SOCIAL SCIENTIST LOOKS AT AURA MYTHOLOGY

"A potential set of stories, traditions, or beliefs associated with a particular group or the history of an event, arising naturally or deliberately fostered"  

A copy of CAPTURING THE AURA, a $19.95 value, is available from Blue Dolphin Publishing. You may also contact me at celindgren@panola for a on-line copy (only $6.50/Paypal). Also feel free to contact me about the various biofeedback applications of the Progen Aura Imaging camera. Learn how to receive a free copy of the book.

Known over the centuries by many names, ch=i, prana, karnaeem, and Illiaster, auric energy or bioplasmic fields have been documented for over 5,000 years. Astral lights alluded to by ancient Eastern Indians, Chinese, and Jewish mystics, are attributed to a universal energy that permeates all matter. In early esoteric writings and later in those of the Rosicrucians, American Indians, Zen Buddhists, and Christian mystics, these fields have been described as glowing clouds of light diffuse by diverse colors. Christian mystics feel that auric activity consists of two interconnecting energy patterns, i.e. the aureole, surrounding the entire being, and the nimbus or halo encircling the head. Many Eastern and Western esoteric writings, strongly suggest that auric field intensity correlates to Chinese acupuncture locations of subtle energy. The Greek writer Plutarch expressed the notion that auras revealed the desires and vices of man through their color variation, and movements. Gina Allan, author of a best seller, Gifts of Spirit believes that,  

aura's are like a signature, each as individual as the person they surround. There are two separate aura's that are with all individuals. The physical aura's colors change with the moods/emotions of the moment. The spiritual aura has colors reflecting the evolution of the person. Both auras are changing constantly. In a survey (1987) at a private school in Singapore, 85% of the students, ages ranging from six years to twenty two, could see the physical aura. Those people with the ability to truly see the physical aura can also diagnose medical problems. The spiritual aura is even more rarely seen as it requires a deep sense of integrity. This aura shows past lives and the potential for spiritual growth in this and future lives (Allan 1996).   

If the aura exists, as attested to by countless mystics and psychics, then it certainly manifests itself in the ultraviolet light spectrum¹  Though imperceptible to most individuals, this radiation is visible only to a select few? According to some scientists, this ability is part of man's evolutional development, and, that in time all will be afforded this precious gift. This theory is advanced in Steve Richards' book, Invisibility: Mastering the Art of Vanishing (1992). According to Patrick Alessandra, author of Seeing Auras:  

these images are the testimony of those who see the world of energy around us and who seek to understand how we can all become more aware of these realities. Today, in the last decade of the twentieth century, there are far more people alive than ever before who can not only feel but also see the energies around them. This is a natural event in human evolution and as more years pass we will all find our abilities to sense auras and energies increasing.

      Howard and Dorothy Sun (1993), in their work, Color Your Life, propose that auric energy vibrates around all living things, absorbing sun and atmospheric light. This light, according to mediums and some scholars/scientists, is divided (similar to a prism) into "component color energies" (red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, purple, and pink). The color energies are then directed toward the body's energy transformers, the chakras. These so-called energy centers are "power points in the body through which energy flows and is transformed." Chakras, therefore, according to Orientals and some parapsychologists, transform and balance the energy currents coming from the higher, finer energy fields so the material body can use this energy. Ms. Allan, a former Buddhist nun and current Naturopath and Natural Healer, provides personal insight into auric colors and their potentiality for change -

Over the last fifteen years, I have been observing changes taking place in the spiritual colors of my own aura. I have had these colors confirmed by a friend who sees auras. Many times when I have been speaking publicly, people have commented on my colors. Fifty years ago my colors showed a very pale aqua green, indicating healing abilities. Today that color is a deep sea green when I'm healing or speaking on the subject of healing. The field of colors changes in size and density the more the energy is balanced and in harmony within the seven Chakras (Allan 1996).  

