Exercises Aura: Complete Guide

By Thalira Wisdom

Last updated: 15 March 2026

What Is the Aura?

The aura is understood in energetic healing traditions as the luminous energy field that surrounds and interpenetrates the physical body, extending outward from the skin surface by varying distances depending on the individual's health, emotional state, and spiritual development. The concept appears across diverse cultural traditions: the halo depicted in Christian sacred art, the prana-maya-kosha of Indian Vedantic philosophy, the etheric body of Theosophy and Anthroposophy, the qi field of Chinese medicine, and the biofield described in contemporary biofield science research.

Modern Western energy healing draws most directly on the models developed by Theosophical writers (including Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, Thought Forms, 1901) and their elaboration by Barbara Brennan in Hands of Light (1987) and Light Emerging (1993). Brennan, a former NASA research physicist turned energy healer, described seven distinct aura layers, each with specific structural characteristics, functional roles, and health indicators.

The Seven Aura Layers

Beginner Exercises: Sensing the Etheric Field

Exercise 1: Hand-Sensing Between Palms

Sit comfortably. Hold both hands in front of you with palms facing each other, about 30 centimetres apart. Slowly bring the palms toward each other, moving at roughly 2 to 3 centimetres per second. Notice any sensations arising between the palms: warmth, tingling, a subtle pressure or resistance, or a magnetic-like push. Stop when you notice a change in sensation; hold at that distance and explore the quality of what you feel. Then slowly move the palms apart again and notice the change as the sensation diminishes. Practice this for 5 to 10 minutes daily for two weeks.

What you are likely perceiving is the interaction of the etheric fields of both hands. The etheric layer is the densest and most physically proximal aura layer, associated with the life forces of the physical body. It is the most commonly accessible to beginners because of its relative density and proximity to the physical.

Exercise 2: Sensing a Partner's Etheric Field

With a willing partner, have them hold one arm out horizontally, palm facing upward. Hold your dominant hand palm-down about 30 centimetres above their arm. Slowly lower your hand toward their arm, pausing at each point where you notice a sensation change. Note the distance from the skin where you first notice warmth, tingling, or a change in the energetic quality.

Repeat on the other arm. Then scan slowly along the length of their arm from shoulder to fingertip at a consistent distance of 5 to 8 centimetres, noticing variations in the field: areas of greater warmth or coolness, density or sparseness. Swap roles and have your partner scan you. Compare your experiences afterward.

Exercise 3: Sensing Around Plants and Trees

Plants have a demonstrable etheric field. Slowly move your palm toward a healthy plant, noticing where you perceive a change in the field quality. A healthy plant typically has a fuller, warmer field; a stressed or dying plant typically has a more contracted, cooler, or sparse field. Practising on plants is a non-invasive way to develop etheric sensing before working with people.

Intermediate Exercises: Visual Perception

Exercise 4: Peripheral Vision Practice

Ask a partner to stand against a plain white or light-coloured wall in indirect, even lighting (avoid direct sunlight or harsh artificial light). Sit approximately 2 to 3 metres away. Rather than looking directly at your partner, soften your gaze and allow your vision to become slightly unfocused, similar to how you might look at a magic eye image. Direct your attention to the space immediately surrounding their body outline, using peripheral vision.

After 30 to 60 seconds of steady, soft gazing, many practitioners begin to perceive a faint shimmer or whitish-grey band immediately surrounding the body outline. This is typically the etheric layer. The perception often disappears when you shift to direct focus and returns when you restore peripheral, softened gaze. Practice this for 5 to 10 minutes, 3 to 5 times per week.

Exercise 5: Dark-Background Contrast Practice

This variation uses a dark background rather than a light one. Have your partner sit in a dimly lit room against a dark background. Gaze at the space around their head and shoulders using peripheral vision. Some practitioners find dark backgrounds more effective for initial colour perception because the contrast is greater. The field may appear as a faint luminescence against the dark background.

Advanced Exercises: Layer Reading and Colour Interpretation

Exercise 6: Layer-by-Layer Scanning

With a partner willing to be scanned, begin at the body surface and slowly draw your palm outward, pausing to notice the quality at each distance: 2 to 3 centimetres (etheric), 5 to 10 centimetres (emotional), 15 to 20 centimetres (mental), 25 to 30 centimetres (astral), and beyond. Notice how the felt quality changes at different distances. Note whether certain zones feel warmer, cooler, denser, or more depleted than others, and whether these variations correspond to any known health or emotional themes in your partner's life.

