What is the Aura...?

An aura or human energy field is, according to New Age beliefs, a colored emanation said to enclose a human body or any animal or object. In some esoteric positions, the aura is described as a subtle body.

Everyone has an aura. Everyone has already seen or experienced the auric fields of others. The problem is that most people ignore the experience or chalk it up to something that it is not.

Mystics from all parts of the world speak of seeing lights around people's heads, but you do not have to be a mystic to see the aura. Anyone can learn to see and experience the aura more effectively. There is nothing magical about the process. It involves recognizing it for what it is and not ignoring the experience. It simply involves a little understanding, time, practice and perseverance.

Children are very good at seeing and experiencing the aura. Those experiences are often translated into their drawings. Around the figures, they will shade in unusual and different colors. These colors often reflect the subtle energies they have observed around what they are drawing.

 Have You Experienced the Auric Energy Field?

1. When you are around some people do you feel drained?

2. Do you associate certain colors with people? ?(For example, "You always seem like a yellow person to me.")

3. Have you ever felt when someone was staring at you?

4. Have you ever been able to sense how someone is feeling, in spite of how this person was acting?

5. Do certain sounds, colors and fragrances make you feel more comfortable or uncomfortable?

6. Do you find that some people excite or energize you more than others?

7. Are some rooms more comfortable and enjoyable to be in than others? Do you notice the difference in one room from the next? Did you ever notice how your brother's/sister's room feels different from yours?

How about your parent's or children's?

The human aura is the energy field that surrounds the physical body. It surrounds you in all directions. It is three dimensional. In a healthy individual, it makes an elliptical or egg shape about the body. I have heard it proposed that the auras of the ancient masters could extend outward from the body for several miles. It is often believed that this is one of the reasons they could draw such large numbers of followers in any area where they traveled. It is worth noting that a common depiction of many masters included the halo, a portion of the aura that is most easily seen by the average individual.

The aura is weakened by:

1. Poor diet

2. Lack of exercise

3. Lack of fresh air

4. Lack of rest

5. Stress

6. Alcohol

7. Drugs

8. Tobacco

9. Negative habits

10. Improper psychic activity

FEELING AND EXPERIENCING SUBTLE ENERGIES

The in and out movement of the hands causes the energy surrounding them to accumulate between them, making it more perceptible to you. The hands are becoming more sensitive to the subtle energies.

As the hands become more sensitive, you can use them to detect the auric energies emanating from other parts of the body as well. These detections may feel like heat, pressure, tingling etc.Hold your dominant hand about a foot and a half above your bared forearm.

Slowly lower your hand toward the forearm. Pay attention to anything that you might feel. How close do you come to the forearm before you can feel the energy from it? Remember that the feeling may be one of pressure, heat, coolness, thickness etc. It will feel much like what you experienced between you hands. It may not be as strong, but you should be able to feel it. If you cannot, slowly repeat it. Remember that you are reawakening your ability to consciously be aware of the subtle energies around you.

The Meaning of Colors

Color can be constructive or destructive. It can stimulate or depress, repel or attract. It can even be male or female in its character. It can reflect positive or negative, and when perceived within the aura it provides a key to the personality, moods, maturity and health of the individual. It reflects physical and spiritual aspects.

It takes a great deal of practice to interpret the color shades seen within the aura. Each color has its general characteristic,but each shade of that color change that characteristic a little. The location of the color, the intensity and even the from the color takes in the auric field must be considered.

This text is not intended to provide all of the subtle nuances of color interpretation within the auric field. You will examine basic colors and the energies they commonly indicate on physical and other levels. This gives you a starting point to begin to understand what is revealed by the colors of the aura.

The colors closest to the body reflect aspects of the individual's physical condition. They also indicate those energies manifesting and energies further away often indicate the energy that the person will be able to determine time elements of certain energy patterns by the color and the location of the color with respect to the physical body.

