Esogetic Colorpuncture

A Complete Aculight Therapy System for Body, Mind and Spirit

Use of colored light as a treatment modality is a rapidly growing area of

experimentation for many acupuncturists. Used either to complement or replace

traditional needling techniques, practitioners are finding that treatment of

acupoints with colored light adds new dimensions to their work.

Light offers a gentle, pain-free, noninvasive therapeutic alternative with no

side-effects. Many light therapies may be continued at home by the patient,

thereby reducing treatment costs. In addition, light exhibits a unique capacity to

effect psychological and spiritual healing while simultaneously supporting

physical healing.

Esogetic colorpuncture is a complete system of aculight therapy developed over

the past 25 years by German naturopath and acupuncturist Peter Mandel. It

combines concepts of acupuncture with the latest research on the way light

functions in the body coming from the field of modern biophysics. Like

acupuncture, colorpuncture presupposes that the balanced flow of energy through

the meridian system will support good health. However, colorpuncture achieves

this by introducing vibrational information into the body in the form of different

colored light frequencies via the meridian system.

For these treatments, a hand-held aculight pen with insertable colored glass tips is

used. The tool emits incandescent light and is battery-operated. Each colored tip is

precisely set at a specific frequency within the frequency band for each color.

Colorpuncture treatment consists of particular sets of points treated in sequence

with specific colors. Treatment points are derived from traditional acupuncture;

other holographic grid systems such as reflexology and applied kinesiology; and

many points discovered by Mandel in his clinical practice.

History and Development of Esogetic Colorpuncture Therapy

Starting in the 1970s, Mandel began integrating theoretical and empirical data on

the effects of color, the philosophy of Chinese medicine and the latest findings of

modern photon physics. A lengthy professional association with German

biophysicist Fritz Albert Popp provided Mandel with the theoretical basis for his

work. In his studies of human cell communication, Popp demonstrated that

normal living cells emit a steady stream of photons (particles of light) called

biophotons. Popp hypothesized that these act as carriers of information in living

organisms, and that a cell will show an increase emission of biophotons (and

disturbed information flow) whenever its functions are no longer in a state of

balance. Further, the change in the biophoton emissions of one cell will eventually

disturb the biophoton emissions in neighboring cells (imagine a pebble dropped in

a pond with its spreading ripples). This change from harmoniously oscillating light

eventually leads to incoherence and disease.1 Mandel went one step further by

suggesting that these cellular changes also eventually affect the electrical

receptivity of related zones and acupoints on the surface of the skin.

Given that human cells exhibit energetic properties of light, and that light and

color have a modifying effect on the body's system of energetic information, it

seemed obvious to Mandel that the informational properties of light and color

could be used to restore coherence and health. Furthermore, given his training in

acupuncture and the existing research indicating that meridians actually channel

light, Mandel felt that the system of acupuncture, with its skin points of meridians,

was the best means of introducing light into the energetic anatomy. Through

extensive experimentation, Mandel determined that certain acupoints displayed a

particular affinity to certain colors. Starting with the basic primary and secondary

colors (red, green, blue, orange, yellow and violet), he developed treatments using

these complementary (warm and cool) colors to balance bipolar acupoints. This,

he said, was the birth of colorpuncture and allowed for a highly differentiated

means of affecting the yin-yang balance between complementary pairs of points.2

Since then, Mandel has continued to explore the therapeutic potential of various

colors. He developed the "soul-spirit" colors (rose, pale turquoise, light green and

magenta), which are used for more psychological treatments. He uses a specific

frequency of infrared light for his pain relief treatments. Most recently, he has

developed therapies using three shades of gray light, as well as ultraviolet light.

Treatment Possibilities Using Esogetic Colorpuncture

Esogetic colorpuncture includes many treatments that are consistent with

concepts of traditional Chinese medicine, e.g., treatments that move stagnation or

build chi in relation to a particular meridian. However, many colorpuncture

treatments do not fit within the Chinese medical framework. Rather, they reflect

Mandel's training as a naturopath in the German system and his interest in

biophysics and esoteric philosophies. For example, colorpuncture includes many

therapies for regulating the lymphatic system as well as treatments designed to

clear energetic interference patterns in specific parts of the brain and nervous

system.

