Visit the town of Sedona, AZ and you may quickly realize that the area has a strong spiritual presence. No wonder it has become a bit of a gathering place for hippies, yogis, and free spirits. Around every corner in the main part of Sedona town, you will see signs for psychics, crystals, and aura photos. Perhaps the same way someone might don an old western-style outfit and pose for old-timey photos, the price is for the experience.
The Place
There are several places to get an Aura Photo. We just so happened to select the Mystic Bazaar a little bit outside of the central part of town. Sparkling crystals were perched throughout the front of the store. Jewelry lined the side walls. Bowls and bowls of Pyrex filled with different stones of every single color and hue. The associate encouraged us to touch and feel everything. Crystals are a tactile good with its healing properties to be most effective when holding. The back wall had tarot decks and sound bowls.
The shop itself had one or two customers stopping in. Most people stay an average of twenty minutes. It seemed like there was a balance of frequent customers and tourists. Both were met with welcoming smiles from the workers who were not pushy at all.
We then mentioned that we wanted to get our Aura Photos done. We wrote our names on a clipboard and one-by-one were called into a back room.
The Photo
In this small closet of a room, I sat down on the rolling office chair. There was a computer monitor and a web camera. The associate advised me to look at the camera as she stood near the door and took the photo of my face. I stifled a smile, feeling a little bit camera-shy as if it was a DMV photo.
On the left there was a pad that looked a little bit like a medical device. My left hand laid on the small circular metal pads. With my hand resting on the device, she encouraged me to close my eyes and meditate as she took the reading. She played a sound bowl, using a metal rod as she twirled it against the lip of the bowl creating an echoing ringing.
Since I paid forty dollars for this, I might as well commit. I closed my eyes as the sounds created a circling swirl in my head. It was so loud that it felt like my head was the bowl itself, spinning around and around in its own vibrations. Once the sound subsided, my headshot emerged.
“Your primary aura is orange meaning that you are creative and adventurous.” She proceeded to print out nearly twenty pages of information specific to my aura colors. Additionally, the aura photo revealed a full-body imaging of chakras. The seven chakras from ancient Indian traditions, notes areas of energy that live within the body. She also gave me a small crystal to coincide with my aura, a green stone most likely intended to balance out the orange aura.
The Review
It was all said and done after two minutes. I was left with plenty of time to review my results and ask questions of the associates who willing to answer questions. Even though I may not be fully prescribed to the actual method behind the aura photos, it was a great experience to do with friends and debrief the outcomes. If anything, it allowed us some vocabulary to learn more about one another. It may even have given me some vocabulary to use for myself.