Can people really see auras?

Carol Forsloff - A
story on a scientific website  tells
about a young autistic man who is able to see the emotions of people as
auras, leading to the speculation that there are some people who are
able to see emotions of others reflected as colors.

These visions of light are claimed by individuals
really do exist is the conclusion of a study done at the University of
California.  The "psychic" ability is called synaesthesia that allows
people to be able to do this.

Other forms of synaesthesia include numbers and letters that evoke colours, touch that evokes emotions and colours with their own fragrances. Now, Vilayanur Ramachandran and
colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, have identified a
new type of synaesthesia in a man whose emotions give rise to colours,
which can take the form of auras surrounding other people.

RF is a 23 year-old male discussed in the study who
has Asperger's syndrome, considered a mild form of autism on the autism
spectrum disorder the present category assignment given to individuals
with a set of characteristics on a graduated scale.

RF's mother had told him to associate his emotions
with different colors in his mind.  He is now able to do this with other
people, associating colors with their emotions.  He says that most
people start out with a blue aura then their color changes according to
the emotions they feel.  Through a series of experiments researchers
were able to determine that what RF saw as colors represented the actual
emotions of those surveyed.

"Some people who claim to be psychic may be telling
the truth when they say they can see auras, perhaps they are on this
spectrum of synaesthesia," explains Elizabeth Seckel, one of those
involved in the research. 

Miller goes on to say that people may be able to see colors because they
are empathizing with the emotions of a particular person and then
seeing this as colors.  She has seen others who are able to do this, not
just RF.

There
are also people who believe that seeing auras can be taught.   One website discusses the
process in depth.

On
the other hand skeptics have pointed out that the Berkley Institute of
Psychics put forth someone considered their best at reading auras,
http://www.skepdic.com/auras.htmland a test that offered a $10,000
reward by Randi, the famous skeptic, who failed to identify people
appropriately. 

Skeptics claim no one has been able to pass an objective test for reading auras., at least not until now