Having looked at what can cause people to hallucinate or ‘see’ the illusion of an aura around people and objects due to various physical and neurological phenomena let’s now go on to explore what may be happening when people experience this type of event for real. There has been good evidence from physics, biology and researchers in the psychic fields that some animals, particularly birds, can see magnetic fields. Only recently has the mechanism behind this been understood due to advances in quantum physics and biology. As mentioned in the last article colour vision is due to an interaction at the quantum energetic level with the cones in the eyes. Most humans only have three types of colour perception cells in the eyes, but it has now been discovered that there are some people who have cones triggered by other energy levels of light, usually in the ultraviolet spectrum.

Technically this ability is known as “tetrachromacy” and the first person officially able to do this was ‘discovered’ in 1993. However, this ability is unlikely to be a new occurrence in humans and the capacity to “see” other parts of the spectrum, particularly the ultra-violet and infra-red sections, has probably been around for some time. In the 1950’s one woman who claimed to see a lot of UFO’s was tested in a laboratory and the findings suggested that she could see the infra-red, particularly the near-infra red spectra used by insects to find mates and food. Today UFO ‘chasers’ regularly use infra-red filters on their cameras to spot objects that escape ordinary sight.

Many migratory birds use electromagnetic fields to navigate as they travel from place to place. In some species, such as Rock Doves (Pigeons) this is thought to be done with naturally occurring magnetic particles in their beaks, while other birds are able to see magnetic fields because of the quantum interaction in the aqueous humour and at the retina of the eye. This is called the “radical pair mechanism” where the light photon excites two electrons on one molecule and shunts one of them onto a second molecule. Although the two electrons are separated by distance they are linked by quantum entanglement, this latter phenomenon is thought by magick users and psychics to be one of the key reasons these skills work. The energy dissipates quickly, destroying this quantum state, but not before the change in the chemical properties in the retina which enables the bird to “see” the magnetic field. The research so far has been mainly on European Robins, but it is thought that many other birds, and other complex organisms, can visually detect magnetic fields in the same way.

These mechanisms might explain how some people can see the magnetic fields that surround people and animals. The biochemical reactions that impel the nervous system, and the cell activity itself, produce magnetic fields detectable by other animals and sensitive machinery. Surprisingly the strongest magnetic field in the body is produced by the heart rather than the brain, which may explain why for so long the heart was intuitively believed to be the centre of thought and feeling. As anyone who has played with magnets knows magnetic fields can interact with each other at a distance and this may be true of the magnetic field of the heart, allowing people to intuitively sense what a nearby person or animal is feeling.

In the fields of magick and healing, the life force is believed to be distinct from the magnetic fields of the body and its organs but close enough in principle to affect them, and be affected by them. Perhaps the most well-known example of this are the types of life-force called “Chi” talked about in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts. The latter behaves very much like the magickal energy used in charging tools and being directed by intent to cast circles and create thought forms. This is why some Witches and Ritual Magicians like to have a magnetised wire running down the centre of their wands, and magnetise the blades of their magickal knives so as to aid in directing it.

When it comes to healing the model of magnetic and life-force fields that can affect other objects and beings would explain how auric healing might work. A healthy person may be thought of as someone who’s organic magnetism and life-fields are in balance and strong, while someone who is unwell usually has out of balance magnetic fields, and a weaker life force. When a healer goes to work their stronger magnetic fields entrain and reinforce those of the sick person, and their stronger life force energises the sick person’s weaker one, giving the sick person’s body a better chance of healing itself. The person doing the healing then rebalances their own magnetic and energetic energies through attuning themselves, consciously or unconsciously to the, magnetic and energetic fields of the environment. Or by eating food high in the Chi of the type they need to replenish.

Using this model of the aura it is easy to see why inexperienced or amateur healers and magick workers find themselves drained after performing their working. Without the skill, knowledge, or experience of re-balancing the energies of their own aura, magnetic and Chi, they can be drained of their vital force like a depleted battery. If they have been doing healing there is a chance that by weakening their aura they make themselves sick or, by resonance, their clients out of balance magnetic field may affect them. In effect they take on the clients illness, unintentionally making them ill in turn.

In some forms of healing, such as that practiced by the Tibetan Bon school of Buddhism and several types of Shamanism, this is the style of healing the practitioners art trained to consciously use. The healer takes on the person’s illness healing them, and then re-balances their own energies through attunement to a particular archetype, Deity, or environmental energy, healing themselves. This is also used in cases of possession where the person doing the healing makes themselves a more tempting target than the person already possessed. When the entity or auric parasite transfers itself to what it thinks it is a better host it is either counselled by the healer and sent on to somewhere more appropriate, or unwound back to its energetic components and dispersed. Needless to say this takes time, experience, and considerable one-to-one training to do consistently and is definitely not for the amateur!

The aura is a lot more than just a passive indicator of how a person is feeling, or seeing one an indicator of “Spiritual advancement” (whatever that may be). By understanding and using its many constituents you can enhance your magick and healing skills to their best advantage and circumvent leaving yourself open to avoidable ill health.