Aura Viewing
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Aura Viewing
How To See & Understand Auras
Written by Christine Breese D.D., Ph.D.
Introduction
What is an Aura?
Seven Layers of the Aura
Seeing The Aura
Aura Cameras
Kirlian Photos
Dicyanin Screen
3D Pictures
Peripheral Vision
Colors In Environment & Clothing
Colors & The Aura
Practicing Aura Watching
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
Aura viewing is possible for everyone. Anyone who decides to see auras will be able to if he or she has knowledge of some of the simple training methods that will teach the eyes and mind to see. It is actually not hard to see auras at all. It does not require special giftedness, although some people are gifted with the ability to see auras without having to train oneself to see them. For those of us who are willing to do the training necessary, this ability is available to even the common person.
"There is nothing 'paranormal' in the Universe, except our limited understanding of Nature… Many
great people in the past complained that 'we have eyes and we do not see…' What we think we 'know' on Earth
now is just a tiny drop in the Ocean of Knowledge. In the distant past, people admired things they could not
explain and called them 'miracles.' Long ago, people were able to see Auras. Advanced spiritual people such as
Buddha, Christ and their immediate students were painted with golden haloes around their heads because some
artists could actually see Auras. In the Australian remote West Kimberleys you can find prehistoric cave paintings
many thousands of years old, depicting people with golden haloes. Nature gave us all we need to see Auras. All
[that is] required is the knowledge how to use your senses together with your conscious effort. If you decide not
to try, you will never see the Aura. On the other hand, when you see something for yourself, no longer will you
need to rely on believing someone. You will know. And you can use your knowledge to learn more."
(www.thiaoouba.com/seeau.htm)
Aura viewing is a spiritual siddhi, one that has been sought by many a spiritual seeker. Gurus often reserved teaching this spiritual power to only those who had earned this privilege. Only a student who had purified the heart and mind was qualified to earn this ability. Gone are the days, however, of having to sit in the lotus position for 20 years before your guru will teach you how to see auras! All the teachings are publicly available now that were not so long ago coveted mystery teachings from the master to the student. There is something to be said about a person needing to have spiritual maturity before attaining spiritual powers, but I don't believe that you truly gain these powers unless spiritual maturity comes with it at the same time. It is possible to dabble and get glimpses of spiritual powers, but to truly have them become functioning abilities takes wisdom, understanding and enlightenment. Having a spiritual power is not indicative of enlightenment. A person can have spiritual powers, like aura viewing, psychic skills, and the ability to astral project or dream lucidly, but these powers could be misused if the heart is not in a loving space. Only when the heart is open is enlightenment possible.
In fact, you might want to be careful of spiritual teachers who use these powers publicly and for the purpose of drawing students. This is a sure sign that the spiritual teacher is not truly enlightened. Spiritual powers can be a distraction on the path to enlightenment. People who are not spiritually mature may think that they have reached enlightenment if they have spiritual powers, but in truth, enlightenment does not have anything to do with what you can "do." Enlightenment means "to know," and if you know who you really are, that you are eternal awareness who experiences the comings and goings of things, but those things are not who you are, not even the body, name and personality you have worn in a human lifetime, or any form for that matter. If you have experienced this directly, you have reached enlightenment. Everything after that is simply a deepening of enlightenment. Spiritual siddhis are one of the experiences that come and go, adventures for consciousness.
The ability to see the aura will cut through all the surface pretenses. We will even be able to know if each other is lying! There would be a new honesty that would be needed if everyone on the planet could see auras. We would also know about illnesses long before they physically show up, and we can take the steps necessary to address the illness in the auric field instead of the physical field, where it is easier to work with. As of now, the aura remains a new territory for exploration and understanding. Once it is taken seriously by science and medicine, great strides in the health and well-being of humankind will be possible. F.J. Rebman says on www.unexplainable.net, "Perhaps as 'auralogy' develops and our knowledge of this force becomes more definite, the study of the aura will be employed as an aid in diagnosing character, mental endowments, and thus fitness for certain positions in the business world." It would be interesting to see which politicians would be elected if their auras could be seen by all.
There are many books on the subject of auras in your local library and much information on the internet about aura viewing. If you are interested in delving into the subject more deeply I highly recommend that you read some of the books in the bibliography section of this course. Here in this course, however, you will find some of the beginning techniques for learning how to view auras. First, let's learn a little bit about auras before we get into the exercises.
What Is An Aura?
Auric energy can appear as geometric shapes, points of light, spirals, webs of lines, sparks, clouds, and pulsations. When most people think of auras, they think of misty colors and light around the human form. This is a property of the aura, but it is far more than that. Is a blueprint for form and behavior, an invisible organizing field that is underneath physical reality. An aura can be found around the human form and can also be found around all other forms. Plants, animals, and minerals also have auras. Even man-made objects have auras. All matter emits a certain amount of light, and the size and structure of its aura seems to coincide with what its form is. For instance, the aura of a fork does not seem to be as complicated as that of a human, but it emits an aura nonetheless. I personally believe that the aura that is emitted by an inanimate object is coming from the sentience of the molecules and atoms that are making up the object. I believe that there is some kind of sentience in every atom and particle, and even the empty space in the universe. I can't support this belief, but it seems to be true when you see the auras everywhere around you coming from everything, regardless of whether it is animate or inanimate. The only difference seems to be that some auras are more complicated than others, with more complex structures and layers.
Barbara Brennan calls this the Universal Energy Field (UEF) in her book Hands Of Light (1988). She says that it is the life force energy of all things, physical and nonphysical. She says that it permeates all space, inanimate objects, animate objects, and it connects all objects to each other. This is interesting, if you think about it, for it means that somehow it is all one object, one being. If it is all connected together, then nothing is separate, not even the empty space. Could it be that there is something that is the same in all beings and inanimate things? I must say, as a side note here, that Barbara Brennan's books Hands Of Light: A Guide To Healing Through The Human Energy Field (1988) and Light Emerging: The Journey Of Personal Healing (1993), her follow up book to Hands Of Light, are a must have if you want to learn to see and read auras. Barbara Brennan is considered an authority on the subject of chakras, auras, aura viewing and healing by adjusting the aura. She is the first to write two textbook level books on the subject. She is far from a new age woo woo! She is a trained scientist holding Ph.D. degrees, worked for NASA and has attained much respect in her work. She is also able to see auras, and has approached the subject with a true scientist's point of view, with the necessary spiritual wisdom and understanding. I don't usually promote anyone's books in particular, but hers I can honestly say are a necessary addition to any metaphysician's library.
Brennan explains that auras flow from one object to another. There is a non-verbal exchange between people all the time. There is an exchange of auric energy where there are strong emotions between people. Even upon meeting a new person, there is a reaching of auric energy toward each other, "feeling" each other out. Thoughts and emotions travel between people through the auric field. It is received as well as sent. That feeling you get around this person or that person has to do with auric energy exchanges between you.
