After Images
Copyright © 1990 by Robert Bruce

Auric colours are similar in appearance to after images. After-images are generated by staring - for twenty seconds or so - at a brightly illuminated colour, and then quickly closing your eyes, or looking away.

It is commonly thought that after-images are generated by colour depletion, of the rods and cones in the eyes, caused by staring at one colour for too long. This generates the reverse, or negative colour, of that colour. An after-image stays in sight until this colour depletion is corrected, and the eyes return to normal.

I disagree with this theory - and for very good reasons. After-images are generated by staring for a long time at a coloured object - for twenty of thirty seconds, or more. This is why I disagree with this theory: When auric sight is more advanced, the aura of a colour can be seen clearly, almost the instant a coloured object is glanced at with auric sight. No prolonged staring is required to produce an aura.

I have just done a test, while sitting here typing this. Across the room from me, about seven feet away, is a chair. Hanging over it's back is a bright-blue shirt. I have done no exercises to stimulate my auric sight, at all. It is early in the morning now, about 6am, and I have not long woken up. A clear, dense, yellow aura begins to appear in just under four seconds (I timed it). This is, surely, far too short a time to generate an after-image? I did this several times and it became faster and easier to do, and the aura brighter, each time.

Now, you could say that my eyes are becoming depleted of the colour blue, by continuing to do this, thus more easily generating the yellow aura. So, I turn around and look at a red shirt hanging on a hook behind me, on the other side of the room. This time, a clear, dense, bright-green aura appears in just under five seconds. This is far too short a time to generate an after-image? Now, when I am on what I call, a clairvoyant high, the auras of colours appear to me, almost the instant I glance at them - within one second. There is no appreciable delay at all, they are just there, ballooning out from colours, as I look at them.

The auras I see, around colours as well as people, do drag slightly at my eyes, creating a kind of after-image effect if I stare for too long at it. This effect is similar to how a normal after-image behaves - dragging and following my field of view.

Now, when I observe the aura of a person, I normally ask them to remove some of their clothing. This gives me a much clearer view of their aura, without the interference caused by the colours of their clothing. I see clear, bright colours in these auras, building up from bare skin. My point here is this: bare skin has no colour that can generate any kind of coloured after-image.

To be truthful, though, the auric colours I see around colours, as well as people, are often still visible, hanging briefly before my eyes, when I look away or close my eyes. This is a coloured after-image - but created by staring at an aura's colour not at a physical colour.

Another interesting point: the colours of any after-images I get, when observing living human auras, are exactly the same colours, as the colours of the aura I am looking at - there is no reverse colour effect at all, with a bare skin, living aura.

So, if colour depletion, of the rods and cones in the eyes, is solely responsible for after-images, how can this happen?

A better way of explaining the reverse colour after-image effect is: "slow auric colours".

By staring hard at a colour, the auric colour of that subject is slowly impressed upon the sight center of the brain. It is not the eyes that are depleted of colour, but that the auric colour has been impressed upon the brain's sight center.

The after-images that appear, when you stare at primary colours, are the same as the auric colours generated by those colours. The similarity in these colours - rather than contradicting the validity of the auric colour of colour - supports them. Why would they be any different?

You will, in the early stages of training to see auras, cause quite a strong after image effect. This will drag and follow your eyes, and still be seen when you close your eyes or look away. This is the slow auric image effect - caused by staring so intently, and for so long, while trying to master the basic technique for seeing auras.

This after image effect lessens in stages. Once the basic technique is mastered, most of the after-image effect disappears. Then, as the brow center develops further, being stimulated through use, the after-image effect decreases steadily, until they are hardly noticeable.

There will, however, always be a slight after-image, of sorts, when you really study an aura. This is unavoidable when you gaze intently upon an aura, trying to discover it's secrets. The nature of auric sight, and the involvement of the normal optical sight process, will always cause a slight after-image drag - or slow auric image, as I call it. This happens, even when auric sight develops into the advanced stages.

The way the aura builds up is also, totally unlike the way an after image appears. It builds up, mushrooming bright colours from bare skin - it does not just fade slowly into sight - it grows before your eyes. The colours of a living aura do not begin as a pale shadow, fading into view and then slowly deepening and growing brighter. They are one consistent colour, from their first appearance as a thin outline, highlighting the etheric aura, close to the skin, to their full size - often more than two or three feet wide. Auras are also, not just a slight outline of colour around the skin, but large, vivid bands of colour, with thickness and depth to them. And, finally, while an aura is building up, if you shift focus slightly, or blink, it disappears instantly - only to reappear a few seconds later - an after image does not.