SALEM, MA (WGGB/WSHM) — Halloween season brings massive crowds to Salem, where city leaders expect approximately one million visitors this month alone. While most tourists return home with candy or costumes, some leave with something invisible to the naked eye.
The October Halloween season is officially underway, drawing crowds to see if the historic North Shore city truly lives up to its lingering mystical reputation.
Inside Ascend Get Lifted, a local shop offering aura photography and spiritual readings, shop owner Luis Pena helps visitors capture what he describes as their personal energy field.
“That camera takes that living energy, stops it for a moment in time, prints it, voila,” Pena said. “There’s your aura.”
They say a photo is worth 1,000 words, but inside the shop, Pena focuses on color and frequency to read the printouts.
While some visitors approach aura readings as a seasonal gimmick, Pena approaches the process through a different lens.
“I love people like that,” Pena said. “So I remind people, this is science. The language of the universe is energy, frequency, vibration, and that’s what you’re looking at here.”
Pena’s own journey to Salem spanned from Southern California to the cobblestone streets of Massachusetts, where another local aura reader took him under his wing.
“He saw my potential and a potential that I didn’t even realize I had it,” Pena said. “I can honestly say with all of my heart, I get to do what I love for a living. And I couldn’t be happier.”
The readings often evoke strong emotional reactions from visitors, according to Pena.
“We go through so many boxes of tissues, because a lot of times we see relatives, past loved ones, who have decided to jump in the photograph,” Pena said.
Different colors on the aura photographs convey different traits. A pink energy pattern, for instance, signals strength of personality.
“It shows confidence and will, okay?” Pena said. “There’s a little song out there, and it goes like this, I see it, I like it, I want it, it’s mine. There’s your motto.”
For those examining the specific shades in their readings—such as blue—Pena interprets the colors as a reflection of inner perception.
Whether visitors come away with a simple souvenir or consider themselves true believers, Pena views the atmospheric connection between history, science, and the unseen as part of Salem’s broader pull.
“Magic is what we call science now,” Pena said. “And if we look 200 years from now, that science for them is magic to us. So I always remind people, the two worlds are very much intertwined together.”
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