It's either aura

MINE is blue with touches of green. Carole's varies from indigo to white.

Yours may be bright red or deep orange. It may even be sky blue pink with yellow dots. But, whatever its hue, it won't be the same as mine, or Carole's or anyone else's.

Your aura is as unique as your fingerprint. Unlike a fingerprint, however, it is in a state of flux, changing colour in parallel with your changing mood.

"It all comes from the halos around the heads of saints," says Carole Chui of Dringhouses, York, who has the unusual job combination of alternative therapist and immigration lawyer.

"They were always gold or silver and were always in the same place, surrounding the head.

"People have been interested in this particular aura and have tried to capture it in pictures for thousands of years."

Modern aura experts capture clients' auras on camera - usually a specially-adapted Polaroid - and give them a reading from the colours and shapes that emerge.

Thoroughly modern aura experts such as Carole, however, use a computer.

She looked into buying an aura recording camera a few years ago after visiting a psychic fair, but was put off by the £11,000 cost.

After much research, she tracked down an American company on the Internet called Auras in Motion, which had an outlet in Brighton. She was intrigued to find that it offered an aura reading computer kit, complete with a bio-sensor handset, for a more reasonable £5,000.

The system picks up natural electrical impulses when a hand is placed on the bio-sensor. It converts these impulses into colours which it then projects on to a live digital picture of the client.

As their mood changes, if something makes them laugh or a serious thought springs to mind, the sensor picks up the changes and the image on screen changes too.

"The colours are based on colour therapy theories which say that certain colours effect certain organs and moods," says Carole. "My computer doesn't see the colours as such. It detects the electrical impulses we all have in our bodies and converts them into colours using analysis from psychics and colour therapists."

The system also highlights the seven body chakras - chi energy points which start at the genital area (physical root chakra) and end at the crown of the head (divine chakra) - and gives other intriguing titbits of personality information in the form of colourful pie charts, swing-o-meters and bar charts.

"What sold this system to me was the second screen on chakras," says Carole. "I knew I had a few imbalances and I knew where they were. When I saw them highlighted accurately on the screen, I knew it was for me.

"I have an open mind, but I'm also a lawyer; I always need proof."

Her dual life as an alternative therapist - with interests in hypnosis, feng shui and past lives as well as aura reading - and immigration lawyer means her own aura is rarely balanced.

"The colour green indicates someone who is centred and balanced," she says. "I've gone from white to indigo in my time; the colour changes depending on your mood and outside influences.

"I am a lawyer and I read people's auras, so my inner self doesn't match my outer self. This means green is not really my colour."

Clients are always keen to see what colour they are, but are generally apprehensive when it comes to making a prediction.

"People can be very humble and shy about it," says Carole. "They think their aura is going to be muddy and dull. But they are usually very surprised."

In her work, she comes across a lot of blues, greens and violets, which are calming, balanced, introspective colours.

Pink is apparently a very young colour, rarely seen in older clients; orange is the colour of energy; and yellow is the colour of laughter.

"If you make someone laugh while doing a reading you'll get a sudden flash of yellow on screen," says Carole.

"If they know anything about it, people want to be a colour of the highest vibration. Red is the most dense and white the highest. People want to be white, but actually red people are more effective; they get things done."

Once she has got a picture of your resting aura, she can help you to experiment using crystals or flower remedies to alter it. This also provides an ideal opportunity to see which remedies actually work for you, as you can read your aura before and after using a remedy to see if it's done what it says on the tin.

"It works in the same way for allergies," she says. "Your aura is very volatile, so even slight changes show up clearly."

Carole's computer is not a prediction tool, but can she see a future in which she swaps immigration law for full-time aura reading?

"I would love to give up my life as a lawyer," she says. "But unfortunately I just haven't got a head for business. My aura is a dead giveaway."

For further details or to book an appointment (£30 per hour-long session), phone Carole Chui on 07811 455344. She is running an aura reading workshop at the Healing Clinic in Fulford, York, on Sunday November 7. It will cost £40 per person, including a photo of your aura. Phone the above number for details.

Updated: 11:17 Tuesday, October 19, 2004