Auras are subject to the law of harmonic inductance (sympathetic resonance). When one aura strongly vibrates at a certain rate, or holds a certain pattern or essence, auras near it will also resonate at that same rate or hold a similar pattern or essence. When one crystal glass rings a certain tone, the others around it will ring the same tone through harmonic inductance. You have experienced this in your aura when you have noticed that suddenly you are feeing joyful and happy around a person who vibrates this essence strongly. You have also felt it when a person who is depressed suddenly makes you feel rather depressed yourself. You are resonating with another aura that is putting out that vibration more strongly than whatever your own aura is putting out. Barbara Brennan has given a chart of the frequency ranges of certain colors of the aura, and has found that animate beings emit energy vibrations (colors) at frequencies between 200 to 2000 hertz (htz). The following is a chart of the frequencies of various colors:
| Blue | 250 - 275 Hz plus 1200 Hz | Green | 250 - 475 Hz | Yellow | 500 - 700 Hz | Orange | 950 - 1050 Hz | Red | 1000 - 1200 Hz | Violet | 1000 - 2000, plus 300 - 400 Hz, 600 - 800 Hz | White | 110 - 2000 Hz |
Seven Layers Of The Aura
The seven layers of the aura occupy the same space at the same time, and each of the bodies are superimposed over the others, each extending a little further out from the layer under it. Each layer corresponds to the related chakra of the seven chakras.
The word "layer" is misleading, for it is not actually a layer, but an extended part of the self. The auric layers are not like a sheath or shell, but rather a part of the anatomy of the spiritual self that goes from the core deep inside you to the extended place where the "layer" ends. Layers are auric fields within each other. Barbara Brennan says that every other layer is highly structured and stationary (layers 1, 3, 5, and 7). The layers between each of those are fluid and in constant motion, unstructured and moving (layers 2, 4, and 6). They are what many perceive as the swirls of color and light, and they are the easier parts of the aura to see, whereas the structured layers are not quite as easy to see unless your consciousness is very expanded. You have learned about auras in the Chakras & Auras course here at UMS, but let us recap what the seven layers of the auric field are.
- physical functioning/sensation, automatic/autonomic functioning of the body (red-root chakra) (lower etheric layer/body)
- emotional aspect of human (orange-sacral chakra) (lower emotional layer/body)
- mental life, linear thinking (yellow-solar plexus chakra) (lower mental layer/body)
- love, giving and receiving, metabolizes the energy of love (green-heart) (astral layer/body) bridge between physical and astral worlds
- divine will, power of the word, speaking, listening, taking responsibility for actions (sky blue-throat chakra) (upper etheric layer/body, template) physical
- celestial love, extends beyond human range of love, encompasses all life, protection and nurturing of all life (indigo-forehead chakra) (celestial layer/body) emotional
- higher mind, knowing, integration of spiritual and physical makeup (white-crown chakra) (ketheric layer/body) mental
Lower Three Layers
physical, emotional, and mental functioning in physical reality
lower three layers metabolize energies related to the physical world
- root chakra - physical - will
- sacral chakra - emotional - feelings
- solar plexus chakra - mental – will
Fourth Layer: bridge between two worlds - fire of the heart
Upper Three Layers
physical, emotional and mental functioning in spiritual reality
upper three layers metabolize energies related to the spiritual world
- throat chakra - physical - higher will
- forehead chakra - emotional - higher feelings of love
- crown chakra - mental - higher knowing
Each of these seven layers functions differently and serves a different purpose. The following is a description of each of these layers:
Seven Layers Of The Aura (continued)
First Layer/Etheric Body
- ether, the state between energy and matter
- sparkling web of light beams, web-like, grid-like
- bluish-white light moves along energy lines throughout physical body and over it, varying between gray and blue
- 1/4 to 2 inches from body
- pulsates 15 - 20 cycles per minute
- physical matter of body is shaped and anchored
- more sensitive person/body = bluish
- athletic robust person/body = grayish
- chakras look like net of light, all same color as layer
Second Layer/Emotional Body
- roughly follows outline of physical body, does not duplicate physical body
- fluid-like, colored clouds of fine substance in continual fluid motion
- 1 - 3 inches from physical body
- colors vary from brilliant clear hues to dark muddy ones, depending on emotion that produces them
- contains all colors of rainbow
- chakras are the colors typically associated with each
- release of feelings, giving of feelings, cause blobs of the color to go out into air around person
Third Layer/Mental Body
- extends beyond emotional body
- associated with thoughts and mental processes
- bright yellow-gold, structured, grid-like, web-like
- all chakras appear yellow-gold
- emotional colors come into structure as emotions are connected to thoughts
- layer expands as person concentrates and focuses
- habitual thoughts reside in this body, unconscious programming
- hardest to see
Fourth Layer/Astral Body
- clouds of color more beautiful than emotional body
- infused with rose light of love
- 1 to 1-1/2 feet out from physical body
- auric body can be found testing the waters with other people
- blobs of color shoot around to other people
- chakras are the typical colors associated with each chakra
Fifth Layer/Etheric Template Body
- looks like negative of a photograph
- template for etheric body (first layer) interconnected
- perfect form for etheric layer
- extends 1-1/2 feet to 2 feet out from physical body
- level where sound creates matter, healing
- cobalt blue background, lines where light would be are actually empty
- cobalt blue fills in all that is not the grid-like layer, fills space, thus creating negative effect
- chakras look like negative effect also
Sixth Layer/Celestial Body
- emotional level of spiritual plane
- extends 2 to 2-3/4 feet out from physical body
- experience spiritual ecstasy
- connection with all of universe, light and love in everything that exists, one with God
- heart chakra combined with celestial chakra = unconditional love
- pastel colors or rainbow spectrum
- light that radiates out from the body, like glow around a candle
- within glow are beams of light that go outward
- no chakras visible, but beams of light move out from where chakras would be
Seventh Layer/Ketheric Template, or Causal Body
- mental level of spiritual plane, divine mind
- extends 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 feet out from physical body
- one with Creator
- highly structured template
- tiny threads of gold-silver light that hold aura together
- golden grid of physical body
- chakras appear golden
- pulsating so fast that it is shimmering
- outer edge looks like eggshell, 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick
- also contains main power line that runs up and down spine
- contains life plan, and also past life information
Eighth and Ninth Layers/Cosmic Plane
- associated with 8th and 9th chakras above head
- crystalline
- eighth appears fluid-like
- ninth appears to be structured crystalline template of everything below it
Seeing The Aura
There is nothing more surprising than when you first see the aura. It is a wonderful moment. I have seen many faces light up in the classes I have taught on aura viewing, especially when people realize that it isn't so hard to see them. Concentration is necessary, but most people do not realize that concentration is not as effortful as they might think. Concentration is not about "trying really hard to focus." Rather, it means "localized awareness." It means being non-distracted by other things, and focusing your awareness on one thing. However, it does not mean that you must strain yourself.
