I may give it a whirl myself again :p
I never got beyond the smokey outline part.
I'm just thinking about how you got there, by directing the energy... Have you ever seen that clip that shows a silhouette of a woman, turning around? It used to be all over the net and can be found on YouTube.
It can help you change from one hemisphere to the other. If you can first get to using the right hemisphere of the brain, and then start trying to see aura colours ... would that work? (The right hemisphere is the intuitive one, which is usually not 'plugged' in as we live in a more rational left hemisphere oriented society)
I'm intrigued now to try that, LOL
Here's that clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVdjupsToAE