Friday 11 April 2003

Pic of the day: Bright aura flame! OK, perhaps not quite me ... (Screenshot from anime Happy Lesson.)

Aura market?

It was near the end of the workday, I was sitting down, looking at an error log. (I work with computers. Well, and people, sort of.) I was playing a beautiful melody with pan pipes on my stereo. (Yes, I have my own office with a small stereo.) And then as I read the log, something began to happen.

It felt like energy was rushing through me into my aura. I gasped for breath, as in a matter of heartbeats my aura seemed to strengthen and grow, flaring up until I was completely shrouded in bright aura fire. In particular it seemed to concentrate near my hands. (It should have been needless to mention that this is just visualization. Auras are not visible, measurable, physical energies ... they are only seen with the mind's eye. We do surround ourselves with soft electromagnetic fields, but nothing like this.)

I quickly got to my feet and hurried to the floor where the troubled computer (and user) was. I felt a wild confidence that with this level of aura, my sheer presence in the room would be enough to eradicate this kind of software problem. I logged on the user's computer, and the problem was gone. I logged off, the user logged on, the problem was still gone. It was reported to show up every time at log-on, so I guess it actually did work. I am still not sure whether I like this or not, but it is not the biggest surprise.

***

I have mentioned sometimes in the past that I seem to be surrounded by a problem-solving aura. At work in particular, I will often just stand there and suddenly the solution comes to my coworker, regardless of whether I actually say something or not. Indeed, it has happened that they have not needed to say anything either. Nor is this limited to computer stuff, although that is what I'm really there for. But any problem requiring logic and mental perspective seems to be vulnerable to my presence. People around the office are joking about it, how it seems to be enough that I just stand there. Fine by me. I am not supposed to do magic myself, but my aura seems to still be intact.

Of course, I am hardly the only person with an aura, or even with a good aura. I have told you often enough that my best friend has this weird effect on me, in which reality seems to strengthen around her: The colors are more vivid, the music is more musical, the food more tasty ... as if she somehow amplifies reality, or perhaps dispels some of the fog that usually cover reality for me. So often, this so-called real world is to me like a fog, and the people in it like shadows. Just shadows in the fog.

So suddenly this wild idea got to me: What would happen if we started to exchange information on our auras? I don't mean the color and the stuff that many new-agers dabble in, where they try to diagnose illnesses by squinting at people. This may or may not work, I won't say for sure as I've not tried it. I use "aura" in a more abstract sense, to convey the effect an individual has on its immediate surrounding. I am not sure if all people have such an effect, but there's bound to be a number of us. And, I thought, perhaps in the future there will be an aura market. People would hire a team of people with the right auras for a project. People with healing auras would be hanging out in hospitals. Other auras would be called on to increase creativity, productivity etc.

And as for me, when not needed to increase problem solving capacity, I would spend my evening as a chaperon for puritans. Because I have on good authority that I really kill the mood fast... I'm not sure if my journal transmits any of the effect, but you could try it and report back to me.