What is the aura? It’s something that every spiritual student is familiar with in terms of just knowing the term and having a sense of what it is, but I think to really understand it is quite difficult. I think it’s one of those concepts among the spiritual community that people claim to know long before they really do understand it.
Robert: Welcome. Inner sight is simply seeing that which is always present but not yet fully recognized. You have within you the ability to see yourself and the world around you in a new way, with new eyes, so stay with us and together we’ll look at the world and ourselves with inner sight. Our topic for today is the aura. But before we get started with that, we have to give some credit to Alice Bailey, the founder of the Lucis Trust organization and who wrote twenty-four volumes of literature. The main inspiration for the dialogue that you hear on this show comes from the works of Alice Bailey, as does the following thought: “It is through the right use of the aura that we stimulate others to renewed effort, or slow them down to a less potent expression.” What is the aura and how does it come into existence?
Sarah: Well, I’ve been asking myself that as I prepare for this program. What is the aura? It’s something that every spiritual student is familiar with in terms of just knowing the term and having a sense of what it is, but I think to really understand it is quite difficult. I think it’s one of those concepts among the spiritual community that people claim to know long before they really do understand it. It’s said somewhere in the writings of Alice Bailey that a lot of people who think they see the aura of another person are not in fact seeing the aura. They’re seeing a radiation of perhaps physical vitality or of emotional force, but not the true aura, which is the sum total and the essence of the soul’s and the personality’s vehicles expressed as a kind of a radiation or a sphere of light and energy that emanates from the person. People with a very high spiritual evolution are said to project or express or emanate a huge aura of energy emanating around them. People of lesser attainment have a small aura. As I said, very few people can really see the auras although a lot of people I think claim to see them. Very little has been actually written about the aura. It’s usually expressed in terms of color and light and yet Alice Bailey said that the two words that most properly describe the aura in terms of spiritual understanding are “quality” and “sphere of influence.”
Dale: And that quality is given off by each person. We’ve all had the experience of being in a room and someone walks in and immediately everybody looks up and we’re all impressed by this person probably because that person is giving off a very strong aura.
Sarah: But it might just be physical magnetism.
Dale: It might be something like that, but it could be what this person is radiating that tends to draw the attention to everybody and it affects the whole atmosphere in the room I think sometimes.
Sarah: How would we know the difference between somebody like a rock star who gives off a physical magnetism or a movie star, people who really have a presence, but it’s not really the aura of the soul, how would we know the difference?
Dale: Well, true, there is a very subtle difference and I’m speaking more of a magnetic radiation because every form, every person gives off a certain amount of radiatory influence and some of it is very dynamic and others it’s rather calm and others it’s very irritating. I think we’ve maybe gotten onto an elevator and stood next to somebody and felt a certain irritation or in the subway or on the bus and you have to sit down or in a crowd and suddenly you feel this kind of irritation because there is a great mixture of auras that’s taking place there and they’re all of different rates of vibration and it’s inevitable that a certain amount of irritation be set up in some people.
Sarah: There’s a definition of the aura given in the writings of Alice Bailey that I think is pretty thoughtful. She says it’s “the true and accurate expression of the extent of the soul’s grip on the personality.” Or maybe I made this up myself. You know, I think I did; I’m so surprised!
Robert: Sounds good and I want to hear it. What is your perception?
Sarah: The true and accurate expression of the extent of the soul’s grip on the personality. In other words, you can’t fake it. You can’t pretend to be more spiritually evolved than you really are. If you can see someone’s aura, you see their true spiritual status. You see the true degree to which the soul is able to express its quality because the soul is quality through that individual. And that’s why we can pretend on the outer level to be something we’re not really, but in terms of the aura, it’s the real gauge of where we stand. I don’t mean that to be such a frightening thought. We are who we are, and we are becoming better with every day, but the aura is the accurate assessment of our present degree of soul contact.
Dale: Right, and that’s why speaking of the right use of the aura, it says in that opening quote that the effect of renewed effort can slow them down to a less potent expression or it can heighten and stimulate them. So it depends on that soul quality and the dynamic nature of the soul quality; how much of it is present will determine how stimulating you can be.
