‘The power of life is not confined to a human, but radiates around her like a sphere of light.’
PARACELSUS (1493–1541), SWISS DOCTOR AND FOUNDER OF MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY
Although atoms are mere energy, they are measurable both physically and energetically. Our body, too, perceives them as both matter and energy. The subtle energy field surrounding the body is called the aura.
The aura is an egg-shaped field of subtle energy that originates in our core. Traditionally, it is described as consisting of several layers and communicating with the body through the chakras. There are innumerable descriptions of the aura from the point of view of a seven-chakra system. Some people say that it consists of the same colours as the chakras, with red, which corresponds to the root chakra, being closest to the body and violet, which corresponds to the crown chakra, farthest away. According to this view, the colours of the rainbow are therefore represented in the aura as in the seven-chakra system, and the different layers are called bodies and have different functions, which correspond to those of the chakras. Some people, however, believe that these layers are structured differently and the colours don’t correspond to the chakras in the same way. Yet another view is that there are only five layers in the aura, and some say that the outer part of the aura is golden.
There are fewer descriptions of the auras of indigo and crystal people. Their inner structure is simplified. As a crystal person has only one chakra, their aura consists of wholeness. The auras of indigo people are somewhere in between the one-chakra and seven-chakra systems. We choose not to give a detailed description of the structural mechanics here, as they aren’t needed in rediscovering the Spiritual Password. The important thing is to know what an aura is.
Our aura stretches from 30–50 centimetres (1–1½ feet) outside our body when it functions optimally – about as far as our wrist if we hold our arm out straight ahead of us. The edge of the aura – the egg-shaped silhouette – can be seen as the boundary between us and other people. It is like a cell membrane and protects us from the unwanted energies of other people. It is semi-permeable – that is to say, it lets through certain energies but not all.
In Indian and yoga traditions, there are 72,000 energy channels, called nadis, in our subtle energy field. They connect the aura and the chakras with our physical body. They are also called meridians and are the energy system used in acupuncture. They can be compared with the circulation of the blood, as they provide cells with the vital life-force, just as the blood vessels provide the cells with nutrients.
The aura works as a halfway station for everything we take in and everything we release. For example, energies that we daren’t let go of completely may be stored there. This can lead to an imbalance of the aura that after a while manifests as ill health.
We have now come to one of the best-kept secrets of our time. The function of the aura has been well-known for thousands of years, but the fact that we can move the edge of our aura consciously and that this affects our well-being is a different matter. We are very often unaware of where the edge of our aura is, but we move it unconsciously all the time and this can have a real effect on us. Do you often get energetically drained in the presence of others? This could be because of your aura. Do you get nervous or feel you would like to disappear when others are invading your space? This can be due to your aura too. Do you find that you get a kick out of performing on stage and can’t sleep for hours afterwards? That could also be down to your aura. All these and many other reactions can be the result of where the edge of your aura is placed. It is therefore of vital importance to gain some knowledge and control of it.
Some people keep their aura close to their body, while others let it expand a long way out. Those who keep it quite far out – up to several metres – may find it encompasses a lot of other people. This often happens with someone who is responsible for other people or who takes responsibility for others. Someone who runs a company, for example, may take their employees under their wing. They expand their aura to encompass all their co-workers, for security, and maybe for some control too. Actors and artists often expand their aura so it embraces the whole audience. Teachers – both those teaching in ordinary schools and spiritual teachers – can expand their aura so that it encircles their students, while therapists who work one to one with clients might expand their aura so that it covers their client.
It can feel safe and comfortable to be encompassed by somebody else’s aura, but it can also be limiting. When we are in this situation we tend to draw on the other person’s information and energy, so we don’t have to take responsibility for who we truly are and be honest to ourselves about where we are in life. It helps us to avoid taking action to live as our true selves in the world – for some reason, we are all afraid of doing just that. Therefore, we have a tendency to use other people’s energy as support instead of using it as inspiration to find the same power within ourselves, ignited by the strength we value in others. It is often a comfortable and, above all, safe experience to be in the aura of a person you look up to, but it can also become trying and tiring. In a way it’s like being a teenager who wants to become independent but whose parents don’t want to let go.