The Rainbow colors

Red

Red is the color of strong energy, fire and primal creative force. It is the life-promoting energy. It is hot. It can indicate strong passion, mind and will. It is a dynamic color that can reflect anger, love, hate and unexpected changes. It can indicate new birth and transmutation.

It is a color that affects the circulatory system of the body, the reproductive system (sexual energy) and an awakening of latent abilities and talents.

Too much red or a muddiness can reflect overstimulation, inflammation or imbalance. It may reflect nervousness, temper, aggression, impulsiveness or excitement.

Orange

Orange is the color of warmth, creativity and emotions. It is an indication of courage, joy and socialness. It is a color which can reflect an opening of new awareness-especially to the subtle realms (the astral plane) of life.

Depending on the shade, it can also indicate emotional imbalances and agitation. Some of the muddier shades of orange can reflect pride and flamboyance. It may reflect worry and vanity.

Yellow

Yellow is one of the first and the easiest aura colors to be seen. Pale yellow around the hairline can indicate optimism. Yellow is the color of mental activity and new sunshine. It can reflect new learning opportunities, lightness, wisdom and intellect. The more pastel shades often reflect wisdom and intellect. The more pastel shades often reflect an enthusiasm for something (especially in the pale yellow to white spectrum). Yellow is a color which represents the power of ideas and awakening psychic abilities and clairsentience.

Deeper and muddier shades of yellow can reflect excessive thinking and analyzing. It can reflect being overly critical, feeling of being deprived of recognition and being dogmatic.

Green

Green is the color of sensitivity and growing compassion. It reflects growth, sympathy and calm. It can reflect a person who is reliable, dependable and open-minded. Bright green moving toward the blue spectrum in the aura indicate healing ability. It is a color of abundance, strength and friendliness.

The muddier or darker shades of green can reflect uncertainty and miserliness. The muddier shades often reflect jealousy and possessiveness as well. It can indicate self-doubt and mistrust.

Blue

Blue, next to yellow, is one of the easiest colors to see in the aura. It is the color of calm and quietness. It reflects aevotion, truth and seriousness. It can indicate the ability for clairaudience and for the development of telepathy.

The lighter shades of blue reflect an active imagination and good intuition. The deeper shades of blue can indicate a sense of loneliness, which on one level reflects a life-long quest foe the Divine. The deeper shades of blue reflect levels of devotion. Royal blue shades indicate the person has found or is about to find his or her chosen work.

The muddier shades of blue can reflect blocked perceptions. They can indicate melancholy, rushing and worrying, domineering, fearfulness, forgetfulness and oversensitivity.

Violet and Purple

Violet is the color of warmth and transmutation. It is the color for the blending of the heart and the mind, the physical with the spiritual. It reflects independence and intuition, as well as dynamic and important dream activity. It can reflect one who is searching. The purple shades often reflect an ability to handle affairs with practicality and worldliness. The paler and lighter shades of violet and purple can reflect humility and spirituality. The red-purple shades can indicate great passion strength of will. They may also reflect a need for greater individual effort.

The darker and muddier shades can reflect a need to overcome something. They can also reflect intense erotic imaginations as well. Tendencies toward being overbearing, needing sympathy and feeling misunderstood are also reflected in muddier shades.

Other Colors of the Aura

Pink

Pink is a color of compassion, love and purity. It can reflect joy and comfort and a strong sense of companionship. When seen in the aura, it can indicate the quiet, modest type of individual, along with a love of art and beauty.

Depending on the shade of pink, it can also reflect an immaturity, especially the muddier shades. It can reflect truthfulness or a lack of it. It can also reflect times of new love and new vision.

Gold

Gold is a color that reflects dynamic spiritual energy and a true coming into one's own power. It reflects the higher energies of devotion and great inspiration. It indicates a time of revitalizing.

Muddier shades of gold can indicate the person is still in the process of awakening higher inspiration and has not clarified it yet within his/her life. It reflects the alchemical process still being active; i.e.' the person is still working to turn the lead of his/her life into gold.

