Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD
Bellevue, WA
www.neuraltherapy.com
In the German-speaking countries of Europe, color therapy through the eyes
has become very popular in recent years amongst alternative health
practitioners and in spite of its American birthplace is more strongly
represented at alternative medical meetings in Europe then it is here in the
The US at this time.
3 events were most instrumental to this rise in interest:
1. The publication and success of Dr.Klinghardt’s German textbook on
holistic healing (see below)
2. The inspired teaching of Steven Vasquez Ph.D., in Europe (originally
facilitated by Dietrich’s book and efforts)
3. The PhotonWave color instrument which was originally conceived by
John Searfoss OD and is being manufactured under the guidance of color
therapist Leona Vermeire in Belgium
Here is an English translation of 2 chapters of Dietrich’s book.
Some Facts and Research on Using Color and
Light for Healing
translated from:
“Lehrbuch der Psycho-Kinesiologie- ein neuer Weg in der psychosomatischen
Medizin” (Textbook of Psycho-Kinesiology – a new approach in psychosomatic
medicine)
Dietrich K.Klinghardt, MD, PhD
Verlag Hermann Bauer, Freiburg, Germany 1995
During the 19th century the American surgeon, E. Babbit, M.D. proved that
treatment with colored light could achieve very significant healing results
through its effect on the human energy field, the light receptive autonomic
nerve fibers in the skin and via the nerves that connect the eye directly with the
limbic system (i).
In the beginning of this century the East Indian genius Darius Dinshah, who
had immigrated into the USA, introduced a system of color therapy, that
involves shining the color onto the body or body regions for about 1 hour/day.
The American physician Riley Spitler, M.D. proved in the 30’s that many
patients with psychiatric illnesses could be cured or improved if the client
looked into a specially designed colored lamp (ii). He developed several
instruments and started the science of “syntonic optometry”. He found that the
optimum treatment time is twenty minutes a day for a course of twenty days.
This should be followed by a pause of several weeks before another twenty-day
cycle. He achieved impressive healings in patients with bipolar disorder,
schizophrenia, depression and other psychiatric disorders (iii iv).
Colored light – when beamed into the eyes with a projector-like device – can
activate repressed memories from childhood – even from the intrauterine period
or from a past life – which may now become available to work within a
psychotherapeutic way (v). In terms of modern neurophysiology, we know now
that distinct color frequencies can reactivate synapses in the brain (vi vii) which
were previously blocked. If nerve conduction is reestablished in these areas,
memories that were isolated, are reconnected with the synaptic network of
the brain and can again be accessed and integrated by the conscious part of the
brain. The detrimental effect of unremembered trauma on the body seems to
lastingly and often completely disappear.
Memories connected to a physical or emotional trauma are held by circuitries in
the limbic system, especially in the hippocampus and amygdala. These
memories can be accessed with the correct color wavelength (for example, by
using colored glasses). The exact color accesses the patient’s problem – just
like accessing a hidden file in the computer. Recommended treatment time with
color glasses is 1hr per day. However, worn in a therapeutic session, a few
minutes can be sufficient. The effect can be amplified by projecting light with
an instrument into the eyes, and modulating the light with flicker frequencies (viii).
Several “syntonic” instruments with and without frequency modulation are
available today. The effect can also be amplified and deepened by
simultaneously using eye movements (example: Applied Psychoneurobiology)
and/or tapping techniques (example: Mental Field Therapy). The quality of the
light source (light bulb), the color filters and lens arrangements affect the
therapeutic outcome. In our office we also use linear polarization filters at
varying angles to reach more specific regions within the brain.
I use the term “color coding of memories”. Memories are color-coded! Use the
right code and the memory surfaces. To make the connection to the repressed
conflict-material, the practitioner has to determine the exact correct color.
Spitler, just like Dinshah, spent much of his life determining which color
frequencies are needed to heal specific illnesses.
Several methods of determining the correct color are available today.
(1) Critical Flicker Fusion Test
(2) Color Visual Field Test
(3) Luescher Color Test
(4) Autonomic Response Testing (ART) – using muscle-tone biofeedback
(5) Steve Vasquez (Ph.D.) method – assessing emotional responses after color
presentation
(6) Heart Rate Variability
(7) Kirlian Photography – used by Peter Mandel’s color puncture practitioners)
(8) Intuition and experience
(9) using the known physiological effects of color:
Blue – activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
calms – often used for hyperactive children.
Red – activates the sympathetic nervous system.
Blue-Green – heals post-traumatic tissue injuries.
