Envelope of Light: A Phenomenon That May Surround The Human Body

Envelope of Light: A Phenomenon that May Surround the Human Body

In Somerset England, during World War I folk song collector Ruth L. Tongue befriended a young soldier, Dick Garland, who was recovering from wounds receive in France. One night just before he returned to the western front, Garland sang several songs for her. Then he got up to go, and as he stood in the doorway, Ruth saw a black shadow around his head and shoulders.

Ruth was one of those rare individuals who claim they see the human aura, a glow of colored light said to surround the whole body. To her, the darkness around Garland was the shadow of death. Less than a week after his return to France, the young man was killed.

Psychic healer Edgar Cayce was another who claimed to be aware of people’s auras. Based on the colors he saw, he said that he could accurately assess a person’s physical and psychological state.

The Meaning of Color

The phenomenon is by no means new to mystics. Over the centuries a consensus has emerged, defining the meaning of each color in the aura. Each color has its positive and negative aspects, and its exact significance depends on the state of the other colors in aura.

A strong presence of red, for instance, indicates a willful personality; it may signify selfishness, physical strength, or powers of leadership. Green is the color of nature and healing, but may reveal a deceitful character. Orange is an indicator of physical health. A strong yellow presence reveals intellectual abilities. Blue refers to a person’s religious or spiritual state: the deeper the blue, the more enlightened the individual. Black is the color of death, malice or melancholy personality.

Scientific Trials

Several investigators have claimed that the human aura is detectable by mechanical means. In 1911 Dr. Walter J. Kilner published an account of his researches entitled The Human Atmosphere, and each copy of his book included a lens containing a chemical dye. With this, Kilner said, it was possible to see the aura, in three separate layers, extending as far as two feet from the human body; the condition of the aura depended upon the health of the body.

Few others found Kilner’s lenses effective, however, and his research was greeted with derision by medical colleagues.

A similar fate met the work of a Russian inventor, Semyon Kirlian, when it reached the West in the 1970’s. Kirlian believed that he had succeeded in photographing the aura by placing his subjects within high-voltage electrical fields. The remarkable effects of what became known as Kirlian photography are due entirely to the physical factors, such as sweat, although they can be used in medical diagnosis.

Aura of Light: Named for its inventor, Semyon Kirlian, in 1939, Kirlian photography claims to capture the aura many mystics and clairvoyants say surrounds all living things. Top is an apple photographed with a conventional camera. At above: The apple, photographed with Kirlian high-voltage techniques, has a “corona” around it.

Saints and Holy Man

In 1973 scientist Dr. Lyall Watson suggested that the aura seen by mystics and sensitive is a physical emanation, although it is visible only to people with eyes especially sensitive to low-frequency light. This idea may lend credence to the reports of auras and halos that, through the ages, people say they have seen surrounding saints and holy men.

For example, on returning from Mount Sinai, with the Tablets of the Law, Moses glowed so brightly that he alarmed people and had to cover himself with a veil. Among many medieval examples, the 14th century Franciscan monk Blessed Thomas of Cori lit up an entire church with the radiance of his faith, while the cell of Saint Louis Bertran was regularly lit up as if by powerful lamps.

Such accounts suggest that the aura is a physical phenomenon; the effect of profound spirituality would appear to heighten the normally invisible aura in such a way that even people lacking special sensitivity see it. Paradoxically, therefore, it may be the most spiritual people who provide the best proof that the human aura is not simply an illusion.