Tested, never passed
Aura reading
Aura reading is the claimed ability of seeing a coloured field around a person and reading it. It has been tested — Controlled tests of aura readers; separately, our own check against physics. No reader has passed under controlled conditions. Kirlian photography records corona discharge, which varies with moisture, pressure and voltage — a damp hand photographs differently from a dry one.
The experiment
Controlled tests of aura readers; separately, our own check against physics
We add a second finding of our own: 19 of the 31 colours people search for as auras have no wavelength at all. Pink, magenta, gold, brown, grey, white and black are constructed by the brain, not present in light.
Where the word comes from
The modern sense comes from Theosophy in the 1880s; Kirlian photography, often offered as evidence, dates to 1939.
Terms in this field are younger than they sound. Most were coined between 1840 and 1930, in the Spiritualist and Theosophical revivals, and then presented as ancient. Dating them is the cheapest reality check available.