Color Continuum

Writen by Nadeem Alam

Colors add something to life which cannot be attained by any other mean, we simply make our life colorful, we skill our dreams colorful and skill our ideas colorfully all the time. Life can never be monochrome or even black and white, it has more than seven colors, more than 256 shades, more than thousands of tones and more than hundreds of thousands tinges.

We see, absorb, react, understand and communicate colors from centuries. Even before the creation of proper verbal language or dexterity shapes, color were the basic and most true expression of human activity and emotion. Being the most enchanting gift of nature, colors might have attracted human beings at the largest scale in this universe right there at beginning to ponder over, adopt and be familiar with. This oldest relationship is still as strong as it was ever before, after centuries of rapidly evolution of life and life style, social, economical, psychological, philosophical and rationale, colors got more and more attention of all the theories, inventions and discoveries.

From the clay toys to the electronically enhanced play stations, from the graffiti in Stone Age caves to the modern billboards and from the invention of wheel to the blowing space shuttles, colors never missed their place. Meditations to industrial revolution, the man has gone through many phases of knowing thy inner-self through mythology, religion, creed, ethics, philosophy and ideology, but was never running short of colors, either at realistic level or the suggestive and symbolic altitude.

Sun is the only and most crucial source of light and heat indispensable for life in the lap of mother earth and sunlight with all colors folded in it, is a blessing without any comment while it is proven that our skin and eyes need at least two hours exposure to sunlight for better health, modern lifestyle due to its architectural requirements and social life style has deprived us of this basic need in most of the metropolitan cities around the globe, that has forced us to naturist parks, beaches and abodes which are already controversial and unacceptable in most parts of the world. But sunlight is inevitable; there is no refute about it, so indispensable become the colors entrenched in sunlight.

Modern research has changed many old theories and concepts in total, but it has put more stress and emphasis on the nature, influence and impact of colors as an entity vital in human life from start to the end. Human behaviour and feelings are studied in terms of their exposure to different colors and the impact colors might cause at the root level. Today, modern man is pretty much familiar with Color Therapy, Color Psychology and Color Consultancy. Although these therapies are very old and were in practice in Egyptian age, but the scientific reasoning and principles are derived and worked on later in 19th century.

In ancient time, there were a strong belief that wearing a jewel with a specific gemstone of a particular color can add success, happiness and serenity in life, today it is discovered that wearing a certain color wrist-band or exposure to a certain color light can really make a difference in life, the reasoning behind this philosophy is that as each object, regardless of its size, shape and weight, has got its own frequency and wavelength, same is the case with colors, every color has got specific frequency, therefore, if we could get the true calculations based on different frequency, we can use a certain color to attain desired results from healing a bacteria infected wound to a viral disease, by knowing the bacteria and virus frequencies, or getting rid of the irritating pain causing elements or ironic situations.

Apart from medical scenario, psychological problems are more vulnerable to colors and color consultants are sure to provide all sorts of comfort to a worried person through the correct choice of color. Colors are categorized generally in two basic groups: Warm and Cool. Out of general spectrum of seven colors, Red, Orange and Yellow are taken as warm colors while; Blue, Purple, Turquoise and Green are considered as cool ones.

Red range of colors (red, orange, yellow) is viewed as active and exciting whereas, Blue range (blue, purple, turquoise, green) comes under the label of soothing and passive. Even physiological tests have affirmed the same idea by claiming that Red hues increase stimulate the autonomic nervous system and boost bodily tension as Cool hues act the other way round. An interesting study claims that babies cry more frequently in yellow rooms, weightlifters perform better in rooms painted blue, color consultants also claim that in colors used in certain environment can have impact on the emotions and performance of people living within.

One should not mix up the psychological, cultural, religious and political expression through colors since each scenario sees each color in a different way. Moreover, symbolic denotation is very much different from of the psychological one as symbolically, red for its illusive characteristic of appearing nearer than all other colors, is used to denote danger while in color psychology, yellow and black are used for the same purpose. Similar, is the case with green, denoting envy in many cultures symbolically, but associated with balance in color psychology.

Culturally different theories and ideologies are applied colors as various cultures make out colors differently; in South Asia, Green is associated with Islam, blue with Krishna( a powerful god of Hindu mythology), red is taken a symbol of purity while yellow stands for the status of Imperial Color. Whereas, in China red is associated with celebration and prosperity, white for mourning and death in contrary to black that is the most common color of mourning and death around the globe. In Europe colors are strongly bracketed together with political movements and parties, in European countries black is the color for Conservatism, brown is still associated with Nazis while, Socialism embraces red.

Although color psychology is relatively new area of scientific research as compare to the ancient Chinese, Egyptians and Indians who had strong belief in technique of healing with colors, chromo-therapy. Ancient Indians, in accordance with their chromo-therapy belief, have divided human body in seven energy circles, called "Chakras" in Sunskrit (ancient language of India) rendering each part to a certain color beginning from fore head to lower abdomen area. According to this division, first energy circle is situated at forehead, its color is purple, and therefore, purple color is useful in the treatment of ailments and pains related to this part of body.

Second energy circle or "Chakra" is located on face, just under the forehead and above the neck, the color for this part is blue, means the sense of smell, hear and see can be benefited by the blue color applications, either by wearing something blue or by shedding blue light to this area. Neck is the abode of third energy circle with turquoise hue specific to benefit all neck related problems and pains. Then comes the chest here lies the green colored energy circle, the most vital part of body with heart beating in it and under the ribcage delicacy of respiration system, green is considered to gain positively in all functions and health encaged in the ribcage.

With this the range of cool colors finishes, and starts the domain of warm hues, starting from yellow, comes the fifth energy circle in sequence, it determines the belly or upper abdomen, means all stomach and large intestine problems and pains can be relieved by applying the yellow. Orange is just lying next with lower abdomen area, collectively; yellow and orange circles help the digestive system and its related problems and pains. Next is the pubic area where genital, adrenal glands and kidneys with all sexual system is arranged by nature in a very multifaceted manner, here we find the energy circle with red color, red is the most popular color in general in India, after studying this ancient research on colors, I came to know about the reason behind the traditional red wedding dress of the bride, taken as compulsory in all parts of India.

This is a very fascinating partition of human body with reference to explicit colors, keep in mind that there is no energy circle or Chakra found in arms or legs as there is no imperative function or vital organ in these areas, therefore, we can say about this division of human body as very much based on today's modern physiology and anatomy. Apart from color therapy and color psychology, as they could be taken as more professional knowledge, colors add life in all walks, from hairstyle to dress, pair of glasses to shoes, pen to paper, guns to roses, colors are live everywhere. Mountains see their shades of gray, brown and green reflections in the lakes, intoxicate the seeing eye, clouds with tinges of black and gray, kiss the air warmly.

Flowers, leaves, birds and butterflies, present a pallet, compel the viewer to profound and enjoy the every impact of all these colors that can be seen, felt and absorbed.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749–22 March 1832) ,Renowned German Polymath said:

"...they maintained that shade is a part of light. It sounds absurd when I express it; but so it is: for they said that colors, which are shadow and the result of shade, are light itself, or, which amounts to the same thing, are the beams of light, broken now in one way, now in another." *Conversations with Eckermann, entry: Jan. 4, 1824; trans. Wallace Wood.