Personality-colour, person-colour and perceived emotion-to-colour synesthesia can all be called “aura” synesthesia when they are projective rather than associative (i.e. when the concurrent colour perception is seen physically in the real world and not merely in the mind’s eye). A synesthete who projects their perceptions in this way sees one or more colours located around the head or body of the person observed, these being the colours they associate with their personality type or the emotions they intuitively sense that they are feeling.
They may perceive one single colour or, more often, several colours together, which can be more or less intense, layered or in other patterns or may even have texture, shape and/or movement. For some synesthetes, the “aura” can also produce the impression of a taste or a smell, although colour is the main concurrent.
Different colours tend to be seen for each person observed, with certain colours corresponding to determined personality traits the synesthete feels that the person in question possesses, or to emotions or attitudes they intuitively perceive in the person at that particular time.
This report is an example of how one "aura" synesthete perceives their colours:
"I can see aura. Picture this, you look at someone for a few seconds, a thin layer of colour slowly but surely starts to wrap around their outline and then another on top of that and one more on top of that when at the end you see three colours all around this person, separate yet as one. It could be red or yellow, green, purple, blue, orange. All layered upon each other, I can associate meaning with these colours, and sure enough the person expresses these assigned colours."
(Source: This post on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2022.)
Another synesthete has depicted the visual sensations that immediately appear to them on observing people they meet, who tend to have a single colour in this case, appearing over their face:
SeeSeeMonkeyMee 2018
It is interesting to read about how the author of this coloured photograph perceives their interactions on meeting other people: after the initial strong impression, the colours fade somewhat but remain present in the form of a secondary perception as the conversation progresses:
“A couple of things happen when I’m talking to/looking at someone. When personality is “detected” (when a color is prevalent), it is as though their color becomes an indicator and stays in the background as I’m talking to them. (…) When I’m scanning a room, at a party for example, this (pictured above) is what people look like to me. Not faces, but colors.”
(Source: This comment by the author of the picture above, on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2018.)
In this type of synesthesia, the emotional aspect is important in general, with regard to the emotions felt by both the perceiver and the person who gives rise to the colour as they look at them: in fact it is sometimes referred to as "emotionally mediated synesthesia". Intuition is another very important feature of it: these synesthetes are usually strongly intuitive people and can have a high degree of sensitivity and empathy.
However, this is a type of synesthesia rather than a metaphysical capability and is therefore a different phenomenon from auras reported by clairvoyants. The cause for what some consider to be mystic auras may clearly often actually be this type of synesthesia, and a study by Milán, Iborra et al, Auras in mysticism and synaesthesia: A comparison addresses both types. The scientific opinions of this type of perceptions are also mentioned and discussed in a study by Australian researcher Joshua Berger, Recognising the additional processing costs of synaesthesia; translational research using a novel tool (University of Sydney, 2020, pp.40-41.)
In Sean Day’s study on the prevalence of the different types of synesthesia, it is estimated that 6.5% of synesthetes might have this type. It consequently does not appear to be particularly rare, and accounts of it are not especially difficult to find. Even so, part of this percentage might be accounted for by associator synesthetes who only perceive aura colours in their mind’s eye. This type tend to be much more numerous than those who actually physically see their colours projected outside their own body space.
The following description is a good account of how a projector synesthete experiences "aura" synesthesia. This person also mentions that they see their own aura in the mirror, which does not appear to be the case for some others:
“My synesthesia is projective, so I do actually see the colors in my visual field.
All
the colors appear to me as a translucent haze around people, particularly their
head and torso. (...) My associations are less with personality as they are
with mood or attitude. (...) Yes, I see them both around my limbs and around my
head and torso while looking in the mirror.”
(Source:
This comment on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2019.)
This final case describes some mechanisms of how aura colours are triggered, how personality and emotion interact, and how this highly intuitive type of synesthesia is even useful in their work:
“Personality-color
and emotion-color for me! The personality is sort of a backdrop for the
emotions. Mine are often also around a person’s head. Usually over the
shoulders or beside the face.
I’m
a child/adolescent licensed counselor, and the emotion and personality colors
are a huge asset in counseling sessions.”
(Source: This comment on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2018.)
Some information and scientific studies on this type of synesthesia:
In a recent
podcast in her Let's Talk Synaesthesia series, Maike Preissing interviewed
Richard Cytowic about this type of synesthesia. You can listen to it here.
Studies:
Colored halos around faces and emotion-evoked colors: A new form of synesthesia (Ramachandran et al, 2011)
Auras in mysticism and synaesthesia: A comparison (Milán, Iborra et al, 2012)
You may also be interested in reading these pages of the Tree about some related types of synesthesia:
Personality-colour synesthesia
Perceived emotion-to-colour synesthesia
Images being projected when looking at people (a section of the page on Figurative images as a synesthetic concurrent)
More cases / readers' comments: read all the comments on
this article here
(See only the first comment received below, or follow the above link for access to all the reader comments
describing their own experiences: it makes interesting reading)
This page last updated: 3 May 2026
I have this but see it in my mind's eye. It appears as a thick mist around the person. Most of the time its their entire body. Usually it's one color and sometimes its more than one. Green seems to be the most common color but quite a few people have some form of purple, yellow, blue, or gold. Reds, silvers, oranges', whites grays, browns and pinks seem to be rarest. I've only associated silver with one person and it mixed with the jade green mist and the orange mist.
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