Holistic healing

Let there be light therapy

Don’t mope around in the dark this winter – instead brighten up your world with some healing light therapy, says Eve Menezes Cunningham.

We all know people who radiate more light than others. We call them sunny personalities

Many of us swear by the benefits of complementary therapies but, if push came to shove, wouldn’t have a clue how they actually worked. One woman, however, has come up with an explanation. “To me, it’s all about light,” says Dr Susan Jamieson, the Harvard-trained doctor who recently published her views in Medical to Mystical: Bring Light into your Life (£9.99,Findhorn Press). In her fascinating book, she details how science backs up what complementary therapists have been working with for so long. “In so many traditions and religions, human beings are referred to as ‘beings of light’. Scientists have already accepted the concept that we are light beings,” she says, adding that at the sub-atomic level we are all made up of solid light.
“We all know people who radiate more light than others. We call them sunny personalities,” says Dr Jamieson started to notice this when working as a family doctor. People who were just there for checkups, most children and pregnant women stood out from her depressed, anxious or seriously ill patients. “They had a different quality of energy about them. After some time it came to me that the difference was their ‘light’.” Known as ‘the light doctor’ at her clinic in London, she treats all sorts of ailments through her unique healing treatments. “Our hands radiate light,” she says. “With electro-magnetic energy, ultrasound, gamma, ultraviolet, the light we see is only one part of the spectrum.” Light energy is used in all sorts of complementary therapies. For example homeopathy uses the essential light energy of the plant, while energy therapies such as reiki, emotional freedom technique and crystal therapy use a similar light to kick-start the body’s own healing processes, says Susan. She believes that harnessing light energy can help to boost your wellbeing, heal sickness and combat fatigue caused by emotional stresses such as grief, break-ups and job loss. “Sometimes, our bodies need an energetic helping hand,” says Dr Jamieson. “Most people don’t really understand that we’re beings of light. Biologists just accept it. Physicists think we’re vibrating molecules of light. If we accept it, then maybe we can use it.”

Try some of Susan’s healing self-help techniques below and bring a little bit of light into your life…

1 Rainbow meditation

Imagine being in a shower or waterfall of sparking, shimmering light: “Sit upright,” says Dr Jamieson. “Visualise a lovely rainbow arcing in the sky in one of your favourite areas in nature. Imagine the rainbow coming down over you with all the colours.” We know all that enzymes are triggered by light energy, so as well as returning to your day feeling rested and refreshed, your physiology will have had a boost, too.

2 Connect to your heart light

“Scientists have measured heartbeats and the energy they give off is enough to power a small light bulb,” says Dr Jamieson. “It’s this energy that allows us to sense when someone’s standing that bit too close behind us but it’s also an energy that can expand to fill with love for the people sitting near us and beyond in some meditations.

“Sitting comfortably, place both hands on your heart, one on top of the other. On the inhale, imagine or feel the light from the heart, like a laser beam, passing up to your neck. On the exhale, this light runs down your arms into your hands and through into your heart. Feel the subsequent warmth of your hands on your heart. Keep circulating heart light using the breath in this way.”

3 Connecting to the light of heaven

Just as there’s a tiny electro-magnetic field around our DNA and a larger one around our hearts, there’s a large one around the sun, says Dr Jamieson. We tend to call it ‘weather’ but it has a big impact on us. “Our DNA are truly minilighthouses,” she says. “Yoga and qi gong are traditional ancient ways of connecting to the light of the earth, sun and self.” (Sun salutations utilise this energy most directly.)

Try this meditation yourself: “Stand with feet apart, knees slightly bent,” says Dr Jamieson. “Hold your hands in front of you, palms facing, and try to feel the qi energy between the two hands. Inhaling, stretch one arm up, one down, wrists bent back. Look up and pause, holding your breath in. Exhaling, rub your hands to the middle, pausing slightly to connect the qi energy between them. “Then, stretch the opposite arms up and down, breathing in as before at full extension. Repeat this sequence three times. At the end of the third, on the exhalation, slowly drop both hands to the floor, bending at the waist. Take three slow breaths. On the inhalation, stand up, rolling the shoulders back slightly.”

4 Work your wardrobe

“Colour is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum we can see,” says Dr Jamieson. “Different colours have different light frequencies. We absorb light. We are what we imagine and what we perceive. If we imagine a stressful situation, our blood pressure and pulse goes up.” Rather than downplaying colour cravings, she says that being really attracted to orange or blue is a subconscious decision and a “really usable system. It’s practical and understandable.” So next time you feel you just have to wear turquoise or purple or yellow or need to paint a wall a certain colour, as well as looking good, you’ll know that your subconscious has picked the right colours for you.

For more information about Dr Jamieson’s work and upcoming events in the UK, visit light-in-life.com

Article by

Eve Menezes Cunningham

Article by

Eve Menezes Cunningham