Those keeping other people within their aura can get a real kick out of it. Actors and artists, for example, are often exhilarated after a performance. They may experience it as a substantial injection of energy. In fact they’ve taken energy from the people they’ve encompassed in their aura. Afterwards, though, they usually become very tired and energetically drained, since they’ve been carrying all those people’s energy without being aware of it.
One reason for expanding the circumference of the aura is for protection. Some people can, for example, send their aura into a room to check out the atmosphere there, preparing themselves for what they are to meet when they walk in. Or they can ‘touch’ others with their aura. That is to say, they can take in other people’s energies and moods and get an overview of who may be on their side and who may be against them.
But most of all we experience our aura as a boundary between ourselves and others.
MÄRTHA:
All my life I’ve been in the public eye, which resulted in my aura unconsciously widening as protection. For a long period, I felt that my duties as a princess were overwhelming. Since I felt that I wasn’t good enough for the role, I tried to make myself popular by giving a little piece of myself to everybody I met, everybody I was supposed to meet and everybody I might perhaps meet in the future. The result was that I tried to cover the whole of Norway with my aura.
From an early age, I felt frustrated because so many people crossed the boundary to my personal space. I felt the media took more than I wanted to give, plundering my personal life. It felt as though people I didn’t know were taking parts of me without asking, and I didn’t like people staring at me. Finally I could barely say hello to people without my stomach knotting.
One day I did an exercise with a friend. She placed herself on the opposite side of the room and told me to imagine that I was at an official function. Slowly she began to walk towards me. I was supposed to tell her when I felt she was too close for comfort. When she was about 3 metres (10 feet) from me, I told her to stop. She laughed and said, ‘How d’you think anyone is going to be able to strike up a conversation with you without trespassing? They can’t even reach your hand to say hello.’
We did the exercise over and over and I had to imagine that I was in different situations: in my princess role meeting people, in private company, in town, going for a walk in the forest, at home alone and in the stables. I was surprised to see that my boundaries moved depending on how I looked upon the different environments. When I imagined that I was in the stables, my friend couldn’t make me feel uncomfortable, no matter how close she got. It made an indelible impression on me. When I was in a situation where I felt safe, nobody could invade my boundaries.
Later, I realized that it was my aura that had moved in accordance with the situation I had imagined I was in. When I learned to let my aura expand to 30–50 centimetres (1–1½ feet) from my body, its natural place, the feeling of being devoured by others completely disappeared.
Every time I feel insecure, or somebody crosses the boundary to my private space for no apparent reason, I check my aura. In nine out of ten cases, it has expanded too far.
You might think that Märtha’s different reactions had to do with her comfort zone, meaning the distance from other people, for example during a conversation, in addition to what she was comfortable doing in her life. But the comfort zone and the position of the aura are two different things. The comfort zone varies from person to person. It is a psychological border between what we are comfortable with and what we are not in all areas of our life: work, personal and professional relations, living quarters and what we share with others. The Dalai Lama says, ‘Life begins at the end of the comfort zone.’ Elisabeth experienced just that through her spiritual path:
ELISABETH:
In the past I was a very shy person and doubted my mystical experiences, so what I wanted from the clairvoyant course where I met Märtha was to meditate under an apple tree. That was within my comfort zone at the time. The course emphasized energy readings, which are a soul-to-soul communication. Therefore my comfort zone expanded to sitting under my apple tree and giving readings to other people, one at a time.
When we started Astarte Inspiration in 2007, my comfort zone expanded yet again, to teaching 25 students at a time. But by consciously giving to myself and actively ‘clicking’ my aura into place (both of which you will learn later on), I still had the experience of sitting under my apple tree.
The next step was to challenge myself to a far greater extent. Märtha and I were scheduled to give our first inspirational talk together at an alternative expo. We assumed there would be approximately 150 people in the audience, maybe 200 if we were lucky, and were shocked to learn that there would be 1,000 people there. It was a huge step for me, but once I was in the situation, it was extremely inspiring and a lot of fun. Since then Märtha and I have appeared on large TV shows and given workshops all over the world, and I can think of nothing more worthwhile. And it still seems to me that I am sitting and meditating under my apple tree.
Sometimes I wonder where I would be today if I had stayed in my comfort zone and not listened to my heart and to the angels guiding me.
Expanding our comfort zone means increasing our possibilities in life and not being held back by our fears and limitations. We can expand our comfort zone by making sure our aura is in its optimal position. Then we’re able to be aware of who we are in every situation. People can cross our boundaries and we can still be consciously present in our space. We will look at how we can click our aura into place later on.
