Everything in existence has an aura. Even inanimate objects have an aura, for those inanimate objects contain atoms, which are live and sentient beings, and their combined auras make the aura of the inanimate object. The human aura is composed of seven fields, each relating to the corresponding chakra. Each of these layers has a different function. For an ordinary person, it is possible to see the first three layers. The rest of the layers will most likely only be seen by an experienced meditator. However, the physical eye is not the only instrument for viewing the aura. The mind's eye, or the third eye, can perceive the aura quite accurately. All it takes his practice and perseverance to develop this skill.

When I speak of auric layers, I am talking about the different layers in the human aura. In the Encyclopedia Of Psychic Science, (1966) Nandor Fodor writes that the aura is a "permanent radiation around the human body." Ted Andrews in his book How To See & Read The Aura (2000) describes the aura as follows: "The aura surrounds the physical body in all directions. It is 3D, and in a healthy person is elliptical in shape. The shape, the size, the colors and the clarity of colors all indicate specific things about your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being."

Richard Cavendish, editor in chief of Man Myth & Magic, Vol 2 (1985), says that the word "aura" is used by occultists to mean "a faint cloud or luminous appearance which has been seen surrounding the human body... It is not a vapour but appears as a radiation... In all forms of religion these invisible parts of a man are regarded as more important than his body."

Eileen J. Garrett in Many Voices, The Autobiography Of A Medium (1968), describes the aura as follows: "The foglike nimbus that I 'see' would appear to be changed by the atmosphere, and so I regard it as the body's spectrum,a field of energy that flows within and without, drawing waste material from the body and bringing in the health-giving breath. This atmosphere changes by day and night."

The chakras correspond with consecutively expanding layers of the auric field, appearing larger in size with each layer outward from the physical form of the human body. The chakras could be thought of as the point-of-connection to the human form for each of these energy layers.

According to Barbara Brennan in Hands Of Light (1988), the first three layers of the aura pertain to and metabolize energies related the physical world and the body. The upper three layers pertain to and metabolize energies in the spiritual world. The fourth layer (heart chakra) acts as a bridge between both worlds and energy passes through this layer both to and from the two realities.

According To Genevieve Lewis Paulson in Kundalini And The Chakras (1991), the inner three layers are the personality bodies, the outer four layers are the spiritual bodies. Some schools of thought refer to the upper layers as built in tuners to the frequency band signature of alternate realities and dimensions in which the human can also exist and explore. It is thought that progression through each of the layers allows the human to perceive different frequency bands and types of dimensions and the beings existing in those dimensions. It is in the upper layers where the aspirant can have other-worldly experiences and powers, according to Eastern thought.

Barbara Brennan in Hands Of Light (1988) writes, "As soon as you open your perception to layers above the third you also begin to perceive people or beings who exist in those layers who do not have physical bodies." She even goes further than that and expounds on the other possibility that, "The picture is actually more complicated than that... Each is an entire world in which we live and have our being. Most of us experience these realities during sleep but do not remember them."

In How To See & Read The Aura (2000), Ted Andrews claims that the auric field has four characteristics: 1) Every aura has its own unique frequency. No two are exactly alike. 2) An aura will interact with the auric fields of others. 3) The human energy field can interact with animal, plant, mineral and other energy fields. 4) The longer and more intimate the contact, the greater the energy exchange.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, in Meditation: The Art Of Ecstasy (1976), has an unusual take on the auric layers. He says that each of the auric layers has incoming and outgoing energies, polar opposites, because nothing can exist without its polar opposite (i.e. love and hate are polar opposites of the same thing). He says that prana is cosmic energy that goes in and out in every layer, and our first acquaintance with it is the physical breath in the physical body. I will list these polarities under each of the auric layers in this section.