Cassadaga is a small town and everything to really see is on the main street. We poked around the few shops there, and while gawking a large display of polished rocks in small side room of the Purple Rose [1], a medium came in carrying a Polaroid camera and leading a gentleman to a chair in one corner of the room.
He was having his aura photographed.
The man was a bit skeptical of the whole thing and asked how the camera could take a picture of his aura. The medium answered that the it was a specially modifed Polaroid with a computer (mounted on the bottom of the camera) that could detect the aura and modify the picture to reveal it visually. The gentleman then asked how the computer worked, and the medium professed no knowledge of things related to computers. “I can barely turn them on,” she said.
Okay, so now I have to get a photograph of my aura.
Bunny and I wait around for several minutes until the medium is finished with the previous customer. His first photo was deemed unacceptable by the medium, having entirely too much red, which was “residual auric energy from the previous customer.” She then handed the gentleman a large crystal to hold in taking the second photograph, which turned out “better” as far as the medium was concerned. She then spent several minutes interpreting his aura and handing him a small stone from the rack nearby to help him to boost one of his chakra points.
Once she was free I then asked if I can get my aura photographed while taping the procedure (I had borrowed a video camera from Smirk and had it with me in the store). The medium was a bit reluctant. “My mother, who owns the store,” she said, “generally doesn't allow filming.” Okay. Not terribly surprising [2] really. “But let me ask,” she said, wandering off to another part of the store. A few moments later the medium returns and says that it's okay for me to film the procedure.
I'm guessing that $25 is $25 more than they would have had had they said no.
So I set up the video camera in the small room, angled such that I'm the only one in the shot—I was less concerned about getting her picture than I was her answers to my questions recorded. I asked where she got the “computer” attached to the Polaroid camera, and she said it came as a complete unit from a dealer (like this camera for about $3,000.00 [3]).
You don't say?
How curiously expensive.
[Do not taunt Happy Fun Bowl] [4] [5]
Just prior to the medium snapping my picture, a pure tone filled the store. “Hear that sound?” said the medium.
“Yes.”
“That's the Crystal Bowl,” she said. “It's a pure Middle-C tone, filled with red. I hope it doesn't affect your aura.” She sat me down in front of a black cloth, had me hold a quartz crystal I was buying (I happen to like crystals as crystals, and had picked up a nice sized piece of quartz. The medium said the crystal “picked” me, and said I should hold it during the photograph). “Oh dear,” she said as she took the picture. Apparently the pure Middle-C tone of the Crystal Bowl had affected the picture. “I ran out of film,” she said, and scurried off to get some more.
A couple of minutes go by, she returns. We set up again, and my aura is photographed. Apparently the redness of the Middle-C from the Crystal Bowl had waned, because my “aura” had very strong yellow tones (“spontaneous, open, optimistic, friendly, intelligent, healthy”) with white colors over my face (“imagination, insight, higher consciousness”). In fact, of the eight colors of the “chakra,” I was missing blue (“intuitive, peaceful, loyal, calm, tender, good listener”) and I had a very minimal amount of red (“passion, vitality, creativity, energy”). She then rooted around the bins of rocks and handed me a blue stone and a red stone to help make up for the lack of blue and red in my aura.
[I think I look a bit jaundiced myself] [6]
It's amusing though. I'm looking through the meanings of the various chakra colors and I'm seeing only positive traits like “creative,” “compassionate,” “psychic,” and “charming”—stuff that most people would say could apply to them, or would like to think applies to them. What I don't see are any negative aspects, like “jealousy,” “greediness,” “pettiness,” or “gullible.”
I'm just saying.
[1] http://cassadaga-purplerose.com/
[3] http://www.myholistichealthshop.com/AuraCamera.html
[4] /boston/2007/06/16/thumb.happyfunbowl.jpg
[5] /boston/2007/06/16/happyfunbowl.jpg
![[4] /boston/2007/06/16/thumb.happyfunbowl.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2007/06/16/thumb.happyfunbowl.jpg){kind=link}
![[5] /boston/2007/06/16/happyfunbowl.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2007/06/16/happyfunbowl.jpg){kind=link}
![[6] /boston/2007/06/16/spc.aura.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2007/06/16/spc.aura.jpg){kind=link}