There are a handful of experiences intrinsic to the unique spirit of Asheville—seeing a nun riding a unicycle downtown or grooving at Pritchard Park’s drum circle are just a couple. But I recently had the opportunity to try a much quieter, more introspective Asheville experience: an aura reading at Adoratherapy.

As soon as I stepped into the small, bright shop in the Grove Arcade, I noticed a wall covered in photographs of children, dogs and smiling adults surrounded by rainbows of colored light. I was greeted by Adoratherapy founder Laura McCann, who explained that those vibrant halos are the photo subjects’ individual auras captured by a special hand scanner and interpreted by computerized biofeedback technology.

“It creates way more than just the photo,” she says. “It creates a 14-page report with all kinds of data, and it also talks about the chakras.”

Chakras, McCann explains, are the human body’s seven main energy points with a corresponding spectrum of colors that follow the spine from the red root chakra at the base of the torso to the violet crown chakra at the top of the head. A person’s aura is the field of electromagnetic energy that surrounds their body, vibrating at frequencies that produce specific patterns of colors unique to each individual.

There are seven aura colors relating to various personality types, and the main color in a person’s aura indicates their overall personality. Animals have auras, too, so Adoratherapy also offers aura readings for dogs.

Physical, mental or emotional stresses cause disruptions in the frequencies of the chakras, and when chakras are blocked or unbalanced the aura can appear less radiant. The goal, says McCann, is to have all the chakras in balance.

“If you do acupuncture, they’re doing chi energy work with needles. If you’re doing meditation or yoga, you’re doing the same thing with breath,” she says. “Aromatherapy is just another way to do a chakra healing; it’s just doing it with intention, with breath and with specific oils that have frequencies that match the chakras.”

The writer receiving an aura reading at Adoratherapy.

After getting a primer from McCann, I couldn’t wait to have my aura read, so Jim Levinson—McCann’s life and business partner— led me just outside the shop to a small table holding a bowl of colorful crystals, a gaming-style laptop computer and a hand-sized biofeed- back scanner. After I took a seat, Levinson instructed me to place my hand on the biofeedback pad, relax and hold still for about two minutes. As I settled into the chair, the laptop screen showed a three-dimensional, rotating image representing my body encircled in colors—my aura!

After the scan, Levinson took my photo with the aura camera and analyzed the data. He gave me a photo of myself surrounded by my aura and emailed me the report with details about my chakras, suggestions on how to raise the vibration of chakras with low energy and explanations of the significance of the aura colors relative to my personality, abilities and career. (Yes, “writer” is noted as one of the top career fields for my type!)

After doing more than 3,200 aura readings, Levinson says the system is extremely accurate. My reading is no exception: It pretty much describes me to a T.

McCann worked for decades in New York City’s fashion industry before launching Adoratherapy as a chakra-focused aromatherapy company in New Jersey in 2015, then moving to Asheville in 2017. She initially became intrigued by the idea of adding aura readings to Adoratherapy’s list of services after she and Levinson had their auras read at a shop in New York’s Chinatown. In 2020, the Covid pandemic allowed Levinson to retire early from his job as a mechanical engineer. As a reiki master, he shared McCann’s interest in energy healing, so he turned his engineer’s mind to the task of researching aura-reading technology. He found the groundbreaking bioenergy studies of University of California-Los Angeles physiology professor Valerie V. Hunt to be particularly informative and inspiring, leading him to invest in aura-reading hardware and software for Adoratherapy.

“We had always used aromatherapy to help people balance their chakras,” says McCann. “But now it was, like, ‘Oh, how can this all come together?’”

After generating my aura report, Levinson went to an assortment of crystals on a table and gave me a tiny heart-shaped piece of tiger’s eye (a good stone for my particular chakra needs, he says) that he had charged with reiki energy. Then McCann selected some chakra-balancing products from her aromatherapy line—organic essential oil blends, perfumes, room sprays, candles and more.

“Our oils are energetically designed to have frequencies that match the chakras,” she says. “Oils specific to root energy, for example, are patchouli and ylang ylang. Heart chakra oils are very floral. We’ve had people smell them and start crying because it’s so opening.”

My report indicates that my solar plexus chakra (related to confidence and self-esteem) needs a little energetic help, so McCann offered me a roller bottle of the sunny-smelling Chakra 3 blend, which has notes of grapefruit, lemon and cinnamon, among others. To boost my sacral chakra (connected to creativity and emotion), she provided me with a smaller bottle of the citrusy-floral Chakra 2 blend, redolent of blood orange, jasmine and ylang ylang.

“This is about personal transformation,” says McCann. You’re really working on a journey of healing yourself, and that can be as simple as addressing stress or anxiety or it could be about having a health issue or a spiritual crisis. This is a way to see the mind, the body, the heart and the spirit, and there aren’t many tools that allow you to see that.”

Since my visit to Adoratherapy, I’ve continued to use the chakra aromatherapy products daily, because I love how they smell and they do seem to lift my mood and energy level. A few days after my Adoratherapy experience, I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. After grabbing me for a hug, she pulled back and looked at me. “You smell amazing!” she said. “What are you wearing?”

“Well,” I said, “let me tell you, it has to do with my aura…”