Seeing Auras

stevenmu

Learning how to see auras was something that helped me to believe that maybe there's something more to life. At a time when I was still a strong skeptic it was very usefull in opening my mind to new possibilities, so I thought I'd post up here how I did it and maybe someone else will find it usefull or just a bit of fun. I can't find the website I found the instructions on so I'll do my best to replicate them here (if anybody recognises where it's from let me know so I can credit them).

First find a calm quiet place you can sit in undisturbed for a while. This place needs to be very well lit, ideally with flourescent lighting directly overhead. Natural light or regular light bulbs will work fine
too as long as there's plenty of light. I actually find natural light works better now, but I think the flourescent light was easier to start with. You'll also need something smooth and white to use as a
"backdrop", printer or photocopier paper is good, especially the more expensive types that are a very good white. If it's the cheaper off-white stuff, just stack two or three sheets together to make it whiter. You
also have a chair and desk to sit at.

The idea behind what to do is very simple. Place your "backdrop" flat on the desk. Rest your hand face down and flat on it, fingers pointing roughly away from you, in whatever direction is most relaxed and comfortable.
You fingers should be slightly apart, not forced apart, just whatever way they fall naturally. Now you have to pick a point to focus on for a while. There are two different points that I've found to work well. If you have good overhead lighting there hopefully won't be much of a shadow created by your fingers, if there is it's hopefully just on one side of them, so choose a point on the other side. Either choose a spot on the backdrop about 1/2 cm above the tip of your middle finger or else choose a spot about 1/2 cm to either side of the top joint in your middle finger. Any finger should work almost as well as the middle finger, I've just mentioned that one because it keeps as much of your hand as possible in your sight picture. I find my little finger works well too, mainly because it keeps most of the side of your hand in the sight picture.

Now all you have to do is relax and empty your mind and focus on the spot you've chosen. According to the instructions I read it can take up to two hours but it only took me about 10 minutes, I guess it can vary wildly from person to person, but everybody should be able to do it. As you stare at the spot you've chosen, you should start to see a thin band of light developing along the side or tip of your finger, highlighted against the backdrop. This is you Aura. Now here's the hard part. Try to keep looking at your point, not letting your eyes move, and keep your mind empty and relaxed. If you try to look at the Aura at this stage or get a bit excited you'll lose it. If you do, don't worry once you've got to this stage it's easy to get back to it, just
take a few seconds to compose yourself and start again, you should see your Aura reappearing quickly. The longer you focus on your point the more your Aura should grow untill it's a very clear band of light surrounding much of the outline of your finger or hand. If you're lucky you may be able to make out colours in it but that usually takes more practice, all most people will see at this stage is white.

There are two visual phenomona that can be confused with seeing an aura that you should be aware of. The first is afterimages. This is commonly seen when you stare at something bright, say a torch, and then look somewhere darker, you can still see the image of the torch. This can look very similar to an aura but there's an easy way to tell the difference. With practice at looking at auras you will be able to move the point of focus of your eyes around, a true aura will stay in the same place but an afterimage will follow your point of focus around staying in the same place relative to your sight picture. The second is cone depletion (or maybe rod depletion, I can't remember exactly). At the back of your eye are millions of tiny cones, each one sensitive to a particular colour of light. When the right coloured light hits it, it sends a signal back to your brain, your brain interprets these signals to create the image you "see". If you stare at something red, for example,
the cones which are sensitive to red start running low on the chemicals they need to generate the signal to send to your brain. This means that anything red you look at untill the chemicals build up again can look slightly faded, this only lasts a minute or two. Again it's easy to tell the difference between these, with practice you'll be able to see an aura within seconds of trying, or even instantly, which is far too quick for this to be of concern.

As you practice this, it'll become easier and easier, and you should be able to view an aura clearer and in more detail. With practice you should also be able to discern colours and patterns. When trying to see someone elses aura, it's best to look at the top of the head or back of the neck, these are the areas where it's strongest and they're generally not covered by clothing. You may realise as I did that they're something you've actually seen before and just dismissed as a trick of the eyes. Also try not to feel too discouraged if it doesn't work for you right away. Maybe give it a rest for an hour or too, or a few days even and try again. Either way post back here and let us know how you get on.

Goodshape

Nice one, cheers for the howto. I've been trying to discern people aura's every now and again for the past few months. Think I actually made a breakthrough of sorts the other week and managed to see a sort of haze around some people, of course I have no way of knowing it wasn't just my eyes playing tricks on me.

Never thought of trying to see my own aura first. I'll get back to you if it works

stevenmu

Yeah, the good thing about practising on your own (*cough*) is that you don't get people wondering why your staring at them so intently. And you can learn to tell the difference between the real thing and tricks of the eyes/mind. Altough a faint haze is one way I'd describe what I see around other people so you could be on to something already.