Yellow – anti-depressive.
Yellow/Green – liver detox.
Magenta – brings deeply held conflicts and emotions to the surface.
Language is full of knowledge about the connection of color and emotion, for
example:
He’s got the blues (blue slows us down and makes already slow people
depressed)
I am in a black mood (see discussion on black below).
She’s green with envy (envy is a liver emotion and the correct color is
yellow/green).
Red-Hot love (red brings out the emotion in people – including sexual passion)
Colors can have two distinct – and often opposite – effects. Because of the
color-coding of emotions, treatment with color can either trigger the expected
color-typical physiological reaction or, instigate the release of a related color
coded emotion or problem. Take blue light, for example. The blue light will usually
have a sedative effect. However, if i.e. A young man had been molested by his
mother when he was a young boy- and she was wearing a blue bra at the time –
blue may cause sympathetic arousal (distress) in this man until the trauma is
healed.
The Neurophysiology of Light: the Five Pathways
1. The optic nerve travels from the retina, past the pituitary gland via the
temporal lobe to the occipital lobe of the brain. This part of the visual system is
dedicated to informing the conscious part of our brain of our surroundings.
2. An additional nerve bundle is leading directly from the retina to the
hypothalamus (retinohypothalamic tract) (ix). This explains the above mentioned
strictly physiological effect of color on the ANS:
– Blue stimulates the anterior hypothalamus, which harbors the main regulating
part of the parasympathetic nervous system. This means that all colors in the
bluish spectrum – from blue/green through blue to violet – normally have a
sedating, digestion-activating, sleep-inducing effect.
– Red simulates the posterior hypothalamus and therefore the sympathetic
nervous system. Red provokes anger. All colors in the red spectrum – from
magenta through red/orange to yellow – have a stimulating, sometimes even
provocative, character.
– Green mediates between both systems.
3.A side-branch of this nerve tract reaches the amygdala directly, bypassing the
hypothalamus. The two corpora amygdaloidea are truly the color-sensitive area
of the limbic system and highly responsive to the color the eyes are exposed to.
A study demonstrated that each monochromatic color frequency excites
specific neurons. If adjacent, but dissimilar color-wavelengths are used, the
same neuron stays unexcited (x). Each frequency in the color spectrum, therefore,
has its own specific neurological and psychological effect (xi xii).
The neurosurgeon, Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D. – discoverer and inventor of
TENS (Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation) and developer of electric
spinal cord stimulation conducted a study investigating biochemical changes
in the brain after beaming different colors into the eye (using a syntonic
an instrument called “Lumatron”). Remarkable changes were evident in the
the concentration of neurotransmitters in the cerebrospinal fluid: norepinephrine,
serotonin, beta-endorphin, cholinesterase, melatonin, oxytocin, growth hormone,
LH, prolactin and progesterone (xiii). These results explain why the
treatment with color projection into the eye can have a profound effect on the
the hormonal system, the emotions, stress levels, sleep, brain function, and many
other aspects of the patient’s biochemistry and well-being. The profound effect
of light stimulation to the retina on the body’s metabolism has long been
established through the work of the brilliant German ophthalmologist Fritz
Hollwich, M.D., Ph.D.(xiv).
4. A fourth nerve connection from the retina follows the lower optic tract,
which is not used for vision, and reaches the transpedicular nucleus in the
midbrain (xv). This nucleus is also light and color sensitive (xvi). From here the
signal travels via the superior cervical ganglion back via the brainstem to the
pineal gland. This pathway is – amongst other less understood functions –
responsible for the circadian day-night rhythm and the melatonin production in
the pineal gland when it gets dark (xvii). This pathway has been given much
attention lately in research concerning the treatment of the seasonal affective
disorder. Via secondary interneurons, all of these pathways are connected with
each other and virtually each area of the brain.
5. A fifth, and maybe most exciting way in which color finds its way inside the
body, i.e. the subconscious mind, the immune system, the limbic system, the
nervous system, etc – has only recently been discovered. There are more and
more scientific hints that light can charge particles that travel in the lymph and
blood as well as axonally inside the nerves (xviii xix). Researchers at the University
of Vienna, Austria, found that albumin is one of the proteins able to be charged
by colored light – and able to deliver this charge to tissues far away from the
site of exposure. Through the outer layer of the skin light also affects pigments,
fluorescent particles in the body fluids and inside the cells which travel in the
blood and lymph. After being energized – in a color-wavelength and frequency-specific
way – they are transported to their target sites where the light energy is
discharged (116) (xx). These light discharges have an organizing and activating
effect on cellular organelles and the cell metabolism in the target tissue (such as
the brain or inner organs) (xxi xxii xxii).
