What Is an Aura?
An aura generally is defined as an individual's personal energy field that serves as his or her spiritual signature. The aura is said to be shaped like an egg, three dimensional, and to extend between seven and ten feet. New Age teachings on seeing auras explain that the purpose of this personal energy field is to coordinate the activities and thoughts of a person's soul (mind) in the natural, tangible world. They also tend to explain that this energy field is an individual's connection to the universal mind, sometimes called the divine matrix.
Some New Age teachings that encourage people to learn how to see auras explain that the process is not really spiritual, but scientific. Others insists that seeing auras indeed is to peer into the spirit realm. Which is correct? While science has indeed confirmed that energy and energy fields exist, the Christian believer should be reminded that some disciplines labeled as science are actually spiritual doctrines. The apostle Paul told Timothy, "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science FALSELY so called" (KJV, I Timothy 6:20). What is more is the need to focus on the express purpose for seeing auras and compare them to God's word.
The Purpose for Seeing Auras
New Age doctrine teaches that if you learn what the colors in auras mean, you can actually have spiritual information about other people at your fingertips. Some people view seeing auras as very valuable because it serves as protection against being deceived by someone and also helps a person to better know his or her own spiritual condition.
Does the Christian Bible say anything about seeing auras? New Age vocabulary rarely appears in biblical scripture. This is because God's truth is for all generations and for all people (Psalm 100:5, I Peter 1:25); therefore, it focuses on the essence of what's being done, not on what that thing or action is called. For example, the words "genetically modified/engineered/altered foods" don't appear in scripture. Nevertheless, the act of genetic interference with plant and animal life is clearly prohibited (Leviticus 19:19).
The Problem with Seeing Auras
Seeing auras removes dependence on God to reveal the things we need to know in the spirit realm, including things about the spirit of other people who would deceive us if given the opportunity. It also encourages developing the ability to freely see and interact with the spirit realm. The Spirit of God is who should have control over what things we see in the spirit realm with our mind's eye and with our natural eyes. God put what the Bible calls a "dividing asunder" between the soul and the spirit of man (Hebrews 4:12). The soul is the mind and the seat of one's thoughts while the spirit of man is an actual spiritual body that dwells inside a physical body while on Earth. Man is a three part being composed of a physical body, a spiritual body, and a soul (I Thessalonians 5:23). The dividing asunder is meant to prevent man from using his soul or his mind to control his spirit body at will. The only way for a man to freely communicate with the spirit realm anyway is to be "connected" temporarily to it by the Spirit of God. This is something that we see throughout Old and New Testament scripture. The other way to "override" the God-given dividing asunder is to take up practices such as lucid dreaming, astral projection, and other "arts" of the occult that are an abomination before God (Deuteronomy 18:12).
God Warns His People of Dangers and Deception
True servants of Christ are not caught off guard nor are they deceived if they listen carefully to the voice of their Lord who knows everything, everyone, the past, the present, and the future. The Christian Bible is replete with the accounts of God's people being warned of hidden evil intentions against them. It is not said of any of them that they practiced seeing auras or anything of that nature.
We're reminded that the wise men were warned of God of the evil intent of king Herod to do them harm (Matthew 2:12). Some people might point out that the wise men were practitioners of the occult; therefore, it should be assumed that they might have practiced seeing auras and saw something in the aura of king Herod that warned them. Such an argument is quickly refuted by scripture that specifically says that they were warned by God in a dream (Matthew 2:12))--not by looking at an aura. Therefore, even if they practiced seeing auras, where was that ability when they really needed it?
John the Baptist is given to know some very important things about the content of the heart of many who came to hear him preach and to be baptized by him. This is why he calls some of the people "vipers" and warns them against believing that their fleshly membership in Israel is a seal of salvation. Nowhere do we read that John the Baptist saw auras. We even have the account of when Ananias was afraid to meet the apostle Paul shortly after his conversion to Christ because of the fierceness with which Paul had persecuted the Christian church. However, the Spirit of God revealed to Ananias that Paul's heart had truly been changed, that he was a new creature and could be met in safety. Again, Ananias did not have to read Paul's aura to know whether to trust him. The list of biblical accounts of this type of revelation from God as well as modern day accounts could go on and on.
The practice of seeing auras is one of a multitude of ways that the enemy deceives people into reliance upon him. He "helps, warns, and protects" them to win their confidence only to fail and defraud them. But Jesus says to his true followers, "...Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). Jesus never fails those who truly walk in obedience to him.