has seen the light.

        And it was that light, he says, that healed him.

        Dr. Liberman, an optometrist, author and one of the leaders in the color light therapy movement, will be here in May to share his theories on using color and light to heal emotional and physical ailments.

Nancy Holbrook demonstrates color light therapy at the Spice of Life Health Choices (Tony Jones photo) | ZOOM |

        Color light therapy is another way to use energy to heal, Dr. Liberman says.

        “All light is energy, and all life is energy. It just happens that what we call light and what we call life is energy in two different states of being,” he says.

Triggers emotions
        As light enters the body through the eyes, it travels to the brain and stimulates the portions of the brain that regulate basic functions like heart rate and breathing. Increasing an individual's ability to receive and perceive light energy can increase that person's overall health and improve what Dr. Liberman calls “low-level functioning,” such as learning difficulties.

        Exposure to the full spectrum of light can also trigger memories and emotions that, left unresolved, can contribute to stress and depression and the physical symptoms those emotions cause, Dr. Liberman says.

        In 1976, he was working as an optometrist and was interested in finding ways to improve people's vision through natural healing. He himself needed eyeglasses. One day as he was meditating, he had the experience of seeing everything in the room with perfectly clear vision. When he ended his meditative trance, Dr. Liberman says, his vision really was perfectly clear. He immediately drove to his office, did an eye exam on himself and found, he says, that his vision had spontaneously improved 300 percent. Now 53, he hasn't needed glasses since that day, he says.

IF YOU GO

What: Dr. Jacob Liberman presents “From Light to Enlightenment,'' a presentation on color light therapy    When: 7 p.m. May 30    Where: The Clarion Hotel Riverfront, 668 W. Fifth St., Covington    Cost: $45    Reservations: (859) 578-0099

        There was another change: He could see a glow of light, or aura, around people's heads.

        There's a theory in physics that all matter is simply frozen light. Using that theory, Dr. Liberman says, it makes sense that light energy can be used to fix the body's energy field.

        Physicians routinely use light to help treat seasonal affective disorder or “the winter blues” and many skin conditions, including eczema. But many physicians remain skeptical as to how effective color light therapy is as psychotherapy.

How it works

        During color light therapy, clients sit in a darkened room and watch a series of colors from red through orange, yellow, green blue and violet — all the colors in the visible light spectrum — flicker in a small box. Dr. Liberman theorizes that the different colors will prompt clients to remember experiences or emotions they've repressed. Once the client deals with the emotions, the physical symptoms go away.

        Nancy Holbrook began undergoing color light therapy when nothing else helped her sciatica. Through the therapy, she says, she realized her back pain was caused by her need to try to control her son. Once she dealt with that, the pain went away, although she does get a “symptomatic twinge” when she tries to be too controlling.

        Now Ms. Holbrook is a color light therapist, offering the therapy through her shop, Spice of Life Health Choices in Fort Mitchell.

        Sessions start out short — usually five minutes or so — and gradually get longer, lasting up to a half hour, Dr. Liberman says. As the sessions get longer, clients get more accustomed to whatever color they find upsetting, and are better able to deal with the emotions it triggers, he says.

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