Dermo-Optical Sensitivity and Perception: Its

Influence On Human Behavior

Yvonne Duplessis, Ph.D. Director, Study Committee on DermoOptical Sensitivity
Paris, France

Abstract
From 1960 to the present, research conducted in the USSR, United
States, England and France, have showed that the skin is sensitive
to far infrareg invisible radiations of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Dermo-optical sensitivity refers to the human organism's capacity
to respond to colored surfaces, hidden ftom sight by being placed
under screens, even when the latter are held at some distance in
the dark.
Dermo-optical perception refers to the ability of subjects to
succeed in consciously differentiating these surfaces through their
hands by non-visual subjective impressions. It is estimated this
can only be done by one in six subjects. Controlled studies indicate
support for the theory of dermo-optical sensitivity and perception.
This finding provides a new potential confounding variable in color
research. (int j Biosocial Res., 7(2); 76-93,1985.)

Introduction
What exactly is dermo-optical sensitivity?
Humans normally use their eyes to consciously distinguish the
colors of their environment. Let us remember, however, that color
is a sensation transmitted by the brain. It is provoked by the
perception of certain luminous radiations that make up the visible
spectrum between 380 and 780 nanometers (between violet and
red). (1) The sensation of color can only exist by the reflection of
visible light and when its radiation comes in contact with sight
cells. Our eyes are only sensitive to a very restricted part of the
electromagnetic spectrum.
The skin is sensitive to a broader portion of the electromagnetic
spectrum which we observe as a suntan caused by ultra-violet rays

of the solar spectrum and the sensation of heat that accompanies

it, the latter essentially due to infrared rays.
Up to this point, this is nothing new. But side by side with this
visual perception of colors, it has recently been discovered that all
humans have a permanent dermal sensitivity to colored surfaces in
the environment. This is expressed not only by our unconscious
reactions to light but even that experienced in total darkness and
through opaque screens.(2)
This ability has been widely contested, and still is, for it was
theorized that the skin could " see ", which we believe is simply
not true.
We must realize that dermo-optical sensitivity is completely
separate and distinct from vision. Some investigators have been
convinced that the blind could be taught to see, which is also false.
Furthermore, research done on dermo-optical sensitivity has
shown that if one subject out of six succeeded in becoming aware
of his reactions to colored surfaces, they may express them by
subjective and non-visual impressions of either heat, weight or
whatever. For example, a person might say that such and such a
red surface was warmer or heavier or rougher than a blue surface.
The skin radiates like a 'black body'(A), en-dtting energy largely
found in the infrared spectrum. According to Kirchoff's laws, the
skin absorbs the same radiation from the environment. There are,
therefore, interactions between the skin and nearby materials.
The interaction values depend on the spectrum composition of the
colored surfaces, or of the " spectrance ", as R. Geslin has called it.
(3) According to most researchers' hypotheses, it is this "
spectrance " which induces the usually unconscious effects which
may modify the individual's behavior, his auto-regulation, with
respect to the environment. (3)
This still largely unknown field and body of theories constitutes
dermo-optical sensitivity research.
But, as the word optical gives rise to confusion, we must make it
clear that it simply means that the laws of contrast, of
complementarity of colors, are found again. A red surface, for
instance, will be better differentiated from a green surface than
from a pink one.
Furthermore, the intensity of the reactions and impression
between the skin and environment may vary according to the
distribution of colors in the visible portion of the electromagnetic
spectrum.

Dr. Novomeysky has represented these reaction distributions In

what he has called: the dermo-optical circle.(7)
In natural daylight, their intensity increases from green, in the
midddle of the lower half of the circumference, from one side in
the direction of yellow, orange and red, and from the other side in
the direction of light blue, dark blue and violet. At the same time
red, orange and yellow stimuli act as opposite poles, in their
qualities, to violet, dark blue and light blue stimuli. Green is
perceived as neutral, indeterminate.
But in incandescent light or in darkness, this distribution of the
reactions to colors changes in the opposite direction, the strongest
being induced by green, while the weakest by colors at the
extremities of the spectrum, red and violet (Fig. 1 and 2). This
inversion of the distribution of dermo-optical reactions might be
emphasized for it must be considered in the practical applications
of its effects on behavior.
(A)'black body' Thermal radiator which absorbs completely all incident

radiation, whatever the wavelength, the direction of incidence of the

polarization. This radiator has, for any wavelength, the maximum spectral
concentration of radiant existence at a given temperature.(4)