The aura, Allan noted, besides providing an array of colors ranging from one end of the spectrum to the other, also has texture and shape variations. Some of these variations include solid and brittle, thick and thin, light and heavy, and luminous and dark [The author, although having tried to see such light vibrations under lab conditions, has been unable to see these colors or textures]. Many times a brittle or broken aura is produced by fear, confusion, greed, envy, or doubt. These auric or electromagnetic bodies, according to Allan, are also divided into seven bands or fields. These fields surrounding the body include: Etheric, Emotional, Mental, Astral, Etheric Template, Celestial, and Ketheric. Some psychics and healers state that there are other "finer" levels on the cosmic plane.

According to Hands of Light, by Barbara Ann Brennan, a former research scientist for NASA (1987), when these energy fields become unbalanced, it is possible to reorganize and heal them by clearing the unhealthy or "blocked" energies (note Capturing the Aura healing chapters) by trained and gifted healers [Writer’s comment: This technique seems to be similar to REKI, which the author has observed in various research centers in the States and overseas].

 According to psychics and mediums, much of the healing process of auras, regardless of their condition, must also come from within. Auras are strengthened by pure thoughts, exercise, sunshine, fresh air, and proper nutrition and eating habits. The Societas Rosicruciana in America (an esoteric group originally connected with the Masons) stresses the importance of concentrating, visualizing, and meditating on an outpouring of “Spiritual Fire” which covers the physical and spiritual bodies in illumination. This, according to them, is the healing power of God that heals and protects. An individual, according to Rosicrucian philosophy, must desire and will this light, which is always present but invisible, to immerse the body in its divine rays. To accomplish this goal, auric fields must first be seen.

Although these human energy fields, described by mystic C.W. Leadbeater (1987) in  Man Visible & Invisible as "very dense and solid-looking mist surrounded by an egg-shaped cloud of diaphanous mist;" are visible to some psychics and mystics, the Aspiritual skin@ remain invisible to the average person. Therefore, some scientists and researchers have attempted to devise machines that will photograph and analyze the aura, then diagnose its condition (note my article below on Aura Photography - The camera was originally designed by Guy Coggins, a noted inventor).

For over 100 years, researchers have tried to photograph  these luminous fields. Since the 1890s, however, when the first “aura photograph” was taken by Nicola Tesla (see picture above) (whose body was attached to the output of his apparatus), this search has succeeded in producing mostly fraudulent, poor quality prints and small direct contact Kirlian photos [Writer’s comment: a high-voltage imaging process, such as the aura camera, can be used for numerous scientific experiments including some forms of biofeedback].   

Science meets the Unknown

One of the first serious attempts at scientifically studying the aura was conducted by Dr. Walter Kilner of St. Thomas' Hospital (see below). Through a series of objective and subjective experiments, Kilner was able to invent a crude detection device, which he stated, could observe auric activity.

By separating two pieces of glass, cementing them around the edges except for one small opening, pouring a bluish dye called dicyanin (coal-tar dye from Germany ) into the hollow glass and sealing the glass, Kilner invented an apparatus that was sensitive to the ultraviolet energy spectrum. Dr. Kilner could then observe, by peering through the lens, vaporous energy (auras) extending from living bodies.

 It seems, according to Kilner, that the longer one looks through the blue colored lens, the more sensitive the eyes become to ultraviolet and higher light spectrums. It is in this range that Kilner believed auras occur. In his book, entitled The Human Atmosphere (1911), Dr. Kilner presents “scientific evidence” for the existence of the aura. According to Kilner's research, he and his associates were able, on many occasions, to perceive auric formations extending several inches from patients= naked bodies. Within the pages of Kilner's work, he also describes a series of experiments that the reader may try. The only drawbacks to Kilner's method are the extreme difficulty in obtaining the blue dye and the potential for serious injury to skin or eyes if the apparatus was to leak (i.e., blindness and burning).

In 1924, Ernest J. Stevens, PhD, opened a research laboratory for the investigation of odic and auric energy. During the next few years, Dr. Stevens attempted to harness these forces, but much of Dr. Stevens's work is no longer in existence.

