“The differences between different manifestations of Matter, Energy, Mind, and even Spirit, result largely from varying rates of Vibration.”
—The Kybalion
Energy permeates the universe, our planet, and every being. It is the essence of all matter and the driving force of creation. Many ancient cultures and cosmologies describe a universal energy that animates everything in the cosmos. This universal life force energy has had many names, including qi (Chinese), prana (Indian), ka (Egyptian), ruach (Hebrew), pneuma (Greek), and barakah (Arabic). Modern physics is now discovering what the ancients knew—that our bodies are not made of solid atoms but of interacting fields of energy given to continuous, creative fluctuation. From the smallest subatomic particles to the space beyond the skin and out to the farthest reaches of the universe, vibratory forces configure and reconfigure who we are in ourselves, in our relationships, and in the cosmos.
Quantum physicists have recently proven that physical atoms are made up of vortices of energy that are constantly spinning and vibrating, each one radiating its own unique energy signature. If you observe the composition of an atom with a strong enough microscope, you see a small, tornado-like vortex with a number of infinitely small energy vortices (called “quarks” and “photons”) surrounding it. As you focus in closer and closer on the structure of the atom, you see nothing; you observe a physical void.
Greek philosophers over two thousand years ago proposed that the basic, indivisible unit of matter was the atom, a word derived from atomon, meaning “that which cannot be divided.” Sir Isaac Newton, who developed Newtonian physics in the seventeenth century, believed that physical matter is made up of solid, impenetrable, movable atoms. Many of us are still taught that physical matter is—well—physical! In 1909, a scientist named Ernest Rutherford discovered that atoms are mostly made up of empty space where negatively charged electrons orbit. Rutherford posited that the only solid part of an atom is the nucleus, where the positively charged protons are found. Things feel solid because of the electrical force, or energy field, created by the tension between the negative electrons and positive protons.
In the 1920s, physicists began to question the solidity of particles altogether. In 1925, Louis de Broglie hypothesized that particles like the electron, proton, and neutron might have wavelike behaviors. This idea resurfaced in the 1960s and became the foundation for what is now known as quantum physics.
Another pioneer of quantum physics, Niels Bohr, posited that particles play out all possible realities simultaneously—that particles are actually waves of possibility. Each particle is represented by a “probability wave,” and the wave collapses to a definite state only when the particle is measured. The equations of quantum mechanics do not address how a particle’s properties solidify at the moment of measurement, or how, at such moments, reality picks which form to take. But the calculations work. So nothing is solid at all until it is observed!
Some contemporary scientists who are working with “string theory” postulate that particles are actually loops of vibrating energy. Physics is a constantly evolving field that seems to point more and more toward a universe made up of interacting probabilities of energy that give us the illusion of physical matter. If we wish to observe ourselves and find out who and what we are—we must learn to perceive energy. If we want to make lasting changes in ourselves—we must learn to adjust our energy. Why does this matter when thinking about the aura? Auras are made of energy.
Across the world and for many thousands of years, artists have depicted various forms of luminous radiance around human figures. Art historians call the radiance depicted around the body a mandorla, an aureole, a nimbus, or a halo. Prehistoric stone carvings at Val Camonica in Italy depict figures with radiant halos dating back at least six thousand years. Australian aboriginal people have depicted people and deities with lines of light coming out of their heads and around their bodies for at least five thousand years. We see imagery of radiance surrounding either the whole body or the head in Hindu, Buddhist, Ancient Egyptian, Greek, Islamic, and Christian art.
The aura has been known by many names in many cultures. John White and Stanley Krippner, the authors of Future Science, list ninety-seven different cultures that reference the human aura, each culture calling it by a different name. Ancient healing traditions from China, India, Japan, and Tibet speak of energy channels or meridians along which vital energy flows within and around the body. In these systems of healing, life is considered to be a bioelectrical and vibrational energy phenomenon. To restore vitality to a person, a healer can read and understand a complex mapping of energetic forces within and surrounding the Physical Body. Healing traditions that many people continue to use today, including acupuncture, acupressure, massage, and yoga, are founded on the principle that the body is made up of energies that can be mapped and manipulated.
The aura, simply put, is a cloud of energy that surrounds and interpenetrates a Physical Body. This energy extends from the cellular level outward to energy fields that extend beyond the Physical Body. Researchers in the fields of energy healing have created theoretical models that divide the aura into several layers containing different patterns, frequencies, and bioelectrical phenomena that we will explore in later chapters.
In the early nineteenth century, British Theosophist C. W. Leadbeater developed the concept of a human aura that contains layers of energy that are connected to the chakra system. This is the aura classification system that we will be using in this book.
In 1937, Harold Saxton Burr, a professor of anatomy at the Yale University School of Medicine, began a series of experiments that sought to measure and characterize the “biomagnetic field” associated with living organisms. Burr steadfastly believed that life not only exhibited electromagnetic properties, but that these same properties were, in his words, “the organizing principle” that kept living tissue from falling into a chaotic state.
Biologist Rupert Sheldrake first presented his groundbreaking scientific theory of morphic fields to the masses in his 1981 book A New Science of Life. His theory took science beyond the limited mechanistic view that we are simply made of matter and into a paradigm shift that expanded biology to include observable evidence that we are also made of organizing fields. These fields are systems of energy that self-organize and create our physical structure, according to Sheldrake.
Despite the recognition by modern medicine that electro-physical exchanges underlie most cellular activity, little attention has been paid to the possible implications of working with the energy fields underlying the human organism, and what those fields are.
We’re accustomed to the idea that the world is full of invisible interconnections. Cell phones, radios, and televisions work on invisible interconnections of energy. As yet, however, there have been few modern scientific studies to help us define and codify what the invisible interconnections around human beings might be. My hope is that in the coming years scientific and spiritual communities will share their knowledge and collaboratively develop a new technology of healing that is energy based.