The Human Aura
by W. J. Colville
Lecture III.
The Human Aura as an Indicator of Health and Character, with Reflections on the Aura of Habitations.
To the clairvoyant who can see the human aura distinctly, whether in the dark or in the light, the vision of it is a very great aid in the important work of rightful diagnosis and prognosis. Clairvoyance is susceptible of cultivation, though in some instances it is unmistakably a natural endowment or gift; but when such is the case we are by no means justified in deciding that it cannot be more perfectly unfolded by judicious exercise.
There seems much confusion of thought prevalent in the world today regarding natural gifts and their possible cultivation, but the mystery enveloping this subject will soon disappear if we take reason for our guide and pay proper attention to general human experience. Take music or any other art as an example. Nothing can be much more self-evident than that musical genius is inherent or inborn: this has been demonstrated to such an extent with such [50] brilliant examples as Handel, Mozart and others of rare ability, that the saying, "poets are born, not made," is as applicable in principle to musicians in general as to bards in particular. But granting that Sarasate is a born violinist, and Paderewski a born pianist, we have not any difficulty in tracing the fact that these singularly gifted instrumentalists owe their continued proficiency as performers on their respective instruments to unceasing practice; their execution could not continue brilliant unless they kept themselves constantly in training or in trim. The case is not radically different when we turn our attention to those peculiarly sensitive individuals whose field of action is especially in the psychic realm, for though numberless instances may be cited of "mediumistic" children whose psychic susceptibilities manifested themselves quite spontaneously, we shall soon come to see, if we pursue our investigations at all extensively, that if the fires of inspiration are not constantly fed with aspiration they soon sink down and burn dimly, even though they are never totally extinguished.
The extremely delicate aura which encircles a particularly sensitive person is no more adapted for the ordinary man or woman who is called to do rough work in the world than a [51] muslin dress is adapted for wear outdoors in stormy weather. Sensitives of the most pronounced type have their certain uses, and they need in these days the same sheltered environment which was freely granted to them in the palmy days of ancient or classic Paganism. The materialistic Christianity of recent centuries has almost banished seership from the earth in consequence of the crass ignorance of its professors concerning psychic life and law, but with the revived interest, now nearly everywhere conspicuous, in psychic phenomena, the probability of reviving the old temple methods is becoming daily more encouraging. To all students of the Mysteries of Egypt and of Greece who look below the mere surface of ritual and ceremony, it is quite evident that the aura of buildings was considered a matter of great importance, and in Christendom the ancient faith has always, to an extent, survived, especially in those countries where churches are held particularly sacred. The very objectionable practice, sadly in vogue in Europe, of making churches very largely show places, tends to emphasize the lamentable decline in knowledge which pervades the ecclesiastical confraternity, for every one who knows something of the effect of turning sanctuaries into [52] playgrounds understands how detrimental is the effect of thus vulgarizing temples originally set apart for spiritual uses to the exclusion of even honest secular associations. There are certain secular uses, purely educational, for which consecrated places may profitably be employed, but the search for valuable knowledge on the part of sincere and earnest students bears no relationship to gaping curiosity and idle sightseeing. Mohammedans preserve the aura of their mosques far more effectually than European Christians preserve the aura of their churches. There is no sin in any form of harmless recreation or innocent amusement, and there is no vice in simple levity, but the atmosphere is so affected by frivolity that a place soon becomes unfavorable for purposes of high devotion and noble consecration which is given over extensively to simple amusement seeking.
The healing effects of the temple sleep, for which many historians have vouched, can be readily accounted for on a strictly scientific basis directly one considers how zealously guarded were the sanctuaries in which those wonders of recuperation were performed. The disagreeable expression, "a sick room," is quite accurate, for the chambers in which invalids [53] are usually confined are anything but healthy, and this unwholesomeness which usually characterizes them is due, in large measure, to the gloomy, depressing thoughts which are generated within their walls and also carried into them from the outside. It has become an almost universal practice to approach a "sick chamber" with a stealthy tread, an uncanny manner and a stiltedly subdued voice. These bad practices are well meant, but they are extremely mischievous, performing, as they do, a twofold bad result, for they not only serve to further depress an already unduly depressed atmosphere, but they also render all who indulge in them susceptible to an influx of disease when coming in contact with a sufferer. The HEALTH AURA, whether of a person or of an apartment, when well developed, is firm and, in a mild sense, it may even be called aggressive. "There went forth virtue out of him," is a very explicit statement applied to a healer of unusual vigor and efficiency. Virtue (from virtus) means strength, energy, force, proceeding from Vir, the superior man, in contradistinction from the merely animal emanations proceeding from Homo, the ordinary man. Virtue, in the technical sense, may be defined as unusual copiousness of health aura.
