Coloured gemstones for life

Today, jewelles and therpists prescribe coloured gemstones to alleviate chronic diseases as well as to effect changes in the life of an individual. Experience has shown that wearing particular gems appears to bring on physical, mental or spiritual relief, and aid one's pursuits in life. However during the Middle Ages, the rise of logic and logical thought altered sensibilities all over Europe. Medicines that removed symptoms of disease immediately were preferred. Traditional practices of healing were dubbed 'wichcraft' and 'sorcery' and so were forced into disuse and to some extent, oblivion. It was an Arab physician, Avicenna who re-invented chromotherapy by prescribing naturally occurring colours to check the spread of disease; the advised patients againts the malevolent effect of unfriendly colours. This method of treatment became popular for a short time during the Renaissance and short into fame in the nineteenth century in America after experiments conducted on plants and animals proved beyond doubt that colours had a strong influence on them. Prison cells were then painted blue to calm their inmates while pink became the prescribed colour for nurseries.

How gemstones can improve your health

A healthy person was one who balanced all four colours and so treatment with colour removed and imbalances. Ayurvedic doctors today administer colour therapy to their patients in the belief that each colour has specific healing properties and the vibrations from each colour establish a balnce that is necessary for holistic well-being.

There is an enormous range of colour found among minerals and even within a single mineral species, there is great subtlety in the variation of colour. Tourmaline, beryl, quartz, and spinel are some minerals that occur in a wide range of colours. In these cases, the value of the mineral is directly linked o the fashion of the times, that is, what colour is cosidered most desirable.

Although chromotherapy is not very widely practised as a branch of medicine, the traditional link between the colours of gemstones and the mood of the wearer persists. The colour of the stone that an individual wears can determine mood for that time. There is also a belief that the colored light from the stone on it's wearer betrays his or her inner mind, that he has lied or is unfaithful or that he may be ill or going to die.

Colored Stones for Gem Therapy

Colour can help heal illness by adjusting the light in the room. Wearing coloured gemstones can also help the healing process. This method of treatment, called chromotherapy, restores the colour imbalance of the individual by appliying it externally to the body. Chromotherapists say that coloured light gemstones have innate healing energies and do change one's mood. The mixture of coloures in sunlight establishes equilibrium of mind and body and causes a sense of well being and this is why sunbathing is advised and is so popular in northern climes.

Chromotherapy is not a recent fad. The ancient Egyptians believed that the god Thoth started the practice of healing through colours and advocated remedies, and cures using colored stones, minerals. crystals and dyes. The method of healing through colour, spread to ancient Greece where it was used in combination with other elements like air, water, fire, earth and ether. They believed that colours represented bodily fluids, yellow was choler or bile. The blue of lapis lazuli, turquoise and aquamarine related to the sky and water.

How gemstone can help to improve you health

Scientific research has proved that the colours worn in clothing can alter mood, physiology and fate to some extent. According to psychologists, colour appears to affect well-being and behavior in a combination of biological, physiological, phychological, social and cultural factors. Each individual is attracted to some colours more than to others and his or her total reaction to that hue appears to improve and balance his or her emotional state. On the average, magenta, red, orange, yellow, and yellow green are regarded as warm colours and are associated with excitement, happiness and comfort. The colours at the blue end of the spectrum tend to be cold and are connected with sadness, sleep and discomfort.

Coloured objects can therefore relieve emotional stress and even cure ailments. Red light is known to increase blood pressure, respiration and heart rate in men and women, and statistically, is more likely to produce epileptic seizures than blue light. Violet, blue, light blue, cyan and sea green are cool coloures that induce calm and peace but and excess of these shades encourage sadness, withdrawal and repression.

Gemstones for Health

Diamonds may well be a girl's best friend and may men may also consider wearing diamonds, but for sheer volume of trade, for more coloured stones are sold. This is because the colours of most precious and semi-precious stones have always attracted the greatest attention. Rubies and emeralds as well as blue and yellow sapphires are sought after rather than clear white zircons or light coloured topaz. The reasons for this arise from the profound interaction of colour with human moods and behaviour.

To begin with,the sun radiates many colours. When the sun goes behind the black clouds of the monsoon or is less visible during the long winter of northen latitudes, a profound depression settle on all living beings. Bears hinbernate and birds migrate to sunnier climates. Social scientists aver than even the human psyche is affected. Sunlight appears to alleviate almost every affliction and chronic disease. Once recommended as a cure for tuberculosis, solar radiation improves digestion and nutrition, quickens blood and lymph circulation and increases the elimination of impurities through the skin. when light enters the body (through the eyes of the skin) it generates signals that travel through the nerves to the pineal gland attached to the brain. In turn this controls our daily physio-biological rhythms. The gland responds to light levels by producing melatonin that determines metabolic rhythm.

Gem Heat Treatment

There are other ways to enhance the beauty of a gem and make it more valuable. Irradiation is one such method.

All hot objects like the sun, the stars and burning coal radiate energy in the form of electromagnetic waves. Light waves are only a small small part of a wide spectrum of this radiant energy. The gamma rays that come out of radioactive substances are the most energetic of these waves and are used to cure cancers and sterilize food and other items. Less energetic are the X -rays that doctors use to internally examine the body. Lower in energy are the ultraviolet rays that help plants grow and human skin to acquire a dark tan. Even lower in energy are the infrared rays that we cannot see but whose warmth we can feel the warmth as our body absorbs them.

