To: 'Meditation2005-2@googlegroups.com'
Subject: 071 - Seeing Red

SEEING RED

A group of Colorado scientists found the colour red actually makes you stronger.

To conduct their tests, the scientists put 30 students in rooms with coloured walls and asked each one to squeeze a dynamometer that measures the force of one's grip. Red walls made the average grip rise to 88.5 pounds. Blue walls brought the average down to 34.8 pounds and the colour pink inspired a mere amount of pounds of grip pressure.

One of the scientists conducting the unusual study suggested bold red 'arouses' people, stimulating their muscles. Blue, in contrast is 'neutral' and pink is relaxing.

The psychological and physiological effects of colours have also been noted recently by criminologist, Alexander Schauss. In controlled experiments, Schauss discovered that a certain shade of pink had significant effects on the behaviour of inmates. He found that hostile attitudes of confinees at a Naval Correctional Centre were eliminated after they were placed in a special 'pink' room.

At another institution to try out the pink room it was found that "the calming influence of pink reduced altercations in the cell by 30-40 percent". The physiological effects of the special pink hue are that within three seconds of being exposed to it, subjects register a 30-40 millibar drop in blood pressure - a response more rapid than any drug. Subjects also experience a loss of physical strength, as indicated by the experiments of the Colorado scientists.

These studies appear to be confirming what yogis have been describing for millennia. For example, in yogic philosophy, the colour red is equated with physical prowess and aggression. Scientific research is turning the esoteric into the exoteric.