Aura Significance and meaning of Natural Aura Colors
Red, of a shade resembling the dull flame when it bursts out of a burning building, mingled with the smoke, represents sensuality and the animal passions.
Red, seen in the shape of bright-red flashes resembling the lightning flash in shape, indicated anger.
Red, seen in the shape of bright-red flashes resembling the lightning flash in shape, indicated anger.
Various Aura Examples
These are usually shown on a black background in the case of anger arising from hatred or malice, but in cases of anger arising from jealousy they appear on a greenish background. Anger arising from indignation or defense of a supposed "right," lacks these backgrounds, and usually shows as red flashes independent of a background.
Various Aura Examples
Green, of a dirty shade, represents jealousy. If much anger is mingled with the jealousy, it will appear as red flashes on the green background. Green, of almost a slate-color shade, represents low deceit.
Green, of a peculiar bright shade, represents tolerance to the opinions and beliefs of others, easy adjustment to changing conditions, adaptability, tact, politeness, worldly wisdom, etc., and qualities which some might possible consider "refined deceit."
Green Aura
Black represents hatred, malice, revenge, and similar feelings. Gray, of a bright shade, represents selfishness.
Gray, of a peculiar shade (almost that of a corpse), represents fear and terror.
Gray, of a peculiar shade (almost that of a corpse), represents fear and terror.
Crimson represents love, varying in shade according to the character of the passion. A gross sensual love will be dull and heavy crimson, while one mixed with higher feelings will appear in lighter and more pleasing shades. A very high form of love shows a color almost approaching a beautiful rose color.
Brown, of a reddish tinge, represents avarice and greed.
Orange, of a bright shade, represents pride and ambition.
Yellow, in its various shades, represents intellectual power. If the intellect contents itself with things of a low order, the shade is a dark, dull yellow; and as the field of the intellect rises to higher levels, the color grows brighter and clearer, a beautiful golden yellow betokening great intellectual attainment, broad and brilliant reasoning, etc.
Yellow Aura
Blue, of a dark shade, represents religious thought, emotion, and feeling. This color, however, varies in clearness according to the degree of unselfishness manifest in the religious conception.
Blue Aura
The shades and degrees of clarity vary from a dull indigo to a beautiful rich violet, the latter representing the highest religious feeling. Light Blue, of a peculiarly clear and luminous shade, represents spirituality. Some of the higher degrees of spirituality observed in ordinary mankind show themselves in this shade of blue filled with luminous bright points, sparkling and twinkling like stars on a clear winter night. One will remember that these colors form endless combinations and blendings, and show themselves in greatly varying degrees of brightness and size, all of which have meanings to the developed occultist.
In addition to the colors mentioned above, there are several others for which we have no names, as they are outside of the colors visible in the spectrum, and consequently science, not being able to perceive them, has not thought it necessary to bestow definite names upon them, although they exist theoretically. Science tells us that there are also what are known as "ultraviolet" rays and "ultra-red" rays, neither of which can be followed by the human eyes, even with the aid of mechanical appliances, the vibrations being beyond our senses. These two "ultra" colors (and several others unknown to science) are known to occultists and may be seen by the person with certain psychic powers. The significance of this statement may be more fully grasped when we state that when seen in the Human Aura either of these "ultra" colors indicates psychic development, the degree of intensity depending upon the degree of development. Another remarkable fact, to those who have not thought of the matter, is that the "ultraviolet" color in the Aura indicates psychic development when used on a high and unselfish plane, while "the ultra-red" color, when seen in the Human Aura, indicates that the person has psychic development, but is using the same for selfish and unworthy purposes--black magic," in fact. The ultraviolet rays lie just outside of an extreme of the visible spectrum known to science, while the "ultra-red" rays lie just beyond the other extreme. The vibrations of the first are too high for the ordinary human eye to sense, while the second comprises vibrations as excessively low as the first is excessively high. And the real difference between the two forms of psychic power is as great as is indicated by the respective positions of these two "ultra" colors. In addition to the two "ultra" colors just alluded to, there is another which is invisible to the ordinary sight -- the true primary yellow, which indicates of the Spiritual Illumination and which is faintly seen around the heads of the spiritually great. The color which we are taught characterizes the seventh principle, Spirit, is said to be of pure white light, of a peculiar brilliancy, the like of which has never been seen by human eye -- in fact, the very existence of absolute "white light" is denied by Western science.