Scubadevils

When trying to see auras a while back I encountered something quite strange. I was trying to see my own aura and part of the instruction to do this is to go into a room thats not too brightly lit. Stand about 3 feet from a mirror with ideally a white wall behind you. As always, try to relax and empty the mind. Concentrate on one point on your head. I concentrated on between my eyes roughly. What happened after about only 1 minute was basically my face transforming into an older mans face, then to what looked like an eastern mans face! Any time I have tried since I have seen several different faces. I have been told that this is seeing your spirits but I reckon its more likely eyes paling tricks. You do really need to concentrate on one point without diverting your attention for this to work.

Must try your suggestion for seeing auras.

Oryx

I think what you are describing was called scrying, and was popular with the victorians. Look in a mirror and a spirit face will appear instead of your own. Used to frighten myself doing it as a teenager

Long before I knew there were auras I used to wonder what the ready-brek glow was around my teachers in assembly at school (they stood in front of a white wall )

stevenmu

Felixdhc, I've never tried, or even thought of, using a mirror to see auras but if you want to keep trying that way, pick a spot on the wall just above your head to look at.


Katie, I remember seeing that too, I wonder how many others have seen it and just dismissed it without knowing what it was ? Come to think of it, now I'm wondering what else I've seen and not taken any notice of

Stark

Cool. I actually find the spot above the head technique easier than the hand technique. Can see a white aura within seconds with the spot over the head technique.

stevenmu

Yeah, it's strongest at the top of the head so that should be easiest, I'll have to try and sort out a mirror later and give it a go.

transperson

wkd

it worked after 10 mins,
saw faint rainbow like stream out of my index finger!

Stark

Ooh, I can see a coloured aura around my hand, it's a cyan colour, it's beautiful!!

Stark

I've just noticed something strange. I've tried viewing my aura in a mirror and my reflection keeps disappearing! Everything else stays the same, just my reflection fades out into nothingness.

Probably due to crossing my eyes and the blind spot in my eye

Scubadevils

Stark wrote:

I've just noticed something strange. I've tried viewing my aura in a mirror and my reflection keeps disappearing! Everything else stays the same, just my reflection fades out into nothingness.

Probably due to crossing my eyes and the blind spot in my eye

Could be the blind spot but I have read that if your mind is relaxed enough that it is possible for your reflection to disappear as you have described. Seemingly something to do with altering your bodies electrochemical system. It is supposed to be quite difficult to do and to achieve it ideally you need to have been meditating first along with some breath control like chi kung.

Tried this method of seeing auras today and worked pretty quickly. I saw initially a white glow around my middle finger which then extended to the reast of my fingers/hand. Lost it a few times but then when I concentrated for long enough it became more of blue glow. Pretty cool!

Victorious

I went to a Catholic school when I was a kid and I used to go to mass and see a massive white aura around the priest! as Katie said, I had no idea thats what it was, and was trying to find out how to see auras a couple of years ago when I came across another How To - and it was pretty similar to the one on this thread. I was so shocked that I had already seen them... I thought it HAD to be coloured - unless the person was very very pure of course. My next ambition is to see colours!

2+2=5

hey, i feel stupid asking this but what exactly is an aura??
i know what it it is, but like what exactly does it represent?
im new to this type of stuff, but very interested.

stevenmu

2+2=5 wrote:

hey, i feel stupid asking this but what exactly is an aura??
i know what it it is, but like what exactly does it represent?
im new to this type of stuff, but very interested.

That's actually a very good question. Really all I can say for sure is that it represents an energy field surrounding and penetrating your body. Many people equate it with your life-force or spirit and it is commonly related to the body's chakras. I like to think of it in pseudo-scientific terms as a visual representation of your body's electromagnetic field. I'm not sure if it's something we can directly sense (i.e. some part of are brains detect it and add it in to the visual picture created from signals from our eyes), or if we sense the affect of it on light passing, and reflecting from, our bodies.

A persons aura tends to have a base colour which represents their general personality, and other colours showing up in the aura can represent moods or physical conditions. White in an aura is representative of purity and spiritualness, but isn't to be confused with the white that most people see when originally seeing auras. Yellow/orange can represent though and concentration. Green around a particular area can represent the body healing an injury to that area. A sparkly aura can represent pregnancy, I've only been aware of this once around a girl who hadn't found out herself, kinda freaked me out when I found out I was right . I'll try and find a link that goes through all the different variations and what they can mean.

2+2=5

cheers for the reply... very very interesting

stevenmu

There's a good 3 part article here on auras, what they are, what different aspects of them mean, and a different technique for learning to see them (which should be easier than those mentioned above). I'm not sure I agree with everything he says but a good read none the less.

