Human Aura While Sleeping and Trance in a Person

Clairvoyant observation bears abundant testimony to the fact that when a person falls into a deep slumber, the higher principles in their astral vehicle (Kamic sheath), almost invariably withdraw from the physical body and hover in its immediate neighborhood . . . the body, with its practically inseparable companion, the Etheric Double, lying quietly on the bed while the Ego, in its astral or Kamic body, floats with equal tranquillity just above it, unless the personality is pretty well developed, in which case the Ego takes occasion of this separation to start off in flights and visits of its own.

Here let it be said that the fact of this temporary separation makes more intelligible the inadvisability of suddenly waking a person from deep sleep. In the case of sleep, therefore, the aspect of the general aura must be expected to change considerably. The physical body, it is true, still presents the lower auras of Prana, the electro-magnetic emananations especially being much wider and more intense, probably for the purpose of serving as a kind of protection for the body during the absence of the higher principles.

But all the other colors, the spiritual ones, of the five higher sheaths will be more or less absent, since they accompany in his wanderings the Ego enclosed in the Kamic sheath and enveloped by his Auric Egg. But we are also told that, in such cases of separation, the aspect of this Kamic sheath "varies very greatly, according to the state of development reached by the Ego to whom it belongs.

in the case of an entirely uncultured and undeveloped person, it is simply a floating wreath of mist, shapeless and undefined, receptive only of the coarser, more violent Kamic vibrations, and it is unable to move more than a few yards away from the body; but, as evolution progresses, it becomes more and more definite in outline and assumes a more perfect image of the physical body it belongs to, and its receptivity to Kamic vibrations of a purer grade is also increased, while it can also leave the body and travel far away from it.

Then again, much as the condition of the astral body during sleep changes as evolution takes place, that of the Ego inhabiting it changes still more; where the former is nothing but a floating wreath of mist, the Ego is practically almost as much asleep as the body lying below him; he is blind to the sights and deaf to the voices of his own higher planes.

In the state of trance, the aspect of the aura also changes considerably, and, moreover, a good clairvoyant can learn to discern the difference between the conditions of the real trance, either natural or self-induced, of a Yogi, and those of mesmeric stupor produced by the extraneous influence of another person: in the first instance, the colors of the lower principles—green, red, red-violet—disappear as well as the blue of the Auric Egg, the entity has concentrated himself in his Auric Egg, leaving behind in the body nothing but hardly perceptible vibrations of the compound yellow, orange and gold of the Prana, with a violet flame streaked with gold rushing upwards from the pineal gland in the head and culminating in a point.

On the contrary, in the case of a trance artificially induced by hypnotism or mesmerism, the whole set of principles are present, but the Higher Manas and Buddhi are completely paralyzed, to the undue advantage of Kama Manas, "the red and green monsters in us," who are indiscreetly intensified. From what was said above about sleep, it will be easy to realize that, in the sleeping state, the various inferior sheaths of man are left more unprotected by the Ego and his Auric Egg, and,consequently, they are more at the mercy of influences of vibrations from the outside currents which produce the ordinary dreams.

But it is possible to protect one's self: anyone who is troubled by idle dreams, and wishes to avoid them, must, when he lies down to rest, think intensely of the aura that surrounds him, and will strongly that the outer surface of that aura should become during his sleep, as it were, a shell to protect him from outside influences; and the auric matter will promptly obey his thoughts, forming a shell around him that will exclude outside thought-streams. The last thought in a man's mind as he sinks to sleep is of immense importance,

This is very similar to what all religions tell about the last thought of a dying man and the importance of guiding it. Yet, as Mr. Leadbeater says, " this is a consideration which never occurs to the vast majority of people at all, although it affects them physically, mentally and morally. We have seen how passive, how easily influenced man is during sleep; if he enters that state with his thought fixed upon high and holy things, he thereby draws around him the elementals created by like thought in others; his rest is peaceful, his mind open to impressions from above and closed to those from below, for he has set it working in the right direction; if, on the contrary, he falls asleep with impure and earthly thoughts floating through his brain, he attracts to himself all the gross and evil creatures who come near him, while his sleep is troubled by the wild waves of Kama.

This gives us an unexpected and elegant explantion of the power and effect of the prayers recommended by all religions before sleep, not as inducing supernatural protection, but simply as a means of bringing the mind into proper channels. Every student will therefore agree with Mr. Leadbeater on the fact that "all earnest Theosophists should make a special point of raising their thoughts to the loftiest level of which they are capable before allowing themselves to sink into slumber."