The Aura emanating from the Instinctive Mind principally comprises heavier and duller shades. In sleep, when the mind is quiet, there appears chiefly a certain dull red, which indicates that the Instinctive Mind is merely performing the body's animal functions. This shade, of course, is always apparent, but during the waking hours it is often obscured by the brighter shades of the passing thoughts, emotions or feelings.Right here it would be well to state that even while the mind emotions or feelings remains calm there hover in the Aura shades which indicate a man's predominant tendencies, so that his stage of advancement and development as well as his "tastes" and other features of his personality may be easily distinguished. When the mind is swept by a strong passion, feeling, or emotion, the entire Aura seems to be colored by the particular shade or shades representing it. For instance, a violent fit of anger causes the whole Aura to show bright red flashes upon a black background, almost eclipsing the other colors. This state lasts for a longer or shorter time, according to the strength of the passion. If people could but have a glimpse of the Human Aura when so colored, they would become so horrified at the dreadful sight that they would be far more hesitant about flying into rage -- it resembles the flames and smoke of the devil's "pit" and, in fact, the human mind in such a condition becomes a veritable hell temporarily. A strong wave of love sweeping over the mind will cause the entire Aura to show crimson; the shade will depend upon the character of the passion. Likewise, a burst of religious feeling will bestow upon the entire Aura a blue tinge, as explained in the table of colors. In short, a strong emotion, feeling, or passion causes the entire Aura to take on its color while the feeling lasts. You will see from what we have said that there are two aspects to the color feature of the Aura; the first depending upon the predominant thoughts habitually manifesting in the mind of the person; the second depending upon the particular feeling, emotion, or passion (if any) is dominating him, at that particular time.
The student will realize readily that as the man develops and unfolds he becomes less and less prey to passing passions, emotions, or feelings emanating from the Instinctive Mind, and that Intellect, and then Spiritual Mind, manifest themselves instead of lying dormant in a latent condition. Remembering this, he will readily see how great a difference there must be between the Aura of an undeveloped man and that of the developed man. The one is a mass of dull, heavy, gross colors, the entire mass being frequently flooded by the color of some passing emotion, feeling, or passion. The other shows the higher colors and is very much clearer, being but little disturbed by feelings, emotion, and passions, all of which have been brought largely under the control of the will.
The man who has Intellect well developed shows an Aura flooded with the beautiful golden yellow betokening intellectuality. This color in such cases is particularly apparent in the upper part of the Aura, surrounding the head and shoulders of the man, the more animal colors sinking to the lower part of the Aura. Read the remarks under the head of "Yellow in the color table in this lesson. When the man's Intellect has absorbed the idea of spirituality and devotes itself to the acquirement of spiritual power, development, and unfoldment, this yellow will show around its edges a light blue of a peculiarly clear and luminous shade. This peculiar light blue is indicative of what is generally called "spirituality," but which is simply "intellectual-spirituality," if you will pardon the use of the somewhat paradoxical term -- it is not the same thing as Spiritual Mind, but is merely Intellect impregnated by Spiritual Mind, to use another troublesome term. In some cases when this intellect is in a highly developed state, the luminous light blue shows as a broad fringe or border often being larger than the center itself, and in addition, in special cases, the light blue is filled with brilliant luminous points, sparkling and twinkling like stars on a clear winter night. These bright points indicate that the color of the Aura of the Spiritual Mind is asserting itself, and shows that Spiritual Consciousness has either become momentarily evident to the man or is about to become so in the near future. This is a point upon which much confusion has arisen in the minds of students and even teachers of occultism. The next paragraph will also shed further light upon the matter.