Even though we may not be aware of where our aura ends, we can still affect others through it. We can even push them with it. This may be most clearly seen when we’re out hiking, skiing or walking up a steep hill.
ELISABETH:
When I was in my twenties, there was a steep path from the bus stop to my home. One day when I was quite tired on my way home from work, I was dawdling at my own pace along the path. Behind me there was a man who apparently viewed the road as a workout opportunity. Long before he got close to me, I started to walk faster and faster. In the end I had to surrender, step aside and let him pass.
That is how we use the aura for communication without words. You may remember a childhood hike when your mother or father said, ‘You first, so you can set the pace.’ But even if you were first, your parents may have thought you were walking too slowly. So you might have walked faster and faster, without anybody saying anything. When we’re out walking, it’s easy to notice such aura pushes’, but they happen all the time when meeting others. When somebody pushes our aura, in any situation, it’s easy to slip away from our own pace and let others set it.
We have explored the effects of keeping the edge of the aura far away from the body, but there are also many people who have a different protection strategy, i.e. keeping their aura close to their body. This may be the result of some kind of violation of their boundaries. Those who keep their aura tight to their body are trying to hide from the world around them, to melt into the background, to make themselves invisible.
ELISABETH:
Because I used to be so shy, especially when many people were present, I often got nervous and found it difficult to come out with the right words – that is, if I dared say anything at all. As I got to know more about my own aura, I discovered that when I was among a lot of people, I kept it close to my body. I was trying to protect myself, to make myself invisible. But instead it made me feel naked and skinless.
Now that I’m in touch with my aura, I know how to keep it where it works best for me. When I encounter other people, I can feel protected and secure about myself.
It might sound a little too simple to say that if you change the position of your aura, everything will be fine. Obviously, changing the position of the aura doesn’t solve everything, but it can make a substantial difference. When the edge of the aura is optimally placed in relation to the body, it works as a natural defence against other people. When it is too far from us or too close to us, we take in other people’s feelings, pain and energy along with our own. It becomes difficult to feel where we end and others begin.
When children first learn to paint, they mix all the colours unconsciously, the result being a murky colour that no one but their mothers can say is beautiful. Later, when they develop a conscious approach to the colour palette, they mix the colours beautifully and create wonderful pictures. This is what happens to our energies too. When we unconsciously mix with other people, holding our auras too close or too far away, we become unclear, not knowing who’s who or what’s what. When we’re conscious of where we place the edge of our aura, however, we can mix energies, be inspired by and exchange information with others and still be crystal-clear about who we truly are.
How do we know that we have found the right position for the outer edge of our aura? The wisdom of our body re-enters in this situation, because the body shows through various signals when the edge of the aura is in its most favourable position. One of these signals may be a clicking sound when it reaches that position. That’s why we call having the aura in its optimal position ‘clicking’ the aura into place.
There are many different ways of experiencing the aura clicking into place. People who see the edge of the aura might see a certain colour or shadow; other people may feel cold or warm. Some may even smell a distinct odour or get a specific taste. Others simply know.
Perhaps you’re wondering how to get in touch with your aura. It’s not as difficult as you might think. In fact, you’re probably moving it around unconsciously all day long. With the following exercise, you can begin to find out how to move it at will.
Stand straight with your arms along your sides and close your eyes (or keep them open if you want to). Take a few deep breaths.
Let your body show you where you are currently holding the edge of your aura. Is it far away from you or close to you?
Pull the edge of the aura to you, or push it out, depending on where it is situated, so it moves to where it should be, about an arm’s length from you. To do this, it might be helpful to imagine yourself inside a balloon. To pull your aura closer to you, simply let the air out of the balloon so that the sides draw closer. To push your aura out, simply fill the balloon with air and let the sides expand.
Feel, hear or see your aura clicking into place.
Reach out with your hands to check that it is where you think it is. How does it feel to have it there? Take some time to listen to what your body tells you.
Now move the edge of your aura outwards until it is 1 metre (around 3 feet) from you and push it slowly farther out until it is about 3 metres (nearly 10 feet) away.
Feel what it is like to have it so far away from you. Does it feel familiar or unfamiliar? In what situations do you keep it away from yourself?