Hence, invisible radiations of colored objects do not have special

names, nevertheless we call them by the same names as the
colors of the visible spectrum in order to codify them.
Thus, when we speak of the influence of invisible radiation from
objects on human behavior and psychic activity, we designate
them as red, green, blue, etc.
Let us point out that the word dermal does not mean tactile in the
sense of direct touching of a surface, since, as has already been

theorized and will be proven, colored surfaces may even elicit

reactions beneath a transparent or opaque screen even if the
subject stands at considerable distance.
The term dermal suggests that the skin contains receptors of
information induced by infrared radiations - the spectrance - from
colored surfaces.
Though regular dermo-optical perception has been discussed in the
literature since 1960 to the present time, the influence of invisible
radiations on human behavior and psychic activity has been
insufficiently studied. In the last part of this paper, the author has
set herself the task of considering various aspects of such
influence.
The Discovery of Dermo-optical Sensitivity
From the nineteenth century on the fact that colors could be
perceived by means other than normal vision was frequently
observed, most often under hypnosis.
Surprisingly enough, it was the famous writer Jules Romains who
reviewed such studies and discovered what he called " extraretinal vision ".(5) He experimented, moreover, not on hypnotized
subjects but on subjects without any special gifts, their eyes
carefully blindfolded, or even on blind subjects or himself.
Thereafter he considered that this function was inherent in all
human beings and susceptible of development by training. His
book attempts to retrace all the stages of the process by which "
extra-retinal vision " can become conscious.(6)
The results from these experiments were as follows: under normal
light conditions paroptical perception continues clearly beyond the
limits of visual perception and proved to be completely distinct
from tactile perception. The best paroptically identifiable colors
were red and yellow.
The explanation given by Jules Romains was a physiological one.
He had studied biology for two years and in 1908 took a degree in
science. According to him, these phenomena probably came from
ocelli or miniature eyes found all over the entire surface of the skin
(photo-reception).
However, this hypothesis has now been disproven. Yet it was
considered to be an attempt to explain rationally this ability.
Jules Romains' research was ill-received. Since it was the work of a
writer whose scientific background was unknown, it did not receive

serious attention.
Recent Studies of Dermo-optical Sensitivity
We had to wait for more than thirty years for the systematic study
of the ability of a subject in the U.S.S.R. to detect colors placed
under transparent or opaque screens for Romains' contentions to
be re-evaluated.
The phenomenon was termed dermo-optical sensitivity by
Professor A. S. Novomeysky(7), a psychologist at the Sverdlovsk
Pedagogical Institute in the U.S.S.R.
For more than twenty years, he conducted experimental research
with scientists in various fields including: physics, physiology,
psychology, pedagogy, and even architecture. Experiments were
carried out on school children and students from various
universities.
The working hypothesis was based on laws of physics.
In the United States, as early as 1963, Richard P. Youtz, Ph.D., a
teacher of psychology at Barnard College in New York, had tested
a woman who claimed that as a high-school senior she could
identify the colors of objects with her fingers. He performed similar
experiments with college students and blind subjects.(8)
Then, in 1966, Dr. B. Carroll Nash, Ph.D., a professor of biology
and a parapsychologists worked with subjects who, like Dr. Youtz's
subjects, wore a head-box to preclude visual cues, and he found
that thev " were able to distinguish black and red paper when
directly touched or when covered with cellophane, but not when
covered with glass. "(9a)
Thus, Dr. Nash concluded: " It seems unlikely that the targets
were identified by extra-sensory perception. " He attributed the
results to a " cutaneous color sensitivity " which, according to the
hypothesis of American psychologist W. L. Makous, Ph.D., " is
based on the detection of differences in emissivity of infrared
radiation of surfaces by their effects on the skin temperature ".
(9b)
In Europe, Dr. Benson Herbert carried out experimental research
on dermo-optical sensitivity as early as 1967. He is still actively
involved in this work in his laboratory in the south of England.(10)
In France, about 1969, during the course of research on the
connection of color and other sensations, we found evidence that

blind subjects differentiated colored cards by means of sensations

of heat or cold, roughness or smoothness, thickness or thinness,
and, moreover, arrange the cards according to the colors of the
spectrum.(11)
This analogy with the distribution of wavelengths in the visible
portion of the spectrum led us to design statistical experiments
that would record the effects of colors with a dynamometer.

