This book review is reprinted from No. 94, Summer 2004 edition of The Homoeopath with permission from Nick Churchill of The Society of Homoeopaths.
2 Artizan Road, Northampton NN1 4HU, United Kingdom.
Colours in Homeopathy
Written and translated by Ulrich Welte
Narayana Verlag, Kandern, Germany, 2003
paperback, pp65 ISBN 3-921383-90-0.
Extended Colour Table 32 pages
ISBN 3-921383-91-1
Colour Poster 64x42cm, 456 colours
ISBN 3-921383-92-7
Reviewed by Francis Treuherz
[Read an Interview
of Francis Treuherz]
This is one of the most unusual and fascinating works on homeopathy I have ever had the pleasure to discuss. The author and his collaborators have introduced a revolutionary development to homeopathy which does not in any way challenge the philosophy by which we practise. Yet it opens a new and clinically useful avenue for case taking and confirmation of the correct prescription. The claim is made that this will potentially be useful for all our patients except the one in one hundred of our male patients who are colour-blind. It may even be possible for a colour-blind homeopath to use this method. Let me declare my interest: I am one of them.
You know of course how we ask patients about their food preferences. We wish to find not just what is common but what is strange, rare, peculiar, characteristic, and spoken or observed spontaneously. This will help us find the simillimum. I once interviewed a patient before breakfast and could not make up my mind. We then took breakfast together and I marvelled with my mouth open as she licked the butter from her finger, and then from her toast and spread a new layer. I had my remedy (Mercurius solubilis). Another patient once told me she was hungry during our consultation; I offered her an apple but she declined and took a tin of tuna fish from her bag, with a tin opener and a fork, and rapidly consumed the contents. Again, I had my remedy (Ferrum iodatum).
So it may become with colours. Your patient expresses a strong preference for say blue, not any blue, but a controlled blue from a small chart of 120 squares of bright pantone colours or a larger one of 456. Each colour is on a numbered grid. Each colour, or each group of closely related colours (by grid number), is represented in a small repertory of colours. I showed the colour chart to two non-medical staff at the clinic where I worked today. Each independently chose square 15c, which is a shade of blue. This forms a fairly large rubric of 37 black type, and 20 ordinary type remedies in the book.
On Welte's web site there are also 15 conditional remedies (based upon one case only), whilst some remedies are also accompanied by an asterisk (denoting that they are derived from the research of a Dr Hugbald Muller from Cologne, the creator of the system). It was Dr Muller (1921-2001) who discovered the significance of colour preferences. He worked from 1985 in order to adapt and perfect the idea of colour correspondence for our homeopathic art and science. Welte and colleagues have developed this work. He writes, "Case taking can acquire a new dimension, in a relaxed state the patient should look at the colour circle or spectrum, scan all the colours and then tell spontaneously in which area he feels best" Explaining how disease corresponds to colour preference, Welte states that "These vibrations 'dye' in the mind... Colour preference is of course not a disease but it may be connected to a diseases like a particular soil favouring growth of a particular weed". According to Jan Scholten, Muller "discovered that not only has Conium a desire for darkness but also for the colour black.1 His intuition led him to the idea that every remedy will have its preference. He checked it and it turned out to be correct".
I tested this out on myself as a patient might, despite my lack of accurate colour vision. I chose what I know to be my favourite colour, the one I chose to decorate my study. The colour produced a grid reference and this in turn held 4 black type remedies. One of these has been successfully prescribed for me in the past, and so perhaps I need it again (as I write I have made a date with my homeopath).
The remedy lists do have some names which are unfamiliar, such as the Epstein Barr Virus Nosode (EBV-Nos). I asked the publisher and was told that Dr Muller had developed some knowledge of new remedies, especially unusual nosodes, and that this information will be published in due course. The abbreviations correspond to those used by Roger van Zandvoort in his Complete Repertory.