Stark

I've actually found the colour technique a lot harder than the own aura technique. Though I've only once gotten past seeing the etheric (white) aura part of seeing my own aura. I can see the white aura close to the skin reliably enough though.

nesf

stevenmu wrote:

That's actually a very good question. Really all I can say for sure is that it represents an energy field surrounding and penetrating your body. Many people equate it with your life-force or spirit and it is commonly related to the body's chakras. I like to think of it in pseudo-scientific terms as a visual representation of your body's electromagnetic field. I'm not sure if it's something we can directly sense (i.e. some part of are brains detect it and add it in to the visual picture created from signals from our eyes), or if we sense the affect of it on light passing, and reflecting from, our bodies.

A persons aura tends to have a base colour which represents their general personality, and other colours showing up in the aura can represent moods or physical conditions. White in an aura is representative of purity and spiritualness, but isn't to be confused with the white that most people see when originally seeing auras. Yellow/orange can represent though and concentration. Green around a particular area can represent the body healing an injury to that area. A sparkly aura can represent pregnancy, I've only been aware of this once around a girl who hadn't found out herself, kinda freaked me out when I found out I was right . I'll try and find a link that goes through all the different variations and what they can mean.

"Strictly" speaking, a person's aura is the electro-magnetic field that the body gives off in a small area surrounding it. If a person is sick, ill, stressed etc then this field is "different" (generally smaller/different intensity etc).

I'll try and find some research on this if people are interested. I remember looking it up a few years back and being pleasantly suprised that some basis to aura photography and the like existed.

Whether a person can (unaided) see this "aura" is a different story

stevenmu

nesf wrote:

I'll try and find some research on this if people are interested. I remember looking it up a few years back and being pleasantly suprised that some basis to aura photography and the like existed.

I remember finding an article somewhere about how scientists in the US had photographed auras like you describe. I can't remember where it was but they were well respected scientists and it was published somewhere well respected too. Unfortunatly googling for auras and photography gives too many non-scientifically respected links to find it again. It's always good to have some level of scientific backing to an idea, even if it's not exactly the same thing.

nesf wrote:

Whether a person can (unaided) see this "aura" is a different story

You can always try some of the above tips with an open mind and see what happens, the worst thing that can happen is nothing at all

nesf

stevenmu wrote:

You can always try some of the above tips with an open mind and see what happens, the worst thing that can happen is nothing at all

An open mind is not something I lack


"It's easy to be a believer, it's also easy to be a cynic. It's finding somewhere in between to look out at the world from that's the hard part."

Dagon

There is another interesting piece on auras here:

http://www.thiaoouba.com/seeau.htm

I've tried it but haven't been successful yet, although I can get my mind to use both parts of the brain for that circles excercise. Interesting stuff...

stevenmu

Excellent link, thanks. I was able to see the colour auras around the circles quickly but I've only been able to get the cross briefly, I'm in work at the moment so I can't use the finger, I'll have to try it again later and see if it makes a difference. It sounds like it makes a good mental excersise.

Dagon

I've tried the instructions from the original post, and it definitely gives a white aura around the finger. But I'm not sure if this is cause by the combination of bright light and staring a a point above the finger. This seems to increase the exposure to the eye, but I'm not sure if I'm actually seeing the real aura or just an afterimage that is being burnt into my eye from all the exposure.

solas

I've kinda stayed away form this thread for a reason in the past but I feel I have to add something. This is not how I see auras.
The excercises here, which I'm familiar with, really only create a sort of illusion by way of retinal burn. When I was young my father taught me how to do the fingers pulling apart and watching the energy strech as I did so and as an art student we use the same principle to figure out the colour wheel. (if you stare at a piece of blue card you will see an orange imrpint left, green will leave red, purple will leave yellow etc..)

Maybe I'm wrong but I always felt auras..or saw them with my minds eye, to the point where I could almost actually see a persons lightbody. I don't see colours, just various shades of "white" or light, as if it were an electromagnetic field, just varying voltages. I gues I could have honed my understanding to incorporate different colours, the more intense would be red, the nervous or placid would be orange, the polite yet outgoing would be yellow etc..

anyone else see it this way?

stevenmu

Dagon wrote:

I've tried the instructions from the original post, and it definitely gives a white aura around the finger. But I'm not sure if this is cause by the combination of bright light and staring a a point above the finger. This seems to increase the exposure to the eye, but I'm not sure if I'm actually seeing the real aura or just an afterimage that is being burnt into my eye from all the exposure.

