THE OTHER YOU: How to Develop Your Psychic Potential

Author: Andrew Laurance

(C) 1986 Javelin Books/US Sterling Publishing Co., Inc

AURAS:

Subtle emanation from anything; atmosphere diffused by or attending a person etc. especially in mystical use as a definite envelope of body

And spirit.

   OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY

The idea of an aura, a luminosity  radiating from our bodies, is as old as history itself, and that all living matter is surrounded by an energy cloud,  which  can  be  seen  by  sensitive  as  a  colorful emanation following the contours of the body to a width of between one centimeter and a  meter, is one  of the phenomena  described by psychics  which is accepted by scientists as being worthy of examination.

Since  time  immemorial  holy  personages  have  been  represented  by a surrounding light, and long before  the Christians circled the heads of their saints  with halos, the  early Egyptians, the  Greeks, Romans and Indians  had fringes  of radiancy shinning from  the bodies  of their deities and the aura of Buddha was believed to envelope a whole city.

Not until the middle of the 19th Century were auras questioned by science. In the 1850's (*interesting date,  is it not?*; LM) the German chemist  Baron  Karl  von   Pheichenbach  (1788-1869),  who  discovered creosote and  paraffin, became interested in  the paranormal and started experimenting with  various psychic friends,  coming to the  conclusion that people radiated a force  that particularly sensitive persons could see and feel in the DARK. He  called this force od, from which came the term "odic force", a form of body magnetism which many at the time were pleased to believe explained away the root of spiritualists' ectoplasm, their power to move furniture, speak  in a multitude of voices and make a good deal of frightening noises.

Though  a Yugoslav  scientist, Nikola  Telsa became  interested in  the subject some  thirty years later and  invented a wire coil  device that caused the body to spark, it was  not till 1911 that someone decided to research the possibility that this  divine mythical light could in fact be explained as an electric current produced by the human body.

A British doctor,   Walter Kilner (1847-1920),   in charge of   the electro-therapy department   of St.Thomas' Hospital in London discovered that by looking through colored glass screens he could see a definite band of light, six inches wide emanating from the body. He further discovered that the band of light changed shape and color

depending on the health  of  the  subject  and  realized its immense potential for diagnostic purposes.

Inventing  a  glass  screen  which  hermetically  sealed  solutions  of dycyanin dyes,  he was able to  perceive a misty light  around the head and shoulders and hands of his human  guinea pigs when he stood them up against a black back drop.

In his book, "The Aura", he describes the luminosity appearing in three layers, the innermost of which he refers to as “the etheric double”, the middle the "inner aura", surrounded by the "outer aura".

The whole aura, he found,   was sensitive to magnetism and electric current, which, when applied, vanished to reappear again with greater intensity.

Not everyone was able to see Kilner's auras, though using his screens, and he explained  that he had had to  spend a good deal of  time before carrying  out his  experiments getting  his eyes  accustomed to looking through his screen  by first staring at daylight  through darker glass. He also claimed that he was perhaps more sensitive to auras than others, and that his is likely is explained in this passage from Lyall Watson's "Supernature":

"Our eyes are sensitive to light that lies between the wavelengths of 380 and 760 millimicrons. With very high intensity artificial sources we can extend this at either end of the spectrum into the areas of infrared and ultraviolet light. The  fact that  man's body  sends out electromagnetic waves  just too long  for most people  to see has  been vividly  demonstrated  by  the  new  "thermographic"  technique,  which translates  heat  radiation  into   wonderful  color  pictures.  Atoms generate infrared rays by their constant motion, and the warmer they are the more active they become. In thermographic portraits, cold hair and fingernails show up black or blue, cool earlobes are green, the nose is a lukewarm yellow, and the neck and cheeks glow with orange and red. The system is now being used to detect tumors, arthritis, and cancer, which show up as isolated hot areas."

(Note: Shampoo advertisements on television demonstrate thermographic hair as an easily accessible example.)

