THIS BEAUTIFUL SHRIMP CAN SEE YOUR AURA
The human body is surrounded by a bio-energetic field, the “biofield,” or what’s sometimes called bioluminescence naturally emanating from the body, undetectable to the naked (human) eye, yet thought to be visible to certain species of shrimp, moth, and other creatures, most who could fit in the palm of our hands. Unlike us they possess extra photoreceptors and thermographic sensors and see with what’s called Extreme Spectral Richness. A few humans are able to pick up on faint versions of the biofield, but most can’t, at least not visually.
In video games a force field is often invoked as a magic weapon to protect the player from an enemy. What we might not realize is that we have such magic weapons that exist for us already. Whether or not we can see it, we do not end at our skin, or our hair or fingertips. Instead we grow — glow, actually, outward. In energy work these unseen layers are called the Subtle Bodies, or sometimes the energetic bodies. When you hear about a person’s energy “filling up the room,” giving off bad vibes, or exuding peace, this is the wide berth of their Subtle Bodies being described.
In 2009, Japanese scientists captured the first ever images of bioluminescence using special camera techniques and, as they said in the beginning of one of their followup papers, found that “The human body literally glimmers” (Kobayashi, 2009).
As Kafatos (2015) states in the paper Biofield Science: Current physics perspectives.:
“Evidence for the existence of the biofield now exists, and current theoretical foundations are now being developed. The term biofield describes a field of energy and information, both putative and subtle, that regulates the homeodynamic function of living organisms and may play a substantial role in understanding and guiding health processes.”
THE BODY ELECTRIC
In this field of thought, the human electromagnetic field is made up of two things: the vibrational energy of the body that creates a magnetic field around it, and the results of all of our bodily processes like respiration, digestion, circulation, and nerves that undergo an almost constant series of electrochemical reactions. This bio-energetic field is more informally called an aura, a Greek word meaning “breeze.” Whatever you call it, it tends to extend about 4 to 5 feet outside the body, and it is believed that all plants and animals possess one.
In fact so many cultures and religions have referenced the existence of the human energy field, from the coronas surrounding Judeo-Christian saints and mystics to Pythagoras’ “luminous body” that the authors of the book Future Science were able to compile a list of 97 different cultures, religions, and bodies of scientific thought that each call the human energy field by a different name.
As Cyndi Dale describes in the article Energetic Anatomy: A Complete Guide to the Human Energy Fields and Etheric Bodies, “There are actually independent etheric fields around every vibrating unit of life, from a cell to a plant to a person, as well as a specific etheric field that is connected to the body.” Etheric fields is another term interchangeable with subtle bodies. Etheric comes from the word ether, an old physics word for the substance formerly believed to permeate all space, between all particles of matter, whose vibrations create light and electromagnetic energy.
The electromagnetic field was investigated in the 1800s by James Clerk Maxwell, one of the fathers of electricity. Maxwell developed the four Equations of Light which essentially proved that electric and magnetic fields could be unified into one, and that the field they created traveled through empty space in waves. This continues to be studied by researchers who consistently identify electromagnetic fields in and of the human body and other living organisms.
As Dr. Beverly Rubik writes in Measurement of the Human Biofield and Other Energetic Instruments, the biofield is naturally elusive. “We cannot isolate it or analyze it comprehensively. As John Muir wrote, ‘if we try to pick out any thing by itself, we find it hitched to every thing else in the universe’ (Muir, 1911). For a field, this connection is especially true, given that, regardless of its source, it travels outwards to infinity, interacts with other fields by superposition, and interacts with matter along the way.” However, as elusive as it may be, the human biofield is still proven and recorded time and time again. Many believe that the more recent recognitions of this ancient concept is a big piece of current and future medicine.
AS ABOVE, SO BELOW
Like light passing out of a prism, the Subtle Bodies are often conceived as 7 layers, each associated with the 7 colors of the rainbow and the 7 chakras, used more as symbolic interpretation than as hard fact — but do align with Dr. Kim Bonghan’s notion that the human body’s meridians, like chakras, act as liaisons between the etheric energy field and the physical body — ie, “The etheric body creates the meridians, which in turn form the physical body” (Dale). This relates to a similar notion by scientist Rupert Sheldrake in the early 1980s, who described how all living organisms, from bacterial cells to full grown hearts, develop according to a unique blueprint downloaded from the cloud, almost like 3D printers work — Sheldrake called this cloud the morphic energy field. Nowadays it’s accepted that every single cell we’re made up of carries its own electromagnetic field — with healthy cell able to generate 80 or 100 millivolts of power, and a cancer cell generating more like 20 or 25. When we are sick, we literally operate at a lower frequency.
