Energy Clearing

The aura in Theosophical writing

The idea that a person is surrounded by a colored emanation is described in Theosophical literature of the early twentieth century. Project Gutenberg lists Besant and Leadbeater's Thought-Forms with an original publication date of 1905; the authors present it as clairvoyant observation of thoughts and emotions taking visible form in subtle matter, with colors and shapes assigned to states such as devotion and anger. A 1920 London edition of Leadbeater's Man Visible and Invisible is held by the Internet Archive and described as examples of human types seen by trained clairvoyance, with 26 plates.

In 1911 the physician Walter John Kilner published The Human Atmosphere, or, The Aura Made Visible by the Aid of Chemical Screens, whose title states an aim of making the aura visible with an instrument. The catalog records reviewed describe what these books claim; they do not report how the claims were tested or received, and nothing here should be read as confirming them.

From aura to biofield

Later vocabulary for related ideas came from research rather than esoteric writing. A review by biofield researchers reports that an advisory committee of the US National Institutes of Health established the term biofield in 1992 to bring diverse energy healing practices under one heading for research, and defined it as a massless field that surrounds and permeates living bodies. The same authors discuss traditional concepts such as qi and prana and call biofield science nascent, describing the biofield as a useful metaphor guiding research rather than an established theory.

Where clearing language fits

None of the sources reviewed dates the phrases energy clearing or aura cleansing, so this page does not claim a lineage from the Theosophical aura to present-day clearing methods. A University of Minnesota page on Healing Touch, a related nursing-linked system, states that it was developed by the nurse Janet Mentgen in 1980 and draws on energetic techniques of many practices, and it uses the verb clear for work on the energy field.

Clearing, cleansing and therapy

Energy clearing is used here as an umbrella for practices that practitioners describe as removing stagnant or negative energy from a person or a place. Aura cleansing, aura therapy and auric clearing are names for the person-focused versions. The sources reviewed give no standard or controlled definition of these terms, so they reflect practitioner usage and vary between teachers. The University of Minnesota page uses clear, align and balance together as verbs for Healing Touch work on the energy field.

Aura, energy field and biofield

Aura is the older esoteric term and biofield the research term. The 1992 NIH definition of biofield is a proposed construct, and NCCIH states that there is no scientific evidence supporting the existence of the energy field thought to play a role in Reiki. Different traditions use qi, prana or subtle energy for related ideas, and these should not be treated as interchangeable with one another or with the aura without a source for each equivalence.

Neighboring pages

Machipedia covers neighboring topics on separate pages. Aura Reading covers perceiving or interpreting the aura, Energy Healing covers hands-on and distance biofield practices, Chakra Healing covers work with energy centers, and Space Clearing (Smudging) covers smoke and other methods applied to rooms and buildings. This page links those topics rather than repeating them and concentrates on how the idea of clearing is framed across them.

Person-focused clearing

The University of Minnesota page describes Healing Touch practitioners as using their hands, either in direct contact or held above the body, to clear, align and balance the energy field, with the aim of removing blockages and restoring a mind-body-spirit connection. The page adds that the approach does not necessarily set out to resolve any particular condition. NCCIH describes Reiki in similar terms, as practitioners placing their hands lightly on or just above a person with the goal of directing energy. Both are established named systems that are related to, but not the same as, aura cleansing as offered by independent practitioners.

Sound and other tools

An overview of singing bowl sound meditation says the practice has been used for centuries in Tibetan and Buddhist cultures for relaxation and healing, and that it is believed by some to affect the body's energy system and balance the chakras. The authors say the reasons for reported effects are not fully understood. In an observational study, a 60-minute session used mainly Tibetan singing bowls struck with mallets, with crystal bowls, gongs and other instruments, while participants lay on yoga mats.

Salt, water, breath and visualization are often named in popular guides to energy clearing. None of the scholarly or institutional sources reviewed describes them in this context, and vendor and lifestyle guides are not cited, so this page does not describe how they are used or what they are said to do.

