Introducing Esogetic Colorpuncture™
A Complete Acu-Light Therapy System for Body, Mind and Spirit
by Manohar Croke, MA, Diplomate ECP
Use of colored light as a treatment modality is a rapidly growing area of experimentation for many acupuncturists. Used either to complement or replace traditional needling techniques, practitioners are finding that treatment of acu-points with colored light adds new dimensions to their work. Light offers a gentle, pain-free, non-invasive therapeutic alternative with no side effects. The patient, thereby reducing treatment costs, may continue many light therapies at home. In addition, light exhibits a unique capacity to effect psychological and spiritual healing while simultaneously supporting physical healing.
What is Esogetic Colorpuncture™
Esogetic Colorpuncture is a complete system of acu-light therapy developed over the past 25 years by German naturopath and acupuncturist, Peter Mandel. It combines concepts of acupuncture with the latest research on the way light functions in the body coming from the field of modern biophysics. Like acupuncture, colorpuncture presupposes that the balanced flow of energy through the meridian system will support good health. However, colorpuncture achieves this by introducing vibrational information into the body in the form of different colored light frequencies via the meridian system.
For these treatments, a hand-held acu-light pen with insertable colored glass tips is used. The tool emits incandescent light and is battery operated. Each colored tip is precisely set at a specific frequency within the frequency band for each color. A Colorpuncture treatment consists of particular sets of points treated in sequence with specific colors. Treatment points are derived from traditional acupuncture, other holographic grid systems such as reflexology and applied kinesiology, and also many points discovered by Mandel in his clinical practice.
Acupuncturists who incorporate Esogetic Colorpuncture into their practices find that it increases their effectiveness, particularly with regards to addressing the emotional and psychological issues underlying their patients’ health problems.
History and Development of Esogetic Colorpuncture
Starting in the1970’s, Mandel began integrating theoretical and empirical data on the effects of color, the philosophy of Chinese medicine and the latest findings of modern photon physics. Although Western medical theory does not allow for the concept of Chi as a health regulating force in the body, Western physicists studying the phenomena of light have come to understand that all matter, consists of electromagnetic waves or energy. Physicist David Bohm suggests that matter, of any mass, is actually comprised of highly condensed light existing at speeds, which are less than the speed of light so that it simply appears solid.1 Since the phenomenon of light involves the constant oscillation of an electromagnetic waveform, the given limits of this oscillation may be described as analogous to the parameters of Yin and Yang, within which Chi manifests in the Chinese medical model. Thus, Chi may be likened to manifestations embodying characteristics scientists use to describe the phenomenon of light.2
The theoretical basis of Esogetic Colorpuncture
A lengthy professional association with German biophysicist, Fritz Albert Popp provided Mandel with the theoretical basis of Esogetic Colorpuncture. In his studies of human cell communication, Popp demonstrated that normal living cells emit a steady stream of photons (particles of light) called biophotons. Popp hypothesized that these act as carriers of information in living organisms and that a cell will show an increased emission of biophotons (and disturbed information flow) whenever its functions are no longer in a state of balance. Further, the change in the biophoton emissions of one cell will eventually disturb the biophoton emissions in neighboring cells (imagine a pebble dropped in a pond with its spreading ripples). This change from harmoniously oscillating light eventually leads to incoherence and disease.3 Mandel went one step further by suggesting that these cellular changes also eventually affect the electrical receptivity of related zones and acupoints on the surface of the skin.
Given that human cells exhibit energetic properties of light, and that light and color have a modifying effect on the body’s system of energetic information, it seemed obvious to Mandel that the informational properties of light and color could be used to restore coherence and health. Furthermore, given his training in acupuncture and the existing research indicating that meridians actually channel light, Mandel felt that the system of acupuncture with its skin points and meridians were the best means of introducing light into the energetic anatomy. Through extensive experimentation, Mandel determined that certain acupoints displayed a particular affinity to certain colors. Starting with the basic primary and secondary colors (red, green, blue, orange, yellow and violet), he developed treatments using these complementary (warm and cool) colors to balance bipolar acupoints. This, he said, was the birth of colorpuncture and allowed a highly differentiated means of affecting the Yin-Yang balance between complementary pairs of points.4
Since then, Mandel has continued to explore the therapeutic potential of various colors. He developed his “soul-spirit” colors (rose, pale turquoise, light green and magenta), which are used for more psychological treatments. He uses a specific frequency of infrared light for his pain relief treatments. Most recently, he has developed therapies using three shades of grey light as well as ultraviolet light.
Treatment Possibilities Using Esogetic Colorpuncture
Esogetic Colorpuncture includes many treatments, which are consistent with concepts of traditional Chinese Medicine — e.g., treatments, which move stagnation or build chi in relation to a particular meridian. However, many colorpuncture treatments do not fit within the Chinese medical framework. Rather, they reflect Mandel’s training as a naturopath in the German system and his interest in biophysics and esoteric philosophies. For example, colorpuncture includes many therapies for regulating the lymphatic system as well as treatments designed to clear energetic interference patterns in specific parts of the brain and nervous system.