Push it even farther out to experience how it feels. Do you experience any physical reactions when it is that far out?
When you are ready, let the edge of your aura move back to where it clicks into place and then pull it back slowly until it is about 1 centimetre (½ inch) from your body.
Feel what it is like having it so close. Does it feel familiar or unfamiliar? In what situations do you keep it so close, if you do it at all? Does having the aura close to you create any physical reactions?
Let your aura slide back into its natural position and click into place.
Breathe out and let go of what you’ve just experienced.
Moving your aura
When you start moving your aura, you may get physical reactions. This is totally normal and shows how your aura affects you daily. Many people who are used to expanding their aura find it difficult to draw it close to their body. If you are one of them and you do manage it, you might feel cramped when it is only an arm’s length from your body. You might feel that you can’t breathe, or that you are naked or unsafe. You might get a headache, feel dizzy, find it hard to stay present in your body or even feel nauseous. The same thing often happens if you’re used to holding your aura tight to your body. When you move it out, you might feel dizzy or unsafe, get a headache or feel as though you are losing yourself.
If you’re thinking I can’t manage this at all or What I’m feeling can’t be what they mean, then do the exercise again. Trust your feelings. There’s no right or wrong here. Meeting the aura is like a child examining a flower for the first time. The child doesn’t ask if the fragrance of the flower is right or the colour is correct. So, trust your senses. You have them, even if you haven’t used them for a while. This is your experience of your aura, and everything about it tells you something about yourself. Listen without judgement and try to understand what your body is saying to you.
If your aura edge has clicked into place at arm’s length, your own feelings and energies will become clearer. That is why it’s easier to listen to yourself and your body when your aura is in place. When you know who you are and where your boundaries lie, it will help other people to see who you are too. So your aura will become a defence, preventing unwanted energies from entering your space. As a result, you’ll find it easier to keep up your energy levels, since you won’t have to give energy to everybody within your aura at any given moment.
When you keep the edge of your aura a long way away from yourself, you’re like a draughty old house with heat leaking out – more energy is necessary to keep it as warm as a well-insulated house. When the aura edge is in the right position as regards your body, you consume less energy in the course of the day since your energy is no longer going to other people but to yourself. This in turn will give you more strength.
When I first started learning about energy work, I met a woman who told me I had several holes in my aura. Aura holes are like blind spots where other people’s energies can enter unnoticed. Consequently, my boundaries were blurry to myself, as well as to the people around me. Often I felt some kind of indefinable anxiety. Did it belong to me or to other people? Wherever it came from, the result was a strong feeling that something wasn’t right. This in turn made me leave my body. Only there could I feel protected.
Through meditation and energy work, I found my outer aura edge ended up where it worked best for me and clicked into place. It gave me new awareness of myself and my boundaries. It gave me inner peace and security when I met other people.
The next exercise will help you to explore your aura further, this time with your hands. Make sure that you click your aura into place before you try touching it, though. Having it too far away from you will prevent you from reaching the edge. Placing it too close will also be confusing, although it will be possible to touch it then, since it will be within reach.
To increase the sensitivity of your hands, rub your palms against each other as if they are cold and you want to warm them. This will help you to perceive the contact with your aura more easily. If you lose touch with your aura during the exercise, rub your palms against each other again. You can also do it more often than we have suggested here. Feel your way.
Don’t worry if you don’t get the hang of this exercise at once. You may have to try it several times. Have patience with yourself and listen to your body and what it tells you.
Stand up and rub your palms against each other fast so they get warm.
Imagine that the edge of your aura is situated about an arm’s length from you and experience how it clicks into place.
Put your arms out in front of you with your palms turned at a 90-degree angle towards you.
Pull your hands slowly towards you until you reach your aura.
You may perceive your aura as hot, cold, a prickling sensation in your fingers or some resistance; you might see a certain colour or just know deep down when you touch it with your hands.
Explore your aura with your hands in different places around your body. Focus on having it click into place.
How does your aura feel around your thighs, shins and feet? How does it feel above your head? Is there a place where it bulges in or out, or where it seems to be missing?
You are now going to move the back of your aura and place it in front of you. Rub your palms against each other again, turn your palms outwards and let them get hold of the inside of your aura, as though you were touching the inside of a balloon.
By moving your hands horizontally, rotate your aura so that the back ends up in front of you.
