The human energy field is the next frontier for western medicine to explore. When doctors and scientists understand it completely, illness will be a thing of the past. There has been enough scientific research and enough proof that the human aura is real and is not just a product of fantasy as some would like to believe. The human energy field not only shows illness before it appears at the physical level, but it is also easily influenced, especially by the mind of the person who owns the aura.

Many people believe that all this talk of chakras, auras and kundalini are the musings of people who are self deluded. Man Myth & Magic, Vol. 3 (1985) editor in chief, Richard Cavendish says, "One has to consider whether one is dealing with a body of beliefs based on fantasy, wishful thinking or imposture... spiritual fraudsters have always abounded and the history of mysticism is littered with examples of self-deceit... [even though] the existence of spiritual frauds, fantasies and delusions does not disprove the existence of genuine spirituality."

Bob Larson is a skeptic about the human aura, and does not believe in it. In his book Straight Answers On The New Age (1989) he says, "Metaphysics is the only application of this theory. Awakening one's aura to heighten spiritual awareness is a substitute for repentance and submission to the will of a personal God. Those who experiment with chakra arousal are venturing into occult territory where strange supernatural occurrences may be precipitated by the interference of demonic forces." Personally, I believe those demonic forces he speaks of are our own negative patterns of fear caught in our energetic fields.

Bob Larson says, "Science never proved the existence of an electromagnetic force field surrounding the human spine." He obviously ignored scientific facts collected by ones such as Kilner and Kirlian, two of the most prominent inventors of devices for observing the human aura.

Kilner claimed that the human energy field, from his conclusions, is an exteriorized nervous system which is a product of higher brain activity and that it is easily influenced by outside input as well as inner output from the mind. The fields he witnessed behind the dicyannin screen were being affected by the thought patterns of the individual and also by environmental influences such as chemical vapors and electricity. Kirlian photography shows the reality of the aura, at least the first layer of it, which is the etheric template for the physical body. In the book Psychic Discoveries Behind The Iron Curtain (1973), Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder report that the Kirlians discovered a "whole galaxy of lights... a fire world, great channels of blazing, glittering light in living things, in us." There are countless researchers who have documented and studied the human aura and its properties. After seeing the proof of scientific research on the study of the human auric field, who could possibly doubt the reality of its existence?

Perhaps years of meditation and discipline will not be necessary in the future for even the ordinary person to experience the ability to see, through the physical eye or the third eye, these other layers of the human aura. Medicines could be invented to induce these abilities and even surgeries could be possible for opening the human ability to "see." Such an account of a surgical type procedure for opening the third eye was described in T. Lobsang Rampa's book The Third Eye (1986). This is described from the point of view of the receiver of the procedure, an aspirant who was still very young and was being trained in the ways of the Lamas in Tibet. "He pressed the instrument to the center of my forehead and rotated the handle... There was no particular pain as it penetrated the skin and flesh, but there was a little jolt as the end hit the bone... Suddenly there was a little "scrunch" and the instrument penetrated the bone... Mingyar Dondup passed him a very hard, very clean sliver of wood which had been treated by fire and herbs to make it as hard as steel... entered the hole in my head... slid the sliver farther and farther... suddenly there was a blinding flash... for a moment the pain was intense... it diminished, died and was replaced by spirals of color... [the procedure was over] and the sliver of wood remained, it would stay in place for two or three weeks. Until it was removed I would have to stay in this little room almost in darkness... [the Lama]... turned to me and said: "You are now one of us, Lobsang. For the rest of your life you will see people as they are and not as they pretend to be." It was a very strange experience to see these men apparently enveloped in golden flame. Not until later did I realize that their auras were golden because of the pure life they led, and that most people would look very different indeed."