It may take some time before you see your first aura. Not everyone sees them right away. Do not be discouraged if you don't see auras right away. It just takes practice, patience, and a little exercise. By practicing the various exercises that will be suggested in this course, you are strengthening your "magical muscles," as some people call them, just the way you would your physical muscles. You must remain diligent if you want to attain a spiritual power (siddhi). So do not despair if it takes awhile. You will see an aura if you keep practicing. It is inevitable.
You can definitely feel an aura without any training whatsoever and you will be surprised when you realize that you have always been feeling the auras of others but didn't realize it. Use your sensing mechanisms rather than your visual system to begin perceiving the aura. Not everyone is a visually oriented person. It is more common to be a sensing person, so use your strongest mechanism first and the sight will develop later. Sensing energy is an extension of the physical sense of touch. You can literally and tangibly feel energy easier than you can see it, in the moment.
If you cannot see the aura at first with your physical eyes, use your inner vision and see it with your mind's eye. You can see auras quite easily there, and the ability to see auras with your physical eyes is directly connected to your ability to see it with your inner vision. You are seeing spiritual, etheric energy when you are seeing an aura, and you are able to see it by developing your mind's eye. Physical reality is, after all, an extension of a type of vision that is far more sophisticated in the spiritual self than physical vision will ever be. You will not be able to see all the layers of the aura right away. Some very advanced aura viewers are not able to see more than the 3rd layer of the aura. The first three are the easiest to see. The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh layers require training and the ability to be in very high states of mind and relaxation. Some believe that it is necessary that you be centered in the particular layer in your own aura before you will see that same layer in someone else's aura. None-the-less, seeing the first three layers of the aura will still give a lot of information about a person's physical, mental and emotional condition.
There is some speculation in the metaphysical community as to whether auras are "actual light" coming from the human form. Some believe that auras are made of a "higher light" than the light of the physical spectrum. F.J. Rebman on www.unexplainable.net believes that it is a force that emanates from the nervous system, but it is not like the heat that emanates from the human body. Some believe that it is not actual light, for if it was it could be measured by scientific instruments. Scientific instruments can measure all kinds of light, even those invisible to the human eye, like infrared, x-rays, gamma rays, ultra-violet, and more. So far, scientific instruments have measured electrical and magnetic energy emanating from the physical body, but not light. Therefore, it is only logical to assume that auras are not made of physical light. You cannot see auras in complete darkness. Therefore, they are not creating physical light. Rather, auras seem to be photo-sensitive to physical light, reacting to it. For instance, auras expand and react to sunlight, becoming much brighter, sparkling, and becoming twice their size. If one sees something in total darkness, this is most likely clairvoyance, astral sight, or the inner vision, not the physical eyes seeing a visual. So what is the aura then, if it is not actual light?
Robert Bruce has quite an interesting hypothesis about why it is that we "see" an aura with our physical eyes once they are trained to see it, even though technically an aura is not made out of physical light. Bruce believes that it is, rather, a representation of the energy that the inner eye is seeing, the brow center, and the idea of light is created by the sight center of the brain. The brain translates the mind's eye perceptions into light since it is what the human brain understands and can relate to. Just as our deep spiritual activities outside of our human lifetime are interpreted by the dreaming self into stories that the human mind can understand, auras are a representation, a translation into a physical sense, of something the human mind can't otherwise perceive. Bruce says at www.geocities.com/athens/parthenon/6670/doc/t_auras.html, "What you see, when you see an aura, is your brain's interpretation of reflected energy, emanating from your subject. Your eyes are used to tune and focus your brow centre into this energy. An electrical representation of this energy is passed to your brain's sight centre..." Normal sight and auric sight are closely related. They both give the human brain visual information.
Robert Bruce explains it at www.geocities.com/athens/parthenon/6670/doc/t_auras.html as follows:
"Normal sight: Eyes receive light - light being a type of energy. Eyes focus light energy onto light sensitive nerve tissue at the back of the eye, connected to the optic nerve. Basically, this light sensitive tissue changes focused light energy into a stream of complex electrical signals. These signals are passed, via the optic nerve, to the sight centre of the brain. The brain then interprets these signals into a rich visual picture - what we call normal sight.
"Auric sight: The brow centre receives a more subtle type of energy than light. This type of energy can only be received by the brow centre (often called the third eye or brow chakra) when it is active and tuned in to receive that type of energy. The brow centre is situated directly between the eyes and is intimately connected with normal optical sight. Energy received by the brow centre is passed along to the sight centre of the brain-the same as with normal sight. The brain interprets anything it receives in its sight centre as a visual picture. It interprets auric energy as a sight picture-as colored bands of light surrounding the subject.
- "The eyes are the organs for normal optical sight (a physical organ).
- "The brow centre is the organ for non-physical sight (a non-physical organ)."
I have my own hypothesis about auric sight, which goes hand in hand with the hypothesis just described. I believe that we are slowly gaining the ability to see light and colors that are not physical, but other dimensional. After all, it is a known fact that humans were not always able to see the colors that we now do. Perhaps human eyesight is still evolving. In fact, no two people see the same color the same way. Everyone's eyes are actually fine-tuned instruments that see various colors in a certain way as opposed to the way another person's eyes are attenuated. Some people even see some colors as their opposite, seeing green as a reddish orange and vice versa. Some people, even in this modern day, simply cannot see some colors at all, or have selective color perception. Color blindness is not a thing of the past.
While the mass consciousness awakens as a species, we are becoming more open to the idea that we are able to see colors that are outside the physical realm. It is possible that ether, light, sound and matter are all part of the same system, but we have different senses that perceive the particular spectrums they are related to. Touch is the spectrum we perceive as solid objects, but if you think about it, the molecules that are making up solid objects are vibrating, perhaps even making a deep (or high) sound that is inaudible to human hearing. No one knows yet. However, we do know that the molecules in all matter are vibrating. Sound is possibly another part of that same system, but the area of the spectrum that the ears hear is higher than the deeper sounds that matter might be making. Light, then, is even a higher vibration than sound, so the eyes are used to perceive it. Finally, ether is even higher than light, and humans are now developing, or at least becoming aware of, senses we always had but didn't notice before, new senses to perceive these vibrations that are even higher than light.
Everyone is quite aware of the 6th sense, but perhaps there are far more senses we will discover than a 6th one, and it will become commonplace where everyone uses them just the same way we use the eyes, ears, tongue, nose, and sense of touch. We already use some of the other senses even though we don't know it yet. Everyone has had the experience of "feeling" someone watching us, or "feeling" someone walk up behind us. This is one example of a further understanding of the fact that humans have more than 5 senses. In fact, Seth offers, in the Jane Roberts' Seth Books Series that humans have 19 more senses that we have not yet acknowledged and developed besides the 5 senses. Developing the brow center, the mind's eye, seems to be the place to begin discovering these other senses.
