Aura and biofield traditions

What the evidence is

The aura is a traditional and practitioner concept. No physical instrument has been shown, in independent blinded studies, to detect a human aura as traditions describe it. One widely cited blinded test (Rosa et al., 1998) found that touch-therapy practitioners could not detect a person's "energy field" better than chance. Reviews of Kirlian, GDV and similar "aura photography" (Duerden, 2004; Bista et al., 2023) find physical explanations for the images and no validated use as a measure of health or of an aura. Research on "biofield therapies" studies whether people report benefits such as lower pain or anxiety — it does not establish that a field exists.