First glimpse of coloured aura

[Meneleus]

I decided about a month ago to see if I could view auric colours.  I've read several books on the subject and have done about 5 – 10 mins worth of attempts per day, nothing too intensive, but experienced nothing of note other than seeing a colourless outline around the body.

Tonight, I started as normal and saw the usual transparent outline devoid of colour, but then I thought I'd try a test.  A few days ago I started reading a book on chakras called "Wheels of Life" written by Anodea Judith.  In it she mentions a simple way to activate the chakras in the hands by outstretching your arms horizontally and rapidly clenching and unclenching your hands a dozen or so times.

Still viewing my aura, I tried this exercise and immediately saw a violet colour surrounding my hands and extending about 3 inches from the skin.  I realised the violet continued up my arms and shoulders but disappeared at the neck to become the usual colourless aura.  Try as I might I couldn't see any colour extending beyond my shoulders.  

Ten minutes after witnessing this I tried the same test again but had nothing as spectacular.  I sensed the same colour was there, easier to notice now I knew what to look for, but frustratingly I kept getting only fleeting glimpses.

Despite that, the experience of catching only a partial view of the auric colour kind of blew me away.  It's one thing reading about it but quite another experiencing.

Questions I hope some of you can answer are:

Would activating the hand chakras in this manner have influenced my auric colour in any manner, or was it just coincidence?  

Would what I saw be the etheric layer of the aura?  In Barbara Ann Brennan's book "Hands of Light" she mentions the etheric colour to be always blue, but what I saw was more of a violet colour.  Could I have been looking at what she called the emotional layer?

Thanks,

Meneleus.