"If the awareness required to see them was a product of the physical eyes alone, everyone would always see auras. You must begin to see the aura and its phenomena with your mind's eye, before seeing it with your eyes, too. As you begin to see the aura intuitively, you will detect everything you imagine you should see with your eyes, and there is ultimately no difference in these two kinds of seeing." (www.chioshealing.com)
Aura Cameras
Aura cameras can be found at every psychic fair. They are fun and exciting, and almost everyone who has gone to a psychic fair has had a chance to sample the results of an aura camera. However, aura cameras are not actually taking a picture of your aura, especially since it is not made of physical light. The name "aura camera" is a bit misleading. It records something else entirely.
How an aura camera works is described at www.geocities.com/athens/parthenon/6670/doc/t_auras.html.
Sensors are put on your fingers, or are embedded in a chair, and they take readings of electrical resistances in the skin. This is called the galvanic skin response. It varies depending on your skin's moisture and salt level. This information is then fed into the camera and a pattern is generated based on the camera designer's offering of what your aura should look like based on your galvanic skin response. The designer has come up with some ideas about specific colors pertaining to different skin response patterns. As you can well see, this is a highly inaccurate way to find out what your aura looks like. A picture produced by an aura camera is not really a photograph, but an electronically created illusion.
Kirlian Photos
Kirlian photos are beautiful, otherworldly pictures of what is believed to be the first layer of the auric field, the field that hugs your physical form tightly from about 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch out from the body. The most well-known depiction of a Kirlian photograph was in the X-Files TV series when a blue outline of a handprint was featured in the episode.These photos are taken with a special camera, not the same as the aura camera, and records a true picture. You may have seen the pictures of leaves with bright blue outlines, with little rays coming out from them, a corona effect like that which is around the sun. These are the Kirlian photos. I sure do wish I had one I could share with you right here in this course, but all are copyrighted and owned by those who took the pictures. Do a search on the internet for "kirlian photos" and you will find some of the most beautiful pictures you have ever seen!
Kirlian photos are named after Semyon Kirlian, who invented the Kirlian camera by accident. He discovered that if an object on a photographic plate is subjected to a strong electric field of high voltage, an image is captured. These are the ghostly blue images that commonly appear as a glow around the object. It appears that inanimate objects also have this corona effect around them as well, so there is some argument as to whether or not a Kirlian photo is an actual picture of the human aura. Scientists believe it may have something to do with moisture and surface pressure, similar to the galvanic skin response, but no one knows for sure. If you would like to build your own Kirlian camera and experiment, here are some free schematics and plans at www.cebunet.com/kirlian/plans.htm. It is rather technical and will only make sense to those techies who have a knack for electronics!
Dicyanin Screen
The dicyanin screen was developed and invented by Dr. Walter John Kilner in 1911. He was an early explorer of the phenomena of auras, and he wanted to see them with his naked eye. The dicyanin screen uses two pieces of glass with dicyanin dye in between them. Dicyanin dye is a product of coal tar. He also created goggles that he could wear. He wanted to learn to diagnose illness in the aura before it showed up physically in the human body.
The method for using these screens is to stare for a few minutes through them at a bright light. When the eyes are then turned to look at the human aura, it would be visible. Kilner used different colors for these screens in order to see different layers or color spectrums of the aura. He used these different colored goggles in order to see those particular auric pairs. We will discuss this in a moment, but in short, the opposite of the color being viewed through the goggles would be the color that could be seen in the aura. The dicyanin screen temporarily disables the rods and the cones of the retina as pertains to certain colors so the opposite can be seen. When I first heard about the dicyanin screen, or goggles, and I was a beginner, I wanted to own a pair immediately! However, they are nowhere to be found. It turns out that although they do work, they cause much discomfort to the eyes. People have reported burning, soreness, and blurriness of vision. Kilner cautions that the dicyanin screen must not be used more often than a few minutes at a time, for prolonged sensitization will interfere with normal vision, and the ability to see the aura is also diminished. A short exposure of only a few minutes lasts for 2-4 weeks, and doesn't have to be used every time one is looking at an aura. Eventually the dicyanin screen is not even necessary.
No one knows for sure whether or not the dicyanin screen might cause permanent damage, although there are no cases of this yet, most likely because no one wants to be the test subject as to whether one loses their eyesight or not. This is possibly why no companies manufacture these instruments and sell them, for one could imagine the kind of lawsuits that could follow. If a person wants a pair of these, one must build them personally. Kilner did report, despite the discomfort to his eyesight, that after a few months of using the goggles, he developed the vision necessary to see the aura and gained the ability to see the aura with the naked eye, using no assistance from the dicyanin screen. He describes what he saw in his book, a rare and difficult book to find, The Human Aura (1965).
3D Pictures
Lucky for us, there is a safer way to develop the type of sight necessary for the ability to see auras. 3D pictures are a great way to practice. This was a method I used successfully to hone my own skills in auric viewing, and has been completely safe for my eyes.
3D pictures appear to be static colors and spots on a paper when you first look at them. However, there is a picture embedded in that "chaotic static" that will become suddenly visible if you tune your eyesight just the right way. The trick is to work with your depth perception. If you are three feet away from the picture, your focus must be somewhere between 6 inches to one foot in front of the actual paper that the picture is on. You are attempting to focus on what is in the air around the physical object when you are viewing an aura, so you must train your eyes to look there. This is a most important aspect of developing auric sight. The aura is literally in the air between you and the object you are looking at. Where that spot in the middle between you is what you must discover for yourself. If you are to see different layers of the aura, you must be able to look at different places in the "thin air."
3D pictures are a great way to develop that kind of depth perception shift. You have been accustomed all your life to allowing yourself to focus on the very longitude and latitude in reality that the object fills, your depth perception going immediately to the right adjustment in order to see that object clearly. Now you are going to untrain yourself so that you can see what you have never been taught to do, to look right into the air and see what is there.
3D books are in existence, with picture after picture after picture where you can test your abilities. Once you see your first 3D image, you will realize that you can see them all. It is the same with the first time you see an aura. Once you see one, you will see them more easily after that, for your mind has learned the "trick" for seeing them. One of my favorite series of these kinds of books is the Magic Eye I, II and III. They are large pictures to test your abilities on.
It took me quite a while to see my first 3D image, and it was very frustrating indeed. I was starting to wonder if someone was playing an elaborate trick on me and that perhaps I was on candid camera and soon I would find out that everyone was laughing because no such thing as a 3D picture existed that I could see on a piece of paper. However, sure enough, when I did see my first 3D picture, I was elated with joy and quite surprised at how suddenly it jumped into my focus. It literally appeared about one foot out from the poster I was staring at. Once I saw one 3D picture, I could see them all from then on with ease and effortless, for I had learned the visual focus necessary to see them.