Even an ordinary person without much training can be taught to see at least the first layer or two of the human aura in an evening class. I have personally witnessed the awe and excitement my students have when they first see the human aura, without a doubt that they saw it. It is not as hard to access as people might think. The tools for developing the ability to see auras are everywhere, even in entertainment books such as The Magic Eye (1993) by N.E. Thing Enterprises. This book contains pictures that are particularly good for developing the focus necessary for the aspirant to see the human aura. The pictures are static chaos, but upon achieving the correct focus, a precise and clear image emerges in a 3D way.

Many students realize that they have seen the aura before, but did not realize that it was the human aura they were seeing. Many people dismiss it as a trick of the eye rather than investigating it further. The ability to see the aura is more common than society realizes. This talent has been around for a long time, dating back to the halos depicted around holy figures and even before the times of Christ.

The human aura and the chakras are a body, a container, just like the physical body. It is a body that we have not yet as a species embraced as real and vital to health like the physical body is. The physical body has layers and organs, and so does the auric body. In the auric body, I believe that chakras are the organs, and the layers are like the different layers of the skin, i.e. fat tissue, veins, and other layers of the skin.

Shirley MacLaine writes in her book Going Within (1989), "We are in an age of enlightenment now, which means 'to be in knowledge of.' We are becoming more 'in knowledge' of ourselves." If science could embrace the idea of the auric body, truly embrace it as a reality to be examined, then quantum leaps can be taken in the healing practices of mankind. Healing and health could be explored on a whole new level.

Eileen J. Garrett says in her book Many Voices, The Autobiography Of A Medium (1968), that, "Illness tends to darken the field at the place where there is even a predisposition to weakness." The human aura appears to be governed by some unknown laws, and if the laws could be learned, healing could be done in the auric bodies, rather than in the physical body.

Working with the physical body's first defense system, the aura, is an efficient way to approach healing. Etheric illness can be healed even if the condition has been there for some time in the auric layers, so what better time is there to start exploring this than now? It stands to reason that it is much easier to cause healing at the auric level than it is at the physical level. Eileen J. Garrett in her book Many Voices, The Autobiography Of A Medium (1968), says that the aura is a "vaporous color world in which the body exists and is more than a thing of beauty. It is an outer web or surround that protects the body's action, a sieve to receive the shocks of the external world and translate them into responses which the magnetic field accepts and uses." Man Myth & Magic, Vol. 3 (1985) editor in chief, Richard Cavendish reports, "The consequence of a spiritual change of state,good or ill,can supposedly be transmitted through the chakras to the material body, in this way effecting change in the physical state."

The metaphysical community is leading the way in understanding these organs and functions of the auric field. It is like re-inventing the wheel, though, for the auric body has been known and studied for thousands of years, long before western medicine came into manifestation. In Western thought, we are just beginning to find that there is more to the physical body than the physical level alone, and that the electro-magnetic field around the human body responds to Earthly events and realities just like the physical body does.

We are quite aware of three layers of parallel existence already: physical, emotional, and mental. Even the ordinary person is aware of three overlapping layers of experience. We experience events physically, have emotions about them, and think about them all at the same time. These are three simultaneous layers of existence (mind, emotions, and physical sensory input) that we are familiar with as humans, so who is to say that there are not undiscovered layers and reactions to the events of physical life? Perhaps experiences in all the layers is tied to some greater cosmic rhythm beyond the seven layers.

This suggests that the human being is existing at the same time in parallel levels of experience, perhaps levels directly related to the physical life being lived. Vera Stanley Alder said in her book The Finding Of The Third Eye (1976), that when the chakras are fully functioning, they "connect [man] with the knowledge of and power consciously to work in the different planes of matter." Entire groups of experiences might be happening, perhaps seven layers of exactly related experiences that correspond to the chakras, their corresponding auric layers and their particular versions of events, energy waves, and other such influences.

There is very little awareness beyond the seven layers as far as written works on the subject. In some works of literature eight, nine, twelve and even twenty-two chakras are mentioned. Acupuncture proclaims as many as 700 or more chakras (known as acupuncture points). One system of chakras boasts 88,000 of them. Other schools of thought denounce the existence of chakras and auras at all, and deem them quite unnecessary to the process of enlightenment.

