Energy, Auras, and Presence: What Are We Really Feeling?

Why do some people seem to light up a room while others leave us feeling drained? Why can we sometimes sense someone’s emotions before they say a word? And what is actually happening when we talk about “energy”?

In this episode of Untamed Voices, Lizzi explores the fascinating intersection of science, spirituality, intuition, and human experience. From nervous system regulation and polyvagal theory to electromagnetic fields, auras, presence, and trauma, this conversation invites curiosity rather than certainty.

Together we’ll explore questions such as:

• Why do some people seem to have a powerful presence?
• What does science say about emotional contagion and co-regulation?
• Are auras real, symbolic, or something we simply don’t understand yet?
• How does trauma teach us to shrink ourselves?
• What changes when we stop abandoning our own energy and begin taking up the space that already belongs to us?

Rather than trying to prove or disprove any one perspective, this episode offers a thoughtful exploration of the mystery of human connection and what it means to become fully present in your own life.

Whether you approach this topic through psychology, spirituality, neuroscience, intuition, or simple curiosity, you’ll leave with a deeper understanding of why presence matters—and how reclaiming your own energy may be one of the most powerful forms of healing.

Because maybe the goal isn’t to become bigger than you are. Maybe it’s simply to stop shrinking and become fully yourself.

#UntamedVoices #EnergyHealing #PolyvagalTheory #NervousSystem #TraumaHealing #Intuition #Auras #Spirituality #PersonalGrowth #Embodiment #Presence #HealingJourney

