Everyday Colour Welcome to the amazing world of colour, a vast and interesting subject where there is myriads of information on all forms of colour from light, through textiles and dyes, painting, food, decor and interior design, environmental influences and cultural colours. Colour influences everything. In this course, we are going to be concentrating on specific areas, which will give you hints and tips to enhance your environment and your everyday life with colour. The following topics will be covered during this course ' An Introduction to Everyday Colour': What is colour and how does it work - 'Science Snippets', giving you valuable background information regarding colour and light with 'easy read' information and 'videos' about the relevant visible colours. A little bit of history - 'easy read' information on basic colour history of each colour The impact of colour in your environment - Physical and emotional re-actions to colour and how you can make best use of these colours Applying colour in your life for positive wellbeing - Hints, tips and techniques to help you introduce colour in your environment and what you wear Branding with colour - How to promote and sell using colour with hints and tips to master your power colours Tricky colour issues - when colour all gets a bit too much - how to rebalance Getting to know your colour - a general introduction into your personality colour The Science Snippets Throughout this workbook there are Science and History Snippets which are useful things to know in relation to colour and light. There is extensive information available on the internet, books and CDs, about this science and much of it is very technical - I have broken this down and included in the workbook the parts that I use which have been invaluable to my colour journey, please feel free to ignore or dig deeper. Light and Colour - The Basic Science Light is made up of energy waves or particles which are grouped together. A light wave consists of energy in the form of electric and magnetic fields. There are many electric and magnetic fields starting with sound all the way through to gamma rays (used to kill cancer cells within the body). The visible spectrum is just one of those fields and it is measured in Nanometres and Hertz. Nanometres are a spacial measurement of interval and equate to one thousand millioneth of a metre and hertz are the refresh rate of the colour per cycle. All the visible colours are measured by this speed and all light travels at approximately 186,000 miles per second. Colour Scientists and Colour Guru's Our first colour guru, Hippocrates, was way back in BC times (C460- C377BC to be exact, where he used red for fire, yellow for air, blue for water and green for earth. Our first scientific date was 1642, when Isaac Newton (interestingly he was born on 25th December) developed the principles of colour. Taking a prism and placing it in front of a light ray, he noticed that the light refracted into seven different colours rays, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Artists were fascinated by this discovery and especially the fact that Newton created a circle with the colours opposing each other - therefore the first version of the 'colour wheel'. Nothing changed in colour until the 1800's when Goethe realised that the sensations of color reaching our brain are shaped by our perception — by the mechanics of human vision and by the way our brains process information. Therefore, according to Goethe, what we see of an object depends upon the object, the lighting and our own perception. Goethe also talked about human emotions in terms of colour, and explained that the 'plus' colours, the yellows and oranges were positive, uplifting and warm and the 'minus' colours of the blues were cool, melancholy and weaker. These are still relevant today, as you will see once you start working with the individual colours. Page 2 Steiner, a German philosopher in the late 1800's and very much a follower of Goethe and his theories, applied a very spiritual approach to colour, showing that a human's life is a journey of colour and that colour plays an important part on our emotions as well as our physical being. Steiner is know for his schools, there are 40 schools in UK all based around the Steiner philosophies and also the importance of colour in each room to support the learning and development process. D.P. Ghadiali, a Hindu Scientist also in the late 1800's formulated the scientific principles behind the different effects that different colours have on the human body, he called this Spectro-Chrome. He found that for each organism or system there was a particular colour that stimulated, and another that inhibited it's functioning. Concluding that balance could be restored by treatment with the appropriate colour. Also in the late 1800's, Edward Babbitt published a book called "The Principles of Light and Colour" where he described the healing effects of each of the seven colours of the spectrum and their attributes, which, in today's society, we associate with colour therapy. He also invented devices such as the Chromalume, which involved the exposure of sunlight through coloured glass. This prototype and its methods are used today in the treatment of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and the use of coloured lamps. There is a great deal of information on Colour Therapy, our Diploma Course in Light and Colour Therapy looks deeply into these treatments and studies. You can also find our book list on our website for further information on any of these subjects. Colour Biology Why do we need light and colour? Light helps us to regulate our melatonin levels so that our bodies know when to wake and when to sleep. Light also helps us to rebuild our immune systems so that our bodies can fight off disease and illness. Without light the planet would become so cold we would freeze and no plants would be able to grow, therefore no food would be produced and we would starve. Colour makes up the full spectrum of light and throughout this course you will get to know what colours can help with certain parts of the body and stimulate certain information in our brain. Dr Jacob Lieberman, a world renowned optometrist, in his book 'Light, Medicine of the Future', references that 25% of light that is absorbed through the eyes is used for vision. 75% travels through the optic pathways to the brain. Therefore colours route to exact locations of the body where in-balances may be occurring and rebalance these organs. Light shines in the retina and converts to impulses that are sent to the brain. Page 3 Rods (120 million of these) and cones (6 to 7 million) in the eye contain pigment that break down into substances when the light is absorbed and then sent to the brain, pineal gland and also around the body. We use the rods in our retina to distinguish between light and no light, but our cones are a little more complicated. We have three sets of cones, red, green and blue so we are only capable of seeing these colours. Our brain however mixes the signal of red and green transforming it into yellow. What length of signals we receive in these three colours means our brain is a mixing palette making millions of colours transformed from these three signals. We are unable to see colours in the dark as our rods are only capable of showing us light or no light. Colour and light is also absorbed directly by the skin as is Vitamin D which is essential for everyday health and vitality. When we disrupt these patterns or use artificial light our bodies get confused and our hormones become unbalanced. This leads to health related issues as our bodies need sleep to rebuild and adjust our immune systems. Using light and specific colours can help balance these hormones which in-turn help our bodies to heal and create postive wellbeing. Whether absorbed by our eyes, absorbed through out skin or ingested in our diet, colour eventually finds it's way to all many locations in the body. Our auric energy fields and how they relate to colour Each of us is made up of predominantly (99%) carbon, oxygen, water, hydrogen and nitrogen - all chemicals. Our bodies respond in daily life to signals sent from our brain around our nervous system and we then react. We are constantly moving and vibrating with millions of these signals every second, our bodies are electric. The field around our body, the auric field is the two way filter between the outside world and our physical bodies. Exercise to feel your 'auric field' 1. Rub your hands together fairly quickly and you will start to feel heat build 2. Pull your hands away about 3 inches and see if you can still feel the heat or a tingling in the palms 3. Move your hands gently further apart and notice when the heat or tingling stops 4. You can do this also by standing close to someone and both rubbing your hands. 5. Place your hands in front of you and then move towards the other person - can you feel tingling or heat from them? - you are now feeling their aura. Our Aura can be felt and seen (as per this picture taken with an aura camera). This particular camera sees the aura in colour and some people that see auras talk about them being in different colours.