Sarah: I think that’s also perhaps one way by which we can tell the difference between a real magnetic personality: like many famous people have a real magnetism. That’s one reason they achieve fame. They have a personal magnetism and that’s not necessarily bad. Movie stars and celebrities and so on have that personal degree of integration and drive and vigor, a kind of a life force that makes them personally magnetic. But the aura, which is the expression of the soul, is felt as a stimulation that doesn’t necessarily draw attention to the person whose aura is expressing, but which has an effect on others. In the Bible it says that Jesus healed by his very presence and that the shadow of Peter passing by healed. That’s the aura expressing the energy of the soul. Like our opening thought says, the aura stimulates others to renewed effort or it slows them down to a less potent expression. It’s the effect on others; not drawing attention to oneself.
Dale: That reminds me of, I think it was St. Francis of Assisi who told his monks to serve by simply walking down to the middle of the town and that’s all they’d have to do and just the very presence of their aura would be a healing force or their very beingness would radiate this presence and people would be affected by it.
Sarah: And we’re told that that’s the best way we can aid people by “using what we are,” using what we are which must express itself through the medium of the aura. That’s hard to understand but it seems to say that we have to be our authentic selves to be able to really help others. And when two selves meet on that level of authenticity without any barriers or walls up, then real communication and a real sharing of energy can occur.
Dale: This is something that we bring with us. I think we mentioned in a previous show on the emotional body that the aura is something that we develop over lifetimes of experience and we bring into each life the quality that we have built up over lifetime after lifetime and the degree of soul contact and soul presence is very much a determining factor in how much this aura will reach out to others in a particular life?
Sarah: It grows; it expands with development. I suppose if one kept the historic record of our evolution we would see our spiritual growth in terms of the expansion and the increasing clarity of our aura. We would think it might be registered in terms of consciousness or in terms of skill or attainment or achievement, but it’s much more subtle than that. It’s an energy radiation that those on the inner side watch and gauge that expresses our real growth. It’s so much subtler than we realize. We tend to concretize everything, don’t we? This reminds us that growth is really about the ability to convey and transmit energy.
Robert: What is the effect which our own aura is making upon our environment and how can we improve that effect? I’d like to know because you’re saying that we give things off and sometimes according to the quote from Alice Bailey, I guess by the right aura we can stimulate others to renewed effort or we can have a negative effect on people too. Can you answer that question?
Sarah: Well, it’s a bit intimidating to think about our effect on others, but if we observe the reaction of others to what we are saying or the state we’re in, we can probably gauge to some extent the quality high or low of our present aura. We emanate a field of energy and force from ourselves, even if we’re not saying or doing anything. We can emanate this quality just by being present in a gathering. And we all can think of people who lift up the gathering of a group of people just because their presence is so benign and so spiritually serene. And we can think of others whose personal anguish and unhappiness is such that it lowers the quality of everyone. But it’s not just their emotional state, it’s the mind, the presence of the soul. All of this is expressed through the aura. It’s a quality that Foster Bailey, the husband of Alice Bailey, touched on when he said that “We look out at the world through the front half of our own aura,” which I love. What he was saying was we see the world through our own emanation, through our own basic makeup. We might think we’re observing reality, but we’re interpreting it through the field or the fog of our own energy emanation. That colors our worldview right there.
Dale: It’s like a big filter that surrounds us and the filter can be clogged with dirt or it can be clean and pure.
Sarah: Or it can have rose-colored glasses. (laughter)
Dale: Yeah well those are filters too. They filter your eyes. As I said in another program, the aura is distorted by the emotional nature because the emotional nature tends to distort everything that comes through it in this emotional field that surrounds us. But you were asking about how we can change. I think it’s a matter of allowing that soul quality, those higher, more refined qualities of energies of the soul through in order to substitute: like the love of the soul as substitute for the lower expressions of desire in the emotional nature. It’s constantly working at substituting, letting those soul energies, the soul qualities of light and love to shine through yourself, your aura, into the world around you. So, it’s a substitution of the greater for the lesser.
Sarah: In fact, the aura is said to be available to every one of us as a source of spiritual supply. I think that really is true. If we think of our presence as beneath a cup or chalice of in-pouring energy which stands above us and that that is the soul pouring its energy into our personal mechanism, we can draw on this reservoir of soul energy—which is the sum total of the aura—for whatever service we are trying to render. If we don’t set too many conditions on it or too many specifications or demands but simply open ourselves to this reservoir of in-pouring energy, we’ll find that the aura is a reservoir of supply that’s available to us. We can train ourselves, especially in moments of emptiness and need—the need of others that we want to meet, but we feel empty and unable to meet it—that supply can bring through love and light.
