At Canyon Ranch, showing your true colors?

I had chosen color therapy as a curiosity among the multitude of massages, body wraps, and other spa treatments available at the Canyon Ranch health spa in Lenox. While I was persuaded by the spa's eating and exercise advice and could even buy into the benefits of meditation and acupuncture, I questioned whether slathering colored clay all over my body or soaking in a colored bath could make me more powerful, spiritual, or even relaxed.

The camera, said Canyon Ranch massage director Karen Watson, measures the body's energy field with biofeedback technology. Vibrations and electricity travel from the hand plates through the wires to the camera, which translates the energy into color. "Red is powerful because the energy is moving a lot faster," she said. Blues and violets, on the other hand, mean a slower energy, reflecting calm and peace. Part of me was intrigued; part wondered why I didn't just choose a Swedish massage.

When the Polaroid popped out, Vera explained the colors that made up my aura, each said to represent a different chakra. The word "chakra," familiar to fans of yoga or alternative medicine, comes from a Sanskrit term for wheel and refers to energy centers along the spine. Each chakra corresponds to a color: Violet, at the crown of the head, represents spirituality; indigo, at the brow, signals intuition; a lighter blue at the throat corresponds with communication; green, at the heart, with love; yellow, at the solar plexus, with wisdom; orange, at the abdomen, with creativity; and red, at the lower pelvis, with power. At least that's what Vera's chart said.

If only I were as wise as my Polaroid aura indicated: It was blindingly sunny, full of yellow, a bit of orange, and some green. "I can tell you're a yellow because you're so curious," Vera said.

Next came the decision: Which chakra to strengthen? Should I be slathered with purple clay and become more spiritual, or swathed in indigo to get in touch with my unconscious? ("If I'm in touch, how can it be unconscious?" I asked Vera. She seemed stumped.) Green for love was appealing, but so was red for energy.