Let there be light

"If mankind used his skill correctly, he could cure all disease upon Terra by a close study of that science you call Yoga; by a close study of that science you call chromotherapy; by adherence to that science you call homoeopathy. These things would cure disease." An extraterrestrial intelligence, known as Mars Sector Six, speaking through the yogic mediumship of Dr. George King .

Around the turn of the century light was seen as the medicine of the future. Sunlight had been found to be a powerful treatment for diseases including tuberculosis and rickets. In 1903 the Nobel prize was awarded to a Danish professor, Niels Finsen for the treatment of skin tuberculosis using ultraviolet (UV) light. He also used red light in the treatment of smallpox.

Such were the advances made in the early years of the century that in 1926 the chief surgeon at the Philadelphia Women's Hospital, Dr. Kate Baldwin, wrote "After nearly 37 years of medicine and surgery, I can produce quicker and more accurate results with colours than with any or all other methods combined, and with less strain on the patient".
Yet by the time of the transmission quoted above in 1960 chromotherapy (healing with colour), otherwise known as phototherapy (healing with light), had been completely marginalised. The reason? Money.

In America treatments not capable of being scientifically verified came under the scrutiny of the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). As a result many unorthodox treatments were effectively outlawed and equipment and case records destroyed. Colour therapy was one: in theory it is still illegal to publish information about it in the States.

But you can't get away from light and its effect on health. It defines our bodily cycles. Jet lag, where these cycles become confused, is best cured by a strong dose of sunlight or extremely bright light which tells the body to readjust. Light affects our moods through hormone production. It is a crucial factor in how well our immune systems work: when our cells are deprived of it and the electrical charge it imparts to them they simply do not work so well.

And colour too–it just works. Blue light is a feature of every intensive care unit these days: its soothing property and antiseptic power are just too powerful to be ignored. Common sense is once again prevailing, though science still fails to understand the principles behind it. Ironically a significant factor has been money: light is cheap.

Colour taken in through the eyes has long been known to have a powerful effect. It is now known that a high percentage of it continues past the retina at the back of the eyes to the hypothalamus, and the pituitary and pineal glands, where it affects just about every aspect of our functions. Colour strobe therapy takes this principle a stage further, shining a flickering colour light directly into the eyes. It is used in America for treating a range of disorders, especially psychological ones, and is also believed to be highly effective in stroke rehabilitation. With post-traumatic stress it dramatically reduces recovery times.

There are just four practitioners of colour strobe therapy in England, but nonetheless at the Hammersmith Hospital in London a study has found that the best cure for pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) is red flickering light. In the study 12 out of 17 women with serious and long-standing PMS were cured after four months of the treatment.

Coloured light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are widely used in sports medicine and by vets. Soft laser light is used to stimulate healing in troublesome wounds and bruises and halves healing time. It has been found to soothe burn pains. Again red is used: of all the visible colours it is the most penetrating, because of its long wavelength.

Red light is also used as a component of a treatment called photodynamic therapy to kill off cancer cells. Unlike other therapies it only attacks the malignant cells, does not interfere with other treatments and is non-invasive, since the light can be introduced using thin strands of fibre-optic cable.

When light is polarised it becomes wholly absorbed into whatever it hits, unlike ordinary light. It has proved to have remarkable therapeutic properties. It revives almost dead cells, improves the germination of seeds, increases the survival rate of piglets–the list goes on. And Niels Finsen's Nobel prize-winning work with UV light continues to be developed. In Russia many different complaints are treated by irradiating with UV 1 or 2% of the patients blood. Detailed research on blood samples at the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg shows consistently beneficial effects. It is used there after chemotherapy and radiotherapy to restore the immune system, as it is with AIDS. It is also used as a sole therapy for ulcers, pneumonias and detoxification in cases of addiction.

Another intelligence to speak through Dr. King, The Master Aetherius stated that all life is merely "solidified sunlight". Small wonder then that the original material–light–has such a power to heal and revitalise