Dale: Right. And it’s also the focus because energy follows thought. If our focus and thoughts are outward, then the energy is going to radiate in that direction: outwardly. That’s when the healing power of the aura is at its greatest benefit: when you can let go of your focus on your own little self and direct your thoughts and those soul qualities outward towards others, towards their needs.
Sarah: That seems to go against so much of modern society, though, doesn’t it? To sacrifice, to put others before yourself, to give to others rather than being concerned with your own needs. There’s so much in the world today that says you should look out for number one and that if you give too much you become empty and you’ve got to replenish yourself, when in fact spiritually, we’re always replenishing our spiritual supply when we serve unquestioningly and wholeheartedly; there’s always more available to give. It’s not like a gas tank that empties out and you have to go and fill it up again by taking rest and recuperation in the Bahamas.
Dale: No, but rest and recuperation can help. (laughter)
Robert: It can help the aura. It’s interesting to hear you speak, Dale, about how we can change our aura—that is what we’re giving off to other people—just by changing our thoughts. And it makes sense, really, because the outer world really is reflecting the inner world.
Dale: Yes, if our thoughts are pure and not selfish thoughts, sure. If the thoughts are genuine and concerned with the needs of others, then we are reflecting soul qualities because the quality of the soul is selfless service. And if that is what we’re giving off, what we’re emanating from us, then that is an open channel for the soul energies to pour right through into others consciousness.
Robert: Did you read that article in the paper this week about toxic bosses? I thought that really related to what we’re talking about today. There was a study done and the outcome of the study was that there are bosses that actually are responsible for the ill health of their employees, not so much by what they say, but what they’re giving off.
Sarah: Yes, and there are also toxic employees that drain the life out of an organization in a group by their inability to really contribute and give their full measure to the larger effort. It goes both ways. But you’re right. There are people who are just kind of toxic, but they’re human too. They’re in a particular state where they need some kind of charge of spiritual vitality that will redeem them. We’re all redeemable. I don’t know exactly what it takes other than repeated experience to learn to live on a higher level, but our essential gauge ultimately is the degree of light that we express. That’s really what is read in our aura. It’s said that the Great Ones on the inner side, the Masters, judge us by the degree of light we emanate. They don’t look at our faults. They don’t look at our errors, our shortcomings, our mistakes. They just look for our light. The more brightly that shines through our aura, the more they can assess our quality and our availability for service to the Plan. But they don’t preoccupy themselves with saying, “Tisk, tisk, she’s still too critical. We have to send her back to East Podunk for further suffering.” They don’t work that way. They just wait for the light to grow.
Dale: That’s how they judge. And it’s a more accurate way of looking because they don’t look at the personality life. They’re not so concerned with the personality life. They’re concerned with the soul life. They work with the soul aspect, and if that is shining through, then that’s a beacon that they can work with.
Sarah: I wonder also whether we can’t help improving our aura, our emanation, by being more selective and discerning in the qualities of our daily preoccupations. In other words, if we subject ourselves to really low-level music, entertainment, thoughts, discussions, experiences, we can’t undergo those without having some of it color our aura.
Robert: Yeah, I think you’re right. And it also reminds me about when you were talking about people and their effect on other people. I remember reading something about Mahatma Gandhi one time—and it really underscores what both you and Dale are saying—that if you were in the room with him, it was almost like taking a sedative. People would feel very peaceful after a while, and that’s certainly a wonderful effect to have on people.
Dale: Absolutely. Well, there again, like I said in the beginning, someone walks into the room or you’re in a room with a person like that, your own aura feels that effect.
Sarah: But it isn’t something that you can stage or create. It’s really an assessment of who we really are. It can’t be effected and it can’t be faked. So it’s not a matter of just smiling peacefully and benignly at people. It’s much deeper than that.
Robert: So you can’t suddenly say to yourself, I’m going to affect people this way. It has to be a process of the spirit’s evolution and reaching that point.
Sarah: Exactly.
Robert: That’s interesting. You’ve been listening to Inner Sight. Now we would like to close with a world prayer called the Great Invocation. It’s a call for light and love and goodwill to flow into the world and into our hearts. Let’s listen for a moment to these powerful words.
Sarah: Closes the program by reciting the adapted version of the Great Invocation.
(This is an edited transcript of a recorded radio program called “Inner Sight.” This conversation was recorded between the host, Robert Anderson, and the then President and Vice-President of Lucis Trust, Sarah and Dale McKechnie.)
(Transcribed and edited by Carla McLeod)
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