Aura: Auras and ghosts

Except for a few kids movies like Casper The Friendly Ghost and Ghostbusters, ghosts are not very fashionable these days. But at the turn of the century things were quite different. Famous mediums were renowned for the bizarre ectoplasmic apparitions they were able to produce during their seances. Witnesses included some of the greatest thinkers of the time, including Pierre and Marie Curie, and the philosopher Bergson.

I once had the pleasure of visiting Robert Tocquet, whom I have already talked about in an earlier chapter. Tocquet was very familiar with these kinds of experiments. Being a rationalist, he refused to fall into the trap of enthusiastic credulity. At the same time, he was convinced of the reality of a number of apparitions produced by people like Kluski or Rudi Schneider, both well known mediums.

I asked him how he explained these kinds of highly unusual phenomena.

Here's what he had to say:

"To my mind, the apparitions are emanations of the medium himself. They are representations of his subconscious. When a medium produces a familiar face, he does so be delving into the subconscious mind of someone who is present at the seance. I take as proof of the material reality of these apparitions the fact that mediums clearly experience a loss of weight during

their representations. Perhaps the phenomenon is caused by an unknown aspect of their aura emanations. Perhaps physical manifestations of their power, like the twisting of cutlery or the displacement of objects from a distance, can also be caused by this same energy field, once it is focussed and controlled."

Since science has still not been able to offer a satisfactory explanation for these phenomena, we can assume, at least for the time being, that Professor Tocquet may very well be right. 

Only time will tell.

Source:  "Mind Powers"  by Christian H. Godefroy

Aura: Interacting auras

When you caress someone's face or hold someone's hand, two auras interact, and an exchange of energy takes place. Therapists often describe how they are able to alleviate pain through massage, and how, after a session is over, they actually feel some of the patient's pain themselves.

Two researchers, Johnson and Mors, called this phenomenon the 'transfer effect.' Johnson claimed that what he found most interesting about his work with auras was that it showed that our beings extend beyond the limits

of our skin, that we all possess another body made of pure energy, which is in constant interaction with our environment, and the people we come in contact with.

Will the Kirlian device prove to be an important scientific discovery? Indications are that it will. Although its potential applications have not been fully explored even today, forty years after its discovery, there has been renewed interest in the technique of late. On the other hand, perhaps the greatest impact of Kirlian's invention will turn out to be symbolic - for the first time in the history of humanity, science and mysticism seem to be in accord.

Concerning the subtle or energy body, all mystics, from Zoroaster to Heraclitus, from the Hebrew cabalists to Saint Paul, are in agreement. The idea is the same in all their writings: "The vibrant substance that the Creator referred to as the 'breath of life' takes on a subtle form in the nervous system of all living beings. It is transmitted through all our limbs, and its sensations are perceived by the brain. This subtle substance forms a living organism which is just as real as our material body." (Quoted from Vie Great hut kites by E. Shutf, written in 1889).

Although we have not yet seen a complete fusion of scientific and religious thought, we can certainly expect to achieve a better understanding between the two modes of thought as we approach the millennium.

Source:  "Mind Powers"  by Christian H. Godefroy

Aura: Reading thoughts through colors

 

People's auras seems to be just as closely related to their psychological state of mind as to their physical condition. An unbalanced, nervous person will have a narrow, jagged aura, while a person who is well balanced and relaxed will emit a bright, broad aura.

An aura's color is an indication of a person's emotional state. Blue signifies a state of calm, concentrated relaxation. Red is an indication of violent emotions. Red and blue are the two basic color that comprise all auras. Distractions, worries or fears that arise after a period of calm will appear as red splotches mixed with the predominant blue. Anger will produce a large red aura (the expression 'to see red' is appropriate in this context). Red is also indicative of some imbalance in the organism, or of a physical wound. It is interesting to note that clairvoyants often perceive psychological problems as a reddish glow.

Auras are also linked to para psychological phenomena. It seems that telepathic messages are initially perceived by the subtle or energy body. Experiments conducted in the former Soviet Union show that auras react before consciousness. By modifying a person's energy body using acupuncture, paranormal faculties can be stimulated.

Source:  "Mind Powers"  by Christian H. Godefroy

Aura: Research in the United States

While serving in the Korean war, Kendall L. Johnson was disturbed by a series of premonitory dreams he had about the death of a number of soldiers in his platoon. When he returned home after the war, he decided to take a course in parapsychology at UCLA.

One day his teacher, Doctor Thelma Moss, spoke to the class about the Kirlian device. She said she had acquired a set of plans while on a trip to Russia, but so far no one had been able to reproduce the Kirlian effect. Johnson, although he was an insurance salesman by profession, decided he would give it a try.

His initial attempts proved to be positive enough for the university to allot him space to set up a laboratory, and for the CIA and NASA to send representatives to examine possible applications of the technique.

