Avicenna (980–1037), seeing color as of vital importance both in
diagnosis and in
treatment, discussed chromotherapy in
The Canon of Medicine. He wrote that "color is an observable symptom of disease" and also developed a chart that related color to the
temperature and physical condition of the body. His view was that red moved the blood, blue or white cooled it, and yellow reduced muscular pain and inflammation. Pioneer of photography
Robert Hunt performed experiments on the effects of different wavelengths of light on the germination and growth of plants, detailed in his 1844 book
Researches on Light. Apparently influenced by this work, from 1860
Augustus Pleasonton started to conduct original experiments, and in 1876 published the book
The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Color of the Sky, detailing how the color
blue can improve the growth of crops and livestock and can help heal diseases in humans. This led to the birth of modern chromotherapy, influencing contemporary scientists Dr. Seth Pancoast and Edwin Dwight Babbitt to conduct experiments and publish
Blue and Red Light; or, Light and Its Rays as Medicine (1877) and
The Principles of Light and Color (1878), respectively. In Germany in the late 1890s, Georg von Langsdorff promoted Babbitt's ideas and mixed color therapy with
psychometry and
spiritualism. Other notable advocates include
Anthroposophist Theo Gimbel, who authored many books on the subject and founded the Hygeia Institute for Colour Therapy in 1968.
Dinshah P. Ghadiali In 1933, Indian scientist Dinshah P. Ghadiali published
The Spectro Chromemetry Encyclopaedia, a work on color therapy. Ghadiali claimed to have discovered why and how the different colored rays have various therapeutic effects on organisms. He believed that colors represent chemical potencies in higher octaves of vibration, and for each organism and system of the body, there is a particular color that stimulates and another that inhibits the work of that organ or system. He also thought that, by knowing the action of the different colors upon the different organs and systems of the body, one can apply the correct color that will tend to balance the action of any organ or system that has become abnormal in its function or condition. The
American Medical Association published refutations of Ghadiali's color therapy claims. In 1958, the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) facilitated a permanent injunction against Ghadiali's Visible Spectrum Research Institute. Ghadiali's son, Darius Dinshah, and grandson Ryan, continue to provide information about color therapy via his Dinshah Health Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing non-pharmaceutical home color therapy, and his book
Let There Be Light. ==Conceptual basis==