the secret life of colors
different effects through colors ( in general )
colors have an effect on us in different ways and means. they are able to call our biological instincts but they are also able to have an influence on our feelings or on our mind. however, many of the psychologic effects which colors can have, remain relatively cloudy. the strong physical reflexes which can be attained due to the colors red and blue were well explored. therefore, they have been flown into the medical practice but only in the structure of therapeutical methods. generally, it can be said that the emotional meaning of colors has not yet been systematically investigated. this is rather dissatisfying if you intend to occupy yourself with the therapy of colors more intensively.
the human soul in old cultures:
that is why we intend to extent our knowledge about colors a little bit more. however, we should not forget that the psychology tends to be a very young science. the study of the human soul was held in high esteem and this in many old cultures. it was spared no effort to get more knowlegde into the consciousness. the experiences which were made by these advanced civilizations are in a certain manner superior to the experiences made by our civilization. that is why we can be inspired through the, old as a stone, systems of the psychology of colors.
the indian culture:
despite all, the indian culture, which developed itself into the indus region in the course of the immigration by persian tribes, teaches us many things about the links of the human spiritual life, and also about the sense of our body.
the veden ( oldest scripts of the world )
at that early stage, the human being indited the so called veden which can be seen as the oldest scripts of the world. against the background of the vedic philosophy was a medical system formed ( approximately 1000 years before christ ). this medical system includes ethnical components and it also includes natural-philosophical components.
people were convinced that the human soul is formed due to the following listed things :
- thoughts,
- dreams,
- the environment,
- genes,
- work,
- nutrition,
- music,
- perfumes,
- spices,
- gemstones,
- metals and also
- colors.
ayurveda:
this holistic system is called ayurveda. it was, despite other things, the first attempt to cataloguize the therapeutic influences of these different colors. although at this holistic method it is not distinguished between physical and psychical effects. this should be controverted in psychological terms.
seven elementary colors were used in the indian colormedicine, namely,
- red,
- orange,
- yellow,
- green,
- blue,
- indigo and also
- violet.
these colors were connected to the energycentres of the body, so called chakras. this method reminds us of the chinese system acupuncture.
presentation of these colors in the frame of the colorlight-therapy:
we intend to present these seven classical colors in the frame of the colorlight-therapy. like it was mentioned before, it is something completely different to bath in lightwaves than simply to observe the colored surface of fabrics or the surface of papers.
de facto, also other colors and light frequencies are used, which shall also be presented. that is the following colors :
- infrared,
- yellow-green,
- turquoise and
- ultraviolet.
the scientist has found out that they are an important supplement to the traditional elementary colors. now, we can play with eleven different shades, which is much more varied, than only to explore the colors red and blue. nevertheless, we may not forget that colors mainly have an effect on our feelings and on our instincts. therefore, is it nearly impossible to paraphrase the deeper symbolism of the colors by means of words. we need the much more keen intuition to capture the symbolism of the colors.
the stone age people:
the stone age people painted themselves with strong colors when they had the intention to come in contact with the mysteries of the soul. when they had this intention, they made also their rituals with dance. we will now do something similar to this ritual. we are now dancing a funny round dance, in which the colors are a part of a vivid artistical family, who is also dancing. this dance is burlesque drama in a colored linguistic-garment, and additionally with crude simplifications and some irony, to understand the pitches better. the curtain rises the show can start now:
- infrared
- red
- orange
- yellow
- yellow green
- green
- turquoise
- blue
- indigo
- violet
- ultra-violet
you have know become acquainted with the important visible and invisible members of the light-family and also with the color-family. the human being should study them carefully because they ( the light-family and the color-family ) accompany us through the whole of our life. they influence us every day, even if we do not take an account of them. perhaps you are missing in this colorful society colors like
- beige,
- brown,
- gray,
- black,
- white,
- pink,
- olive-green or even
- magenta / purple.
the colors are differently broken, that is why they are not a member of the original rainbowcolors and of the original spectral colors.
the scientist was familiar with the color portraits.
- first : the scientist exaggerated at the characerization to convey a better impression how strong color-effect in real terms appear.
- secondly : the scientist had only described the so called maximum colors to make it clearer. maximum colors are colors in their most concenrated form.
as an example :
the three colors
- pink -
- red -
- brown.
red:
here, the color red is the maximum color, whereas the color pink occured through mixing into it the color white and the color brown occured through mixing the color black into it. that means that you can chose at least three basic colorshades for each color mentioned above. through this, our repertoire would extent itself to 29 basic colors ( not 33 shades, because infrared and ultraviolet can not be broken ).
the following rule of thumb obtain :
- a rarefaction with the color white ( or light ) reveals a pastel colored modification of the original color. if you look at this psychologically, you can say that this phenomenon, which was mentioned above, is generally experienced as a delicacy. if you look at it on a personality level, it is seen as a signal of youth, facility and violability.
- when you do the same test, but now you use the color black ( or with darker filters ) instead of white, the result becomes a shadetone. on a basis of feeling does this mean that the heavy characteristics of the color black are dampening the elementary color.
generally it can be said that dark shades are associated with the age, with melancholia and also with concentration. consequently, it is possible that you can put on a pale or a dark mask on every color. thus, we can see the color red in different varieties either for the one time as a romantical sapling or for another time as a hard, devious general.
therapy of color of karl ryberg mosaik verlag 1992 page 84-86, 99-100
