developed his own method, called Spectroband therapy. The mentor of Harry Riley Spitler (who earlier had developed his method of syntonic phototherapy, as recounted in chapter 1), Loeb was a contemporary of Dinshah, whose color model he adopted for his color velocity diagram (see fig. 8.7). This diagram clearly underscores the polarity of complementary colors.
A modern pioneer of chromotherapy is Theo Gimbel. Considered one of Britain’s most experienced color researchers and practitioners, he focuses on the deeper spiritual aspects of color. Gimbel prefers an eight-colored wheel (see fig. 8.8). Here we can see how his chromatic octagon led to new pairs of complementary colors, such as orange/ blue and red/turquoise.
Belgian color researcher Pierre Van Obberghen created a twelve-colored wheel (see fig. 8.9). His method resembles that of Dinshah but is based on a triad of primary colors better adapted to the physiology of our eyes, with their three types of cones: red, green, and blue. He has added three secondary colors: yellow, cyan (which he renames “sky blue”), and magenta. Six tertiary colors are inserted between these.
I have personally found Van Obberghen’s wheel to be the most rational, and I use it to define complementary colors in my own Sensora system (red/turquoise, green/magenta, blue/yellow). Visually, the light patterns based on these combinations are remarkably powerful.
THE PROPERTIES OF COLOR
We now come to the heart of this discussion; namely, what are the particular properties of each color? When I began my own exploration of light therapy in the 1980s I naively expected to find the answers in any good reference library. I quickly became disillusioned; it turns out that there are many different interpretations of the properties of color. It is by no means an established or exact science. When one considers that light has an effect on multiple levels, it’s understandable that there is no simple and absolute answer to this question. A color can have a certain effect on one level and act quite differently on another. Its effect can depend on the state of the organism or on the interactions with other chromatic influences within the organism.
Fortunately, since the first experiments in chromotherapy in the nineteenth century there is some consensus regarding its general principles. It is by and large accepted that there are two main categories of colors: colors that are said to be warm and colors that are regarded as cool. Warm colors are stimulating, fortifying, and energizing. Cool colors are calming, sedative, and analgesic. The specific colors associated with these two categories vary somewhat, but in general the warm colors in the spectrum range from red to yellow, and the cool colors span from turquoise (or sometimes green) to deep blue or indigo.
Early on, researchers like Harry Riley Spitler established a link between the two categories of color and the autonomous nervous system (ANS), the part of the nervous system that is not under conscious control and functions in an autonomous way to maintain vital functions. It is divided into two complementary and antagonistic systems: the sympathetic nervous system (associated with action under stress, as in the fight-or-flight response) and the parasympathetic nervous system (associated with rest, relaxation, and regeneration). Warm colors naturally correspond to the sympathetic nervous system and cool colors to the parasympathetic nervous system. The equilibrium of the ANS is fundamental to our health, and the possibility of influencing it is a driving force in chromotherapy.