The Perception Of Auras

Kirk Straughen

(Investigator 83, 2002 March)


Introduction

According to occultists, every human being is surrounded by a paranormal field known as an aura — a phenomenon that is described and accounted for in the following way:
 
"Emanation said to surround human beings, chiefly encircling the head, and supposed to proceed from the nervous system. It is described as a cloud of light suffused with various colours. This is seen clairvoyantly, being imperceptible to the physical sight." (L. Spence: The Encyclopedia of the Occult, page 50)
 
What evidence is there that humans possess and aura that can be seen by gifted persons? I shall now address this question.


Evidence From Art?
 
Some proponents of the occult claim that evidence for auras can be found in Christian and Eastern art where saints and divinities are often portrayed with a circle of light surrounding their heads, or even their entire bodies. According to occultists, the spiritual purity of these beings causes a highly luminous aura that is, in this instance, perceptible to physical sight, and is the reason why they have been portrayed in this manner.
 
Unfortunately, this assumption is not supported by our knowledge of ancient artistic conventions. The use of halos and aureoles (where a cloud of light surrounds the entire body) in Eastern and Western art is purely symbolic — light is often associated with virtue, truth and goodness, whereas darkness is equated with the exact opposite: "God is light and in him there is no darkness" (I John 1:5.) Naturally, the most obvious source of light is the Sun which has often been worshipped as a god, or used as a symbol of divine attributes:
 
<>"The halo denotes the sunbeams, the luminosity, radiating from divine or holy persons. Gods might be depicted with a halo as well as emperors and other outstanding men such as poets and philosophers. There are examples from classical times of Homer and Virgil with halos. From the 4th century Christian artists began to show Jesus with a halo and later Mary and the apostles; in time, the halo — in the form of a surrounding nimbus or aureole — became the distinctive sign of a saint. Sometimes the beams radiated not from the head but from the whole body, which was enclosed by an aureole. This is familiar in images of Buddha and Mohammed, and in Christianity it became a special attribute of Mary, the Mother of God." (S.T. Achen: Symbols Around Us, page 20)
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Bio-electric Auras
 
Is it possible for an organism to be surrounded by an emanation that arises from physiological processes? In certain cases it is, for example, the African knife-fish Gymnarchus niloticus possesses an electric organ that produces between three and ten volts of pulsed direct current at a rate of three hundred pulses per second, thus enveloping its body in a spherical electric field.
 
As objects enter this field they distort the lines of force, causing them to diverge in the case of a poor conductor, or converge in the case of a good conductor. In addition to its electric organ Gymnarchus also has an arrangement of sensory pores over its skin, and these organs enable it to detect extremely small changes in current density (0.04 millionths of an ampere per square centimetre). It is from the way in which these lines of force deviate, and the accompanying changes in current density, that enables Gymnarchus to sense the position and nature of objects in its environment.
 
I have cited the example of Gymnarchus in order to show what would be required in order for an organism to be surrounded by an 'aura’. Human beings, however, do not possess organs that can generate electric fields, nor do we have receptors that can sense them. Although it is possible to detect the electrical activity generated by our bodies using specialised equipment, this activity does not radiate beyond our skin, and therefore would not be detectable from a distance even if we were equipped with the appropriate receptors. Some believers may claim that the existence of auras is proven by Kirlian Photography where objects photographed in a high-frequency electric field display halos. This effect, however, is of no significance because its primary cause is moisture:
 
"The Kirlian aura is already discredited as a trivial thing, of no more significance than static electricity, that depends mainly on the moisture in the object ‘photographed’. The human aura is supposed to change dramatically according to physical and mental state: experiments showed that the full range of possible ‘auras’ could be produced from any one object by altering the gap between it and the electrode, the strength and frequency of the field, the moistness of the object itself, and so on; if all these things were kept constant, no differences could be detected between the auras of ordinary people, psychic 'mediums' and lunatics." (P. Nicholls, Ed: The Science in Science Fiction, page 168)
 

The Third Eye
 
Occultists may claim that the aura is a manifestation of the soul or 'life force' and, being supernatural, is not detectable through natural channels of perception. Instead they claim that this paranormal manifestation is seen with the 'third eye':
 
"For centuries the idea that human beings have a latent psychic centre with a physical analogue somewhere in the brain has fascinated all fans of the occult... Man himself has one apparently functionless organ, the pineal gland in a frontal/central position, which Descartes thought must be the point of interaction between soul or mind and body. This is still often believed to be the psychic centre in the folklore of modern Spiritualism."
 (C. Evans: Cults of Unreason, page 248)
 
The existence of this psychic organ appeared to be confirmed by a Tibetan Lama — Dr T. Lobsang Rampa in his book The Third Eye, which became a best seller in twelve countries. In his book, the author claims that at eight years of age, when an apprentice Lama, he underwent a form of brain surgery that was designed to open the third eye, thereby enhancing his psychic perception. Details of this operation, which was performed without anaesthesia, are given in chapter seven of the book. A small hole was made in the frontal bone of the skull using “an instrument made of shining steel," and then "a very hard, very clean sliver of wood which had been treated by fire and herbs to make it as hard as steel," was inserted through the hole and into the brain. "For a moment the pain was intense, like a searing white flame. It diminished, died, and was replaced by spirals of colour, and globules of incandescent smoke. The Third Eye was now open, and it was a very strange experience to see these men apparently enveloped in golden flame. Not until later did I realise that their auras were golden because of the pure life they led, and that most people would look very different indeed."
 
