“Mommy, we look like fireflies!” This was my youngest son’s gleeful remark when he first saw an image of an aura around a person. I had to agree. Surrounding us, for several feet, are rainbow fields of light called the human auric field. Knowledge of these fields can dynamically support your practice, whether you can see their glow or not.
Bodyworkers typically better their clients’ lives by working on the physical body, mainly using touch. So why work outside of the body? After all, our reputations are at stake. Who wants to be seen waving their hands in the empty air? There are two main reasons.
First, that’s all we’re doing anyway—working with fields of energy, that is. The body, like nearly everything else, is primarily composed of oscillating fields of energy. As Richard Gerber, MD, subtle energy pioneer, explains, we are nothing more or less than complex bundles of energy that vibrate and oscillate at different rates.1 Even our cells exchange information via oscillating electromagnetic fields, making us fields of light.2
This means that when you’re trying to loosen a client’s psoas muscle, or doing just about anything else for the body, you’re actually manipulating a field of energy (the skin) to reach a deeper field of energy (the muscle) to create more open channels of energy for healing purposes. Why not be more knowledgeable about the process of “massaging” energetic fields?
The second reason it’s important to understand the auric field is that while it’s viable to alter the body by working on it directly, it’s equally possible (and sometimes easier) to shift negative conditions by manipulating the energy fields emanating from the body. In short, we can change the content of a container by altering what’s inside it—or by actually altering the container. Change the energy around the body, change the body.
What is an Energy Field?
Technically, a field is a physical quantity that exerts the same influence at each point in time and space. Fields could also be called forces, because they move through a medium and transfer energy.3 My son did so well comparing us to fireflies that I’d like to borrow his personal definition of a field, which is “the place in which you play baseball.”
Think about it: a baseball field is a physical quantity—an area with set boundaries—and every person within that field is generating fields of energy. We’re electrical beings. Our cells and organs pulse with electricity. Even our thoughts and feelings, formed by neurological and biochemical interactions, create electrical charge. In turn, electricity produces electromagnetic, electrical, and magnetic fields. Want another name for electromagnetic activity? It’s light.4
On the micro-level, some of the light fields we radiate are made of very tiny units of light called biophotons. These mini light bulbs, many of which come off our DNA, resonate together to create an interactive field of light around us.5 Certain frequencies or ranges of this body-light fall within a narrow spectrum and are called the auric field. The human auric field is composed of very subtle or fast-moving light.
What all this means is that on the baseball field, every single being—players, umpires, parents, popcorn makers, dogs with wagging tails—are constantly interacting energetically. Everything interacts in a field, so a mother’s sneeze could cause a catcher on the other side of the field to drop the ball, even if he can’t hear her.
Energy and Bodyworkers
A more complete understanding of energy fields, especially the auric field, will help you understand why it’s important to work with them as a practitioner. Scientists such as James Oschman, PhD, author of Energy Medicine, see the auric field as an unbounded biomagnetic field that surrounds the body.6 “Unbounded” means our auric field, composed of up to 12 layers, extends outward from the physical body indefinitely. This field is made of both electromagnetic radiation or light (specifically magnetism) and antimatter, which allows a shift of energy between this world and others.
Oschman believes every piece of matter in physical reality is linked to an antimatter cousin, which has its opposite charge, and that this pairing makes healing possible. When a practitioner transmits healing energy based on intention, whether through hands-on or distance healing, that energy is delivered and can initiate change in physical forms and structures.7 The information contained within this field includes data about everything occurring inside the body as well as on the skin, although the field itself starts in or next to the skin.8
Researchers including Valerie Hunt, PhD, who is well known for her studies suggesting the existence of the auric field, show that these fields exist outside of our normal perception and are also partnered with chakras, the energy organs that perform the same basic function as the auric fields. Each can be described as a color, sound, and a set of functions.9
Each linked chakra and auric field can hold information, communicate, and receive information. Chakras basically manage what is occurring inside of us, while auric fields govern our relationship with the world. We work on the auric fields to establish and maintain boundaries, ensure that healthy messages are exchanged with the world, and keep ourselves safe.
What this means for the practitioner is that you can work on an auric field and impact a chakra; through this, you can deliver healing and instruction to the body. You can also directly work on a bodily area hosting a chakra and alter the related auric field.
Cheat Sheet for the Auric Layers
Most practitioners work with a seven-layer auric field, although there are most likely many more layers. This list will provide you the basic information you need about the main layers—each one’s location, color, overriding purpose, and related chakra. Some of this information can be found in my book, The Subtle Body Practice Manual.10
First Auric Layer: Protects and attracts life-supporting energies.
Often seen as reddish, some also perceive it as light blue, gray, or translucent. It emanates about 2 inches from the skin and also includes the skin. It is associated with the first chakra, in the hips.
Second Auric Layer: Screens and communicates feelings and emotions.
Frequently perceived as orange, it can look like clouds that fill with various colors and form different shapes depending on the client’s emotions. It extends 4–5 inches above the body’s surface. It is associated with the second chakra, in the abdomen.