The picture was always there, but I simply could not see it because my vision had not been trained to see it. Never had the phrase, "We have eyes to see, but we do not see," been truer. Auras are the same way. They have always been there, we just have to train our vision to perceive them. I wonder how much more we can see, if only we knew how to train our vision. That is the subject for another discussion, however.
The trick to seeing a 3D image in a picture on a paper is to focus the vision in front of the medium the picture exists on, but how does one do that? It is hard enough to imagine how to focus the vision in thin air, let alone do it. Here's the trick: Hold a finger or a thumb in front of the picture about 6 inches to a foot away. Experiment, for each picture may be an inch or so different from another. If you are looking at a small picture close up, you might want to hold your finger or thumb only 3 inches away. Focus on your finger so that you can see the lines on your skin, all the details in full focus. While maintaining this focus, look at the picture at the same time. Do not return your focus to the piece of paper the picture is on. The "static" remains blurry. You are looking at the air in front of the picture. Try moving your finger out of your view, but remain focused at the same depth. At first your vision will want to return to focus on the piece of paper and the "static" will come back into focus. It is a habit your vision has learned to do. Be patient as you retrain yourself to look at places where there is no object. Your vision has been habitually programmed to only focus on objects and adjust that focus until the object being looked at comes into full detail. Depth perception is actually a precision mechanism, and learning how to adjust your focus is something you started learning from the day you were born. Without it, human sight would be impossible. Now you are trying to override that mechanism that you have been subject to for a lifetime.
Keep refocusing on your thumb or finger and seeing the picture at the same time, looking at the air in front of it, and sooner or later you will see the 3D image that will suddenly emerge into your focus. Practice makes perfect. Use what you learn through viewing 3D pictures and apply it to your aura viewing practices. Let the physical image of your subject dissolve into a blur, and focus on the air about two feet in front of the person, or a little to the left or right. Then see what happens.
I wish I could include in this course the myriad of 3D images that are available, but for copyright reasons I cannot. What I did include for you, however, is a picture that a friend of mine did for me on a computer program that generates 3D images. My name "Christine" is embedded in the picture, and you will see it if you follow my method of focusing on the finger while looking for the 3D image at the same time. Use your peripheral vision in a way you never realized you could. If you are not able to see the image in this picture, try some others. This one is a bit difficult to see for a beginner.
You might want to think of getting one of the computer programs that are available if you would like to create your own 3D images and you have an aptitude for using computers. It could be quite fun. I highly recommend that you buy one of the Magic Eye books and cruise through the pictures in it. If you have looked at each picture in one of these books, you will be ripe and ready for seeing auras!
See if you can find my name "Christine" in this picture with your 3D vision.
Peripheral Vision
Auras are most easily perceived by the beginner through the peripheral vision. If at first you do not succeed in seeing an aura, use your peripheral vision. If you stare directly at something, it will be more difficult to perceive its aura. Peripheral vision is sensitive to movement, more so than the direct gaze and central focus of the eyesight. It is a primitive survival trait of the human form. Movement in the side of your vision is an alert to "unseen" danger and gives its perceiver a chance to react before the danger is closer. Animals have a highly developed sense of peripheral vision as well. Martial arts experts are well-trained in their ability to use the peripheral vision to maneuver through combat situations, using the peripheral vision especially if there are two or more against one.
Peripheral vision is also sensitive to other kinds of energy besides physical movement, especially otherdimensional energy. How many times have you thought you saw something out of the corner of your eye, and yet when you turn to look at it, nothing is there? It is quite possible that you were perceiving the movement of a ghost, an auric flare, and other non-physical phenomena. I believe it is possible to even "see" emotions as they travel about the room, especially if they are directed from one person another. The periphery vision picks this up.
Colors & Auric Pairs
Colors have pairs. Red and green, for instance are a pair of opposite colors. However, in the field of auras, the opposites are not exactly the same as they are in the art world. It's important to understand the auric pairs. Sometimes when you are viewing an aura, you are not seeing the aura, but the opposite color that is its pair. This is how the dicyanin screen works, blocking one color so that it's opposite can be seen.
Bare skin is the best representation, or white or black clothing, for the color of the clothing does not interfere with what you are seeing. The best place to look for the aura is around the head and shoulders because there is no interference from clothing. Yes, there do seem to be times when the aura is not affected by the clothing, or you are seeing a layer that is not affected by the clothing, but there are some layers that seem to get covered up by the auric pair of the color of the clothing. If a person is wearing a red dress, the green you are seeing in the aura may be coming from the dress rather than the aura. If a person is wearing a blue shirt, there will be a yellow permeation in the aura.
Tom Chalko, Ph.D. at www.thiaoouba.com/aura_eye_exercise.htm has this to say about auric pairs. "Note, that… auric pairs are different than complementary color pairs, 'color wheels' and color spaces' promoted by the science and art on Earth… A good look around will prove that the Nature is very fond of auric pairs. Take any red colored bird and you can be sure that this bird will have turquoise body parts too. The same applies to blueorange, yellow-violet and pink-green combinations, not only in birds, but in fish, butterflies, flowers, etc.- anything which is vividly colored by Nature." I would say that is a very interesting idea, that nature follows the patterns of auric pairs. It would be interesting to catalogue all the auric pairs that exist in nature and find out how many really exist. A research project for a willing soul someday, perhaps.
There are some differences in what are being determined to be auric pairs by various people. Here are two different charts on auric pairs from two sources, and they differ a lot. What one is to assume from this is that perhaps the auric pairing is still a field, as I just said, to be explored further by gathering many reports on auric pairs. You might want to see if you can discover for yourself what the auric pairs are.
From www.thiaoouba.com/aura_eye_exercise.htm
- Red-Turquoise, Turquoise-Red
- Orange-Blue, Blue-Orange
- Yellow-Violet, Violet-Yellow
- Green-Pink, Pink-Green
- Red-Green
- Orange-Pale Green
- Yellow-Pale Blue
- Green-Orange
- Blue-Yellow
- Indigo-Gold
- Violet-Pale Gold
- Pink-Iridescent Green
- Gaze at the air between you and the object you are attempting to see an aura around. Try focusing on the air one to two feet in front of the object or person. (Gazing at 3D pictures like those in the Magic Eye I, II and III will help you develop the right gaze for viewing auras.) You are literally attempting to see what is in the air, rather than the object.
- Relax your mind and let go of thoughts.
- Have no judgment about what you are seeing. Simply observe. It is important to be in a neutral space if you want to view auras. Judgments coming from an unloving space will immediately result in your loss of the focus necessary to see them.
- Gaze at a person against a white background or a dark background.
- Practice a little everyday and set your intention to be able to view auras. As with any skill, it takes time to hone and develop it.
