Human Atmosphere : Its Aura

HARDLY one person in ten thousand is aware that he or she is enveloped by a haze intimately connected with the body, whether asleep or awake, whether hot or cold, which, although invisible under ordinary circumstances, can be seen when conditions are favourable. This mist, the prototype of the nimbus or halo constantly depicted around saints, has been manifest to certain individuals possessing a specially gifted sight, who in consequence have received the title of "Clairvoyants," and until quite recently to no one else.

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This cloud or atmosphere, generally termed the AURA, is the subject of this treatise, in so far as it can be perceived by the employment of screens containing a peculiar chemical substance in solution. It may be stated at once that the writer does not make the slightest claim to clairvoyancy; nor is he an occultist; and he specially desires to impress upon his readers that his researches have been entirely physical, and can be repeated by any one who takes sufficient interest in the subject.

As long as the faculty of seeing the aura was confined to a few individuals, and ordinary persons had no means of corroboration or refutation, the door to imposture was open.

Since this has been the case up to the present time, the subject has always been looked on askance; but there is no more charlatanism in the detection of the human aura by the means employed than in distinguishing microbes by the aid of the microscope. The chief difference lies in the claim of some people that they are able to perceive the one through the possession of extra-normal eyesight, while no one has yet had the hardihood to assert that they have the power of seeing an object one-thousandth of a millemetre in length without instrumental aid. There cannot be the least doubt of the reality of the existence of an aura enveloping a human being, and this will in a short time be an universally accepted fact, now that it can be made visible to nearly every person having ordinary eyesight.

It, indeed, would be strange if the aura did not vary under different circumstances, and there is good reason to believe that a study of its modifications will show that they have a diagnostic value in disease.

The writer asks the indulgence of his readers while he makes a few personal remarks. He has endeavoured to be as far as possible impartial and accurate in recording all observations and to avoid pitfalls and faults having their origin in uncontrolled enthusiasm and imagination. This, in one part of the subject is very difficult, as so much depends upon subjective vision. It is only fair to add that his sight is his most perfect sense; and consequently he may be able to distinguish by its aid a little more than the average man, and may thus have perceived effects which escape the notice of other observers.

Some of the deductions he has made may be thought, and perhaps rightly, too dogmatic, since they are founded upon such a small number of cases; but the excuse advanced is, that they have been brought forward solely with the intention of providing working hypotheses to assist in future investigations.