The Science of Stephen King

Insomnia may affect all of us from time to time but there are several different types that exist. Acute insomnia is described as a brief episode of difficulty sleeping. It could be caused by a life event that is stressful, or by travel. This type of insomnia usually resolves itself without any treatment. Chronic insomnia is a long-term pattern of difficulty sleeping. If a person has trouble falling asleep or staying asleep at least three nights per week for three months or longer, they are considered to have chronic insomnia and may need to seek help. Comorbid insomnia is insomnia that occurs with another condition. Anxiety and depression are known to be associated with changes in sleep as well as other medical conditions. Onset insomnia is a difficulty falling asleep at the beginning of the night while maintenance insomnia is the inability to stay asleep. In the book Insomnia, Ralph is considered to have this last form as he is unable to return to sleep.

In the novel, Ralph is able to see people’s auras. Charles Webster Leadbetter is credited with popularizing the concept of auras after he studied theosophy in India in the early 1900s. He believed he could use his own clairvoyant powers to make scientific discoveries and see people’s auras. (He also claimed that men come from Mars but more advanced men came from the moon!) The concept of aura photography began in 1939 by Russian scientist Semyon Kirlian. Kirlian discovered that a mysterious energy would appear when an object was placed on a photographic plate. The plate was connected to a source of voltage and the object seemed to be surrounded by something, which began the study of energy fields generated by living things. Kirlian published his first scientific paper on the subject in 1961, in the Russian Journal of Scientific and Applied Photography. We spoke with an aura photographer, Annette Bruchu, to understand more about this art.

Aura is defined as the distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround and be generated by a person, thing, or place.

Kelly:“In Stephen King’s bookInsomnia, a character is able to begin seeing people’s auras. Tell us how you got into aura photography and/or reading auras.”

Annette Bruchu: “‘You can see aura?’ is a question that I am frequently asked. The dreamer, the visionary, the one with the big imagination. Or is it my reality of seeing the space between the spaces of all the energy around everything that is alive, from people, electrical wires, animals, trees, the ground, and water flowing in the stream? As a child I was surrounded with color, imagination, laughter, and fun. This halo, what I called it, I could see around and in front of people was not only a white light, but has color. The color was stronger when the conversations were stronger or more intense, when more excitement was happening.

I didn’t realize that others were not seeing color aura until people would come up to me and ask me ‘what color is their aura’ or ‘I think you need to get your eyes looked at.’”

Meg:“That must have been eye opening, excuse the pun, for you to discover you were seeing something no one else was!”

Annette Bruchu: “At the ages of six, seven, and eight I felt very normal and everyone else was off because they often questioned me about the halos they had. I felt like I had a pretty relaxed childhood and loved to stay up late. I would often find myself mesmerized with the TV or watching the fireplace very zoned out. As an adult, I began to watch people and their behaviors and reactions, and I began to better understand the colors by the moods people were in.”

Kelly:“How did you get into aura photography?”

Annette Bruchu: “One day a psychic gal said to me ‘why don’t you buy an aura camera. You could probably better show people their colors and put it to good use.’ I didn’t even know there was such a camera until I began a brief study to see which camera system was the closest to what I was seeing around people. Then I bought the Kirlian digital aura camera system. I set it up and I was actually happily surprised by how accurate the technology is. My dad once said to me when I was a child that everyone has a talent and they should depend on their talent to make a living and so I did just that.”

Meg:“What is the process like if someone wants their aura read?”