Methods
Reactions were recorded as two types: subjective ones, in which
the subject becomes aware of his reactions through associated
impressions; and objective ones, in which unconscious dermooptical reactions were recorded and measured. First, we describe
the subjective method.
A Subjective Method
Our method of developing dermo-optical perception is based on
the associations expressed by the subject in describing the nonvisual impressions they received in trying to differentiate between
at least two colored surfaces.
The subjects, all volunteers, learn to direct their attention to
unusual and fugitive sensations in the tips of their fingers or in the
palms of their hands.(12) After a quarter of an hour, the
sensations tend to fuse with each other and the impressions fade
away.
Health conditions and day to day preoccupations often prevent the
subjects from being able to concentrate, thus making it difficult to
reach stable conclusions.
Procedure
The subject is seated in front of an experimental box with his forearms in
sleeves with elastic cuffs attached to the two openings in the box, the front of
which may remain open or be closed by a cover. The subject's hands alone are
inside the box.
Some preliminary tests permit the experimenter to find out if the subject
distinguishes stimuli more readily by impressions of heat or of weight, of
thickness, etc., and then if he regulary receives the same impressions for the
same color.
Thus a kind of code is established between the colors and the corresponding
feelings each subject reports.
Then the stimuli to be differentiated are covered bv transparent or opaque

screens, or their size is reduced and the subject is expected to be able to

detect the stimuli by holding his hands some centimeters away from the source
without touching it. The screen, opaque for the eyes, is transparent to the
hand.(13)

Results
Analysis of the results reveals a distribution of impressions
described by the selected volunteers in the form of the dermooptical circle.
In daylight, thermal impressions were hot for red, cold for blue
with those caused by orange, yellow and green somewhere
between the extremes.
Under incandescent electric light, most subjects perceived light
blue and green as rough or hot compared to dark blue or red.
Though the subjective method depends upon the quality of the
irnpressions, rather than the intensity, statistical evaluations were
made.(14)
Brief Discussion
One might well ask how we managed to find volunteers for such a
monotonous series of experiments consisting of repetitious tests
required for statistical purposes.
They often came from long distances at regular intervals at least
twice a month and, some of them, for years, which is surprising
enough in a period when people are hard-working and generally
have little time for disinterested research.
However, some subjects find this temporary isolation from external
visual images very relaxing. Others found the dialogue between
hand and non-visible colored surfaces a new experience heretofore
unknown.
Objective methods
These are the most important with respect to the explanatory
hypothesis of dermo-optical effects, as well as to their possible
applications.
We shall indicate but two of these methods based on the muscular
effects induced by non-visible colored surfaces.
The first one was proposed by Professor A. S. Novomeysky and
termed "color barriers " The second included our own

dynamometrical method.
In the part of this paper devoted to possible applications of this
research, we shall briefly describe other methods in which they are
directly based.
The Method of the Color Barriers
From 1960 until early 1970 a great number of investigations,
which were carried out in the Soviet Union's Urals, were devoted to
the question of an eventual relationship between the changes of
position of the hands in space and the colored stimuli presented
randomly to the subject under metal screens, while subjects were
blindfolded.
In our studies, all the experiments were carried out double-blind.
The subject placed his hand at a height of one meter above the
stimulus, then lowered it along a measuring device, stopping when
he felt an apparent obstacle such as a layer of cold or warm air,
the so-called barrier.
The distance between the position of the hand and the stimulus
was automatically registered. The distribution of the reactions to
colors corresponded to the respective heights of the hand.
Results
From numerous experiments, made with students of different
universities, it was found that, in natural daylight the color barrier
was the highest over a red stimulus, becoming lower overan
orange one, even lower over a yellow one, and was the lowest over
a green stimulus. Then the height of the barrier increased from
green to light blue to violet.
But in the experiments carried out incandescent light or in
darkness, this distribution was found to change. The maximum
height of the color barrier occurred over a green stimulus and the
colors at the extremities of the spectrum: red and violet presented
color barriers of minimum height.(15)
The Dynamometrical Method
Through repeated experiments, the French physiologist Charles
Pere had already shown that excitation of the sense organs
determines not only subjective effects but physiological reactions

as well. Among others he used a dynamometer to test the effects

of the visible colors on the muscular reactions of his subjects.(16)
In 1970, we started to use a hand dynamometer in the testing of
blind subjects' reactions, and later we tested subjects with normal
eyesight according to the following procedure.
Procedure

