The Etheric Body, the First Layer

The seven-layer aura is a model of the human subtle body drawn from modern Theosophy and the later New Age literature; the named seven-fold scheme in its familiar form was popularised especially by Barbara Brennan's Hands of Light of 1987, drawing on Theosophical subtle-body doctrine which had itself adapted the Indian koshas and subtle-body teachings. The etheric body is the first and densest layer, said to lie closest to the physical body, a fine web extending an inch or so beyond the skin and read as the template and energetic double of the flesh, associated with physical sensation and vitality.

The Theosophists took the term "etheric" from the old notion of a subtle ether, and the layer corresponds roughly to the vital, breath-related sheath of the Indian koshas. It should be understood as a concept within a modern esoteric system rather than an anatomical fact; there is no scientific evidence for an aura, and the model is offered here as a description of a belief tradition, without any medical or diagnostic claim.

Sources Hands of Light: A Guide to Healing Through the Human Energy FieldBarbara Ann Brennan with Rainbow Body: A History of the Western Chakra System from Blavatsky to BrennanKurt Leland