Colors, Thinking Sobriety and Hermann Hesse
October 12, 2025
8 min read
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Newsletter
{Body}
Colors impact on your body
In yogic philosophy, everything in manifest reality is light — varying densities and frequencies of the same fundamental luminous energy. Matter itself, according to this view, is simply light vibrating at lower frequencies, condensed into apparently solid form (crystallized light).
Modern science confirms aspects of this, though in more mechanistic terms. Light isn't just visual information — it's electromagnetic energy that directly influences your physiology. When photons of specific wavelengths enter your eyes (or hit your skin), they trigger cascading neurological and hormonal responses affecting everything from alertness to digestion to emotional regulation.
Three examples:
Red and warm-toned wavelengths (amber, orange, red) signal evening or firelight to your body. These longer wavelengths correspond to the lower chakras—root and sacral — grounding you and allowing natural melatonin production. They permit your parasympathetic nervous system to become dominant as darkness approaches. Yogis associated red with earth element, stability, and the body's connection to material reality.
Blue wavelengths, particularly around 480nm, are interpreted by your brain as "daytime." Specialized photoreceptors detect blue light and suppress melatonin while maintaining cortisol levels, keeping you alert and active. Yogis associated blue with the throat chakra and ether element — the realm of communication and subtle perception. During daylight hours, this activating quality supports mental clarity and expression. After sunset, it disrupts your natural sleep-wake cycle.
The yogic and Daoist traditions teach that violet and white light correspond to the crown chakra — pure consciousness itself, the source from which all other wavelengths emerge and to which they return. Interestingly, full-spectrum sunlight, which appears white, contains all visible wavelengths simultaneously, offering complete energetic information to your system.
{Mind}
Thinking sobriety
I mentioned last week how thoughts are the strongest drug in the world. They lure us into sweet promises of fame and fortune, distorted fears of dread and destitution.
Getting clean from them is quite a journey. In fact, getting clean from compulsive thought patterns is the Journey.
Sobriety from thought addiction hinges entirely upon (1) your desire to do so and (2) your ability to value other things beyond your narratives.
Let me say it another way: you are addicted to thinking because (1) you like the feelings thoughts give you, and (2) thus value them as your primary tool for navigating the world.†
The first point is very hard to overcome; it is virtually impossible not to find pleasure in the highs a thought offers! My suggestion, then, is to stop placing stock in them from the outset (the second point). This has helped me immensely. Stop believing your own narratives have your best interest at heart!
Once that belief is fully installed in your mind — once you actually stop taking your stories so seriously — here's what you can expect during meditation sessions going forward:
A thought or belief is noticed spontaneously. You cannot force yourself into noticing them. Again, the only way to create conditions where noticing happens more frequently is by devaluing the thoughts to begin with. The less you value compulsive narratives, the more naturally you'll catch yourself thinking them.
Once a thought is seen, you're given a binary choice — engage or not; identify with it or let it pass.
Identification comes fast and hard, leading to more suffering and entangling your sense of self back into the mental dream.
If you choose to "let pass," expect a wave of emotionality to crash directly after. Whether the thought was terrible or wonderful, disidentifying comes with a crash — the sudden recognition that the entire mental drama was nothing but a dream. This emotionality is withdrawal. This is the detox. There's no way around it.
All in all, the process gets easier. Once you realize that the half-life of a thought's affect is very short (in my experience, less than 20 seconds most of the time), it becomes much easier to bear, especially knowing you're becoming more liberated with each disidentification.
†You might wonder, "But don't I need thoughts to solve problems?" The answer is no. Intuitive action and present-moment awareness handle what compulsive mental narratives cannot. Problem-solving happens; obsessive thinking does not need to.
{Soul}
You fear a dark attic because you cannot see what it contains, and thus create stories of the dangerous ghosts inside.
So, too, internally. There is a murky, unexplored mystery within you — one that contains the library of your wrongdoings; your accumulated storehouse of karma and sin.
Those ghosts of your past whisper terrifying ideas in your ear: “You are unforgivable.” “You cannot change.” “You will never find what you are looking for.”
And you believe them? Would you really let a shadow keep you from heaven? Look, see, repent, let go. Then walk away reborn — in harmony with who you've always been.
October 5, 2025
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