The subject places his hands in the experiment box. With one of them, he
picks up,a piece of paper (16 x 12 cm Canson paper) from a randomly
constituted pile placed inside the box. In his other hand, he holds the
dynamometer, which is also inside the box. He squeezes it in response to the
effect of the color stimulus unknown to him.
The subject then replaces the papers in a pile in the same order in which he
had tested them.
All the tests are carried out double-blind. The hand dynamometer is connected
to a galvanometer outside the box and in front of the experimenter who has
only to write down the figures denoting the pressures induced by the different
colored papers.
Once the experiment is completed, the experimenter merely picks up the pile
and compares the order of the measurements with the corresponding order of
colors.
The subjects were unaware of exerting different degrees of pressure, but the
results showed that they did.
The results were collected slowly. Four or five trials by color were carried out
by the same hand. In the course of the experiment, the hand quickly becomes
tired by successive squeezing of the dynamometer.
About fifty subjects were tested and the results of those who made at least
thirty trials by color were statistically analyzed according to the student's t
-tesl Among those tested were five blind subjects.

Results
Muscular effect was maximal on the dynamometer in natural
daylight when the subject held a piece of red or dark-blue paper in
his other hand. The muscular reactions lessened in the presence of
orange and yellow sheets and became minimal in the presence of a
green stimulus, increasing again in the presence of green to light
then dark blue. Maximum squeeze was induced by a black
stimulus.
But in conditions of half-light, or when there was incandescent
light in the room, the distribution of squeezes changed. For a
number of subjects the maximum squeeze was induced by colors
which were in the middle of the spectrum: yellow, green, light
blue, while the minimum effort was induced by colors which were

at the extremities of the spectrum: red and violet.(17)

However, it is interesting to observe that the results obtained,
independently, by these two different methods were analogous.
Applications
The dermo-optical effects might be used to regulate human
behavior according to the non-visible or visible colors of the
person's environment.
A. Non-visible colored surfaces and pedagogical applications.
1. Manual activity-the regrouping method.
Procedure

ln a number of investigations carried out in the Urals, it was found that when
ten-year-old school children performed an action, the speed of the movements
of the hands depended upon the color sample in an envelope of which the
surface was covered by a sheet of aluminum foil.
On this surface, the teacher randomly placed ten small squares and ten
rectangles made of cardboard.
The children were then asked to separate the squares from the rectangles by
finger-tip touch so that on the left side of the screen squares were placed in a
column, and on the right side rectangles. The teacher records with a
chronometer the speed at which this regrouping is accomplished. Both children
and teachers were unaware of the fact that in the envelopes covered with an
alununum sheet there were papers of contrasting colors.
Psychologically, the children had the impression of sorting out the shapes with
equal speed in the various trials.

Results
Results showed that it took 13 to 18 percent longer to regroup
squares and rectangles when there was black paper under the
aluminum sheet than when there was a yellow.(18)
Other experiments showed that in daylight, red and violet slowed
down the regrouping, while green and yellow quickened the
movements.
In incandescent electric light the speed of movements changed in
the reverse order.(19)
The same effects have been observed when the children have had
to perform more complex tasks such as sorting out four kinds of
geometrical shapes: squares, rectangles, lozenges and triangles.

Applications
In infant schools, these exercises might be presented as games
and win develop the swiftness and the preciseness of the
movements of the children.
For typewriting. Experiments, in daylight, with one of our subjects,
showed that a screened yellow paper increased switness and
preciseness of typewriting while a black paper slowed it down.
For the response to a sound signal. From experiments we carried
on with a chronoscope, it appears that this speed greatly
depended upon the color of the paper which was under an
aluminum screen lying at the subject's forearm.(20)
Writing or Reading Braille Characters.
We asked a blind subject to punch words on blue, green, yellow,
orange, red, black, or white sheets of paper. In all, he punched
twelve lines of randomly chosen words on 145 different sheets of
15 x 10 cm Canson papers randomly presented to him. The
punching speed was recorded.
These texts were randomly given to three other blind subjects to
be read. When the trials were completed, the colors of the sheets,
placed in a pile by the subjects, were noted side by side with the
different speeds.
The Braille writing experiments were carried out in daylight, but
the Braille reading experiments were carried on in incandescent
electric light only.
Results
Braille writing slowed down on orange-red and blue-violet papers
and quickened on green and vellow sheets (in daylight).
Braille reading was the quickest on a red paper, then on a blue
one, and the slowest on a yellow paper (in electric light).
Other activities for blind rehabilitation would be made easier
thanks to the colored surface effects. For instance, the modelage
speed is in relationship to the colors used.(21)
Mental Activity
The method of retinal effects