A fine suggestion is given in the eighth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, where we are informed that a leper said to Jesus, "If thou wilt thou canst make me clean." The special point in the narrative would be entirely missed did we fail to note the important fact that the leper was evidently reached in the first instance by the emanation of virtue from the healer before the healer undertook to turn his attention to the leper. Leprosy was, and still is, in many places, regarded as an incurable disease, and the fact of a man thus afflicted expressing his conviction that he could be healed goes very far to illustrate the feeling of one who come into palpable though unexpected contact with a mightier healing force than any which he had been taught to believe existed.
The aura of an Adept or Master differs greatly in degree from that of a disciple, though the disciple's aura may be much of the same quality as his Master's if that disciple is far along the road of discipleship.
An aura is far more frequently felt than seen, because it requires a somewhat unusually high degree of clairvoyance to see what is usually quite readily felt. Though we are commonly accustomed to speak of our five [55] senses, which we designate, respectively. Sight, Hearing, Taste, Touch and Smell, we are really in possession of a single all-including sense which can be rightfully denominated Feeling, and it is through the agency of this all-pervading sense or perceptive faculty that we are enabled to perceive the distinctive auras of persons and places immediately we come into atmospheric contact with them. There is much of truth in the old couplet:
"I do not like you, Dr. Fell,
The reason why, I cannot tell,"
but it is far from universal that we do not like "Dr. Fell." When brought into his surroundings, we very often like him very much indeed, and because we are so strongly attracted to him, though we may remain quite ignorant of his antecedents, and also of his system of practice, we are at once benefited by the doctor himself. Neither medical nor mental treatment can ever be adequately explained unless we are prepared to consider the question of aura as it directly pertains alike to physical and metaphysical practitioners. Two or more physicians or two or more mental practitioners may agree exactly in theory and also in outward mode of practice. One of them may [56] succeed remarkably well where the other or others will meet with what looks like dismal failure. Christian Scientists, whose method of treatment rigidly conforms to an established rule, serve to illustrate this fact significantly, and it is indeed acknowledged sufficiently in their standard text book, "Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures," in which the author. Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, distinctly says that a stage may be reached in the career of a healer where only his or her presence is required, the time for all stated formulas, whether denials or affirmations, having been outlived.
Though the aura of a building is a matter of some considerable importance, we must not forget that the building receives its consecration from some human beings who have either simply inhabited it or performed some special dedicatory ceremonies within its walls. The beautiful rite of consecration is founded in science, so is the custom of dedicating children. It is easy enough for agnostics to cry "superstition," but superstition only means superstructure, if we trace the origin of the word; and so it was evidently understood three hundred years ago, when the authorized version of the New Testament was made in the reign of James I. of England. In the seventeenth [57] chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we encounter the phrase "too superstitious," otherwise translated, "inordinately religious," both expressions clearly showing that the writer of the original must have made reference to a top-heavy intellectual edifice, the foundation under which was insufficient to sustain so large a pile.
In the same book of the New Testament we are told of Peter's "shadow," and of the hope entertained that sick people might be cured if it rested upon them, and we read also of handkerchiefs and aprons which had been used and worn by certain other apostles being employed, and not without success, in the work of what may be justly termed psycho-magnetic treatment. The prevalent beliefs of an unscientific multitude may not always agree with the dicta of university graduates, but the common people usually base their beliefs on their experiences without reasoning very deeply in connection with any proposition, and their current beliefs in any neighborhood will usually stand the test of a fair share of quite crucial investigation. Elaborate theories interest collegians, but they are of little value to the rank and file of humanity among whom feeling counts for more than doctrine.
We often hear it remarked that women are more intuitive than men, therefore in some respects their judgment is more reliable. If this statement is true, it is due to a combination of distinct causes. First, the greater general delicacy of the female organism over that of the male; Second, the more secluded life which the average woman lives compared with the average man. Those "first impressions" about which we often hear much, in all cases where they are not too superficially based to be worthy of deep consideration, are due to contact with some one's aura on the part of some one sensitive enough to experience a result occasioned by the contact.
The health aura should always be well developed in ministers of religions, especially those who take part in the performance of ceremonies which have a physical as well as psychical side. The healthy views entertained by the best type of pre-Christian pagans were readily accepted by the more intelligent, and therefore less fanatical, among the leaders in the earliest Christian Church. This is clearly indicated in the beautiful, highly practical epistle of James, in which we are told to call upon elders of the religious congregation in time of sickness; for it was the general [59] practice of these good people to perform the ceremony of anointing the body with consecrated oil as well as offering prayers for the recovery of the afflicted. There are clergymen at work today in the Established Church of England seeking to re-establish the service of unction for the sick, and we sincerely hope they will be successful in doing even more than reviving an ancient practice which ought never to have been permitted to fall into disuse. It will be necessary for those good clergymen to keep themselves in excellent health if they are to succeed in demonstrating the good work in which they are righteously taking active interest, for if they consecrate and apply the chrism, they will certainly communicate their aura both to the element they vitalize by the consecrative act and to the patients whom they anoint with the oil they have vitalized by breathing into it.
