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HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

The focus of this book is on techniques for learning to perceive the aura, as well as insight into how these techniques can help you cultivate a deeper relationship with yourself, your community, and the vast array of life forms around you. Learning to perceive energy helps you to connect to our living world more deeply, revealing the complex layers of energy that link all beings in a shared fate.

Spiritual insight and intuitive abilities arrive through fearless self-observation. As you begin to tune in to the world of invisible interconnections, it becomes apparent that each of us is a limitless ocean of energy and mystery that shifts and changes. With this awareness, you can surrender a limited identity signifier and have more agency in shaping who and what you are. To this end, I recommend dedicating a journal to the work of seeing auras. Each section of this book offers exercises, meditations, and visualizations that work best in tandem with diligent note-taking so you can record insights that arise as you pursue learning about energy and yourself. After you complete each exercise, take the time to reflect on and record your experience.

The art of aura reading requires study, commitment, and personal growth. With practice, your sensitivity to energy can become conscious and fine-tuned so you are able to perceive the maps of energy that surround our bodies with precision and ease. If you are already able to perceive auras, this book will validate your experiences and give you a vocabulary for defining and describing your perceptions.

Learning to perceive auras tunes us in to emotions, dreams, and patterns within ourselves and other beings and offers surprising solutions to problems. By embarking on the journey of energy reading, we can begin to see the relationship between cause and effect. Our thoughts affect our energy fields, which in turn affect our bodies and our health, which in turn affects the health of our communities and our planet.

HONOR YOUR OWN COSMOLOGY AND SACRED SYNESTHESIA

A cosmology is a theory or belief system that describes the origins and emanations of everything that exists. Most religions and cultures include a cosmology that explains the nature of the universe. In modern astronomy, the leading cosmology is the Big Bang theory, which claims that the universe began with a huge explosion that sent matter and energy spreading out in all directions. There are many cosmologies that include different conceptions of space, time, and the meaning of life.

The cosmology presented in this book describes a universe made up of energy that infuses all life with a sacred and unified consciousness. My belief system includes a creative intelligence or Creator that underlies the workings of the cosmos. I also believe in the sentience of all beings, as well as in the existence of spirits and guides that can be communicated with and worked with. Adapt these aura teachings to your own cosmology. The language used in this book is intended to create a space of growth, compassion, respect, and healing that honors the intricate and beautiful identities and energies we each hold. You can approach learning about energy scientifically or spiritually, or some combination of both.

As you work with this book, reflect on your personal cosmology. How does the universe work? What is energy? What do auras have to do with the nature of the cosmos? Is there an intelligence behind the mechanics of the universe? Is the universe harmonious or chaotic? Our understandings of the cosmos and the mechanics of energy change throughout our lives. Check in with yourself regularly about your changing cosmologies and philosophies.

This book is designed to be all-body loving and affirming. Each person has a unique range of sensory strengths and abilities that they use to navigate the world. If an exercise calls for visualization and this is not something that comes easily to you, try the exercise using the inner ear to access a sound impression, or a touch sense, or an emotional sense. If an exercise asks you to witness emotions, and this does not make sense for you, try tuning in to sensory impressions like temperature or texture. If an exercise asks that you visualize something, and you hear sounds instead—great! If an exercise doesn’t work for your mind, body, or spirit—skip it or modify it so it works for you.