In a number of investigations carried out in the Urals in 1970, nonvisible colored surfaces were found to act, not only on the skin, but
also on the eye.
Procedure

Two small sheets of colored paper, red or green, were introduced to a large
number of subjects. They were place under an opaque screen consisting of a
square sheet of lead, or of black rubber.
The subject gazed at the center of the dark square, unaware that there was a
colored paper below. Then the dark screen and the colored paper were
removed and the subject was asked to stare at a sheet of white paper lying on
the table.

Results
Consecutive vivid retinal images of very light square spots
appeared on this sheet.
The experiments showed that the duration of this effect depended
on what.colored surfaces had previously been under the dark
screen.
In full daylight, the retinal images lasted much longer if there had
been a sheet of red paper under the screen rather than a green
one. The duration of the effect changed exactly in accordance with
the dermo-optical circle.(22)
(Note: In the second half of 1970, experiments carried out with
school children showed that non-visible colors acting on the retina
led to a change in the children's mental activity)
The " Counting " Method
Procedure

The subject, silently, counts various geometrical shapes. These squares and
rectangles, are mixed together on the surface of the aluminum screen, under
which there is a paper of one color or another. The subject holds his hands
behind his back, counting by eye.

The Arithmetical Operations Method

The procedure is the same, but the subject has to calculate
mentally the results of an operation indicated on a card lying on
the aluminum screen: addition, subtraction, multiplication, or
division.
these experiments, in which several hundred pupils of Sverdlovsk

School participated, were carried on under double-blind conditions

with the envelopes being presented at random to the subjects.(23)
Results
It appeared that the tempo of the pupil's mental activity changed
according to which colored paper lay beneath the metal screen. It
accelerated in the direction of red, orange to green and slowed
down from green to blue and violet. In the evening under
incandescent light the opposite occured.
The pedagogical applications of these results are obvious,
particularly for pupils having school difficulties: lack of attention, of
interest, lack of understanding arithmetic, etc.(24)

The Detection of the Degree of Fatigue or Effect on

Emotional States
The Thermoscopic Method
Unlike the other methods, the thermoscopic method from Dr. A. S.
Novomeysky allows one to register and measure changes in the
infrared radiation emitted by the hand m response to the infrared
radiation emitted by the colored surfaces.
Procedure

A system of thermocouples and a mirror galvanometer are used as the palm is

held over one or other stimulus.(25)
The stimuli were green or red cones, their outside being covered by an opaque
cardboard envelope.
The experiments were carried out in a random order, and during them the
subject was in an isolated light-proof compartment and his hand projected
outside through a special opening with a sleeve in the compartment partition.
The experimenter and thermoscope were outside of the cabin.

Results
From a great many experiments carried on in various Sverlovsk
universities, it appears that the response of the hand to a green
stimulus has been stronger than to a red one, the subjects being
in darkness during the experinents.
The same effects appeared when the inner colored cavity of the
cones was screened by an aluminum foil of 14 microns. When
three layers of aluminum foil of a total thickness of 42 microns

were used, the difference of the reactions of the hand to red and
green stimuli increases.(26)
Application
It has been observed that the intensity of infrared radiation of the
palm, as a response to non-visible color stimuli, was different in
the evening than in daytime. This was true if students were in an
emotional state, for instance, just following an examination. They
reacted to colors in the reverse order as in the daytime or during
the period when there were no examinations.(27)
Dr. Novomeysky termed these reactions as " paradoxical ". He
predicted that thermoscopy might become a method of registering
the degree of fatigue of an individual.
In carrying on our subjective method, we also observed these
paradoxical reactions often arose as a result of fatigue. During the
numerous tests we carried on with students, they rose during the
examination period.(28)
Ecological Applications
We have considered the influence of non-visible colors on sensory,
motor, and mental activity. We might point out that problems of
the ecological expediency of color in architecture and decoration
seem related to applications of dermo-optical methods.
Experiments at the " Centre d'Eclairagisme "
Since 1969 the experiments we carried out in the "Centre
d'Eclairagisme " continue to confirm the relationship of dermoptical research to ecology.(29) These studies were conducted
under the direction of Mr. M. Deribere who was recently succeeded
by Mr. Lambert.
Procedure

A blind subject was placed in the center of a room in which the colors of the
walls could be changed by the use of a special electric installation.

