The aura as a protective layer
Much is made of the hue and intensity of the various colors of the human aura, and how they can be interpreted. However the most important and least discussed function of the human aura is the protection it affords to the underlying soul. For the purposes of this book, we’ll ignore the appearance of the aura and look at the aura simply as the spiritual “skin” that the soul builds around itself. It acts as a protective layer for the soul against the elements of the spiritual environment, much as our skin is the layer that protects our bodies from the ravages of our physical environment. It allows the inner structures of the soul to work unmolested by external spiritual influences.
Unlike our skin, the spiritual aura is “translucent” and allows our innermost being to shine through. The old saying “Beauty is only skin deep” suggests that a beautiful body does not necessarily imply a beautiful mind. This doesn’t apply to spiritual beings. Any spirit can read the character of another spirit’s inner mindset just by looking at it. Spirits cannot hide their bad characters or hideous crimes from each other behind a façade of good words and lies. The soul of a liar, cheat, swindler or murderer would not be able to masquerade as an upright resident of any heavenly realm, and this may account for the preference of such souls for the darker or more Hellish spheres of the afterlife where they would remain inconspicuous in the company of others of their own kind.
One of Emanuel Swedenborg’s most important observations was that the earth plane is absolutely filled with low-order spirits wandering in darkness and looking for relief from their world of constant negativity. They cluster around the living because humans are surrounded by the bright spiritual energy that radiates from their auras.
Low order spirits have no physical eyes, and most are too ignorant and unevolved to have full conscious use of their spiritual vision. They have a very limited ability to see physical light, so they live in semi-darkness, even while roaming the earth’s environment. They are attracted to the auras of the living because the living give off spiritual light which the lower spirits can see as bright lights in the surrounding dimness of the earth, even with their limited spiritual vision. They are especially attracted to the auras of living people with habits and personality traits similar to their own when they were living.
The outer limits of the aura can be loosely compared to the translucent glass sphere that surrounds an incandescent light bulb. In their ignorance, lower, earthbound spirits yearn to enter into the light that shines through the aura of living persons in the same way that moths are attracted to a lightbulb on a dark, summer night. In most cases, they can’t. A vast majority of living people have auras which are intact and tightly bound to their bodies. They serve as a shield against these wandering lower order spirits, and prevent their entry like a glass windowpane prevents the moths outside from entering your lighted kitchen at night. Even though low order spirits may be attracted to the light emitted from a normal aura, they cannot affect a person’s thoughts and behavior unless the aura is damaged, at which point it may become “infected” with an earthbound spirit.