GMA: Auras Gain Recognition

Dec. 8 -- Auras have been taking on — well, an aura of respectability lately.

Usually, auras and those who claim they can read them have been relegated to the realm of psychic fairs, new age mysticism or ancient religious beliefs.

But as Good Morning America’s Science Editor Michael Guillen has learned, scientists are taking a closer look at an area that was once dismissed. Perhaps the most dramatic indicator of this attention is that the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., recently decided to start funding research on human bio-fields, the technical term for auras.

Meanwhile, some impressive scientific mavericks are exploring a controversial new science, “bio-electro-magnetics.” One scientist leading the charge is Berkeley-trained biophysicist Beverly Rubik. She believes that the human body exudes energy, just like glowing candles.

“If you think really what life is: when you’re dead, what happens to your energy? Absolutely everything,” Rubik said. “You go from being a warm radiant moving creature to a cold dead stiff creature. The big difference is the energy.”

Just Like the Sun Harvard-trained psychologist Gary Schwartz agrees. He runs the Human Energy Systems Lab at the University of Arizona and claims that the existence of a human aura is indisputable.

“It’s like the sun,” Schwartz said. “The sun emits a whole spectrum of energy, both visible light, infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays. It’s the same thing with the human body, the human body is emitting this whole range of signals.”

To show what he meant, Schwartz had Guillen sit close to an antenna that detects low-frequency radiation. When he moved his hand close to the antenna, Guillen saw a signal change on the monitor. Another antenna detected high-frequency radiation. As Guillen got closer to it, a sound went off, indicating that the antenna had, in effect, picked up signals that he was broadcasting, Schwartz said.