Aura (paranormal)

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Representation of a human aura, after a diagram by Walter John Kilner (1847–1920)
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According to spiritual beliefs, an aura or

holistic medicine practitioners often claim to have the ability to see the size, color and type of vibration of an aura.[3]

In

controlled experiments, the ability to see auras has not been proven to exist.[5]

Etymology

In Latin and Ancient Greek, aura means wind, breeze or breath. It was used in Middle English to mean "gentle breeze". By the end of the 19th century, the word was used in some spiritualist circles to describe a speculated subtle emanation around the body.[6][7]

History

Charles Webster Leadbeater is credited with developing and popularizing the concept of auras.

The concept of auras was first popularized by

theosophy in India, and believed he had the capacity to use his clairvoyant powers to make scientific investigations.[9] He claimed that he had discovered that most men came from Mars but the more advanced men came from the Moon, and that hydrogen atoms were made of six bodies contained in an egg-like form.[10] In his book Man Visible and Invisible, published in 1903, Leadbeater illustrated the aura of man at various stages of his moral evolution, from the "savage" to the saint.[11][12] In 1910, he introduced the modern conception of auras by incorporating the Tantric notion of chakras in his book The Inner Life.[13] Leadbeater did not simply present the Tantric beliefs to the West: he reconstructed and reinterpreted them by mixing them with his own ideas. Some of Leadbeater's innovations are describing chakras as energy vortices, and associating each of them with a gland, an organ and other body parts.[14]

In the following years, Leadbeater's ideas on the aura and chakras were adopted and reinterpreted by other theosophists such as Rudolf Steiner[15] and Edgar Cayce, but his occult anatomy remained of minor interest within the esoteric counterculture until the 1980s, when it was picked up by the New Age movement.[16]

In 1977, American esotericist

bioenergetic analysis, spiritual energy and energy medicine.[22]

Auric energy

In yoga participants attempt to focus on, or enhance their "auric energy shield".[23] The concept of auric energy is spiritual and is concerned with metaphysics. Some people think that the aura carries a person's soul after death.[24]

Aura photography

An artistic representation of a man in the Lotus position, surrounded by a blue glow
See also: Kirlian photography

There have been numerous attempts to capture an energy field around the human body, going as far back as photographs by French physician Hippolyte Baraduc in the 1890s.[25] Supernatural interpretations of these images have often been the result of a lack of understanding of the simple natural phenomena behind them, such as heat emanating from a human body producing aura-like images under infrared photography.[26]

Picture by Hippolyte Baraduc published in 1896, purported to show a "vital force" around a child

In 1939,

Semyon Davidovich Kirlian discovered that by placing an object or body part directly on photographic paper, and then passing a high voltage across the object, he would obtain the image of a glowing contour surrounding the object. This process came to be known as Kirlian photography.[27] Some parapsychologists, such as Thelma Moss of UCLA, have proposed that these images show levels of psychic powers and bioenergies. However, studies have found that the Kirlian effect is caused by the presence of moisture on the object being photographed. Electricity produces an area of gas ionization around the object if it is moist, which is the case for living things. This causes an alternation of the electric charge pattern on the film.[28] After rigorous experimentations, no mysterious process has been discovered in relation to the Kirlian photography.[29][30]

More recent attempts at capturing auras include the Aura Imaging cameras and software introduced by Guy Coggins in 1992. Coggins claims that his software uses biofeedback data to color the picture of the subject. The technique has failed to yield reproducible results.[26]

Tests

An aura reader tested in a controlled experiment at the Observatoire Zététique, May 2004

Tests of psychic abilities to observe alleged aura emanations have repeatedly been met with failure.[26]

One test involved placing people in a dark room and asking the psychic to state how many auras she could observe. Only chance results were obtained.[31]

Recognition of auras has occasionally been tested on television. One test involved an aura reader standing on one side of a room with an opaque partition separating her from a number of slots which might contain either actual people or mannequins. The aura reader failed to identify the slots containing people, incorrectly stating that all contained people.[32]

In another televised test another aura reader was placed before a partition where five people were standing. He claimed that he could see their auras from behind the partition. As each person moved out, the reader was asked to identify where that person was standing behind the slot. He identified two out of five correctly.[33]

Attempts to prove the existence of auras scientifically have repeatedly met with failure; for example people are unable to see auras in complete darkness, and auras have never been successfully used to identify people when their identifying features are otherwise obscured in controlled tests.[26][31][32][33] A 1999 study concluded that conventional sensory cues such as radiated body heat might be mistaken for evidence of a metaphysical phenomenon.[34]

Scientific explanation

Psychologist

psychedelic drugs such as LSD.[38][39]