Results
Forty subjects were tested, and it was found that muscular and
subjective reactions changed in accordance with:the colors of the

walls under fluorescent lighting of about 1000 lux.

For instance, when the walls became red, the subjects experienced
disagreeable feelings. It seemed to them that the room became
narrow. Even a subject, blind from birth, experienced feelings of
stuffiness.
But when the walls were white, they felt that the room was higher
and more pleasant. When they became blue, they experienced an
impression of coldness.
These subjective feelings are analogous to those of architects or
decorators who were admitted to this experimental room to study
possible effects of various colors and lighting on different kinds of
materials.
Comment
These experiments showed that the influence of non-visible
colored surfaces can affect behavior in the blind as well as in
subjects with normal eyesight.
Dr. Harry Wohlfart, Professor of Art, University of Alberta at
Edmonton, discovered this to be the case in the course of his
fascinating research that measured " the impact of selected colors
on the behavior of severely handicapped children ".(30) Dr. H.
Wohlfarth observed that they lead the same effect on children with
normal sight as on blind children. Dr. Alexander G. Schauss of the
American Institute for Biosocial Research, Inc., in Tacoma,
Wasliington, noted analogous results in experiments oncolors with
a color-blind subject.(31)
Applications: Some Examples
Thus dermo-optical research might be carried out further in the
direction of many possible ecological applications of which some,
examples will be given below.
Exams
Rooms in which examinations are held in schools and universities
should be painted in restful colors, namely dark red or blue under
electric light, green or yellow for use in daylight. (Beneath plywood
panels).

Bedrooms
In relative darkness: light blue, golden yellow, and especially
bright green produces an irritating effect on the organism. These
colors should not be used in bedrooms, for they tend to influence
the reactions to an even greater extent in the absence of visual
perception.
Ideally, the walls of bedrooms should be painted purple, red,
orange, or dark blue, for these colors have a weak imact on the
dermo-optical receptors in darkness.
If the walls of a bedroom are of a color unpleasant in daylight,
they should be covered with plywood. Draperieg, carpets and bed
covers should be also in colors that are restful in darkness.
Truck lnteriors
The color of materials used in the driving compartment of trucks is
of particular importance, given the small space involved that
reinforces dermo-optical effects on the organism and hence upon
the reflexes.
A truck's driving compartment should therefore be covered with a
thin metallic layer of darkish gray, under which there is a thick
green or yellow paper for daytime driving. For night driving, the
under paper should be red, violet, or dark blue.
The driver will be in a neutral environment while the hidden
underlayer of color effects his muscular and mental reactions,
rendering them faster and more efficient.
In order to correct, insofar as possible, the influence of variations
in lighting cushions, seat-covers and carpeting in dark blue or red
should be placed on the seat at the end of the day, if the truck is
driven in daytime.
Anxiety Disorders
There are two possibilities:
When individuals are in an excited or manic state, relaxing colors
are certainly advisable.
For individuals in a depression, it is advisable to have them spend
part of the day in rooms with red or orange hidden beneath
plywood panels. The patient's psychic activity will thus be

stimulated and the general vitality increased under the influence of

the invisible radiation of surfaces which are not visually perceived.
Comment
By disguising the color of walls by covering them with an opaque
panel, all interference by association of ideas and linguistic usage
to such and such a color is eliminated.Red tends, as we know, to
excite, green calms, etc.(32)
All confusion between the physiological effects of visible colors and
the associations that an observer makes with various colors should
be avoided. Such associations can result, according to Dr. Peter K.
Kaiser, "in cognitive events which trigger the physiological event".
(33)

