The question that came to me as I was explaining to a client that I was cleaning her aura was, "Why, is it dirty?".

I am a Reiki teacher and practitioner and all Usui Reiki Ryoho practitioners and teachers sweep their hands from head to toe a few inches away from the body of the person or animal receiving before and following a Reiki healing session. This is done to drain off excess energy, and adjust or balance the energy called aura. Life force energy is adjusted at this time.

Brushing away any inharmonic vibrations that may have attached to the energy field that surrounds the life form receiving the session, is referred to as cleaning the aura.

The above question made me aware that the first thoughts that usually come with the words cleaning are those of soap and water or in some cases a white sage smudge stick. Think for a moment about your physical body and how each day twenty percent of most people's blood is being cleaned by his or her kidneys without soap or sage. Your kidneys cleaning your blood is a natural function and so is a Reiki practitioner cleaning your aura. Each is removing different harmful substances, and both are helping you to be healthier and happier.

You may have read or experienced how tired and ill a person can feel when his or her kidneys are not able to do the cleaning required. Any negative vibrations you may have picked up can also drag your whole self down.

Each life form has its own life force energy, and an energy field around it that is part of the whole life form. I say life form because people do not have sole rights on life force energy or energy fields commonly called auras. The energy fields can pickup various types of energy, some of which can best be thought of as the pollutants in the air.

Various practices have different procedures for removing such pollutants, or getting rid of the negative energy that has simply attached to a life form but not yet settled in. With each energy practice the procedures differs. After having studied various energy practices, and both Japanese and Western styles of Usui Reiki Ryoho I have found that the easiest and most effective way of cleaning is the simply brushing off techniques I learned through the Japanese styles Gendai Reiki-ho and Komyo Reiki.

For those of you thinking scientifically, in the early 1990s while speaking with a graduate of Yale University I was made aware that the scientific world recognizes the energy fields that surround each of us. I, like many people, have seen auras all my life so I understand how natural they are. At the same time, different people have a greater awareness in different senses. You might be a person that knows auras in ways other then visual. I have met people that have no eyesight, but are very aware of auras. Any time you feel something negative about another person, it might simply be a signal that an aura cleansing would be good for him or her.

Just as those closets in your home need to be cleaned out every once in awhile, it is important to sweep the junk and dust bunnies out of the energy field surrounding you. The difference is that while the closet may be a big chore, cleaning your aura can be done gently and easily. Cleaning out auras and chakras is usually taught in the first level of styles honoring the Usui Reiki Ryoho tradition, and melting away negative karma usually in the third.

Cleaning auras is just one of the things included in the hours of instruction and practice following your connection to Usui Reiki (attunement). Many times in our hectic world we do not have time for all the studying we might like to do, so it is easier to receive a Reiki healing session where cleaning your aura is simply something that happens.

Because negative vibrations are not bacterial, a person might think they cannot cause any harm. When negative vibrations find a niche in an energy field they can grow, form a block and attract other negative energy. A person having negative with him or her 24/7 is not a good thing. This is why a Reiki practitioner or teacher gently brushes away any negative vibrations with the unique form of positive universal energy flowing through her or him. No need to worry that having a "dirty" aura will make you a bad person, it is just that your space is always with you and negative being in it is something you do not need.

Chakras are also cleaned out without any worry as to how much they are opened or closed. One of the nicest things about receiving a Reiki healing session is that you do not have to know medical language, or any of the language of new age or complementary medicine. Usui Reiki Ryoho, in whatever style practiced, is a complementary healing spiritual practice because it has no negative side effects and positively enhances all other healing modalities.

Cleaning auras is usually not done in conventional medical practice; Hippocrates said, "The physician treats, but nature heals." Reiki is a form of universal energy; universal energy is natural, or a form of nature.

There are many Reiki Shihans, like myself, that give guidelines to seeing or sensing auras. If you would like to learn the technique I suggest first you allow yourself to go into a relaxed state, and gaze over another person's head. You might be surprised at the haze you see.

Instead of being annoyed at the wait next time you are in a checkout line, look over the head of the different people in front of you, cashier included. Do not force your eyes to stare, but just relax and allow your eyes to see what is there. Different people at different times of the day, or in various phases of their life, put out different amounts of energy so expect nothing and anything. Sometimes a person is so highly energized in one area that the colors are so strong that you might think what you are seeing is something else. I usually see auras as hazy, but each person sees in his or her own reality. Seeing auras is the same as practicing Usui Reiki Ryoho in that there are no black and white right ways for each person to receive or experience energy. If you see or feel differently then person X, no higher being will be angry with you. Although, if you say you are seeing of experiencing what you are not a person able see or sense auras, etc. might be a bit annoyed with you.

If you have no desire to see or sense auras then that is fine because I cannot think of any university or employment that would require you to do so. When wondering why you would want your aura cleaned remember that your energy field around you is your space and part of you. George Bernard Shaw said, "Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world".

More about Reiki can be learned at my website http://www.naturalhealinglearning.com/