Page 164 - The Power of Light, Colour and Sound for Health and Wellness draft

THE PHOTONWAVE
Adapted from the book Light Therapies by Anadi Martel © 2018 Healing Arts Press.
Printed with permission from the publisher Inner Traditions International.{ www.InnerTraditions.com
Having developed his Syntonizer in the 1930s, the optometrist Harry Spitler confrmed the impressive therapeutic power of ocular stimulation by colored light. Several generations of phototherapists, particularly in the United States, have subsequently worked to improve the original Spitler model. John Downing, OD, PhD, developed the Lumatron in 1986, and a smaller portable version, the Photron, followed in 1993. In a parallel development, Jacob Liberman created the Color Receptivity Trainer, and then in 1990 developed the Spectral
Receptivity System. These inventions make use of technological advances in optics, light sources, and colored flters. The devices didn’t reach Europe until 1986, when Belgian light therapist Leona Vermeire-Van Raemdonck brought the frst Lumatron to Belgium and began a long career dedicated to the spread of light therapy in Europe.
Figure 1 - Leona Vermeire-Van Raemdock
When the Photron ceased to be available after the death of its manufacturer in 2000, Vermeire-Van Raemdonck took it upon herself to ensure the continuity of the work of both Downing and the manufacturer for the European medical community. In the same year, she formed a partnership with Dr. John Searfoss, a syntonic optometrist who had developed a new device for ocular stimulation. But only three months after partnering with Searfoss, just as they had fnished their prototype, he died. Leona and her team persevered nevertheless and completed the PhotonWave, probably the most advanced ocular stimulator currently available (see fg. 2).
What makes the PhotonWave stand out is the quality of its flters and the very sharp bandwidth that produces colors of near monochromatic purity. It is equipped with two flter wheels that can be superimposed on each other to produce a wide variety of colors. It generates pulsed light between 1 and 35 Hz for photic brain wave entrainment, a process useful to bring patients toward mental states associated with various brain wave frequencies (see chapter 10 “Sync and resonance” of the book Light Therapies).
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