I’ve had a very close friend tell me that, though rarely, she is sometime’s able to see auras. Since I trust her implicitly, I believe that she believes that she can sometimes see auras. But can she?
Is there any emperical evidence that auras exist? What are the basics behind the theory of auras (colors and such)? Do those of you who believe in auras or claim to see auras have any advice as to how someone learns to see them?
I can see auras.
Over the last two weeks I saw two auras, each preceding a debilitating migraine.
Your friend has my sympathies.
Y’know, had I been bright enough to search first, I’d have found this thread on Auras. Apologies for my lack of etiquette.
Here’s something interesting you can do. Hold up both your hands against a uniform background, such as a distant wall, such that you palms are towards you and your fingertips are about 1-1.5 inches apart. You’ll see faint glowing lines connecting your fingertips. If you move one hand up or down compared to the other hand, the lines will seem to keep going from fingertip to finger tip, untill you get too far. Then the line appears to break and connect to the next finger in line. If you get your fingertips too far apart, the line also thins and breaks.
I’ve been told that is is an easy way to see auras.
I also have no idea if it just a trick of the eye, or really your aura. You can try it and tell us what you see.
I’m a huge skeptic, but I must admit I see auras sometimes. Now I don’t attribute them to mystical enegies or anything spooky like that (just as I don’t claim the UFO I saw was an alien craft. It was just that: a flying object I could not identify). But I cannot refute the fact I do see them. They’re always white, usually around strongly spirited spiritual people. I used to only see them on my old pastor at church, and attributed it to the lighting facing the pastor and the white wall behind him, but I’ve now seen them elsewhere. My mom claims the same ability. Since this is something I’ve always had, I am very skeptical of people who talk about learning to see auras. And since I only see white, I’ve been skeptical of people who talk about the different colours meaning different things. Maybe somebody will come along with a good optical explination and set both of our minds at ease.
Besides migraine auras and the like, there are brain wiring defects that can cause people to “see” auras around people and/or objects. The brains of some people are wired such that they “see” sounds and “hear” colors and so forth.
Beyond those, I’m sure it’s possible that other brain or psychological oddities could lead to people “seeing” or believing they see auras, but there’s no reason at all to believe that auras actually exist or that there’s something about the human body that could actually generate them! It’s all in the brains/minds of the experients.
Controlled tests of those who have claimed the ability to see auras – such as by placing people randomly behind partitions – have ALWAYS failed utterly!
Some people see coloured auras around letters. It’s known as synaesthesia, and is (of course) purely an effect of the brain. I’m sure it’s been discussed here before.
I see auras around everything when I take my glasses off…
If you can’t see 'em, try using Aura Rods.
Used 'em once, and they do seem to work. Can’t explain why. (Maybe one of our resident empiricists would like to explain?) We’d also do tricks like drawing the aura in & out, casting it to one side, or gathering it above your head, and the rods would move accordingly.
Trippiest of all was when the teacher showed how my aura wasn’t even in my body, it was sitting in a chair next to me. Never could figure that one out.
I think they’re called ‘dog collars’. 
Nobody has defined “aura” and I doubt that everyone is talking about the same thing. The kind of aura I get (maybe a couple times a year) are called migraine patterns and in some (but by no means all) people precede a migraine headache. The ones I get (which are pretty standard) are described as fortification patterns. It starts out as a white blotch in the middle of the visual field, expands to the fortification pattern, shaped like a fort wall. all jagged. It is white and shimmers. It continues to expand until it disappears off the edge of the visual field. There appears to be slight discontinuity in the center of the eye that lasts another few minutes and it is hard to read during it, although it doesn’t interfere with driving. That is when the headache will start, although I have never had that happen (for which I thank my lucky stars; migraine headache sufferers are truly beset).
I have a niece who suffered seizures and these were often preceded by auras. She finally underwent brain surgery and has had no auras and no seizure in the ten or so years since.
You can see “auras” around anything. Look at a person or object in front of a uniformly colored wall (the lighter/brighter, the better), and stare at it unflinchingly for a few minutes. If you stare long and hard enough, you begin to see what may look like an aura around the person/object.
Here’s why that happens. It’s an after-image. You’ve tired out your pigment cells in your retina. You know when someone takes a photo and the flash sticks in your vision for a while? Or maybe the same will happen with the glare of the sun? It’s the same effect. A factor that helps a bit with this is the fact that your eyes don’t keep still. They keep moving, imperceptibly and rapidly. This shifts the object in your vision, but not the after-image, which you then see next to or surrounding the object, making it seem like there’s an aura.
Now, this may not explain all the auras some of you claim to see (though I’m willing to bet they have equally simple explanations), but this is probably the case for most “auras.” I hope this explanation helps.
First, the site you linked claimed that “dousing rods” or “water-witching wands” (the photos of the so-called “aura rods” are indistinguishable from them) are “used to effectively find water and electrical lines under ground.” This assertion is completely contradicted by the failure of every adequately controlled experiment of dousing, so we’re starting from a falsehood right from the beginning…
Now, I certainly don’t claim that you don’t honestly believe that you saw something, but considering the fact that every adequately controlled test of those who claim the ability to see auras have failed, the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence suggests that it’s far more likely that your mind “added” the illusion of an aura in order to fulfill your own hopes of seeing them in all the excitement. It’s certainly no count against you that humans can all too easily be led into imagining they see or experience things that simply aren’t there in the real world but exist only in their minds. For one thing, that’s just how magic tricks work.
You raise a good point: are aura-seers perhaps describing more than one phenomena ?
Regarding fortification spectra, I have the pleasure to also experience scintillating scotoma several times a year. It’s fairly alarming until you get used to it. However, I wouldn’t have connected this type of aura ‘aura’ (which indeed is the medical term for migraine hallucinations) with the ‘aura’ described in the OP.
A question for the group, and specifically mcbiggins: I get the impression that most aura-seeing folk are describing a, um, ‘radiance’ around a specific person, rather than an aura that happens whichever way they face, which would be the behaviour of a migraine aura. Correct?
I’d say it would be funny if humans (and other animals) could metabolize 100% of the light they absorb from the Sun. Wouldn’t it be more likely that they would radiate off the excess energy as electromagnetic waves (heat and light)?
Every now and then I see an aura. The doctor said it is an atypical migraine. No headache. The aura cameras, at Psychic Fairs, are a very good way to see your self and your significant other. A little spooky
Auras are simply the energy patterns around people, which indicate their connection/flow, in Buddhism. I can’t see them at all, which is one of the reasons I consider myself so useless. But I’m a newbie at that.
Wha t do you mean useless. Are you not a good decent human being who is enjoying their free ride around the Sun. I can’t do a lot of things, bit I can tell you my random acts of kindness make a difference in this world.
Well yes they do. People radiate/reflect both heat and light. People can’t see heat so we can discount that as the aura, and the light is seen as colour/shape etc.
Oh, yeah, I know I’m a good person enjoying a free ride, and I know you’re a good person, too. I just feel useless at my Buddhist discipline. I don’t concentrate well enough.