Perhaps most interesting, colorpuncture emphasizes the interplay of body, mind

and spirit by addressing the deeper causes of illness. In addition to relieving bodily

symptoms, many treatments gently "unwind" and release any traumas, emotional

scars and negative beliefs that are held in the subtle energy body and contribute to

a constant state of imbalance and ill health. One example is therapy to clear

traumatic imprints from the prenatal period of life - imprints which Mandel

believes often set the patient up for health problems later in life. Another example,

conflict solution therapy, is designed to bring up and release the unprocessed

emotions of past conflicts, which Mandel believes are often imprinted in the lower

recesses of the brain and can, over time, severely weaken the immune system.

Esogetics: A New Paradigm of Healing

Mandel coined the term esogetics to describe his holistic paradigm for healing.

The term refers to the "merger of esoteric wisdom of life with the energetic

principles of life's processes." Mandel's concept of esogetic medicine is a synthesis

of ancient esoteric doctrines (e.g., the ancient hermetic doctrines) with the

thinking of modern energetic scientists and the bases of Chinese medicine.

A common theme in many esoteric doctrines is that each human being, as a soul,

comes to this life to manifest a unique potential or life path. In Mandel's esogetic

paradigm, illness and pain are seen as signals that the individual may be blocked

in their ability to manifest their potential or may have become distracted from

their life path. From this perspective, lasting healing results require not only the

elimination of symptoms, but that the patients be brought back in touch with who

they are and why they are here. This is why esogetic colorpuncture focuses

extensively on expanding consciousness, clearing traumatic imprints and

supporting the evolution of the individual. To quote Peter Mandel, "Esogetics is

intended to help remove existing blockages and disorders, so one can travel one's

life path freely and lightheartedly."

Esogetic Colorpuncture Is a Work in Progress

Peter Mandel continues to develop esogetic colorpuncture and other therapies

from the perspective of the healing paradigm of esogetics. Most recently, he has

developed tools to regulate brain waves as a way to support the body's healing

processes, and tiny crystals that adhere to acupoints after treatment to continue

harmonizing these points, as well as therapies using different shades of gray light

and ultraviolet light. As he has often said, Mandel's aim is to use all of the modern

technologies available to support the holistic healing and evolution of the

individual.

References

1. Popp FA. Biologie des Lichtes (Biology of Light). Berlin: Verlag Paul Parey, 1984. In German.

2. Mandel P. Practical Compendium of Colorpuncture, vol. 1. Bruchsal, West Germany: 1986, Energetic

Verlag.

Other Works

1. Bohm D. The implicate order and the super-implicate order. In: Weber R (ed.) Dialogues with Scientists

and Sages: The Search for Unity. London and New York: Routledge and Kegan, 1986.

2. Croke M, Dass R. A brief introduction to esogetic colorpuncture therapy - a system of wholistic aculight

therapy: theory and case studies. American Journal of Acupuncture 1996;24(2/3).

3. Mandel P. Esogetics: The Sense and Nonsense of Sickness and Pain. Energetik-Verlag GMBH,

Sulzback/Taunus, 1993.

4. Croke M, Dass R. A review of recent research studies on the efficacy of esogetic colorpuncture therapy - a

wholistic aculight system. American Journal of Acupuncture 1999;27(1/2).

Colour and Light Healing ;

"And God said Let there be Light"

There have been thousands of years of human experience and experiments,

including all religions, practices and perceptions; they have all come to the same

fundamental truth that the human is created out of light. Indeed the word human

in its etymological form means the colour of the mind, hue = colour and man =

mind. Treatment with colour and light can take many forms dependent on the

system and the practitioner, including Yoga, Kabbalah as well as Energy healing.

Filling the system with light and dispelling darkness, illness and stagnant energy.

Although some colour frequencies are not detectable by the human eye, such as

infra-red and ultra- Violet, both vibrations are recognised for their healing

abilities by conventional western medicine. Pavllou uses her experience as a

Kundalini Yoga teacher and in Energetic Healing including Harmonyum and Reiki

as well as training in other forms of Colour and Light healing. Colour can be

applied to the skin via a light torch with the chosen correct frequencies of colour to

key points on the body that are linked to the Chinese meridian system; the

acupuncture points and the reflex zones. This system was developed in 1978 by the

scientist and healer Peter Mandel who has focused the ideas of previous pioneers

into a contemporary healing modality. Colour is a non invasive treatment that can

help a number of imbalances in the system with its frequency and vibration.

Unresolved emotional conflicts that have created physical blockages can be treated.