- You might not be able to distinguish between layers at first
- You will most likely only perceive the first layers (3 - 4) of an aura, the rest come later
- Mixing in lower three layers occurs often, thoughts & feelings enmeshed
- The more a person is aware of the separation between physical feelings, emotional feelings and thoughts and acts accordingly, the more separated the layers are
- Energy almost always moves left to right around a circle
- You will feel tingling, tickling or pressure when you enter someone's aura
- There is a haze around fingers and hands, like heat wave over desert
- Auras may be colorless in at first, but they come with practice as you develop the "eyes to see"
- /
From www.geocities.com/athens/parthenon/6670/doc/t_auras.html
Colors In Environment & Clothing
The colors you wear affect your aura. When you wear a certain color often, it may be a color you are creating more of in your aura by wearing it, or you have it in your aura often. People who wear the same colors often are unconsciously creating more of that color in the aura (or some might argue, the auric pair of that color). Your aura is definitely affecting you, and you can pick colors consciously, knowing that they affect your aura. The clothes you wear can actually cheer you up, and also the people around you, for people are all affected by the colors they see. That is why pastel colors are purposely used on walls in hospitals and red, yellow and orange are used in restaurant chains. These colors have been officially found to have affects on the consciousness of the person seeing the colors.
Alliera and Muse, as the authors call themselves, say at www.sophiaswisdom.com/viewing.shtml, "I feel…that a choice in the colors we wear can be a reflection of what our auras are looking like. In fact, try looking at your laundry choices for the week. Are there any predominant colors? Recall what your week was like… write down what colors do for you and how they make you feel. Your choices can be analyzed. Either you are showing the tendencies of that color, or you are needing to learn the lesson of that particular color."
Colors & The Aura
There have been many lists generated as to what the colors in the aura mean. I am a little resistant about including such a list for I believe that they are erroneous and have more to do with the person's perceptions who wrote the list than what those colors actually mean. See the UMS Symbols and Colors course for these meanings of colors that have been determined by others. I believe this is a field that is not highly researched enough yet to determine what each color is telling us as pertains to the aura. We do have generalizations about colors that everyone agrees on, for instance, blue often means calm and serenity while red means action, anger or vitality. However, this does not necessarily mean that these generalizations apply to the auras. I find that I am able to receive intuitively the meaning of the color on an individual basis, for each case seems to be different. I have never really seen two auras alike, just as there are no two people (except twins) who look exactly the same. Auras seem to be as individualized as people do.
There are a few guidelines one can use in understanding the colors and what they mean. If colors are bright and vital, seemingly healthy, then they probably are, no matter what the color is. It is more the vitality of the color than the color itself that seems to be important. Also, the movement of the color seems to have something to do with how healthy or unhealthy an aura is. Does the color seem to move about freely like liquid, pulsing or glowing, or does it seem stuck, unmoving, rigid? (Some layers of the aura are rigid and unmoving, especially the "template" layers that appear more like a grid-work than a cloud of colors, but I am not speaking of those in this paragraph.) If a color that should be moving is not, or it is completely off kilter or center, then perhaps it is indicative of something out of sync in the physical, mental or emotional health.
Dull, muddy colors seem to have a negative meaning, even though I just finished saying that colors may or may not have particular meanings. However, when there are dull colors, like black, dull grey, or brown, even icky green colors, there does seem to be something seriously wrong in the aura and healing is in order. I can't say I know what particular colors mean, even though they fall in the dull negative category, but I have successfully worked with transforming those colors into healthy ones, and the client has experienced greater well-being because of it.
Sometimes auras have breaks or tears in them, or empty spots devoid of colors at all, as if it is a hole in the aura. The absence of colors and movement is as meaningful as their presence. You could get just as much information by seeing holes, tears or fragments as to what is going on. Like I said however, there is no true scientifically focused research and mapping of the human aura, so it is mainly up to you to figure out what it means. This exploration has only just begun, and the chakras and the auric body are still to be dissected and catalogued.
Use your intuition to find out what this color or that color means in a person's aura. You will have a working knowledge by the time you finish this course as to how the aura behaves, moves and acts, and from there you can ascertain what a color or movement means, based on the general rules an aura seems to abide by. If you ask your guidance what to do for a person with an auric imbalance, you will be guided as to what will help remove the blockage or the damage. If you calm your mind, you will receive the meanings of the colors and movements in every individual case on an as-needed basis. Refrain, however, from deciding that color means something in particular from then on when you see it, for in some people it may not mean the same thing at all.
Some people talk of an "auric tone" or "auric essence." In the Symbols & Colors course, you were exposed to this concept. I am not sure, however, if this is the case. I have not seen people's auras remain the same, or have an overtone that is overwhelmingly present above all others. These states change as a person changes. A person who is normally angry or irritable may have a typical set of colors (and red is not necessarily representing the presence of anger). However, if that same person has a moment of happiness or a peak spiritual experience, his or her aura will change to a new set of colors as if it has always held them. The previous colors were no longer present. This, of course is the emotional layer of the auric body, but the other levels that are multicolored and moving are also fully muteable and change with a person's state of mind and emotion the way a chameleon changes in different environments. The aura seems to be quite changeable depending on thoughts and emotions, and therefore cannot be primarily made up of one color depicting that this person is "prone to anger" or that person is "highly spiritual." A highly spiritual person will have the same colors in the aura as the person who is normally angry if that spiritual person is having a moment of anger, and vice versa.
Death & The Aura
Very few people have witnessed or reported what they saw as they saw the aura leaving the physical form. A friend of mine said he felt the aura of a dying pet pass through him, as if some sort of electrical/magnetic energy passed through as it rose up into the air. Others have reported seeing a wispy smoky substance rising up into the air as a person departs. However, the most detailed report I have found was by Robert Bruce at www.geocities.com/athens/parthenon/6670/doc/t_auras.html where this description of patients dying of cancer and other terminal diseases can be found:
"…Their aura undergoes dramatic changes…in the weeks prior to their death…. when the aura fades and begins to grow weaker and paler… A week or so before physical death, the aura begins to expand and change. It changes into a beautiful (very pale) milky-blue, shot through with faint, tiny, silver and white sparks. These sparks flash and twinkle throughout the aura. Each spark is only visible for a fraction of a second at a time…. Note: The aura of a dying person is a very pale milky-blue. It is VERY pale and faint and VERY difficult to see. It is quite common to see a pale-blue aura surrounding a healthy person, and this does NOT mean they are about to die. The aura of dying person is quite different from a normal, healthy, pale-blue. It is all one colour, much larger than normal, very milky and very faint.
