So, my Dad took me today to a commercial wellness center. They were giving a free class as a teaser. They basically told us to partner up with another person. One person sits, the other person moves both his hands closer to the head, heart and other chakras. I was thinking that this was going to complete BS. But, I was quite surprised that auras could actually be felt and it ain't that hard to feel the edges.

Here's what reading the teacher told me what I was getting:

The left side of the head is much stronger than the right side. You are a feeling person, emotionally developed, but since the right side is weak you have been indecisive. Your intuition is strong but you are not able to trust it. She basically advised to cosider my intuition and go with it. She mentioned I was going through something at the moment, which kind of corresponds to the severe DN episodes I had a few months ago. The imbalance in the right side kind of directly corresponds to the pressure I am feeling on the right side of my head, right forehead and right premolars. One of the teacher was saying I was having a lot of thoughts. This was untrue, but definitely there were feelings of confusion. As she scanned down, she said the heart chakra was strong. You have a lot of love. You would like to give your love but unable to do so a the moment. The throat chakra was also strong (good communication). Scanning further done, everything seemed fine. She could see a light blue aura signifying good communication and intelligence.

Also, I kind of could guess the color of the aura of other people. Ofcourse, it might just be a fluke.

Ussually, I am quite skeptical about this kind of stuff. But, most of this was spot on. I am kind of stuck in my life a bit. I soon have to decide whether I will go for the merchant navy job or find a normal job. When I'm confused with major decisions, I end up procastinating the whole day on web surfing. The energy imbalances also correspond well with the phsical pressures and coiling sensations I am feeling.

Some of my skepticism initially came from the fact that this comes from the Hindu tradition, and till now I've been loyal to Theravada Vipassana. But, I'm quite intrigued because of this session. Any insights? Any tips for balancing, healing etc.? What is the theory behind all this? Does this fit in any maps?

Hands of Light by Barbara Brennan
http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=2E680AEB573D8C9BBB04C59DB00DC3F1


Core Energetics by John Pierrakos
http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=d254abb72b3ce9e4ac5b4697a9b5a6da

Not personally experienced on auras but I believe these are credible sources fwiw

I have been to such an event. It's always the same scam and your account doesn't surprise me at all.
If you try to feel something, you WILL feel something. Whether that's an aura or not...People are naturally asymmetric, and everyone who has done one (in numbers: 1) Feldenkrais lesson (or tried to shoot with a bow twice using different eyes both times) knows that.That's because it's pretty spot on for everyone. Some combination of cold reading and throwing out general statements which people think were tailored to them:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnum_effect
People who are NOT stuck in their life spend their time doing what they want instead of attending to silly scam-promotion events like this one.
I witnessed the following situation: During a situation it was suggested to someone that maybe they feel somehow stuck in some area of their life? But the person said it was not the case. Then the 'practitioner' tried to nervously find SOME area for him to confirm to be stuck there. Which didn't work, but it was quite hilarious to watch her usual protocol fail.
People want your money. To impress you, they rely on the strong 'first-time' effects some of their suggestive methods have. There is nothing there. Stay away.

You can be sure that if there WAS something there, it would already have been incorporated into other schools. Powerful things spread fast.

hi mettafore,
i can't give you any guidance at all on this but can say that many years ago in india i had a very similar "ah ha!" moment when guided to feel the chakras.  whatever one makes of this phenomena it is real, repeatable and developable.

i did play with it back then and did develop my sensitivity to the sensations.  i got to the point where i could massage my pre-wife with no contact but simply by holding my palms near her.

for me it was a positive experience on several levels.  i had heard abut chakras for decades and put all reference to them directly into the "crazy new age" dustbin along with a good strong judgement about the proponents of them.  after experiencing the reality of them this predisposition was tempered.  on another level it helped me focus my mind on the bodily aspects of awareness while i was doing non-buddhist practices for awakening.

i think the prejudice against other awakening technologies is generally unhelpful unless they are investigated or unless they absolutely do not fit with your views.  the chakra system, whether in hinduism or in any of the vajrayana systems should be laughed off only if one is much more awakened than many many many highly awakened people IMO.

what are chakras?  its not something we can weigh, map smell , at least with current technology although many people claim to "see" them.  i can certainly experience sensations unique to the standard locations described in the various systems but not even an electron microscope can point out a nadi, shushumna or chakra.

giving our sensations names is the beginning of the building of views about them which we know can proliferate in both healthy and unhealthy ways. 

nimitta, something we are supposed to focus upon in some traditions is apparently an extremely helpful, if not essential, object when developing jhana.  how does this differ substantially from a chakra? they are both mental objects and as such can be workked with for our benefit.

cheers

Any sources for this?

A quick google search yields possible connections of meridians and chakras to glands and fascia, both of which might be observable, so I wouldn't discard the electron microscope too soon.

hiya bernd,
same time zone!  nope , no links or proof.  i aven't looked at this stuff for years but that was always the party line of those dead set against claims about these objects.  i try to always qualify my negative positions on unmeasurable things with the possibility that the future will provide a technology which deepens our understanding of things yet obscure.

before microscopes the germ theory of illness was heretical. before newton...etc.  i would love to see some highly correlative measurement between body structures and chakras but i'm not holding my breath.  things like kirlian photography and some of its correlate technologies show promise but are to much in the world of art rather than reproducible science for my taste.  but as said before, i'm not current with this stuff.  a few years back i was reading about a german group developing this kind of tech. around heidelburg but i've lost the thread.

tschüß

tom