Chromotherapy, also called color therapy, is an alternative medicine therapy that is a fusion between the Hindu chakras (spiritual centers) and different colors of light that are matched to these spiritual center imbalances.  Chakra is a word from the sanskrit meaning "wheel", and the 7 chakras are one of the main components of several religions from India, as well as part of energy therapies (e.g. Reiki), Indian meditation, ayurvedic medicine, and yoga.  Each of these centers is an imaginary psychic energy force, and all the chakras should be in balance with each other.  Chromotherapy assigns colors to the chakras and uses light therapy to balance the chakras and the psychic energy flowing from the chakra wheels throughout the body. Currently employed light therapy involves a session in which the nude body is treated with different colored lights to enhance different chakras.

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HISTORY OF COLOR LIGHT THERAPY

Avicenna (980–1037), the great Persian Middle Ages physician, saw color as of vital importance both in diagnosis and in treatment of disease, and discussed chromotherapy in his master work, The Canon of Medicine.  He stated "color is an observable symptom of disease" and subsequently created a chart correlating color to the temperature and physical condition of the body. He believed the color red moved the blood, blue or white cooled it, and yellow reduced muscular pain and inflammation.

American Civil War General Augustus Pleasonton (1801–1894) conducted his own experiments and in 1876 published his book The Influence Of The Blue Ray Of The Sunlight And Of The Blue Color Of The Sky about how the color blue can improve the growth of crops and livestock and can help heal diseases in humans. This led to modern chromotherapy, influencing scientist Dr. Seth Pancoast (1823–1889) and Edwin Dwight Babbitt (1828–1905) to conduct experiments and to publish, respectively, Blue and Red Light; or, Light and Its Rays as Medicine (1877) and The Principles of Light and Color.

In 1933, Indian-born Persian scientist Dinshah P. Ghadiali (1873–1966) who later became infamous due to his antics and belief systems that were derived from naturopathy, published The Spectro Chromemetry Encyclopaedia, a work on color therapy he called spectro-chrome 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. Ghadiali 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 functioning or condition. 

WHAT IS SPECTRO-CHROME THERAPY?

Ghadiali created the idea that every element exhibits a preponderance of one or more of the seven prismatic colors; 97 per cent of our body is composed of the four elements, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon; the preponderating color wave of these four elements are blue, red, green and yellow, respectively; the human body is responsive to these four "color wave potencies." In health our four colors are properly balanced; when they get out of balance we are diseased; ergo, to cure disease administer the lacking colors or reduce the colors that have become too brilliant. He developed the "Spectro-chrome", a box with a light and colored glass panels in 1925.  He was arrested and imprisoned as a sex offender in the US in the 1920s.

Part of Ghadiali's paraphernalia is a chart describing the "Spectro-Chrome Therapeutic System." From this we learn that Green light is a pituitary stimulant, a germicide and a muscle tissue builder. Yellow light is a digestant, and anthelmintic and a nerve builder. Red is a liver energizer, a caustic and a haemoglobin builder. Violet is a cardiac depressant; Blue is a vitality builder; Indigo is a hemostatic; Turquoise, a tonic; Lemon, a bone builder; Orange, an emetic; Scarlet, a genital excitant; Magenta, a suprarenal stimulant, and Purple an anti-malarial...

The disciple is told that the "attuned color waves" should be applied to the bare skin as clothing will intercept them. In giving the "systemic treatment" which from the testimonials, seem an important feature, the "color wave" is applied to the entire nude body, both front and back during an "atunement" which what Ghadiali termed a one hour session. For local treatment, the "color wave" is applied to the area that is designated by the number given in the chart.  In 1931 Ghadiali was arrested in Cleveland, Ohio for selling Spectro-Chrome, and found guilty in the local court and fined $25 and costs. But he still finds an ample supply of dupes and issues elaborate colored advertising booklets. He sells a "Spectro-Chrome Cabinet" for home use, ranging in price from $75 to $150, and a very elaborate contraption that he calls the Graduate Spectro-Chrome for professional use, which sells for $750. 

• 1940 Ghadiali had made over $1,000,000 selling Spectro-Chromes.

• 1944 US FDA seized a Spectro-Chrome device.

• 1947 Ghadiali found guilty of 12 criminal counts; he was fined $24,000, given 5 years probation, and appealed the decision.

• 1948 Ghadiali's appeals failed. Ghadiali starts probation.

• 1953 Ghadiali completed probation and took charge of the Visible Spectrum Institute, successor to Spectro-Chrome Institute.

• 1959 Permanent injunction issued against Ghadiali and Spectro-Chrome.

• 1966 Dinshah P. Ghadiali died.

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WHO CAN PRACTICE CHROMO-THERAPY

Anyone.  There are no licensure requirements, no training requirements, and no equipment requirements.

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SCIENTIFIC REVIEWS OF EFFECTIVENESS

There are no reviews finding effectiveness.  There are pseudoscientific opinion papers about the merits of the therapy (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1297510/) but outside of phototherapy for skin conditions or for the treatment of neonatal jaundice, there is no viable proof this therapy works at all.