Even deep seated inherited patterns or old traumas can be encouraged to lift away

from the cellular level of body. Treatment is usually carried out with the patient

either lying or sitting while colour is beamed onto key points on the body. Dr. Fritz

Popp, said to be the father of Biophoton research has proved that the cells of all

living things radiate light which exerts an influence on the body¹s biochemical

processes. Cells, both animal and plant, possess the ability to communicate with

each other, something already recognised in advanced scientific knowledge. "Light

is the Language of the cells" demonstrated Dr. Popp, showing how cells

communicate almost in a similiar way to morse code with long and short pulses of

light. Hence if a balancing message is transmitted to the cells via light through the

skin it can be communicated to the other cells (indeed our whole world

communicates with light, transmitting voice, video and data through light

impulses in fibre optic cables). This has been recognised from the early

civilisations such as the Egyptians who had healing chambers of coloured light, the

Chinese who were able to correlate colour with the 5 elements and the vibration of

sound along with the Aztec, Romans and Indian cultures. The Sun was the bringer

of Life and Healing and a powerful Deity. Other modern pioneers include Rollier

with his work on Phototherapy and Finsen who won the nobel prize in 1903 as

well as other key scientists provided research and a body of work that is the basis

of medical light therapies today. The philosopher and writer Goethe called colour

³the children of the light² and his hypotheses influenced Rudolph Steiner who was

convinced that colour would play a major theraputic role in the coming age.

Colour is a vibration which contains pure information. The eye can discern around

169 colour variations which come from the 3 basic colours; red, yellow and

blue.Some of the effects on the biosystem have found to be: Red- increases blood

pressure, breathing frequency, energy, the colour of life, anger, rage and relates to

the heart and lungs Blue - colour of peace, antiseptic and decongesting effect. Blue

can reduce spasm. Yellow - relaxed happiness, colour of the intellect and glandular

and lymphatic systems.

Light Is Life: Using Light & Color

to Heal the Body, Mind, and Spirit

The idea that our repressed or unlived emotions and our disconnection from our

deeper life purpose could actually affect our physical health may be new to some

people. Perhaps newer is the idea that colored light applied to the body can be a

powerful key to unlock the mysterious interactive connection between body mind

and spirit. We've often read in spiritual or religious writings about light as a

metaphor for the highest potential in human development (enlightenment] or a

symbolic destination in all our lives (toward the light). The possibility that light

and color can actually assist wholistically with our personal evolution, as well as

our physical healing, is motivating new developments in the field of light therapy.

In fact, light and color are being used in many of today's foremost mindbody

healing technologies.

The use of light and color for healing is not new. History records their use in many

ancient medical systems. Egyptians designed special healing temples which

captured and split the sun's rays into its component colors which were focused

into light-bathing rooms used by Egyptian physicians. Indian healers and

spiritualists identified specific energy centers in the body called chakras which

were thought to be stimulated by exposure to different colors. The ancient Chinese

Taoists believed that perfect health and spiritual enlightenment could both be

achieved when one mastered the art of internally circulating the "golden light".(1)

In the late 1800s and early 1900s there was renewed interest in using color and

light for healing purposes. In the healing systems developed at this time, light was

used primarily to relieve physical symptoms without as much consideration for its

emotional and spiritual impact. In 1920, an Indian immigrant to the U.S. named

Dinshah Ghadiali pioneered a system of healing in which precision color filters

were placed over a light source and used to irradiate specific areas of the body

according to set color prescriptions. Ghadiali proposed that the body is

surrounded by an electro-chemical emanation or aura which interacts with the

body's cells.(2) He believed that when the aura is strengthened with colored light

radiation, it actually transmitted this strength to the cells' Around the same time,

another pioneer, optometrist Harry Spitler, developed his color therapy system

using a visual screen device to focus different colors of light into the eye in order to

effect the brain and restore balance in the autonomic nervous system. Another

researcher. Dr. Edwin Babbit, used a method of focusing colored light on areas of

his patients' bodies and prescribed curative solar elixirs of water that had been

irradiated with sunlight (3).

Over the centuries, methods for applying light have included bathing the whole

body in sunlight or colored light, irradiating specific areas of the body with specific

colors in prescribed patterns, drinking elixirs infused with light, wearing colored

cloth or gems, and more. Today's most advanced light healing technologies also

include specialized equipment which projects colored light into the eyes or focuses

this light on acu-points on the skin.

