Copyright Julia Melges Jablonski, 1996 Muse Net

Introduction

       References to a light or aura surrounding the human body can be found from the beginnings of recorded history throughout many cultures both Eastern and Western. Until recent times, perception of this light has been restricted to mystics, philosophers, sensitives and artists. Many who were unable to perceive this aura have doubted its existence.

       Skepticism regarding auras has been centered mainly in the West. In the late 1800's there was great interest and research into life energy and the use of electrical and magnetic devices for healing in the United States. There was no standardization at this time, and some of these treatments may have been dangerous or harmful. In 1909, the U.S. government sponsored the Flexner Report with the aim of upgrading and standardizing medical care and education nationally. This report not only made electromagnetic healing treatments illegal, but it ruled that electromagnetic energy is in no way involved in physiology or medicine. Research in bio-energy came to be considered disreputable and preposterous. (Eidelman, 4)

       In Eastern and other cultures and sub-cultures, treatment of illness through the aura energy of the body is an ancient and continuing practice. Mystics and "seers" have traditionally held highly respected positions in these cultures as shamans, healers, and medicine people. Western academia, by contrast, has derided intuitive knowledge during the last century. Recent developments, however, negate the possibility of true objectivity in research and demand an integration of subjective experience and scientific methodology.