White

White is often seen in the aura, prior to any actual colors. It is often seen as a diaphanous shades. White has all colors within it, and when it does appear strongly within the aura, it is often in conjunction with other colors. This is how you can know whether it is an actual energy color or just a poor perception of the aura. When the white does stand out as a color in the aura, it reflects truth and purity. It indicates that the energy of the individual is cleansing and purifying itself. It often reflects an awakening of greater creativity as well.

Gray

Gray is a color of initiation. It can indicate a movement toward unveiling innate abilities. Those shades of gray that lean more toward the silver reflect an awakening of the feminine energies. Those are the energies and abilities of illumination, intuition and creative imagination.

The darker shades of gray can indicate physical imbalances, especially if seen next to specific areas of the physical body. They can also indicate a need to leave no task undone. Much gray in the aura can indicate a person who is secretive and who is the lone wolf type.

Brown

Brown often appears in the auric field. Although many people think of as reflecting a lack of energy or an imbalance, this is not always so. Brown is the color of the earth. When it shown itself in the aura, especially in areas above the head and around the feel, it can reflect new growth. It indicates establishing new roots and a desire to accomplish. It is a color that can reflect industry and organization.

On the other hand, brown across the face or touching the head may indicate a lack of and need for discrimination. It seen in the areas of the chakras, it can indicate that those centers need to be cleaned. It will reflect in such cases a clogging of their energies. Brown is often difficult to interpret, as it can easily reflect problem areas in the physical, but you must be careful about jumping to conclusions when you see it. Feedback from the other person is the best means of understanding it.

Black

Black is one of the most confusing of colors in the auric spectrum. I have heard individuals say that, when black shows up in the aura, it is an indication of death or terrible disease. I have not found that to be true.

Black is a color of protection. It is a color which can shield an individual from outside energies. When seen in the aura, it can reflect that the person is protecting himself or herself. It can also indicate that person has secrets. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as it is not taken to extremes. Black can also indicate that a new understanding of burdens and sacrifices is going to manifest.

Black can also indicate imbalances. Physical imbalances often show up as black or darkened areas in the aura around the physical body. the location provides clues to this. In the outer edges of the aura, black can indicate holes in the auric field. I have seen this in the auras of those who were victims of child abuse and those who are or were strong substance abusers ( alcohol, drugs, tobacco etc.).

Silver Twinklies

Another aspect that I have observed should be mentioned. I have often seen within the aura what look to be soft, twinkling lights. They are usually very sparkly and silver in color. I have found that they indicate one of several things. These "twinklies'" as I call them, are almost always a sign of great creativity and fertility. When they appear within the auric field of a person, it indicates that greater creativity is being activated within the individual's life.

Strengthening and Protecting the Aura

TECHNIQUE # 1

PREVENTING YOURSELF FROM BEING DRAINED

We have all experienced being drained by an-other person. You may talk to him or her on the phone or in person, and, when you finish, you are exhausted. Your stomach may ache etc. What you are experiencing is an energy drain.

Some individuals draw or suck off the energy of others. Most of the time this happens because the individuals involved do not realize it. In many cases they are using your energies to supplement their own rather than building up their own. All they may realize is that, when they finish talking with you or being with you, they feel better. This does not give them a right to take your energy, however, and you should not allow it.

This does not mean that you should accuse this person of being a vampire or say that you will not speak to him or her again because he or she is sucking off your energy. If you do, this person will think you have gone off the deep end. In that case, your problem will be solved, because he or she will probably not care to see you after that. Most people still are not open to the subtle aspects of energy, and you must keep this in mind when dealing with them.

It is easier just to correct the situation without saying a word about it. You can control whether another shares your energy or not. One of the simplest methods is to close your circuit of energy. There are currents of energy flowing through your body and around it within the auric field. You can close them down so that your energies only circulate around your own auric field and throughout your body. You prevent your energies from being drawn off from the aura, and you prevent your aura from drawing in another's energy.

