Our own personal energy field (or electromagnetic energy) is known as our aura. It acts as a transmitting and receiving zone around your entire body for emotions, thoughts and your mental, spiritual and physical well-being. It radiates how you feel so that before you even have a chance to act in a certain way, or react, your aura is already telling everyone around you whether you are balanced, healthy, or stressed or ill at ease.

It is thought that the body has several levels of auras that are still not clearly understood or even agreed upon, and there are several conflicting theories including that there is the existence of a spirit body within us, which many would refer to as our soul, enclosed by our physical body, when we die that spirit body or soul is then released to another plane, form of existence, heaven.. whatever you believe in.

There are three known levels of auras though, the etheric body, the emotional aura and the aura of the mind and spirit.

The etheric body

The first, etheric body is the energy felt closest to our physical body and surrounds the outline, projecting a few inches from the skin. This is the aura that many people can see or sense, and reflects the state of health or dis-ease of the physical body. The different colours represent different states of being of your health. In good health the aura should reflect the chakras, being red at the feet (or root of the body) and moving up through the rainbow of colours until violet at the crown.

Any dark patches, bulges or omission of colour in the etheric body indicates areas of pain or dis-ease.

The emotional aura

The second level is the emotional aura, this is seen (or felt) as an unbroken ellipse or oval shape around the body beyond the etheric aura, and is generally perceived as green in colour, when the person is in tune with their emotions.

As we know our emotions and feelings have a strong impact on our physical body, so when our emotional aura is dulled or contains dark patches, this indicates areas of emotional distress that are having a direct impact on the etheric aura beneath. When we are in love or have high emotions however, the aura will brighten and encourage closeness with the other person, both aura's merging. When we dislike someone, or feel our space is being invaded, this is the emotional aura protecting our physical body from dis-ease.

The mind and spirit aura

Finally we have the aura of the mind and spirit, this follows the shape of the emotional aura as an outer layer by a few inches. This level can form as an unyielding barrier to the emotions in some and in others be completely fluid allowing our emotions to flood to the fore. If you are someone who finds it easy to cry and show their emotions, your mind/spirit aura may be a little too pliable, especially if you get PMT! If however you find it difficult to show emotion and feel cut off from your heart, then your mind/spirit aura may be too harsh a shell and needs some softening.

Picture yourself standing upright, visualise your etheric aura following every curve of your outline, try and see the colours – accept the first colour that comes to your mind as you journey up your body, notice where you skip a part, or get stuck. Write down your observations.

Now see yourself and your etheric aura, visualise an oval completely surrounding your body, see how far it projects around your body and visualise its colour, again make a mental note of any parts of it that are dull or darkened, or indeed bright and vibrant!

Now see your mind/spirit aura enclosing your emotional aura, is it a hard shell, like a walnut, or a soft viscose coating? Are there any holes? How can you soften it if you need to, or indeed harden it?

Viewing the aura of others.

Sensing and viewing someone's aura is something that can come naturally to some people, and many children naturally see auras without realising that this is something unusual for an adult!

If you would like to sense or see an aura, start off by feeling it, try this exercise:

Ask a friend to lie or sit down.

Pass your hands 2-3 inches away from the body from the head to the feet until you feel resistance – this is the etheric aura.

Now move out further and try to trace the emotional aura, moving your hands out until you feel the resistance of the mind/spirit aura.

Now try this method to see an aura:

Put your hands in front of you against a dark background with nothing in view

Now looking at your hands, throw your eyes slightly out of focus looking beyond the hands

Eventually you will notice a slight blur outlining the hands, this is the etheric aura.

Now look at a person

Using the same technique, look slightly beyond them until you can see a blurred outline beyond their shape. You may see colours at this stage. If not once you have found their etheric aura, close your eyes and open them again, you may see a flash of colour.

This all takes practice, but eventually you will be able to sense and see an aura with ease.

Strengthening your aura

The easiest ways to strengthen your aura is through the use of crystals, meditation and visualisation (separately or all together).

Choose a crystal that best represents the lacking colour or area of your aura that needs strengthening (connect to the chakra for guidance), you can sit quietly with the crystal lying on that part of the body to imbue their qualities. Or with meditation hold the crystal and feel its power rising up through your body. Look at the crystal and meditation sections for more information.