Freeday 14 November 2003

Pic of the day: I like anime with colorful auras, like this picture from E's Otherwise. (I am glad the main character has this nice blue aura! It reminds me of my own, only paler.)

Psst! Wanna see my aura?

In anime aura is often used as a symbol or even synonym for psychic powers. Depending on the aura, people can do various supernatural things. This is of course pure artistic license, a way to visualize something that doesn't exist. You don't see people flying around with blazing auras in real life, which I think is just as well.

That said, there are a number of people who either can see auras around common people, or are crazy. Evidently it is a matter of practice. I studiously practice NOT seeing such things, as I believe they would bring me nothing but trouble. (I tried it, and did not like it.) We are indeed surrounded by electromagnetic fields, but these are rather weak and orders of magnitude lower in frequency than visible light. There is nothing to indicate that they correspond in shape (much less color) to what "psychic" people see. So, what's up with the aura thing?

***

The way I see it, auras are a way to visualize invisible information. The human brain has a lot of circuitry dedicated to decoding sight, and it is the sense that operates at the highest speed (except some reflexes related to touch, I guess). So it makes sense to visualize. We do that a lot in business, it is called "graphics". We use shapes and colors to immediately compare for instance data flow, economic growth or the health of a patient. So why would we not do the same with other information? Even if an aura does not show up on a photography, that does not mean it conveys no information. But the information is only as good as the person who visualizes it.

The information is, hopefully, real. But the color is all in your head, which is why it does not show up in a picture no matter how much you magnify it. You need extra equipment to photograph an aura: Kirlian photography. It is worth noticing that Kirlian photographs are quite real but can be explained by known forces of nature. There is no doubt that living beings are surrounded by various changes in the environment, such as temperature, moisture, and to a small degree electro-magnetism. (There are fishes that can hunt entirely by the electric field surrounding their prey. This does not mean the critters they eat are actually surrounded by a colorful aura.)

(Actually it is possible to create a Kirlian effect in real time ... Nicolai Tesla would do this for stunts, by using a specially chosen frequency of low-power electricity that made him glow. Don't try just putting metal objects in the mains, OK?)

***

Even if you don't see auras and don't believe in them, it is likely that you sometimes see people who stand out and you have a hard time saying why. Their clothes are not flashy, they are not particularly well groomed (or the opposite), they have no physical disfigurement. But somehow they are special. They may stand out only to you, or to a lot of people. They may do so only on special occasions, or all the time. They may give you certain associations which you cannot explain from the physical traits you see.

As regular readers will know, I am a fairly ordinary guy, somewhat uglier than average but nothing to scare small children. (Indeed, toddlers sometimes cling to me for no good reason.) Yet people will purposefully walk or drive straight by knowledgeable locals to ask me for directions even in places where I barely know the way myself. Evidently I project a kind of aura that draws people who look for directions. What color is that, dear psychics? Do your books tell you?

A young girl in the Hare Krishna sect made her way to me across the then largest parking lot on the West Coast (Oasen outside Bergen, I think there are several larger ones now though) and claimed she could see that I was pious. Do I look pious to you folks? From a distance?? (I was indeed already at that time much more knowledgeable about her religion than the average Norwegian, although that doesn't say much.)

When I approach, birds will just leisurely walk out of the way; but when another pedestrian comes, they flee for their lives. Clearly this is information not captured in a single picture, although I guess a video would do it ... it may be the way I move, for instance, my stance or my expression.

Now and again (rarely) I can see that a woman begins to "glow" when she is pregnant, even early in pregnancy. Other times (often) I don't notice until she suddenly has this big bulge on her front. And sometimes I can see that a girl is in love (not with me) even when it is still secret. Again, small clues that we don't talk about but register. Perhaps I could learn to visualize this as auras in appropriate colors. But I don't need to. It is not how I deal with the world.

But if you do, you are welcome to it. Just don't expect me to show you my aura if you show me yours ...