The hideous facts relating to infectious maladies and contagious diseases which have been most industriously accumulated and circulated during the past many years must now be offset by new discoveries and demonstrations in the field of infectious health and contagious virtue. The purblind atheist scientists who practise vivisection, the injection of [60] disgusting lymph and other abominable iniquities in the vain hope of annihilating disease by propagating it, must, sooner or later, through the terrible results of their infamous malpractice, be brought to see the error of their ways. The divine science of health is perfectly natural, and can be comprehended by children of average intelligence, but intellects are beclouded and bodies corrupted by constant perversions of order instigated by so-called commissioners of health.
We often hear complaints made among Spiritualists and others who are interested in the successful production of psychic phenomena that it is very difficult to obtain satisfactory proofs of clairvoyance, and we cannot shut our eyes to the ugly fact that illness is quite common among sensitive persons who are said to be in unusually close communion with spiritual spheres. This sad state of affairs can be remedied whenever and wherever people are willing to seriously address themselves to the task of purifying their aura, and to accomplish this much-needed work it is necessary, first of all, to attend to those intensely practical questions of breathing, exercise, raiment and diet, which many presumably highly gifted people steadily ignore.
Because there are two sides to these questions, one esoteric and the other exoteric, quite a large number of modern students of psychic problems have drifted into false positions regarding the relations existing between minds and bodies. Thoughts are the parents of words and actions; all acts and speech can be justly regarded as some expression of thought, but we must not overlook the facts of interaction and retroaction. Mind produces body, but body reacts on mind. Thoughts antedate external conditions, but these, their physical ultimates, re-suggest their originators; thus it comes to pass that every truly noble thought favorably affects our health aura, and our health aura, when well developed, inclines those who feel its power to think as we have thought so as to produce it likewise.
The psychic aura is within the physical as the psychical or astral body is also within the physical, but the aura encircles as well as permeates a human body; therefore it can, when sufficiently copious in extent and penetrative in quality, be felt at quite a long distance from the body of its generator. Telepathy, or feeling at a distance of indefinite extent, still presents many mysteries to the average student, and by reason of the essential complexity of [62] telepathic phenomena, it may never be possible to offer a solitary satisfactory explanation of how knowledge is transmitted from point to point. Wireless telegraphy has already thrown some degree or light on an obscure problem, but there are other factors than waves of ether set in motion by desire and concentration of determination which need to be taken into account before a complete solution of telepathy can be given.
The aura of a powerful telepathist is certainly one of the most influential agents in accomplishing thought transference and distant healing. In the first case, that of simply transferring thought forms, the quantity or potency of the aura of the transmitter is almost the only factor with which we are greatly concerned, but in the second case, where healing is to be performed, quality of aura is the greatest point to be considered. We all know that we can send messages by certain telegraphic and telephonic means, but the effects which those messages must produce wherever they are received must pertain to the quality of the force transmitted. People who are constantly hurried are rarely successful in anything they undertake, because they expend their auric force in foolish excitability, and when they do [63] apparently succeed in gratifying an ambition or fulfilling an aspiration, they invariably suffer from considerable subsequent uneasiness. Clairvoyantly witnessed, the aura of a person afflicted with chronic nervous excitement is restless, billowy, and consequently incapable of serving as a crystal mirror or "sea of glass," and it is also almost entirely uncontrollable by the will of it possessor.
Entering into a tranquil mental state often called "silence," is the equivalent of heeding the Gospel precept, "Enter into thine inner chamber and shut thy door." The "closet" is not a cupboard, but a house or robe of tranquil aura which one can carry about everywhere, as it is generated from within rather than accreted from without. Generation is prior to accretion, but the latter always follows the former.
Auras of any marked type instinctively co-mingle; to clairvoyant experience this fact admits of no dispute. The aura of selfishness is very murky and serves chiefly to shut out nearly everything, so much so that a thoroughly selfish person goes through the world not only unloving but unknowing that he is loved. A mother may truly love an extremely selfish son or daughter, but the child cannot [64] feel, appreciate or enjoy the outflowing streams of affection from the devoted parent if surrounded by a thick belt of thoroughly selfish aura. This fact may account for very much ingratitude on the side of beneficiaries whose condition is such that they do not feel, and therefore cannot respond to or appreciate the kindly thoughts and good wishes which are directed to them. Leadbeater has aptly represented the thoroughly selfish individual as incarcerated in a veritable prison house of murky aura, enclosed, as in a cage, behind bars.