Explore the back. How does it feel above your thighs, calves and feet? How does it feel above your head?
Does the back feel different from the front? Is it closer or farther away from your body? Are there any holes or places where you can’t feel your aura?
Rotate your aura again: take hold of the inside of the aura, with your palms facing outwards, and move your hands horizontally so that the aura rotates until the front of it is placed in front of you again.
Thank your body for the information, thank your aura and thank yourself for the steps you have taken.
Breathe out and let go of what you’ve just experienced.
Explore your aura with your hands in different places around your body
As mentioned earlier, it can be hard to find the edge of the aura; it might be too far away from you or too close to you. You may want to do the exercise several times before you continue.
What did you discover? Perhaps you felt that your aura stuck to your body somewhere. The aura is like a surround-sound system enveloping the body, but often we forget to pay attention to the aura under our feet or behind our back, and in places we aren’t aware of, it tends to stick to our body. Accordingly, its function is minimal there. When we observe the position of the aura edge and can put it in place, however, the aura ceases to stick to our body. Simply feeling where the aura sticks to the body, or noticing a hole, is often enough for the aura to adjust itself. As long as we are aware of a certain situation, the energetic body can heal itself in the most miraculous ways. The key seems to be awareness, because if we are unconscious of a situation, we can’t do anything about it. We don’t even know it exists. But the second we are consciously aware of a situation regarding our aura, it will instantly start the healing process.
The next step is to feel somebody else’s aura. Find a friend you trust and who would like to do this exercise with you. It may be fun for both of you.
Stand on opposite sides of a room, facing each other. One of you is going to move the edge of their aura and the other will feel where it is with their hands. Decide who is going to do what before you start. Let us call the person moving their aura A and the person searching for the aura B.
A lets the edge of their aura click into place at arm’s length from their body.
B rubs their palms against each other till they are warm and starts walking forwards with their palms turned towards A.
B stops where they feel the edge of A’s aura and then returns to the starting point.
Still standing in the same place, A then moves the edge of their aura 2–3 metres (6½–10 feet) away.
B again rubs their palms against each other till they are warm and starts walking forwards with their palms turned towards A.
B stops where they feel the edge of A’s aura and then returns to the starting point.
A pulls in their aura to just a few centimetres from their body.
B rubs their palms against each other till they are warm and starts waking forwards with their palms turned towards A.
B stops where they feel the edge of A’s aura and then returns to the starting point.
A then moves their aura in or out, without telling B where it is.
B is now going to find out whether A is keeping their aura tight to the body, a long way out or clicked into place. (Of course, it is important that A keeps their aura in the same position until B can feel it.)
Run through the process a few more times in different positions. Then change over and do the exercise all over again.
Feeling someone else’s aura: A (right) pulls in the aura to just a few centimeters from the body. B (left) stops where they feel the edge.
Did it surprise you that it was so easy? Maybe you thought that it would be possible to feel the aura when you knew where it was. Feeling it when you didn’t know where it was may have been slightly surprising. This exercise shows that a person can move the edge of their aura consciously and that other people can feel that aura.
With this new awareness, you can now go out into the world and feel where your aura is in different situations. It certainly made a difference to Lucy.
Lucy was an airline stewardess, and her workday consisted of meeting lots of people in the confined space of an aircraft. As she was highly intuitive, she would take in extensive information from everybody and often end up totally drained after a day’s work. When she learned to click her aura into place at one of our workshops, her life started changing. Meeting people no longer drained her and she could keep her space during the day. She thought that working in such a tight space as an aeroplane was great aura-clicking training!
Taking your aura seriously is important for your wellbeing. Remember, your aura is as much part of your body as your physical energy body. Play with it and explore. See how other people react when you suddenly let it expand a long way or pull it in really tight, but most important of all, see how you feel when it has clicked into place just where you should keep it in relation to your body – and how it affects you.
Awareness of where you place your aura is life-changing, so try to be conscious of where your aura is placed in your everyday life. This might sound like a big task, but it only takes a bit of training. Start the day by clicking your aura into place and notice where you keep it during key moments such as when you’re in your car, at work and grocery shopping. Whenever you feel invaded, or energetically drained, check your aura and see whether it is in place or not. It only takes a second to click it back and it makes such a difference.
The most important thing is awareness and then the healing process can start.