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello, everybody, welcome back. I'm so glad that you're here today, and I'm happy to be here too. I want to talk about something that sits at this intersection of maybe science, spirituality, human experience, and mystery. It's one of my favorite places to explore because we are talking about energy. We're talking about auras and presence, and about that thing that you've probably experienced maybe a hundred times in your life, but maybe never fully understood. I think you know what I'm talking about. Like when someone walks into a room and you feel them before they say a word, when someone calls you and somehow you know they're upset before they tell you, when you meet a person for the first time and something inside you says, I trust this person, or something feels off here. When you walk into a grocery store feeling invisible and somehow nobody seems to notice you. And then on another day you walk into that same grocery store feeling grounded, confident, connected to yourself, and people will move around you differently. The experience is so common that most of us don't even question it. We say things like, She has good energy, he drains me. That room felt heavy. I felt a shift when they walked in. She lights up a room, they have a huge presence, right? And yet, if someone asks us what we actually mean by energy, many of us struggle to explain it. So today I just kind of wanted to explore this from multiple perspectives. It doesn't mean that one perspective is right or another one, you know, just to dismiss the other one, but really just to become more curious about what might actually be happening here. Cause here's the thing, I think that there is far more going on than we currently understand. So I want you to try something. Maybe not like right this moment, but maybe sometime this week or next time you go to the grocery store. When you walk into the grocery store, before you walk in, imagine pulling all of your energy inward. Shrink yourself. Imagine your energy becoming as small as possible. Make yourself tiny, pull everything inward, drop your eyes, become almost invisible, and then just notice what happens. Notice how you walk, notice how people respond. Notice how much space you take up. Notice how often people bump into you. Notice how often people seem unaware that you're there. Then on another day, try the opposite. Before walking in, imagine your energy just expanding. Not an ego energy or superiority or arrogance, but expansion. Imagine your energy filling your body, then extending beyond your body, then beyond that. Imagine yourself connected to everything around you. Stand tall, breathe deeply, feel your feet, feel your heart, feel yourself fully present, and then walk in. Many people notice something fascinating with this. The environment actually changes. People move differently, conversations happen differently, eye contact changes, opportunities appear. It's almost as though the world responds to the energy we bring into it. Hmm. Now, does that mean your aura physically expanded? Maybe, maybe not. But something absolutely changed. And the question is, what is it that changed? So let's maybe look at the science. Let's let's start with what science knows, right? Human beings are extraordinarily sensitive creatures. They're far more sensitive than most of us realize. Our nervous systems are constantly scanning our environment every second, every moment. We're reading facial expressions, voice tone, posture, breathing patterns, movement, muscle tension, pupil dilation even, eye contact, microexpressions, body positioning. Most of this happens completely outside of your conscious awareness. You don't consciously calculate whether someone is safe. Your nervous system actually does. Long before your mind catches up. Researchers call this neurosception. A term introduced by Dr. Stephen Porgis through polyvagal theory, neurosception is essentially the nervous system's ability to detect safety and danger before conscious thought occurs. Think about that. Before you even know what you're feeling, your body has already gathered thousands of pieces of information. And other people's bodies are doing the same thing with you. So when we say someone has calming energy, for example, part of what might be happening is that their nervous system is regulated. And our nervous system feels it. When someone has chaotic energy, part of what may be happening is that their nervous system is dysregulated, and our body picks up on that too. Researchers have repeatedly found that emotions are contagious. If you ever walked into a room where everyone was laughing and suddenly felt lighter, or walked into a tense meeting and immediately felt anxious, you've experienced this. Human beings synchronize with one another. Heart rates synchronize, breathing patterns synchronize, emotional states synchronize. Groups often regulate together, families regulate together, couples regulate together. Friends regulate together, right? And sometimes entire communities regulate together. So the scientific language for this may be emotional contagion, co-regulation, synchronization, or social nervous system regulation. The spiritual language might simply be energy, different words, potentially describing similar experiences. So maybe let's move into this other fascinating area. I just love this topic. The human heart creates an electromagnetic field. It's actually measurable. Did you know that? Scientists can detect it. The heart's electromagnetic field extends beyond the physical body. How far? That really becomes part of the debate. Some researchers and organizations believe that this field may contribute to communication between people. Others believe that the evidence is not yet strong enough to make those claims. But here's what's important the heart is not merely a pump. It's constantly communicating with the rest of the body. And our emotional state changes the patterns produced by the heart. Many spiritual traditions have been saying for thousands of years that the heart is a center of intelligence. Modern science may not describe it in exactly the same way, but it's really interesting that both perspectives keep pointing toward this importance of the heart, right? So, next subject, moving into this territory that science hasn't actually fully explained. Auras. I don't know if many if any of you have heard this or many of you have heard it, but many spiritual traditions across the world describe an energetic field surrounding the body. Ancient Hindu traditions, Buddhist traditions, mystical Christianity, Kabbalah, indigenous healing traditions, Reiki, Kigong, shamanic traditions, and many others. But what's fascinating is that these traditions developed independently across different parts of the world. Yet many describe something remarkably similar, an energetic field extending beyond the physical body. Now, does that automatically prove auras exist? Not really. But it definitely makes me curious. Because when multiple traditions separated by geography and time begin describing similar experiences, I think it's actually worth paying attention. I mean, you don't have to believe it or dismiss it, really, just pay attention, right? And at least that's what I think. Many trad many energy traditions, right, describe the aura as having layers. This is more of a spiritual teaching rather than scientific consensus, but many systems describe the physical layer, the emotional layer, the mental layer, the spiritual layer. Some traditions describe even more layers. The idea is that we're not merely physical beings, we are emotional beings, mental beings, spiritual beings. I mean, we're really cool, right? And all of those aspects create a field around us. According to these traditions, disturbances may show up energetically before they appear physically. Some healers actually believe emotional wounds can be sensed in these layers. Others believe that intuition functions through perceiving information within these fields. So whether you believe that literally or metaphorically, it's actually a pretty interesting framework, right? Because many people have experienced sensing things that they couldn't logically explain. So think about your own life. Have you ever known someone was upset before they spoke? Have you ever felt tension between two people before anyone said anything? I know I have. Have you ever entered a building and immediately felt uncomfortable? Have you ever met someone and felt an instant sense of peace? Many of us have experienced these things. The question is not whether these experiences happened. The question is more how they happen. Maybe it's body language, maybe it's nervous system perception, maybe it's intuition, maybe it's energetic fields, maybe it's all of them working together. Have you ever heard someone say they have a huge presence or they fill up the room? Celebrities are actually often described this way, right? Spiritual teachers, leaders, artists, athletes, sometimes just ordinary people too. So what's happening? One explanation is confidence, another is charisma, another is nervous system regulation, another is energy. And honestly, I don't think these explanations have to compete. I think they might overlap. A deeply embodied person often appears larger than life. Not because they're trying to dominate, but because they aren't shrinking. They're fully present, their attention isn't fragmented, their energy is not scattered, they are fully there, and presence of self is powerful. So next, I kind of want to bring up trauma. So trauma actually affects energy, right? Whether you view that psychologically or spiritually, trauma often teaches us to shrink, to disappear, to stay quiet, to stay small, to not take up space, to scan for danger, to monitor everyone else's emotions, to disconnect from our own. Many trauma survivors become experts at reading everyone else's energy while becoming disconnected from their own. And I guess that's understandable, right? That was survival. But healing often involves the opposite movement, coming back into ourselves, feeling our own energy again, taking up space again, trusting our own presence again, not becoming bigger than we were or than we are, but really just becoming fully ourselves, or allowing ourselves to become fully ourselves. So one thing that I've noticed in my own life is how easy it is to loan our energy away, to become responsible for everyone, to carry everyone, to rescue everyone, to overfunction, to hold people up and give and give and give and give. And eventually we wonder why we're exhausted. Well, because energy isn't only about what comes into us, it's about what leaves us too. Healthy energy has boundaries, healthy energy flows. It doesn't cling, it doesn't control, it doesn't rescue, it doesn't force. It simply exists. So here's what I want to leave you with. This week, if you want to, pay attention to your energy, not someone else's, yours. Notice when you shrink, notice when you disappear, notice when you pull yourself inward, notice when you apologize for existing. Notice when you make yourself smaller than you are, and then gently ask yourself, what would happen if I expanded in this moment? What would happen if I trusted my presence? What would happen if I allowed myself to take up the space that already belongs to me? Not taking up more space, just my space. What would happen if I walked into the room fully connected to myself? What would happen if I stopped managing everyone else's energy and started honoring my own? Because here's the deal whenever whether you believe in auras or as literal energetic fields, whether you believe in nervous system science, whether you believe in intuition, whether you believe in spirit, or whether you simply believe in human presence. I think we can all possibly agree on this. Something happens when a person becomes fully themselves. Something shifts. People feel it. Rooms feel different. Conversations feel different. Life feels different. And maybe the greatest healing isn't learning how to become someone else. It's learning how to stop abandoning the energy of who you've always been. Alright, lovely people. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for sharing this space with me. And until next time, take care of yourselves. Be gentle with yourselves. And remember, you do not have to earn your right to exist. You do not have to shrink to make others comfortable. You do not have to become bigger than you are. You simply have to become fully present to the beautiful energy that is already yours. Alright, see you next time.