Our eyes are sensitive to rays in a narrow range of energies between the heat-giving infrared and the ultraviolet. These visible rays that we generally call "light" cover a spectrum of seven different colours, violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red, a range of wavelengths that is commonly termed VIBGYOR and in this range, our eyes are most sensitive to the central region, green.

We call those objects that do not give off any radiation 'black' but usually this only means they do not emit visible light. If on the other hand they radiate light of all energies of the visible spectrum, they are usually termed 'white'. The sun whose surface temperature is around 6000C, radiates light with all these colours mixed in a certain proportion. This mixture appears white to the human eye. Artificial light has different ratios of the component colours and thus light from an incandescent bulb appears slightly red while a fluorescent tube produces a blue tinge.

So what makes gemstones so luminous and attractive? The beauty comes from the fact that they give out light waves that our eyes can see and to which our senses react. All objects reflect, absorb and emit light that falls on them. Objects like charcoal, that absorb all the light falling on them without any reflection, appear to be black. Conversely, a top quality diamond is colourless but reflects all the light that falls on it and so absolutely accurate only the paper of this book should really be termed 'white'. Between these extremes are the coloured gems that reflect light selectively. A good ruby for instance, absorbs all light but gives off light only in the red region. This is how we recognize and define colour.

A transparent medium bends a ray of light that enters it. The more it is bent the higher the refractive index of the medium. The refractive index of glass, for example, is around 1.33, while diamond has the highest index of 2.42. This is why a cut diamond glitters so much more than does glass or any other crystal. Sapphire has a refractive index of around 1.77, while zircon or Rangoon diamond clocks in at 1.98. Crystals of zirconium oxide have a refractive index of 2.18, the closest created so far to that of diamond. They are now grown commercially and sold as American diamond, cubic zircon or CZ, diamondite or diamlite. They are inexpensive but because of their high refractive index, are often mistaken intentionally or otherwise, for diamond.

Cutters make full use of the high refractive index of gemstones. When light rays coming out of the crystal hit the surface at small angeles they are sreflected back. They crystal can therefore be cut jwith plane flat facets so that any light that enters it exits only through the top surface or table. This enchances the brilliance of the stone and explains why diamonds are cut in that way.

Some stones have a crystal structure that splits a light ray that enters it into two rays of slightly different velocities and these travel in slightly different directions. no black spot viewed through such a crystal appears as two spots and this property of the crystal is called double refract but zircon does and this effect allows an immediate identification of the stone.

Yet another factor improves the appearance of a cut gemstones. The reflection of most clear gemstones varies with the colour of the light that that passes through it. This is 'dispersion' and causes different colours to flash outwards when the crystal is turned. This is known as the 'fire' of the gemstones. The refractive index and the dispersion as well as the stone determine the fire and light of the gemstone but the beauty of the gem increase with the perfection of the cut and the polish.

The total value of a gemstone, in general depends on several criteria. These are:

01. Rarity: It is the most important factor that determiners the value of a gem, in much the same way that an antique is most prized when it is the only one of its kind. The material itself might be very uncommon like the gajaratna. The rarity of a particular gem may also be due to its large size compared to most other gems of the same material as for instance the Black Prince's Ruby, or it's extremely fine or unusual colour as with the Hope Diamond. No doubt it is difficult to find buyers or sellers for such rare artifacts.

02. Clarity: Gems should be free of flaws, be they inclusions or cracks. In India, a buyer will not usually look at a diamond that has a flaw or black spot in it. This was not always the case and flawed stones were once considered attractive. Even now, some communities prefer to buy such diamonds because they believe that a genuine diamond always has flaws in it! Totally flawless or 'clean' in many species. Such perfection is almost unknown for example, in Colombian emerald and Burmese ruby.

03.Colour: Colour plays a big part in the determination of the value of a gemstone. The slightest tinge of colour, yellow or brown, in a diamond brings down its price to a fraction of the value it would have if it were totally colourless. Again a dark colour might be desirable in a green tourmaline, but if the colour is too dars the gem may actually lose value.

04. Transparency: A gem should be clear and not in the least milky. In nature, most rubies and sapphires are milky and these are often processed at the mine itself to remove this cloudiness.

05. Hardness: A soft gem will scratch easily and soon lose its polish and beauty from constant wear. Of course, soft gems such as amber and coral are in jewellery, but buyers are warned to handle them with great care. Pearls are also soft, but are able to retain their beauty for a long time if they are stored and cleaned properly.

06. Brilliance: Many gemstones vary in their refractive index so the light reflected from one stone could differ from that from another even if they are of the same family. proper cutting of the stone can optimise its lustre or brilliance.

07. Dispersion: As mentioned earlier, high dispersion improves the 'fire' of the stone. It often happens that if the stone is cut to give off most of the light, the ' fire' is decreased.

08. Beauty: The perception of beauty in a gem varies from one culture to another. The Chinese may desire green jade and the Europeans may buy coral and amber, but Indians on the whole prefer colourless diamonds. Tradition as well as the fashion of the time thus ultimately decides the worth of a gem.

09. Special Properties: Some stones and in particular sapphires, contain numerous thin, hair-like fibres of another mineral. This gives the stone a fibrous sheen like satin or silk and this is termed 'chatoyancy'. Generally, the stone is milky, but when the fibres are aligned, streaks of light appear as a cat's-eye effect. as in chrysoberyl. When the fibres are aligned in three crystal directions, a six-ray star effect results. The twelve-rayed star is most rare, and therefore the most valuable. Alexandrite as well as a few rare diamonds are photochromic, that is to say, they change colour when exposed to light.

As a result, techniques to produce cat's-eye and star effects in milky sapphires and rubies have been developed and have proved successful.