Aura (paranormal)

According to spiritual beliefs, an aura or energy field is a colored emanation said to enclose a human body or any animal or object.

[3] In spiritual alternative medicine, the human being aura is seen as part of a hidden anatomy that reflects the state of being and health of a client, often understood to even comprise centers of vital force called chakras.

[6][7] The concept of auras was first popularized by Charles Webster Leadbeater, a former priest of the Church of England and a member of the mystic Theosophical Society.

[14] In the following years, Leadbeater's ideas on the aura and chakras were adopted and reinterpreted by other theosophists such as Rudolf Steiner[15] and Edgar Cayce, but his occult anatomy remained of minor interest within the esoteric counterculture until the 1980s, when it was picked up by the New Age movement.

[16] In 1977, American esotericist Christopher Hills published the book Nuclear Evolution: The Rainbow Body, which presented a modified version of Leadbeater's occult anatomy.

[24] There have been numerous attempts to capture an energy field around the human body, going as far back as photographs by French physician Hippolyte Baraduc in the 1890s.

One test involved an aura reader standing on one side of a room with an opaque partition separating her from a number of slots which might contain either actual people or mannequins.

[36][37] Neurologists contend that people may perceive auras because of effects within the brain: epilepsy, migraines, or the influence of psychedelic drugs such as LSD.

[40] However, a 2012 study discovered no link between auras and synaesthesia, concluding "the discrepancies found suggest that both phenomena are phenomenological and behaviourally dissimilar.

"[41] Clinical neurologist Steven Novella has written: "Given the weight of the evidence it seems that the connection between auras and synaesthesia is speculative and based on superficial similarities that are likely coincidental.

[citation needed] Bridgette Perez, in a review for the Skeptical Inquirer, wrote: "perceptual distortions, illusions, and hallucinations might promote belief in auras...

Psychological factors, including absorption, fantasy proneness, vividness of visual imagery, and after-images, might also be responsible for the phenomena of the aura.