you seen red goblets, red tablecloths and red flocked wallpaper rather than say, yellow or green in restaurants? Yellow is thought to depress appetite. Darrell Boyd Harmon a design consultant more interested in the effect of interiors then their appearance, discovered more than 40 years ago that the soft, warm colors in the red family, such as peach, tan and the light emitted from warm fluorescence are conducive to intellectual pursuits and would be good choices in schools, libraries and any other study centers. His extensive work in schools was done for the Texas State Health Dept.
Locker-room strategy
Soft, cool colors, Harmon found, such as green, blue-green and the light from cool fluorescence induce movement and would be ideal in a gym. However, the deeper, brighter blues have a tendency to orient a person inward, just as deep and vivid red tones energize. The knowledge that red impels people to action has been put to use by some school athletic coaches: They have their locker rooms painted vivid red, the visitors' a low-energy blue. The tendency today however, is still to play down the importance of color and concentrate solely on adequate brightness. But the brightness needed to combat the dark walls that decorators make popular every other decade may actually impede your concentration. Think how often you close your eyes to solve a complex problem or comprehend difficult material: you are blocking out all visual stimulation which may be distracting, Color should be directed to help you concentrate not fight against it. As our knowledge of the full role that color and light play in our lives becomes more comprehensive, the improvements may be dramatic.
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