Moss and Johnson copied Kirlian's device (even though it was protected by fourteen international patents) and oriented their research towards the paranormal.

One of their experiments concerned persons who claimed to be able to reproduce the effects of magnetism, discussed earlier in this book They discovered that before the imposition of hands and magnetic passes, the aura of so-called magnetic healers was very strong (much stronger than that of an ordinary person), but that after a session the aura would weaken, while that of the patient would grow larger and clearer. 

They wondered if that could explain the prickling sensation, accompanied by heat, that patients generally reported feeling during a session of magnetic therapy.

They also tried to reproduce Kirlian's phantom leaf experiment, but failed. Perhaps their equipment was not as sensitive as Kirlian's own device. Professor E. Douglas Dean, using a Kirlian device manufactured in Czechoslovakia, was able to reproduce Kirlian's findings exactly, while Richard M. Szumski, director of the photo lab at San Jose State University, tried hundreds of times to achieve the same result, with no success, and eventually gave up. Two other researchers, William Tiller and David Boyers, considered their results too inconclusive to lead to any practical applications. 

Source:  "Mind Powers"  by Christian H. Godefroy

Aura: The Kirlian Effect

A Russian researcher, S.D. Kirlian, aided by his wife Valentina, finally managed to convince the extremely conservative scientific community of the existence of what he called an 'energy body’ composed of bioplasm.

Scientists around the world were amazed by Kirlian's discovery, and especially by its proposed practical application - the early detection of both physical and mental diseases through an analysis of the colors of a patient's aura, which Kirlian referred to as 'bioluminescence.'

Hospitals soon began equipping themselves with devices designed to measure the Kirlian effect. Here's how one observer described an image produced by a Kirlian device:

"... fireworks exploding against a dark blue background, sheaths of multicolored sparks in the midst of flames and dazzling flashes. Some light patterns had the regular glow of candles, while others were explosions of blinding light, which gradually faded. Some flew by like flaming meteors. In some areas we could see dark filaments of vapor floating in space. Random flashes outlined a sparkling, labyrinth-like structure resembling a spacecraft in search of new galaxies."

This was no dream imagery, or the product of some poet's unbridled imagination, but the report of a Russian academic after witnessing the bioplasmic aura produced by a human hand, as seen through a Kirlian photographic device.

The year is 1939. A technician in the city of Krasnodar is called in to repair a high frequency machine used for electrotherapy. He notices a brilliant  glare between the patient's skin and an electrode linked to the machine. He

tries to photograph the phenomenon, which turns out to be a variation of something called the corona effect, an occurrence that is well known in the field of electronics.

First discovery: the corona photographed in this way varies in accordance with the level of vital energy of the body emitting it. Kirlian could actually see the energy stored in plants and animals. He soon realized that diseased

plants and animals emitted less light, while dead plants and animals emitted no light at all. Intense bioluminescent activity surrounds every living entity, while dead entities produce no bioluminescence whatsoever.

Second discovery: the existence of a kind of energy body, composed of bioplasm, which is closely linked to the physical body. If you take a leaf and cut away a small part, the energy image emitted by the leaf remains intact,

although the part that was amputated become less bright. This phantom image of the missing part of the leaf confirms the theory of an energy body, and may explain why many amputees continue to experience perceptions from missing limbs, as if they had a phantom limb (no other satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon has been offered to date). 

Third discovery: Examining two leaves picked from the same species of tree at the same time, Kirlian noticed a difference between them. One leaf emitted small points of flame, a shape he had never seen before.

He learned that although both leaves came from the same type of tree, one of the trees had been inoculated against a serious form of disease. 

His conclusion: Long before the disease manifested itself in the body of the tree, it showed up as a clear pattern in the tree's energy field. 

Further research showed that the phenomenon was applicable to humans as well as plants, paving the way for the medical application of the Kirlian technique as a diagnostic tool.

After examining a series of Kirlian photographs, a surgeon in Leningrad, M.K. Gaikine, wondered if it would be possible to relate the photographic images to the 700 or so acupuncture points used by practitioners of Chinese

medicine and its variations. His suggestion turned out to be very useful, especially for practitioners of acupuncture, who were finally able to offer scientific proof of the effectiveness of their technique. As it turned out, the energy centers designated in acupuncture diagrams correspond more or less exactly to the dense areas of light, called 'sunspots,' visible in Kirlian photographs. 

Using Kirlian's procedure, Dr. Caikine and a Leningrad engineer were able to develop a device that could detect the location of acupuncture points to within a tenth of a millimeter (the device was included as one of the official Russian exhibits at the 1967 World's Fair held in Montreal, Canada). 

Source:  "Mind Powers"  by Christian H. Godefroy.