EXHAUST SYSTEM
What does this have to do with healing though? Everyone thinks of this a little differently. For me, I think of snow. If you’ve ever seen snow in late winter, you know about the exhaust buildup that accumulates on what was once pure looking snow. What I visualize when I think of the Subtle Bodies is the exhaust of the world’s murky energies coating them like exhaust collecting on the outside of a prism, obscuring it from allowing light through, preventing it from displaying the full spectrum of color — on the surface, played out often as the full spectrum of emotion and vitality. Doesn’t it make sense that we might feel (pardon the awful pun but)…uhh, exhausted when this is happening? Just about every one of my clients, friends, and family members report this one single symptom above all else: fatigue.
We are, in a profound kind of way, exhausted.
What’s the exhaust? So many possible things. The news. Noise pollution. The negative energies of other people walking around emitting their exhaust. The shared exhaustion of our world in its current state. The near constant barrage of human rights violations to digest, defend, and deflect. Financial burdens. Sleep deprivation. Forgotten passwords. Substance abuse. Heartbreak.
With accumulation, what might pass through the prism is a murky light. Energy workers sometimes report this murky kind of light energy in people whose bodies or minds have been depleted from illness or suffering. An energy worker I met recently described it as the difference between a clear bottle of water, and one containing a thick, murky fluid — one light and the other heavy and sticky.
It’s said that each layer has different a flavor of muck that can coat it:
Etheric body: Affected by substance abuse and trauma
Emotional Body: Affected by unresolved issues and emotional abuse
Mental Body: Affected by negative thought patterns and PTSD
Astral Body: Affected by negative dreams and past life experiences
Etheric Template Body: Affected by negative sounds and vibrations
Celestial Body: Affected by lack of meaning or higher purpose
Causal Body: Affected by doubt or confusion about your place in the world
Physical Body: Affected by nutrient imbalances, lack of exercise, poor sleep, and injury
Just like a cell has to be healthy to generate more voltage, the energetic layers must be nourished to operate at a higher frequency. Where we are at a cellular level dictates what goes on with the Subtle Bodies and the type of energy other people, while they may not see it, will often feel coming off you.
HEALING IS NOT SELFISH
While energy might an elusive, typically invisible force, it nonetheless exists, perpetuates, and can be absorbed. You know when you feel the positive energy that makes you want to be near someone, just like you feel it when the heavy energy of a person or a place has stuck to you. Desiring to be one of those emitting positive energy is in itself a gift to the world. Understanding and unraveling the traumas that impacts your energy field can take time and work, but it’s worth it, and not only for yourself. I mention this because it can be one of the biggest motivators for healing, remembering that you are a part that affects the whole. If there’s any hope for this world, as many people as possible will catch on to this.
On that thought, when growing (or sometimes struggling to grow) plants, I like to remember something an herbal teacher once told me, which was simple but felt important — that plants want to survive, and also in a larger sense, evolve. And by growing and evolving, they help to cleanse the world and provide it nourishment. We are like this, too and like Busy Phillips would say, I am here for it.
This is one reason for the importance of Maslow’s hierarchy, the popular theory of human motivation, having its pinnacle at self-actualization:
My auric bodies after completing an Inorganic Chemistry exam. (If you can’t already tell, I was very, very tired.)
WHAT ABOUT IT?
Especially for mood and mental health, which can source their origins to both the physical and energetic bodies, one of the greatest tools we can give ourselves it to learn techniques — many of them completely free or cheap, and non-invasive — of coping and to practice them regularly. This strengthens the body’s stress response system, like a mood balancing muscle, to maintain balance and initiate healing.
This is why I wrote the previous post about forest, sound, and energy therapy, all three of them free, completely non-invasive ways of building this muscle. I strongly believe healing should be available and affordable to all, which is one reason I am obsessive about sharing these with everyone I know — and because to be truthful, they helped get me through the last few years of school while I was often broke and anxious as hell. They helped me feel grounded, motivated, and less hateful toward people at the grocery. They were a missing link — the piece that after months of studying nutrition and herbs I felt was still missing.
The truth is food and herbs can’t accomplish all this. This is because, as explored above, we are much more than just a physical body. Not acknowledging this would be like cleaning just the inside of a window when it’s the outside that gets hit first by the weather.
My goal is to work with people through all of their layers, help them meet and access their heightened selves, weather the weather, and shine all the way through, filling rooms and the earth with those good, good vibrations.
SOURCES
Kobayashi, M., Kikuchi, D., & Okamura, H. (2009). Imaging of Ultraweak Spontaneous Photon Emission from Human Body Displaying Diurnal Rhythm. Plos ONE, 4(7), e6256.
Kafatos, M., Chevalier, G., Chopra, D., Hubacher, J., Kak, S., & Theise, N. (2015). Biofield Science: Current physics perspectives. Global Advances In Health And Medicine, 4(1_suppl), gahmj.2015.011.
Rubik, B. (2004). Measurement of the Human Biofield and Other Energetic Instruments. Energetics and Spirituality, Chapter 20. St. Louis, MO: Mosby Publishers.
Dale, R. (2018). Energetic Anatomy: A Complete Guide to the Human Energy Fields & Etheric Bodies. Conscious Lifestyle Magazine.