This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue. Click here to subscribe.

Freelance photographer Alex Lee says he’s a technical, rational person by nature—yet his new project is rooted in the abstract and requires a small leap of faith. In April, he launched the Seattle location of Aura Aura, a Detroit-based business (started by his sister Eileen Lee) that captures what he claims is a person’s aura via ’70s-era camera technology and instant peel-apart film. 

Sensor plates measure vibrational frequencies

Despite the calming spa music playing in Alex’s Belltown studio, the experience ($45 per session) feels more like a science experiment than a psychic reading: Alex has a participant step inside a small igloo-shaped structure and take a seat, then place both hands on a set of silver sensor plates that measure vibrational frequencies emitted through the person’s fingertips. The camera’s proprietary technology—Eileen says there are only about 20 such cameras in operation worldwide—converts the energy to color, which shows up on the portrait as a sort of rainbow-hued halo. 

What does it all mean? It depends on the aura’s color, its intensity and where in the photo it’s located. Alex says there are no “bad” results, but the absence of color, for example, is an indicator that you’re stressed, sick or otherwise not at your best, while white is a sign of cosmic wisdom. Most of our auras appear somewhere in between.