Assuming the posture shown on the next page is all it takes. You cross your feet at the ankles and bring your thumbs and fingers together so they are touching. (If you wish, you can use just your thumbs and index fingers.) This close your circuit. Your energy will not go out from you.

The next time you encounter your friend who drains you, assume this posture. Simply rest your hands casually on your lap, touch your fingers and cross your ankles. It is casual and simple, and no one will suspect you of anything. You can also do this when on the phone with such people.

If you do this, you will get some feedback through other friends as to the effects. You may hear comments such as, "You are just not as nice,' "You are not as open as you has nothing to do with being mad at people. You will still be talking with them as nicely and as often as ever. What you are not doing is allowing them to take your energy! You simply are not allowing them to drain you. Because they are not getting "high" from you, they are assuming something is wrong. No one has the right to take your energy without your permission.

TECHNIQUE # 2

ENERGY BREATHING TECHNIQUE

Fresh air and proper breathing are essential to a strong and vital aura. Breathing for maximum energy to the aura should be done through the nostrils. Many people have a bad habit of mouth breathing, not realizing that nostril breathing is more natural and healthy.

Mouth breathing makes an individual more susceptible to diseases. It impairs the vitality of the aura. It can even weaken the constitution. Between the mouth and the lungs, there is nothing to strain the air. Dust, dirt and other impure substances have a clear track to the lungs. Mouth breathing also admits cold air to the lungs, which can lead to inflammation of the respiratory organs.

Nostril breathing, on the other hand, is more vitalizing and healthy to your entire energy system. The nose provides specialized surfaces for the absorption of prana from the air.Prana can be likened to the vitalizing aspect that exists within air. Many Eastern breathing techniques require a conscious focus upon the tip to the nose and the entire nasal area during inhalation. This enhances the prana absorption, raises the vitality of the entire aura and stimulates the entire energy system of the human being.

The nostrils and the nasal passages are designed with hair to filter and sieve the air. They also warm the air through the mucous membranes. This makes the air fit for the delicate organs of the lungs, and breath is them more energizing and strengthening to your auric field.

In yoga, the moon breath is termed the Ida and the sun breath is termed the Pingala. The balance of the two is Susumna. Your energy has polarity, positive and negative, male and female, sun and moon. This breathing technique quickly energizes the aura and balances the polarity of the body. It also enhances your ability to remember and assimilate information. It balances the hemispheres of the brain. It can be used before studies to shorten learning time. It can also be used as a quick-me-up during the day.

The basic technique is comprised of alternate breaths, breathing in one nostril and then breathing out the other. (Remember that conscious attention to the tip of the nose, especially during the in-breath, will magnify the effects of this technique.) The rhythm is aided by holding the nose with the thumb and fingers.

1. Begin with your right thumb and fingers over your nose and exhale. Place your tonque against the roof of your mouth behind your front teeth.

2. Use your thumb and close your right nostril; then inhale through your left nostril for a slow count of four.

3. Keeping your right nostril closed, clamp your fingers down over your left nostril, pinching your nose closed between your thumb and fingers. Hold for a court of 16. (If you have never performed any concentrated rhythmic breathing, the count of 16 may be too long for you. If this is the case, reduce it or count faster. With practice, you will develop the ability to hold your breath for more extended periods. Try indhaling for a exhaling for a count of three. Work to find the rhythm that is most effective for you and then build upon it.)

4. Release your thumb, opening your right nostril. Keep your left nostril closed with your fingers. Exhale slowly out through your right nostril for a count of eight.

5. Release your nose, raise your left hand up and, with your thumb, close off your left nostril. Inhale for a count of four through your right nostril and then clamp your fingers closed on it. Hold for a count of 16.

6. Release your thumb and your left nostril. Keep your right nostril clamped with your fingers. Exhale for a slow count of eight through your left nostril.