Exercise 7: Colour Impressions Journalling

After a visual or hand-sensing session, close your eyes and notice any colour impressions that arise, without trying to force them. Write these down immediately without analysis. Over many sessions, patterns emerge: specific colour impressions tend to arise consistently in the presence of specific individuals or in specific energy states. Compare your colour impressions with Brennan's colour reference after recording them. Over months of journalling, a personal colour-meaning vocabulary develops that is more reliable than memorised interpretation tables.

Self-Aura Practice

Self-aura sensing develops proprioceptive awareness of your own energetic state and is an essential component of practitioner self-care.

Morning field check: each morning, spend 3 to 5 minutes in quiet seated attention with eyes closed. Expand your awareness beyond your physical body surface to include the surrounding space. Notice whether the field feels contracted or expanded, dense or light, clear or murky. Over time, you will develop a baseline sense of your healthy field and notice deviations from it that may precede physical or emotional symptoms.

Post-session clearing: after working with clients or spending time in emotionally intense environments, practice a self-clearing: standing, shake your hands downward as if flicking water from them; breathe deeply and consciously release any energetic material that is not yours; visualise your aura returning to its natural luminosity and boundary. Ground by placing both feet flat on the floor and directing attention down through the feet into the earth.

Aura Colour Guide

Aura Protection and Clearing

Practitioners working regularly with others and people in highly stimulating or stressful environments benefit from developing consistent aura protection and clearing practices:

Grounding before exposure: spend 5 minutes grounding (feet on earth, breath into the lower body, attention to physical sensations) before entering hospitals, busy social events, or energetically intense environments. A well-grounded field is less susceptible to absorbing others' emotional or energetic material.

Field boundary visualisation: visualise a luminous, permeable membrane at the outer edge of your aura. This is not a wall but a selective filter: it allows love, healing, and clear information to flow while providing a boundary against energetic intrusions. This practice is most effective when done from a grounded, centred state rather than from fear.

Salt baths and water clearing: immersion in salted water (1 to 2 cups of sea salt or Himalayan salt per bath) is a widely used clearing practice in energy healing traditions globally. Water is understood as having particular affinity for dispersing and neutralising dense or stagnant energetic material from the aura.

Scientific Context

The aura as traditionally described has not been validated by mainstream science. However, several research areas are relevant:

Fritz-Albert Popp at the International Institute of Biophysics has documented since the 1970s that living cells emit coherent biophotons, ultra-weak light emissions at intensities orders of magnitude below ordinary light. This research demonstrates that living organisms literally glow with measurable light, though whether this corresponds to the aura as described by energy healers remains an open question.

Rubik et al. (2015) surveyed biofield research in Global Advances in Health and Medicine, examining evidence that living organisms generate and respond to endogenous electromagnetic and biophotonic fields extending beyond the skin surface. Their review concluded that the evidence base, while preliminary, justifies continued research into biofield phenomena.

Experienced practitioners should position aura work honestly: as a complementary perceptual practice with roots in diverse cultural wisdom traditions and emerging (though not conclusive) scientific context, rather than as an established physical measurement technique.

Steiner on Aura Perception

Rudolf Steiner described aura perception extensively throughout his work, most systematically in Theosophy (1904) and in his lectures on the supersensible dimensions of the human being. He distinguished three primary aura dimensions:

The physical-etheric aura surrounds the physical body and carries the formative life forces that maintain organic form. Steiner described its general colour as yellowish-green, modified by health status and life force vitality. This corresponds to what Brennan calls the first (etheric) layer.

The astral-soul aura carries the emotional and desire nature. Its colours are continuously shifting, reflecting the soul's inner life: blue qualities relate to devotion and spiritual feeling; red to strong desire and passion; greenish qualities to adaptability; dark smoky colours to hatred and destructive emotion. This corresponds broadly to Brennan's second (emotional) and fourth (astral) layers.

The spiritual ego aura carries the emerging spiritual individuality, appearing in violet and gold qualities as the ego organisation works to transform the lower soul nature. This corresponds to Brennan's higher layers (fifth through seventh).

Steiner was cautious about premature aura perception training. He emphasised that genuine supersensible perception requires the prior development of specific inner capacities, including exact thinking, emotional equanimity, and ethical refinement, without which perceived "aura colours" are likely to be projections of the practitioner's own emotional states rather than accurate perceptions of the subject's field. This caution remains wise counsel for contemporary practitioners.

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