Visible Colored Surfaces

General rules based on dermo-optical sensitivity research.
In choosing colors, one has only to refer to the dermo-chromatic
circle (Fig. 1 and 2), while taking the lighting into account.
In daylight, therefore, the following colors are recommended for
use in schools, offices, etc.: yellow, green, and light blue.
Under electric light, red, dark blue or violet are preferred.
A precaution should be taken before papering a room or recovering
a work table, namely, to remove the previous surface color(s).
Otherwise, its dermo-optical effect will continue to effect the
individual's behavior. It should be recalled that long infrared
radiation affects the dermo-optical sensitivity, having the ability to
penetrate opaque screens.(26)
The thickness of the colored surface must be considered, for the
thicker it is the greater the effect it produces.
Room temperature is another important factor affecting dermooptical sensitivity. Experiments show that if the room temperature
is similar to skin temperature (hand temperature approximately
between 26 and 30 degrees centigrade) there are no dermooptical reactions. In this case, only visual effects are noted.
Some possible applications
As we are often asked questions as to which visible colors should
be used, so that the dermo-optical effects and the visual effects

are not in contradiction, we will give a few examples selected, in

part, by Dr. Novomeysky, as possible solutions in harmonizing
these various effects when any discord arises between them.
1.When light varies during daytime.
In schools or workshops with colored walls tending to favor activity
in daylight such as, green, yellow and light blue, artificial light (full
- spectrum) simulating daylight can be used in the evening.
In a one-room apartment, which is both a living room and
bedroom, the walls should be dark-blue which favors, sound sleep.
In the daytime, the effect can be mitigated by placing light colored
cushions and objects favorable to mental activity.
Inversely, if the room is painted or papered in crude green or light
blue, at night dark bed covers can be used, a dark rug can be
placed beneath the bed and a dark blue or dark red folding screen
placed nearby. Cushions in these same colors may be scattered
about.
2. When the colors of the environment are the same as that of the
work tables and various materials being worked on.
This principle is especially applicable to clothing factories. It is very
difficult for employees of a shop to work in rooms with light blue,
green or yellow walls if the surfaces on which they are working are
the same color. The eye would become rapidly fatigued, for
example, looking at yellow garments in a shop decorated in the
same color.
In such a case, it would be advisable to place an opaque plywood
covering tables.
Thus, when a worker is manipulating material, say of a yellow hue
on a yellow surface covered by a smooth plywood, his or her
activity is greatly facilitated because the visible color reinforcement
effect is eliminated.
3. When the colors of the environment tend to change.
In the industrial environment, where there is a great deal of dust
and materials soil the floor and work-benches, such as in cement
plants or in metallurgical and chemical industries and workshops,
colored surfaces rapidly turn brown or dark gray. This is often

unavoidable, for even if they were covered with a transparent

plastic or glass sheet, they would tend to become soiled just the
same.
It is therefore advisable to recover such surfaces with a material
neutral and opaque to the eye with colored paper underneath, so
that the invisible radiation favors increased activity.
4. The effects of colors are potentially harmful.
The greatest difficulty occurs when it is preferable to minimize the
stimulation of a visible color which cannot be hidden beneath an
opaque material.
Dr. Novomeysky provides the example of a butcher shop in which
reds, especially, are visually perceived. In daylight, ocular and
dermo-optical effects of the color red are hard on the organism
and have a deleterious effect on the human psyche.
It is, therefore, advisable to modify the lighting in the locale as
follows: During the daytime, the windows can be covered by
curtains of either green, pale blue or yellow which intercepts the
daylight and countermands the effects of red.
In the evening, in locales being lit by electric light, the effects of
red are neutralized.
There are many other situations to be considered, but the most
important thing to know is that colored surfaces act not only upon
the eyes. Their invisible radiations act as well on the individual's
total organism.

Conclusion
After pointing out the role of dermo-optical effects and their
connection with visual effects, their importance in various forms of
artistic expression must be considered.
The fugitive impressions of heat and cold, of roughness and
smoothness, of heaviness and lightness, which we perceive when
looking, for example, at a painting, are perhaps what provide it a
certain " depth " that has been difficult to define.(34)
These synthetic effects are far from imaginary, for they are the
result of constant interactions between man and his environment
which future research in physics and physiology need to explain.
Whatever that may be, the results of experiments in dermo-optical

sensitivity may be applied to avoiding mistakes in the choice of

colors in the environment while improving living conditions.
Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank the Parapsychology Foundation, Inc., of New York,
N.Y., and Professor Novomeysky of the Sverdlovsk Pedagogical Institute in the
U.S.S.R.

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