Aura photography

Photographing the aura

Aura photography is not new. What’s new is that it’s now available in full colour. And in Singapore.

Choo Yeow Chiah is not to sell magic. So the manager of Kens crystals, which has been in business for some 5 years, is reluctant to create any air of mystery around the products he sells – crystals, and now, “aura photographs”.

“It’s only a novelty,” Choo says of his aura imaging camera, which he bought recently for more than US$10,000. “Don’t put too much meaning into it. What it does is to let people know they have an energy field around them, that’s all.”

So Choo markets it more s a fun thing, to show at parties, or maybe use as Christmas cards.

For $18 (Note: It is now available cheaper at various other places) you get a Polaroid picture of your face and upper body surrounded by a field of different colours.

It also comes with a five-page computer printout which explains what these colours mean.

Red, depending on the shade and where it appears, may mean activity, movement, vitality, joy, passion, sexuality or health. It may also mean an anger or rage.

Violet, at the other end of the rainbow spectrum, may mean institution, creativity, supernatural abilities and mysteriousness. It may also mean that sickness is developing.

Can aura photography predict or diagnose sickness?

“Some people say it’s possible,” Choo replies.“I once saw the aura of a man who was very sick. But I better not say any more. I don’t want to alarm anybody.

“Usually, I tell people to consult a doctor or an alternative health practitioner and use the picture as something extra. Don’t just rely on it.”

Choo thinks aura photography tells more about a person’s mood or mental state – more reds when a person is angry or excited, more blues and violets when the person is calm and relaxed.

“Don’t take it too seriously,” he advises. “It’s only piece of technology. How can a machine interpret your soul?”

Perhaps not. But this technology of aura photography does suggest that there is some truth in all the talk about auras and energy fields.

Some of Choo’s customers would, for example, have their aura picture taken, then meditate for a few minutes and have their picture taken again.

Usually, it does show a difference. This suggests that we can deliberately change our aura through thought, meditation and other means. It pleases people to know they have this ability.

My first aura photography

When I took my first aura picture, it had only two colours, or rather, two shades of the same colour – violet and ultraviolet.

The computer printout says I am mystical, unifying, sensitive and magical! Or that I may be entering a period of illness, stress or emotional upset.

I can accept this as being fairly accurate although I never saw myself as being mystical or magical. Maybe the programmer likes to make things a bit more glamorous and sensational. And I was a bit rushed and tired that day.

Choo’s interpretation was that I was “someone who believes in God and has a religion” and that I did not have many things on my mind; I was not rushing to work.

“I don’t like someone of the words they use in the printout,” Choo says, “like ‘new age’ or ‘magic’. But the program comes from the US and we have to accept it.”

Uncannyly, the print-out pinpointed the work that I am currently doing – “communicating to people a new way of living, thinking and being in the world.”

Now, how does it know that I publish The Good Life?

I had two other pictures taken that same day. The second was after Choo gave me a short, simple massage on the neck and shoulders. (“I only do this for friends, Choo says. So don’t demand a massage when you go to shop.)

This second picture had more interesting colours. It showed me with a light green, “lavender” glow over my head.

Finally, Choo asked his assistant to take a picture as he placed one hand over my head and one by my side. The result was a brighter glow.

Choo’s own aura photo was a lot more colourful – it had red, orange, and green, blue…

I half wondered if he had done something to create that effect – like getting a special massage – so that it can be used as an advertisement.

But when my wife Rebecca had her picture taken, it turned out to be equally colourful. So were the pictures of my friends Clarence and Yee Ting, and macrobiotic teacher John Kozinski.

Another friend who has similar energy to me – some think he is my brother – produced an aura picture almost identical to mine!

I also had my picture taken on another day, when I was feeling less tired and more energetic. The colours turned out lighter and more varied not just violet and ultra violet, but also lavender, blue, light blue and white. And this time, the print out no longer mentioned that I might be entering a period of illness.

100 year old technology

Aura photography is now new.

The best known aura pictures were done by Kirlian photography, a process developed by Russian scientist Semyon D Kirlian in the 1940s.

But the technology is actually much older. The first aura pictures were produced back in the 1880s by physicist Nikola Telsa. He took pictures not only of finger tip auras, but of entire body auras, which he called “corona discharges”.

It is not as if cameras can actually “see” auras and capture then the same way it captures ordinary images.

In Kirlian photography, the subject puts his or her hands, usually together with the feet, on a plate which is connected to a high frequency generator. For a short moment, the hand is exposed to high frequency rays through the plate. The reaction of hand and feet is recorded on photographic paper and after the film is developed, an image appears.

It show rays of energy coming out of the finger tips and the feet. The intensity of these rays differs.

Pictures of people who are ill show very weak energy fields while pictures of healthy people show stronger fields.

Healers usually have extremely powerful fields. And sick people would show a stronger field after a healing session.

Phantom leaf

Probably the most interesting phenomena is called the “phantom leaf effect”. If a leaf is cut in half, a Kirlian photograph will still show the energy field of a whole leaf!

One disadvantage of Kirlian photography is that is uses very high voltage electricity. This is not necessarily dangerous, but there is now a new method, using low voltage. And it produces full colour images. This is the camera available here.

How aura photography works

This “camera” works on the same principles as acupuncture and biofeedback. It is connected to two sets of sensors in the shape of the hand, which pick up subtle electrical signals from your hands. The signals are then translated into different colours, which are reproduced onto a Polaroid photograph.

The camera actually takes two images. The first is an ordinary picture image of your face and upper body. The second is an “image” of your energy field constructed from energy signals coming out of your hands.

How do we know if the colours represent the real aura? The inventors of this aura photography camera claim they had asked psychics people who can see the aura to check the images and the psychics said the pictures were pretty accurate.