The Aura emanating from the Spiritual Mind, or sixth principle, bears the color of the true primary yellow, which is invisible to ordinary sight and which cannot be reproduced artificially by man. It centers around the head of the spiritually illumined, and at times produces a peculiar glow which can even be seen by undeveloped people. This is particularly true when the spiritually developed person is engaged in earnest discourse or teaching, at these times his countenance seems fairly to glow and to possess a luminosity of a peculiar kind. The nimbus shown in pictures of mankind's great spiritual leaders results from a tradition based on a fact actually experienced by the early followers of such leaders. The "halo" or glory shown on pictures arises from the same fact.
Because most of Ramacharaka's descriptions accord with the teachings of Blavatsky, Leadbeater and other Theosophists, it would be a mistake to assume that he is writing on the basis of either careful measurements or personal experience. From the perspective of a biocomputer model of mental functioning, one might view the perception of auric colors as a particular way some individuals program their minds to function, i.e., as the result of cultural conditioning or autoconditioning enhanced by the altered state of consciousness induced through meditation and yogic practices.If we view the mind/brain system as a biocomputer, we could say that there are various sensory inputs (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin) and various internal perceptual display systems (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch). It is entirely possible that the input from one sensory mode could be displayed internally using a modality normally reserved for a different sensory mode. Thus, under the influence of hypnotic suggestion or psychedelic drugs, individuals often report "seeing music." This well-known phenomena is referred to as anesthesia.
A very reasonable explanation of the human aura as reported by psychics is that this is also a form of anesthesia -- a special way we can program ourselves to display information in the sensorium of our minds. The inputs for this display pattern could conceivably arrive from any sensory (or extrasensory) modality, could be derived from intuitive or logical processing, or could be generated from the bio computer programming (i.e., cultural condition and auto conditioning) itself. An amusing anecdote relating to the perception of the human aura on the "astral level" comes from the Texas psychic Ray Stanford. Ray, who seems to be very proficient at seeing auras, visited his twin brother Rex, a parapsychologist then at the University of Virginia; he gave a demonstration of his talents before a small group of researchers assembled by his brother. One of the guests was Dr. Robert Van de Castle, the director of the sleep and dream laboratory. Ray noticed a number of pink spots in the aura around Van de Castle's abdomen. This perception puzzled him since it is one he normally associated with pregnant women; and he remarked to Dr. Van de Castle, "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were pregnant." This drew some laughter from the audience. However, Van de Castle then reflected that he had been analyzing the dreams of pregnant women all morning and had even remarked earlier that day that he was beginning to feel like a pregnant woman himself.
In addition to the colors mentioned above, there are several others for which we have no names, as they are outside of the colors visible in the spectrum, and consequently science, not being able to perceive them, has not thought it necessary to bestow definite names upon them, although they exist theoretically. Science tells us that there are also what are known as "ultraviolet" rays and "ultra-red" rays, neither of which can be followed by the human eyes, even with the aid of mechanical appliances, the vibrations being beyond our senses. These two "ultra" colors (and several others unknown to science) are known to occultists and may be seen by the person with certain psychic powers. The significance of this statement may be more fully grasped when we state that when seen in the Human Aura either of these "ultra" colors indicates psychic development, the degree of intensity depending upon the degree of development. Another remarkable fact, to those who have not thought of the matter, is that the "ultraviolet" color in the Aura indicates psychic development when used on a high and unselfish plane, while "the ultra-red" color, when seen in the Human Aura, indicates that the person has psychic development, but is using the same for selfish and unworthy purposes--black magic," in fact. The ultraviolet rays lie just outside of an extreme of the visible spectrum known to science, while the "ultra-red" rays lie just beyond the other extreme. The vibrations of the first are too high for the ordinary human eye to sense, while the second comprises vibrations as excessively low as the first is excessively high. And the real difference between the two forms of psychic power is as great as is indicated by the respective positions of these two "ultra" colors. In addition to the two "ultra" colors just alluded to, there is another which is invisible to the ordinary sight -- the true primary yellow, which indicates of the Spiritual Illumination and which is faintly seen around the heads of the spiritually great. The color which we are taught characterizes the seventh principle, Spirit, is said to be of pure white light, of a peculiar brilliancy, the like of which has never been seen by human eye -- in fact, the very existence of absolute "white light" is denied by Western science.