"So  the body  does radiate  on a  wavelength just  outside our  normal vision,  and this  radiation changes   according to  the health  of the transmitter.

Perhaps Kilmer was right. The range of human sensitivity is quite wide: some people hear sounds that to others are supersonic, and some people see wavelengths that to others are invisible. Those who claim to be able to see an aura surrounding living things could be supersensitive at the infrared end of the spectrum. Wave this length are beyond the capability of the cone-shaped cells of the retina, which appreciate visible colors, but they may be within the range of the rod-shaped cells that are more sensitive to low light intensities."

Kilner's theories and discoveries had to wait until 1939 before they gained credibility among the scientific factions.  In Krasnador, southern Russia, near the Black Sea, lived an electrician, Semyon Kirlian. He was an extremely competent man and his services were often called upon by researchers working at the local hospital to repair the

various pieces of equipment when they malfunctioned.

One day, while in a   laboratory, Kirlian was present during a demonstration of a new high frequency electrotherapy unit.

As the patient received the treatment through electrodes, Kirlian noticed minute flashes of light sparking between the person's skin and the electrodes themselves.

An  amateur  photographer,  fascinated  by  the  infinite possibilities offered  by  a  photographic  plate,  he  wondered  whether it would be possible to record these minute skin flashes.

He realized that since the electrodes were made of glass for safety, the photographic plate would be ruined by exposure to light before the unit could even be switched on, so he decided to use metal electrodes; though this was clearly dangerous.

Placing  his  own  hand  in  the  right  position  after  adjusting the photographic  plate,  he  switched  on  the  power,  was  instantly and painfully burnt, but hoped that after  the three seconds he had exposed the plates, he might have an original photograph.

When the plate was developed he saw a very strange imprint. Around the contours of his fingers luminosity had been recorded.

He set to work developing a machine that would photograph this apparent aura.  The known techniques of photography without light -X-Ray and infrared - he knew would be of no use, so he devised a process that would only catch this new luminous energy emanating from the body.

Helped by his wife, Valentina,  a journalist and teacher, he eventually found  a  method  of  taking  the  pictures  he  wanted  and  his first successful result  was the photograph  of a leaf  revealing, around its edges, millions  of light energy  dots flaring in  turquoise and orange patterns from the direction of the veins.

When he similarly photographed his   own finger, it appeared on the picture like an erupting volcano, flames of energy sparking from the tips.

As these were static pictures, the husband and wife team went on to perfect an optical instrument that   would enable them to see their discovery in motion and, according to the Ostrander and Schoeder report in "Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain":

"The hand itself looked like the Milky Way in a starry sky. Against a background of blue or gold, something was taking place in the hand that looked like a firework display.  Multicolored flares lit up, and then sparks, twinkles, and flashes.  Some lights glowed steadily like Roman candles, others flashed out then dimmed.  Still others sparked at intervals. In parts of his hand there were little dim clouds. Certain glittering glares meandered along sparkling labyrinths like spaceships traveling to other galaxies.

"When the Kirlians placed a fresh leaf under the lens of a microscope connected to the high frequency generator, they saw a picture similar to that of the human hand. Next they tried a half withered lead. It looked like a great metropolis turning out its lights for the night. They tried an almost completely withered leaf.  There were almost no flares and sparks and "clouds” scarcely moved.  As they watched, the lead seemed to be dying before their eyes and its death was reflected in the picture of energy impulses. "We appeared to  be seeing the very life activities  of the leaf  itself," Kirlian said,  "intense, dynamic energy in the  healthy lead, less in the withered  lead, nothing in the

Dead leaf."

This Kirlian discovery soon made scientific news and, with the backing of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, they elaborated further on their machines and carried out endless experiments.

What  they proves  was what  mediums had  been saying  for years,  that living  matter  has  an  aura,  and  that  that  aura  is  affected  by frequencies of energy  governed by the state of  health of the subject. Fatigue, poor states of mind, anxieties and illnesses all contribute to the behavior of the aura.