Perhaps there is an ongoing evolution of the chakra and auric systems, and maybe that is why there is some disagreement as to how many chakras and auric layers there really are. Perhaps the chakras and the auras are evolving just like the human body is at the physical level, even though that evolution is slow. Perhaps long ago there truly were only four chakras or auric layers, and now there are seven, or maybe more. Perhaps, over time, these levels change as humankind becomes more evolved, insinuating that evolution is happening on all levels, not just physical. Obviously there has been evolution in the mental realm, with technologies and such. There has also been evolution in the understanding of the human psychological dysfunctions, mostly having to do with emotional bodies that have been harmed. There has also been much evolution in the spiritual level of mankind, so is evolution happening in all layers, not just one?

These are questions that must be asked in research and observance of the human auric system and its chakras. As yet, it is still uncharted territory as far as western medicine and science are concerned, even with the research that has already been done. This is a wide open field of discovery for many professions, especially the healing professions.

So why then have the medical sciences largely ignored the factual truth? There has been vast research about the energy field of the human being. The section on scientific discoveries in this course did not even touch the tip of the iceberg on all the experimentation and observation that has taken place in a scientific format concerning chakras and auras. Why has western medicine not leapt at the chance to diagnose and cure physical illnesses so easily even before the physical appearance of illness? It has been proven without a doubt that there is the possibility for healing through diagnosis of the aura. Complete study and mapping of the human aura would change western medicine as we know it.

The human energy field is highly sensitive, perhaps even too sensitive for our own good, especially for people predisposed to negative thought patterns. Vera Stanley Alder wrote, in her book The Finding Of The Third Eye (1976), "Love and hate, then, have each their chemical form and action. It is obviously impossible for doctors...to do us any permanent good until we learn not to poison ourselves and those around us."

The current pattern in western medicine and healing practices could be thought of as a paradigm, perhaps even something as simple as an economic one. Paradigms are built to fight change. It is a scientific fact, according to Thomas S. Kuhn in his book, The Structure Of Scientific Revolution (1962), that paradigms fight change as a natural course of action in the universe. If paradigms were not to fight change, then chaos would ensue. This tendency for paradigms to fight change is the way the physical universe maintains consistency, patterns, and resists chaos. Therefore this resistance to change has its positive aspects, even though this might cause evolution to be slower than it would be if changes were more easily embraced by the cosmos.

A world where illness never appeared physically at all would be a different world than the one we live in now. It would be a very large paradigm change, perhaps even a quantum leap. (Quantum leaps are places where the paradigm is shifted more than usual because the tendency to resist change has been suspended for moment.) Illness would appear etherically, it would be addressed etherically, and it would be healed etherically, not physically. Hmmm... Perhaps this is why western medicine resists the possibilities of etheric healing. It would be put out of business! It would also put the drug companies out of business! In fact, everything that western medicine is now made of would be obsolete and considered a primitive understanding of human health and healing. If cancer could be treated simply by addressing the mental or emotional attitudes, or environmental stressors that disturb the human aura, then medicine would mostly be a science of emotional and mental repatterning. Yes, paradigms do fight change —especially profitable economical ones!

New kinds of healers would appear in society, however. The healers of the future would not only fully understand the physical body, but would also study the auric layers in college courses, which would be just as essential as anatomy courses. They would have studied the "organs" of the human aura, learning its psychological and emotional functions, and how to affect healing in the auric level. Doctors would use electric or magnetic instruments, light or sound, thought or emotional power, or other means as yet undiscovered. This would become the merging of western medicine and what is now called metaphysical healing. Helmut G. Sieczka says in his book Chakra Breathing (1994) that the, "higher one's vibrational frequency, the easier it is to prevent physical and mental disturbances... [they] cannot take hold when one is flooded with pure energy and light."

