THE RADIANT AURA
Swedenborg, who was one of the most eminent of scientists and engineers,
as well as the founder of the religious system that bears his name,
asserted that various "aura" surrounded all living beings, and that the
mental or spiritual state radiates, just as light and heat radiate from
the sun, and cold from the snow. When one was angry, he said, he gave
out the aura of anger which enveloped him as a cloud. Hatred had its
aura, as well as love, sympathy, purity, impurity, kindliness, charity,
jealousy, courage, justice, and the like.
He also asserted that, to those who were simple, natural, and unspoiled
by false reasoning--those who were spiritually inclined--these varied
aura were clearly perceptible, and were as certainly felt or seen as
were heat, cold, whiteness, blackness by the senses.
Rudyard Kipling bases his story, "They," which appeared some years ago
in _Scribner's Magazine_, upon this statement of Swedenborg's, and in
this light it becomes an extra fascinating story to read.
A great modern French scientist has made many exhaustive studies of
these aura, and claims to have photographed them.
In the Panama-Pacific Exposition, one of the exhibits contained a series
of interesting pictures, or diagrams, which purported to be exact
representations of the various aura of people under different mental
conditions. In an article on this subject, written by a well-known
authority, we are told that:
It is not around the human body alone that an aura is to be seen; a
similar cloud of light surrounds or emanates from animals, trees,
and even minerals, though in all these cases it is less extended and
less complex than that of man.
The occultists assert that the aura is extremely complex in its
character, in other words, that there are several aura superposed one
upon the other. The first appearance is of a luminous cloud, extending
some eighteen inches or two feet from the body, assuming a somewhat oval
shape. Careful study, however, reveals that this first appearance is
resolvable into several component parts, or separate aura, of different
degrees of tenuity, and, apparently, superposed. Five of these have been
defined. The first, or most material, is that pertaining to the physical
body. In a state of health this is composed of separate, orderly, and
nearly parallel lines, which radiate from the body in every direction.
When one suffers from disease the lines in the neighborhood of the part
affected become erratic, and radiate less actively but in the wildest
confusion, or, if the whole body be affected, all the lines are
consequently erratic.
For a long time it was not known what kept these lines straight and
approximately parallel in the case of the healthy person, until a second
radiating aura was discovered. This comes from a healthy body in
pulsating waves, with such vigor as to compel the rigidity of the health
lines. These waves may be compared to the pulsations of the heated air
which rise from the ground on a very hot day. Baron Reichenbach made
experiments with certain sensitives who declared they could see these
radiations, and he called them "the magnetic flame."
When these "waves" come from a sickly or weakly body they not only lose
power, but seem to give a confused direction to the health lines.
Many observations also have led to the conclusion that when the lines
are kept straight by the force of the pulsating waves from a healthy and
vigorous body, "it seems to be almost entirely protected from the attack
of evil physical influences, such as germs of disease--such germs being
repelled and carried away by the outrush of the life-force: but when
from any cause--through weakness, through wound or injury, through
over-fatigue, through extreme depression of spirits, or through the
excesses of an irregular life--an unusually large amount of vitality is
required to repair damage or waste, within the body, and there is
consequently a serious diminution in the quantity radiated, this system
of defense becomes dangerously weak, and it is comparatively easy for
the deadly germs to effect an entrance."
The third aura is that which expresses one's desires--a kind of mirror
in which every feeling, every desire, every thought almost, of the
personality is reflected. This changes constantly, in some people,
accordingly as they are swayed by their impulses. Its colors,
brilliancy, rate of pulsations, alter from moment to moment, or minute
to minute. "An outburst of anger will charge the whole aura with
deep-red flashes on a black ground; a sudden fright in a moment will
change everything to a mass of ghastly livid gray."
Connected with this, and yet, seemingly, of a separate character, are
the radiations of the aura that express the progress of the personality
into higher and better appreciation of the things of mind and spirit.
The more intellectual and spiritual one becomes the more steady and
beautiful are the colors and radiations of this aura, and the variations
and distressing manifestations of the evil desires of the third aura
become less apparent and distinct.
