Why are we so different from one another? I have always been curious about this and have considered human diversity to be at least as fascinating and worthy of celebration as the fact of human unity. We are such a varied lot. On the physical level there are differences in height, weight, skin colour and tone, hair colour, eye colour, basic physical abilities, ad infinitum. On the mental level, differences in IQ, talent, interests, aptitudes, ad infinitum. And on the emotional level the differences are even more vast and complex. How do we account for this infinity of differences, seeing that in essence all are one, all derive from a common life source?
According to astrologers, of which I am one, the positions of the sun, moon and planets relative to a band in the sky called the zodiac may be one way of accounting for human personality differences: each individual is, in effect, “stamped” with the unique configuration of influences that exist at the time of his or her birth in human form. Quite a few years ago another approach to this matter of differentiation came to my attention in the form of a book called You Are a Rainbow. This small paperback, written and published by the University of the Trees community in Boulder Creek, California, is based on the life experience and exhaustive consciousness research of Christopher Hills, founder of the university and author of such books as Nuclear Evolution, The Rise of the Phoenix 以及 Creative Conflict. Dr. Hills and the community became widely known for the development and distribution of spirulina, a near miraculous health food derived from plankton.
But back to the question at hand, which is how to account for human differences. Here’s a brief summary of how this matter is approached in You Are a Rainbow: Light, upon passing through a prism or multifaceted crystal, is divided into the colours of the rainbow. What you are and I am in essence is comparable to a beam of white light. At the time of birth into physical form on Earth, our light in effect passes through a prism and is differentiated and expanded into a rainbow of many colours. There are, as we know, seven primary colours in this spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Each of these colours, for purposes of our analogy corresponds to a particular life energy or quality of consciousness. Using one word to describe each of these life energies, we might come up with something like this:
Red – Physical
Orange – Social
Yellow – Intellectual
Green – Emotional
Blue – Conceptual
Indigo – Intuitive
Violet – Imaginative
As humans living on Earth we have at our disposal a physical, mental and emotional capacity that consists at least in part of this rainbow of life energies. We have the potential to express the full spectrum of the powers and qualities present in our rainbow, but it has been found that one of these levels is generally dominant in the expression of a given individual. In other words, the kind of capacity we have may be dominantly physical or dominantly social or dominantly mental, and so on. One who is sensitive to auras will actually be able to see the colour around a person’s body that corresponds to the energy most natural to that person. The dominant colour can also be found by using a small divining device called an “aura pendulum,” which can also be used in a psychological/physiological healing procedure called “aura balancing.”
You Are a Rainbow includes a separate section on each colour written by a member of the community in whom that colour is dominant. There’s a handy chart listing the positive and negative qualities of expression for each colour, as well as the deepest needs, aptitudes and biggest challenges associated with each. Though the main emphasis throughout the book is on the uniqueness of each colour and its associated energy level, it’s also stated that “Hand in hand with our work on ourselves as individuals goes our work towards a group consciousness in which we tune to others’ frequencies and, in so doing, tune to the Universal Frequency that is the synthesis of all notes and colours and which we call the vibration of the Rainbow Body.”
I do have some reservations about this approach, however. Beautiful as it is in many ways, it nevertheless strikes me as being offered through a material level of consciousness. How can the rainbow help me to discover and develop 我 personality? As such it is likely to be used by many aspirants merely as a technique for self-realization and self-improvement rather than a means of greater service to the whole.
Nor, I feel, is the reader of the book sufficiently impressed with the fact that each individual is much more than the qualities and characteristics inherent in his or her colour or even in the full Rainbow Body. This is but an aspect of the Being that I am and you are, a Being that is not a mere absorber and re-radiator of light but the light itself. However, if we approach You Are a Rainbow from above rather than below the rainbow, it can be of considerable value in helping us to understand and account for human differences and to more fully manifest the Reality that in truth we are.
Learn more about personality types in DISCOVERING YOUR PERSONALITY TYPE: Enneagram beginner’s guide>>
[su_panel background=”#f2f2f2″ color=”#000000″ border=”0px none #ffffff” shadow=”0px 0px 0px #ffffff”]Jerry Kvasnicka, a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, has had a varied career as a youth minister, a radio news reporter, a writer and editor for several magazines and journals and a custodian with the Loveland, Colorado school district. Jerry currently edits and writes for the mind-spirit section of the online magazine The Mindful Word. He has lived at the Sunrise Ranch spiritual community in Loveland for twenty-five years. He can be reached at jerry@themindfulword.org.
