What is the Aura

Shamash, Quest for Dicyanin, Aura Research Outline, What is the Aura?

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What Is the Aura?

As Understood by Western Occultism

The aura is a subtle emanation or atmosphere surrounding everything. What we see as the aura is the energized (by prana) and visible (to "subtle sight") portion of the etheric and astral planes. The aura is highly effected by the quality and potency of life energy (prana,) emotion, and thought. It is a property of the thing it surrounds, even if the visualized aura which we perceive is generated by our nervous system under certain conditions and impulses.

By Practical Experience

If you study any kind of spiritual practice, you will get a teaching which corresponds to the aura. Those of us who can see the aura know there is a phenomenon of some kind. If you have long experience in these matters, you know further that the aura is a special case of the more general etheric / astral plane matter, charged with prana (living energy.) You may know that it is possible to create a parcel of etheric / astral matter which is separate from a living being, and to charge it with prana. Franz Bardon gives one method in his book Initiation, (the “Volt Method”.) It is possible to associate such a parcel with a physical object, or let it remain free-standing. These are what are commonly known as creating a talisman, or casting a spell.

This is not theoretical understanding merely read from a book, this is practical knowledge which I have personally experienced for many years, and know works.

To my sight, such an object has an aura which glows more brightly, and extends further than an object which has not been so charged. If I have been working a Qigong exercise such as Fire Dragon, this tends to both sensitize my sight, and to build up my aura. At one point during the exercise, you form a fire ball between your hands, and let it send Qi (prana,) to your Lower Dantian

Scientific Point of View

From the materialistic scientific point of view, there is no aura, as there is nothing beyond the physical body. However, even 19th century physics recognized that electrical and magnetic fields penetrate space with no material basis. Field theories are the foundation of a modern understanding of the universe, beginning with Michael Faraday. We also know that the body constantly emits small electrical and magnetic signals that can be detected and used for medical diagnosis. The EKG and EEG have been used in this fashion for decades, although those techniques depend upon electrical contact directly on the body. More recently, the SQUID, or Superconducting Quantum Interference Device, has been used to detect the exterior minute magnetic fields that the currents in the body generate. The body also constantly outgasses a small amount of organic volatiles and skin, which logically also add to an human atmosphere around each of us.

Keeping this human atmosphere from becoming too strong is why frequent bathing is recommended in close society! A thoughtful reading of modern physics readily shows that human and animal bodies do emit fields of various kinds, (chemical, electrical, magnetic,) minute though they may be. The question then is whether it is really possible for the human eye and brain to detect them. Before the skeptics in our audience immediately reject this possibility, let us ask whether this rejection really comes from a solid understanding of the underlying principles, or is really the result of a hazy recollection of high-school physics, itself a diluted version of what physicists thought they knew twenty years before the textbook was written?

Phenomenology of the Aura

The key to reconciling the experience of those who claim to see the aura with those who assert that no aura is possible is through a careful description of what those who say they see the aura experience. That is, we need a reliable phenomenology of the aura. If the aura is a genuine subjective phenomena, then a stable structure will emerge from such efforts. From that phenomenology we can, we hope, derive testable statements which will enable us to confirm or deny the existence of what we call the aura.

What do people who claim to see the aura see? In my case, I see definite visual impressions (as opposed to imagination or visualization,) of delicate networks of lines and patterns of various sorts surrounding and connecting objects, and more or less filling all space. I have seen these visual impressions all of my life. For many years, I assumed that everyone saw them, and was quite surprised to learn that was not the case.

As I began to gather information about aura sight several years ago, I found that some people did see flickering lights in the night in a way similar to me, while others did not. I also found that these lights have been studied before, although in a different context.

Phosphenes are well known to anyone who has pressed their fingers against their closed eyes, and are an example of an entoptic phenomenon. I believe that what we call aura vision is a form of phosphene phenomena, where the patterns which are seen correlate to external objects in a complex fashion.

There are a few things I can say that aura vision is not floaters, or Haidinger's brush, nor is it an image of a Purkinje tree. The reason I know is that I have seen each of these things as well as auric vision, and auric vision looks like none of these things-- (although I may not have had the opportunity to observe Haidinger's brush.)

There are some analogues or overlaps among subjects that have been studied. Among these are the following.

• Prisoner's Cinema
• Close-Eye Hallucination
• Blue field entoptic phenomenon
• Visual snow
• Form Constants Image of a form constant.

Catalogs of form constants as compiled by Heinrich Klüver are

• Lattices
  • Honeycombs
  • Checkerboards
  • Triangles
• Cobwebs
• Tunnels
• Spirals

Only some of these appear in aura patterns that I have seen, and there are a couple that I have seen that are not cataloged here. For example, honeycombs and cobwebs are common, but I have never seen a spiral or tunnel associated with an aura, although I have seen such forms when looking at phosphenes more generally.

Stimulation of Auric Vision

In compiling a description of aura experience, it is obviously very helpful if aura vision itself can be stimulated or improved. This is, of course, the entire point of aura goggles. If they work, and can be made readily and inexpensively available, then people can see for themselves what the aura is about.