Chromotherapy, also known as color therapy or colorology, is a form of alternative medicine that proposes certain diseases can be treated by exposure to specific colors. Its practice is widely considered pseudoscience and quackery by health experts and historians. Despite its modern rejection, the concept of using color for healing has a long history, with early proponents making claims about balancing "energy" within the body. This practice is distinct
from scientifically accepted medical treatments like phototherapy, which uses light for specific conditions, and photobiology, the scientific study of light's effects on living organisms.
Early Concepts and Influential Figures
The idea of color's importance in health dates back centuries. Avicenna, a Persian polymath from 980–1037, discussed chromotherapy in his work, *The Canon of Medicine*. He viewed color as crucial for both diagnosis and treatment, noting that "color is an observable symptom of disease." Avicenna even developed a chart linking color to body temperature and physical condition, suggesting that red could stimulate blood, blue or white could cool it, and yellow might reduce muscular pain and inflammation. This early conceptualization laid some groundwork for later, more elaborate theories.
In the 19th century, the concept gained new traction. Robert Hunt, a pioneer in photography, conducted experiments on how different wavelengths of light affected plant germination and growth, publishing his findings in the 1844 book *Researches on Light*. Influenced by Hunt's work, Augustus Pleasonton began his own experiments in 1860. In 1876, Pleasonton published *The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Color of the Sky*, where he detailed how blue light could supposedly improve crop and livestock growth and aid in healing human diseases. This publication is often seen as the genesis of modern chromotherapy, inspiring contemporary scientists like Dr. Seth Pancoast and Edwin Dwight Babbitt.
Pancoast and Babbitt further developed these ideas, publishing *Blue and Red Light; or, Light and Its Rays as Medicine* in 1877 and *The Principles of Light and Color* in 1878, respectively. Pancoast's work, however, has been described by historians as a confusing blend of color therapy, mysticism, and occultism. He had a lifelong interest in the Kabbalah and was a founding member of the Theosophical Society, believing that God was light and the "one universal pathological agent" capable of curing disease. He even exposed medications to colored light before administering them and used sun-baths fitted with colored glass panes. Throughout the 19th century, "color healers" claimed that colored glass filters could treat various ailments, including constipation and meningitis.
Modern Proponents and Scientific Rejection
In the early 20th century, Dinshah P. Ghadiali, an Indian scientist, became a notable figure in chromotherapy. In 1933, he published *The Spectro Chromemetry Encyclopaedia*, asserting that he had discovered the reasons and mechanisms behind the therapeutic effects of different colored rays on organisms. Ghadiali believed that colors represented chemical potencies in higher octaves of vibration, and that for each organ or system in the body, there was a specific color that would stimulate it and another that would inhibit it. He theorized that by understanding these actions, one could apply the correct color to balance any organ or system functioning abnormally. However, the American Medical Association refuted Ghadiali's claims, and in 1958, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) secured a permanent injunction against his Visible Spectrum Research Institute. Despite this, Ghadiali's son and grandson continue to promote color therapy through the Dinshah Health Society.
Chromotherapy is widely recognized as a pseudoscience. Health experts and historians categorize its practice as quackery. The American Cancer Society states that "available scientific evidence does not support claims that alternative uses of light or color therapy are effective in treating cancer or other illnesses." Science writer Martin Gardner famously described Ghadiali as
