Auras in mysticism and synaesthesia: a comparison.

Some synaesthetes see colors triggered by emotionally charged stimuli such as familiar faces. One participant, R, describes seeing a human silhouette filled with color when viewing a familiar person. These subjective reports resemble descriptions of seeing auras. The authors analyze reports from four synaesthetes who experience colors in response to faces and figures, comparing them with descriptions of auras from esoteric literature. The discrepancies indicate that synaesthetic face-color perception and claimed auric perception are phenomenologically and behaviorally different.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In a variety of synaesthesia, photisms result from affect-laden stimuli as emotional words, or faces of familiar people. For R, who participated in this study, the sight of a familiar person triggers a mental image of "a human silhouette filled with colour". Subjective descriptions of synaesthetic experiences induced by the visual perception of people's figures and faces show similarities with the reports of those who claim to possess the ability to see the aura. It has been proposed that the purported auric perception may be easily explained by the presence of a specific subtype of cross-modal perception. We analyse the subjective reports of four synaesthetes who experience colours in response to human faces and figures. These reports are compared with descriptions of alleged auric phenomena found in the literature and with claims made by experts in esoteric spheres. The discrepancies found suggest that both phenomena are phenomenologically and behaviourally dissimilar.