7. Repeat four to five breaths, alternating each side. Breath in one nostril, hold and exhale out the other. Reverse it and repeat the procedure. Do at least four to five breaths for each side for a quick pick-me-up. This will saturate your entire body and aura with quick energy.

TECHNIQUE # 3

THE CLEANSING VORTEX

This exercise is a visualization exercise for cleansing and purifying your entire auric field. It is an excellent exercise to perform at the end of a day, especially at those times when you have interacted with a great many people. It helps sweep out energy debris, preventing it from accumulating and creating imbalance within the auric field. It only takes about five minutes to be effective.

1. Take a seated position and perform a progressive relaxation. Performing the breathing technique just described is beneficial as a preparation for this exercise. You may want to use a simple prayer or mantra as well. Remember that the exercise as presented here is a guideline, and you should learn to abapt it to your own energies.

2. About 20 feet above you, in your mind's eye, visualize a small whirlwind of crystalline white fire beginning to form. It looks like a small, visualize it so that it is large enough to encompass your entire auric field. The small end of the funnel should be visualized as capable of entering through the crown of your head and passing down the middle pillar of your body .

3. This whirlwind of spiritual fire should be seen as rotating and spinning clockwise. As it touches your aura, see it as sucking up and burning off all of the energy debris you have accumulated.

4. See, fell and imagine it moving down, over and through your entire aura and body. Know that it is sweeping your energy field clean of all the extraneous energies you have accumulated throughout the day.

5. As it moves through your body, allow this energy vortex to exit out through your feet down into the heart of the earth itself. See the vortex as carrying this energy debris into the lower realms, where it is used to fertilize and benefit the lower kingdoms of life upon and within the planet.

What is leisure?

Leisure is that portion of time not obligated by subsistence or existence demands. It represents discretionary or free time, time in which one may make voluntary choices of experience.

Leisure is usually regarded as a synonym for frivolity. The things you do when you have nothing useful to do are called leisure activities. To do something slowly, ploddingly or inefficiently is described as doing it in a leisurely manner.

Yet the old definition of leisure (from the Oxford English Dictionary), "the freedom or opportunity to do something specified or implied," should alert us that leisure is extraordinarily important. "Something specified or implied" can be any action whatever. This degree of generality tells us that leisure is a fundamental of action.

That was Aristotle's view. Aristotle, who was certainly not given to rash and thoughtless hyperbole, repeatedly emphasized the importance of leisure (schole). "As I must repeat once again, the first principle of all action is leisure." (Pol., Bk VII, 3) Indeed, "we are busy that we may have leisure." (Nich. Eth. Bk X, 7.) According to Aristotle, leisure is the goal of busy-ness, of what we call labor. Aristotle is the first, and so far the only philosopher, to have held the doctrine that I call scholism: the view that leisure is a fundamental human value. He did not, however, give a formal account of its nature.

The common definition of leisure as "time off work" or "time for play" points out an important aspect of leisure: time. It specifies the nature of the freedom or opportunity which is involved in leisure: leisure is time available for action. Unfortunately, to define leisure as time off work is like defining money as a commodity which can be exchanged for useless luxuries. Such a definition of money would blind us to the practical uses of money, and the common definition of leisure blinds us to the profoundly practical uses of leisure.

To grasp the full significance of leisure, we must recognize it as time available for any action whatever. When you set aside an hour, day or decade for a particular project, you are devoting an hour, day or decade of your leisure to that project. Whether your project is utterly frivolous or profoundly serious, you require leisure for it. Leisure is a basic resource which is necessary for, and which is used up in, the performance of any action whatever, and therefore in pursuit or enjoyment of any value whatever.

So, what is leisure? To devote your leisure to some action means to devote your mental and physical powers to that action for that period of time. It means to devote your life to that action for that period of time. A minute or hour of your leisure is a minute or hour of your life. Your leisure is your life. Formally, leisure is an individual human life as measured by time. Informally, leisure is the time of your life.

Leisure is a value because life is a value. Leisure is just life regarded as a series of measured portions.

