Guest guest Posted August 27, 2004 Report Share Posted August 27, 2004 Sad loss...brought much interest to colour therapy. But his books are *terribly* hard to read. Love, light and peace, Sue " It is not unfair to conclude that medicine is the only branch of science that has based its structure on opinions and suppositions rather than on laws and principles. " - Vithoulkas, " The Science of Homoeopathy " . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-1235803,00.html Theophilus Gimbel Anthroposophical scientist and innovator in colour therapy FOR more than thirty years of his diverse and unorthodox life, Theophilus Gimbel was the principal of the Hygeia Institute for Colour Therapy, an institution he founded in 1968 in Avening, Gloucestershire. Colour therapy is a branch of holistic complementary treatment which derives from Eastern traditions, the writings of Goethe and the principles set forth by Rudolf Steiner, the mystical philosopher and founder of the Anthroposophical Society. Though he agreed with Steiner’s dictum that “Colour is the soul of nature, the soul of the whole cosmos, (and) by experiencing it, we participate in this soul”, Gimbel attempted to fuse scientific principle with the abstruse tenets of his mentor. He originated a vast range of lamps and instruments with which he claimed to demonstrate the healing effects of light and colour: his use of blue light, for example, to treat neonatal jaundice and to accelerate the healing of burns, is now recognised by medical practice. Traditionally, colour therapy is based on the belief that each of the seven colours in the spectrum is associated with one of the body’s seven chakras, or energy centres. Gimbel taught a form of diagnosis based on the belief that there are eight colours in the spectrum, each linked with one of the four octaves of eight vertebrae in the spine, and that each vertebra has a nerve link with certain organs of the body. He was born in 1920 in Eichstätt, Germany, and his childhood was spent in Switzerland. Rudolf Steiner was a family friend, and Gimbel was drawn to the eclectic principles of his philosophy. His mother played in the theatre of Steiner’s Goetheanum building, while his father, a stage designer, worked with Steiner on productions. Gimbel remained a lifelong member of the Anthroposophical Society. At the beginning of the Second World War he was an unwilling conscript to the German Army and, captured outside Danzig at the end of the war, he was interned in a Russian PoW camp. He remained there until 1949. Gimbel maintained that prayer and mystical insight saved him repeatedly from death by firing squad. Periodically, he recalled, he would be taken from the camp for interrogation by a constantly-rising hierarchy of Soviet officials. Gimbel would later relate that he maintained his silence under interrogation by entrusting himself to a golden light which he saw suffusing the room. At the final hour, he said, a vision of Christ on the Cross came between him and his chief interrogator and prevented the man from passing sentence of death. Released in 1949, he came to Britain to continue his interest in Steiner’s Waldorf schools, the curriculum of which was designed by Steiner in accordance with his teachings. Gimbel taught for some time at Hall in Forest Row, Sussex, the first Steiner school in the English-speaking world. In 1950 he married his first wife, Honor Simpson, a concert cellist. They moved to Brook House in Avening, Gloucestershire, where in 1968 Gimbel set up the Hygeia Institute for Colour Therapy. Sir Trevelyan, another Steinerian and an elder statesman of the New Age movement, was a friend and confidant. Gimbel’s projects, which took shape in his books from his work at Hygeia, included studying the use of illumination and colour in infant and primary schools, hospitals and prisons, and the role of colour in treating problems with sight. He developed, for example, a chart to help eyesight which required the patient to focus on a patch of deep colour, then one of expanding colour. Though no technocrat, he was well aware of current light technology and work with monochromatic light and lasers; much contemporary work in light and colour takes its inspiration from his own. As well as teaching and working on his own theories and inventions, Gimbel recruited a staff of specialists in the field for the institute. He was a member of the Parliamentary Group on Complementary Therapy and gave many lecture tours in Europe and Japan. He ran courses in colour therapy in Vézelay in France, the ancient capital of his ancestors from Burgundy, and in Paderborn, Germany, with his second wife, Carmel Dunleavy, whom he married in 1998. She survives him, with a daughter and a son from his first marriage. Theophilus Gimbel, colour therapist, was born on October 9, 1920. He died on June 20, 2004, aged 83. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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