"Closer to the time of death, the aura begins to pulsate, swelling and shrinking erratically. At times it will fill the entire room, becoming more of an atmosphere than an aura. At other times it will be so shrunken as to be almost invisible to auric sight. It grows paler and finer by the day, and the tiny silver and white sparks become finer and increase in frequency. "There is a great deal of activity in all the energy centres, at this time. The energy body is preparing itself for the final separation of the physical body from the non-physical body (or spirit). There are, at times, faint surges of colour and faint coloured sparks, like pastel fountains, surging and falling from the primary centres. They spasm and shudder and begin generating a much higher and more refined type of energy. This change heralds the imminent and final separation, of the spirit from the physical body-what we call death.
"At some time (variable) before physical death, the aura will become almost invisible to auric sight. Only a faint, very pale glow will still be seen, close to the skin. This is residual etheric matter, clinging to the physical body. There is, however, still intense activity going on within the energy body, but this is now far beyond the reach of normal auric sight."At the actual moment of death, if you are watching closely, you will see a very faint, pale mist, surge up out of the body, and quickly vanish. This is the spirit leaving the physical body. That faint mist is residual etheric matter, clinging to the spirit body, as it departs.
Practicing Aura Watching
It is easiest to view auras in front of a white or black background. A color background will change the colors, so you need additional knowledge about combining colors if a colored background is used. However, looking at an aura against a blue sky seems to be accurate and easy. You might want to first start with a plant, a tree or a rock. Then move up to humans. These following exercises will give you some pointers on how to develop your ability to see auras.
When doing exercises for viewing auras, here are a few tips:
Here are a few things to realize:
Exercises
Exercise 1: Seeing The Pulse
Look at your fingertips. As you gaze, you will see pulsating gold or blue light about 1/8 to 1/4 inch out from your skin. It pulsates, so it comes and goes. It seems to have a specific cycle, almost like some sort of etheric breathing. Look on your arm too. Look at another person's fingertips to see the pulsating light traveling around their fingers. It is empty up to the 1/4 or 1/8 inch mark where you will distinctly see an outline and pulses moving through it.
Exercise 2: See The Aura Between Your Hands
Hold up both hands in front of you, fingertips pointing toward each other. Look for smoke-like, goo-like, fluid-like substance that pulls like taffy as you pull your fingertips away from each other. It may have a bluish, whitish or gold color, or simply be "clear" light with no distinct color. It might even look like a heat wave of some sort. Move one hand upward or downward, leaving the other hand stationary. You will see that a line of smokelike light jumps from one fingertip and connects with the other, since the next finger is more in line.
Exercise 3: Aura Viewing
Look at the aura of a person standing against a white background or a dark background. You might even want to try this while you are standing in line at the bank or post office if the opportunity presents itself. Try looking for the first and easiest layers to perceive, the easiest being the emotional layer (layer 2). Look for blobs of light, color or an outline.
Exercise 4: Feeling Auric Energy 1
Hold your hand up, palm upward or outward, with your eyes closed. A partner slowly moves a pointer finger toward middle of your palm, starting two feet away and coming in toward your palm. Signal when you feel the partner's energy move into yours and you can feel it in the palm of your hand. You will feel a slight tingling, tickling or pressure. Now have your partner trace circles over your palm while you have your eyes closed and feel the magnetic movement. You will be surprised how easily you will be able to pick up on this energy.
Exercise 5: Feeling Auric Energy 2
Lie down on your back or sit in chair. Have a partner hold a hand over different parts of your body. Where is partner's hand? You will be able to feel the magnetic signature of your partner's hand.
Exercise 6: Perceiving The Aura In Nature
We live in a literal sea of auras, but nowhere is it easier to see than in nature. I have found that there is a rosy glow around all trees and plants. It was easiest to see in tree bark when I was a beginner. There seems to be some sort of pink life-force glow emanating from everything. Perhaps that is why nature is so nurturing to sit in, since we all react positively to the color pink (or green at the conscious level). Spend time in nature and look for the life-force in things. It is also easy to see in very large rocks. Another exercise in nature is to gaze at the aura along a line of trees against the sky. You will see a beautiful glow coming off trees against a blue background.
Exercise 7: Observing The Universal Energy Field (UEF)
Barbara Brennan suggests a wonderful exercise that was quite a surprise in the beginning when I saw it. The UEF is the energy all around us. It is easy to see when you gaze at the sky and focus your eyes on a spot about two to three feet in front of you, maybe only one foot in some instances. At first you will see nothing, but suddenly you will see thousands of tiny white specks that light up, shoot a short distance, most times in a curved swirl, and then disappear. There are some grey ones too, it seems. They are especially active in sunlight, moving faster and having more brightness to them, but they can also be seen on grey cloudy days. There are fewer of them, they move slower, and more of the grey ones are present, but they are there. If you hold your hand up to them, you will see that they interact with your hand, some of them getting sucked into your energy.
Strangely, these little specks do not seem to be perceivable when you look elsewhere besides the sky. I have often wondered about this, but have never found any conclusion as to what this phenomena is. It does not seem to be an issue with the eyes, for if you look at various objects, you will not see the UEF. If you look at a line of trees against the sky, the specks will not be in the air where the dark green is, but they will be where the sky blue is. Why this happens, I don't know. I have sometimes wondered if the sky itself is the weak link in this hologram deck for consciousness called Earth, and perhaps that is where we can most easily see through the veil that physical reality is! Just a speculation on my part. No one really knows what the UEF is, but science does agree that it exists, even though it isn't understood yet.
This is an exercise that almost every beginner will have success with within a try or two. Once you see the little speckles of the UEF, you'll see them easily any time you look. They are quite beautiful, and sometimes when I just need to relax and take a break from my mind or emotions, I simply gaze at their dance and it seems to have a calming effect, the way watching wind in the trees does.
Exercise 8: Dowsing The Aura
This is a really fun exercise to do in a group or in your class that you might teach on aura viewing. Create dowsing rods by taking the innards out of two ordinary pens. You will then have two handles for your dowsing rods. Then cut two metal clothes hangers (they must be metal) and create squared off perpendicular rods in an L shape. Insert the short end of the rods into the plastic pen "handles" and the rod will swivel freely around. Now, stand on one side of the room (you may need a large room if your partner or the group have powerful auras) and have your partner face you on the other side. You must have at least 12 or 15 feet between you. Have your partner step slowly toward you, holding the dowsing rods steady and level, pointed straight at your partner. As your partner steps forward one step at a time, the rods will swivel open when the edge of your partner's aura touches them. As the partner comes closer, notice how far away he or she is from you, and this will give you an indication of how large your partner's aura is at that moment.
