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Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Religion Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: The Color of Woo, revisited

Ah, yes, Washington, DC.

That’s where I am right now, deep in the belly of the government beast, attending the meeting of The Society of Surgical Oncology. It’s usually a great meeting, except for the distressing tendency of surgeons here to act, well, too much like surgeons. For example, consider when the very first session today, which happened to be about my area of interest breast cancer, started. Was it 8 AM? No. 7 AM? No.

It was 6 AM.

I kid you not. 6 AM in the freakin’ morning! The week after the switchover to Daylight Savings Time, yet! There was a time when I used to actually get up to attend this particular session, because it’s usually quite good, but, with age and experience, I’ve decided that Homey don’t play that no more. Even providing a hearty breakfast is no longer enough to get me up for these things anymore. I just feel sorry for anyone who came here from the West Coast or the few who showed up from Hawaii. I’m guessing few, if any, of them were there, and I notice that none of the speakers came from any further west than the Central time zone. Even so, that’s bad enough.

Thus, given all the activity going on, I’m going to try to keep this briefer than usual. I’ll probably fail, but at least I tried. I’ve written about the sound of woo before. I’ve even written about the color of woo before. You might think that the next logical step would be to write about the scent or the feel of woo, just to go through the five senses. And, yes, that would make sense.

But that’s not what I’m going to do this time. Instead, I’m going to revisit the color of woo one more time. The reason is that, when last I joked about the color of woo, I did it almost entirely as a joke about the color of money, with the color of the particular woo I “treated” being green. It really had little or nothing to do with using color as a primary component of the woo at hand.

This week’s woo does.

So, let’s consider a very bright form of woo, a form of woo known as Colour Energy.

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So, what is “colour energy”? It’s this:

Our most important energy source is light, and the entire spectrum of colours is derived from light. Sunlight, which contains all the wavelengths, consists of the entire electromagnetic spectrum that we depend on to exist on this planet.

Light flows through our eyes and triggers hormone production, which influences our entire complex biochemical system. This biochemical system then affects our being. And light does not travel alone. Light travels with other energies as illustrated..

We know that each colour found in the visible light spectrum has its own wavelength and its own frequency, which produces a specific energy and has a nutritive effect. We know some rays can be dangerous if we are exposed to them. But the visible light, the rainbow, has a soothing effect on us.

Look, there’s no doubt that different colors can have different effects on people’s moods. There’s extensive research to demonstrate that. But where this descends into woo is through the extensive claims it makes for the power of color. It goes far beyond “blue has a soothing effect” and “red and bright colors tend to be energetic.” For example, you can bathe in color:

Water is the giver of life and energy flows from colour. Restore the balance… Indulge yourself in a Colour Bath. Take yourself to a new level of wellbeing!

Why Bathe in Colour?
Each colour of the spectrum of light vibrates at a different frequency thereby giving you its own special qualities and influence. Colour has its own powerful language. Since our human development begins in a water environment (the womb and giver of life), imagine the strength and power when colour and water are combined!

Each colour helps us to balance our body’s energy with its own special attributes and power, which are known to affect our mood, energy level and general health. A Colour Bath is one easy way to help attain harmony and equilibrium in our lives.

That’s right. If you bathe in colored water, it’ll balance your energy and improve your health? How much, I wonder, do these bath soaps and oils actually change the color of the water? For example, how blue is the blue bathwater? For example, it is said on the website that yellow “helps to release mental stress, energizes the digestive system and brings any imbalances back into harmony.” So, let’s say you want to have that effect in your bath; so you buy the Colour Bath. Wouldn’t it end up looking as though you’re bathing in urine? Just a thought. I’m not sure that would do much to energize my digestive system or bring my imbalances back into harmony.

These guys seem to be heavily into combining woo. For example, you can take a Colour Bath combined with using aromatherapy with Colour Energy 100% pure essential oil. But if you want real power, you just have to try Chakra Light Essences:

CHAKRA LIGHT ESSENCES have been designed to open your energy centres to that they are functioning actively, radiantly and strongly.

The unity of one’s entirety is resultant of connecting the body and mind to other levels of consciousness–one’s chakras. Bringing the chakras into harmony requires some centres to be energized and this can be simply achieved by using the incredible CHAKRA LIGHT ESSENCES!

For example, we have the Guardian Angel:

GUARDIAN ANGEL is a powerful vibrational preparation that has been formulated to strengthen the auric protective grid through its influence on all of your subtle bodies. This deeper multidimensional patterning encourages positive energetic response to any intrusive energies. Thus helping to release your consciousness from any negative programmed responses that could be restricting your progress.

What is it with woo-meisters and “vibrational” energy anyway? They seem to invoke it just as fallaciously as they like to invoke the ultimate fallback for woo explanation, quantum theory, and with just as much scientific validity (i.e., none).

But my favorite bit of woo from this site is yet to come. Have you ever felt that your aura was getting all dirty and dingy? Ever feel as though it’s not as spiffy and clean as it might be? Ever wonder if you could do something about it? Well, wonder no more. All you need is the super-duper Colour Energy Aura Cleanser:

This powerful Aura Cleanser Essence encourages energetic responses from multi-levels of consciousness, clearing any negative threat, psychic or otherwise. It also helps to heal damaged human electromagnetic energy fields (auras that have holes) resultant from destructive lower frequencies (cell phones, computers, etc.) and assists in healing, preventing or alleviating serious imbalances.

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Holy electromagnetic radiation, Batman! I had no idea that cell phones and computers could poke holes in my aura. I’d better start spritzing this stuff on myself right away. But which color Aura Cleanser? I’m stuck here. Should I choose Indigo (“helps to unite your outer and inner being and opens your inner consciousness and intuitive knowledge”)? Or maybe Red (“grounds and focuses daily activity and helps to release past issues and blockages by building up your root”)? Or maybe Gold (“makes it easier for you to use your own masculine energy and to understand the law of duality”)?

Yeah, Gold. That’s the ticket. I’ve always wondered what the law of duality was, and what guy wouldn’t want to improve his use of his own masculine energy. I just hope that Mark and David Geier don’t hear about this and try to recommend Lupron.

Of course, the fine woo above is not all the woo that’s on this site. To see it all, you’ll have to peruse it for yourself to enjoy woo such as Colour Energy Jewelry, including Chakra Necklaces, Full Spectrum lightbulbs, Color-Coded Aromatherapy, or books and music. And, if you’re worried that you’re too unknowledgeable about the power of color, you can always go to Colour School. I’m sure you’ll agree after a complete browsing of the site, I’ve concluded that the woo’s so bright I gotta wear shades.

Fortunately, they have you covered there, too.

By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

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