The Aura emanating from the Instinctive Mind principally comprises heavier and duller shades. In sleep, when the mind is quiet, there appears chiefly a certain dull red, which indicates that the Instinctive Mind is merely performing the body's animal functions. This shade, of course, is always apparent, but during the waking hours it is often obscured by the brighter shades of the passing thoughts, emotions or feelings.Right here it would be well to state that even while the mind emotions or feelings remains calm there hover in the Aura shades which indicate a man's predominant tendencies, so that his stage of advancement and development as well as his "tastes" and other features of his personality may be easily distinguished. When the mind is swept by a strong passion, feeling, or emotion, the entire Aura seems to be colored by the particular shade or shades representing it. For instance, a violent fit of anger causes the whole Aura to show bright red flashes upon a black background, almost eclipsing the other colors. This state lasts for a longer or shorter time, according to the strength of the passion. If people could but have a glimpse of the Human Aura when so colored, they would become so horrified at the dreadful sight that they would be far more hesitant about flying into rage -- it resembles the flames and smoke of the devil's "pit" and, in fact, the human mind in such a condition becomes a veritable hell temporarily. A strong wave of love sweeping over the mind will cause the entire Aura to show crimson; the shade will depend upon the character of the passion. Likewise, a burst of religious feeling will bestow upon the entire Aura a blue tinge, as explained in the table of colors. In short, a strong emotion, feeling, or passion causes the entire Aura to take on its color while the feeling lasts. You will see from what we have said that there are two aspects to the color feature of the Aura; the first depending upon the predominant thoughts habitually manifesting in the mind of the person; the second depending upon the particular feeling, emotion, or passion (if any) is dominating him, at that particular time.
The student will realize readily that as the man develops and unfolds he becomes less and less prey to passing passions, emotions, or feelings emanating from the Instinctive Mind, and that Intellect, and then Spiritual Mind, manifest themselves instead of lying dormant in a latent condition. Remembering this, he will readily see how great a difference there must be between the Aura of an undeveloped man and that of the developed man. The one is a mass of dull, heavy, gross colors, the entire mass being frequently flooded by the color of some passing emotion, feeling, or passion. The other shows the higher colors and is very much clearer, being but little disturbed by feelings, emotion, and passions, all of which have been brought largely under the control of the will.
The man who has Intellect well developed shows an Aura flooded with the beautiful golden yellow betokening intellectuality. This color in such cases is particularly apparent in the upper part of the Aura, surrounding the head and shoulders of the man, the more animal colors sinking to the lower part of the Aura. Read the remarks under the head of "Yellow in the color table in this lesson. When the man's Intellect has absorbed the idea of spirituality and devotes itself to the acquirement of spiritual power, development, and unfoldment, this yellow will show around its edges a light blue of a peculiarly clear and luminous shade. This peculiar light blue is indicative of what is generally called "spirituality," but which is simply "intellectual-spirituality," if you will pardon the use of the somewhat paradoxical term -- it is not the same thing as Spiritual Mind, but is merely Intellect impregnated by Spiritual Mind, to use another troublesome term. In some cases when this intellect is in a highly developed state, the luminous light blue shows as a broad fringe or border often being larger than the center itself, and in addition, in special cases, the light blue is filled with brilliant luminous points, sparkling and twinkling like stars on a clear winter night. These bright points indicate that the color of the Aura of the Spiritual Mind is asserting itself, and shows that Spiritual Consciousness has either become momentarily evident to the man or is about to become so in the near future. This is a point upon which much confusion has arisen in the minds of students and even teachers of occultism. The next paragraph will also shed further light upon the matter.
