Seeing Energy

Starting with the Basics

I believe I've always been able to do this, to see the subtle energy around and within
me. It's likely that we all do this, possibly to varying degrees, but for most of us the
results are not striking enough to be useful. The ability gets set aside in favour of more
effective talents early in life, a mostly wise decision that weights the scales towards
practical matters.

This is similar to having the ability to see auras, although I do not see the intense
flares and halos that some report. Usually it takes me a long time to see. The energy is
very subtle, a transparent overlay upon more physical sights, and only appears when
the eyes have a chance to build a view of it by persistent stillness. In daylight it
seldom shows color at all, visible more as a faint grey distortion field overlying the
physical world. At night, especially when the mind is quiet and relaxed, the colors are
much brighter and the energy flows can be seen in more detail. Slipping into a
slighter altered consciousness, the patterns of light become the overriding visual force,
obscuring physical objects completely.

Much of the energy is internal, a visual record of the energy flows of which the Asian
paths speak, and is easily seen with eyes closed. Flows can be so strong that one eye is
filled with complete darkness while the other is filled with subtle light, both effects
alternating rhythmically from eye to eye. Mental vision of this energy can sometimes
extend beyond the closed eyes; under good conditions the auras of other people and
even the energy forms of nonphysical beings can be seen with eyes closed as well as
with eyes open.

It's possible to observe the energies of other people. Some people have powerful
energies surrounding them and others do not. A woman I once knew had a powerful
blue aura that washed over everything she passed, but I could only see this during
deep meditation. Young people full of primal energies are sometimes surrounded by
fields of red and black. Highly developed people shed a golden light that extends far
beyond their immediate surroundings.

For me, shifting back to normal perception and ordinary activity completely negates
the ability to see the energy of others. That limits its usefulness considerably, but the
real value of this impractical talent lies within the subtle realms that overlie our
physical one, where manipulation of this energy can be a form of communication, a
method of healing, and even a mode of existence.

Except for an occasional vision that found immediate application, as a child I found
this ability unhandy. At night, it would interfere with my ability to see the physical
things around me. In the daytime, when I was exerting myself physically, flows of red
internal energy would distort all that I saw. Once while running to a neighbor's
house some distance away, with a young friend, I remarked on the brilliance of the
colors I was seeing in my eyes. The derisive response of my friend was one of the first
clues I had that other people don't see in this way. Up to then I hadn't thought it
important enough to mention, and took for granted that others saw things in the
same way. I soon learned to keep my observations to myself and to regard the talent
as a physical defect. I was decades older when I learned that in some areas of action,
it's a very useful and powerful thing.