This mechanism explains partially the effects of color-treatment via the skin –
including the Dinshah Method, Peter Mandel’s Color Puncture and the effect
which colors of clothing have on mood and the immune system. A study
showed that wearing black clothing immediately depresses the NK-cell activity
and several other parameters used to judge the activity of the immune system.
Black is carcinogenic. The opposite is also true: wearing rainbow colors
stimulates the immune system and the mood. A chiropractor in Santa Fe, who I
worked with for years, treated many clients successfully for many severe
illnesses – by having them paint their toenails in specific colors (which he
determined before with a biofeedback method). Wearing nail polish proved to
be a truly medical intervention with many beneficial – and occasionally adverse
– effects.
The German scientist Fritz Albert Popp Ph.D. confirmed the prior research of
Russian scientists published many of his own papers, on the fact that all
cells in an organism use subtle light emissions to communicate with each other
constantly. Cells gossip, inform, celebrate and grieve (xxiv). Only cancer cells
behave differently: they do not emit light. Recent research in stem cell therapy
brought to light another astounding phenomenon: when cells are ill or in
distress, they also give off “microscopic” sound signals. If the sound of a group
of dying cells is artificially amplified, it sounds like a group of weeping and
grieving women. Injected stem cells (from embryonic umbilical cords) follow
this signal and settle in the area to lend their support. Stem cells are
compassionate. Cells care for each other. When things go wrong, such as in
auto-immune diseases, they fight each other. Light (and sound) can have a
profound effect on regulating and correcting inter-cellular communications.
I have been using color light therapy for 17 years in my medical practice
specializing in the treatment of chronic pain and neurodegenerative diseases
with often astounding results. I have not observed any adverse effects when the
color and treatment protocol were properly selected. The teachings of the
College of Syntonic Optometry provided the safe and necessary foundation.
Summary: a growing body of research on the physiological effects of light
supports our position for the medicinal use of light and color.
_________________________________
(i) Babbit, E.: The Principles of Light and Colour: The Healing Power of Colour. 1878, Reprint, Secaucus
N.J.: Citadel, 1976.
(ii) Spitler, Riley: The Syntonic Principle. Eaton Pub.: Ohio 1941. Nachdruck erhaltlich durch “College of
Syntonic Ophthometry ,” 4221 Warren Ave., Sacramento, Cal. 95822-1048.
(iii) Liberman, Jacob: Die Heilende Kraft des Lichts. Der EinfluB des Lichts auf Psyche und Korper. Bern,
1995.
(iv) Ott, John: Health and Light. The Effects of Natural and Artificial Light on Man and Other Living Things,
Columbus, Ohio: Ariel, 1973.
(v) Liberman Jacob: Die Heilende Kraft des Lichts. Der EinfluB des Lichts auf Psyche und Korper. Bern
1995.
(vi) Neilsen, T.: Affect Desensitization: A Possible Function of REMs in Both Walking and Sleeping States.
In: Sleep Research, 20, 1991, S. 10.
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(ix) Moore, R.: Visual Pathways and the Central Neural Control of Diurnal Rhythms. The
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(x) Hill, R.: Single Cell Response of the Nucleus of the Trans-Peduncular Tract in Rabbit to Monochromatic
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(xi) Birrin, F.: Color Psychology and Color Therapy. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel, 1978.
(xii) Toupin, A.: Photic Avtivation and Experimental Data Concerning Colored Stimuli. In: Neurology
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(xiii) Shealy, Norman: Effects of the Lumatron upon Neurochemicals. Lecture given for Dr. Shealy by Dr.
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(xiv) Hollwich, F.: The Influence of Ocular Light Perception on Metabolism in Man and in Animal. Berlin,
1985.
(xv) Wurtman, R.: The Effects of Light on the Human Body. In: Scientific American, July 1975, Vol. 233, Nr.
1, S. 68-79.
(xvi) Hill, R.: Single Cell Responses of the Nucleus of the Trans-Peduncular Tract in Rabbit to
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(xviii) Hebeda, K.: Light Propagation in the brain Depends on Nerve Fiber Orientation, In: Neurosurgery, 35,
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(xix) Popp, Fritz A.: Biophotonen. Ein neuer Weg zur Losung des Krebsproblems. Heidelberg, 2. Aufl. 1984.
(xx) Grass, F.: Biophotons, CNS and the Possible Role of Pigments and Fluorescent Substances. Biological
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