[1][2][3][4] Chromotherapists claim to be able to use light in the form of color to balance "energy" lacking from a person's body, whether it be on physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental levels.

His view was that red moved the blood, blue or white cooled it, and yellow reduced muscular pain and inflammation.

[8] In Germany in the late 1890s, Georg von Langsdorff promoted Babbitt's ideas and mixed color therapy with psychometry and spiritualism.

[1] The Buddhist monk Bhante Dharmawara was a notable advocate of color therapy who promoted the use of green, blue and yellow for health.

[9] Other notable advocates include Anthroposophist Theo Gimbel who authored many books on the subject and founded the Hygeia Institute for Colour Therapy in 1968.

New Age thought associates each of the chakras with a single color of the visible light spectrum, along with a function and organ or bodily system.

According to this view, the chakras can become imbalanced and result in physical and mental diseases, but application of the appropriate color can allegedly correct such imbalances.

[16] Chromotherapy has been accused of oversimplifying psychological responses to colors, making sweeping statements based on myths or beliefs that lack empirical support.

However, certain chromotherapy procedures require the individual to place the lamps near their eyes, which is not the recommended use for these lights and may alter the exposure duration to a level that can cause risk of retinal damage.