It has been suggested that auras may result from

synaesthesia.[40] However, a 2012 study discovered no link between auras and synaesthesia, concluding "the discrepancies found suggest that both phenomena are phenomenological and behaviourally dissimilar."[41] Clinical neurologist Steven Novella has written: "Given the weight of the evidence it seems that the connection between auras and synaesthesia is speculative and based on superficial similarities that are likely coincidental."[42]

Other causes may include disorders within the visual system provoking optical effects.[citation needed]

Bridgette Perez, in a review for the Skeptical Inquirer, wrote: "perceptual distortions, illusions, and hallucinations might promote belief in auras... Psychological factors, including absorption, fantasy proneness, vividness of visual imagery, and after-images, might also be responsible for the phenomena of the aura."[43]

Scientists have repeatedly concluded that the ability to see auras does not actually exist.[26][31][32][33]

  • The book
    trepanation in order to accelerate the development of clairvoyance and allow them to see the aura. It also includes body gazing techniques purported to help achieve aura visualization.[44] The book is by some considered to be a hoax.[45][46]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Hanegraaff 2006, p. 857.
  2. ^ Hammer 2001, p. 55.
  3. ^ Hines 2002, p. 427.
  4. ^ Hines 2002, pp. 362–70.
  5. ISBN 1573928046
    .
  6. ^ "Online Etymology Dictionary". Etymonline.com. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  7. ^ Marques, A. (1896). The Human Aura: A Study. Office of Mercury. pp. 1–2 and preface. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  8. ^ Hanegraaff 2006, p. 686.
  9. ^ Tillett 1986, p. 193.
  10. ^ Tillett 1986, pp. 220–22.
  11. ^ Tillett 1986, p. 235.
  12. ISBN 9781471747038
    . Retrieved 14 May 2017.
  13. ^ Hammer 2001, p. 183.
  14. ^ Hammer 2001, pp. 184–87.
  15. ISBN 0880103736. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 27 February 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  16. ^ Hammer 2001, p. 187.
  17. ISBN 9780916438098
    . Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  18. ^ Hammer 2001, p. 188.
  19. ^ Hammer 2001, p. 92.
  20. ISBN 9780609800140
    . Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  21. ^ Hammer 2001, p. 189.
  22. ISBN 0553345397
    . Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  23. ISBN 978-1797211282
    . Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  24. ISBN 978-1594773396
    . Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  25. ^ Baraduc, Hippolyte (1896). L'ame humaine: ses mouvements, ses lumières et l'iconographie de l'invisible fluidique (in French). G. Carré. p. 61. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  26. ^ a b c d e Joe Nickell (May 2000). "Aura Photography: A Candid Shot". The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
  27. ^ Hammer 2001, pp. 240–43.
  28. PMID 968480
    .
  29. ISBN 0879756551
    .
  30. ^ Hines 2002, pp. 427–28.
  31. ^ a b c Loftin, Robert W. (1990). "Auras: Searching for the Light". The Skeptical Inquirer. 24. Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal: 403–09.
  32. ^ a b c "Auras". The Skeptic's Dictionary. Archived from the original on 5 December 2006. Retrieved 2006-12-15.
  33. ^ a b c "James Randi tests an aura reader". YouTube. 28 December 2007. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  34. ^ "Perception of Conventional Sensory Cues as an Alternative to the Postulated'Human Energy Field'of Therapeutic Touch (PDF Download Available)". The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine (Fall/Winter). 1999.
  35. ISBN 0486261670
    .
  36. ^ Fraser-Harris, D. F. (1932). A psycho physiological explanation of the so-called human "aura". British Journal of Medical Psychology 12: 174–84.
  37. ^ Dale, A., Anderson, D. & Wyman, L. (1978). Perceptual Aura: Not Spirit but Afterimage and Border Contrast Effects. Perceptual and Motor Skills 47: 653–54.
  38. S2CID 23939287
    .
  39. ^ "Familial occipitotemporal lobe epilepsy and migraine with visual aura". Neurology.org. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  40. ^ "auras – The Skeptic's Dictionary". Skepdic.com. Retrieved 2015-03-05. Thus, perhaps some cases of seeing auras can be explained by synesthesia rather than assuming that auras are energies given off by chakras or signs of delusion or fraud.
  41. S2CID 8364181
    .
  42. ^ Novella, Steven (2012-05-07). "Is Aura Reading Synaesthesia? Probably Not". Skepticblog. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
  43. ^ Bridgette M. Perez (January 2011). "The Aura: A Brief Review". The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved 2015-03-05.
  44. ISBN 9780345340382
    .
  45. ISBN 9780860517818
    .
  46. ISBN 9780861711918
    .

Works cited
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