y bright stream of
burning gas, whereas, we know only too well, that the word also
indicates the great hot tongues of fiery force that stream out from the
windows of a burning building, and lick to destruction all with which it
comes in contact.

So it is with the human aura. At times it may be seen as a beautiful,
calm, luminous atmosphere, presenting the appearance of a great opal
under the rays of the sun. Again, it blazes like the flames of a great
furnace, shooting forth great tongues of fire in this direction and
that, rising and falling in great waves of emotional excitement, or
passion, or perhaps whirling like a great fiery maelstrom toward its
centre, or swirling in an outward movement away from its centre. Again
it may be seen as projecting from its depths smaller bodies or centres
of mental vibration, which like sparks from a furnace detach themselves
from the parent flame, and travel far away in other directions--these
are the projected thought-forms of which all occultists are fond of
speaking and which make plain many strange psychic occurrences.

So, it will be seen, the human aura is a very important and interesting
phase of the personality of every individual. The psychic phase of man
is as much the man himself as is the physical phase--the complete man
being made up of the two phases. Man invisible is as much the real man
as is man visible. As the finer forms of nature are always the most
powerful, so is the psychic man more potent than the physical man.

In this book, I speak of the human aura, and its colors, as being
perceived by astral or clairvoyant vision, for this is the way in which
it is perceived and studied by the occultist. The occult teaching is
that, in the evolution of the race, this astral vision will eventually
become the common property of every human being--it so exists even now,
and needs only development to perfect it.

But modern physical science is today offering corroborative proof
(though the same is not needed by the occultist who has the astral
vision) to the general public, of the existence of the human aura. In
Europe, especially, a number of scientists have written on the subject
of the aura, and have described the result of the experiments in which
the aura has been perceived, and even photographed, by means of
fluorescent screens, such as are used in taking X-Ray photographs, etc.
Leading authorities in England, France, and still more recently, in
Germany, have repo