"+1000 aura." "He just lost all his aura." Since 2024, the word has settled into social media slang. But aura has a much older history, running through Greek medicine, the esoteric salons of the 19th century, Soviet photography and the philosophy of art. Here's a short tour.
A breath of air
In both Latin and ancient Greek, aura means a breath, a gentle breeze. The word suggests something invisible coming from a place or a person, something you can sense but not grasp. That meaning has survived the centuries, taking very different forms along the way.
The doctors' aura
In medicine, an aura has nothing mystical about it. The word describes the signs that announce an attack. In migraine with aura, which affects about one in four people with migraine, the headache is preceded by symptoms that are usually visual: flashing zigzags, blind spots, shimmering lights, which generally last less than an hour. Some people with epilepsy feel a strange sensation (a smell, a sense of déjà vu, a wave of unease) warning them that a seizure is coming.
Ancient physicians already described these sensations as a breath rising through the body, hence the name.
The mystics' aura
At the end of the 19th century, the word took on another meaning in Theosophical circles, a spiritual movement that was very fashionable in Europe and the United States. Its followers believed every human being was surrounded by a glowing halo, visible only to initiates, whose colours reflected their thoughts and feelings. In 1901, Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater published Thought-Forms, a book of coloured plates meant to depict these emanations: pink for affection, green for sympathy, dark clouds for anger.
In 1911, a London physician, Walter Kilner, even claimed he could see his patients' auras through screens stained with a blue dye. His work was never confirmed.
Kirlian photography
In 1939, a Soviet electrician, Semyon Kirlian, discovered that placing an object on a photographic plate exposed to a strong electric current produced an image surrounded by a glowing halo. Popularised in the 1970s, "Kirlian photography" was long presented as visible proof of the aura.
The explanation, however, is physical: it is a corona discharge, a small electrical discharge in the air around the object. Its appearance depends mostly on moisture (the sweat on a fingertip, for instance), the pressure applied and the voltage used. A coin produces a very pretty halo too.
No controlled experiment has ever shown that people can see an aura invisible to others. Some researchers have suggested that people who "see" colours around others may have a form of synaesthesia, an automatic link between different senses, rather than a special gift.
The aura of works of art
In 1935, German philosopher Walter Benjamin gave the word a deeper meaning in a now-famous essay, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. For him, aura is the unique presence of an original work, what you feel in front of the real painting and not in front of a postcard. By multiplying copies, he argued, photography and film would make that aura disappear.
That is where the everyday sense of "having an aura" comes from: a radiance, a prestige, a presence that commands attention. People say it of athletes, leaders and artists.
The TikTok aura
Since 2024, Gen Z has turned aura into a points system. Staying calm in an awkward situation, a perfect comeback, being yourself: "+1000 aura". Tripping in front of everyone, lying badly, trying too hard to get noticed: "-5000 aura".
The term "aura farming" describes collecting these cool moments. In the summer of 2025, a video of a young boy dancing with Olympian calm at the front of a long boat during a traditional race in Indonesia went around the world under that label, and was imitated by athletes and sports clubs everywhere.
What people online reward looks a lot like what psychologists describe when they study charisma: composure, ease, authenticity, not seeking other people's approval at all costs. With an amusing paradox: trying too hard to gain aura is the surest way to lose it.
And you, how much aura do you have?
That social-media kind of aura is exactly what Aura measures: ten everyday situations (the shop alarm going off, your card being declined, the bus pulling away just as you arrive…), answers that earn or cost up to 1,000 points, and 19 levels, from "Unknown" to "Mythical legend". Nothing mystical or scientific: just a fun mirror of how you handle life's small mishaps.
In short
- Aura means "breath" in Latin and Greek.
- In medicine, it is the signal that announces a migraine or an epileptic seizure.
- The mystics' coloured aura and Kirlian photography have no scientific basis: the Kirlian halo is an electrical effect.
- With Walter Benjamin, then everyday language, aura became a presence, a prestige; with TikTok, a score of composure and authenticity.