An aura is an envelope of vital energy, which radiates from everything in nature including minerals, plants, animals and humans. The aura acts as a prism to divide white light into its component colours that are sent to different coloured layers around our bodies. These auric layers correspond to chakras or energy centres which in turn relate to major organs in our bodies. The aura is the way in which these chakras are energised and are the means by which we communicate with our aura and vice-versa.

Chakra means spinning wheel, or vortex, and it refers to the energy centres of which our body's energy system is composed. The chakras function is to pump and regulate the flow of energy through our energy system. The chakras respond to the decisions we make concerning the difficulties and conditions in our life. We open and close these valves when we decide what to think, and what to feel, and through which we perceptual filter to experience the world around us.

The chakras interact with the physical body through two major vehicles, the endocrine system and the nervous system. Each of the chakras is associated with the endocrine glands and various parts and functions of the body, we need a balance of all the colours in white light to remain healthy, an imbalance can affect our psychological well-being and cause physical illness; it is the task of the colour therapist counsellor and healer to correct any imbalance present in the auric layers using a variety of methods.