Place-focused clearing

Clearing applied to rooms and buildings is covered on the Space Clearing (Smudging) page, which also sets out cultural context for smudging and research on smoke from burning plant material. The sources reviewed for this page do not add independent detail about place-focused clearing, and none reports measurements of any change in a space attributed to a clearing practice.

What related systems state

No source reviewed lists the uses claimed for energy clearing as such. For related systems, the University of Minnesota page reports that Healing Touch is used by nurses in hospitals for conditions ranging from chronic pain to depression, while also stating that it is hard to attribute outcomes to the technique rather than to other factors. NCCIH reports that Reiki has been studied for pain, anxiety and depression with research of mostly low quality and inconsistent results. These statements describe other practices and are not claims about clearing.

Aura perception as a claimed skill

Aura cleansing presupposes that an aura can be perceived or sensed. A master's thesis using interpretative phenomenological analysis interviewed twelve people who reported perceiving the human energy field and identified four themes, including the experience itself, how it is perceived and how people share and make sense of it. A comparison of four synaesthetes with descriptions of alleged auric perception concluded that the two phenomena are phenomenologically and behaviorally dissimilar. Neither study tested whether an aura exists or whether clearing alters one.

Studies of energy clearing itself

No controlled study, systematic review or clinical guideline on energy clearing, aura cleansing, aura therapy or space clearing was found. On 2026-10-06, PubMed searches were run for the phrases energy clearing, aura cleansing, space clearing and auric, for aura combined with healing, cleansing, therapy or clearing in titles, and for negative energy with spiritual cleansing and wellbeing. They returned no records on the practice; matches concerned migraine and epilepsy aura, cancer trials named AURA, and unrelated chemistry. These searches do not prove that no study exists, only that none was found.

Tests of the energy-field premise

One blinded experiment tested whether 21 Therapeutic Touch practitioners could detect a human energy field by identifying which of their hands was nearer the investigator's hand. They were correct in 44 percent of 280 trials, close to the 50 percent expected by chance, and the authors concluded that the premise was unsupported. This was one small study of a different practice. NCCIH states that there is no scientific evidence supporting the energy field thought to play a role in Reiki.

Related biofield and sound research

A systematic review of 28 randomized trials of non-contact biofield therapies, covering external qigong, Healing Touch, Johrei, Reiki and Therapeutic Touch, excluded ten for low quality and found that twelve of the remaining eighteen reported at least one significant beneficial primary outcome. The authors called essentially all the trials pilot studies whose small samples preclude robust conclusions. The review does not cover energy clearing, and its results should not be applied to it.

The singing bowl study found lower self-reported tension, anger, fatigue and depressed mood after one session in 62 participants, but it had no control group, so the change cannot be attributed to the session itself. The authors recommended randomized trials, and the overview likewise says that further research is needed. Neither addresses clearing of a person or a place.

Direct harms

No source reviewed reports adverse events specific to energy clearing, and no safety data on the practice were found. NCCIH states that Reiki has not been shown to have harmful effects, but that statement covers Reiki only and is not evidence about other practices. The absence of reports is not the same as evidence that a practice carries no harm.

Indirect harms and care boundaries

The main concerns the sources raise are indirect. NCCIH advises people to tell all their health care providers about the approaches they use and not to use a practice that has not been shown effective to postpone seeing a provider. The University of Minnesota page states that Healing Touch is not a substitute for medical treatment. The authors of the Therapeutic Touch experiment concluded that its claims were groundless and that continued professional use was unjustified, a view that applies to that practice and reflects the authors' position.

The same NCCIH page advises checking the training, skill and experience of a practitioner and being cautious of promises of miraculous results. No source reviewed identifies a training standard, professional register or protected title for energy clearing practitioners, so these cannot be verified in the way they can for regulated health professions.