The format of the book is as follows: the cover has decorative circles of colours, but the book itself opens with 6 pages of 120 squares of colour, and another 5 squares of black, white and grey. Then there are two pages of pictures of coloured gemstones, to help in natural colour selection, as an alternative or complement to the synthetically produced standardised colours. This is followed by three pages of charts with the colour names and grid numbers (presented as if they were rubrics, complete with remedy lists). Then comes an index of eight pages, in which remedies are grouped with their corresponding colours. There follow 18 pages of text in English, and then the same text in German.
There is a generous and positive foreword by Jan Scholten, in which he states that: "The colour preference is a significant and effective symptom. It's effective in the sense that it can give the indication or confirmation of a diagnosis in many cases. What does that mean? Its again an indication of the primacy of mind, Hahnemann called it vital force... The colour preference as an expression of the inner state is closely connected with this vital force."
The translation was done by the author. While I feel the meaning is generally clear, the author's English reminded me of how my parents, aunts and uncles spoke English that is, pedantically correct, and yet not really sounding like the language that we speak. Besides this, one also finds the occasional howler, such as 'accidentally' for 'incidentally'. One must hope that when a second edition is published, a native English speaker will be invited to edit the translation. Do not let these lapses of style deter you, however, for it can only be to our overall benefit that these valuable ideas have been translated into our language.
Muller began to assess cured patients for colour preferences nearly 20 years ago, using an existing colour reference book. He was able to confirm 26 remedies in his first publication. By the time he began to pass his information on to Welte, he had confirmed 90 remedies. Welte worked for 13 years with colleagues like Herbert Sigwart2 to develop this system, and a retrospective study has been published.
Incidentally Muller also worked on styles of handwriting. The next step for Welte will be to build upon more of Muller's work and relate colour preference to handwriting and then to relate handwriting to remedy selection. It has been done before3 but can also be updated, systematised and translated.
Welte has developed a new standard of colour printing especially for this purpose. I would advise anyone who decides to follow this system to also buy the second volume and/or poster of 456 extended colours. Here the colours have been printed to a higher quality, like a precision tool with a UV lacquer, with more shades for each colour, both darker and lighter.
Welte discusses some possible situations in which one might encounter difficulties in the use of colour as a diagnostic tool: for example, where the patient likes all colours equally, or conversely, where the ideal colour cannot be found; where the patient is confused by too many questions; the role of fashion in choice of colour; where the patient has a rigid aversion to a particular colour; where the patient simply cannot decide; how to assess the preferences of people whose careers involve the use of colour, such as artists or decorators; colour-blindness; how to interpret a marked change in a patient's colour preference; and finally, the possible dangers in overestimating colour preferences. All of these issues are discussed, and solutions or compromises are suggested, where feasible. For example, children over three years of age are shown balloons and may keep one of their choice, whilst undecided adults are asked about which colours simply "feel good". Finally though, it is acknowledged that "every confident choice is only a good hint and no guarantee".
The colour preferences may be used in various ways; for example, as a kind of general symptom; in order to differentiate between similar remedies; to assist in finding a possible 'small' remedy; and also - although I am not quite sure what is meant by the term - as a "rescue symptom". The websites www.narayana-verlag.de and www.homeo.de include information derived from clinical confirmations, which can only help our knowledge and experience of colour preferences to grow.
If a colour preference can really help us out to find the correct remedy, then this book may help to rescue homeopathy from the restrictions of philosophical controversy. Questions of colour choice could easily be added into the protocols of provings. Here then, is something new, for which no change in philosophy is required. It may prove to be really useful.
1 Muller had found not only that a Conium patient said black was his favourite colour, but also that this could be applied to the botanical family of Apiaeceae.
2 Herbert Sigwart & Ulrich Welte, 2002, 'The favourite colour as a homeopathic symptom' Homoeopathic Links 1/01:20-24.
3 Adolf Simon, 1930, Paragnose, Erkennung von Krankheiten aus der Handschrift, Berlin Oscar Schelbach.
Jean Rivere, 1973, Les Correspondances Graphologiques en Homeopathie, Paris, le Francois.