When the Kirlians examined two leaves side by side taken from similar plants and saw a sharp contrast, they were puzzled.  But a visiting scientist who had given them the leaves was quite ecstatic.

"Both leaves were torn from the same species of plant, but one of these plants had already been contaminated with a serious plant disease. You've found this out immediately! There is absolutely nothing on the plant or this leaf to indicate that it has been infected and will soon die. No tests on the actual plant or the leaf show anything wrong with it.  With high frequency photography you’ve diagnosed illness in the plant AHEAD OF TIME!"

In the Ostrander and Schroeder book a series of photographs are reproduced.   These show,   among   other   things, the   changes in luminescence of a fingertip when the subject was calm and even tempered compared to the fingertip when the subject was in a state of fatigue. The aura, when the person is calm, resembles a glowing coal fire, when

fatigued, like the exhaust of flaring rockets.

Psychics  who can  see auras  all seem  to agree  that the luminescence around  the  human  body  is  egg-shaped,  wide  around  the  head  and shoulders, tapering towards the feet.

In  the  famous  book,  "The  Teachings  of  Don  Juan:  A Yaqui Way of Knowledge" by  Carlos Castaneda, who  wrote it when  he was a  graduate student  at  the  University  of  California,  this  egg-shapes aura is briefly but interestingly mentioned.

In 1960, Carlos Castaneda first met Don Juan, a Yaqui Indian feared and shunned by the ordinary folk of the American South West because of his unnatural powers.  During  the  next  five  years  Don  Juan's  arcane knowledge led him into a world  of beauty and terror, rules by concepts far beyond  those of Western  civilization. Using psychedelic drugs -- peyote, jimson weed and mushroom Amanita-- Castaneda lived through encounters with disembodied spirits, shamans in the form of huge wolves, and death in the shape of silver crows. Three  times he met Mescalito, the  god  of  peyote;  finally,  after  a  night  of terror in which he realized his life was threatened by  forces which he still cannot fully explain, he  gave up the  struggle to become  a Man of  Knowledge – to find the other  you -- but wrote his remarkable  book in which Don Juan tells him:

"I like to sit in parks and bus depots and watch. Real people look like luminous eggs when you "see" them.  In a crowd of egg like creatures you can spot the one who looks just like a person, then you know that there is something wrong and that, without  this luminous glow, this is not a real person at all."

Having  accepted that  all living  matter is  surrounded by  a field of force which can sometimes be seen  or photographed as an aura, there is also the aura  which is perceived by psychics  that DIFFERS slightly in that it is colored by the thought processes of the subject.

This coloring ranges from fine violet, blue hues to yellows, dark browns, grays and dull reds.  Sometimes the auras shine with a pure golden light, which, if some of the interpretations put on color can be proved to be correct, signifies spirituality.

Pale blues and purples are interpreted as the given power of healing. Pink is for pure love and affection; red for desire and anger; green for intellect; browns and muddy shades going into grays signify disease. An aura which appears to be shriveling suggests approaching death.

These colors, however, are not always reliable symbols and should not be applied as hard and fast rules. What matters most in the aura is its clarity and purity of colors which indicates stability, or instability in the subject's character. Blues merging into reds merging into grays like a dirty artist’s palate is suspect. A clear yellow outlined by a pure green is obviously sounder.

The acquisition of auric sight, like all other paranormal faculties, is a question of practice and patience. Compared to other forms of psychic powers it is, however, relatively simper  to try out, providing you give yourself time and do not limit yourself to only one or two experiments.

Auric sight  is one of  the faculties which  may indicate that  you can develop OTHER  powers in the  psychic field, but  apart from this,  and possibly  confirming  that  a  person  is  physically or mentally unwell because  of the  poor state  of  their  aura, auric  sight can  only be regarded as a fascinating additional and supernatural dimension.