True colors

New Age technology turns biofeedback into spiritual snapshot

“Aw, you’re a rainbow!” Marie looked up from the AuraMaster, smiling at me.

Most of the aura portraits Marie showed me when I first arrived had a single dominant color. Indeed, a multihued gradient surrounded my face like a bulky nimbus.

Russ, who works at Peace of Mind Books with Marie, printed my aura portrait on a glossy paper like the kind for souvenir photos at amusement parks. It was a Saturday, which meant the bookstore and giftshop had an Aura Camera Coggins 6000 on standby for anyone with $25 and a curiosity to capture the invisible essence of their spirit.

The Coggins 6000 evaluates biofeedback like MRI and EKG machines, or like polygraphs and e-meters. It took less than eight seconds for the sensor to collect electromagnetic data from my hand and convert it to a vibrant field of colors around my head. These colors supposedly reflect my physical, emotional, and spiritual state.

I’m a rainbow.

“What’s that mean?” I asked.

My left palm was still on the biofeedback apparatus—a stationary metal box that measures body temperature and static electricity—when Marie convinced me to spring for the full aura report.

About three feet behind Marie, a man with braided hair and a puckish grin named Alexander tuned his guitar between ballads. Alexander, a prolific artist in the neo-Celtic, pagan-folk music genre, crooned about myths and magic to a small but rapt audience while a printer spat out the pages of my ready-made auric analysis.

The 12-page report explains how each color and its spectral location around my head reflects my “person potentials, character types, but also problems and disturbances.” The service “is NOT medical software or intended for therapeutic diagnosis or treatment,” according to the boilerplate disclaimer.

Most peddlers of aura-imaging devices acknowledge that technology can’t actually photograph an aura, but claim that electronic interpretations of auras match colors described by clairvoyants.

If you’re unsure of whether or not you’ve been aware of someone’s aura, think of a person who seemed sketchy even though you couldn’t quite explain why—that person likely had a garbage aura. Ever been inexplicably drawn to someone’s effortless magnetism? Good aura on that one. Maybe you call it “vibes,” “energy,” or “electro-photonic vibrations.”

It’s exciting to capture something distinctive and pervasive that’s also invisible. Who knows if the mixture of colors really reflects anyone’s physical, emotional, or spiritual health?

According to my New Age case study, my aura is golden-orange around the center, meaning that pleasure and authenticity are my highest priorities. Where an aura bends to the right is supposed to offer clues on the “vibrational frequency most likely seen or felt by others.” Mine shifts to yellow there, suggesting people see me as “hopeful, confident, and optimistic.” This warm color gradient continues until it snaps to green on my left (the side where vibrations enter the body), which signifies an exciting change and rejuvenated energies. The splotch of violet blue over my throat (communication sector) indicates I’m capable of achieving spiritual bliss through creative expression.

There’s some great stuff in this report, enough broad truths and flattering reflections to satisfy the ego, but without the existential buzzkill of, say, drawing the Ten of Swords from a Tarot deck. “You cannot be misled very easily since your discerning mind can clearly perceive deceptions,” the report says, leaving out my appreciation for irony. Though, it’s true that what I desire most in life is “to help, inspire, support, and nurture others with my humor, optimism, and wisdom,” and I’ve always suspected I have a “unique ability to remain centered and amused when all else is falling into chaos.”

I was up too late the night before my aura portrait, worried that I might have an unphotogenic aura—the same feeling I got before class photos in junior high. Since I was awake anyway, I burned sage and soaked in epsom salts and lavender oil. Who knows if it affected the rendering of my spiritual energy, but I felt replenished and invigorated afterward.

The Aura Camera Coggins 6000 is on standby at Peace of Mind (1407 E. 15th St.) every Saturday from 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Individual aura portraits cost $25 à la carte, or are included with the $40 analysis, which also examines full-body auras and chakras.