Auras expand and contract quite easily. Some people have gained the skill to expand the aura at will, especially those who have done a lot of meditating and reach deep states consistently. Have this same person attempt to expand his or her aura by meditating for a few moments and start over again. See how much larger the aura is, just by centering and relaxing the mind! It is quite instant and people feel the difference. I have demonstrated this in my classes several times, and you can too as you perfect the ability to enter meditative states quickly and easily. I first walked toward the person holding the dowsing rods and showed that the aura was a rather ordinary size since teaching some types of classes is a mental activity, whereas others where I am leading a meditation is a deep trance activity. When I stepped back, closed my eyes, quickly went into a meditative state and consciously expanded the aura to fill the room in every direction, the rods moved open from across the room without even taking a step toward them. Others in the room often reported with surprise that they literally felt the energy of the edge of the aura passing through them as it blew open. (This by the way, is the state needed for transmitting to your students deep meditative states of mind, by filling the room with your aura, getting into a very deep meditative state, and including all the students in your awareness who are sitting in your auric field with you. This is how the great masters transmit enlightened states to their students.) This is a very easy way to see results immediately of evidence of the aura and will help convince the non-believers in your classes.
Exercise 9: Taking A Snapshot Of The Aura
After concentrating long enough to see the aura, close your eyes. For a second or two you will see the aura afterimage. You have only one second or two until your photosensitive cells will stop vibrating and sending visual sensations to the brain. (www.thiaoouba.com/see_aura_color.htm)
Exercise 10: The Aura And The Pendulum
This is a very interesting exercise. Have your partner lay down on a table or the floor and hold a pendulum over each of his or her chakras about 1 to 3 inches away from the body. The pendulum will literally pick up the spin of the chakra and show you the actual path of the chakra as it moves. This can tell you if someone has a healthy chakra or an imbalance there. Barbara Brennan includes a very detailed chart in her book Hands Of Light (1988) showing what each of the different types of spins mean pertaining to imbalances in the body. If you plan on doing auric and chakra healing work in your practice, this chart is a must have.
Exercises For Viewing Each Of The Auric LayersIf you would like to learn how to see all the separate layers of the Human Energy Field (HEF) try the following exercises while gazing at a person who will volunteer to be your subject.
Auric Layer 1: Look at the person's shoulder, see the light pulsate down the arm 1/4 to 1/2 inches from skin, blank space between aura and skin. As soon as you see it, it will be gone because it is pulsating and traveling.
Auric Layer 2: Look for the fluid-like clouds of color around the person 1 - 3 inches from the body.
Auric Layer 3: Look for the grid-like, web-like golden lines of light around the person 5 - 8 inches from the body.
Auric Layer 4: Look for auric body, clouds of fluid-like color 1 to 1-1/2 feet from the physical body (look with inner vision if not seen with physical eyes).
Auric Layer 5: Look for cobalt blue negative grid lines (empty lines) about 2 feet out from the physical body (look with inner vision if not seen with physical eyes).
Auric Layer 6: Look for beams of colored light going out in every direction about 2 to 3 feet out from the physical body (look with inner vision if not seen with physical eyes).
Auric Layer 7: Look for the golden cocoon around the physical body about 3 feet out (look with inner vision if not seen with physical eyes).
Conclusion
Practice, practice, practice! I promise you will attain the ability to see auras if you apply yourself. It takes years to become an adept, but you will see them quite quickly in your beginning stages. From there your abilities deepen and get more precise as you grow spiritually and exercise your "magical muscles." I highly encourage you to develop this skill. It is actually one of the easier spiritual powers (siddhis) to attain and everyone can do it. You do not have to be born with special tendencies or skills. It is a matter of training your eyes to see auras, which have always been there, you just didn't notice them before.
I wouldn't say that I am seeing auras 24/7, for there are times when it is useful to use your spiritual sight, and others when it is necessary to turn your spiritual powers off so that you can get about your business, like balancing checkbooks, getting to work, fixing your bed and other mundane tasks. However, I often use this ability during conversations, or when I'm quietly and lovingly observing others as they are engaged in an activity while I am a spectator. I have discovered that it takes a certain state of mind to see auras, and it is definitely not easy if you are hurrying, late for work, or in a busy situation where you have to focus and concentrate on what you are doing. I don't recommend that you try to see auras while driving your car or operating dangerous machinery. If you are seeing auras, you are in too relaxed a state for driving. However, whenever the opportunity presents itself, soften your mental body, open your heart, and allow yourself to see the subtle energy of the aura.
It becomes a useful tool once you understand the aura and its nuances, but like I said, there is no formula for understanding what you are seeing in the aura. It takes intuition and wisdom to know what it means in each individual that you meet.
Upon graduation from UMS, you will have many things to teach others, and this is one of the classes I taught that always had a great turnout. Everyone who has heard of them is interested in seeing auras. You can give them these tools and they will see them. Almost everyone I had in a class saw an aura in their very first class. If they did not see one, they definitely felt one. Everyone had results of some level or another right from the beginning. These are the methods I passed on to them, which I now pass on to you. Many people in these classes went on to become quite adept at viewing auras using these methods and you can too. Learn how to see auras yourself first, and then show others how easy it is. Once you see them, you will wonder how it was that you missed them to begin with since they will become so obvious and second nature!
Suggested writing exercise for yourself; Have you ever seen an aura? What was this experience like for you? If you haven't, which technique are you most drawn to? What do you hope having the ability to see auras will do for you, your spiritual growth and your metaphysical practice?
Bibliography
(for a more books that might help with aura viewing, see the UMS Chakras & Auras course.)
Andrews, Ted 1991, 2006 (2nd edition) How To See And Read The Aura. Llewellyn Publications; St. Paul, Minnesota
Bartlett, Sarah 2000 Auras And How To Read Them. Collins & Brown; New York
Brennan, Barbara Ann 1988 Hands Of Light: A Guide To Healing Through The Human Energy Field. Bantam Books; New York
Brennan, Barbara Ann 1993 Light Emerging: The Journey Of Personal Healing. Bantam Books; New York
Cayce, Edgar 1973 Auras: An Essay On The Meaning Of Colors: from the book There Is A River: The Story Of Edgar Cayce (2003) A.R.E. Press; Virginia Beach, VA
Kilner, Walter J. 1965 The Human Aura. University Books; New Hyde Park, N.Y.
Leadbeater, C.W. 1987 The Chakras. Theosophical Publishing House; Wheaton, IL
Martin, Barbara, Dimitri Moraitis 2003 Change Your Aura, Change Your Life: A Step-By-Step Guide to Unfolding Your Spiritual Power Wisdomlight Books; Sunland, CA
Oslie, Pamala 200 Life Colors: What The Colors In Your Aura Reveal. New World Library; Novato, CA
Internet Sources
www.unexplainable.net www.mindspring.com www.angelfire.com www.chioshealing.com www.reikiflow.com www.geocities.com/~arthe/~arthenon/6670/doc/t_auras.html www.miamitopics.com/aura.html www.sophiaswisdom.com/viewing.shtml www.thiaoouba.com/seeau.htm www.psychics.co.uk/aura/ http://shadowboxent.brinkster.net/lemurkirlian.html www.cebunet.com/kirlian/plans.htm www.kirlian.com.br/