Third Auric Layer: Filters and disseminates ideas and beliefs.
Usually yellow or golden, I perceive it as a net about 8–10 inches away from the body. It is associated with the third chakra, in the solar plexus.
Fourth Auric Layer: Attracts and repels relationships; communicates about love.
Appears like multicolored clouds that are usually green, but sometimes pink and gold, in continual motion. It is about 12–18 inches above the skin. It is associated with the fourth chakra, in the heart.
Fifth Auric Layer: Attracts, repels, and sends guidance.
Typically deep blue, it can look like an egg and is 2 feet above the body. It is associated with the fifth chakra, in the throat.
Sixth Auric Layer: Receives choices and visualizes decisions.
This layer looks like streams of soft light, often lavender or purple, emanating in all directions. I find it about 2.5 feet from the body, although it can sometimes generate from inside of the body. It is associated with the sixth chakra, in the forehead.
Seventh Auric Layer: Connects with Greater Spirit; conduit for our personal spirit.
This layer is egg-shaped and about 3 feet away from the physical body, often appearing as white or rainbow colored. It is associated with the seventh chakra, above the head.
Integrating Energy Work
How can you put this information to good use as a bodywork practitioner? Here are a few suggestions:
• Know what to look for. In subtle energy terms, we want to repair the auric layers that have the following problems:
Rips or tears, which cause a leakage of energy. If the first layer is leaking, your client will be exhausted and perhaps stricken with inflammation. If the second layer is losing energy, he could be sad or depressed, and so on.
Attachments. This is the code word for unhealthy bonds. From an energetic viewpoint, attachments look or feel like garden hoses linking an energy field to a negative person, place, or situation.
“Off” colors. Blotchy, muddled, or discolored areas in an auric layer means it’s holding energy that is causing toxicity.
• Know how to look. Chances are, you aren’t going to see auric layer damage with your eyes. You might perceive it with your inner eye or receive an intuitive sense of a problem. You can also pass your hand through the air and feel disturbances in particular auric layers. Easier yet, put your hands on or over the area of a client complaint and figure out which chakra is nearest. The auric layer related to it will be the one you want to focus on.
• Know what to do. You don’t have to wave your hands all over the room to heal an auric field. You can hold a hand in the vicinity of the field that has an issue and ask for the client’s higher self or your own Higher Power, by whatever name you use, to perform the healing. Ask, too, that the changes transfer through the correlated chakra into the body as a whole. You can also hold a hand over the associated chakra and ask that the healing be shared inside the body as well as in the auric field.
Ready to field your client’s concerns? The most important activity is to trust yourself. After all, you are made of energy, which is intelligent information. It will tell you what to do.
Notes
1. Auric Energy Healing, “The Human Body as Energy Field,” excerpt from Richard Gerber, MD’s book, A Practical Guide to Vibrational Medicine, 5–7, accessed October 2014, www.auricenergyhealing.com/the-human-body-as-energy-field.
2. Med-i-xin site, Roland G. Heber, “Energy—Source of Health and Healing,” accessed September 2014, http://med-i-xin.com/media/MIX-Energy-Source-of-health-and-healing-E.pdf.
3. University of Sydney School of Physics, “Electric Fields and Charge,” accessed September 2014, www.physics.usyd.edu.au/super/life_sciences/E/E-all.pdf.
4. Cyndi Dale, The Subtle Body Encyclopedia (Boulder, Colorado: Sounds True, 2009), 14–17, 115–18; NDT Resource Center, “Creation of Magnetic Fields,” accessed September 2014, www.ndt-ed.org/EducationResources/HighSchool/Magnetism/fieldcreation.htm.
5. Foundation for Alternative and Integrative Medicine, Beverly Rubik, “Measurement of the Human Biofield and Other Energetic Instruments,” accessed September 2014, www.faim.org/energymedicine/measurement-human-biofield.html.
6. James Oschman, Energy Medicine (New York: Churchill Livingston, 2000).
7. Cyndi Dale, The Subtle Body Practice Manual (Boulder, Colorado: Sounds True, 2013), 30; Reiki Pathway, interview with James L. Oschman, “The Human Energy Field,” accessed September 2014, www.reikipathway.com/id25.html.
8. Oschman, Energy Medicine, 30–35.
9. Rolf Institute, Valerie V. Hunt et al., “A Study of Structural Integration from Neuromuscular, Energy Field, and Emotional Approaches,” accessed September 2014, www.rolf.org/Content/PDF/research/HuntStudy.pdf; Valerie V. Hunt Research site, accessed September 2014, www.valerievhunt.com/ValerieVHunt.com/Valerie_Hunt_Research.html.
10. Dale, The Subtle Body Practice Manual, 128–31.
Cyndi Dale is an internationally renowned author, speaker, and intuitive consultant. Her books include the bestselling The Subtle Body: An Encyclopedia of Your Energetic Anatomy (Sounds True, 2009), The Complete Book of Chakra Healing (Llewellyn Publications, 2009), and Advanced Chakra Healing (Crossing Press, 2005). To learn more about Dale and her products, services, and classes, please visit www.cyndidale.com.