In: Konstantin G. Korotkov (Ed.). Measuring Energy Fields: Current Research. – Backbone Publishing Co. Fair Lawn, USA, 2004. SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN AURA Beverly Rubik, Ph.D. Institute for Frontier Science Oakland, California brubik@earthlink.net INTRODUCTION The dominant biomedical paradigm that is the foundation of conventional Western medicine has had only limited success. Its Human Genome Project showed that less than 40,000 genes make up a human being (Claverie, 2001), even less than the number of genes in a grain of rice. Some key scientists question whether this approach is sufficient to account for all the information in a human being (Strohman, 1993). Additionally, this paradigm is very limited toward understanding healing and the modus operandi of many types of alternative therapies. On the other hand, a new scientific worldview is emerging from biophysics. Based on chaos theory and quantum mechanics, the biophysical view of life focuses on its matrix of energy and information. Although the dynamics of these are very complex and often difficult to measure, work in this area is yielding insights into a subtler dimension of life. Many lines of scientific and clinical evidence show that extremely tiny energetic stimuli to injured or sick organisms can promote healing. Homeopathy, biofield therapies, acupuncture, and bioelectromagnetic therapies—various types of energy medicine —demonstrate that tiny nudges, repeated over time, can shift the dynamics of the organism, nudging it into a healing state. These changes may be lasting after the stimulus is withdrawn. This is the basis of energy medicine. It is distinctly different from the approach of conventional medicine, which focuses on modifying the structure and/or biochemistry of life. In relation to this, consider that virtually every indigenous culture has held a form of vitalism, the belief in a vital force or life energy. There is the concept of qi in China, ki in Japan, prana in India, and it goes by many other names worldwide. It is possible that all of the indigenous systems of medicine were founded on the principle of a vital force, and many of these medical systems remain outside of mainstream Western medicine today. In any case, vitalistic principles are key to many contemporary alternative systems of medicine, including homeopathy, chiropractic, Oriental medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, Anthroposophical medicine, and others. Presently we have no such concept of a vital force in science or allopathic medicine, which was eradicated long ago from a mechanistic biology. Medical historial Harris Coulter describes the 2,500 year-old struggle between the vitalists and mechanists in their healing philosophies (Coulter, 1994), which still remains as the battle between alternative and allopathic medicine continues. It is the author’s goal to introduce an energy field concept consistent with contemporary biophysics, which builds a bridge from science to the indigenous concepts of qi, ki, prana, etc. The biofield hypothesis was recently proposed (Rubik et al., 1994; Rubik, 2002) as a scientific foundation. An empirical approach to measure the energy field patterns of life is also necessary. This study reports on use of a new method to assess the energy field patterns of humans. There are various methods used to measure or otherwise assess the flow of subtle energy in the body. Electrodermal testing measures the flow of electricity at acupuncture