How do color and light affect the human body?

One way that light and color enter the body is through the eyes. The different wave

length frequencies of light (or colors) entering the eye are immediately

transformed into electrical nerve impulses by the eye's light sensitive

photoreceptors. These impulses are then relayed along the optic nerve to various

parts of the brain where they have widespread influence on its functioning. For

example, light impulses travel to the hypothalamus, a small portion of the

midbrain which is involved in the regulation of our autonomic nervous system, as

well as our endocrine or hormonal system. The light sensitive hypothalamus

converts light signals into neurochemical substances which are then sent out to all

its areas of regulation. Via the hypothalamus, light appears to influence the body's

life sustaining functions, regulation of moods, the onset of puberty, sexual

functioning, aging, the immune system and more. Light generated nervous

impulses received by the brain's visual cortex also travel to the limbic system, a

primary emotional and learning center in the brain. Here we find one explanation

as to why light may activate the release of feelings, as it so often does when used to

heal the body.

Light also enters our bodies through the skin. According to Dr. Orm Bergold, M.D.

"the human photoreceptor molecules are not limited conveniently to the retina {of

the eye] but rather are ubiquitous, being found in virtually every tissue." Like the

eye, Beigold believes that the skin converts the light vibrations that touch into

electro-chemical impulses.(4) More recently, Russian researchers at the Institute

of Clinical and Experimental Medicine demonstrated that acupuncture points on

the skin are sensitive to light and that light vibrations are transmitted along the

acupuncture meridians. The flow of chi or energy through the meridian system of

the body can thus be influenced with light.

The research of a German biophysicist. Dr. Fritz Albert Popp comes closest to

proving that we are, as the spiritual teachers have always told us, light beings.

Popp has proven in a number of experiments that all the cells in our bodies are

always emitting low level light radiation which he called "biophoton emission."

Popp's experiments further suggest that this light emission is the way in which

cells communicate. Accordingly Popp has concluded that "light can initiate or

arrest cascade-like reactions in the cells, and that genetic cellular damage can be

virtually repaired within hours by faint beams of light. We are still on the

threshold of fully understanding the complex relationship between light and life,

but we can now say, emphatically that the function of our entire metabolism is

dependent on light." Popp's findings further prompted an associate. Peter Mandel,

a German naturopath, to theorize that "Light is life... Specifically, light is present

in the communication between the cells in the body and disease occurs when this

communication is broken, when the cells can no longer speak the same language.

Giving light has a resonance effect, bringing the cells into the same language again

and healing the body."

Lighting up the frontiers of the body-mind.

Today, most light practitioners are taking a more whole person approach to

healing and new light therapy technologies are addressing the relationship

between the body, emotions, and spirit. This has come about because many people

who undergo colored light treatments report that old memories and feelings gently

surface and release, or that their thought processes and dreams are enhanced even

as their bodies are healing.

"Light has a way of bringing up to the surface old, unresolved, unexpressed

emotional trauma, which I feel are the roots of the weed we call disease," says

optometrist, light therapist and author, Jacob Liberman. Using a device to shine

color into the eyes, Liberman intentionally evokes subconscious material as a way

to promote improved vision. Psychotherapist and light practitioner, Stephen

Vasquez, found that colored light acted as a catalyst to bring unconscious material

to the surface. In his therapy sessions treating psychological issues, he regularly

combines colored light (shone in the eyes) with more traditional psychotherapy to

enhance and quicken the healing process.

The renowned physicist. Dr. David Bohm speaks of an all-encompassing

background or field out of which all life and consciousness unfold, a field of light

vibrations. Bohm reminds us that we, like all material forms, are made up of light

and that "light is energy and it is also information - content, form and structure. It

is the potential for everything." In the light healing work of practitioners like Peter

Mandel, the spiritual or soul development potential of light is strongly emphasized.

Mandel believes that light and color can be used to support personal evolution or

unfolding and that colored light systematically applied to acu-points on the skin

can facilitate the exchange of information between the person's conscious,

unconscious and superconscious. "On the level of the material world," says

Mandel, "we humans, in our wholeness, are light beings. We must and always will

develop toward the absolute light, which we call God. In this process, we are

accompanied by light on the outside and, if we allow it, light on the inside."(8) For

each of us, the journey toward our healing and self-discovery will be unique.