 Later, in 1937, Oscar Bagnall, BA (Cantab.), in his work The Origin and Properties of the Human Aura, expanded on Kilner's theory presenting a simple method of observing auric formations by substituting the dye pinacyanol (dissolved in triethanolamine) for dicyanin. This dye, like the aforementioned dicyanin, is also difficult to obtain, and cobalt blue and purple glass may be substituted for the dyes used by Kilner and Bagnall.

In 1946, Harry Boddington, in his book The University of Spiritualism, announced that he had also discovered a method of viewing auras through glass made to the same spectroscopic tint as dicyanin. This process, obtained from glass produced in Czechoslovakia, provided the user with a permanently colored and safer viewing apparatus.

Boddington (1946), within the pages of his work, also alluded to a process by a Harley Street specialist who invented an apparatus based on the connection of a step-down transformer connected to electrical current with high voltage, low amperage and a handle connecting to the transformer completing the subject-earth circuit, the researcher would approach the would-be subject with a electrical bulb or tube of neon gas. The closer the tube came in contact to the subject, the brighter it glowed. According to Boddington (1946, 107), the brightening of the tube was caused by A... some invisible emanation given off from the body of the subject ... [an] aura@ [Writer’s comment: Some additional research on the topic]

Shortly after Bagnall's aforementioned experiments, a radically new technique for auric detection was created. Soviet scientists Semyon and Valentina Kirlian (c. 1939) developed a method for “photographing and viewing the aura”.  

The Kirlian Experiment

This  form of radiation field photography, introduced by the Kirlians, was later researched by V. M. Inyushin, and Victor Adamenko. This technique, using electric current, exposes the presence of energy patterns which are then transferred to a photographic plate. More specifically, the subject places his fingertip on the condenser-like plate. As over-head lights are turned down, a bright ghostly blue light rises from the plate area and a strong odor of ozone fills the room (produced by low ampere high electrical voltage). The pad produces a crackling sound as electrical current is transferred from the plate to the subject's finger. Small tentacles of white and bluish light jump in arcs, lighting the space between the skin tissue and cold metal (plate is insulated). Once the photograph is developed, the print reveals an array of brightly colored lights extending from the fingertip. In one print of a healer's finger, the center of the fingertip was dark while from the upper portion, extending out about one-third inch were a series of blue hair-like strands of current induced lights. Near the bottom was a bright red and orange light extending from the finger, connecting with the blue upper corona³ to form an outline of the darkened finger.

It was during these initial experiments that Kirlian accidentally discovered the therapeutic benefits of Kirlian photography. According to Susana Madden (1995), an aura imaging photographer, while conducting a series of experiments,  Kirlian took a picture of his finger tip which revealed no corona discharge. Surprised, Kirlian once more attempted the experiment with the same results. Shortly thereafter, he came down with the flu. Soon after this experiment, his wife also exhibited similar effects while attempting to photograph her aura. She too, only a few days later, contracted the flu.

According to Stan Krippner and Daniel Rubin's (1972) Galaxies of Life, researchers are divided in their evaluation of the Kirlian phenomena (the author taught with Dr. Krippner in the 1990s). Some call the manifestation "corona discharge,"² believing that the technique only reveals commonplace electrical occurrences while others conceive of radiation field photography as revealing the "bioplasma body" or aura [Note extensive footnote concerning a scientific explanation of Kirlian Photography]³.

According to Viktor Adamenko, a Russian scientist (c 1970s), the discharge is Athe cold emission of electrons.@ Relating to the bioplasmic theory, V. M. Inyushin of Kirov University , felt that Athe photographs reveal the >bioplasmic body= of organisms, a patterning of electrons and photons that determines the structure of the physical body@ (Moss 1974, 478). AInside the >bioplasmic= body, said Inyushin, processes have their own labyrinthine motion, different from the energy pattern in the physical body, yet the bioplasmic body is not a chaotic, but a whole unified organism which acts as a unit, is polarized, gives off its own electromagnetic fields, and is the basis for >biological= fields@ (Tompkins and Bird 1989, 204).  