The claims made in The Third Eye are incredible to say the least, and raised suspicions in the minds of some scholars who were familiar with Tibetan culture. As a result of these concerns Clifford Burgess, a Liverpool private eye, was employed by them to gather information on Dr Rampa to confirm the biographical details contained in his book. Mr Burgess unearthed the following facts:
 
(1) Dr Rampa’s real name was Cyril Henry Hoskings.
 
(2) He was from rural Plympton in Devon, not Tibet.
 
(3) He was a certainly not a doctor. It is quite clear from this investigation that the book, although containing a wealth of detail that lends authenticity to the account, is nothing more than sheer fantasy masquerading as fact.
 
Research has also shown that the pineal gland, rather than being connected with paranormal functions, secretes a chemical called melatonin. Although the exact function of this gland is unknown, it is thought to play a role in the regulation of body rhythms:
 
"The function of melatonin and the pineal gland in humans, in contrast to several other animals, is uncertain. Its secretion is stimulated by sympathetic postganglionic neurons that constitute the last link in a neuronal chain primarily triggered by receptors in the eyes responding to the prevailing light — dark environment. Melatonin secretion, therefore, undergoes a marked 24-h cycle, being high at night and low during the day, and melatonin probably influences a variety of body rhythms." (A.J. Vander et al: Human Physiology, page 296)


Psychological Explanations
 
To believe or claim that auras exist is no proof of their existence. Indeed, the only evidence we have is the word of the clairvoyant that they are seeing something and, unfortunately, their testimonies are inconsistent — "not all clairvoyants describe the auras of similar objects or people in the same way." (F. Gettings: Encyclopedia of the Occult, page 31) Seeing auras appears to be a subjective phenomenon — the result of the individual's own mental processes instead of the perception of a paranormal emanation.

The subjective nature of aural perception has been demonstrated by tests — if each person’s aura carries a unique signature, then it should be possible to identify an individual solely by his or her aura. One such test is described by James Randi in his book James Randi — Psychic Investigator. The test was basically as follows — five people stood behind a translucent screen that was illuminated from the rear, causing them to appear as silhouettes when viewed from the front. This screen had been divided into five sections labelled A to E, with a single person occupying each section.
 
When the clairvoyant confirmed he could see their auras through the barrier, the lights were switched off and the volunteers were, in random order, asked to step from behind the screen. The clairvoyant’s task was to use his aura reading ability to identify which section of the barrier the person had been standing behind. Unfortunately, the clairvoyants third eye must have been somewhat myopic — his score was only two out of five, which is no better than chance alone. What could lead a person to believe they can see auras? Those who sincerely believe they have this ability may have arrived at this conclusion due to the following factors:

"Optical illusions, after-images, hysterical hallucination, delusions, suggestion, wishful-thinking, trickery and invention are the sole explanations of "aureole phenomena" in the case of sane individuals. Among psychotics, as might be expected, delusions and hallucinations of auras are not uncommon.
 
Experiments with hysterical subjects who claim to perceive auras quickly reveal their spurious character. Braid mentions one such subject, who whenever the idea was suggested, saw coruscating flames emanating from the poles of a magnet or wherever she imagined its influence to extend. Such cases were frequently reported in the psychological literature of the nineteenth century. Experiments showed, however, that the same "effects" were produced when non-metallic objects, disguised as magnets were used." (D.H. Rawcliffe: Illusions and Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult, page 107)


Conclusion

Firstly, from a physiological perspective, our nervous system is incapable of generating an aural field and, moreover, we have no sense organs that could conceivably detect such a field even if it did exist. Secondly, people who sincerely claim to see auras have failed to detect them when subjected to carefully controlled tests, which suggests their belief is due to psychological factors rather than the perception of an occult force. Unfortunately, there is no evidence to substantiate the claim that human beings are surrounded by a paranormal emanation that is perceptible to occult vision.


Bibliography

Achen, S.T. Symbols Around Us, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York,1978.

Droscher, V.B. The Magic of the Senses, W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd., London, 1969.

Evans, C. Cults of Unreason, Panther Books Ltd., Herts, 1974.
 
Gettings, F. Encyclopedia of the Occult, Rider & Co. Ltd., London, 1986.
 
Nicholls, P. (Ed) The Science in Science Fiction, Michael Joseph Ltd.,
London, 1982.
 
Rampa, T.L. The Third Eye, Ballantine Books, New York, 1976.
 
Randi, J. James Randi: Psychic Investigator, Boxtree Ltd., London, 1991.

Rawcliffe, D.H. Illusions and Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1959.
 
Spence, L. The Encyclopedia of the Occult, Bracken Books, London, 1988.
 
Vander, A.J. et al. Human Physiology, 6th Edition, McGraw Hill, Inc., New York. 1994.
 
Holy Bible. Revised Standard Version.


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