Perhaps most interesting, colorpuncture emphasizes the interplay of body, mind and spirit by addressing the deeper causes of illness. In addition to relieving bodily symptoms, many treatments gently “unwind” and release any traumas, emotional scars and negative beliefs that are held in the subtle energy body and contribute to a constant state of imbalance and ill health. One example is therapy to clear traumatic imprints from the prenatal period of life — imprints which Mandel believes often set the patient up for health problems later in life. Another example is Conflict Solution Therapy designed to bring up and release the unprocessed emotions of past conflicts, which Mandel believes are often imprinted in the lower recesses of the brain and can, over time, severely weaken the immune system.
Esogetics: A New Paradigm of Healing
“Any kind of disease should be considered an alarm signal for disharmonies in the spirit and soul… We have to turn away from our suffering and sickness because they are the hindrances on our path
toward the inner. We have to bid farewell to those frustrations and fears which prevent us from progressing and coming into contact with our higher selves.” — Peter Mandel5
Mandel coined the term esogetics to describe his wholistic paradigm for healing. The term refers to the “merger of esoteric wisdom of life with the energetic principles of life’s processes.” Mandel’s concept of esogetic medicine is a synthesis of ancient esoteric doctrines (e.g., the ancient Hermetic doctrines) with the thinking of modern energetic scientists and the bases of Chinese medicine.
A common theme in many esoteric doctrines is that each human being, as a soul, comes to this life to manifest a unique potential or life path. In Mandel’s esogetic paradigm, illness and pain are seen as signals that the individual may be blocked in their ability to manifest their potential or may have become distracted from their life path. From this perspective, lasting healing results require not only the elimination of symptoms but that the patients are brought back in touch with who they are and why they are here. This is why Esogetic Colorpuncture focuses extensively on expanding consciousness, clearing traumatic imprints and supporting the evolution of the individual. To quote Peter Mandel, “Esogetics is intended to help remove existing blockages and disorders, so one can travel one’s path freely and lightheartedly.”
Research Findings on Colorpuncture Effectiveness
While Mandel’s research in developing colorpuncture has been primarily empirical, recent studies have been conducted in Europe regarding the effectiveness of specific Colorpuncture therapies. Although conducted in clinical settings on small populations and best viewed as pilot studies, this research does suggest that Esogetic Colorpuncture has powerful healing potential. The results are summarized below:6
° Treatment of migraines with Colorpuncture therapies in 56 patients resulted in 65% “cured” (no migraine attacks in the past 3 months) and 30% “improved” (attacks less severe and patients able to work without difficulty). Only 5% reported no improvement with treatment.
° Treatment of sleep disturbances in 80 preschool children conducted over a 3-year period showed 56% of children were completely cured and 38% were improved.
° Treatment of acute and chronic bronchitis in 50 adults found 80% experienced “good improvement and 14% experienced “moderate improvement.” Patients receiving colorpuncture in combination with medications took fewer medications for shorter periods of time and showed prompt improvement of often uncontrollable coughing.
° In a pilot study of 5 children, colorpuncture therapies for learning disorders and ADD were used, including therapies to regulate brain function and clear negative prenatal imprints. All five children showed dramatic improvement in school performance.
° Colorpuncture treatment of 100 women suffering from fibroids which did not require immediate surgery showed fibroids completely disappeared in 33% of the women and decreased significantly in another 45%.
Esogetic Colorpuncture is a Work in Progress
Peter Mandel continues to develop Esogetic Colorpuncture as well as other therapies from the perspective of the healing paradigm of esogetics. Most recently, he has developed tools to regulate brain waves as a way to support the body’s healing processes and tiny crystals which adhere to acupoints after treatment for continued point harmonization as well as therapies using different shades of grey light and ultraviolet light. As he has often said, Mandel’s aim is to use all the modern technologies available to support the wholistic healing and evolution of the individual.
“We who are imprisoned in matter have to bring our “I” out of matter and darkness and into the light. … On the level of the spiritual world, we humans, in our wholeness are light beings. We must, and always will develop toward the absolute light, which we call God. … in this process we are accompanied by light on the outside and, if we allow it, by light as well on the inside.” — Peter Mandel7
References
1. Bohm, D: The Implicate Order and the Super-Implicate Order, in Weber, R. (ed): Dialogues with Scientists and Sages: The Search for Unity. London and New York, Routledge and Kegan, 1986
2. Croke, M. & Dass, R, A Brief Introduction to Esogetic Colorpuncture™ Therapy — A System of Wholistic Acu-Light Therapy: Theory and Case Studies, in American Journal of Acupuncture, Vol 24, No. 2/3, 1996.
3. Popp, F.A.: Biologie des Lichtes (Biology of Light). Verlag Paul Parey, Berlin, 1984, (in German).
4. Mandel, P.: Practical Compendium of Colorpuncture, Vol. 1, Energetic Verlag, Bruchsal, West Germany, 1986.
5. Mandel, P.: Esogetics: The Sense and Nonsense of Sickness and Pain, Energetik-Verlag GmbH, Sulzback/Taunus, 1993.
6. Croke, M & Dass, R, A Review of Recent Researh Studies on the Efficacy of Esogetic Colorpuncture Therapy™ — A Wholistic Acu-Light System, in American Journal of Acupuncture, Vol. 27, No. 1/2, 1999.
7. Mandel, P.: Esogetics: The Sense and Nonsense of Sickness and Pain, ibid.