Thelma Moss and other Investigators  

By the 1970s, the Psychical Research Foundation and Department of Electrical Engineering at Duke University began investigating not only Kirlian photography but a technique known as bioluminescence (Duncan and Roll, 1995). This procedure used highly sensitive light amplifiers to map very faint natural light that seems to be radiated by the body  (Duncan and Roll 1995). Kirlian photography possessed a near magical quality which continued to draw researchers. On  the west coast at UCLA, Dr. Thelma Moss was just beginning her research with Kirlian photography.

Many of the early 1970s experiments by parapsychologists (psychologists with a major in  paranormal research) led them to believe that the Kirlian camera, which produces photographs of electrical corona, actually provided proof of the existence of an aura or soul (Robinson 1981). Scientists, such as Dr. Viktor Inyushin (State University of Kazakhstan, Russia) were inclined to believe, based on their experimentations, that bioluminescence represents auric manifestations.  

Although being an indicator of moods, emotions (Singer 1981), and certain physiological changes, scientists soon discovered that the Kirlian process did not reveal the seat of the soul,  but rather ultraviolet radiation arcing between the instrument, photographic plate, and subject. The Kirlian camera, earlier thought of as a means of psychic detection and perhaps an instrument for perceiving the soul, has recently been shown to merely measure sweat. As Duncan and Roll (1995) states, the effects produced by Kirlian technology "is due to an interaction between electromagnetic radiation from the camera, the air surrounding the hand and perspiration from it." These variations in shape, size, and color of the photographed "aura" are due to variables such as moisture, salt content, and gases produced by the skin. More precisely, as electricity from the Kirlian apparatus enters the test subject, a gas ionization occurs around the moist (i.e., perspiration) object. Therefore, "during exposure, moisture is transferred from the subject to the emulsion surface of the photographic film and causes an alternation of the electric pattern on the film" (Pehek, Kyler, and Faust 1976). For this reason, a photograph taken in a vacuum does not produce an auric pattern (Hines 1988). In all, there are over twenty-five variables which may influence a final Kirlian photograph  (Singer 1981) .

Although some parapsychologists will agree to the non-psychical explanation of Kirlian's "auras," these explanations do not explain the so-called "phantom-leaf@ effect wherein a portion of a leaf is removed, and a Kirlian print is made revealing the intact configuration of the original leaf. These experiments were conducted by researchers including I. Dumitrescu and Allen Detrick. According to L. E. Bartlett's Psi Trek, these effects were first noted by Soviet scientists and later confirmed by UCLA researcher, Dr. Thelma Moss.

Further, Lois Julien (1996), one of Dr. Moss= former lab assistants, says AWe wanted to make sure that we were on the right track. We did all sorts of tests to make sure that it was not something else like sweat. We studied the effects of moisture, temperature, the room, the atmosphere, the film. We eliminated all of these factors. What it came down to was energy.@

The following data has appeared  on the Australian Institute of Parapsychological Research website:

The acupuncture points have higher electrical conductivity, potential and capacitance than the surrounding skin, and these increase further with ill health. He has obtained electroluminescent images at cell and tissue level, and invented a new method (electrograph) for imaging the whole body.

Leonard Konikiewics (Polyclinic Medical Centre, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) has used Kirlian photography to correctly identify 16 out of 18 cystic fibrosis patients in a sample of 140, and 37 out of 48 carriers of the CF gene. He has also studied menstruation of the human female. The luminosity of the Kirlian aura increases during ovulation. When the female took a birth-control pill (preventing ovulation), the Kirlian aura remained at constant intensity.

Harry Oldfield (Charing Cross Hospital, London) has built a Kirlian hand-gun. It fires high-frequency radio signals at the heart. Resonance of the heart is picked up by the gun and displayed on an oscilloscope, indicating anomalies. He and Dr Peter Kandela have also photographed undiagnosed breast tumours in women.

Conclusion  

As with all scientific endeavors, there is still disputes as to whether the Kirlian photograph reveals merely a physiological manifestation or an ever present bioplasmic electromagnetic energy field. Moss and Julien purport one theory while other researchers such as Duncan, Lindgren and Roll support another.