What would it be like if every high school student had full knowledge of how the human aura and its centers (or organs) work? Could youngsters be taught to avoid all the pitfalls that most of us fall into physically just because we have mental body disorders and emotional body disorders to some extent or another that were not addressed at the auric level? Could human beings be born enlightened and stay enlightened, not just sinking into negative patterns of unawareness, fear or defenses? And what is there to pursue after enlightenment, as the mass conscious entity called humanity? How would a human world be changed without the conflict of physical illness in high quantities like it is now, with huge business profits built around it? People would actually be able to heal themselves and not need the services of a doctor...ever.

In this era, humans operate out of a state of fear (or root chakra blockages) even if it is unconscious fear or what is called "low level" fear. The main fear for almost every human on Earth is fear for personal physical survival. The drive underneath almost every activity is somehow connected with physical survival, even the craving for love from others, workaholics striving for financial security, and various other effortful endeavors. Every human is trying to avoid sickness, poverty, and death. Many people live lives of resigned acceptance in their role as have-nots. Even people who are considered high or middle class have feelings of being a have-not because they are striving to collect enough savings to alleviate the fear of poverty, which could result in survival issues. And let us not forget the people who are actually in a life and death situation on a daily basis. There is a basic belief across the mass consciousness of humanity that there is "not enough" for everyone and there must be a struggle to survive. So people do jobs they hate to serve this need. People go through all sorts of physical healing gymnastics to preserve life for even just another year. There is a prevailing struggle for survival across the globe that is reflected in everything, from global struggles for survival to the struggles between individuals.

What would happen if physical and etheric medicine merged, resulting in a world without physical disorders, only etheric ones with etheric healing practices? And what are the spiritual implications? The spiritual implications for humans exploring the auric layers will be immense. Humans still struggle greatly with little or no awareness of the functioning of their physical, emotional or mental bodies, unaware of patterns that must be broken for true health and lucidity to emerge. The first three layers of the human aura could easily be transcended if its first three layers, which are the most accessible by science, were fully mapped and understood.

The starting point in life for our children or grandchildren would be in the heart, in spiritual evolution, rather than the physical survival level, as it is now. The next era for humanity's evolution might well be the heart. Humanity is mastering the physical, emotional and mental levels of existence, and then comes the heart, the fourth layer of the human aura, the fourth chakra, the bridge between the higher and lower centers and layers. That is when the exploration of the higher levels of human existence will begin.

What kind of adventures await humanity in the higher levels of existence that the chakras and auric layers represent as a connection to these realities? I believe there would be new kinds of energies invented, new kinds of social structures, new kinds of science, especially spiritual sciences, like astral travel, time travel, telekinesis, manipulating matter with sound, teletransportation, and interdimensional travel. Physical laws could possibly be bent once the deeper levels of reality are understood, and the higher (or deeper) aspects of humankind's existence are embraced.

The other dimensions and universes are huge. Humans have only begun to explore them through meditation. Perhaps using fossil fuels and projecting our physical bodies into space is the wrong approach for travel in the cosmos! I personally believe that the direction for travel in the universe is an inward journey, not a physical one. Consciousness is faster than light. Perhaps the universe is a virtual reality already built into our system as humans, at least seven layers of virtual reality, and we only have to move inward to experience them. Perhaps the astral body is better equipped for space travel than the physical body.

The ability to enter other worlds, in which the human exists parallel to his or her physical existence, is a byproduct of meditation, awakening the chakras and harmonizing the auric field. This does not necessarily mean that there must be full consciousness of the chakras and auras, for meditation will adjust these automatically, but quieting of the mind is the first step to attaining the ability to reach these other worlds. As the aspirant quiets the human mind, the kundalini is released, and experiences in the upper layers of the auric field begin, which might very well be directly related to other worlds that the human being might simultaneously exist in.