The Aura emanating from the Spiritual Mind, or sixth principle, bears the color of the true primary yellow, which is invisible to ordinary sight and which cannot be reproduced artificially by man. It centers around the head of the spiritually illumined, and at times produces a peculiar glow which can even be seen by undeveloped people. This is particularly true when the spiritually developed person is engaged in earnest discourse or teaching, at these times his countenance seems fairly to glow and to possess a luminosity of a peculiar kind. The nimbus shown in pictures of mankind's great spiritual leaders results from a tradition based on a fact actually experienced by the early followers of such leaders. The "halo" or glory shown on pictures arises from the same fact.
Because most of Ramacharaka's descriptions accord with the teachings of Blavatsky, Leadbeater and other Theosophists, it would be a mistake to assume that he is writing on the basis of either careful measurements or personal experience. From the perspective of a biocomputer model of mental functioning, one might view the perception of auric colors as a particular way some individuals program their minds to function, i.e., as the result of cultural conditioning or autoconditioning enhanced by the altered state of consciousness induced through meditation and yogic practices.If we view the mind/brain system as a biocomputer, we could say that there are various sensory inputs (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin) and various internal perceptual display systems (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch). It is entirely possible that the input from one sensory mode could be displayed internally using a modality normally reserved for a different sensory mode. Thus, under the influence of hypnotic suggestion or psychedelic drugs, individuals often report "seeing music." This well-known phenomena is referred to as anesthesia.
A very reasonable explanation of the human aura as reported by psychics is that this is also a form of anesthesia -- a special way we can program ourselves to display information in the sensorium of our minds. The inputs for this display pattern could conceivably arrive from any sensory (or extrasensory) modality, could be derived from intuitive or logical processing, or could be generated from the bio computer programming (i.e., cultural condition and auto conditioning) itself. An amusing anecdote relating to the perception of the human aura on the "astral level" comes from the Texas psychic Ray Stanford. Ray, who seems to be very proficient at seeing auras, visited his twin brother Rex, a parapsychologist then at the University of Virginia; he gave a demonstration of his talents before a small group of researchers assembled by his brother. One of the guests was Dr. Robert Van de Castle, the director of the sleep and dream laboratory. Ray noticed a number of pink spots in the aura around Van de Castle's abdomen. This perception puzzled him since it is one he normally associated with pregnant women; and he remarked to Dr. Van de Castle, "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were pregnant." This drew some laughter from the audience. However, Van de Castle then reflected that he had been analyzing the dreams of pregnant women all morning and had even remarked earlier that day that he was beginning to feel like a pregnant woman himself.
Experimental Tests of the Aura
You might think it would be relatively simple for scientists to test the objectivity of the aura, by comparing the independent observations of a number of psychics. In fact, the problem is difficult and there has been very little systematic research. For one thing, if the observations are being made at different moments of time, it is possible the aura could change appearance. Also, a truly objective study would want to rule out any other sensory cues that could be confused with the aura. Charles Tart has suggested that the target person for such a study be hidden behind an opaque screen shaped so only the aura should be visible beyond its perimeter and not the physical body at all. To my knowledge, eighteen years after Tart's proposal, there have still been no satisfactory experiments of this type.
In a study conducted by Dr. A. R. G. Owen of Toronto, fourteen different psychics made independent observations of the aura of a single subject. The reported descriptions show wide variation that, according to Owen, "seems to go beyond that degree of variability in the aura, that according to percipients of auras, is to be expected as a result of temporal variations in the physical, emotional or mental state of the possessor of the aura." However the study took place over a one year period. Going over the data, I myself was struck by the similarity of reports made by different observers on the same day. Owen maintained there was no cogent evidence the subject was in different physical or emotional states during the different days of experimentation. It does not appear he was looking for subtle emotional changes. The fact that lighting conditions were different on the different days of experimentation further confuses the data. Furthermore, some subjects saw the aura with their eyes open, while at least one subject viewed the aura with his eyes closed.
***************************
And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.
~Confucius
****************************
