While the origins of the word aura lie in ancient Greece, depictions of visible spiritual energies around the body have been with us since early civilization. In the Western world, these emanations were first described as halos or aureoles by Christian philosophers, and they were used to portray the divine power of certain religious figures. In Chinese Buddhism, the aura could best be related to the concept of chi, a physical manifestation of the vital life forces which flow through the body’s pathways. In Hindu philosophy these life energies were referred to as prana, a “thousand-petaled lotus of light” which surrounds the heads of those who have gained enlightenment

If you’re looking for scientific evidence of the aura, then the annals of medical literature can oblige. Some patients who suffer from migraines report visual symptoms including shimmering lights and geometric patterns, in the period immediately preceding a particularly intense headache. Many epileptics describe similar visions occurring just before major seizures. Meanwhile individuals affected by the neuropsychological phenomenon known as synesthesia, are actually able to see non-visual sensory information in the form colors and shapes. In this case, the ability is born out of crossed neural wires in adjacent areas of the brain.

“Humans are permeated with a spiritual essence that constitutes their true personality and which, as we will learn in the next degree, evolves through a number of incarnations so as to realize the perfection of its own nature. This essence corresponds to an energy whose vibratory frequency is much higher than that of Spirit and Vital Life Force. That is why it is presently impossible to measure the intensity of its radiations…. Science will perhaps succeed someday in proving its existence.”

Contrary to the Class Master’s protests here, science has in fact conducted several experiments into the existence of metaphysical energy fields around the human body. Unfortunately, none of these empirical studies revealed any evidence of auras. The most famous of these experiments was conducted on live television by famed magician and skeptic, James Randi.

Randi put up a $100,000 prize, which would be rewarded to any psychic or mystic that was able to pass simple test of their aura-seeing abilities. The psychic challenger who stepped up to test was allowed to pick out 10 members from the audience based on clear visibility of their auras. The psychic was then asked whether she would still be able to see these auras, if the people they belonged to were hidden behind a screen. The psychic nodded in the affirmative.

As indicated, Randi then asked each of the chosen participants to go and stand behind one of ten corresponding screens. The psychic was then prompted to name which participants stood behind which screens, based solely on the color of their auras. Although sheer probability would dictate that the psychic would get at least 50% of her selections right, she only managed to correctly finger 4 out of 10 participants. While several other experiments have been conducted into the abilities of so-called auric seers (the Gissurarsson and Gunnarsson experiment in 1997 is a particularly elegant example), the very public nature of this debunking makes it by far the most famous example.

Of course, to our knowledge none of these psychics claimed allegiance to Rosicrucian Order AMORC. The Rosicrucian Order may well possess some arcane mastery that’s unknown to the rest of the psychic world. One renowned auric seer that the monograph does make reference to however is Semyon Davidovitch Kirlian, the inventor of a unique device that was used to create images of people’s aural fields.  In the next part of this analyses we will take a look at his attempts to measure and record auras.