I think it's reasonably easy to tell the difference between an after image and the 'real thing'. With a little practice it becomes possible to see the aura within seconds, or sometimes it even 'jumps out' instantaneously. It also becomes possible to see it in less ideal lighting conditions, sometimes I can see my own in a very dimly lit room as a thin band of a white much lighter and brighter than anything behind it.

The most foolproof way to tell the difference is to pick a fixed point in space to stare off into, bring your hand into your line of sight and let an aura develop around it, then try moving your hand around a bit. If the aura follows it then it is probably an aura you're seeing, if it kind of drags out behind it, like in Solas' energy stretching trick, then it is probably an after image. Of course it takes a little practice to be able to move your hand without the aura just dissapearing totally.

Solas wrote:

and as an art student we use the same principle to figure out the colour wheel. (if you stare at a piece of blue card you will see an orange imrpint left, green will leave red, purple will leave yellow etc..)

I've always been a bit suspicious of the whole idea of colours having auras, doubly so after hearing about rod/cone depletion. It always even just looks like a visual trick to me, whereas an aura around a person just kind of feels more signifigant.

Solas wrote:

Maybe I'm wrong but I always felt auras..or saw them with my minds eye, to the point where I could almost actually see a persons lightbody. I don't see colours, just various shades of "white" or light, as if it were an electromagnetic field, just varying voltages. I gues I could have honed my understanding to incorporate different colours, the more intense would be red, the nervous or placid would be orange, the polite yet outgoing would be yellow etc..

Different people have different natural abilities, I knew a girl who'd been able to see (relatively) big coloured auras around people her whole life, I think she said she was in her teens before she realised it wasn't normal. I've generally been able to sense stuff about people, to kind of feel how they feel. I used to just put it down to picking up on body language and stuff, but now I think that it's possible that I was also aware on some level of their aura even though I didn't actually see it. It's like how Beethoven (I think) was deaf but he was still able to create music by appreciating the mathematical beauty of it. Others, who had no idea of the mathematical side of it could still appreciate his music by how beautifull it sounded. It's the same music, it's just being interpreted differently with different senses.

Of course I could be completly wrong too.

~Rebel~

Hi im 21 now and when was just looking at the thread there remembered that when i was younger (8, 9) used to see different colours around people i knew but it went away and i didn't think of it till now. Im at work and just tried using that first method mentioned. Have a lot of natural light (office with massive window infront of me) not totally quiet but figured id give it a try anyway. Wasn't expecting it to work, at last not for a while, but almost immediately a thin sharp electric blue line was around my finger. first thought it wasjust reflection on paper but when fpcused paper was the same colour as everywhere else. Then went back to it and it was there again, very shortly it grew out kind of like the haze around a blue flame and went out to the 1/2 cm mark i was staring at. again focused on paper and disappeared, no shadows to be mistaken or anything..did i actually do itright that quickly or is it just eyes going blurry from watching or something? they are a little tired from workin on computer.. any ideas?

stevenmu

That sounds like it's working right, it's not too surprising given that you could see colours around people when younger, it could indicate that you've a natural predisposition towards seeing auras. Unfortunatly it does look very like an after-image but the fact that it dissapears totally when you refocus on the paper sounds, to me at least, like it may not be. I found it very hard at first, and still generally do, to tell the difference between an after-image and a 'genuine aura'.

Nesf wrote:

An open mind is not something I lack


"It's easy to be a believer, it's also easy to be a cynic. It's finding somewhere in between to look out at the world from that's the hard part."

Sorry Nesf, forgot about replying to this . I didn't mean to imply you don't have an open mind, and you're very correct, like many things if you try this expecting to see nothing, an after-image or a 'real aura', then that's exactly what you're going to find yourself seeing.


On a seperate issue I think maybe I should point out that everything I'm posting here may be completely wrong, it's just that I don't happen to think so at the moment. As some have mentioned similar effects are caused by various tricks of the eyes, I think some of the things I've mentioned above can help eliminate them, but I'm not completely sure.

Oh, and don't spend too long staring at bits of paper, it can't be very good for ones eyes, or sanity.

ashleigh

hi im 13 and :eek: last night i was reading the new harry potter book and my fingers started to glow they were blue it freaked me out has any one else had this happen when they werent trying to see it!

stevenmu

ashleigh wrote:

hi im 13 and :eek: last night i was reading the new harry potter book and my fingers started to glow they were blue it freaked me out has any one else had this happen when they werent trying to see it!

It's quite possible that what you saw is down to your eyes being tired from reading or perhaps something to do with the lighting in the room. It could have been you seeing you're aura but you'd really need to check it wasn't a trick of your eyes using some of the methods previously mentioned. Either way it's nothing to be freaked out about, it's been there all along, you're just learning how to see it now.