These reflections upon the aura, when intelligently digested, suffice to explain despondency and elation, content and discontent, success and failure in all conceivable situations in which people may find themselves placed. What mental scientists vigorously affirm and proclaim as an indisputable doctrine is lucidly interpreted by students of Occultism, who actually see as well as feel the aura which surrounds people whose fickleness is unaccountable until one traces its source.
Lack of aura is the chief cause of predisposition to disease, for if we are simply unprotected in the midst of an unwholesome environment we are extremely liable to succumb.
Every one travels in his auric belt as the earth in its atmosphere or a turtle in its shell.
Heavens and hells and all intermediary conditions are regulated by aura, and it is on the basis of this knowledge alone that we can reconcile the various conflicting views of the so-called "future life" which is very vaguely described by some clairvoyants but very graphically by others. The eminent lecturer and author, Emma Hardinge Britten, who was, during a considerable portion of her public career, a distinguished seeress, used often to describe, during some of her thrilling discourses, the visions she had seen of "dwellers on the threshold," meaning those unhappy human beings who are forced to surrender their mortal bodies unwillingly through disease or the effects of carelessness or dissipation, and who are encircled with so dense an aura that it completely obscures all spiritual landscapes. Blind in a world of color, deaf in a world of sound, lonely in the midst of multitudes of companions, these psychically shut-in ones know nothing of what is all around them; others are enjoying scenery of which they are in no degree cognizant, and basking in the delights of friendship to which these imprisoned ones are total strangers. The very real self-made hells [66] revealed by clairvoyance stand the rigid test of the closest scientific examination, though the fables of theology may be readily discounted in this distinctly scientific age. Marie Corelli, in "The Soul of Lilith," has pointed out very clearly what a "hell" actually is, where she shows that an entranced sensitive serving as a lucide cannot find the hells in space, as Swedenborg and other gifted seers have described them, but they can be truthfully portrayed as dark belts surrounding only those who generate the murky aura which produces them.
There is but one way to achieve real success and genuine happiness, and that is to deliberately undertake the task of self-discipline and build around one's self an impermeable aura.
While it is perfectly true that "like attracts like," it is also true that we are attracted to our opposites, therefore do we often find the sweetest associations of affection grow out of a blending of diametrically opposite temperaments. But these charming unions are like harmonies in music, and in every field of art where sounds and colors contract and blend and melt into glorious symphonies.
Love and hate, courage and fear, can never blend, because such emotions are contradictories which destroy each other, not polar opposites which melt into perfect unity.
There is another aspect of the law of attraction which is far too seldom recognized, and that is the attraction which the sinner feels toward the saint and the sick person to the healthy. A very little intelligent reflection on such purely natural phenomena is all that is needed to elucidate so simple a problem. We are attracted to whatever we admire and wish to share, consequently we can reason from the invalid's attraction to a very robust man or woman that the weak one is simply seeking strength and feeling instinctively that the health aura of a strong friend furnishes material out of which to construct or fortify a weak or shattered aura. Moral health is communicated and induced in precisely the same way. The true psychic healer knows something of the wealth and force of his auric radiations, and deliberately sends them forth, giving of the very surplus or overflow of his abundant vitality. There is no stint in nature; there is always an oversupply of all commodities, and so it is with human energy.
The sure way to grow stronger is to use energy freely and gladly, but never strainfully; those who are afraid of losing strength by exertion are always feeble, and they waste more force by worry and anxiety than they [68] use in all their legitimate employments. To conserve one's aura rightfully it is necessary to practise concentration of thought; attention and action rigorously and regularly. A truly successful individual does everything thoroughly and enjoys doing whatever he does at all, but so wide-reaching may be his auric dispersions that he can practise telepathy, and even distant healing, quite successfully while engaged in ordinary secular activities.
Aura is dissipated by taking notice of things which are no part of one's business. The true philanthropist actively does so much good in the world, by what he is, that very often his presence is worth far more than any amount of spoken or written exhortation could be.
The more we study the simple law of Echo the more readily we shall understand on all planes nature's necessitated responsiveness to our outsendings. Let us in the open country, amid resounding rocks and reverberating hills, pronounce the sacred talismanic words: "I LOVE YOU; I AM IN PERFECT HARMONY WITH YOU," and, because universal law is what it the same words must re-echo to us that we have sent out into our surroundings.
The disciple on the Path of Wisdom need never pause to question how others feel [69] toward him; his work is clearly to determine how he feels toward others, and according to the feeling he generates, entertains and sends forth will be the condition of his own aura, and according to that will be his safety in the midst of perils, his immunity from liability to disease, and his certain success in all life's undertakings. This is the open secret of the Kingdom of Heaven, now, here and forever.
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