What is Leisure Sickness?

If on weekends, you have trouble sleeping, feel nauseous, exhausted, get cold or flu symptoms or headaches, and particularly if you get ill on vacations, you may be suffering from leisure sickness. In the late 20th century, Ad Vingerhoets and Maaike van Huijgevoort, psychologists at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, first studied the syndrome of leisure sickness. Essentially, Vingerhoets and van Huijgevoort found that many people seem to get ill on weekends and vacations, not from viral based diseases, but from the fact that they are not working.

In addition to the symptoms mentioned above, leisure sickness is associated with aches and pains and an overall feeling of fatigue. Those who suffer from the condition may also have lousy vacations, because they frequently feel ill or lack the energy to enjoy the activities they planned to do. Leisure sickness is considered psychosomatic, because most people in the midst of it are not suffering from any viral or bacterial illness.

In the early studies done by these psychologists, it appeared that certain personality types are most likely to encounter leisure sickness. People who typically are overworked, expressed a lot of stress around working, or who rarely took time off from work were often leisure sickness victims. Others who tended to be affected by leisure sickness were those for whom planning vacations was viewed as especially stressful. In contrast, those people who did not report leisure sickness were likely to exhibit healthy attitudes toward work, had a balanced work and social life, and enjoyed vacation planning, not viewing it as stressful.

For some people, the sudden transition from job orientation to leisure orientation brought on symptoms of leisure sickness. It is as though people really did not know what to do with themselves, even when they had plans, because their central focus was generally on working. This manifested in the body as symptoms of stress, which in turn manifested symptoms of illness.

When people took long vacations, many reported feeling better from leisure sickness symptoms after about a week. Still some reported always being sick on vacations, no matter the length. In the first scenario, it appears that some people are able to shift their focus into a leisure instead of working mode and recover from leisure sickness after being off the job for a while.

It does appear that addressing attitudes toward work can help leisure sickness. Many who reported leisure sickness also reported thinking about work much of the time when they were not working. Some people also noted that they felt guilty for not working in their off time. It’s fairly easy to draw lines between preoccupation with work, stress, and illness.

The suggestion, however, is that curing leisure sickness means changing attitudes about work. This might mean allowing yourself to feel entitled to vacations, and during your workweek, still participating in social activities so that there is a better balance between work and relaxation. From a stress standpoint, many people are able to feel less stress when they deliberately focus on the present, not allowing their jobs to “come home with them.” This can’t always be mastered, but if every vacation represents another bout of leisure sickness, it might well be worth investigating how to change your attitude toward work.

QUOTES: Leisure

"If, then, it seems to you that our investigation is in a satisfactory condition, there must remain for all of you the task of extending us your pardon for the shortcomings of the inquiry, and for the discoveries thereof your warm thanks."
-Aristotle, On Sophistical Refutations

"Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions."

- Mark Twain

"Few Americans even know what 'leisure' really means, and commonly confuse it with recreation or time off from work, even if that time is spent doing chores."
- Shannon Mullen, "Millenium Changes Definition of Leisure", USA Today (5/27/99)

"The individual, in our society, works for profit; but the social purpose of his work lies in the consumption of what he produces. It is this divorce between the individual and the social purpose of production that makes it so difficult for men to think clearly in a world in which profit-making is the incentive to industry."
- Bertrand Russell
"In a society that enforces a schizoid split between Work and Leisure, we have all experienced the trivialization of our "free time", time which is organized neither as work nor as leisure."

- Hakim Bey

"[Play] comes to be viewed by its participants as pleasurable but inessential, except as an interstice between sleep and productive labor. [But] the substance of human liberation may be realized in the play element...play represents the flowering of the imagination unfettered by the constraints of material necessity."

- Stanley Aronowitz, False Promises

"The creative and rewarding use of leisure should be at least as central a concern as the need for meaningful work."
- Paul Wachtel, The Poverty of Affluence

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