The fifth aura is the highest at present discernible. It manifests the
spiritual development of the individual and is of almost inconceivable
delicacy and beauty. It seems to be a cloud of living light--the word
cloud being used for want of a better term.
In the concrete examples of aura that were presented at the Exposition,
that which radiated from a wise mother showing her protective love for
her infant, was in the form of outspread wings of a beautiful rosy tint,
the wings held together at the articulations by a sheaf-like mass of
golden yellow.
Selfish ambition, sudden fear, explosive anger, selfishness, grasping
animal affection, greed, jealousy, jealousy mixed with anger, gloom,
murderous hatred, were all displayed in peculiar, hideous, and repulsive
forms and colors.
Pure, radiating affection, on the other hand, was represented in the
form and color of a round body exhaling rays as from a rosy sun. Strange
to say, though I had never read anything explicit upon this subject
before, I had always conceived of pure affection as giving forth
radiations of this exact appearance.
Whether this "occult" explanation of the radiation of aura be a true one
or not, it serves to give one a beautiful conception, viz., that every
soul may strive so to live within that he sheds upon his fellows
glorious rays of light, serenity, warmth, comfort, blessing, joy,
happiness that help them to the attainment of like felicities.
In the earlier part of this chapter Swedenborg's assertion will be
recalled that those who were unspoiled, real children of Nature, could
actually perceive these aura, and that their acts were guided or
influenced by them just as ours are by the perceptions of our five
senses.
When I began to visit the Hopi Indians in Northern Arizona, who
celebrate that wonderfully thrilling religious ceremony known as the
Snake Dance, I found that their lives conformed exactly to this aura
assumption. They handle deadly rattlesnakes with fearlessness, putting
small ones into their mouths so that nothing but their heads protrude,
and larger ones, up to five feet in length, in their teeth, head on one
side of the mouth, the writhing, wriggling body on the other. Young
boys, from three to six and ten years of age--neophytes of the Antelope
Clan, which, with the Snake Clan, has charge of this ceremonial prayer
for rain--hold these snakes during a part of the ceremony with an
indifferent carelessness that is appalling to most onlookers. On the
other hand those who are alive to the dangers attending the handling of
snakes assert positively that the reptiles must have their fangs
removed, as otherwise they would bite, and either cause death or
dangerous sicknesses.
Yet both classes of observers are in error. The snakes are not handled
carelessly, nor are their fangs removed. Apparent carelessness is often
the result of years of training, the ease and readiness that come with
much experience. Fearlessness is another result of experience and
knowledge. But, once in a while, a member of the Snake Clan is afraid,
and at such times he is not allowed to dance. In this exclusion is a
strong suggestion that the Hopis fully believe that not only do the aura
of our mental and spiritual states surround us, but that even to the
lower animals they are as perceptible as light, heat, and cold. It may
be true that the truly occult, or clairvoyant, by pure and simple
living, return to the clarity of spiritual perception of the child and
the lower animals, and they likewise see and understand. In the case of
the snakes, the Hopis believe that if a dancer is afraid it makes the
snake afraid. In other words, the reptile sees or discerns the "fear
aura," and, at once, its own fear is awakened. When afraid it assumes
the defensive, for that is its only mode of protection. It coils ready
to strike, and rattles in warning: Beware!
On the other hand, when the dancer is unafraid and handles the reptile
in the true Hopi spirit, viz., as his _Elder Brother_--for, according
to Hopi mythology, the Snake Clan originates with the Snake Mother, and
therefore all members of it are younger brothers to all snakes--the aura
of friendliness and brotherly kindliness surrounds him, which, being
perceived by the snake, it is at once soothed and allows itself to be
handled with restfulness and assurance of safety. And in the thirteen
times that I have witnessed the Snake Dance (and several times been
privileged to see and take part in the secret ceremonials of the
underground chambers where the snakes are handled and washed), only
twice have I known any one to be bitten.[A]
[A] For a full and complete description of the Snake Dance see the
writings of Dr. J. W. Fewkes in the Reports of the U. S. Bureau of
Ethnology and my own _Indians of the Painted Desert Region_, published
by Little, Brown & Co., Boston, Mass.